Saving the Sword Coast in Under Two Weeks: The BGEE In-Game Time Speedrun
jmerry
Member Posts: 3,881
This is a simple challenge: take a character from Candlekeep to defeating Sarevok in as little in-game time as possible. Are you familiar with that little marker on the side of the screen telling you what day it is? We want the numbers there to be as small as possible.
Some basic information to help with the planning:
Time is reported in several ways. The save/load screen reports time since player 1 joined the party, while the in-game marker starts time at 7 AM on day zero. The latter will always appear to be seven hours more than the former, due to this format difference. The save files also record an exact in-game time value, in seconds since midnight of day zero; this can be observed with a save-editing tool.
Time conversions: 6 seconds = 1 round, 50 rounds = 1 hour, 24 hours = 1 day. So that's 300 seconds to an hour, or 7200 to a day.
The minimum total time requirements of required travel and time-advancing events are 304 hours, as follows:
- Prologue and cutscenes: 24 hours. You can spend time freely in Candlekeep; time will advance to 7 AM the next day.
- Travel to the Nashkel mines: 32 hours. Follow the roads here, although you have the option of visiting High Hedge first with no time lost.
- Travel to the bandit camp: 40 hours. Follow the roads all the way to the farm area north of the Friendly Arm, then head east to the camp. You do have to pick up the camp's location from either Tranzig or Deke on the way.
- Travel to the Cloakwood mines: 80 hours.
- Travel to the city of Baldur's Gate: 76 hours.
- Duke Eltan teleports you to Candlekeep: 24 hours.
- Travel to the city of Baldur's Gate: 28 hours.
Of course, you'll also have to spend some time moving through those maps and defeating at least a few foes.
All attempts are welcome here.
Some basic information to help with the planning:
Time is reported in several ways. The save/load screen reports time since player 1 joined the party, while the in-game marker starts time at 7 AM on day zero. The latter will always appear to be seven hours more than the former, due to this format difference. The save files also record an exact in-game time value, in seconds since midnight of day zero; this can be observed with a save-editing tool.
Time conversions: 6 seconds = 1 round, 50 rounds = 1 hour, 24 hours = 1 day. So that's 300 seconds to an hour, or 7200 to a day.
The minimum total time requirements of required travel and time-advancing events are 304 hours, as follows:
- Prologue and cutscenes: 24 hours. You can spend time freely in Candlekeep; time will advance to 7 AM the next day.
- Travel to the Nashkel mines: 32 hours. Follow the roads here, although you have the option of visiting High Hedge first with no time lost.
- Travel to the bandit camp: 40 hours. Follow the roads all the way to the farm area north of the Friendly Arm, then head east to the camp. You do have to pick up the camp's location from either Tranzig or Deke on the way.
- Travel to the Cloakwood mines: 80 hours.
- Travel to the city of Baldur's Gate: 76 hours.
- Duke Eltan teleports you to Candlekeep: 24 hours.
- Travel to the city of Baldur's Gate: 28 hours.
Of course, you'll also have to spend some time moving through those maps and defeating at least a few foes.
All attempts are welcome here.
Post edited by jmerry on
4
Comments
For my second attempt, I started fresh from level 1. No boots of speed. No unlimited supply of invisibility and speed potions. No going past the main campaign's level cap. It worked. And here's the story.
Difficulty and settings: Core rules, no mods, maximum HP off, gore off.
First, my character, a thoroughly min/maxed gnome illusionist/thief. 18s all around in the important stats, dump the two unimportant stats.
His initial 40 points in thieving skills are invested as 35 points in Open Locks and 5 in Find Traps. His initial spells known are Blindness, Friends, and Find Familiar, with Blindness and Find Familiar memorized. The former is useless, but you have to have an illusion spell memorized at character creation.
Once I start playing, the first thing Negi does is summon his familiar.
Well, OK, I have to reload from the start here. On my first try, I asked Chamo to go back in the pack before leaving, and that dumped all of his loot in Negi's inventory. A very important thing to know.
