GOD GAMERS - How Hollow Knight Players Beat The "Perfect" Speedrun

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On November 4th, 2017, one of the world's best Hollow Knight speedrunners set the first world record for the game's most difficult platforming challenge, Path of Pain. Today, that time stands nearly thirty seconds behind the world record. In the years following his run, Path of Pain speedrunners brought the category to another level, and in this video, I'll tell you how they did it. This is the world record history of Path of Pain speedruns.
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PLAYERS
MonStahLer
DLKurosh
Ax2u
Stool
Kalasky
Schy
VLS
Yihou
Alchely (TAS)
Cuber Knight (TAS)
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MUSIC IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Airae - All Parts Equal (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
C418 - Biome Party
Brendon Moeller - The Gravity of Stars (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
Emil Axelsson - I Think I Was There (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
C418 - Ample Time
C418 - Divide By Four Add Seven
Wave Saver - 2099 (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
From Now On - Rubik's Cube (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
Valante - Torus (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
From Now On - Challenges Ahead (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
monoscape - Halcyon Bloom
Valante - Autonomic (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
Molife - Unbox (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
Foewi - Octagon
Foewi - Crystals
Molife - Softly Sway (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
Valante - Lucis (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
Foewi - As Far As The Eye Can See
Valante - Memoria (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
VELDA - Dust and Dreams (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
Lagua Vesa - Photosynthesis (courtesy of EpidemicSound)
THUMBNAIL ARTWORK BY @FlySkyHighArts
/ flyskyhigharts
HKVR MOD BY Bob Fred
• Hollow Knight | Panthe...
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Now that I'm a full time content creator, I can finally put all my energy into posting more awesome Hollow Knight content than ever before. If you want to support me in this endeavor, I would greatly appreciate it.
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INTRODUCTION TO MEMBERSHIPS: • Become a Member of fir...
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==========
CONTENT
0:00 Introduction
2:37 WunderlingDX (Sponsor)
3:39 November 11th, 2017
7:42 October 18th, 2018
10:12 June 18th, 2019
12:45 February 3rd, 2020
15:36 February 27th, 2020
18:01 October 14th, 2020
20:29 December 7th, 2020
21:16 December 9th, 2020
22:24 January 10th - January 25th, 2021
23:59 January 27th, 2021
26:22 February 26th, 2021
28:59 March 2nd, 2021
30:31 March 7th, 2021
32:38 March 29th - June 21st, 2021
34:07 July 13th, 2021
35:29 July 27th, 2021
37:14 August 4th, 2021
38:47 August 9th, 2021
40:45 October 5th, 2021
42:50 October 8th, 2021
44:26 October 12th, 2021
46:03 October 18th, 2021
48:52 November 3rd, 2021
49:59 November 22nd, 2021
51:20 November 24th, 2021
52:50 February 3rd, 2022
54:19 February 16th, 2022
55:39 Conclusion
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MY SOCIAL MEDIA
/ discord
/ fireb0rn
/ fireb0rn
#hollowknight #worldrecord #speedrun

[@fireb0rn]

Check out the awesome puzzle platformer, WunderlingDX! sbx.gg/fireb0rn

[@stephenwilford8149]

Fire, are you a god gamer or a god narrator?

[@aidandiederich254]

Both

[@nuptvalorant1494]

hey, I really think you should mention that you've been sponsored and you're doing an ad and this is a partnership link, otherwise it feels disingenuous and sneaky

[@stephenwilford8149]

@@aidandiederich254 That is a very good argument

[@sextus9497]

Inspired by summoning salt?

[@ErPaniX]

Schy: *breaks a second barrier* Also Schy: "Wanna see me do it again?" Still Schy: _"Wanna se me do it again?"_ Schy, once again: _"WANNA SEE ME DO IT AGAIN?"_

[@atuliyengar9638]

Yeah I wanna see him do it again.

[@Banana_D]

@@atuliyengar9638 Schy uses they/them pronouns!

[@atuliyengar9638]

@@Banana_D thanks for letting me know

[@zaroio2533]

@@Banana_D who?

