The History of Cuphead World Records

This video contains flashing lights that

may affect viewers with photosensitive

epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

Cuphead is a hard video game. Like a

really, really hard game. You're tasked

with fighting boss after boss, each one

harder than the last. As you work your

way across three islands, all the while,

there's a non-stop barrage of attacks.

Get hit more than a couple times and

you're dead. It was honestly one of the

toughest gaming experiences I've ever

had. And yet, there are people who

speedrun it and make the game look

completely trivial. Since its release in

2017, Cuphead has had a big speedrunning

scene. These guys race each other to

beat the game as fast as humanly

possible. They use tricks, glitches, and

countless other techniques to fly

through the game. And it is a punishing

speedrun. One piece of bad luck, one

accidental hit, and your run can come

crashing down. The world record speedrun

has had lots of competition, and over

the years, it is completely transformed.

This is the history of Cuphead World

Records.

[Music]

And now, a word from this video sponsor,

War Thunder. War Thunder is the most

comprehensive video combat game ever

made. And the best part, it's available

for free on PC, console, and mobile

devices. The customization is amazing.

You can play as over 2500 different

tanks, planes, helicopters, and ships of

10 major nations. They're as old as

biplanes and armored cars of the 1920s

and as new as fighter jets and battle

tanks of today. The combat gets intense.

The detailed vehicles, combat, and

graphics really make you feel right at

the helm of your vehicle. What's cool

about War Thunder is there's a game

style for you no matter what type of

gamer you are. There's the fast-paced

matches of arcade, the beautiful

authenticity of simulator, and the

middle ground option of realistic.

However you want to play, you'll find it

here. Join the more than 95 million

gamers playing War Thunder. To play for

free on PC, console, or mobile, click on

my links in the pinned comment or video

description below. New players and those

who haven't played in 6 months get a

massive bonus pack on PC and console. It

includes multiple premium vehicles, the

exclusive vehicle decorator, Eagle of

Valor, 100,000 Silver Lions, and 7 days

of premium account. Thanks to War

Thunder for sponsoring this video.

[Music]

When Cuphead was released in late

September 2017, it was an immediate

smash hit with speedrunners. At the

time, most popular speed games were

older, as it was typically a generation

rediscovering games from their

childhood. But Cuphead was different.

Within days of its release, speedrunners

were all over it. Famous players like

Distortion 2 and the Mexican Runner set

world records in the game's main

category, all bosses

world record.

Amos world record, boys.

>> Cuphead speedruns became a viral

sensation. It was a run filled with

glitches, allowing speedrunners to beat

bosses in a fraction of the time that

developers intended. Most of these

glitches revolved around one trick, the

weapon swap glitch. In Cuphead, you

equip two weapons that you can switch

between. Each weapon has a cooldown that

limits how fast each bullet comes out.

For instance, the lobber has a bullet

that comes out every 21 frames. Now,

initially this cooldown was global,

meaning after firing the lobber, you

could switch to your secondary weapon

and fire that and the lobberers's 21

frame cool down would still be active.

You could just switch between weapons

over and over and fire much faster than

normal. This was the weapon swap glitch,

and it allowed you to completely

obliterate bosses, even skipping certain

phases of the fight. It was a thriving

speedrun community. But that's not what

we're here to talk about, because on

December 1st, 2017, the developers

released a patch that devastated some

Cuphead speedrunners. They fixed several

glitches that speedrunners used, but the

most important change was the weapon

cooldown went from being global to only

being active when the weapon was out.

This destroyed the weapon swap glitch as

you could only build cooldown on one

weapon at a time. The ultimate result

was the leaderboard being split into two

categories. A legacy version where you

play on the original version with weapon

swap glitch and version 1.1 where you

play on the patched version. Both are

still speedran today, but at this point,

the more popular category is 1.1, and

that's what we're going to focus on. So,

our story begins in early December 2017

with the news of the patch still

resonating throughout the community.

While players and moderators were still

busy debating how the patch would impact

the categories and rules, a few decided

to try speedrunning the patched version

to see what they could get. The first to

put in a serious attempt was a player

named Alphacong, the 51st ranked

speedrunner on the unpatched version.

His run had a lot of deaths and was only

the record for one day. On December 3rd,

a 13-minute improvement was performed by

a player named Luigi 100. Luigi was a

record holder in various side categories

on the pre- patch version of Cuphead.

Compared to that, 1.1 had very few

glitches available, so they were banned

outright for 1.1. and the category was

named glitchless. A lot of YouTube

commenters don't like glitches and

prefer to see games played as they were

originally intended, and Luigi kind of

agreed. He was excited to try running

the game in a cleaner, less broken way.

On December 3rd, he set a world record

of 3657.

And to understand this run, we first

need to understand the framework for a

Cuphead speedrun. The goal of Cuphead is

to make your way through the three

aisles before ultimately defeating the

devil at the end. One very important

concept is the weapons you choose to

use. In Cuphead, you start with the

peashooter, but can purchase other

weapons that deal a variety of damage,

travel in different patterns, and have

different ranges. Each weapon also has

an EX attack, a special which deals more

damage. Using an EX attack costs a card

earned by damaging enemies or parrying

pink projectiles. You purchase weapons

with coins, which are mainly collected

in running gun stages. These are

sidescrolling levels that appear in

addition to the traditional boss fights.

You don't need to play running guns to

beat the game, but they can be very

valuable to unlock different weapons.

So, speedrunners have a tough decision

to make. Is it worth it to waste time

playing running guns so that you can

purchase different weapons? Well, Luigi

opted to start his run by playing two of

them. forest follyies and treetop

trouble. He used those coins to purchase

the weapon spread and charge. Spread

offers the highest damage per second in

the game, but with a very short range.

Charge has one big benefit. Many fights

have periods in them where the boss

can't be damaged. So, with charge, you

can use that time to charge up a shot.

Then, the instant the boss is vulnerable

again, you'll be able to deal more

damage than with any other weapon. Now,

as for the boss fights themselves, the

very first one, the root pack, is a

great example for the rest of the game.

Each boss fight is broken up into

different phases. Once you damage the

boss enough, it triggers a cue to move

into the next phase. In the root pack,

phase one involves fighting a potato

while he shoots projectiles at you.

Luigi runs right up next to him and

pelts him with spread. Nice and easy,

and he's defeated after a few seconds.

Phase two is the Onion. Luigi begins by

shooting EX attacks just as he spawns

in, then continues pelting him with

spread until he's defeated. Finally,

phase three is the carrot. He jumps up

and shoots charge EXs while

strategically taking damage on certain

projectiles so he doesn't have to

reposition himself. This is the easiest

fight in the whole game, but it gives

you an idea of how runners switch

weapons and use EX attacks. Absolutely

everything is planned out ahead of time,

and runners know exactly what they're

going to try to do. Luigi continued this

play style all throughout the different

boss fights. Since this was his first

run of the category, he sometimes pulled

back and didn't go for the quickest

kills, opting instead to try and stay

alive. He tended to overuse charge by

staying back rather than getting close

with spread. After finishing all three

aisles, there are two more fights in the

game. King Dice and the devil. We'll

talk about the devil later, but for now,

I want to show you how Luigi handled the

very unique king dice. In this fight,

you're dropped onto a game board and

have to roll either a 1, two, or three.

