The History of Halo 2 World Records

[@SummoningSalt]

Thanks to the following people for help with research! Be sure to check their channels out: Cryphon: twitch.tv/cryphon Chronos: www.twitch.tv/chronosreturns Monopoli: www.youtube.com/@MisterMonopoli Synyster: twitch.tv/synysterhr Zoo: www.twitch.tv/iii_zoo_iii rocats: www.youtube.com/@rocats And check out the Halo 2 leaderboards to keep up with other top runners - haloruns.com/

[@kindamidjoe]

oo dont mind if i do

[@l-l]

Subbing to all of them. Thank you for making a video covering one of the best games ever made.

[@eboone]

oo dont mind if i do

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

awesome! I love seeing games from the 2010s

[@stevenbenson9976]

@summoning salt - haven't watched this all yet but I'm hoping you include Rana in this...

[@plebisMaximus]

Everyone needs a friend like Cryphon. Helps Zoo get good and then not only celebrates when he's overtaken by his friend, but encourages him to keep going until the sub 1:20. What a lad.

[@pyromaniacforhire]

Right? I was almost weeping tears of joy listening to him talk about him! So awesome!

[@mudiametokunboh2370]

W

[@v-1nce]

love this also :) it's so easy to burn out without it, talent and passion turning into obsession and frustration. at a certain threshold of skill, there just aren't as many people with directly relatable experiences, and a good partner/team is one of the few things that keeps you grounded

[@Materialist39]

That post GJ death was devastating, what a champion to go right back into it

[@alexlogan202]

Not everyone has a friend like that?

[@HawksJHawks]

The developers recognizing and even validating the speedrunning community of their game is just incredible.

[@FizzieWebb]

and then 343i goes and patches speedrunning exploits from infinites campaign, really goes to show the dichotomy between the mindsets Halo era Bungie and 343i. Bungie wanted their games to be fun first and foremost. 343i wants their games to be taken seriously.

[@UhOhTheStoveIsOn]

Not even once but twice!

[@RagnellAvalon]

@@FizzieWebb you know it was 343i who unpatched swordfly and fixed the physics to be closer to Halo 2, right? Bungie hasn't worked on a Halo game since Reach, and that includes the MCC versions of games. Infinite has definitely been mishandled by contrast but don't let being mad about Infinite cause you to get your information wrong.

[@FizzieWebb]

@@RagnellAvalon If that's the case, then that's the first I've heard of it.

[@kneo12]

@@FizzieWebb there are two different teams working on halo Bonnie Ross was leading Infinite while Pierre Hintze was leading the MCC team (the one who patched Speedrun glitches back) I'm sure you can see which team is the one that cares. Thank Gods Pierre is leading Infinite now and I'm hopeful for the future.

[@anthonygillette]

24:10 my cousin learned to do this when we were kids. He destroyed us in LAN games (and we never updated the game, we didn’t know it was a glitch) So whenever he got a sword we were either dead or we’d have to all focus on killing him. None of us knew how he was doing it, either. Thank you for solving a childhood mystery for us

[@winkmarketresearch]

Thats so fucking cool

[@Birchish]

W

[@RedTail1-1]

If you ever played online you'd know about it. Everyone used it to get out of bounds and explore.

[@StephenXLII]

God I don't know what I love more: the fact that 343 recognized/honored the speedrun community and even made the changes to Anniversary to bring the speedrunners back into the game or the way that Cryphon supported Zoo throughout his runs. It just all warms my heart, you love to see it so much.

[@MrJohansen]

Fast forward to 2022 or 2023 and 343 pushed out another patch that made speedrunning impossible, so you cant speedrun on the newest version 344 moment

[@marshalsoult3860]

​@@MrJohansensource?

[@raviospagetio1444]

Did not expect halo to be covered by the legend

[@willtheprodigy3819]

About time. I was sick of the Nintendo content.

[@sethp26]

A surprise for sure, but a welcome one

[@Waqooyi]

@@willtheprodigy3819 Nintendo speed running has the biggest audience by far, so it makes sense for him to make so much of it.

[@WikiHL]

Well, with a game as broken as Halo 2, it should definetly be up there with the insane strats

[@JosephABernal]

@@willtheprodigy3819 I’m ready for some horror game ones and some shooter ones like metal gear and stuff

[@Emma-rw8yo]

Seeing Cryphon be so supportive toward Zoo was really really sweet. You could tell how much he wanted him to succeed

[@tf_d]

Yeah :)

[@tboss8157]

@Repent and believe in Jesus Christ death stalks you

[@luctan881]

ok

[@TofuRabbit]

Listening to Cryphon talk about his friend surpassing him and encouraging him to keep going is so sweet. You can tell he wants him to succeed just as much. What a great friend.

[@kreeperkiller4423]

@vantruongthi8765ok

[@WhatisAPaladin]

@van truong thi ok

[@understandabIe]

he looks so majestic too

[@iwouldprefernotto4381]

Cryphon also has the most amazing eyes, he is a handsome mf

[@ThiloIsntPro]

cryphon is everyones best friend

[@ClarkPotter]

Big fan of Cryphon's empathy/sympathy and cheering for and coaching of his speedrunner adversaries to keep at it for the glory. We should all aspire to this attitude.

[@TurtleMarcus]

Truly embodies the "we're rivals, not enemies" mentality of sports.