[@Banana_D]

@@zaroio2533 Schy

[@Rusty._]

Probably one of my favorite series right now.

[@epicman3680]

@norcobick frl

[@theD1VINE]

Rusty, should mossbag be sacrificed?

[@wordfr]

@@theD1VINE no

[@affordablex4914]

@@wordfr yes

[@I-like-cows]

@@theD1VINE NO

[@silverschmid4591]

what i especially like about this video are the slow motion parts, because not only do they show exactly what the player is doing, but also the beautifully detailed animations that are usually overlooked because they are small and happen so quickly.

[@GarryDumblowski]

The sharp shadow animation is a thing of beauty.

[@pomidorpomidorowsky6434]

I love how each time fire talks about a speedrunner I go: "here it is, that's the GOAT" and get hyped and then fire goes : " and that's when this NEW player appeared!"

[@TheLampl1ghter]

Series really is God Gamer*s*. No false advertising. They're all massive chads.

[@Netsuki]

A new foe has appeared!

[@Marion_MyAnh]

1 hour that felt like 5mins because it was so captivating. Speedrunners are INSANE and I love it. Thanks for your work on this series!

[@shilohmagic7173]

Speedrunning the video in five minutes, from an hour long!

[@kyokajiro1808]

yeah i wanna be an all achievements speedrunner someday lmao

[@mrblur6055]

I agree 👍

[@danilaskvortsov91]

It didn't felt like 5 minutes of quality content. It was a hour of quality content.

[@jackwilder2544]

I didn't look at the time before watching the video. Now I realize that is was an hour.

[@rafaelsanchez5276]

The people who worked in the TAS also deserve recognition, props to them

[@jamie_owo2845]

Coming back this after the news about Schy passing away is honestly incredibly sad, but at least their legacy has been immortalised as one of the all time greats in the Hollow Knight community. 💙

[@aspenisthebest]

how did they die?

[@TheBeast-hz9gw]

I had no idea he died, when did this happen?

[@dewpong6805]

​@@TheBeast-hz9gw Like 1 year ago. When I found out that their friends and community started a crowdfunding to collect money for the funeral, I couldn't stop tearing

[@wasp795]

😊he ded

[@gavinsutherland5803]

For anyone revisiting this video later, the current record is 1:55:660, which includes more optimized routes and strategies, including my favorite, the thorn skip skip. It's pretty epic.

[@gorka630]

U got a link to that?

[@Ani]

banger as usual fire, god gamers never disappoints as a series! :D

[@areallycrossantedtoast5480]

Fire as usual

[@dannykhul3894]

Uwu dream SMP boi

[@Dungeon_Dunce2011]

R.I.P. Schy, Legend of a gamer

[@mildlymarvelous]

Can we talk about how insanely cool the 3d effect around 2:00 in the intro is?! Who knew you could get cinematic camera angles in Hollow Knight lol!

[@sweetbunnyadventures]

High quality!

[@carlotta4th]

It does look awesome, but he's probably just distorting the footage so one end is shorter than the other.

[@dinkeykong]

@@carlotta4th definitely not it. The background and foreground have parallax and move independently.

[@jck1213]

I don’t speedrun or ever plan on it, but it’s mesmerizing to watch the insane amount of raw talent and years of dedication it takes to master this craft. It’s like watching a gold metal Olympian at peak performance, but in the gaming world.

[@rodrigoayam1]

Same here, the miliseconds match and precision takes are the same energy

[@mooshiros7053]

Rest In Peace, Schy

[@bbstool5455]

The 3D preview at the beginning of the video is amazing! fire how long did it take you to finish it?

[@fireb0rn]

Thanks Stool! It took me about 8 hours to edit that part

[@tomjporteous]

@@fireb0rn Absolutely stunning parallax work, so impresive

[@michaelcooper4245]

Yo! You’re one of the record setters! Awesome work!

[@alpharex4078]

Stool you absolute god gamer

[@siyuanma2323]

@@fireb0rn That's so amazing

[@PulseDog]

That 3D rendering of the game looks soooo cool

[@ToyKeeper]

Now I'm hoping Silksong will have an instant-replay button which uses the same effect. It looks really cool, and would be a great way to highlight epic moments.