The space you land on determines the

mini boss you fight, and there's also

free spaces you can land on without

fighting anybody. Because of the spacing

on the board, you're forced to fight at

least three mini bosses before reaching

the end, where you fight King Dice

himself. So, which three did Luigi want

to fight? Well, he went with the 248

route, which speedrunners had done since

the game's launch. This was a very safe

but still very fast route that fought

Chips, Betigan, Pip and Dot, and

Mangostein. Luigi dodged attacks and

landed either charge or spreadshots.

Then, by the time he fought King Dice,

he built up five cards so he could

unload EX attacks and end the fight

fast. Just a couple minutes later, Luigi

finished up the run. a final time of

3657.

This was the first somewhat optimized

record of 1.1, but this was still a

brand new category in a popular speed

game. And over the next few weeks,

things were going to get hectic.

It started on December 11th when a

runner named Soul Wrath broke the record

twice in one day. Soulrath was a pretty

big Twitch streamer and was notable for

being the first person to ever beat the

game without taking any damage. Now

playing on the patched version, he first

got a 39 second improvement, then took

another 10 seconds off. Luigi was right

there in chat cheering him on.

>> Yo, thanks Multi Luigi. Dude, you're

really cool. Thanks for stopping in the

chat and just like supporting this.

That's You're awesome, man.

>> Soul's time save mainly came from being

more aggressive, not backing away quite

as much as Luigi. Over the next few

days, Luigi came back and beat the world

record twice. first a 3418, then a 3352.

The second of these runs was notable

because he skipped both running guns at

the start. This meant that he only had

the coins to purchase spread and nothing

else. He essentially traded out the

ability to use charge for a 2minute time

save at the start of the run. It meant

Luigi had to get right up close with the

bosses. No more standing back with

charge. After this was a formerly lost

world record. The Twitch VOD was deleted

and it wasn't included on speedrun.com,

but it was rediscovered during the

making of this video. It was a 3339

set by TMR. TMR is a speedrunning

legend. He was a former world record

holder in big classic NES games like

Contra and Battle Toads.

[Music]

But when Cuphead was released in 2017,

he came back with a second act. He was

one of the best early Cuphead

speedrunners, repeatedly setting the

world record. And after 1.1 came out, he

decided to give it a try. Probably the

biggest change TMR made was going 348 on

King Dice rather than 248. Space 2 was

Chip's bet again, and it's easy to miss

shots here like Luigi did. Instead,

space 3 is Mr. Whezzy. He's just out of

range to hit with spread at the start,

so TMR had to land a steady stream of

the peashooter. But in the next phase,

he's super close. So TMR pelted him with

spread. He even intentionally took

damage to get eye frames, allowing him

to walk through and behind the boss's

hitbox to safely fire more spread. Not

even a day later, another record was set

by a player named Krime. Much like TMR,

KP Prime was a pre- patch record holder

who decided to try running the game on

1.1. The bulk of his improvement over

TMR came on one boss, Grim Matchstick.

This fight has randomly generated clouds

that you have to jump on while damaging

the boss. To make things a little more

consistent, K Prime intentionally took

damage at the end of phases two and

three. This allowed him to enter the

dragon's hitbox and repeatedly EX attack

to finish him off, saving 13 seconds.

The next record came on Christmas Eve

2017. It was Luigi striking once more

with a 3255.

And this run shows the true difference

between Luigi and runners like TMR or KP

Prime. For the latter group, their true

passion and interest was with Legacy,

where you could perform crazy glitches

and obliterate certain fights. They just

played on 1.1 to try it out before

moving back to Legacy. But Luigi

genuinely preferred 1.1 over Legacy. He

liked not being able to cheese any of

the fights, having to play them all

straight up. This is why Luigi was able

to reclaim the 1.1 record time and time

again. It was his true passion, not just

a side project. In under a month since

the patch came out, runners had taken

the record down to 32 minutes. There was

frantic activity with nearly every

highle runner playing. But finally, with

this 3255 by Luigi, things settled down

a bit. And entering the first couple

months of 2018, the record stayed put.

By February 2018, the world record was

still 3255 by Luigi. Most runners had

lost interest in 1.1 and had gone back

to playing the more popular category,

Legacy. But one runner hadn't made his

grand appearance yet. He'd been lurking

in the background, watching when the

patch was released in December. He found

it fascinating to watch players route

the game without any glitches and he

wanted to join in. Only problem, he

didn't have a Twitch account, a Discord

account, or anything he could use to

collaborate with other runners. He was

too shy. After the 3255 in late

December, the category seemed to be

quiet, but in reality, he was playing

offline without telling anybody, and

eventually he found himself good enough

to be challenging the world record. Now,

he had to decide what to do. Should he

reveal himself to the community or stay

in the background while others competed?

Well, that came further into question on

February 6th, 2018 because he set a new

world record of 3251.

He was only doing this for his own

personal enjoyment. But since this was a

world record, he knew what he had to do

now. He made accounts on speedrun.com,

Twitch, and Discord. And SBDWolf showed

off to the community what he had done.

Over the next few weeks, SBDWolf and

Luigi traded the world record back and

forth. It was extremely impressive that

this newcomer had shown up out of

nowhere and was now able to challenge

the category's best runner. Heck, he did

more than just challenge Luigi. He was

beating him time and time again. Luigi

would set a new record, but within days,

SBD Wolf always took it back.

Eventually, he took the record down to a

3152.

How was SBDWolf doing this? Well, as it

turned out, he was actually using a

technique across the whole run that gave

him an advantage. Something so subtle

that neither SBD Wolf nor anybody else

in the community even realized he was

doing it. A trick that would later be

known as caliba swaps. If you do an EX

attack on a ground level, your weapon

stops firing from the time you press the

button until the time the EX animation

is complete. But if you swap your weapon

during this period, the game lets you

continue shooting your weapon while the

EX animation plays. The game resets this

when the EX shot comes out at the midway

point of the EX animation. So to fire

throughout the entirety of the EX

animation, you need to cal swap twice,

once before the midpoint and once after

the midpoint. All that just to keep

firing during the second half of the

animation. But it's worth it if you can

do it. It helped to make faster cycles

on bosses. Briney Beard, for instance,

thanks to Caliva swaps, he was able to

one cycle the final phase, meaning he

avoided the laser where you can't deal

damage for a bit. Across the whole run,

SBDWolf was saving about 15 seconds over

Luigi, and nobody had any clue. The

trick was formally found by a runner

named Calva a couple months later, and

that's when SBD Wolf realized what he'd

been doing. He pressed EX and then

switched weapons so that he could fire

his original weapon for slightly longer

without realizing this was also allowing

him to keep firing during the EX

animation. So without the knowledge of

why SPD Wolf was going so much faster,

Luigi played to try and get the record

back. Around this time, he was joined by

another runner, Calva, the namesake of

Calva swaps. Much like SBD Wolf, Calva

had slowly gotten better in the

background, inching closer and closer to

the 1.1 world record. Both runners

played extensively in March and April

2018. And on April 3rd, both Luigi and

Caliva ended up breaking the record.

Neither world record was a particularly

substantial improvement, but it made it

so that the previous three records were

each set by a different player. Then

just a few days later, Luigi got a

bigger record, 3142.

