PSA: You can run twice as fast with this silly Pokemon Scarlet & Violet trick

Speedrunners will love this cheeky bug that grants players double run speed in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet are out now, and players are finding them to be divisive experiences. While fans generally agree that it’s a good step forward for the series, the visuals and performance are causes for concern, and are undeniably intrusive. But if you manage to get through all of that, you’ll find a fairly ambitious and interesting take on the Pokémon formula. It's the kind of formula that requires a best gym order guide.

But even that new take feels undermined by these issues, and one of these bugs can make you run twice as fast. What might seem like a horrendous oversight for some, could be considered to be a neat speedrunning trick by others.

As discovered by Reddit's hamsterhead64, you can essentially double your base run speed by using a second controller. This might seem like an unbeatable hack, but it does come with a key caveat: you cannot double your speed while riding either Koraidon or Miraidon – Scarlet & Violet’s respective legendary Pokémon that you can mount. This means that your doubled speed, at its peak, might be a bit faster than riding, but not by much, and there’s a key reason why.

This trick only works while holding the control stick at an angle, which the camera will automatically rotate in an attempt to compensate for. This makes it awkward to execute consistently unless you have a third hand free to wrangle the camera while playing.

To execute Scarlet & Violet’s double running speed trick, all you need to do is play with your Switch console in handheld mode, and have a second controller at the ready – this could be a Pro Controller, or simply a left JoyCon. You will need to use both the JoyCon which are attached to the Switch console, in addition to an extra pad. If you hold both control sticks at the same angle while running – for example, pointing both sticks Northeast – you will find your character will start speeding ahead with a great deal of momentum. It works just like that.

This cheeky trick isn’t as useful as it sounds thanks to the aforementioned reasons, but it’s still fun. This will likely get patched out soon, but if you’re looking to speedrun through the sections where you can’t ride a Pokémon, try this method.