The caveats? First, only the three neutral animal familiars can pick pockets. The ferret is best at it. Second, those items stay only as long as the familiar stays out; they get dumped back to your inventory like everything else when you call the familiar back in. Third, once the familiar gives an item back to you, it can't be pickpocketed again. You can only do this once for any given item.
And since I'm not going to keep Chamo out until my first fight, he's not going to get to use that wand of the heavens. I'll just sell it instead, once I find a place that buys wands.
With the extra from selling that crew's gear, I finish the prologue with 459 XP and 3330 gold. Negi is equipped with a sling, bullets, buckler, and studded leather armor in addition to his staff.
That brings us to the portion of the run in which we have to move fast. But I don't move quite as fast as possible here. Instead, I start by allowing Imoen to join the party, then recruit Montaron and Xzar. Plus, I pick up that diamond.
With that, I start traveling. There's a waylay by dogs on the way to High Hedge, but they're easily evaded. The skeleton that notices me once there, though, is more persistent.
Permidion Stark chases Negi all the way to the edge of the map, but never quite catches up for a chat. And that brings me to Beregost.
Calm down Marl, buy Firebead a book and pester him for more gold, then buy a +1 staff from the smithy. I forgot one other thing I need, but I'll be back through town later anyway.
The way south to Nashkel is quite safe. Just keep to the eastern edge of the maps, and you don't encounter anything. Once in Nashkel, I go all over town - to the western edge for some ankheg plate to sell, to the southern bridge to click through Noober's conversation for the XP, to Oublek and Berrun for a point of rep and a quest, and finally to the manor house to steal an item.
And we're not done, either. The Nashkel carnival is next, for a visit to a certain merchant.
That brings us to the mines. Pick up the wand of frost, identify it with a scroll, and head down. Under the influence of potions of invisibility and speed. I run by all the kobolds, stopping only to disarm traps.
And now, Mulahey. Backstab him.
Incidentally, Mulahey must be killed. The letter required to progress to chapter 3 is on his person, with a "can't steal" flag, and he won't give it up even when charmed.
Since my invisibility was broken when I first stabbed Mulahey, I spend another scroll on the way out. I head back up the way I came, as the lower exit to the mines is considerably farther from Nashkel. The oil of speed lasts all the way to the edge of the surface map.
Back in Nashkel, I turn in the main quest to the mayor. Nimbul is not worth fighting; I have something like a 45% chance of killing him in one hit, but he gets very dangerous if I don't. And I didn't pick up that greenstone ring in the mines (it would have broken invisibility), so there's no reason to visit Joseph's wife. Instead, I just leave and continue to Beregost.
One other thing I should note: even with 18 Con, fatigue should be a problem after a few days. But there's a way to cheat that; saving and loading resets fatigue accumulation, at least if it hasn't reached the point of having a portrait icon. I quick save and quick load practically every map, plus load fully whenever I'm coming up on a fight.
Anyway, we return to Beregost. First, Tranzig.
Second, that thing I forgot earlier. It's in the manor house. Neera's on the way ...
The real prize is inside.
On the way north, I hit a dangerous waylay.
At the Friendly Arm itself, I pick up the Evermemory ring for its 9000 gold value. I'm passing through anyway, and I have some major purchases planned for chapter 5. At the farm to the north, Ajantis briefly joins so he can hold some stuff for later. Hit the east edge of the map (accessible in the southeast corner), and the bandit camp is just eight hours away.
In the camp? I go invisible. I sneak into the main tent.
The trick here is that the group in the main tent only go hostile when Raemon talks to you. And he can't see that chest.
I did have to reload here due to a blunder; the first time through, I made the mistake of unlocking a chest outside and broke invisibility while surrounded by hostile bandits. No, just play it safe.
With that, the Cloakwood opens up. I get waylaid by ettercaps on the first two map transitions - watch out for the trap on their waylay map. That leads to the spider zone - an area that I can't just walk through without special precautions. Invisibility and disarming traps would work, but I don't have enough sources of invisibility to spare. Instead, I go for a potion of freedom.
