World records, Any% routing, Hookless% category, the yoink technique, fall saves, brightness exploit, checkpoint skips — everything you need to go from casual run to sub-5 minutes.
Idols of Ash was released April 9, 2026. The Idols of Ash speedrun community formed within days — times are improving rapidly as runners learn the map and develop new routing. The records below reflect the speedrun.com leaderboard as of April 12, 2026.
| Category | Time | Runner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal Any% | 3m 29s | NoriiI | Current #1 — improving fast |
| Normal Any% | 3m 39s | NoriiI | Previous personal best |
| Normal Any% | 3m 55s | Nitroghen | #3 at time of writing |
| Nightmare Any% | 3m 29s | NoriiI | Identical routing, harder execution |
| Normal Hookless% | — | — | Category forming — submit your run |
| First Kiln Any% | — | — | Category forming |
The actual gameplay portion of a world-record Idols of Ash Normal run is under 2 minutes and 30 seconds — the remaining time is the unskippable slow-walk cinematic before the ending. This means the effective optimization ceiling is around 2:00–2:15 of actual descent, making it one of the tightest optimization windows of any horror game in recent memory.
The Idols of Ash speedrun community has established several categories on speedrun.com, ranging from accessible entry points to near-impossible expert challenges.
Reach the end of Normal mode as fast as possible. The most-run category. Uses all movement techniques including grapple, fall saves, and checkpoint skips. Best starting point for new speedrunners.
Same routing as Normal Any% but on Nightmare difficulty. The Murderpede is faster, so movement execution needs to be cleaner — fewer pauses, tighter lines. Times are comparable to Normal at top level.
Complete Normal mode without firing the grappling hook. Requires deep knowledge of fall physics and map geometry. Significantly harder than Any% and commands respect in the community.
Hookless on Nightmare difficulty. Four Murderpedes closing in while you cannot grapple to escape. One of the hardest categories in the game.
Complete First Kiln mode as fast as possible. Category is still forming as the game is new. Requires unlocking First Kiln through Normal and Nightmare first.
The hardest category. Even the developers have not cleared it. Currently unfilled on the leaderboard — whoever submits the first verified time will hold the WR by default.
Not every horror game translates into a compelling speedgame. Idols of Ash does — and several structural features explain why the community formed so rapidly.
The Idols of Ash map is completely static. The Murderpede's AI is deterministic — given the same inputs it produces the same behavior. There is no random element to ruin a run. Every death is a player error, every success is earned skill. This makes it a pure execution game.
An Idols of Ash world-record run takes under 4 minutes. Even a learning run takes 20–40 minutes. The retry loop is tight — die, reset, run again. Compare this to games with 2–4 hour speedruns where a single death costs hours of progress. Idols of Ash runs can be practiced in a single evening session.
The Idols of Ash grapple physics are momentum-based, meaning small improvements in hook placement and release timing compound across an entire run. A 0.2-second gain per swing across 30 swings is a 6-second gain — meaningful at this run length. The optimization ceiling is deep despite the short runtime.
In casual play, the Murderpede is terrifying. In Idols of Ash speedruns, it becomes irrelevant — a top runner moves so fast the creature never gets close. This dramatic shift in how the game feels at speed is part of what makes watching speedruns compelling even if you have played the game casually.
Most games have one meaningful speedrun category. Idols of Ash has two distinct disciplines — grapple routing and hookless routing — that require completely different skill sets. This gives the community two games in one, with runners often specializing in one or the other.
| Setting | Recommended value | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness | Maximum | Spot platforms and gaps faster — essential for the dark sections |
| Mouse sensitivity | Personal preference | Higher sensitivity enables faster hook placement — test what allows clean swings without overcorrection |
| Volumetric lighting | Off | Performance gain with no meaningful visual loss at speed |
| Reduce pixelization | On (if recording) | Cleaner video for submission — may slightly reduce FPS on lower hardware |
| Rendering driver | d3d12 (Windows) |
Better frame rate on most modern GPUs — launch with --rendering-driver d3d12 |
LiveSplit is the standard timing tool for Idols of Ash runs. Download it free from livesplit.org. Set it up with manual splits at the major section transitions — community runners typically split at: spawn, mid-structure, lower depths, final chamber contact.
An autosplitter was under active development in the community as of April 2026. Check the speedrun.com resource section for the current status — if available, it will trigger splits automatically based on game state rather than manual keypress.
All Idols of Ash submissions to speedrun.com require video evidence. OBS Studio (free) is the standard capture tool. Use --rendering-driver d3d12 for the game and record at 60fps if possible — the fast movement is harder to verify at 30fps. Timer must be visible in the recording.
The current world-record Any% route is built around a single philosophical choice: gravity is faster than swinging. The Idols of Ash route prioritizes controlled vertical drops over horizontal grapple chains wherever the map geometry allows.
