DERELIKT speedrun Guide: Demo Practice, Route Planning, and Launch Prep

DERELIKT is a short narrative first-person shooter, and that one word — short — is why runners are already circling it. A DERELIKT speedrun is less about grinding movement tech in a sprawling arena and more about trimming conversation time, memorizing a compact route, and squeezing seconds out of a horror game that deliberately wants you to slow down. Here is what the demo and store listings actually support as of 2026-11-10, plus how to prepare a DERELIKT speedrun without inventing records that no source can verify.

What a DERELIKT speedrun Actually Involves

The official descriptions frame DERELIKT around atmosphere, not agility. Visuwyg's itch.io page calls it a short narrative FPS inspired by Alien Resurrection (PS1, 2000) and Doom 3 (PC, 2004), with a dash of cosmic horror — and that word "dash" is a figure of speech about tone, not a movement ability.

• Conversation is a real time cost. Branching dialogue trees are a documented feature, credited on the itch.io page to contributor @ricecakejoe. Any route plan has to price in NPC exchanges.
• One player, one expedition. The demo lists single-player as its only mode, so there is no co-op or relay category to design around.
• A single framing objective. The story casts you as a one-person expedition descending a service elevator into an ancient bone structure — described in the older itch.io account as a creature's carcass and in the November 2, 2026 PlayStation Blog post as an anomalous asteroid, so keep both for reference only — and routing is about clean execution inside a tight framework rather than open-world pathing.
• Solo verification only. With no documented in-game timer or built-in leaderboard in the material reviewed, proof has to come from outside the game.

That combination makes a DERELIKT speedrun closer to a "beat-and-segment" format than a tech-heavy movement grind.

Dated Snapshots: What the Demo and Store Pages Show

All rows are frozen observations from store pages captured on 2026-11-10. They are not live values, and the all-time and recent review figures use different scopes — do not merge them into one total.

Two practical notes follow from that table. First, the demo is a separate, free Steam app, not the full release, so demo routes and launch-version routes are different problems. Second, a demo with 208 total reviews at a 94% positive rate (Steam demo page, 2026-11-10) has enough of a player base that community route sharing is plausible — though no organized timing board has been documented.

Building DERELIKT speedrun Routes in a Dialogue-Driven FPS

Treat dialogue trees as fixed costs

Because the game ships branching dialogue trees, the fastest improvement early on is mapping which replies move a scene forward and which just add lines. Watch the demo's NPC conversations, note every branch that advances the scene, and write the choice order down. Once conversation time is a known number, the rest of the run becomes comparable between attempts.

Split by beat, not by whole run

A short narrative FPS rarely rewards a single long timer. Segment your DERELIKT speedrun routes into checkpoints you can measure consistently — the descent, the point where you receive your security weapon, and any door or elevator gate. Segment times expose where you actually lose seconds, which a single end-of-run number hides.

Lock your build and note it

The demo is a live Steam app, and demo builds are not guaranteed to stay identical. Before you compare runs, record the build date and the storefront you played on. The GOG listing advertises a DRM-free offline installer that does not require GOG Galaxy, which makes it a convenient baseline for repeatable, no-launcher testing — but keep platform consistent across comparisons.

Keep controller and keyboard runs separate

The demo page lists Xbox and PlayStation controller support, so input method is a legitimate category to track. Decide up front whether your board mixes input types or separates them, and say so in your notes.

Timing and Verification Setup

Since no official timing tool or leaderboard is documented for DERELIKT, external timing is the practical route. A standard split timer plus recorded video that shows the timer alongside gameplay is the most defensible setup, and it costs nothing to start during the demo period.

• Capture the timer in-frame. An overlay that runs while you play beats a stopwatch added in editing.
• Log the variables. Date, build, platform, storefront, input method, and language belong in every submission note.
• Note the language build. The demo lists English as its only interface, audio, and subtitle language, so cross-language comparisons are not yet meaningful.
• Ignore the placeholder specs. Both the Steam demo page and the GOG page show joke system requirements ("Toaster Spec," "1337 Spec"). Do not treat those as real hardware guidance when planning a practice machine.

Community reports around the demo describe it as tense and faithful to the PS1 look; one GOG Dreamlist player praised it as an homage to PS1 horror and Alien: Isolation. That atmosphere matters for runners: the pacing is intentionally dread-driven, so route knowledge rather than reaction speed is your main lever.

What Changes on November 13, 2026

A publisher announcement dated October 21, 2026 states that DERELIKT launches on PC via Steam, GOG, and Epic on November 13, 2026, and the GOG store page lists the same release date as observed on 2026-11-10. When the full game lands, expect three shifts:

1. New route surface. Story content beyond the demo means entirely new splits, and demo times will no longer be the reference.
2. Separate categories. Demo and full-game runs should never share a board, since they are different products.
3. Verification pressure. With three storefronts, "which version" becomes a mandatory field in every submission.

Until then, the honest position is that no verified DERELIKT speedrun record exists in the material available. Practice, document, and publish your splits with dates — that is what a scene is built from.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a verified DERELIKT speedrun record yet? Not in any source reviewed for this guide as of 2026-11-10. No official leaderboard or in-game timer is documented, so any time you see should be treated as a personal or community claim until it comes with video proof, a build, and a date.

Can you speedrun the DERELIKT Demo? You can practice and time it. The demo released on October 8, 2026 as a free standalone Steam app, and it is short enough for repeatable attempts — but because timing is external, your proof standard is your own responsibility.

Does DERELIKT have a dash mechanic that helps a DERELIKT speedrun? No such mechanic is documented. The phrase "a dash of cosmic horror" on the developer's itch.io page describes tone, not movement. Plan around dialogue and route knowledge instead.

When should runners rebuild their routes? After November 13, 2026, when the full game arrives on Steam, GOG, and Epic per the October 21, 2026 announcement. Demo routes should be retired or moved to a clearly separate demo category at that point.

For the canonical listing and any updates to release status, check DERELIKT's Steam store page, and for the free practice build see the DERELIKT Demo on Steam.