One of the biggest time saves in this

run came on rumor honey bottoms. As

usual, there's three phases here, and

Luigi beautifully executed his game plan

through them all. Phase one is the

security bee. You get up close and hit

him with spread. It's important to kill

him before he reaches the left side of

the screen. Since once you kill him, he

flies offcreen in the direction he's

traveling. Then in phase two, Rumor

herself comes out and she has three

attacks. She can randomly start with the

B missile, the orbs, or the triangles.

She went with the orbs, and Calva got

some bad luck with the platforms in his

run. The platforms usually have one

randomly not spawn in per row, and it

made it so that Calva had to retreat and

not damage Rumor for several seconds.

Luigi got better luck with the platforms

and had a very clean fight, finishing

off Rumor very quickly in phase three

and saving about 8 seconds. Probably the

best split in his entire run. Then a

couple weeks later, it happened again.

Both Luigi and Caliva set world records

on the same day. This time it was Caliva

first with a 3136.

Then a few hours later, Luigi got an

amazing run of 3116.

This was easily the cleanest run of the

game so far. He'd implemented Calva

swaps by now and was saving more time

with them across the run. With Calva and

Luigi pushing each other, the world

record had plummeted fast. But this 3116

by Luigi was a pretty impressive run. No

major mistakes throughout all 19 bosses.

There's a good chance that it would have

stood for several weeks, even months, as

it was now 20 seconds ahead of second

place. But that's not what happened.

Because on May 2nd, 2018, a major shift

was made on the Cuphead leaderboard.

Up until now, there were two main

categories. All bosses and all bosses

glitchless. In all bosses, you play on

the old version and do whatever tricks

you want. In all bosses glitchless, you

play on the 1.1 patch and all glitches

are banned. This initially worked out

pretty well because the developers seem

to have done a great job patching out

all glitches from 1.1. But now, 6 months

after the patch, players had really torn

apart version 1.1, and they discovered

that maybe this wasn't such a

glitch-free patch after all. So, they

decided to redo the categories. Instead

of all bosses and all bosses glitchless,

everything was now just all bosses, and

there was a subcategory denoting if you

were playing on the old version or 1.1.

Glitches were now allowed on both

versions of the game. And as of May

2018, there were now a few new tricks

that players were able to implement in

their 1.1 speedruns.

First, a simple one, shop glitch.

Normally to buy items in the shop, you

press confirm to buy them and then press

back to exit the shop. However, if you

press confirm and back on the same

frame, you can exit the shop while the

purchase animation plays. In addition,

you can even buy a second item while the

screen fades out back to the map. It

saves a few seconds, was found shortly

after the game's release, and now it was

available for 1.1 speedruns. Another

trick was on the second boss of the run,

Ribeian Croakkes. First, we need to

understand a concept called overdamage.

We already know that boss fights are

broken up into different phases. But

importantly, even though each phase is

triggered by an amount of damage, the

fight usually won't transition to that

phase until the boss is done with

whatever move or attack they're doing.

And the damage you do during that time

counts as damage in the next phase. You

can make certain phases much shorter or

in some cases even skip phases

altogether. This is known as

overdamaging the boss. Enter the Ribe

and Croak Super Skip, a trick involving

overdamage that lets you skip phase 2 of

the fight. It was long known to be

possible on the pre- patch version, but

lack of weapon swap glitch on 1.1 seemed

to make it impossible. But in March

2018, a player named Jumper N found a

way to do it. You get the frog's health

on the cusp of transitioning past phase

one. Then the instant they begin an

attack that they must finish before

transitioning, you unload a barrage of

spread fire and EX's into a precise spot

where their hitboxes overlap. You also

damage boost inside of their hitbox for

better damage. If all is done properly,

you do enough damage to end phase 2

before it begins. Instead of separating

for phase two, they roll into each other

and turn straight into the slot machine

for phase three. It saves time by

skipping a transition animation, about 8

seconds. The fact that 1.1 runners were

now allowed to do all this and more was

very exciting, and it was enough to

bring SBD Wolf back to running the

category.

He knew that Ribe and Croakkes was going

to be a huge reset point. It was just

the second fight in the run, but getting

the super skip required both good RNG

and difficult execution. He decided that

whenever he missed it, he'd just reset

the run. He felt the 8 seconds were that

important. It was tough having to reset

early so often, but it eventually paid

off. On May 6th, SBD Wolf got the first

sub31 in Cuphead 1.1's history. SBD Wolf

didn't intend to improve the run any

further since Riian Croak super skip

made the category frustrating to play,

but a couple months later, he

accidentally did. While practicing for a

tournament, SBD Wolf set a new world

record of 3050. This was the first world

record to use new tech found by Luigi

called Luigi swaps. Similar to Caliva

swaps, they let you keep shooting during

an EX on the flying levels, but unlike

Cala swaps, you must press EX and fire

on the same frame. A month later, Caliva

took the record back with a 30-47,

followed a short while later by SVD Wolf

reclaiming it with a 30-45. And it was

around this time that SBDWolf began

looking into implementing a new trick.

Remember, allowing glitches in 1.1 was

still a new thing, and runners were

still trying to figure out which

glitches from Legacy could be adapted to

1.1. And everyone knew there was a white

whale. One glitch from Legacy that would

be more valuable than any other. If they

could find a way to make this one work

without weapon swap glitch, it would be

the biggest time save in the run. This

is Bey Glitch.

Midway through the second aisle is a

boss called Bey the Clown. Just like

Ribe and Croakkes, it's possible to

overdamage him and skip transition

animations. In phase one, Bey moves back

and forth and then slides across to the

other side of the screen and hits the

wall, repeating this pattern over and

over. Once you've damaged him enough,

then the next time he slides across the

screen, instead of turning around, he'll

fall off the bottom. That's the trigger

to begin phase two, and it's the perfect

spot to overdamage him. Bey doesn't

transition to phase two until after he

slides across and falls off the screen.

So, you want to deal almost enough

damage to trigger phase two. Then the

instant he slides and hits the wall,

start shooting him and deal enough

damage to pass the next phase trigger

before he slides and falls off the

screen. If done properly, phase 2 never

ends, and the game gets confused. Bee's

phase 2 death sprite loads in, but the

fight is actually in phase three, and

his hitbox is active the entire time. He

stays in this glitch state for the rest

of the fight, so you end up skipping

both the phase 3 and phase 4 transition

animations. Now, on the legacy version,

Bey Glitch was very doable. Thanks to

weapon swap glitch, you could deal

enough damage before the transition to

phase 2. But when 1.1 came out, that

seemed to mark the end of Bey Glitch.

Until SPD Wolf managed to hit it with a

spread and peashooter combo in June

2018. As soon as Bey hit the wall on the

right side of the screen, SPD Wolf

unloaded everything he had into him,

taking him out as he slid back to the

left. It was also random. Bey needed to

avoid sliding for as long as possible to

deal enough damage. But as hard as this

all was, Bey glitch was officially

possible on 1.1. And it was a 20se

second time save if SBD Wolf could get

it in a run. He knew how huge this would

be. With the current record at 3045, a

20 second time save would leave runners

just 25 seconds away from an enormous

milestone, the sub30. However, actually

pulling this off in a run was going to

be a big ask. On August 27th, SPD Wolf

had a run that was a bit behind midway

through, but with a 20 second time save

potential on Bey, he knew this was

recoverable.