[@phaolo6]

It's not a rendering tho, it's the real engine of the game, which consists of various layers in a 3d space 😉

[@ToyKeeper]

@@phaolo6 It uses the game's own rendering engine, but it's still a rendering. It's just using different settings than the original game, to make some cool effects.

[@DwarfWoot]

This series is incredibly satisfying to watch, and the breakdowns are fantastic for someone like myself that has no idea normally what all goes into getting these kinds of records! Thank you for creating this for everyone.

[@smatt5153]

49:01 I love schy's reaction to yihou doing the tas r1

[@Schyshy]

lmao

[@koth_harvest_final]

@@Schyshy 💙

[@CMP7778]

Fire, you've outdone yourself again, this video looks like it's going to be amazing! Keep up the absolutely amazing content, sooo excited for this one!

[@ilovkittisncats]

@@PinkLeaf true

[@mageyplss]

@@Master_Chef fire born

[@SMandrell]

Holy Shit fireb0rn... The editing in this one was next fucking level. You truly are a God gamer friend.

[@Windette]

I saw the thumbnail for this vid the second it came out, and apparently waited until today to watch it. CHRIST I LOVE THESE VIDS FIRE! I've said it before and I'll say it again, your improvement with scripts, their delivery and relevant footage is so impressive

[@fireb0rn]

Thanks Windette!

[@user-tb5nf4ib4z]

I remember watching Yihou’s stream while he was pursuing the WR speedrun! As a somewhat shitty player myself, it truly is an experience to watch someone else with immaculate skill and such incredible dedication achieve a goal all players thought impossible just mere weeks ago. Huge respect towards all the players in the speedrun community!

[@gemandromeda7834]

as of Oct 4, 2023, Yihou has been beaten by a speedrunner known as wszOwO who has a leading world record of 1m 57s 550ms which is actually insane

[@eldonhill4840]

It's insane seeing that path of pain is now below 2 minutes. I'm not nearly familiar enough with it to tell all the improvements the new runs make, but the obvious one is it looks like now there's a way to skip landing on the thorns for thorn skip and still make it to the same wall. I assumed knowing how speedrunners name things it was probably called "thorn skip skip", and after looking into it I guess I was right lol

[@seabass3818]

It has been 1 year and 2 weeks since this video was uploaded. Yihao is the world record holder (again) with a time of 1:58.790. Cdashing after the totem in room 1 and thorn skip are no longer being used. Also, on a less positive note, Schy passed away and his year old record sits at 10th place on the leaderboard. This category is quite something.

[@CollieMonster]

We miss you Schy

[@Lala-io9gn]

I love the fact that if you didn't slow down the footage for the a decent amount of the mistakes, a lot of the audience (including me) wouldn't be able to see what went wrong at all. Goes to show how precise HK speed-runners are.

[@Zaliant]

the quality of your work just gets better and better

[@OkamiDK]

The fact that they now broken the 2 minute mark is absolutely mind boggling!

[@randomalyzer4055]

When you made things 2.5D at 1:55, my jaw dropped. I've never seen anything like that from a content creator, literally giving the game an entire dimension

[@randomalyzer4055]

@Lilith does stuff I totally believe that, I understand he didn't make that happen from nothing lol but I'd still never seen it which blew me away

[@Sparten459]

I love these videos because it’s interesting to watch the development of anything. But watching how dedicated these players are, it’s kinda inspiring. I get frustrated after 10 tries, but these people go on and on for thousands of tries. Speed runners are the epitome of “don’t practice till you get it right, practice until you don’t get it wrong”. And you have to respect that.

[@wmeowlissa]

just from the trailer this looks *incredibly* high quality, can't wait!

[@FinShapedFin]

I struggled for like 3-4 hours on the path of pain lol, the last parkour room always got me. It’s crazy how far speedrunning community’s go and how skilled the players are. Great video!