[@frozenover_exe]

Is it just me or have all the small improvements you’ve been adding over the years come together so perfectly here? The timeline showing all the records at once, the interviews with runners, not even with just the main record holder, but also with his mentor… smaller improvements in editing, and even stuff people nowadays take for granted nowadays like showing failed runs along with successful ones. All of that has come together perfectly in this to make what might just be the best video you’ve made thus far. Keep it up, this one is an absolute masterclass in your catalogue!

[@RotaAbyssian]

I'm in agreement. A while back, most of Salt's videos were entertaining and informative, but could be seen as Samey or Formulaic. However, here lately, every video has been topping the last, and all the lessons learned seem to snowball into each other rather than have one big singular improvement that marks a new era.

[@holtergeist]

100% and the writing too

[@Negi2468]

He started talking slower and I hate it.

[@ExValeFor]

Yeah it's just you

[@northfold]

@@Negi2468 watch at 1.25, ez fix

[@anonmeatcheesebun]

Seeing Cryphon talking up Zoo is honestly heartwarming. Good for everyone involved.

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

Cryphon is how you do it. Mean while over in mario kart, they're just being obstructive dicks lmao.

[@amirrayyan5151]

cryphon's look is majestic damn

[@BathroomTile]

@@amirrayyan5151 I was thinking this through the video, dude looks stunning

[@brandonhughes4076]

Cryphon is an absolute bro. No jealousy about being surpassed, just total support for his friend's achievements

[@ekmad]

@@BathroomTile He's got some of the most blue eyes I have ever seen

[@JoeSmith-xp5ll]

Friendly reminder that JerValiN is also the absolute legend that pulled off Deathless Halo 2 LASO No Envy Skull, one of the most legendary achievements in the game's history.

[@kirtusselleck8927]

For someone who didn’t grow up with an Xbox, can you please elaborate? Lol

[@alexmartinez5859]

@@kirtusselleck8927 Deathless Halo w/ Envy means you complete the game with a modifier that makes the game easier by giving the human character, Master Chief, the ability to go invisible. This ability is only used by the alien character, the Arbiter, hence the name Envy. Deathless No Envy means Master Chief does not get this ability, making the challenge significantly harder.

[@jublington]

​@@kirtusselleck8927 halo 2 laso stands for legendary all skulls on which the skulls are modifiers, of which most just straight up make the game harder ie invisible enemies, hud turned off, shields only recharge when you melee an enemy, all enemies that can have rank are higher ranked so they have more health, etc etc. It's just extremely hard so there are a bunch of strategies to make it easier but it's still one of the hardest things in gaming I've ever played and have only gotten through like the first 5 levels so to do it all without dying is insane

[@Arto257]

@@kirtusselleck8927 Legendary is the hardest difficulty of any Halo game, and Halo 2 is popularly considered to be the hardest game in the series. LASO is an acronym and category for Halo running, which stands for Legendary: All Skulls On. Skulls, in most of the early Halo games, are findable objects in game that provide extra challenges to overcome. The Blind Skull causes your HUD to disappear - meaning there's no ammo counter, no target reticle, no grenade counter, nothing. The Black Eye skull makes it so your shield doesn't recharge unless you land a melee hit on an enemy, and so on. LASO runs require all of these to be activated. It's an incredibly frustrating experience.

[@emilianocastillejos1330]

Completing H2 on legendary solo was painful as it is, those who have finished it LASO deserve the highest of appraisals. To have done it deathless is just insane, definitely one of the hardest challenges in gaming.

[@dustyyshellz1320]

Johnson cloning is the funniest trick name ever. “And before you know it you have 4 Johnson’s attacking the boss.” been there man, been there

[@brandonhughes4076]

It's a testament to how brutal H2 is that speedruns aren't decided by having no deaths, but by trying to minimise the amount of deaths you have, because a no-death speedrun just feasibly cannot keep pace

[@user-ow1bc4sx2r]

reminds me of how optimized play often makes strategic use of damage boosting, death warps, and generally using your characters Health as a resource. This clashes with the casual view of being “good” at a game meaning minimal deaths or damage

[@brandonhughes4076]

@@user-ow1bc4sx2r hence why speedrunners and pro players can’t compete with one another in a feasibly fair way, their skill sets are just completely different

[@isocle]

You'd think that would push people to consider the easiest difficulty as the main category, to cut down the bullshit deaths to RNG.

[@misirtere9836]

@@isocle OK, look, I hear you; counterpoint: *WHAT'S'A'MATTER, YA SCARED?*

[@cLdYGaming]

@@isocle Lack of swords on easy in h2 though lol

[@cnfsdsoul]

A huge draw to this channel to me is honestly how you can never predict what game is going to be covered next. The unpredictability is quite fun.

[@FlareStorms]

the history of ducky quacky world records

[@cnfsdsoul]

@@FlareStorms i mean, we've been hit with Wii Sports out of the blue before... nothings impossible.

[@justinsemple7454]

​@@cnfsdsoul Can't wait for Summoning Salt's inevitable Wii Music video.

[@Zack207]

This one didn't surprise me at all, considering he specifically said in his Lego Star wars behind the scenes video that he was considering making a video for a halo game

[@purushottamkumarsharma5044]

Super video

[@ArcherFromFateStayNight]

This was my childhood, and seeing it on summoningsalt of all channels... Thank you, Mr. Speedrun.

[@Purriah]

Right? His videos already feel like Christmas! This is hype

[@silvach2]

Damn I feel old now. When Halo 2 released I was already able to buy and consume alcohol legally.

