Considering the unholy grasp it's had on us for a decade now, it's not surprising to see that Skyrim still has an active speedrunning community. One of Skyrim's most notable features is its glitches, to the point where we just chalk it up to good old Bethesda charm, and turn to the modding community for help if it bothers us that much. However, while many speedrunners make the most out of this, there's a whole category where you can't use them to your advantage, and have to race through the game legitimately.
Now, ten months since the last record was set, there's a new top time for beating Skyrim's main quest without glitches. American runner nucular has got the world record down to just one hour and 12 minutes, beating his previous record by two minutes.
The category involves a perfect knowledge of the map, and how to complete the main quest. You can't go out of bounds, dupe items, clip through walls, or any use any of the game's notorious bugs to speed up your campaign through Tamriel. Instead, nucular blasts through menus and charges across the map with phenomenal speed, racing to complete the main quest in the most optimal way possible
If watching nucular's run has inspired you to pick up Skyrim for the billionth time, then you're in luck. The community is pretty much always active, but now even more so thanks to the release of the Anniversary Edition. Recent mods that have caught our eye include one that upscales everything in the creation club, and another that lets you play as multiple characters on one save file. The latter can be useful for those of you that are indecisive and end up restarting the game with a new build - now you can play as all of them at once.
Skyrim Anniversary Edition launched November 11, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.