[@funckydb6065]

It’s wonderful to see how much Fireb0rn is evolving as a content creator. Every video is better than the last🙌🏻 great job with the video and the content in general💪🏻

[@Blomsom]

seeing this video in my recommended makes my heart ache. i remember schy was talking about this video all week, maybe longer, and then when it premiered we all got in vc together and watched it live with them. they were so excited and it felt so wonderful to see them be proud of themself. they struggled with that, but they were always building others up. they brought so much light and joy to this community. they vented to me a few times about how, despite it being gratifying to have their achievements be recognized, they hated being idolized. they didn't like it when casuals in hkmain called them a tas or people put their runs on a pedestal as if there was an expectation there that they were (or had to be) superhuman. i really want to honor that. i know this video isn't about the person that they were, but i want to make this comment to remind everyone. schy is a kindhearted, wonderful soul. passionate, caring, not a mean bone in their body. skilled, yes, but so, so so much more than that. such a wonderful sense of humor and such a joy to be around, i really felt like i was at my strongest around them. i feel like i don't even have the words to convey how wonderful it was to be their friend, but i am trying my best. it really doesn't feel like it's been almost a year since they passed, more like a sequence of 365 days of "day 1" if that makes sense. i guess grief distorts time like that. rest in peace, my star. i miss you every day. maybe one day i'll hear your adorable voice again. 💙

[@kamakiller]

[@a_press]

💙

[@SmoothBrainStuff]

I remember when I first got the game, I would've never expected such a crazy community from this silly but challenging bug game This has to be one of the coolest but also most mildly concerning fandoms out there. I've never even beaten path of pain but watching this video makes me almost want to- speaking of the video this is crazily high quality and I love how you explain everything

[@essneyallen6777]

Mildly concerning is the best description of the community I have ever seen, you nailed it :D

[@pianissimo7121]

@@essneyallen6777 totally agree, all of should be mildly concerned!

[@TheAdvertisement]

1:52 Y'know I've heard about how Hollow Knight actually has the layers of its foreground and background on a 3D plain. but I have never seen it visualized for perfectly like this. That's one of the coolest parts of the video for me already and it's not even about the speedrunning!

[@Rocket-yc8pj]

Schy will be remembered

[@Double-Negative]

Instant wings. At some point instant wings are going to have to be used. I've seen instant wings be used in runs before, but it's incredibly difficult and you have to be prepared for both the success and failure cases to not throw a run.

[@SonicHaXD]

This is super entertaining. Summoning Salt's got competition now XD

[@filipovixx]

Would be nice to see an update now a year later! Currently Yihou still holds the world record, but now with a time of 1m 57s 680ms Im guessing for most people here in the comments the most interesting new strategy would be straight up skipping thorn skip, go watch the run if youre interested!

[@igorostrovskynoskov6057]

Those 40 second of the ending was made so good I thought it took more time I'm impressed Waiting for the episode to drop

[@williamhowes3010]

What I love about Path of Pain is the *way* people discover the skips, and how unusual some are. Skimping a half second early on might set the saws up to help you save a few seconds later, it all just depends on the strat you have in mind

[@l.francesca4780]

I love how excited all these runners are when they make it! The exact same excitement I felt when beating Path of Pain at all. These guys are on the next level and the amount of practice it takes is obvious. Thousands of attempts, man. The thrill, the dedication! I found myself smiling even as I knew what the results would be. With every victory creeping closer to the current record. These people are really something else!

[@nemu4754]

God Gamers series is always of God quality

[@CrisRaf]

I just wanted to say, I first watched this today. Checked the speedrun leaderboards and Yihou just beat today 1:55.570 from 2:01.9 in the video. I'm not really a speedrunner so I couldn't spot all new technicques. But one thing I noticed, thorn skip is now irrelevant. Great stuff.

[@supportbeams]

Shout out to Kalasky! Been watching his speedruns and his road to hitting numerous world records, congrats! Kal definitely deserves the recognition for all his hard work! Thank you fireb0rn for this great video!

