Speedrunners are, to me, the closest thing to wizards in this world. Hours of diligent research allow them to casually slip past the clutches of simulated reality. When a new technique is introduced, it is like watching mages swap new cantrips. But there are also techniques that allow players to walk on air, such as the newly discovered speedrun technique of Elden's Ring.

Where the average Elden ring player has to struggle through a world full of deadly horrors, this new exploit allows the speedrunner to see them all and say, "Nah, screw it." It's called the "Legasus" glitch, a play on "Pegasus" for flying and "leg" for moving with one's feet. This portmanteau is one of the greatest loves of speedrunners.

Discovered and first tested by speedrunners Joo, Lumi, and vir, the glitch "allows the player to enter a state of limited weightlessness" by interrupting the animation that plays during the Torrent's summoning. During the animation, the player activates a series of flags and effects for a short period of time, but usually does not notice them because the effects disappear as soon as the Torrent is summoned. However, if the player pauses the animation at a specific frame before starting to ride the Torrent, these effects, including anti-gravity, will remain active until the animation resumes.

There are several ways to interrupt the summoning of the Torrent. The simplest is to activate the Stonesword Key Statue; some in-game actions of EldenRing enter a state that "prevents certain actions from disabling others," according to vir's glitch article. Normally, this state lasts only a moment, but due to an oversight by FromSoft, if you place a Stonesword Key statue, this state will last indefinitely until you die, teleport, or pick up an item. This state is called the "stoned state," and the virgin says, "It should be funny. Laugh at it," he writes.

While in the Stoned state, whistling to the Torrent and interacting with the Place of Grace at a very precise time will trigger the Legasus Glitch. Alternatively, the effects of Madness or Sleep can be triggered at the necessary frames to pause the torrent's animation. Either way, you will be able to walk weightless through the air. Here is a video of this glitch in action:

Unfortunately, this glitch ends as soon as the character enters the idle animation and can only walk forward. Fortunately, as shown in vir's video above, you can prevent the idle animation by blocking it with a shield, and you can change direction by rolling with your bow at the ready. No one is saying that witchcraft is simple.

As GamesRadar points out, this discovery was made during the $10,000 Elden Ring Speed Run competition; Elden Ring speedrunner Distortion2 has until August 12, 2024 to complete the rune-level 1 Shadow of the He posted a $10,000 prize for the person who successfully defeats all of the bosses in Erdtree's Remembrance in the shortest amount of time, uses only DLC weapons, and levels up the Scadutree blessing just once for each boss defeated. Obviously a hell of a challenge, but suddenly it got a little easier. On the speedrun competition's Discord, the additional testing of the Legasus glitch, Distortion2, is the "holy grail of DLC skipping," allowing speedrunners to "fall directly into the later sections of Abyssal Woods, and potentially opening up new routing options as well! It also has the potential to do so," he writes.