[@Iden_in_the_Rain]

Now I just got to wait for Halo 3, I’ve played it so many times it’s gotta be at least 200 times. That and the amount of late nights with a friend tag teaming scarabs, it lives in my heart fondly. Glad to see halo being covered!

[@Akuretaki_Nikolay]

VyPr where u at , vypr is king of halo

[@kami674]

halo 2 is such a niche game not

[@WiseSam95]

That mentorship between Cryphon and Zoo is beautiful. Sometimes seeing someone else achieve their goals, achieve their dreams, can be even sweeter than achieving your own.

[@tonyjohnson3717]

Good that and I mean this genuinely. How would watching somebody stand on your shoulders feel better than personal achievement? Maybe I'm too competitive.

[@kweet5406]

​@tonyjohnson3717 In the same way that parents want to give their children a better life then they had..

[@aidendoty7711]

@@tonyjohnson3717like zoo said himself, the student surpassed the teacher, which is ultimately every teachers goal

[@JustAnArrogantAlien]

Fun fact: “Monopolized” is the rarest achievement in the Master Chief Collection on Xbox One. More people have beaten every game on LASO than have cleared Halo 2 Legendary in under three hours.

[@tevani1]

Hmm... I wonder why.

[@DeafeningCha]

Unfun correction: LASO Master, Roadkill Rampage, Rock and Coil Hit Back, and Back for More are (now) more rare than Monopolized.

[@idontcheckmynotifications]

It’s impressive that nobody you reach out to in the community spoils what you’re working on, but regardless a very surprising but fitting pick. Historic game, historic channel, so excited to watch this

[@UnscaryGhosts]

I'm sure the community is honest and probably doesn't need this, but he could be giving interviews with NDAs. At least he's reasonably big enough of a content creator to do so now.

[@jambott5520]

You would think it would have happened by now. I also think that even if someone said it was happening, who would believe them? It probably wouldn't get any traction. And frankly trying to spoil that shit with receipts would be a black mark on the person and the community. Speed runners are also cool in general, I am not biased.

[@MODElAIRPLANE100]

​​@@jambott5520 the first step of decreasing bias is to accept that everyone is a little bit biased, including yourself. Saying: "I am not biased" either means that you are god, or a fool.

[@yean4573]

​@@MODElAIRPLANE100 obligatory wooosh

[@GuillermoBarron100]

Breaking the boundaries in Halo 2 was magical as a kid. Seeing this video as an adult is amazing

[@kr1me2000]

Halo 2 was always a bad game :(

[@quyiter]

This was the most hyped game release of my childhood. Countless hours spent learning all the glitches on the maps and one of the best Campaigns across all games.

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

Oh man getting the scarab gun and the soccer ball for the first time? So cool.

[@Coco-qy6st]

Me and my brother always called it 'spidermanning' and we were always trying to find new spots and ways to break out of levels. Exploring outside the boundaries was awesome

[@HawtLS]

As of today (12-28-23), Synster holds the record at an astonishing 1:17:13, with zoo just 4 seconds slower a couple weeks ago. They remain the only two to have runs under 1:20!

[@Bthan69]

Zoo has retaken it with 1:16:05

[@pseudonayme7717]

Add 2mins 30 to those times. Armoury is part of the game and therefore, if you don't complete armoury, you don't complete the game imo.

[@spethcial]

Its a good thing your opinion doesnt matter ​@pseudonayme7717

[@AndrewJ9673]

Only 34 deaths on Gravemind? That's a smooth Legendary run if I've ever seen one.

[@PWBS-yc6xi]

Yeah dude when I was getting the Monopolized achievement, it took me 34 minutes to beat the level, and I probably died 70 times (most of which were in the prison)\

[@AndrewJ9673]

@@PWBS-yc6xi Exactly lmao you get it

[@pedro-e-o-lobo]

Tram skip is definitely the most aggressive time save strat I've ever seen

[@ShawFujikawa]

You should check out the Halo 1 Truth and Reconciliation skip where you murder Marine prisoners and turn the captain of your own ship hostile to you just to skip the ending portion of the level lol. EDIT: Or the whole level Halo in the same game, where you execute Marine crash survivors just so your supporting dropship doesn’t need to fly in to collect them.

[@WinderTP]

​@@ShawFujikawa Genocide runs be like

[@Skoopyghost]

How do they find the glitches.

[@ThePowerofCutleries]

​@@Skoopyghost The best way I can summarise it is: It's a mixture of dumb luck and trying to push a game's engine to its absolute limits. Some exploits are found entirely by accident, such as the Boba Skip (or "Kevin") in Metal Gear Solid, some exploits are found on purpose (kind of) by glitch hunters, and some exploits are theorised and carefully engineered by the community to work.

[@Skoopyghost]

@@ThePowerofCutleries So it's basically me, or a famous musician. Doing some song writing session. I am just messing around on the piano.

[@NoRealRain]

I love that the devs worked with the community

[@jsbmx2039]

I know right. It normally goes the other way

[@heirofaniu]

If only they'd done it from the beginning. And if only 343 did that with the new games as well. Oh well, they're out of business now.

[@castonyoung7514]

Between the constant rule changes to the run, and the devs actually changing the game I found it much harder to get invested in this than other Summoning Salt videos. In terms of making a good Summoning Salt video, I'd say them adding glitches back into the game was detrimental. I don't see how it helps speedrunners either, since the original version will always be its own speedrunning category it's not actually increasing the accessibility of speed-running the game. Finally, after so many years of the anniversary edition being out, I don't see how adding the glitches back in does anything good for the vast majority of players who have already started playing and don't want their stuff tampered with. The devs getting top players to test the game: great, but I can't see how adding the glitches back in was anything but a way to drum up hype.

