Elden Ring itself and Shadow of the Erdtree have now been beaten in one go solely via killer hedgehog cosplay, and it took less than 13 hours
Ok, it's technically more a porcupine strat, but how quickly it happened definitely has echoes of Sonic.
Ok, you remember that Aspects of the Crucible: Thorns incantation FromSoft showed off as part of the official images for Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree we got long before it came out. Yeah, the one that turns your Tarnished into a hedgehog, kinda? Well, someone's now beaten the entirety of the base game and the DLC using just that, in less than 13 hours.
To be fair, given that Shadow of the Erdtree has already been beaten on its own by a streamer on a dance pad, who then went on to merk Messmer or two devices at once, we probably shouldn't be too surprised.
This time, Elden Ring challenge run specialist Distortion2 was up to the plate, having decided to use what they themselves describe as "one of the worst spells" in the game, to beat every boss from Margit, to the Elden Beast, and then Promised Consort Radahn.
Armed with just the Thorn spell and some crappy robes to keep his yellow Tarnished safe, the streamer's first attempt at that first bos ended up with him running out of flasks and quickly having to give up. But, as all good Elden Ringers do, he persevered and, having gotten a lot better at mastering the best angles at which to come in with quill attacks, managed to defeat the boss on his second attempt, with just over an hour of the run having already passed.
By the time they downed the Elden Beast at around the eight hour mark of the run, Distortion2 was up to a total of 26 deaths, and this was the point at which they properly headed for the Haligtree in search of everyone's favorite waterfowl dancer, seemigly having failed to topple her earlier in the run. He scythed through her at the first time of asking on he return, casually declaring afterwards that it was a "good fight", in the same tone you'd say some toast you had for breafast was ok.
Then, he blazed through the DLC, slapping up Messmer at around the nine and a half hour mark, and finishing things off with the Promised Consort just before hitting 13 hours. 50 deaths in total, Elden Ring's major bosses all done for.
Does he reccomend the spell after having done all of that with it? Not really, no. He did, however, show off his build at the end, in case you want to try going hedgehog mode for yourself.
If you're currently battling your own way through a Shadow of the Erdtree playthrough and need a bit of help, first of all I'm really sorry for probably making you feel close to as terrible at Elden Ring as I am, make sure to check out our huge array of guides that should be able to aid you regardless of what you need a hand with.