The community calls this the "Super Monkey Ball" strategy — treat yourself as a heavy object in freefall, use the hook only to correct trajectory mid-drop and to execute the fall save on landing, and let gravity do the distance work.
The moment you gain control, jump immediately toward the central void. Do not interact with the first text prompt — reading it costs 3–5 seconds. The Murderpede is not a concern at this point; you will outpace it entirely if the opening drop is clean.
Ash Urns trigger a text animation that pauses momentum — each one costs approximately 4 seconds. Skip every single checkpoint in the run. This is only viable on a no-death run, which is the only kind that matters in speedrunning. The first major vertical shaft opens here — aim for center and drop.
The mid-structure has three primary vertical shafts. World-record routing takes the leftmost shaft first (slightly wider), then cuts right through the gap between the central pillars. The key skill here is "threading the needle" — aiming drops through narrow vertical gaps rather than swinging around them. A threaded drop is 2–4 seconds faster than a swing around the same obstacle.
Idols of Ash speedrunners intentionally take fall damage when a risky drop saves time. At 50%+ health, the damage from any survivable fall is "worth" the seconds saved. The math: a fall save from a 3-second drop saves roughly 8–12 seconds versus swinging the same distance. Accept the damage.
The lower third of the Idols of Ash map has the longest unobstructed vertical drops in the game. This is where the Super Monkey Ball strategy pays off most. Chain two or three drops with single hook corrections between them. The Murderpede is far behind — do not alter routing for it at this stage.
The final chamber requires a specific approach. Grapple the lowest visible pillar to arrest your descent speed, then drop onto the final ash floor. A free-fall directly into the floor without a hook is a likely instant-kill at speedrun velocity. The hook on the final pillar costs about 0.8 seconds but eliminates the death risk.
The moment your feet touch the final floor, the run timer stops. The remaining 1:30–1:50 of the total run time is the unskippable slow-walk cinematic leading to the ending. This cannot be optimized — it is fixed. Do not count it against your "actual" run time when comparing routing decisions.
What it is: Firing the grappling hook into a wall at the last possible moment before hitting the ground after a large fall. The hook instantly cancels vertical momentum, converting a fatal or high-damage impact into a survivable landing.
Why it matters: The Idols of Ash fall save is what makes intentional large drops viable. Without it, dropping from height kills you. With it, any survivable fall becomes a valid routing option. It is the most important technique in Any% speedrunning.
How to practice it: Find a moderate-height ledge in the upper section of Normal mode. Drop off it deliberately, wait until you are about 60% of the way to the ground, then hook the nearest wall. When you can do this consistently without dying, increase the drop height. World-record runners execute this at near-terminal velocity with sub-100ms timing windows.
Common mistake: Hooking too early (which just turns into a normal swing from mid-fall, wasting the momentum) or too late (ground contact before the hook fires). The sweet spot is roughly the last 20% of the fall distance.
What it is: Firing the grappling hook at maximum range to a surface slightly below your current level, then releasing at the exact peak of the resulting swing arc. This converts the pendulum motion into horizontal distance, allowing you to cross gaps that would normally require multiple swing chains.
Why it matters: A single yoink across a wide horizontal gap saves 3–6 seconds versus the standard two-swing approach. At WR level, the Idols of Ash route includes 4–6 yoink executions across the full run, saving 15–30 seconds total.
The timing: Release at the absolute peak of the swing arc — when your velocity is entirely horizontal and vertical momentum is zero. Releasing 0.1 seconds early sends you on a downward arc that loses distance. Releasing 0.1 seconds late sends you slightly upward and wastes momentum on unnecessary altitude.
How to identify yoink opportunities: Look for wide horizontal gaps where a surface exists slightly below your current level on the far side. The hook needs to reach that surface at an angle that generates a long pendulum arc — hooks fired nearly straight across do not generate enough swing radius.
What it is: Treating yourself as a controlled falling object rather than a pendulum. Instead of swinging from wall to wall, you aim for vertical gaps in the center of each section and drop through them, using one or two hooks only to correct trajectory mid-fall if you are drifting off-center.
Why it matters: A swing covers horizontal distance and loses vertical distance. A drop covers vertical distance instantly. Since the goal in Idols of Ash is to descend, drops are fundamentally more efficient than swings whenever the geometry permits them. The entire world-record route is built around maximizing drop sections and minimizing swing sections.
The skill: Reading the geometry ahead quickly enough to identify which gaps are droppable (wide enough, clear of obstacles, with a landing point or a hook point before the floor). This is a map knowledge skill as much as a mechanical one — you need to know the Idols of Ash map well enough to make these reads instantly.
What it is: Setting monitor brightness and in-game brightness to maximum before starting a run. Idols of Ash is intentionally dark — this is horror design. At maximum brightness, platforms and gaps that are invisible at default settings become clearly visible, enabling tighter routing through dark sections.
