Zelda: Breath of the Wild's first 100 per cent speedrun still takes 49 hours

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a massive game. It length is variable, as its open-ended nature means you can make a beeline for its final boss after a brief tutorial section, but it's not unusual to spend well over 100 hours sussing out its secrets. Nintendo's latest flagship adventure is so saturated with content that speedrunning a 100 per cent run still took world record holder Xalikah a whopping 49 hours, nine minutes and 41 seconds.

Comparatively, Ocarina of Time's world record for attaining 100 per cent, by zfg, is a mere four hours, 15 minutes and three seconds.

That's partially because Breath of the Wild is absolutely huge, and partly because the requirement for getting 100 per cent is a lot more stringent. According to Redditor Kewl0210, a 100 per cent run means you must fulfill the following criteria:

• Acquire all heart and stamina upgrades (and thus all 120 shrines)
• Complete all quests (main, side, and shrine)
• Complete map percentage counter. (This means attaining all 900 Korok Seeds, climbing every tower, and discovering each named location.)
• Acquire all key items (all dungeon rewards, Kilton medals, bridles, saddles, Hestu's Gift, Confidential Envelope, Shiekah Slate+, etc.)
• Fully upgrade the following clothing: Champion's Tunic, Zora Armor Set, Wild Armor Set, Thunder Helm (as these are the only permanent clothing items that you can't get rid of).
• Max out each Rune.
• Complete the Hylian compendium (i.e. take pictures of all animals, monsters, treasure, items, etc).

Given the nature of such a run, you can only formulate a plan so far, especially when it comes to collecting the game's 900 Korok Seeds.

"You cannot really plan anything regarding Koroks. It's too messy," the french runner said. He then noted that he believes such a run could be done in under 35 hours.

Indeed Xalikah plans to perform more 100 per cent runs, aiming for an even quicker completion time. So far he doesn't exactly have a lot of competitors in this very niche achievement, but that's likely to change now that he's carved an initial path to victory. In fact, he's already starting to get some challengers.