The remaining two Cloakwood areas are quite safe to walk through. Just head east along the south edge of the map in the druid zone, and south along the west edge of the map in the wyvern zone. There are a couple of wyvern ambushes to dodge, but they're not too scary if you're not actually fighting them.
At the mine, it's invisibility time again. Plus speed. Sneak through everything, disarming the traps in Natasha's corridor. In Davaeorn's area, I add some extra defenses - the potion of absorption from Mulahey's chest, the potion of clarity from Candlekeep, and the (wizard) scroll of Protection from Fire from High Hedge. With those three buffs, I'm safe from Davaeorn's first three offensive spells. Plus the one trap I don't have enough skill to disarm.
Despite Negi's invisibility, Daveaorn still says his piece and goes hostile.
It takes a few more swings to break him open for the loot - some very expensive things to sell. While in the area, I open up some chests (most notable item: a potion of master thievery) and level up from 1/2 to 3/4 (all 50 points to stealth). I use my last invisibility potion to escape, leaving the mine un-flooded.
Davaeorn is the second must-kill enemy in the game. In his case, the chapter trigger is his death, directly.
On the way to the big city, I dodge some more ambushes, turn down Scar's mission, and pick up some temporary party members.
The first order of business in town is shopping. Use my scroll of Friends in Silence's shop, buy four more potions of master thievery, then head over to Sorcerous Sundries to identify, sell, and buy.
I drop off Ajantis and Quayle by the entrance to the Iron Throne building. I don't need them this chapter, after all. Scar takes Negi to Duke Eltan, and he accepts the mission to infiltrate the Iron Throne headquarters.
Which, of course, are handled without a fight. Invisible in, take the documents off the desk, invisible out. Off to Candlekeep, then.
At Candlekeep, Negi heads up to meet Koveras, then turns back around and walks out the front door. Bam. Arrested.
Cutscenes ensue, and he's off to the catacombs. Pick up the scrolls in the first room, then just go through the rest invisibly. No fighting needed, no traps in the way.
That brings us to chapter 7, and the return to the big city. I pick up the party members I left on the road, and bring them to join the other two at the Iron Throne building.
Head into the building, and down through the cellar to the sewers. Sneak past a ghoul (with normal stealth) and take the next passage over to the Undercellar. Now it's Chamo's turn. Let him out, drop everything I don't want him to pickpocket, and keep trying until it works.
Note that Slythe is a skilled pickpocket himself. You need a lot of skill here to avoid getting caught. There's a reason I had Chamo drink so many potions.
With that, I sneak back out and pick up the party. It's time for the one encounter I want them for.
The experience is enough for Ajantis to gain a level, but I ignore it. He's not sticking around anyway. Summon up some meatshields to distract Sarevok, then talk to him once the timer's up so he leaves.
For the final stretch, I leave the party behind again. The thieves' maze is best handled alone, and invisible. The traps are no trouble; they're clearly marked on the walls, and none of the main path traps require more than 50 skill anyway. Negi arrives at the temple of Bhaal without incident.
And now, it's Chamo's turn again. Negi summons some monsters to help, and Chamo gets to work with the wand of paralyzation.
All right, round two. This time, it's all Chamo. Twelve tries for the stun, send in ogres to bash.
A bit of explanation on my Sarevok strategy: he talks once a PC gets in range, and that's what activates his allies. If you stick to summons and a familiar, he won't go hostile unless he's attacked. And the wand of paralyzation doesn't count as an attack unless he fails his save - at which point it's too late for him.
Final game time: 96187. Day 13, hour 8. 13 days, 1 hour, 31 rounds, 1 second since the beginning. Just about nine and a half hours of time spent on the game's maps rather than traveling between the,.
Party kills: Shank, 5 rats, Carbos, 6 illusionary gibberlings, 1 skeleton, Mulahey, Davaeorn, 1 greater doppelganger, Sarevok.
