June 2025 - BotW & TotK World Records

Now that the boards are finally sorted out after the Switch 2 got released, I can finally publish June's records blog! You'll also notice I've posted this to somewhere new and I've moved here to leaflet because unlike WhiteWind, leaflet is in active development while also being developed on ATProto. And probably more obviously, it just looks so much better and I'm looking forward to more of the stuff that the devs have planned. I moved over April and May's blogs here last month too.

This month and next will be a bit thin on detail about specific runs since it's been so long since I watched most of these and a lot has happened between watching them and now. Instead I'll mostly be going over what's happened to the leaderboards and how the Switch 2 and new versions have impacted runs.

Breath of the Wild

To say Nintendo badly screwed BotW over would be more or less accurate. We knew from the Switch 2 demo events that BLSS had been patched at 60fps (intentionally or not) but there was hope that this was just a quirk of the higher framerate. It was definitely a bit of a shock when Nintendo dropped version 1.8.0, the first new update since April 2019 for the Switch 1 and 2, fully patching BLSS out on both consoles.

Reactions were definitely mixed to say the least. Some people were pleased that BTBs would be back while others (me included) were gutted that the game's primary movement tech had been wiped out just like that. However, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the SCMB plat route make it's grand return, BTB routes have always been a fun viewing experience.

It unfortunately did complicate organising the leaderboards slightly; with so many runs having been done prior to the new slower v1.8.x versions, it would be impossible to simply force current patch as has been done since v1.6.0 was released because no BLSS-less run can beat a BLSS run. So, what was voted on was this split:

No Limit

Versions 1.0 - 1.7

1.8.2 30fps

1.8.2 60fps

Bug Limit (and some category extensions)

Wii U + Switch 1

Switch 2

For No Limit categories, the run would be split into all versions that have BLSS, current patch at 30fps, and current patch at 60fps. I'm not entirely happy with the merging of Switch 1 and 2 current patch since the Switch 2's loads are much better. Just feels a bit unfair for the S1 current patch runners.

But what is significant is the 60fps category being its own thing. Besides the even faster loads than the base game, the upgrade pack seriously messes with the game. You'll notice that the 1.8.2 30fps Any% record is currently 23:56 while at 60fps it's over 5 minutes slower at 28:59. That's a really big difference.

Impacting all S2E runs is what seems to be a higher rate of speed decay with launches, primarily affecting BTBs and windbombs. With BTBs, the benefit of being able to travel long distances at speed is severely nerfed, as they don't nearly go as far as they do at 30fps. It is somewhat noticeable with the BTBs on plat but its particularly impactful with castle BTB - it's simply not possible to travel across Hyrule Field in one go anymore.

Windbombs have also received a downgrade. They, too, aren't as powerful at launch and the speed also drops off pretty quickly. I was watching an AMQ run at 60fps (that'll come up next month) and it was very offputting watching each windbomb give quite pathetic launches. Even the setups that would typically give high speed launches just.. didn't.

The final major impact it's had is on shield clipping. With the extra frames, regular shield clipping has become near-impossible, or at least the current known setups don't work. Now runners are having to resort to ESCs to clip into shrines which still work but are, of course, a lot harder. Being a frame-perfect trick, it's become twice as difficult to find the correct skew frame, and then the clip itself has become more inconsistent by virtue of it being a shield clip at a higher framerate. Oddly though, some setups that shouldn't work do - and very well. Running windbombs are primarily affected in this way, the best illustration of this is using a square first running windbomb instead of tree windbomb to get up the cliff to Stasis. It really shouldn't get you up there and yet it does with plenty of extra height too.

Player5 has a full video on glitches 60fps does and doesn't impact here to learn more. Overall, 60fps BotW is not going to be faster for the vast majority of categories. You will see next month a lot of huiwengege S2E runs though. It's been cool to see him lab all these main board categories with the disadvantages 60fps presents.

Now, onto the two highlights of the month I've got: MoldyMeatballs beat Player5's 22:58 Any% world record to become just the third ever person in the last 4 years to hold the record. Having watched his TotK grinds after coming out of nowhere, I can't say I was surprised that he'd reached the top of BotW's most active leaderboard but it was definitely something to see the effort put into the lengthy grind to achieve it. He's since been back on the TotK Any% slog in an attempt to get the first 38 so that's something to be looking out for soon.