[@crimson-foxtwitch2581]

@@castonyoung7514 Having the glitches in singleplayer but not multiplayer was 343’s original vision for MCC in the first place. The reason Halo 2 for Vista and MCC’s launch didn’t have it was because when the Vista port was being made, it wasn’t possible to separate singleplayer and multiplayer glitches, and MCC was originally built upon the Vista port.

[@shadixyt]

No wonder MCC is a fucking mess if they're constantly trying to do this quantum balance state of letting the engine allow bugs for SP and not for MP instead of just making the game function on one set and consistent set of rules. This sounds like really sloppy development to me.

[@louisvuittondon9267]

Never change the music in your videos, they give them this feel that I almost can’t explain but it’s just so comforting to watch. One of the best channels on this website, appreciate your videos man.

[@james87367]

The ending to Summoning Salts videos never fails to give me full body goosebumps. It's like an ending to a very special moment. The build up is nothing I've ever seen. Countless hour's of people's lives. Celebrated so well. Exceptional content.

[@adrenilinn]

As someone who speedruns Halo, I've been dying to see you cover it's history

[@SaulGoodman-rh4fo]

nice goldeneye runs

[@EmptyPeace]

Lmfao

[@clashingimages]

Same. I never expected to see it on summoning salt haha

[@denngabri]

With all my respect sir, it should be 'its' not it's. Best wishes my man 🫡

[@EmptyPeace]

@@denngabri lmfao grammar Nazi that's Wrong... Its= undefined gender. It's= it is or it has.. It is history... He's not wrong...... You are

[@TangyGuest1]

The story of H2A's reglitching by the developers and improvements to MCC overall is still one of the best redemption stories in AAA gaming

[@KopperNeoman]

Is sword flying a glitch? In Halo 2, yes. In MCC, no. In MCC it was deliberately implemented because the improved framerate made the previous glitch impossible.

[@EnjoyVideos99]

@@KopperNeoman Yes, we all watched the video

[@Slender_Man_186]

Eh, not really, 343’s devs left MCC’s multiplayer in an unplayable state for years, even now there’s still numerous issues like hit registration, matchmaking load times, and 343 employees like Dersky literally laughed when people at work would show them these issues. Even in 2019 when MCC came to PC, 5 years after it had come out on console, there were still major issues, in Halo 2 you could shoot at the floor and randomly hit people across the map, Halo 3 had vehicles that literally drove on their own without a player inside, in Halo 4 spartan ops just doesn’t work and crashes the game. Most of the patches were handled by a far smaller team called Certain Affinity that 343 also outsourced Halo Reach’s map packs and Halo Infinite’s Battle Royal mode to.

[@ekmad]

It was one of the last good things 343 did, since then it has gone from bad to worse really. Halo is in a bad way

[@LaScorcha]

​@@ekmadLMAO if you think that 343 is worse now than they were during 5 and mcc launch you must be smoking

[@silverflight01]

You really gotta love how because of the initial lack of glitches in Halo 2A causing people to stick to Halo 2C, the devs had to basically _break_ Halo 2A so more people would have the preference of speedrunning it, and it worked. Who knew doing the opposite of a patch would help

[@shadixyt]

On God actually praising the devs for making their game more broken and buggy; we really have lost our minds haven't we? How did we end up in a position of wanting shittier made games.

[@marshalsoult3860]

​@@shadixytwhat a sad man

[@abdallahatia7209]

I was never allowed to play Halo as a kid, but over the past 2 years my friend and I have been co-oping legendary difficulty for the Bungie games in chronological order and goddamn these games are life changing. I can easily see why Halo 2 is a contender for best FPS of all time. It’s unreal. I graduated college last week and we beat Halo 3 the night before. Im tearing up thinking about it. I don’t have anything to say just felt like sharing

[@piotr78]

Great games to bond over. Couch coop is sorely missed by many that have had these experiences

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

Blue glowing blood *is* scary.

[@casedistorted]

I wish I had friends who played halo. I can never find anyone on PC/MCC to do coop halo with these days.

[@blackbeardbarkbark]

Nice. Halo 2 is an iconic game.

[@mikedrop4421]

I too was raised sheltered and had to spend early adulthood catching up on everything I missed. Lemme just tell you that you're not doing anything wrong and you shouldn't feel guilty. I did for a while and really regret putting myself through it

[@freestylingwhistler]

my man knows how to build suspense for seemingly trivial things. i let out an audible "YES!" when he said "but finally...he set a new world record, and SAVED the video"

[@Patterrz]

Massive shame that a lot of the earlier runs weren't recorded. It really sucks that Twitch doesn't automatically save past broadcasts forever like KZbin does. Deleting them after a couple months means we've lost so much good content

[@beardalaxy]

Some channels get to save them permanently, but even then I think there was some change at some point where every vod that had copyrighted stuff was yeeted. Twitch is volatile.

[@adminmarkus]

​@@beardalaxyyeah, the streamer yeeted it themselves, after multiple streamers got banned for music in years old VODs.

[@benjaminsorenson]

Their saving tons of money by not infinitely saving everything and things only saved for a month to 3 months. If you are a speedrunner you should be saving things yourself.