The only encounter in which Negi took damage was the palace battle. He was never subjected to any hostile spell effects that he wasn't fully immune to at the time.
While I reloaded a few times, those were all for strategic blunders rather than poor luck with die rolls. With slight tweaks to improve the strategy (don't stand in the middle of the doppelgangers!), winning this no-reload could be done quite reliably.
After I had limited luck with dispelling arrows and failed to put any of the dopplegangers down with sleep, my final throw of the dice was a potion of firebreath - but Liia died before the second tick of that could take effect.
I arrived there at levels 6/6, day 13 hour 13 with 50 kills to my name.
There's a reason I brought a party to this fight. More actions per round means more chances to neutralize the enemies in time, and makes things immensely easier.
save file says; 12 days 22 hours
it was absolute chaos, and i forget to make screen shots cause i was too caught up in the moment but i remember it all;
so first off, thanks to jmerry, he is correct on the fact that you can screw around in candlekeep for a bit because no matter what happens, when you leave candlekeep it will skip to day 1 hour 7, which actually gives you enough time to rest twice and still be good for time ( although if you spend MORE time than that i don't know if it would go back down, but still, you have enough time to do things )
so i made a human enchanter, STR 18, DEX 18, CON 3, INT 18, WIS 10, CHA 18, chaotic good, using dagger
spells of choice; charm person, sleep and find familiar
so i start of with grabbing gold from firebeard, then keep the identify scroll for myself
then i grab the +1 dagger so i can kill my familiar, now i'm down to 2 CON and 2 HP
rest
kill my familiar again, and now im down to 1 CON and 1 HP, and the beautiful thing about insane difficulty is the double damage, and for some weird reason, it makes you immune to all damage if you have 1 HP
party on
rest, and put both spells to charm person
leave candlekeep
run to imoen and xzar and montaron just for their oils of speed and potions for money in the future, then i dump them
then i continue on the road south ( elminster area, then beregost, then south from there), just running as fast as i can, avoiding everything until i reach the mines ( the only thing i do in nashkiel is pick up the ankheg armor for money later
reach mines grab the wand of frost, use my scroll to identify and the gulp a potion of haste ( because this is the LONGEST walking session you are going to do, you want to get through it quick )
continue through the mines, vroom vroom vroom, run to mulahey, wand of frost him until dead, take expensive goodies, grab charm person, sleep and forgot to grab identify, whoops ( on my first attempt at doing this i realized that my wizard was way to fatigued and couldn't hit squat, so on attempt 2, i made sure to grab that wand of frost )
finish off mulahey and transverse the way out via the way i came in, then skipped right to beregost to talk to tranzig
blasted him once with the wand and then waited for him to finish his spell and then he spilled the beans, then after that, run to eleminster area to go to friendly arm inn, grabbed ring of wizardry for selling purposes, then went north to ankheg area, then east to bandit camp
now this was a complete cluster, holy smokes, so i came in kind of south-ish and when i came into the tent it was a complete cluster of madness, i tried using the lightning bolt trap to my best to take out some baddies but it didn't do much, so then i charmed the holmes that "has no need for people skills" and had him fight some of the baddies, don't know what happened, but someone in the mix died and chapter 4 started, even though there was a billion hostile enemies in there, awesome, so yoink, got the hell out of dodge and went back to the friendly arm inn ( and man, did this take reloads, probably at least 5,6+ and somehow stuff worked out great )
went to friendly arm, then west to cloakwood, while travelling through cloakwood was way layed twice (ugh wasting time ) and took the shortest paths to each area, one area in particular which can slow you down is the spider area with all the web traps, although luckily out of the 3 i had to go through i only got stuck once for 1 round, so i will take it
