Speedrunner "Distortion2" has shattered the RE:9 Requiem Any% world record with a blazing 44:38 run, discovering a new skip that bypasses the entire Church of Requiem sequence.
The RE:9 Requiem speedrunning community is celebrating a landmark achievement today as veteran Resident Evil speedrunner Distortion2 has broken through the 45-minute barrier, completing the game in just 44 minutes and 38 seconds. The run, which was live-streamed on Twitch to over 40,000 viewers, employs a newly discovered sequence break that revolutionizes the Any% route.
The Breakthrough Skip
The centerpiece of the new world record is a technique being called the "Grace Window Skip." During the early Church of Requiem section — typically one of the most time-consuming segments of the game — Distortion2 discovered that by performing a specific combination of crouch-jump and knife parry timing near the western cathedral wall, the player can clip through a collision trigger that was previously thought to be solid. This bypasses roughly 8 minutes of puzzle-solving and combat encounters.
"I've been grinding this skip for over two weeks," Distortion2 said during the post-run interview. "The timing window is about three frames at 60 FPS — it's incredibly tight. But once I hit it consistently in practice, I knew the world record was possible." The community has since verified that the skip works on all platforms, though it is significantly easier to execute on PC at higher frame rates.
New Route Overview
The optimized route now follows this structure: After completing the prologue (which remains mandatory), the runner bypasses the Church of Requiem entirely, proceeds directly to the Graveyard shift, acquires the bolt cutters from an alternate location discovered through out-of-bounds exploration, and then follows the standard critical path to the final boss — albeit with several minor optimizations and clip techniques shaving seconds off each encounter.
Key improvements over the previous 47:12 record include: a 12-second save on the Weeping Chorus boss fight using precise knife-only damage optimization, a new ladder skip in the Underground Mausoleum that saves 45 seconds, and more aggressive routing through the Laboratory section that eliminates two mandatory key card collections.
The Competitive Landscape
The RE:9 Requiem speedrun leaderboard has become one of the most competitive in the Resident Evil franchise. With the sub-45 minute barrier now broken, several top runners — including Hazeblade, Punchy, and CarcinogenSDA — have announced they will be attempting to reclaim the record. Hazeblade noted on Twitter that he believes a 43-minute run is theoretically possible with perfect execution of all known skips.
For casual players interested in trying speedrunning, the RE:9 community has published a beginner-friendly guide breaking down the current Any% route into manageable segments. The key advice: practice the Grace Window Skip in isolation before attempting a full run, as it is the single most time-critical element of the new meta.
As the community continues to push the limits of what's possible in RE:9 Requiem, one thing is clear — this record won't stand for long. The race for sub-43 minutes has already begun.