Arms of God Speedrun Guide — Fastest Clear Strategies for Every Act

Speedrunning Arms of God

The Any% speedrun record for Arms of God (all four acts, normal difficulty) sits around 45 minutes. A casual playthrough takes 20-25 hours. The difference is not skill — it is knowing which rooms to skip, which weapons melt bosses, and which movement tech saves seconds per room that add up to minutes per act.

This guide covers the strategies that speedrunners use. Even if you are not chasing records, these techniques will cut your clear times significantly.

Core Speedrun Principles

1. Movement Is Everything

The number one time loss in Arms of God is slow movement between rooms. Every second spent walking is a second not spent clearing.

Dash canceling: Attack → dash immediately after the hit connects → the dash animation cancels the attack recovery. With Dual Blades, you can attack-dash-attack-dash in a continuous chain that moves at dash speed while dealing damage. This is the fundamental speedrun technique.

Weapon swap movement: Swapping weapons mid-dash preserves momentum and extends the dash distance by roughly 30%. The timing: dash → swap at dash midpoint → you slide an extra body-length. Takes practice but saves 1-2 seconds per room transition.

Skip climb animations: Ledges that require a climb animation can be bypassed by dashing at the very edge. If your dash ends exactly on the ledge, you skip the 1.5-second climb animation. Consistent with practice.

2. Kill Only What You Must

Speedruns are not about clearing rooms — they are about reaching the boss. You only need to kill enemies that block doors (marked with a red icon) or drop required keys. Everything else is optional.

Room assessment (takes 1 second):

• Red icon enemy present? → Kill it, move on

• All enemies optional? → Dash straight to the exit

• Boss room? → Full clear, obviously

3. Weapon Choice Is Build-Defining

Speedrunners use a completely different weapon tier list than casual players. The criteria: burst damage, movement synergy, and boss kill speed. Sustained DPS and survivability do not matter — you should not be in a room long enough for either to be relevant.

Speedrun Weapon Tier List

S-Tier (Mandatory for competitive times)

Dual Blades: Dash cancel synergy is unmatched. Attack-dash-attack-dash chain is the fastest movement in the game while still dealing damage. Boss damage is not the highest, but the movement speed through rooms saves more time than any DPS gain from a slower weapon.

Infernal Repeater: Highest burst DPS in the game. On bosses, pop all cooldowns, unload with Infernal Repeater, boss dies in 15-20 seconds. Used as the boss-kill swap weapon paired with Dual Blades for room clearing.

A-Tier (Strong alternatives)

Void Reaper: Execute procs at 20% HP effectively reduce every enemy and boss HP by 20%. Saves 15-20 seconds per boss fight. Worse than Infernal Repeater for raw speed but more consistent.

Stormcaller Bow: Ranged, chain damage clears rooms of trash enemies in 1-2 shots without slowing down. Excellent for acts with many mandatory trash kills.

B-Tier (Situational)

Holy Crossbow: Piercing shots clear lined-up enemies efficiently. Good for Act 2 where enemy formations are linear.

Frostbite Blade: Freeze-lock on bosses prevents them from using time-wasting invulnerability phases.

Do Not Use for Speedruns

Any Hammer or Greatsword — too slow, no movement synergy, attack animations lock you in place.

Act-by-Act Speedrun Routes

Act 1 — Target Time: 8 minutes

Loadout: Dual Blades (starter) + any ranged weapon for Imps.

Route:

1. Rooms 1-3: Kill mandatory enemies only. Dash through optional rooms without stopping.

2. Room 4 (first elite): Mandatory. Kill with Dual Blades — 20 seconds max.

3. Rooms 5-7: Skip everything possible.

4. Archon of Storms boss: Stay close, dash through lightning attacks, attack during recovery. Target: 90 seconds.

Time saves:

• Skip the two side rooms after the first elite — they contain optional loot only

• The long hallway before the boss has zero mandatory enemies — dash straight through

• Boss: dodge INTO the lightning strikes, not away. You take no damage and stay in melee range

Act 2 — Target Time: 12 minutes

Loadout: Dual Blades + Frostbite Blade swap.

Route:

1. Cathedral area: Kill the two red-icon Paladins, dash past everything else.

2. Armory: Full clear required (key drops from last enemy). Use Frostbite freeze to prevent Rat swarms from surrounding you.

3. Underground Passage: Linear path, kill mandatory enemies, dash past optional.

4. Forgotten King: Freeze-lock strategy — Frostbite Blade freeze → swap to Dual Blades for damage → repeat. Prevents add spawns if you freeze him at 75/50/25% thresholds. Target: 2 minutes.

Time saves:

• Cathedral: hug the left wall, only two mandatory enemies on that path

• Forgotten King freeze timing: freeze him at 76%, burst him below 75% while frozen → skips the first add wave entirely. Same at 51% and 26%.

Act 3 — Target Time: 15 minutes

Loadout: Dual Blades + Void Reaper swap.

Route:

1. Temple entrance: Kill Shadow Assassins only. They are fast — Frost blessing reveals them, saves time searching.

2. Fire Mage corridor: Mandatory clear. Use Void Reaper execute to one-shot Mages at 20%.

3. Paladin hall: Kill the lead Paladin, the rest despawn. You do not need to clear the room.

4. Fire Elemental boss: Void Reaper for execute, Dual Blades for movement. Target: 2.5 minutes.

Time saves:

• Shadow Assassins: the shimmer always appears behind you. Pre-dodge forward when you hear the audio cue, turn and kill

• Fire Elemental: the fire nova has a dead zone directly next to the boss. Stand there and you never have to dodge it

Act 4 — Target Time: 10 minutes

Loadout: Dual Blades + Infernal Repeater swap.

Route:

1. Void Reaper rooms: Two mandatory. Kill with Infernal Repeater burst.

2. Divine Guardian rooms: Use Dual Blades for physical-immune phase, Infernal Repeater for other phases.

3. Divine Engine boss: Infernal Repeater burst during damage windows. Target: 3 minutes.

4. Divine Engine Omega (optional for Any%): Skip unless running 100%.

Time saves:

• Divine Guardian: the immunity rotation is on a fixed 10-second timer. Count in your head. Swap weapons preemptively at second 9

• Divine Engine: the boss always opens with the sweeping beam. Stand at mid-range, dash through it, unload with Infernal Repeater during the 4-second recovery

Speedrun Blessing Setup

Must have: Wind (attack speed stacking), Thunder (chain lightning for room clear).

Wind is the most important speedrun blessing because it increases movement speed at 10 stacks. You maintain 10 stacks permanently with Dual Blades.

Thunder clears optional trash enemies while you focus on mandatory targets. The chain lightning will kill stray enemies without you stopping.

Optional third blessing (if available): Void for faster boss executes, or Frost for boss freeze-skips.

Any% Route Summary

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Start → Act 1 (8 min) → Act 2 (12 min) → Act 3 (15 min) → Act 4 (10 min) = 45 minutes

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Common Speedrun Mistakes

Clearing optional rooms. The single biggest time loss. If there is no red icon, there is no reason to stop.

Waiting for cooldowns. Speedrunners do not wait. If your blessing is on cooldown, you push forward with basic attacks. The time lost waiting is greater than the time lost fighting without cooldowns.

Looting. Gold and materials are irrelevant in a speedrun. Do not stop to pick anything up unless it is directly in your path.

Using slow weapons "for boss damage." The time you lose moving through rooms with a slow weapon exceeds the time you save on the boss. Dual Blades are mandatory for room clearing speed.