No luck. Bey slid too soon, so there was

no time to deal enough damage. That

being said, he followed this up with the

fastest grim matchstick he'd ever played

in a run, and he closed it out as a

small world record. Yet, he barely even

cared.

>> CB

nice.

>> He cared so little, in fact, that he

kept his stream going. And a couple

hours later, he had another run. This

was a significantly better pace into

Bey, a huge opportunity to try and get

the glitch. Once again, SBD Wolf set up

Bee's damage, unloaded at him at the

right moment, and then,

>> nope, that's not the better.

>> Unlucky again. Not only did he not gain

time, but he lost 7 seconds. Yet, it was

a repeat of the last run. He had an

excellent grim matchstick, golded rumor

honey bottoms, and took a lead late into

the game.

>> All right, it's not 3030. Very nice.

This was a pretty big one. The first

ever sub 3030. And more importantly, if

he could hit Becky glitch, that alone

was a 30-second time save over the split

in this record. No other top level

players were actively playing. This was

his milestone to reach. The next day, it

was a familiar situation. SBD Wolf kept

it close through aisle one with a chance

to pull way ahead on Bey.

[Music]

>> This time he got a good pattern but

messed it up by getting something

runners call a nothing. When doing a cow

swap, if you weapon swap on the exact

frame the EX attack is supposed to come

out, the EX attack gets cancelled and

never comes out. So it was the same

story again. No bey glitch, but he

played well in the late game and pulled

off yet another world record. So he was

lowering the record, but this particular

run felt about as good as it was going

to get without Bey Glitch. He really

needed it for sub 30, but it was just

never happening. Maybe he needed a

different approach. Part of the problem

was Bey needed to stay still for long

enough to deal the damage. But it turns

out Bee's delays here aren't fully

random. They're only partially random.

He has 10 possible delays, and they

always occur in order, but the starting

point in this sequence is random. This

is how most RNG works in the game. You

can technically predict what a boss is

going to do next. If you're able to

identify where you are in the RNG

sequence, so SPD Wolf realized he could

apply the concept to Bey. If he could

identify where Bey was in his pattern

after the first two delays, he could

identify if the third delay would be

long enough to do Bey glitch. If it

wasn't, he could wait one or two more

cycles to do Beyitch, losing a bit of

time, but still saving time overall.

This clever idea gave him a much bigger

chance of hitting Bey glitch in a run.

And the very next day after discovering

it, SBD Wolf did this.

There you go.

Very nice.

Sub 30 has been achieved.

>> This was such a satisfying run for SBD

Wolf. He hit Bey glitch by recognizing

his pattern. His hard work had paid off

that he was able to use it to get the

first sub 30 in Cuphead history.

Congratulations flooded in from the

community. It was by far the biggest

milestone in 1.1's history. And SBDWolf

was now in first place by a full minute.

[Music]

Given all the activity, it's easy to

forget, but at this point, Cuphead

wasn't even a year old. And yet, version

1.1 had already seen 27 world records.

Hardly a month ever passed without a new

record, as runner after runner came

along and got good. But now that the

sub30 was achieved, things finally

slowed down. Compared to the previous

nine months, the fall of 2018 was a very

quiet period for Cuphead speedruns.

Through all of September, October, and

November, no new world records were set.

SBDWolf's strangle hold on the

leaderboard was too strong, and it

stayed that way until something big

happened in late 2018. To understand the

next chapter in Cubad's history, we have

to look at the seventh place runner, a

player named Grandius. Careful viewers

may have seen his name earlier in this

video. Grond got into Cuphead speedruns

in the spring of 2018. Just another

person who played the game shortly after

its release, loved it, and decided to

pursue speedrunning it. By that summer,

he moved into the top 10. He was a good

player, but not really a threat to the

world record. But even if his skills

weren't there, Grond was a very creative

runner, always looking for new ways to

go faster. And in November 2018, while

stuck inside due to a snowstorm, Gron

started messing with a radical new idea.

He wanted to throw out the current run

and reroute the entire game with a new

weapon combination, lobber and spread.

This was an interesting duo. We already

know that spread does a ton of damage,

but with a very short range. Lobber also

deals great damage and was particularly

intriguing because of its EX attack

which has an unintended mechanic, double

damage lobber EXs. A lobber EX normally

does 28 damage. However, if it hits the

ground, the game accidentally creates

splash damage twice. So, if a boss is

within range, it'll deal 56 damage to

the boss. It's also possible to hit a

precise spot on some bosses where the

lobber EX explodes and the boss is hit

by both double splash damage and direct

impact, dealing a total of three times

normal damage. However, even if you do

it correctly, this only works half the

time. But this double damage mechanic

combined with spread could be extremely

powerful. The problem is that in order

to purchase lobber you need more coins

and that means having to play a running

gun at the start forest follyies which

takes an extra 50 seconds. So if Groond

could manage to save at least 50 seconds

with lobber then it would be worth it.

Grond got to work. He found that doing

caliva swaps with a lobber ex and spread

up close was a powerful combo. He had to

figure out new routes for several fights

all on his own. And the more he played,

the more he was able to reap benefits

from the lobber. Gro told SBDWolf what

he was doing in November 2018. He was

losing 50 seconds at the start of the

run, but making up a chunk of that time

across the remainder. Not worth it yet,

but if he kept looking, he thought he

could close the rest of the gap. And he

kept finding new stuff. For Bey, with

the old weapon combo, you'd sometimes

have to wait four or five cycles to get

the right pattern. But with lobber and

spread, you could always get the glitch

in three cycles. He also refined

Baroness von Bonbon. This fight features

three mini bosses selected out of a pool

of five. There's 60 possible

combinations. Grond relearned every

option with lobber and spread, figuring

out the optimal way to play every single

scenario.

So, he had the new weapons. He had the

new strategies. It was still slower than

the old route, but the gap was

shrinking. He'd already made up 27 of

the 50 seconds. Grand wasn't sure if he

could take it the rest of the way, but

he wanted to try. And over the next

couple months, it started to get close.

[Music]

Yes, there is. Yes. Okay.

[Music]

We did it, dude. We freaking golded it,

dude. So 30, man.

[Music]

Yes, dude. 2923, dude.

>> This was the culmination of an enormous

effort in research and execution. Grond

had set a massive world record.

Indisputable proof that the lobber and

spread route was the way to go. Despite

having to spend nearly a minute at the

start collecting coins, Grond was pretty

adamant that he was done. He'd had an

incredible story arc in this game,

practically inventing a new route and

now getting a world record with it. At

this point, there wasn't much motivation

to continue, but maybe SBD Wolf could

egg him on.

In December, SBD Wolf started messing

with the Wobburn spread route, and just

like Grond, he found it to be the faster

option. He set a new personal best of

2945, then continued with attempts to

get the world record back. SBDWolf and

Grond helped each other and as they did

more runners began adopting the Wobburn

spread route, but it was SBD Wolf who

closed in and just after the new year,

he came through with a new world record

of 2921.

