During the game’s first nine minutes, Speedrunner had already gathered supplies, fashioned a subpar tent, eaten a dangerous fruit, fallen in love with Kelvin, and been terrified to death by a screeching cannibal.
Yet, certain players, like speedrunner “Benjamin Romero”, are able to do far more in the allotted time (opens in new tab). Romero has completed Sons of the Forest in under 9 minutes despite the game’s recent release. The current fastest playthrough is posted above for your viewing pleasure. It won’t be very lengthy.
![[SpeedRun Any% Normal] Sons Of The Forest in 8:45](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OmKo49LVOT4/0.jpg)
It’s technically an Any% Normal Glitched run, but the bugs won’t start showing up for quite some time. Around the two-minute mark of the video, Romero has virtually just finished running up a mountain from the base. But at the 2:27 mark, he jumps over the edge of a cliff and absorbs enough damage to pass out.
If you lose all of your health in a fight or by accident, Sons of the Forest has you covered? You’ll simply wake up tied to a post in a cannibal town. The act of dying, then, may be compared to a type of instantaneous transportation (except for the times when you actually die). If I had to guess, I’d say that you had to first climb a mountain to get near enough to the chosen settlement to respawn there.
Romero frees himself by cutting his bonds, then collects his bag, ingests some pills, and takes off again. This time picking up some sticks. He may use the crafting handbook as a makeshift sled and slide down the mountain quickly and safely without harming himself (this is a bug).
Speedrunner, armed only with a stick, enters a bunker and, using what appears to be another known glitch. Clips through the wall to bypass the security door which normally requires a Sons of the Forest keycard to open. And then falls onto the top of a corridor, where he can walk over the geometry and avoid the mutants and zombies below. The same goes for the last door, which is supposed to be unlocked with the golden armor. Yet Romero is able to open it with only his stick.
After that, you merely have to make your way through the cavernous building, dodging mutants. Slog through some more manual crafting tasks until you reach the climactic moment. Final time for Sons of the Forest: 8 minutes, 45 seconds, and 26 milliseconds. Bravo!
Suggested Read: How to find the shovel in Sons of the Forest