make my way to the entrance of the cloakwood mines, and that was a bit of a cluster as well, i wanted to save what little charges i had left in my wand so i actually charmed the guy with the boots of speed and made him go in melee with his fist against all the baddies that were around me, luckily he finally fell, stole his booties and morning star and started running top speed for daevaron or however you spell it
made it inside, sprinting full speed with the boots, tried to hit that one mage in that one area ( the one that is surrounded by a bunch of archer types) with a lightning bolt trap but only took out a couple of guys
went down to second last level and apparently half the world went with me, but it was all good because the mage from previously cast a lightning bolt and took almost everyone out clearing the path, party on
rush to holmes on the bottom level and run over some traps in his general area making him take some damage from his own traps ( hahaha gotem ) then just blasted him with the wand of frost until he fell ( only had 1 charge left when he died ) grabbed dope goodies, and then off to friendly arm in
then north to ankheg area then north to bridge area
basically told scar to go pound sand and went into bg the city, first, went straight to sorcererous sundries sold goodies, bought potions of invisibility, and a wand of monster summoning, frost and paralization
then went to iron throne, run upstairs, picked up notes, then went to flaming fist head quarters and told them to pound more sand, and then told them i would do iron throne quest, then nano second later, give them the notes, and off to candlekeep
run to library trying to ignore everyone as much as possible accept for koveras, pick up his ring, then run upstairs to gatewarden to go to jail
get bailed then go to basement
drink potion of invisibility run out of basement/dungeon areas ignoring everything, leave candlekeep
return to center area of BG the city, go up to duchal palace, then go right to blushing mermaid to take out slythe
stay out of range of his partner who kills me in one hit with cloudkill ( whoopsies ) and just wand of frost slythe into oblivion, take letters, off to palace
go into palace, press both enter buttons as quickly as possible and greater dopples come out, use my scroll of sleep from nashkiel mines send 3 or 4 to sleep ( took about 3 or 4 tries ) summoned some monsters from a wand and killed the baddies ( on attempt 2 i put to sleep 5 of them, but the last guy was somehow hasted and running around the place and no one was able to get a shot on him, so i reloaded, don't have to time to waste )
fought with sarevok then get teleported to maze via belt
drink potion of invisibility and speed and run warp speed to sarevok temple again ignoring everything
this one was quite a bit of a cluster as well because i forget to by a potion of magic shielding but after 10+ reloads it was super easy barely an inconvenience, i found out that sarevok is "bigger" than normal sprites so as long as his "whole" sprite isnt showing at the edge of your fog of war you can blast him with some wands of paralization,
so i hit him with that, summoned 5 monsters told them to go to town on sarevok i ran away, then all the baddies aggroed to me and so did all the traps and spells, and they left my monsters alone and then eventually sarevok fell, off screen
good stuff
insane difficulty, double damage, level 1
to make this battle much easier, use your wand of monster summoning before you aggro the baddies ( they can be used as meat shields ) while you blast away with a wand of sleep mulitple times, if need be even if 3 of the dopples are sleeping that is enough for monsters and duchal palace guards to take them down
There are two events that advance time when you leave: one to midnight for the fight cutscene, then one to hour 7 afterward. As long as it's still day zero when you finish with Candlekeep, you're good. 17 hours to work with there. Two rests is just barely within the limit.
If you go past midnight, though - then you're looking at day 2, hour 7.
The palace doppelgangers start with haste (permanent, dispellable) and a cosmetic Blur effect. Unlike the other greater doppelgangers in the game, which don't start with anything but cast Haste and Mirror Image spells.
Obviously, the strategy you used isn't no-reload safe. Even with the enchanter bonus, it's only 35% for a given doppelganger to fail their save against Sleep. You take out two on average, but need more than that to make it work.
