Pokémon Shining Pearl finished in only 15 minutes
Fishing rod is super effective.
Pokémon Shining Pearl, the recent remake, has now been completed in just over 15 minutes.
The previous speedrun was by content creator Werster in 33 minutes, who described the game as "very" busted due to the number of glitches - perfect fodder for the speedrunning community.
Now VTuber Carolio has cut that time in half.
Werster utilised a trick with the game's menus: essentially, the game state is paused when the menu is open, but using a glitch to have two menus open allows you to run around the world interrupted.
Carolio has taken this a step further with a new trick involving fishing rods. Setting the fishing rod to two different quick item slots allows you to interrupt the game when you like, freezing the game.
Combine this with a specific NPC who pushes the player, and that push can be "stored" until their dialogue is closed using the menu glitch. Use that stored push while leaping over a ledge and you can effectively fly over the map into the black void and beyond.
Using this technique, Carolio manages to worm into the Pokémon League and further into the Elite 4, only completing one battle in the entire run.
It's been claimed that the glitches used by Carolio are the "final minute barrier" for the game, meaning no further major glitches to reduce the time are likely to be found. That said, speedrunners will surely be investigating the techniques used further to shave off crucial seconds for a new world record.
Check out Carolio's speedrun in the video below.
