What is the Fastest Time for Pokémon Sword?
Pokémon Sword is a popular role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company. Since its release in 2019, players have been trying to beat the game as quickly as possible, and the fastest completion times have been tracked and recorded on speedrunning platforms like Speedrun.com. In this article, we’ll explore the fastest time for Pokémon Sword and provide some insights into the game’s speedrunning community.
Current Fastest Time
According to Speedrun.com, the current fastest time for Pokémon Sword is held by "ringo777" (JPN) with a completion time of 4 hours 4 minutes 13 seconds. This impressive feat was achieved on March 11, 2020, and has yet to be beaten.
How Fast is Fast?
To put this time into perspective, the average playthrough of Pokémon Sword takes around 20-30 hours to complete. This means that "ringo777" completed the game nearly half as fast as the average player. The difference is even more significant when considering that the fastest completion time is only around 10% of the average playtime.
Strategies and Techniques
So, what strategies and techniques do speedrunners use to complete the game so quickly? Here are some key points:
- Any% Completion: Speedrunners aim to complete the game as quickly as possible, regardless of whether they collect all the Poké Balls, defeat every Gym Leader, or catch every Pokémon. This allows them to skip certain parts of the game and focus on the most efficient routes.
- Sequence Breaking: Speedrunners exploit glitches and sequence breaks to skip certain areas of the game, such as the Wild Area, and bypass obstacles like NPCs and enemy encounters.
- Rapid Movement: Speedrunners use rapid movement techniques, such as dashing and jumping, to move quickly through the game world and avoid obstacles.
- Optimized Routes: Speedrunners optimize their routes to minimize backtracking and reduce the time spent in certain areas.
Challenges and Limitations
While speedrunners have made significant progress in completing Pokémon Sword quickly, there are still several challenges and limitations that prevent them from achieving even faster times:
- Glitches and Bugs: The game still contains several glitches and bugs that can cause slowdowns, crashes, or even softlocks. These issues can be frustrating and time-consuming to work around.
- Frame Per Second (FPS) Drops: The game’s performance can drop significantly in certain areas, causing the game to slow down and reducing the speedrunner’s speed.
- Difficulty Balancing: The game’s difficulty can be unpredictable, and certain areas or encounters can be much harder than others. This can cause speedrunners to slow down or even restart if they encounter a particularly tough challenge.
Conclusion
The fastest time for Pokémon Sword is an impressive 4 hours 4 minutes 13 seconds, achieved by "ringo777" (JPN) in March 2020. While speedrunners continue to push the limits of what is possible in the game, there are still several challenges and limitations that prevent them from achieving even faster times. Nonetheless, the speedrunning community continues to innovate and improve, and we can expect to see even faster completion times in the future.
Additional Resources
For more information on Pokémon Sword speedrunning, including strategies, techniques, and resources, check out the following links:
- Speedrun.com: Pokémon Sword Speedrun Leaderboard
- Reddit: r/PokemonSpeedruns
- YouTube: Pokémon Speedruns
Table: Pokémon Sword Speedrun Completion Times
| Speedrunner | Completion Time | Date |
|---|---|---|
| ringo777 (JPN) | 4:04:13 | March 11, 2020 |
Bullets List: Key Points
• Any% Completion: Focus on completing the game as quickly as possible, regardless of whether all Poké Balls, Gym Leaders, or Pokémon are collected.
• Sequence Breaking: Exploit glitches and sequence breaks to skip certain areas of the game and bypass obstacles.
• Rapid Movement: Use dashing and jumping to move quickly through the game world and avoid obstacles.
• Optimized Routes: Minimize backtracking and reduce time spent in certain areas.
• Glitches and Bugs: Continue to work around glitches and bugs to achieve faster completion times.
• Frame Per Second (FPS) Drops: Optimize game performance to reduce slowdowns and crashes.
• Difficulty Balancing: Balance game difficulty to minimize restarts and improve speedrunning performance.