Very nice time, though.
if you have some thief in the mix, having some skill with trap setting and drinking some potions of mind focusing to get that dex to 25 and even having 1 trap set can really help in that battle as well
although my goal for the run, is to get from point A to B as fast as possible without ANY unnecessary walking around ( which wastes time ) and trying to get through battles quickly, hence the reason why i didn't grab the invisibility potion in beregost/from jaheira at the friendly arm inn, too much shopping wastes too much time
one thing that caught me by surprise was when i was fighting sarevok at the end semaj got lucky and hit me with a charm person and then i got a game over ( lulz )
and another weird instance i had, was when i was trying to stun sarevok out of the fog of war, and something happened where i either succeeded or failed and some dialog came up and then i just died instantly for no reason, could have been that i was playing so quickly that certain globals weren't getting set fast enough and a game script just killed me off like nothing haha
i think the harder part about a no reload run is;
trying to keep fights as low a time as possible; like davearon for example, if you can hit him with some traps and land a backstab even with his mirror image up, that saves huge time
and if you aren't invisible then the bandit camp tent can be a nightmare with RNG
After leaving Candlekeep I shot Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Then on to High Hedge to buy a potion case and potion of freedom to put in it.
In Beregost Marl was calmed down and Firebead handed over a scroll case. Neera was shot outside her speech range to get the gem bag and a potion of invisibility looted from the nearby manor house.
On the way to Nashkel I picked up some stealthy boots and Mr Colquetle's amulet. On arrival I picked up the ankheg armor, even though I can't use it. Then talked to Noober and looted another invisibility potion. At the Carnival I broke open one of the potion seller's chests and used the fire giant potion to smash the other for better loot - including a 3rd invisibility potion. Also beat up Vitiare.
At the Nashkel Mine Greywolf was in possession of my sword - but not for long. A vicious critical backstab was rather wasted on his near-dead body.
Back in Nashkel I handed over Joseph's ring, got reputation from Oublek and Berrun and backstabbed Nimbul & Neira.
Once more in Beregost I got to level 4 by briefly showing Zhurlong his boots. Mr Colquetle got his amulet back before Tranzig was another backstab victim.
An ogre supplied me with a belt on the way to the FAI. I picked up a couple of rings there on the way to the Bandit Camp.
At the Camp stealthed to Tazok's tent. Grabbed the potion of magic blocking and set off the trap on the chest without Raemon seeing me - taking 32 damage of the 55 I had available then (thanks to exceptionally good HP rolls).
The temple at the FAI fixed me up and I backstabbed Tarnesh and gave Joia back her ring before moving on to the Cloakwood. I used the potion of freedom bought earlier there to get through the web traps. My remaining oil of speed allowed me to pull Drasus away and backstab him pretty quickly before sneaking through the mine. The first of the battle horrors was enough for another level.
I killed Sonner and took the bowl to give to Tenya, then beat up the nearby ankheg before entering Baldur's Gate. Picked up the tome of dexterity, then backstabbed Ramazith to get a better ring.
Slythe got a dispelling arrow then backstabs - despite my fatigue I was still hitting him with a 2 there.
I was almost up to level 7, so shot the Undercity party with exploding arrows to get there.
Finish day 13, hour 14 with 103k XP and 66 kills. Here's my character record on entry to SoD - I'll continue the character there as part of my long-life challenge.
Ground trap fireballs are 10d6. You failed the save and rolled the maximum there - not surprising given how much negative luck you had from fatigue.
Difficulty: Core Rules. Settings: gore off, no maximum HP.
I went with the same starting character build; LN gnome illusionist/thief, 18s in Str/Dex/Con/Cha, proficiency in staff and 2H style, 65 OL and 25 FT.
Loot everything, including the gear from the combat tutorial party with ferret-based smuggling. Then rest, memorizing two instances of Friends. Saves me two scrolls later.
After that rest, leave and start the run in earnest. Pick up the party members and the diamond in the first area, drop them off at the map's edge. On to High Hedge for some shopping, and I do a better job of dodging that skeleton this time. I change up my shopping order here, adding two scrolls of Shield and two potions of explosions - which means I can't afford the wand of sleep. Well, I could, but that would mean I couldn't buy the +1 staff in Beregost.
I actually remember to loot the Beregost manor this time, including the wand of lightning. That will be important later. Marl, Firebead, and buying the +1 staff are the same as before.
