Speedrunning Stranded Isle

This page is meant to explain both the route and the record history of Any%, the main category. If you just wanna beat the game, you should head to How to Beat the Game. The route and history of Boss Kill%, Full Gem%, No Land%, etc. will be added over time, as they get more runs and runners to flesh them out.

#### **The Route**

The Any% route goes as follows:

- Mine 2-3 trees to get 5 wood.

- Place the workbench down, craft a wooden pick, then mine 20 stone.

- Craft a stonebench, place it, and craft a stone pick.

- Mine 49 more stone, and craft a stone sword, haxe, and shovel. Pick up both of your benches if you choose to.

- From here, you can mix-and-match what rder you collect these materials, the general rule is that whatever's closer you should get before anything else. Gather the following:

- 70 wood

- 27 ichor

- 12 fabric

- 36 sand

- 24 iron

- 10 gems

- After collecting all of that, now you need to craft a boat. Follow these steps:

- Put down/go to your workbench and stonebench.

- Craft the furnace from the stonebench, and make 8 iron bars and 13 glass.

- Now craft both the chem table and factory from the workbench, and place them both down.

- Make 9 glue in the chem table.

- Craft 4 sails and a boat in the factory.

- All you need to do now is find any piece of water (does not need to be connected to ocean) and you did it!

#### The History of SI Speedrunning

There's a current search for any runs before October 2020. The time is very undocumented, and runs could be missing.

On April 7th 2018, FroztFox would do an Any% speedrun, clocking in at 11 minutes 48 seconds, or 11:48. No one else was doing runs at the time, so it was a very easy record. Seemingly harmless at the time, someone who went by "edub12385" would leave a comment asking about much of the run. They would later become HoloKnight, and though the comment promised runs soon, they wouldn't be coming all that quickly.

On October 21st, 2020, HoloKnight did a run with a time of 10:24. It wasn't very polished, but compared to the other two runs (narthewall's time of 14:50 and MadladdCalliemari's time of 23:16, both of which came after HoloKnight's run) it was way faster.

After this, Arumin was able to swoop in, getting a 9:11 time, re-timed to a 9:07. It was a cleaner run than HoloKnight's, and to this day he is the only person to hold the Any% record other than HoloKnight, because, soon after this run, his 9:07 time was beaten a total of four times by HoloKnight, ending on a 6:36, which was really great in terms of execution, and also had some good luck.

It was around this time more runners would try their hand; MockEye managed to get a 7:48, claiming second, then MelonKeepR claimed second herself after that with a time of 7:32, then Arumin came back and got a 7:24, getting second place, but nothing close to 6:36.

The same day HoloKnight lowered the record by three seconds to 6:33, MelonKeepR swooped in with a 6:49, of course, taking second. She was trailing HoloKnight by only 16 seconds, which as we've seen before, that timesave can be accomplished with one run. After two PBs, HoloKnight responded by getting a 6:17. Then, there weren't any PBs for a while.

After a month of complete silence, the game was submitted into Obscure Speedruns Club, and more people came to get their own times. Andrew and nardandas are the two most notable runners, however there were a few more, such as VegetaTheSaiyan8, also known as hiii. To get people to run the game, HoloKnight put a bounty on an Any% time, $50 for sub 6 minutes. Everyone grinded for it, but on January 7th, HoloKnight themselves got a 5:59, proving it was doable.

On January 11th, funnily enough HoloKnight's birthday, four runners would get a personal best: a 5:48 from the birthday celebrator themselves, a 6:19 from Arumin, a 6:33 from Andrew, and a 6:44 from nardandas. Andrew would get a 6:16 on the 21st, and a day after that HoloKnight lowered the WR by 11 seconds with a 5:37.

Then, on January 26th, Andrew would himself get a sub 6 minute time, 5:50. He claimed $50 and the title of one of two people to ever get a sub 6 minute time. At the time, this was a HUGE deal. Nowadays, however, it's become more doable.

But we're here for the records. On February 3rd, HoloKnight would achieve a 5:28. A day later, they lowered it again to a 5:20. And after just one week, yet again they lowered it to a 5:15. On March 1st, they would get a 5:10, however the audio was not the best of quality, so it wasn't put on the leaderboards. Two weeks later, they'd get a 5:09, which is on the leaderboard. Then, on April 15, HoloKnight posted a video where they got the first-ever sub 5 minute time for Any%, a 4:56.

Arumin went on a PB streak throughout May, lowering his PB from a 6:09 to a 5:28. HoloKnight also lowered their time, getting a 4:43 on May 31st, which is where the record still stands today. It is the longest-lasting currently-standing record in any category.

After a break, Arumin went on another PB streak in July lowering his time from 5:28 to 5:14 officially (and unofficially 5:12). After another break, Arumin lowered his time to 5:08 in August. After playing another game for 3 weeks, he got a 4:58, becoming the second person in the world to do so.

Soon after, a new runner would enter. His name is Xar. He had met HoloKnight thanks to their brief stint running the Champion Island Google Doodle, and he wanted to see where HoloKnight got their start. After not taking the game that seriously, getting small PBs here and there, by late October he was very interested in becoming someone who entered the realm of sub 5:30. Starting with a 6:56 on the 24th, he got there with a 5:21 by November 21st. MelonKeepR would PB alongside Xar, and on December 6th had gotten her very own 5:29.

Xar continued to grind, with the goal of becoming the 3rd ever person to sub 5. It would take multiple months to do so, but on March 17th, 2022, Xar had managed to get a 4:52. Not only was he the third person to sub 5, but he had beaten Arumin, firmly taking second.

Thought I'd throw in a page I can chip away at for a while, hope it's interesting.

- HoloKnight

- Arumin