![[Former World Record] Simple% Speedrun - 16:46 - Current Patch, Solo - Cuphead @SBDWolf](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kKdkupFmz6s/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded August 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Not gonna lie, this has been a pretty difficult category to get the record in. The run itself doesn't have many difficult tricks, but the time was quite decent already. And once I beat Xunning's 17:10 run with a 16:59, he quickly got the record back just a few hours later. Happy with this run, I think that with the current strategies there are still around 20 seconds to be saved but I'm going to try and put this effort into All Bosses Simple CP instead :)
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: X
Ex Shoot: Left Trigger
Switch Weapon: A
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y
Not gonna lie, this has been a pretty difficult category to get the record in. The run itself doesn't have many difficult tricks, but the time was quite decent already. And once I beat Xunning's 17:10 run with a 16:59, he quickly got the record back just a few hours later. Happy with this run, I think that with the current strategies there are still around 20 seconds to be saved but I'm going to try and put this effort into All Bosses Simple CP instead :)
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: X
Ex Shoot: Left Trigger
Switch Weapon: A
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y
![[Former World Record] Simple% Speedrun - 16:46 - Current Patch, Solo - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kKdkupFmz6s/mqdefault.jpg "[Former World Record] Simple% Speedrun - 16:46 - Current Patch, Solo - Cuphead
Not gonna lie, this has been a pretty difficult category to get the record in. The run itself doesnt have many difficult tricks, but the time was quite decent already. And once I beat Xunnings 17:10 run with a 16:59, he quickly got the record back just a few hours later. Happy with this run, I think that with the current strategies there are still around 20 seconds to be saved but Im going to try and put this effort into All Bosses Simple CP instead :)
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: X
Ex Shoot: Left Trigger
Switch Weapon: A
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![[Current World Record] All Bosses Speedrun - 20:49 - Current Patch, Simple, Solo - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l7qIFEWv3Q8/mqdefault.jpg "[Current World Record] All Bosses Speedrun - 20:49 - Current Patch, Simple, Solo - Cuphead
Nice run outside of a handful of splits. No Grim quick kill especially means that this time can still go quite a bit lower.
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![Castlevania 1 Any% Speedrun in 11:24.567 [Former World Record]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lfQZJyCL41M/mqdefault.jpg "Castlevania 1 Any% Speedrun in 11:24.567 [Former World Record]
Got my goal for this game. Done for a while, good luck to whoever wants to beat this time. Great run all around, that level 3 split in particular was basically perfect and a new gold for me.
FAQ:
Q: Why is the Bat Boss in level 1 dying in one hit?
A: Its a glitch called critical hit glitch. When you hit an enemy on the same frame it hits Simon, the whips hitbox glitches out and lingers for longer than normal, dealing extra damage. This makes it a frame perfect trick. Doing the glitch on stairs will deal even more additional damage, to the point where it one-shots the Bat Boss.
Q: Why are the Mummies in level 3 dying so quickly?
A: This is another glitch with the cross subweapon. If theres two overlapping hitboxes (the Mummies) and the cross passes over them, each hitbox will end up taking damage every other frame while its going through them. So all thats needed for this fast kill is to stack the Mummies on top of each other and then throw a cross at them. Normally this is done with 1 cross and a (slower) pattern manipulation, or with 2 crosses if the Mummies werent maniped. In this specific run I didnt manip the Mummies but only had 1 heart, which meant I had to go for a frame perfect toss in order to get the one-shot.
Q: Can this run be beaten?
A: Of course it can! While mostly subtle, theres definitely some time losses in this run. First of all theres the heart pickup in level 1 (which I found out to be only 8 frames of time loss instead of 12 as I pointed out in the video). Then I lost around 0.2 seconds from a laggier pattern on the bone pillars in stage 06; around 0.3 seconds from a slower jump off the moving platform in stage 10; 1 framerule in stage 13 by settling for the alternative bone boost instead of getting the fast bone or trying for the TASbone; and around one full second throughout all of level 6 thanks to a slightly unoptimal damage boost off of the skeleton in stage 17 and a couple holy water throws that I missed on the Cookie Monster (notice the jumps where I only whipped instead of throwing holy water on landing).