[@Schyshy]

yea shoutouts to kalaskyyy, really really can't undermine how insanely good he's at pop

[@MissPoplarLeaf]

My mind is blown by how ridiculously dedicated speedrunners are. Tens of thousands of runs, perfecting techniques down to the millisecond, making pixel-perfect moves... insane. Amazing.

[@ziqianyu8720]

It's hard to believe that the newest record now is 1:58, clap for those god gamers

[@LotteLattes]

Despite everything i still say schy is the goat of pop. They discovered most of the skips used and held the most second barrier breaks. Tho they may not be the wr holder they are very much the one who paved the way for everyone

[@bri-notthecheese]

The way you edit these is incredible! Even though I logically knew each section would most likely end with a new WR, I held my breath as the timer counted down! Thanks for the great video!

[@Christina-CA-808]

I love that you did this break-down! I just recently picked up HK and found your play throughs. Never understood why you or others would do an inventory check while falling until this video. You've got a great voice and extremely well informed on these speedrun topics. Big thanks bud.

[@RogueApple327]

By the way, the 3d shots are possible because the game's assets are placed on a 3d plane. This is done to have objects in the background move slower and objects in the foreground move faster.

[@ProbablyBacon]

There’s a sub 2m speedrun now! Holy crap!

[@perriwinkleiii5361]

I love this video. It feels like a real tale of human will and achievement for the modern age. I also love slow, methodical narrators, and your voice has the perfect tambour for long listening sessions. GGs to all the speedrunners! I look forward to more installments of God Gamers

[@MissPoplarLeaf]

The emotion in Kal's voice at 25:50, and then Schy at 32:00, and then vls at 36:40... I teared up a bit too. This is SUCH a cool series of videos. It's inspiring as hell to listen to these stories of sheer determination, innovation and skill. This is why I'm a fan of speedrunners.

[@taac968]

At the beginning I was like "so he saved 5 seconds, big deal...", by the end I was like "Holy shit, he just saved 0.2 seconds!" lol

[@chrisliu7334]

I was actually watching yihou beating the new record in his stream. He actually did it within three days of practise

[@eauna0029]

This series is so great, I've literally seen the Mag video like 10 times already, they're so good! Keep up the fantastic work!

[@daisydo7669]

I just watched your thorn skip video last week and it's so cool to see how it's been improved upon and even made more difficult! Amazing video and amazing players 🤩

[@IschmarVI]

mind-boggling production as usual. It's so fascinating to see those in-depth breakdowns about the development of one of the most insane IL speedrun categories I know of.

[@Arcturion1]

Fantastic video. The editing, voice over, and composition are all top notch

[@bartvansliedregt5482]

I always love these documentary style video's you do. They are really good

[@AnotherCrucibleKnightFight]

Monstahler is an actual psychopath. Not just the first hollow knight speedrunner I had seen but also the best. They also introduced me to speedrunning in general. An actual legend amongst gamers.

[@arnavgupta1558]

Amazing video, speedrun time improvements are always fun to watch.

[@MstrKipper]

Down pogoing a sawblade that's above you... That's actually insane. Great video as always Fire, this community is so sick

[@Esordin]

This was such a great video to watch! Always love seeing what you're up to next. Keep it going fire!

[@GoldenAgeMath]

thank you for covering this! It must be incredible to see your gameplay being covered in a video like this

[@Another_RandomHuman]

The Intro preview of all improvements are so cool! I've watched just that part for about 30 times and its still so sick. Nice documentary Fireb0rn

[@unknownperson8527]

Dang that looks hella great. Can't wait for more 💕

[@gravenrez6730]

Nice, i have been waiting for another episode of god gamers. Really interesting content to watch

[@jem5636]

The achievements of these speedrunners are incredible, but I also wanted to point out just how wonderful this video is as a showcase. You did an amazing job of not just showing the speedruns, but also breaking down each skip, why it was used, and why it was so difficult. One hard thing about speedruns to understand is just processing what's going on on screen, and you did an amazing job of making everything make sense and sound just as impressive as it was. This was a masterful video.

