How This New Breath Of The Wild Glitch Could Change The Game

A newly discovered "Breath of the Wild" glitch nicknamed Sky Sliding is changing how players traverse large distances in the game and may have lasting implications for the popular game's speedrunning scene.

Sky Sliding is an innovative technique that allows players to glide across the sky free of gravity and momentum by manipulating Link's equipment and inventory to enter into a bow lock state. An excellent explanation of the effect was provided by JoeDun, who went over each portion of the nearly fifteen-step process to enable Sky Sliding in-depth.

The effect depends on a technique already known on Reddit and within the "Breath of the Wild" community, smuggling, which allows players to keep a weapon in hand while performing an action that requires Link to be unarmed, such as gliding. However, Sky Sliding adds an extra step of launching off a ledge while performing the smuggling sequence, which puts "Breath of the Wild" into a glitched state and sends Link careening through the sky.

JoeDun attributes the discovery of Sky Sliding to @iLegendofLinkk, a "Breath of the Wild" speedrunner and glitch hunter whose experimentations with the technique can be seen in his Twitter updates beginning in September. Here is how this new glitch might change speedrunning and "Breath of the Wild" for good.

Players have been experimenting with new methods of speedrunning the Nintendo Switch's flagship RPG ever since it came out in March 2017, with one player beating "Breath of the Wild" in just 65 minutes within a week of its release. Since then, the game's community has remained active and incorporated multiple approaches to speedrunning, an impressive feat for a title over four years old.

In his YouTube video, JoeDun lays out how Sky Sliding could fundamentally alter the basic approach to speedrunning in different categories. For example, JoeDun notes that for All Dungeons runs, existing exploits to complete areas quickly might be made obsolete and replaced by sky sliding. The same might occur for Great Plateaus runs, while one of the largest categories, 100% Runs, could be changed significantly since the exploit is essentially usable at any point in the game. Sky Sliding could make almost every task in "Breath of the Wild" faster.

Interestingly, JoeDun holds a very specific speedrun record as the first player to complete a 100% speedrun without taking any damage. However, this "Breath of the Wild" run took years to complete, and Sky Sliding might put JoeDun's completion time in serious jeopardy, as sailing across Hyrule through the air makes players much less susceptible to potential damage from enemies.