Sons of the Forest Already Beaten in Less Than 9 Minutes

Fans may have been waiting more than three years for Sons of the Forest to be released but that hasn’t stopped speedrunners from racing through the game in less than nine minutes.

As reported by PC Gamer, Benjamin Romero on YouTube published a Sons of the Forest speedrun of just eight minutes and 45 seconds on February 28, five days after the game launched.

Romero’s run is in the any percentage, normal difficulty category, meaning it’s essentially a pure sprint to the finish with no rules or regulations. Finishing in the smallest amount of time possible is the only goal, meaning players can take advantage of any glitches or exploits present.

One exploit in particular is key to Romero’s impressive time, as the beginning of the speedrun is spent running up a mountain, jumping off, and falling unconscious, before Sons of the Forest’s respawn system teleports him to the closest cannibal village.

This essentially lets the speedrunner skip a large portion of the game, and alongside some other glitches — including using the crafting menu while falling downhill to avoid taking damage — Romero is able to cross the finish line in a measly 525 seconds.

He’s just one of more than two million players enjoying Sons of the Forest so far after the game sold as many copies within its first 24 hours on the market. Those players quickly fell in love with Kelvin, the friendly, mostly helpful NPC who is also a total weirdo.

For those looking to take in all Sons of the Forest has to offer in a little (or a lot) more than eight minutes, check out IGN’s extensive Wiki for the best beginner and expert tips and tricks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.