Guys record done. In this run, SBDWolf

saved big time on Hildabberg. This is a

flying level in Isisle 1. Hilda sways

back and forth through the fight, and

the idea is to use EX attacks when she's

moving right so that she travels with it

and takes more damage. When she charges

forward, runners intentionally take

damage so they can fire an EX attack

that hits her over and over. In GR's

run, he accidentally took damage on a

parryable, which meant he couldn't

intentionally take damage later and it

threw the rest of the fight off. Spwolf

capitalized on the time save. After this

run, SBD Wolf looked to play other

categories, and he also started focusing

on Castlevania speedrunning, where he'd

eventually claimed the world record, so

he moved on from playing any% 1.1

speedruns. But Grond, on the other hand,

was nowhere near done. The torch had

been passed. SBDWolf was way ahead, but

now Grond had fully caught up. And just

days after the 2921, Grond took the

record back with a 2910.

We did it. All right. World record

reclaimed.

>> The most notable split in this run was

Baroness. He got Cupcake, Waffle, Candy

Corn. One of the fastest patterns. Much

faster than SBD Wolf split, which got

Jawbreaker, Cupcake, and Gumball. In

general, Waffle is super fast, so you

want that to be one of the three.

Suddenly, just 11 seconds from the next

minute barrier, Grond pushed onward. He

grinded off and on all through the month

of January while also searching for

faster ways to defeat bosses. One thing

he discovered was tech called flick

lobbers. Instead of holding down the

fire button to repeatedly shoot lobbers,

you manually tap it so that you can face

away from the enemy between shots. It's

useful on fights like Warner or Worman

where you need to repeatedly move away

from the boss but still want to damage

him. Now officially going for sub 29. On

February 8th, Groond got one so close it

clocked in at 29 minutes flat. Just one

more second until the next minute

barrier. Then a couple weeks later, he

had an up and down run. He got a good

Baroness pattern, but lost time on

Beyitch. He got good RNG on Rumor Honey

Bottoms, but lost time down the stretch

in aisle 3. This type of run is so

common in Cuphead. It's hard to get

everything to line up. But then he

golded King Dice, saving another 4

seconds. Grond was freaking out.

>> Oh my god, dude. This might actually be

it.

>> Just one fight left to go. The devil. We

haven't talked about him yet, but he is

one last enormous roadblock right at the

very end of the run. For starters, he's

extremely random, more than just about

any other boss. In phase one, there's

several attacks he can throw, including

the clap and the parryable attack with

bubbles. But through all this, there's

one massive piece of RNG. At some point

during the phase, it's very likely

you'll either get the spider attack or

the serpent attack. Both attacks have

subsets of RNG within them, but in

general, you really, really want to get

the serpent, not the spider. The serpent

either comes out from the left or right

side with fairly straightforward RNG.

The spider is unpredictable. It bounces

a random number of times, randomly lands

in different spots, and more. It's so

hard to make a game plan. In general,

the spider is at least a 6 to 7se second

time loss over the serpent. It's 50/50

which one you'll get. So, at the very

end of the run, there's basically a coin

flip as to whether or not you make it.

And that's just phase one. You then jump

down a hole and there's a brief cutscene

animation where Cuphead stares in awe

before phase 2 begins. If you pause and

unpause, then use an EX, you can shoot

and move during this animation. the geo

buffer. So on this pace with sub29 on

the line, Grond had a lot to think

about. The devil opened with some normal

attacks and then the moment of truth.

Was this spider or serpent?

Oh my gosh.

It's happening, guys. It's happening.

>> Dude, I did it. Heck yeah, man.

This was another satisfying run for

Grond. He got the goal he was looking

for, broke another minute barrier, and

now that SBDWolf wasn't playing anymore,

the next closest runner was a minute

behind. With the sub 29 achieved,

Grondro moved to play other games, and

the community died down once again.

These types of periods are normal in

speed games. Sometimes there's a rush of

activity and it seems like everyone is

playing. Other times, everyone's on a

break at the same time, and there's no

real competition for the record. The

latter was definitely true in the spring

of 2019. Gron's 2853 was an amazing run,

and now that glitches had been allowed

for several months, it was less exciting

and new. But in midApril 2019, this

period of inactivity came to an abrupt

end because that's when the developers

released yet another patch for Cuphead,

version 1.2.

Speedrunners were looking forward to

this update, but were soon disappointed.

Version 1.2 removed a lot of glitches.

They patched out double damage lobber

EXs, got rid of the ability to clip

through objects, and changed various

hitboxes.

16 months ago, when the game went from

1.0 to 1.1, it worked out well from a

speedrunning perspective. Major glitches

were patched, so runners were forced to

come up with new tech. But 1.1 to 1.2 2

took it a bit too far. That cool tech

was now removed and it made fights last

longer. It was a fine update for casual

players, but speedrunners didn't know

what to do. There was a big debate over

how to deal with version 1.2. The end

result was it became its own category.

No major glitches where in addition to

the patched out tricks, stuff like bey

glitch and Luigi swaps were also banned.

So now 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 2 each had

their own categories. And of the three,

the one that developed the most momentum

was 1.1 because in mid 2019, Jason 2890

came back to the category. Jason was a

Cuphead legend. He'd held the 1.0 record

in 2018 and recently set the 1.2 record

as well. The only record he hadn't held

was 1.1, where he currently sat in third

place behind Grond and SBDWolf. In fact,

careful viewers might have noticed them

earlier in this video. Cuphead runners

are some of the most collaborative I've

ever seen. Jason and Grand talked all

the time and compared their fastest

segments. And as a result, in late June,

Jason took his PB straight from a 2954

to a 29 flat.

>> Wow. Oh my goodness. I I actually almost

got the sub 29. He was actually on world

record pace late, but he took a slower

route on King Dice and made some

mistakes. So Jason had to keep going. He

played all through that summer and in

August he took the 1.1 record for the

first time ever with a 2849.

At this point, Grond and Jason were

talking with each other constantly,

sharing new strats and pointing out

optimizations that they had found. Their

focus was less on who held the record

and more on discovering as much as they

possibly could to save time. They found

small improvements on Kagny Carnation,

Hildabberg, Calamaria, and more. These

two were on another level when it came

to Cuphead. And as a result of their

collaboration, they decimated the world

record throughout 2019.

Yes. 2844.

Yes,

[Music]

finally.

[Music]

Hey, we did.

28. We still got it, dude.

Hey, we did.

Oh my god. They just kept going. Every

few weeks, one of them got a new

improvement. There were a few new minor

techniques, but most of this was just

Jason and GR pushing each other.

Generally, these were very small

improvements to the record, but this was

nothing compared to the run that Jason

got on November 13th, 2019. The run

really started on Hilderberg where he

got an excellent 103. He then got a

solid pattern with a waffle on Baroness,

nailed Beyblitch, and got good luck with

the clouds on Grim Matchstick. Jason had

an unreal 17-second lead over his

personal best. This was on pace for a

281X,

an enormous world record. After a gold

on Dr. Call, Jason faltered a bit, but

still maintained a 15-second lead with

just one fight to go. The devil. It was

all going to come down to the grand

decision. Serpent or Spider.

Despite getting Spider, Jason's lead was

so massive that he still broke the

record. It was just a 282X instead of a

281X.