And secondly, Zilano's new Kill% record is one I'd really like to mention. It might seem an odd one to bring up but I've seen that board with Xeryph sat on top for the last 4 and a half years. I was having doubts over whether or not anyone would actually end up beating it and sure enough, Zilano has taken that record by smashing it by over a second.

With neither of these records do I think there'll be new competition at the record-level for now. Instead, I think we'll end up watching is a bunch of 1.8 and 60fps labbing that'll be totally fresh and unique from the old routes of pre-BLSS times and I can't wait to see where it goes. (really hoping the boards don't just dry up and die in a couple of months)

Any% (1.0 - 1.7)

MoldyMeatballs 22:57 (-0:01)

Any% (1.8.2 Switch 1 Edition)

moistgoolash 25:04 (new)

Player5 23:56 (-1:08)

Any% (1.8.2 Switch 2 Edition)

Player5 28:59 (new)

Any% (Bug Limit, Switch 2)

Player5 34:32 (new)

All Dungeons (Bug Limit, Switch 2)

SlyZorua 2:11:52 (new)

Great Plateau Any% (1.8.2 Switch 1 Edition)

mandosrb 25:59 (new)

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moistgoolash 14:01 (-11:58)

Great Plateau Any% (Bug Limit, Switch 2)

harmjan387 19:55 (new)

Great Plateau 100% (Bug Limit, Original, Wii U + Switch 1)

frozen_bnk 29:06 (-0:22)

Kill% Bokoblin (No Limit, Wii U + Switch 1)

Zilano 1:26.067 (-1.200)

Tears of the Kingdom

Unlike BotW, Tears was left virtually untouched, if anything it was briefly a more broken version than 1.2.1. The leaderboard solution was a lot simpler due to the pre-established versions split of pre-current and current so the new versions on the Switch 1 could be added to the now v1.2.1+ (current) subcategory. It was then voted that Switch 2 30fps and Switch 2 60fps would be added as 3rd and 4th version subcategories. Meanwhile glitchless was split into 3 (Switch 1, Switch 2 and Switch 2 Edition).

Aside from the filling up of the new leaderboards, we saw the first 1.0 100% record with the new jetpack glitch get set by Xdri33s that skips not only the 28 barrier but the 27 as well. orcrist_gc joined in with the 100%ing, lowering his own December 2023 record by almost 9 hours. This was largely done with all the current patch tech that has developed in that time with the main movement tech now being cart slides. It makes for quite an entertaining run as it's a really different category movement-wise to anything else. Even in other long current patch runs, cart slides are only needed for long distances while in hundo they're used absolutely everywhere. I'm excited to see just how low current patch 100% will go when orcrist starts running on the Switch 2 with its much faster loads.

Earlier on in June, Echecetdame was doing some runeless runs and ended up lowering the Any% record down to a 44:17 with some new strats. It's quite impressive that runeless runs can get down this far to what would be a fairly decent regular time while BotW's equivalent category still sits at over 30 minutes long due to the inability of being able to perform BLSS easily with bombs.

To round June off, we've got Lime_s1 finishing off the GSI glitchless push for the sub-25 with a 24:56. This is something I've been looking forward to as the execution of lime's runs has got tighter and more optimised and he got closer and closer to the barrier. It's going to take a whole new reroute of GSI for this to go much lower.

Any% (Glitchless, Switch 2 Edition)

Player5 59:25 (new)

keikou_yellow 58:45 (-0:40)

100% (pre-v1.2.1)

Xdri33s 26:54:39 (-1:46:02)

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

100% (v1.2.1+ (Latest))

orcrist_gc 46:19:18 (-8:43:56)

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Great Sky Island Any% (Glitchless, Switch 1)

Lime_s1 25:00 (-0:07)

Lime_s1 24:56 (-0:04)

Great Sky Island (Glitchless, Switch 2 Edition)

MrKorok 24:02 (new)

Any% Runeless

Echecetdame 45:24 (-2:55)

Echecetdame 44:17 (-1:07)

Great Sky Island Runeless

Echecetdame 25:26 (-0:31)

Master Sword (Glitchless, Switch 1)

MrKorok 1:33:40 (-0:40)

Master Sword (Glitchless, Switch 2 Edition)

MrKorok 1:26:18 (new)

Previously Unmentioned Runs

All Shrines (Bug Limit)

(April) frozen_bnk 8:25:45 (-49:32)