New Dragon Quest 3 speedrun strategy involves swapping around other cartridges

No more hot plates, hopefully

Speedrunners have a knack for finding new ways to mess with games in the search of faster clear times, and the latest Dragon Quest 3 strategy is no exception. Runner Hitshee has now cleared Dragon Quest 3 in under seven minutes by swapping the cartridge around with a few other games while playing.

In a video, Hitshee broke down their strategy, which involves pulling the cartridge for Dragon Quest 3 and inserting several other games: Dr. Mario, Final Fantasy, and Kirby’s Adventure. They recorded their full playthrough of the speedrun, but the video in the tweet below highlights the cartridge-swapping action.

ドラクエ3 ãªã‚“ã§ã‚‚ã‚ã‚ŠRTA å˜ç™ºæœ¬ä½“ãƒãƒ£ãƒ¼ãƒˆæ™‚ã®æœ€é€ŸRUN 動画アップã—ã¾ã—ãŸã€‚
(実æ³å‹•ç”»ï¼‰FC版 ドラゴンクエスト3 ãªã‚“ã§ã‚‚ã‚ã‚ŠRTA ä»»æ„コード実行ãƒãƒ£ãƒ¼ãƒˆ 6:47 https://t.co/8tCN7ww2IE #sm38547442 #ニコニコ動画 #ドラゴンクエスト3 #RTA pic.twitter.com/bpg9unTztJ

— Hitsheegame＠ホットプレート使ㄠRTAinJapan (@Hitsheegame) April 7, 2021

Nintendo Enthusiast broke down Hitshee’s explanation of the technique. By swapping in new cartridges and inputting specific commands, it will result in some rewrites that result in maxed-out party members, item codes being rewritten, and the game getting a little buggy. Once the right swaps and inputs have happened, the player can simply Zoom to the castle in Tantegel and, with a few finishing moves, be greeted with the ending of Dragon Quest 3.

Dragon Quest 3 runners are no stranger to odd techniques. It wasn’t that long ago that some in this “anything goes” category were putting their consoles on a hot plate after discovering they could bug saves when their cartridges reached a specific temperature.

Not only does this seem a little bit safer, it also has some real results. In the video above, Hitshee sets a time of 6:47.10, and they’ve posted times below six minutes as well. The ingenuity of speedrunners to not just find fast methods for beating a game on its own terms, but to discover any way they can shave minutes off a run—even resorting to hot plates and hot swaps—will always amaze me.