Grand and Jason both took note of this

pace. In their minds, 281X would be the

ultimate goal of Cuphead. And as

friendly as the rivalry was, they did

both want to reach it first. Jason said

in the description of his 2829 that he

might take a break, but it really didn't

last long.

only slightly behind the record going

into the devil comparing against the run

that got the spider. If he got the

serpent right now, this could be 281X.

Just terrible luck. Twice now he was on

281X pace of the devil and he lost the

50/50 both times. A few weeks later in

December, Jason finally got the serpent,

but it was after a very slow phase one

where he took damage, missed shots, and

bled a lot of time. A new world record,

but not quite the 281X.

Despite the lackluster end, Jason was

very satisfied with this run. He was

truly happy with how he'd played outside

of a brief moment on the Devil. Even

though he didn't have the arbitrary

milestone of 281X, did it really matter?

This was the exact type of run he was

looking for. Jason decided to step back

and leave it to Grond, who continued his

grind for a few weeks. He used all the

strategies that he and Jason had worked

together to develop over the past

several months. And on January 17th,

2020, it paid off with the greatest

world record in Cuphead history. Grond

saved big time on Wally Wbles and never

looked back. He got great RNG all the

way through with very few mistakes. And

at the end on the devil, Grond managed

to hold it together despite realizing

the luck he was getting.

>> What is this,

>> dude? What the freak was that devil,

dude? We got that. Oh my god. 2813.

Oh my god, dude. There it was. Cuphead's

ultimate world record. Over the past

year, Jason and Grant had pushed each

other so much that they'd run away with

the category. They were a full minute

ahead of anybody else. These guys were

able to get times on fights that nobody

else could even come close to. And the

end result was this record, a 2813 that

Grond officially set, but was ultimately

deserved by both runners. What they did

through the second half of 2019 was

remarkable. But it wasn't to last

because after this 2813, both runners

were done. They'd had their fun and were

ready to turn it over to somebody else.

But was there anybody else waiting?

[Music]

Up until now, 1.1 speedruns had sort of

been the secondary category, while 1.0

runs were considered the main speedrun

of Cuphead. However, that gradually

changed as more and more runners wanted

to play 1.1. It was a perfect balance

between having lots of tech while not

being completely broken. Throughout 2021

and 2022, 1.1 exploded in popularity and

eventually overtook 1.0 as the main

category on speedrun.com.

Now, lots of speedruns had popularity

boosts during this time as people

suddenly had a lot more time on their

hands, but Cuphead 1.1 is an extreme

example. In just a couple years, it went

from 87 runners to over 300. This could

be due to popular games done quick runs,

tutorials that Grand made, or the fact

that the game just remained culturally

relevant. The game also came out on

other platforms that didn't allow down

patching, which made it harder to play

1.0. But whatever the cause, the end

result was undeniable. By 2022, 1.1 was

the premier category of Cuphead, which

was now a very popular speed game. And

yet, despite this, GR's 2813 still

remained on top more than 30 months

after it was set. There were more than

200 new runners, but nobody could beat

either Grond or Jason, still holding

down the number one and number two spots

in late 2022. It was a testament to what

these guys accomplished back in 2019.

Their run stood the test of time. This

gap in the record timeline was pretty

unexpected given the frequency of

records in Cuphead's early days. But

still, there were a lot of active

contenders, improving their skills and

residing not far behind on the

leaderboard. If one of them could just

get that small amount better, they could

separate from the pack and make a run at

the world record. For many months,

nobody could do that. But on August 1st,

2022, someone submitted a 2816 to the

leaderboard with one simple line in the

description. I'm coming for you,

Grandas.

This is Clipboard Guy.

Clipboard Guy started running the game

shortly after GR's record was set in

January 2020. He actually learned from

the tutorials that GR made. Like many in

the community, he gradually improved

over the next couple years. By May 2021,

he had a sub 30. And by that October, he

had a sub 29, a distant third behind

Jason and Grond. But he was the best

active runner of the game. And he had

the best chance of beating 2813.

To help, he implemented a couple new

strategies, both of which Jason found

years earlier. The biggest was on

Phantom Express, a risky strategy called

the cart push, allowing him to get up

close without wasting as much time and

saving a couple seconds. These time

saves on the margins were super

important. When going after a record as

good as the 2813, literally every second

matters. And on October 28th, 2022, it

happened. Clipboard guy got good time

saves on the flying levels Hilderberg

and Calamaria and did this.

>> Holy.

>> And a goal.

[Music]

>> No.

>> One off an ox. After nearly 3 years of

being on top, Gron's 2813 had been

beaten. It took a monumental effort from

a huge group of runners, and ultimately,

Clipboard Guy was the one to do it. In

true speedrunning fashion, the community

immediately turned their attention to

the next milestone. They were now just

10 seconds away from the next barrier,

the sub 28. Sub 30 came in 2018. Sub 29

came in 2019. Now it was 2023 and there

was no sub 28. It all comes back to the

world record gap. New strategies were

found in the last few years, but they

were pretty minor. And with GR, Jason,

and SBDWolf all stepping away in 2020,

it took time for other runners to catch

up to their skill level. But now with a

minute barrier on the line, the stakes

were higher than ever. Of the three

former top runners, Jason and SBD Wolf

had no interest in returning to the

category. But Grond was different. He'd

set the first sub 29 four years ago.

Returning to set the first sub28 would

be pretty epic. He had his work cut out

for him if he wanted to be a clipboard

guy there. But Grond wanted to go for

it. So in 2023, for the first time in

more than 3 years, Grond was back.

With such a long time off, he had to

relearn the route as well as learn the

minor developments that had been made

since 2020. To help, Grond used a

practice hack of the game with RNG

control built by SBDWolf. It allowed him

to better practice getting certain RNG

on different fights so he was more

prepared for any situation the game gave

him, especially the rare ones. As he got

back into shape, Gron set a few records

on individual fights, getting ready to

go for the full game record. But during

his practice, it was clipboard guy who

got the next chance. He pulled ahead of

the record in grim matchstick. then

continued with a good doctor call. After

Wernner Worman in 3, he was officially

on his best pace ever. He then entered

the very random briney beard. He'll do

three attacks in phase one. He can

either fire his gun or call in an animal

attack, squid, shark, or dogfish. The

first attack is always the gun, and the

next two are 50/50 likely to be the gun

or an animal attack. Gun attacks are

generally faster, while dogfish is the

worst because you have to wait a long

time. Clipboard guy got two guns and

then dogfish, so he gave back a little

bit of time. But then he got a gold

split on King Dice. His best possible

time going into the devil was a 2759.9.

Time for the moment of truth. Serpent or

spider?

He got the serpent. But with this

borderline pace, he needed to go for one

more thing, the devil freeze. If you

deal enough damage during the geobuffer

animation to move to the third phase of

the fight, the game stops the screen

scroll and essentially breaks the devil

fight. His animations still play, but he

doesn't attack and tears don't drop

down. But importantly, stopping the

screen scroll early lets the devil's

hitbox be closer to the platforms than

normal. This means you can land double

damage lobber EXs and end the fight

faster. However, going for the double

freeze is super risky. If you overdamage

him and transition past phase 2 before

going down the hole, the game soft locks

and you can't beat the fight. So on this

pace, getting the sub28 required hitting

the devil freeze. Despite the risk of

soft locking, clipboard guy had to go

for it.