That being said, this run still had an incredible amount of things going right (that level 3 is the fastest Ive ever done) and its definitely doing to be difficult to replicate this runs pace and improve upon some of its time losses.
Theres also some new strategies that some other runners are already attempting and that Ill be trying for as well when I come back to this game. The most notable is going for critical hits on other bosses. Right now theres a critical hit on the Bat Boss and on Dracula, which when combined with other tricks and depending on your definition of it means that theres 4 or 5 mandatory frame perfect tricks in the run for the world record, along with a few extra frame perfect item manips I hit in level 3, and a number of 2 and 3 frame windows as well. Going for a crit on Medusa, Frankensteins Monster or Death doesnt save nearly as much time as it does on other bosses because you dont have stairs (like on the Bat) or you dont save a teleport (like on Dracula), so it only ends up totaling to around 0.8 seconds for crits on Medusa and Frank, and even less for Death as it requires picking up some wall meat to do it. The time save was never really worth the extra frame perfect trick considering how hard the run was already. Now is probably the time to go for at least one of them.
I like to compare this run to Super Mario Bros. a lot, and more specifically this crit situation reminds me of the flagpole glitch in that game, in how its a relatively small and very difficult time save that is only worth the extra resets if theres not much time to save elsewhere. While SMB is on just another insane level of optimization and Castlevania is probably never going to get there, I like to think that its getting somewhat close as its soon going to enter the flagpole glitch era :)
Long paragraph, heres a cookie for scrolling down this far [::]
Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/sbdwolf")
![[Former World Record] Low% Speedrun - 35:38 - Legacy, Expert, Solo - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mxTkc9aqSn4/mqdefault.jpg "[Former World Record] Low% Speedrun - 35:38 - Legacy, Expert, Solo - Cuphead
Many things were improvable about this run but considering how difficult the category is, Im really happy with this time.
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: X
Ex Shoot: Left Trigger
Switch Weapon: A
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![[Former World Record] All Bosses Speedrun - 33:29 - Current Patch, Expert - Cuphead](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nFUbY5G8GKo/mqdefault.jpg "[Former World Record] All Bosses Speedrun - 33:29 - Current Patch, Expert - Cuphead
I worked on this for almost 2 weeks. Couldnt finish with a complete deathless run, had to retry Beppi 2 times. But Im still okay with how this turned out. Got to update the route with the lobber strats.
Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/sbdwolf
My controls:
Jump: Right Bumper
Shoot: Left Trigger
Ex Shoot: A
Switch Weapon: X
Lock: Left Bumper
Dash: Y")
![(Former WR) Donkey Kong Country 2 Any% Speedrun in 38:14 [Commentated]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nMczRVfQ1FQ/mqdefault.jpg "(Former WR) Donkey Kong Country 2 Any% Speedrun in 38:14 [Commentated]
After spending about 10 months running this game and category fairly actively, I finally got a WR time that Im happy with. This has been by far the run that Ive put the most amount of time and effort into thus far, so the satisfaction that comes from this is particularly high. In addition, this was the first World Record run to ever implement the mega difficult Gusty Glade Wrong Warp, which killed so many of my attempts before this one. I am not going to be attempting another PB in this category in the near future, although I have a feeling I will try to beat this time some day. Ill be moving on to other games and other categories before then.
This video features a commentary on my part going over the run.
Run FAQ: https://pastebin.com/KVa4XXKR
For the live recording version click here: https://youtu.be/d0dm2V7EHkk
For a gameplay only, no commentary version click here: https://youtu.be/YYzcnmg1-Nc
Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/sbdwolf")