[@lisspeedrun]

this video becomes even more breathtaking to watch when you try to speedrun pop yourself and succeed pulling off the top times that fire talks about in this video, and you just feel how you become a part of this history. Amazing documentary, I love it!

[@irengig8362]

I thought I'm gonna watch a gaming video, a bit surprised that it was actually a full fledge documentary of human ingenuity, dexterity, tenacity and collective effort of an unbelievable community. Thank you for this.

[@Brinkvahijamijo]

Love love love this! The detailed analysis makes even the smallest changes to their strategies absolutely fascinating! Thank you for this :3 Ps. the 3D effect in the intro looks so cool! I'd love to know how that was edited!

[@Inkredibehl]

Saw this video during the premiere and it was awesome! That's why i'm watching it again ^^ Path of pain is... a real pain for me, and watching those runners finding always new strats to gain time is crazy. Thanks a lot for that great video God Gamer :)

[@Rayneworld]

I love history/technical videos like this! This kind of stuff fascinates me

[@Schyshy]

I'm so hypeeeed

[@vlshk4566]

same here hypeee

[@randomweeb6432]

Same here isn’t everyone.

[@FreeAIsponge12]

Can’t wait to skip school to watch this tomorrow! Thanks for making banger after banger fireb0rn!

[@EdaliaDayCreative]

I find this series so fascinating. It’s beautiful to learn the nuances of these runs and allows us to follow the excitement in a way we never would be able to otherwise

[@Jozeevis]

Was so hyped when I saw this pop up in my sub feed, love the God Gamers series and this one was your best yet! Shout-out to those incredible 3d visuals in the intro.

[@d2dwizard198]

They broke 2 minutes 😱

[@megagrey4723]

Just to note the current wr for path of pain is 1:55:66 which is insane

[@eduison9500]

i was looking for this comment

[@tree2378]

Idk why but I adore that stool’s runs are basically “I’m you, but better.’

[@DynamicMagi]

Monstah: Perfect Community: and I took that personally

[@phatyoshi6733]

RIP Schy

[@cysipy]

im excited for the release of the video! commenting as i view the trailer❤️

[@totalineptitude9165]

I love how at the end of each wr run you gave us the time to beat and then just let it play out, those were so intense.

[@calligraphiti]

Great video through and through. God Gamers slowly becoming my favorite series on KZbin

[@MrJusttestinghere]

I've always wondered if doing this run with Fury of the Fallen to make quick work of the enemies at the end was ever an option.

[@Dinoman972]

Fury of the Fallen only increases nail damage, and the current strat is to kill the Kingsmoulds at the same time with spells, so I don't think it would be useful.

[@deathcat0022]

What do you mean the sky's the limit? If the sky is the limit then Yihou and Schy must be out in space.

[@obscurity3027]

Great video, man. This is right up there with Summoning Salt’s videos and Wirtual’s Trackmania stuff. Really well done.

[@gaganzanwar]

I had been waiting for another God Gamers episode for so long; it looks so cool and interesting

[@-Rua-]

This is going to be siiick!!

[@Vavalry]

I got a 0.02 time by just installing a mod that teleports me into the ending room. It hasn’t been accepted for some reason though

[@Alternateuniverse7157]

This community and your videos are insane! This video Is so good and the intro actually got me into Airae and gave me some chills. Amazing work!

[@Seasidelilac]

I audibly gasped during this video several times. Your content has gotten so good Fire! I can’t wait for the next one!

[@magicalmercy]

I’m so glad this series exists! I don’t really keep up with conventional speedrunning, instead watching more meme categories, but this was so insanely interesting that I can barely believe I was watching for almost an hour! Thanks so much for creating this and taking the time to put all of this information in one place and in a format more people are able to understand!

[@RadButShook]

With a game time of 54 hours and 24 minutes, I have finally defeated the radiance for the first time

[@underpussy_]

i know i am one year late, but, gg. i wonder where you are at right now

[@Drewdignity]

Great documentary as always, Fire. Also nice editing

[@MaximixVA]

It’s always nice to see someone who’s still into a game that I like and I’ve been into hollow knight for a long time now