[Music]

Not quite enough.

>> Wow.

>> Yeah,

>> it's unfortunate, but cuz I could have

gotten double glitch there. And if I

did, that probably would have been sub

28, but still really good run.

>> It just wasn't quite enough damage. The

sub28 would have to wait. But the

blueprint for such a run was now in

place. Players needed a fast enough run

going into the devil. And then they

needed the serpent pattern plus the

devil freeze. If any of these three

things weren't in place, then sub 28 was

just about impossible. Clipboard guy and

Grond were the only active runners with

the potential to do this. It was a race

to see who could get everything lined up

first.

[Music]

[Music]

Man,

>> that minion totally messed me up.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

It's a world record. It's not the sub28,

but I got record with spider, man. I'll

freaking take it.

[Music]

[Music]

Oh my god.

Oh my god, dude. What?

I actually got it.

>> There was always something missing.

Either the spider pattern or a missed

double freeze. And now that Ground had

finally gotten both in a run, it just

happened to be on a pace that was too

slow for sub 28. There seemed to be no

way around it. It had to be a good run

with a really good level.

Well, on August 16th, 2023, Grond got a

run going that I would say definitely

qualifies as a good pace into the devil.

Let's go

28.

>> As it turns out, the pace was so good

that despite an awful pattern, Grond was

still able to get it. He'd really gotten

just about everything. A good Baroness

pattern, a clean bey glitch, good grim

matchstick, and rumor honey bottoms

luck, a great briney beer pattern, plus

so much more. And as the celebration

began for yet another minute barrier

broken, Grond knew he wasn't done. There

was a glaring 12-second time loss on the

devil. There was potential to do so much

better. Both Grond and Clipboard guy had

to keep going. Trying to match this pace

into the Devil was going to be tough. So

Groond looked to really further optimize

each individual fight. One thing that

helped was DPS improvements. Making sure

he was maximizing damage dealt at all

times. He worked on managing his

cooldown, the time between weapon shots,

so that even when he did a caliba swap,

he could always ensure a lobber shot

would pop out just before the EX. It

made only a few frames of difference in

damage, but it could add up to several

seconds across the run if properly

managed. Grond also figured something

out for one of the toughest fights,

Phantom Express. We haven't talked about

this fight yet. It's the third to last

boss in the run just before King Dice

and the Devil, and it's notable for not

having the overdamage mechanics that

most other fights have. Damage does not

carry over between phases. A crucial

moment in the fight comes in phase two.

Here, the conductor comes out of the

train, and you want to defeat him before

he finishes his attack and goes back in

the train, ideally without taking

damage. If you can't, you lose at least

a couple seconds. It's very difficult to

one cycle the conductor. you essentially

can't miss any shots through the whole

sequence. Then on top of that, if the

first pumpkin spawns on the left, you're

forced to damage boost to get the one

cycle, leaving you with just one HP for

the dangerous phase 4. But in October

2023, Grund found a simple solution to

this. He could briefly move the cart

over, then quickly back to center. It

cost about a third of a second in

exchange for not losing the HP and

having a much smaller chance of dying

later in the fight. Cuphead is full of

these tiny consistency boosts that in a

vacuum don't seem like much, but it's

when you add them all up that they

really start to shine. Optimizing weapon

cool down, avoiding one HP of damage,

these small improvements helped Grond

get more paces into the devil. But as

adamant as GR was that the record could

go lower, at the end of the day, he was

still at the mercy of RNG.

September 14th, 2023. Gron's on another

good run. He gets a good baroness

pattern, good luck on rumor honey

bottoms, and a gold split on Dr. Call.

Then on Phantom Express, he gets the one

cycle in phase two. It's all lining up.

Grond has a 7-second lead into the

devil, but you know what time it is.

>> Dang it, man.

>> Still a small record, but once again,

there was no serpent. A month later, it

was a similar story. A few seconds ahead

into the devil with potential for a big

record if he could get serpent.

[Music]

I'm so sick of this game.

In November, Grond had a run with some

notable flaws. He got hit at the start

of both Grim Matchstick and Calamaria

and got worse RNG on Brybeard. For once,

he was behind into the devil. So, of

course, this is the run he finally got

Serpent.

>> Just kill him.

>> Okay, I'll take it, man.

>> It just wasn't fair. Of course, Gron was

happy he broke the record, but he once

again didn't have everything line up. It

still wasn't quite the run he was

looking for. Over the next couple weeks,

Gron set a couple more small world

records. Just a few months ago, he was

practically retired from the category.

Now, he was unstoppable. He'd set nine

world records in a row, taking the time

down from 2803 to 2745.

With this level of domination, it's easy

to forget, but Gro wasn't the only

record contender. Clipboard guy was

still playing. His personal best was

2754 and his goal was a 274X.

As Grond kept lowering the record, the

gap between the two players increased,

but Clipboard Guy knew what he was

capable of. On November 29th, he got a

658 one, meaning he was ahead of the

record by 1 second. It continued in 2.

Beyitch along with really good RNG on

grip matchstick. Entering aisle 3,

clipboard guy was 14 seconds ahead of

his personal best. He started to falter

a bit. He missed two EXs on Rumor Honey

Bottoms and slowly bled time over the

next couple fights, but then Briney

Beard just kept shooting over and over.

A great pattern, a great fight, and

Clipboard Guy was on an unreal pace. He

tried to stay calm, but he knew this was

a ridiculous chance. Phantom Express was

going to be a huge moment in this run,

one of the hardest fights with the

pressure mounting. Phase one was

straightforward as he quickly took out

the ghost. In phase two, he tried to one

cycle the conductor, but his DPS wasn't

good enough, so he had to settle for the

two cycle. Yet, he kept an extra HP into

phase 4, and he played beautifully to

get the one cycle on the train. It

wasn't a perfect split, but on this

pace, it was more than good enough. He

made it to the devil nearly 21 seconds

ahead of his personal best. He could get

as fast as a 2734

here. Even if he bled 11 seconds on the

devil, he could still break the world

record. Clipboard guy was absolutely

feeling the pressure, but it was time to

go. He played phase one with the devil,

not sure what to expect.

The spider hurt, but it was okay. He

still had to lead. He had to stay locked

in. Time for the devil freeze. He set up

the exact right amount of damage with

lobber shots. This was precisely enough

for the devil freeze to work. But then

he secondguessed himself. Clipboard guy

fired one more shot.

Dude,

soft lock. Run over.

It's crazy how you can play nearly

perfectly for 27 and 1/2 minutes, but

one extra shot and it all comes crashing

down. It's rare to get good enough luck

through the run to get a chance at the

world record. So, whenever you do get

it, the pressure massively ramps up. And

it's incredibly easy to mess up once you

realize you've gotten the luck. And if

you do, you have to play over and over

waiting for it to show up again. It

really was a cruel metag game.

Meanwhile, Grond was still playing for a

273x, but he too was down on his luck.

He had that huge streak of spiders on

the Devil, and in general, he was

frustrated with RNG. Grond wondered if

maybe the grind wasn't worth it anymore.

Perhaps he should have stopped after the

sub28. And now seeing what Clipboard Guy

could do, it would be easy to step aside

and let him get the record. But instead,

just a few days later, Grond made it all

a moot point when he set his

self-described ultimate run of Cuphead.