[@2IH2]

wah wah wah, bitch im lil baby

[@tomghzel]

@@benjaminsorenson At least save a highly compressed 360p version or so

[@Ekachu]

The amount of passion Summoning Salt is able to make you feel without knowing EVERYTHING about a speed run is absolutely incredible. You are truly one of the greatest KZbin creators, hands down, Salt.

[@mudiametokunboh2370]

Facts

[@JWex-jy7sk]

I have never owned any of the Halo games. I have never played a single second of this game in my life. And still for some reason I thought this was one of Salt’s best videos yet!

[@jakelyon2262]

Every time you drop a video I treat it like an event - I'll cook some great food, buy a nice wine or whiskey, set the mood lighting, and settle in. Can't wait to see how this one turned out.

[@stargrays7237]

How do you decide between the wine or the whiskey?

[@Mordecrox]

It's more than appropriate that clip of Roger setting up the mood to eat ortolan is used for "when Summoning Salt uploads". We won't simply CONSOOM ravenously as it comes. We have table manners. Once we have this banquet set, then we can pass the salt.

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

Should have margaritas, we already have plenty of salt summoned.

[@bakkadilla]

This is 100% my mindset. I get myself all ready for however long a video maybe. I'll stop playing games to watch a SummoningSalt Video/

[@turboshazed7370]

Some good food, weed and perhaps playing the switch while I listen.

[@jonathanswink2682]

Holy....I just realized Salt has almost 1.6 Million subs. For a channel that seems so specific....the ability to turn these videos into epic journey is second to none.

[@Propane_Acccessories]

He's the only person who could make an hour long video about someone trying to set the course record on Moo Moo Farm and still keep the attentions of the audience the entire time. It's a masterclass in video making.

[@pvt.rainbowpony8898]

It's a combination of multiple factors i guess. Deep technical understanding, a good narrating voice, street cred as a runner himself, an amazing music selection and he keeps the viewer interested. There are few other channels that come close

[@imalsoTOMATO]

This, Quake and Half Life are all games I always dreamed of you covering. I'm so happy you got to cover this broken gem.

[@silverflight01]

Salt's done Half Life 2, but it'd be nice to either get an updated version or a record history of Half Life 1

[@TimeBucks]

Celebrated so well. Exceptional content

[@СергейКоновальчук-й3х]

very nice

[@MrZakmout]

👍

[@abhinavyadav9338]

Thumbs

[@tdcu776]

Thik

[@nasirazam277]

Nice

[@Merennulli]

"He didn't get discouraged" That's the crazy part. Amazing as always, Salt. I'll never understand how you can make dots on a line have me on the edge of my seat, but you never fail to wrap everything in amazing storytelling. Never take up stock market reporting, you'll give us all heart attacks.

[@MrDrBoi]

It makes me so happy to see you covering Halo 2! Honestly Halo: CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 are all incredible and deserve every bit of love and praise that they get.

[@brandonhughes4076]

Reach and ODST, too

[@westril4952]

This is as redundant as saying the Roman Empire deserves all the credit it gets for shaping Western Civilization. The Halo trilogy, the greatest collection of art of the 21st century, will never be lacking in love and praise. Just as the wind will always blow, the rain will fall, and the sun will rise, the legacy of the Halo trilogy will endure, eternally.

[@Lu-db1uf]

@@westril4952 Aren't they just FPS's though?

[@Slender_Man_186]

@@Lu-db1uf Halo is the FPS that popularized the movement and aiming mechanics shooters still use, most console shooters prior to Halo used tank controls. Halo also popularized the two weapon limit, the regenerating shields, a dedicated grenade button, along with Half Life it popularized story focused shooters, Halo 2 popularized online play and almost single handedly sold Xbox Live for it’s first few years (Bungie literally had to convince Microsoft that Matchmaking would be popular), and even Halo 3 popularized customization in FPSs.

[@commenter9303]

​@@Slender_Man_186Halo formula is more or less watered down arena shooter gameplay, this isn't an insult by any means, I love the OG trilogy. Still, will always miss the classic arena formula.

[@PatL112]

i’ve never heard of devs adding glitches back into a game. that just shows how much they care about the speedrunning community and i think that’s awesome.

[@jacklightyear5869]

The same thing was done for Ocarina of Time 3D

[@dfshjb44]

I love how you've incorporated interviews with runners into the videos. This is one of your best ones yet.

[@beewald3107]

It's so weird to see him cover a FPS game and I love it. I absolutely love it. (I forgot he did Half Life and Portal, but I still love it lol)

[@Ithaca-vv5dy]

I thought he did 007 but maybe I’m trippin

[@dracvich]

Hope he does a video about the HL2 and Portal 2 speedrunning scenes Source engine (and basically every fork of the og Quake engine lol) games are ripe for fun speedrunning glitches and exploits

[@forlackofawetterbird]

@@dracvich source engine movement is unironically peak gaming movement

[@tren380]

He did the Dam for 007 Golden Eye too.