Is it allowed? Yes — adjusting display settings is universally permitted in speedrunning. It is not a glitch or exploit in any rules-relevant sense. All top Idols of Ash runners use maximum brightness.
The specific benefit: The lower sections of the Idols of Ash map, and particularly the final chamber approach, have platforms that are genuinely invisible at default brightness. Maximum brightness reveals landing spots that allow direct drops rather than cautious swing-and-land approaches. This is worth 10–20 seconds in the lower section alone.
What it is: Passing every Ash Urn checkpoint without interacting with it. Each checkpoint interaction triggers a "breathe in the ashes" text animation that pauses momentum for approximately 4 seconds. There are roughly 8–12 checkpoints in a normal Idols of Ash descent, so skipping all of them saves 32–48 seconds.
The trade-off: Skipping checkpoints means a single death resets the run from the top. Speedrunning is by definition a no-death discipline — if you die, the run is over regardless of checkpoint status. This makes checkpoint skipping zero-cost from a competitive standpoint.
Practical note: The Ash Urn interaction is triggered by proximity, not by pressing a button. Stay far enough from each urn as you pass it to avoid triggering the cutscene. Learning the exact proximity threshold for each urn is part of Idols of Ash route memorization.
What it is: The standard grapple release timing for maximum distance — releasing the hook when your body is at approximately 45 degrees ahead of the anchor point in the swing arc. At this angle, forward momentum is maximized and vertical momentum is mostly converted to horizontal travel.
How to feel it: At the 45-degree release point, the swing feels like it is "pulling" you forward rather than "lifting" you. If you feel yourself going up, you released too early. If the swing has already peaked and you are going down, you released too late.
At Idols of Ash speedrun level: The 45-degree rule is a baseline — top runners release at varying angles depending on what they need. Sometimes an earlier release preserves height for a yoink. Sometimes a later release is needed to clear an obstacle. The rule is a starting point, not a fixed constraint.
Idols of Ash Hookless% means completing the game — Normal or Nightmare mode — without firing the grappling hook at any point during the run. No swings, no fall saves, no trajectory corrections. You descend using only jumps, falls, and the game's native movement physics.
The community noted early that some players were completing sections without using the hook. This evolved into a formal category. It is significantly harder than Any% and requires a completely different skill set — deep knowledge of fall physics, jump arcs, and platform geometry rather than hook technique.
The grapple hook serves two purposes in normal Idols of Ash play: covering horizontal distance and saving you from falls. Remove both and the game changes fundamentally. Every section that requires crossing a gap now requires a precisely angled jump. Every large fall that would normally be hook-saved now requires a landing platform to exist within jump/fall range.
The good news: the Idols of Ash map geometry does support hookless completion — players have demonstrated it is possible. The bad news: it requires memorizing alternate paths that the hook-based route never uses, and executing jumps with precision margins that the hook would normally bail you out of.
Do not attempt Hookless% until you have cleared Normal mode multiple times and understand the full map layout. The hookless route uses different paths that are only visible once you understand the overall structure.
In Idols of Ash Any%, you outpace the Murderpede through sheer speed. In Hookless%, you are slower. Sound cue management becomes essential — you need to know when to sprint through a difficult section and when to take a brief upward detour to reset pursuit.
Hookless% is primarily a fall management discipline. Practice dropping from specific heights onto specific platforms until you understand exactly how far you travel on each jump arc and how much fall damage each height tier deals.
As of April 2026, the Idols of Ash Hookless% leaderboard has very few verified submissions. If you complete a hookless run and submit video evidence to speedrun.com, you may be establishing the WR by default. The category is genuinely new territory.
The moment the player gains control of the character — immediately after the loading screen ends and before the first text prompt appears. Not when you click New Game, not when the title card fades.
The moment your feet contact the ground in the final chamber — before the slow-walk cinematic begins. The cinematic itself (1:30–1:50 of unskippable content) is not counted in the Idols of Ash run time.
Maximum brightness settings, D3D12 rendering flag, all in-game graphical settings, all movement techniques including fall saves and yoink, checkpoint skipping, taking intentional fall damage, the Aqueduct alternate route.
Auto-clickers and macros — grapple hooks must be executed manually. Memory editing or cheat engine — any modification of game state in memory is immediately disqualifying. Spliced video — the entire run must be a single continuous recording. The community moderators on speedrun.com verify submissions for these violations.
The official Idols of Ash leaderboard for all categories: speedrun.com/Idols_of_Ash. Submit runs here. Check the Resources tab for community-maintained documents including routing notes and the autosplitter (if released).
The Idols of Ash Discord (linked from the itch.io page) has a speedrunning channel where runners share routing discoveries, compare splits, and coordinate category development. Join there for the fastest-moving community discussion.
Any verified Idols of Ash clear with video evidence is submittable. New categories are still forming — a sub-10 minute First Kiln run or a completed Hookless% run makes you a category pioneer. The game is 3 days old at time of writing. There has never been a better time to get in early on a new speedgame.