Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a first-person survival horror game developed by Frictional Games for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. It was first released in 2010 for Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It was later released on PlayStation 4 in 2016, Xbox One in 2018 and Nintendo Switch in 2019 as part of The Amnesia Collection. As PlayStation 5 is backwards compatible with PlayStation 4 games, the game can be bought and played on a PlayStation 5 as well.

The Microsoft Windows version is one of the best versions of the game to use for speedruns as it has the most patches available for running, practice and research, supports a load removal tool and is used by the vast majority of the community. Additionally, the Steam version is the most versatile among the PC releases. The Linux version is arguably the best version to use as there is a random chance that a dialogue won't play. Depending on the dialogue and how often it occurs in the course of the run, this could save anywhere from a second to half a minute, in theory.

Maps
Main article: List of maps in Amnesia: The Dark Descent

The maps in The Dark Descent guide the player deeper and deeper into Brennenburg castle in a somewhat linear fashion. There are some maps that act as hubs. In these maps, the player will venture back and forth several times as they're collecting items for puzzles in order to advance the game further.

Glitches and Techniques
Main article: Glitches and Techniques

The Dark Descent has a wide range of glitches, techniques, skips and tricks, and while boosting is the most prominent one, there are several other glitches and techniques that are used throughout speedruns.

Speedrun Categories
Categories are made by the community after enough interest has been shown by a sufficient amount of runners.

There are a handful of categories for this game. The obvious one is Any%, which is split into Any% (Quitouts) and Any% (No Quitouts), but there are some more unique categories that have been added over the years, such as the Half Life categories.

Below are the listed categories of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which you can browse on speedrun.com.

Any% (Quitouts)
Main article: The Dark Descent Any% (Quitouts)

If the game is launched through Steam, loadwarps will be inconsistent, so make sure to use 'NoSteam.exe' for this category. The program can be found in the following folder: If you own the GOG or Epic Games Store version, that version is also essentially a "NoSteam.exe" file.

The goal for this category is to beat the game as quickly as possible without any glitch restrictions. This category explores the fastest way to beat The Dark Descent. The Reload Warp glitch, often referred to as "Loadwarp", is the most significant glitch in this category, aside from boosting. It essentially allows Daniel to teleport through entire maps if certain requirements are met. Since this category allows returning to the title screen, safety saves can be made at any point, making it the most beginner-friendly speedrun of this game by far.

Any% (No Quitouts)
Main article: The Dark Descent Any% (No Quitouts)

Formerly known as Any% SS (single segment), Any% (No Quitouts) has been the most popular category in The Dark Descent for an entire decade, only recently surpassed in popularity by Any% (Quitouts) due to a recent discussion of RTA vs SS and a much deeper understanding of the Reload Warp glitch. In this category the player is not allowed to return to the title screen, which means that no safety saves can be made, loadwarp is banned and loading auto saves is prohibited. This is the game presented in its purest form, and was the only category accepted for submissions to SpeedDemosArchive back in the day.