[@riotbz]

@@forlackofawetterbird spitting

[@residentmenace7114]

Holy Crap. The game that raised me. This and a thousand hours in Halo 3 are what laid the foundation for the man I am today. Cheers Salt

[@nekokonata]

That explains a lot (jk)

[@kattybratt1353]

just gonna leave this here as a boomer shooter fan, summoning salt should totally make a doom ii video, the sheer history and amount of tech, and the fact most records are recorded in demos, makes for an interesting speedrun history topic

[@FRorONGODmoment]

Lets be honest, his choice of using HOME as an intro has a massive impact on the nostalgic feeling and sense of happiness you get from watching summoningsalt, such a happy song with a hint of melancholy. Perfection, plus HALO

[@fatfurie]

WHOS HOME

[@SpiffoGaming]

​@@fatfurie the people who make the music salt uses. You probably know their music. They are most known for "We are finally landing" and "resonance"

[@roqm0z666]

To me I never heard it as melancholy, I heard it as more “huge sigh of relief”

[@shadixyt]

Crazy how easily you can manufacture authority by just making people feel a really basic human emotion.

[@theknightikins9397]

I only just beat Halo 2 for my first time last week. Considering it’s age, it holds up astonishingly well. Glad to see a scene I haven’t been aware of being covered here.

[@JB_CY]

Beautiful nostalgia. I used to play Halo 2 all the time with my cousins. I never considered what the speed Running Scene for it would be like. I guess I can find out now.

[@Lelacjer]

I love that these videos are more then just about strats, it’s about people, and rivals, and nerves, and dedication. Watching a man overcome such heart wrenching disappointment and his end game nerves to succeed is what makes these storys so worth telling

[@l9m241]

I always wanted Summoning Salt to discuss Halo speedrunning. The tech and strategies used in this community is just insane! Also I like to think it was the 7 on 7 thing. The number 7 was prevalent during Halo 1,2,3 as the former developers bungie loved the number and included it everywhere. Even having some achievements tied to the number 7. Having the WR have 7 deaths, on the 7th of November is just a nice little coincidence.

[@KopperNeoman]

Unfortunately, it wasn't the 7th of July.

[@h2owl205]

By far the most unexpected world record history video to date, but a welcome one to be sure

[@thocom529]

this man never fails to make the best video game documentaries on the whole website. Thank you for making this amazing content for us!

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

Been watching for over a year

[@rossjohnstone4689]

Amen to that

[@SmittyBacall1858]

Very true! Now seems like a good dropoff point too as he’s starting to sell out

[@thocom529]

@@SmittyBacall1858 dropoff? why?

[@jeffyharwood]

@@thocom529 exactly he’s doing bits rn his content is so disproportionate to how many subscribers he has, every one of his videos makes my day

[@5MadMovieMakers]

I only understand half the split names but they're hilarious

[@finnyb0i1]

The "Just Ok" Journey

[@JuanLucasM]

"Johnson Cloning" caught me offguard

[@robadams12]

The interviews really make this content even better. You are a genius when it comes to documentary making

[@codylawson1257]

Exact opposite. akes the story telling worse. Salt is better at it solo

[@naroon5455]

23:40 Hey! I'm the one who discovered that glitch! :D I actually found it on the first day by accident. Getting to use a sword and having lock on rockets was brand new, so we were playing with them. Playing split screen i noticed that if you switch to the sword you could swing the handle without the blade. I looked at my friend with the rocket launcher, then tried to swing the sword quickly after swapping to see what it looked like from his point of view. Next thing i know i went flying through the air and landed next to him. I posted it to a forum back in the day cuz i had no way of making a video, and within an hour somebody made a video claiming credit. Edit: oh and when we first discovered it, you had WAY more than 2 frames to do it. As long as your weapon slot changed to the sword icon, you would keep the reticle from your previous weapon for a decent chunk of a second. Also the owner of the forum i posted it to did give me credit, but he spelled my name Neroon, not Naroon

[@primethread]

Shame on you, trying to steal Neroon's credit!

[@rphntw1n]

19:47 “And you can create INFINITE JOHNSONS” 😂😂😂

[@Mythiqoeatsbreadladdd]

The current record at this time is 1:17:12 by Synyster

[@larsnyman2455]

There’s something so cool about 343 recognizing how speedrunning kept their games alive over the years, and decided to throw them a bone for once

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

Not to be pedantic here, but Bungie made the game, 343 is just the dev company formed by Microsoft to handle the Halo franchise for like Halo 4 onwards.

[@RagnellAvalon]

@@SpaghettiEnterprises idk if you know this but Halo MCC is handled entirely by 343i. Bungie had well and truly moved on by the time it came around. This is why you had issues like Halo CE Anniversary's absolutely woeful launch and Halo 2 Anniversary's physics being slightly odd, as discussed in the video. Bungie patched swordfly and etc. for the original Halo 2, and that patched version is what Anniversary was built on. In 2018, 343i released a (massive) patch for Halo 2 Anniversary that unpatched swordfly and tweaked the game again to be closer to the original game's physics. Bungie had nothing to do with it.

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

@@RagnellAvalon Oh yeah for sure. Idk I loved the original trilogy and I guess I just took issue with referring to them as 343's games... which probably wasn't the original poster's intent. No offense meant. 👍

[@reagansido5823]

It always makes me smile to see devs have speedrunning in mind. it's just a cool gesture.

[@iWerli]

I just have to say, Halo had the best level names lol. My brain lights up when I think of aliens paired with "Truth and Reconciliation" and "High Charity" lmao. Badass.

[@AnakinSkywakka]

The ship names in Halo are just as kick ass. Some examples: Two For Flinching Say My Name Glasgow Kiss Enduring Conviction Long Night of Solace Do You Feel Lucky? Spirit of Fire And so many more.