The Discord server freaked out when they

saw this. 2733.

Grant had overshot his goal by 6

seconds. This was even faster than the

pace clipboard guy was on a few days

earlier. Gron started this run with the

best Isle 1 ever performed, a ridiculous

650, and he just kept it going. He was

on his best pace ever for 18 out of the

20 splits in this run. The biggest time

saves were on Kagney and Rumor. On the

Devil, he got the Serpent and didn't get

the Devil Freeze, but more importantly,

he didn't soft lock.

Yes, dude. Oh my god.

One other little thing that helped

Grond, he was really good at star skip.

After finishing a level, if you press A

on the same frame that the stars start

to be counted, both stars will appear at

once instead of one after another.

Runners usually try to mash and hit it

since there's no good queue. Grond

worked very hard on his mashing

technique to improve the chance that he

hit it. Eventually, he got to average 20

presses per second, meaning he'd hit

star skip fairly often. This 2733 was a

huge triumph for Grond. He'd overcome

mental agony to get this far, and he'd

finished it off with the run of his

dreams. While the recent record timeline

looks really clean for him, that wasn't

the reality of the situation. He'd

nearly lost the record on multiple

occasions, and his own mental struggles

were present the whole way. But he stuck

with it. He made it through and ended

with a ridiculous world record. Grand

was finally done.

It's now 2024 and this is the state of

the Cuphead leaderboard. Grandas has a

huge lead. Clipboard guy is in second

place but not actively running the game.

And beyond that, nobody is even close.

It's a mix of inactive runners from

years ago and modern runners who are

good but not on world record level.

There wasn't much hope in beating Gron's

2733

and so nothing changed through the first

half of 2024.

Then in July, a runner named Mr. Butter

became the third member of the sub28

club, getting a time of 2755.

However, he didn't pursue a lower time,

so he wasn't really a threat to the

record. In August, a runner named

Quincley got a huge PB of 2740, knocking

clipboard guy out of second place. But

Quincley couldn't beat his time either,

as his run was a massive PB for him.

Perhaps to take it the rest of the way,

Cuphead needed a runner with a bit more

experience. Someone like SBD Wolf. That

month, a local gaming convention near

SBDWolf was looking for speedrunners to

perform live. He thought Cuphead would

be a good run to showcase, so he started

practicing for it. SPDWolf hadn't played

the category in more than 5 years. His

personal best of 29-21, once a world

record, was now in 19th place. But even

though he hadn't been actively playing,

he'd still watched Grond and others over

the past few years, so you had an idea

of the new strategies and techniques. He

worked on implementing them, and his

personal bests started to drop. 2848,

2826,

2813,

he played live at the convention, but

decided he wanted to keep going. 2803

2801 2751

what SBDWolf was doing was unbelievable.

He hadn't played in years since back in

the days when lobber and spread was

brand new and really basic. He had

learned 5 years of advancements in a

couple months and he was back to being a

world record contender. But he had to

act fast. Rond was considered the

world's best player and he could come

back at any moment to defend his record.

If SBDWolf wanted to snag the world

record, he had to do it right now. He

began comparing against the world record

in his splits. And it all came down to a

run on November 20th, 2024.

SPD Wolf fell a bit behind early and he

accidentally took damage on Wall-E which

prevented the fastest kill, but he had a

fast bey glitch to pull back even. The

world record had a really good rumor

honey bottom, so he lost time there. But

a good briney pattern made up that time

and a gold split on King Dice put him in

the lead. This was it. Just the devil to

go. If SBD Wolf got Spider, then he

couldn't break the record, but would

still be able to get a large personal

best. But if he got Serpent followed by

the Devil Freeze, he'd be able to knock

off Grond. Time for the moment of truth.

A brawl is surely brewing. You're up.

[Music]

[Music]

Ariel was not going to get record on.

That's a freaking good run. Oh my god.

>> He got the serpent, but a bad pattern

meant getting the devil freeze was

impossible. He still beat his run by a

mile, but fell just short of the world

record. Things were looking really tight

at the top of the leaderboard, and that

put the pressure on Grond. if he wanted

to hang on to his record, he had to come

back and figure out where he could save

time. So, he started practicing again.

And over the last year, Grandas has

embarked on a journey in 1.1 speedruns,

working on new strategies and pouring in

attempts to lower the world record.

[Laughter]

>> All right, whatever. I'll take it.

>> A big change he made was focusing

heavily on the spider. He spent hours

mapping out all 20 spider patterns and

their offsets, figuring out the optimal

way to recognize and play each scenario.

He found ways to make certain spider

patterns only a small time loss. Not as

good as serpents, but not automatically

run over.

[Music]

>> Let's go, dude. Yes. Actually clutched

out an insane devil.

>> He also heavily grinded individual level

records. He'd done this in the past,

too. But this time, he took it to a new

level. At one point, he managed to hold

all 19 world records using the in-game

timer.

[Music]

>> Let's go.

What? No shot.

>> And boy, did Grond work on new

strategies. He went for a more

consistent clip in Forest Follys that

allowed him to get more runs going. He

implemented a more consistent strategy

on Goopy, first used by a runner named

Michael. There were many small half a

second to a second time saves that added

up across the run.

>> Yes, dude. I clutched it. The freaking

X baby.

>> There were also some collaborative

efforts. Gond, SBDWolf, and Mr. Butter

worked together to optimize all 60

patterns on Baroness. Mr. Butter in

particular wrote out a flowchart

explaining exactly what to do depending

on which mini bosses you got and showing

how fast each combination was. Grond

used this to his advantage.

Let's go.

>> In late 2024, Gro took the record down

to 2719.

He came back in the spring of 2025 and

improved it to 2716.

Let's go, dude. Yes.

No way. We called it.

>> Grant has set the past 16 world records

in Cuphead 1.1. It's been steady

improvements over the past couple years,

uninterrupted by any of Cuphead's other

talented runners. The last record set by

someone other than Grandius was when

Clipboard Guy got a 2803.

Now the record is down to 2716.

Is this over? Is this just GR's world

record until the end of time? Well, I

certainly don't think so. Recently,

SBDWolf has been making a push for the

1.1 record, and in September, he got a

sub 2730, just 11 seconds off the

record. And ahead of him are both

Clipboard Guy and Quincley, who each got

personal best just a few weeks ago.

That's three runners right on Grandius's

tail. He still has the lead for now, but

that could change at any moment. and the

long reign of Grandius could soon come

to an end. This type of activity at the

top of the leaderboard hasn't been seen

in years, but it could be just what

Cuphead needs to eventually make it to

the next minute barrier. From the early

days of Luigi, Soulreth, and TMR, all

the way to Grandius's dominance in the

modern era, Cuphead's minute barriers

have always had significance. Each

record holder, every top level runner,

has all played a part in bringing the

record to where it is today. These

players and more will help take the

speedrun to its next level, and the

Cuphead 1.1 world record will live on

for years to come. Thanks for watching.

[Music]

Thanks again to War Thunder for

sponsoring this video. Available for

free on mobile, console, and PC. Don't

forget about the massive bonus pack for

new players and those who haven't played

in 6 months. Just click my links in the

description or pinned comment below.

[Music]

[Music]