Still not fought Mohg and Radahn? Don't worry, Elden Ring speedrunners are proving you can be ready for Shadow of the Erdtree in under 28 minutes, even on a fresh save file

If you still have one or even both of the two mandatory bosses left to beat in Elden Ring before you can start the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC on Friday, don't worry, as speedrunners are proving you can literally start from scratch and be ready to go in under half an hour.

While you don't need to beat the entire base game to step into the Land of Shadow, any Tarnished wanting to see what all the hype is about will first have to slay both Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood (not the Omen version you find in Leyndell's sewer). Neither of these are actually mandatory for the main Elden Ring story, so returning players may not have sent them packing yet, and new fans jumping in thanks to the DLC might be starting totally fresh. However, it's clearly never too late to make a start, as is being demonstrated by a group of Elden Ring speedrunners.

Right now, a number of speedrunners are competing in a bounty challenge to become the fastest to complete Elden Ring's DLC requirements on a new save file. Started by Twitch streamer NuclearPastaTom, the rules are simple: start as the Wretch class, follow glitchless Any% speedrun rules (although one skip that allows you to use a Stake of Marika to get to Radahn's fight faster is allowed), only use regular Smithing Stone weapons, don't quit out of the game at doors, graces or during boss dialogue, and, of course, kill Radahn and Mohg. For a valid run, competitors are also required to kill Magnus the Beast Claw, who must be invaded in order to complete Varre's quest offline. This is key to getting a fast pass to Mohg, since Varre gives you an item to teleport to the area.

So, how are things looking? According to the list of submitted responses, which has been steadily updated with new entries over the last week, the two fastest times right now are both below 28 minutes, with Mitchriz at 27 minutes 55 seconds, and Spicee at 27 minutes 39 seconds. Thursday is the final day for new submissions, so we'll just have to wait and see