[@kevincronk7981]

Only summoning salt can get me to watch a video going into the details of the history of speedrunning world records of a game I've never played, or even any game in its series

[@Deepestdrip]

You're missing out dude

[@mag_vii]

@@Deepestdrip highly agree, bro is missing out big time

[@kittysgomeoww]

think not ever playing halo is an illegal gamer move

[@cameronsnyder1246]

Treat yourself man. Gameplay is awesome and the story is fantastic.

[@Jayfive276]

@@kittysgomeoww Not what "illegal" means.

[@brucebruceish]

Dude, the interviews with the runners make this one of, if not, the best documentaries you've published. Excellent job, as always, looking forward to the next one!

[@masterdomagic17]

Cool sponsor choice. Any sponsor pays the bills, but this felt catered for your channel and your content, it's col to see you have those opportunities. Thanks for the video :)

[@andyn46]

It’s interesting for gamepass directly to sponsor him. It’s like their way of saying that they have cool speed games too and I’m all for it. I want the Xbox community to be more diverse

[@shadixyt]

The criteria of the Valhiem speedrun is so low barrier to entry (literally something you can do within the first few hours playing the game normally) and the rules are about as unfun as it gets for a speedrun that its just lampooning the idea of Speedrunning so people can make a buck. Also those controllers look super uncomfortable to hold/use. Plus Xbox sponsoring a video about one of their products is a big conflict of interest red flag.

[@tomdyer8518]

these videos are so extremely well constructed dude. I’m not even a gamer myself, but I’ve been a speedrun fan for a decade now. your narration, music, editing, and technical knowledge culminates in such an interesting video if you’re a gamer or not. I just finished your video on Super Mario 5-2 & Super Mario 3, and now I have dozens of popular videos to binge. You got a sub out of me within minutes of that first video, bravo my man! Now back to the binge ✌🏻

[@gj139]

The halo games have such a crazy rich speedrunning history and it's so meticulously documented, especially the last decade. Fantastic content.

[@not_shxrky]

It feels like Christmas every time Summoning Salt uploads!

[@deleetiusproductions3497]

so true

[@Negi2468]

It's May.

[@deleetiusproductions3497]

@@Negi2468 But it _feels_ like Christmas.

[@Negi2468]

@@deleetiusproductions3497 No it doesn't. I walked outside and the weather is different.

[@deleetiusproductions3497]

@@Negi2468 I mean because we're getting a new Summoning Salt upload. _That's_ what makes it feel like Christmas.

[@Ginsufe]

Damn. That's incredibly nice of them to re-add glitches into H2A. This is a good lesson for other developers. Sometimes your game having glitches can make it more beloved than if they didn't exist. Even if it's not intended, you shouldn't kill the fun in your own game, especially if it's something that's not ruining the experience for casual players.

[@levi22es]

Which is annoying because the same developer patched most of the speed run strats in their latest game, Halo Infinite, for seemingly no reason.

[@fever812]

This YT channel impacts me like no other. I feel like I'm sitting down for a feature film every time a video drops. TY SS!

[@dotkill01]

As a runner with a few ILs and a 2:13:06 pre-aug 2018 and armory cut, I'm thrilled to see this. Halo 2 has such an awesome story, I never thought I would see it here. It's a very hard story to tell; there's patches, rule changes, 2 different versions with their own leaderboards, and it's own speed running website. I can only imagine what it was like to cut together a script, you did it justice.

[@caboose05]

I love exploring out of bounds on halo 2, it feels so surreal. Wish newer games didn't have so many invisible walls and death barriers.

[@Mousyy]

No fucking way dude. One of my favorite content creators of all time made a video breaking down the speedrun history of my favorite game of all time. This is about to be amazing, thank you for this in advance. ❤

[@damiencouturee6240]

Every Summoning salt video is top tier, that's for sure. I've watched every single video, even if I don't actually care about the game it's about. He seriously puts more into these videos than some big-budget TV network documentaries. Though that's the difference between wanting to make it and being told to make it I suppose

[@swiftytaco8080]

Another thing to mention about Halo 2 Anniversary (and also probably why a lot of people did not like H2A) is that the enemies behaviors are tied to framerate. This was done in the original H2 as well, but the framerate was lower. H2A brought the FPS up, meaning that the enemies were essentially overclocked and doing a whole lot more fast, which is why you'd get melted as quickly as you do. Areas like the start of Gravemind (shown in the video) are way more harder in H2A than in H2 as a result. TLDR people who beat H2A on Legendary are more cracked than people who beat H2 on Legendary due to game upgrades practically injecting steroids in enemies.

[@sneakk3366]

So glad to see Jervalin get even more recognition after beating the moist critical challenge. I love watching him so much

[@254zero]

I remember watching a speedrun of this game years ago that finished around 3 hours and being impressed. These madlads got it down to 1h20m. Just insane.

[@linny356]

the excitement i feel whenever i see summoning salt release another speedrunning documentary is unmatched

[@andrewc6011]

I love these so much. They always open my eyes to people scraping away at fractions of a second to be the best at a thing. I love the speedrunning community.

[@Joey-nt4xr]

It's so cool seeing game Dev's being speedrun fans. Im mostly a fan of Nintendo speedruns and all Nintendo does is shit on spreedrunners. Glad to see a team that supports them

[@Ithaca-vv5dy]

Yeah, Nintendo gives no love to their sub-communities.

[@forlackofawetterbird]

@@Ithaca-vv5dy nintendo specifically gives hate to their subcommunities actually

[@Thatdudejosh9]

@@Ithaca-vv5dy Nah, Nintendo fans are absolutely toxic, and not to mention the competitive scenes to most of their games, especially smash, are outright disgusting and twice as toxic, so I don’t blame them for being so strict.

[@sweetschmeat7417]

​@@forlackofawetterbird cries in competitive Smash

[@KopperNeoman]

@sweetshmeat4717 Seeing all the groomers in the Smash community, I understand Nintendo's PoV.

[@Roxas27x.]

This is one of the only KZbin series that get consistently better.

[@synysterhr7298]

Thank you so much for making this, its so cool to see a Halo game being covered by someone like you and it turned out amazing!

[@diney7085]

Halo is such an overlooked game in the speedrun community, so glad that a major member of the speedrun community finally made a video that gives the game the attention it deserves.

[@PapitaNoob]

My favorite game, the first game I ever speedran, being covered by my favorite youtuber of all time. Every video of yours is incredible, but this one has been really special for me. Thank you Mr. Salt

[@LkMMoDC]

This is so awesome. Zoo deserves so much more attention from his current WR. Great video. It's also worth pointing out Zoo held the WR for H2A Leg and H3 Leg simultaneously for over 8 months. Only recently losing H3 Leg to byNailz 2 days ago.

[@cs82271]

It's hard to comprehend how absolutely insane the ability to run this is. Really, the only way to begin to understand is to play H2 legendary yourself. My first playthrough took only about 9hr but I still haven't obtained the "legendary in under 3hr" achievement. Only level stopping me from that is, of course, Gravemind.

[@KopperNeoman]

That moment you realise that there are worse things than the dreaded Jackal Snipers.

[@MyNameIsSalo]

halo 1 2 3 and reach on legendary is just something else that you don't see in many games anymore. I never want to replay it but I don't regret finishing it

[@chrisfrank5493]

You're a legend SummoningSalt. Thank you for your videos, and know there are many like me that are always absolutely thrilled whenever a new one comes out. It's like we're back in the early 90's and the next episode of our favorite show just came on!

[@Probasaur]

Halo 2 was the pinnacle of a gaming experience for this young teen at the time of release. Clans, competitive teams, MLG practice. And some of the most fun times came from messing with physics, climbing up to the top of stages finding invisible walls and ceilings. We would spend hours on burial grounds sword climbing to the top of the maps.

[@tyyamnitz8408]

It’s a funny thing to be glad to have grown up during the time of a video game. But I agree, halo 2 was such a special experience that those times are some of my most cherished memories

[@KiwiTheRetroGal]

Just imagine Summoning Salt doing a Rec Room video. The runs and strategies on Golden Trophy are pretty cool, and the thought of him saying *"This is where Boethiah comes in."* is awesome.

[@rainred2540]

Rec room is goated but definitely too niche of a community. Shame because jumbotron is one of the best video game experiences.

[@casey45334]

I've been waiting YEARS for this. Halo has always been my favorite series. Thank you for making this!

[@Pruu.]

Nothing like clicking on a summoning salt video and hearing that good ol synthwave music

[@gh0stwulf863]

Literally, this past week, I was just watching all of the past Halo GDQ runs. Before going to bed every night I’d scroll through the playlists and put on a Halo run to fall asleep to. What a fun coincidence.

[@jarredlevesque3659]

Glad I'm not the only one that throws on speedruns to fall asleep to

[@Aquifer_UNKWN]

I've always wanted Summoning Salt to do a video on halo speedruns but I never expected it to happen. I'm gonna enjoy this one.

[@mudiametokunboh2370]

Facts got my food ready

[@CORF.]

This is the most excited Ive ever been for one of your vids. Halo 2 was the first game I ever tried to speedrun and I loved watching top runners destroy the levels! Whole reason I made my twtch account back in the day was to watch MisterMonopoli and Cryphon WR attempts :)

[@spencerhuckins8197]

So gratifying to hear summoning salt say that halo 2 on legendary is a serious achievement. The first time I beat it was on legendary by myself and it took FOREVER. Seeing someone do it in a fraction of the time is absolutely insane. These people are gaming out of their minds.

[@Jazzomancer00]

The commentary from top runners really adds to it my dude. I love it, Thank you SO much from covering a game that has so much nostalgia for me back when I was a teenager

[@yunosocrazy1373]

Summoning salt has never released a bad video. My favourite on youtube by far.

[@WizardOfDocs]

watching zoo's split list slowly descend into madness absolutely wild I do kinda wish you'd showed the classic and anniversary records side by side while they were both going though

[@NormalPersonCommenting]

Crazy, I used to use some of these tricks to just break the game for fun Back then we were all obsessed with solving the mystery of the skulls and that floating switch on the gondola Good times man, good times

[@seancharriman]

My day always gets 100% better immediately upon hearing the intro music, and Salt's comforting, dulcet tones. You kick ass, SS.

[@mustbemeech]

Lmao the music and tone def 1 of 1 he found his niche

[@marioworld882]

I did not expect Halo at all. A big part of my childhood, I love that you covered it. Thank you Summoning.

[@victory_jade]

Really loved the interviews from the runners, natural progression for your channel. Keep up the amazing work!

[@benwagner742]

Hearing from the runners themselves throughout the video was an amazing touch they seem like really nice genuine determined guys

[@emilianocastillejos1330]

Completing H2 on legendary solo was painful as it is, those who have finished it LASO deserve the highest of appraisals. To have done it deathless is just insane, definitely one of the hardest challenges in gaming.