South of Beregost, I reach the first major deviation.
Nashkel is lots of running around, so I spend my first oil of speed. Stashed ankheg plate to sell, Noober, southern edge of map, Oublek, Berrun, sell stuff at store, manor, carnival. This time, I loot both chests in the merchant's tent; the smaller one only has gold and fighter potions, but it's not alarmed.
I use my second oil of speed in the mines. Disarm all the traps, bringing me to 2499 XP before facing Mulahey:
Anyway, on to fight Mulahey. Backstab ... 8 damage. the minimum. Then he saves against the first wand shot (13 damage), and calls his minions. 2 more damage, and I would have gone straight to the "surrender" threshold, glitching his dialogue. He goes down in the next round, but the damage is done.
I take that level, scramble to get out, and manage to drink the invisibility potion only after taking an arrow.
And then ... I realize that I've made a mistake. I forgot to loot Mulahey's chest. And that has stuff I absolutely need. And I don't have a spare scroll or potion of invisibility ... reload needed.
Ny save is back before entering the mine, but it doesn't exactly take long to run down. And this time, the Mulahey fight goes much smoother.
Level up (+4 HP, Find Traps to 50), use an invisibility scroll, and head out. I skip Nashkel and Beregost this time, instead heading straight to the road north in another significant deviation from my previous route. It's 20 hours of travel, so the invisibility hasn't even worn off when I get there.
Of course, Negi still needs to find out where the bandit camp is. He'll interrogate Deke for that.
I used a scroll of Shield here for safety, but it wasn't an issue; Deke's crew were all dead before they could even go hostile.
The bandit camp is so trivial that I didn't even mention it in my log. Invisibility in, disarm and loot chest, invisibility out.
In the first Cloakwood area, I just go north. My last run taught me that it doesn't matter which edge you take, so the quick one with minimal threat is best. Just one xvart that needs to be dodged. Then an ettercap waylay, and the spider area comes next. I disarm the first trap and use a potion of freedom to walk through the others - heading slightly west of the ettercap pack works well for avoiding their melee attacks.
The remaining two Cloakwood areas have no monster encounters, but I do have to dodge waylays from spiders and wyverns before reaching the mine. Heading straight north is consistently the best escape route on those Cloakwood waylay maps.
At the mine, I pick another fight. Use my potion of absorption and my last oil of speed, then go meet Drasus (running past the two guards):
Also, as you can see, Kysus came out and got in the way of a couple bolts. As did one of the guards.
This whole battle playing out as it did is dependent on a 2.6 change; lightning bolts can't be dodged now. I would have had to use the wand of frost in 2.5, and that risks running out of charges for the next battle.
Incidentally, if I had slipped up and let Drasus take a swing ... 95% chance of missing. 5% chance of a one-hit kill.
Those kills bring new levels in both of Negi's classes; he rolls the full 5+2 HP, and dumps the skill points into Detect Illusion.
With that, Negi II puts on the boots of speed, drinks a potion of invisibility, and heads in. He adds the fire protection scroll and potion of clarity on the way down to Davaeorn.
With 35% instead of 10% in DI, dispelling the mirror images is much faster this time.
Loot the unguarded chests and shelves, take the level (+5 HP, 25 points to stealth skills), drink the last invisibility potion, and head out. Negi II has a full inventory at this point, but he's scheduled to hit some shops next.
On the way north, I realize there's a pathing change I didn't plan for - I didn't unlock the north edge of the ankheg farm the first time around. Since I have the boots of speed now, it may well be faster this way.
I do stop to have Quayle join briefly, just so he can hold a few weapons I'm not planning to sell.
Shop at Silence and Sorcerous Sundries, picking up plenty of potions, scrolls, and wands. Plus some magic ammo. I use one of those oils of speed now, to speed up the process of opening the relevant parts of the city.
At the Iron Throne, a scroll of invisibility gets me up and nonmagical stealth gets me down. And then I hit one more shop - the potion shop in the southwest sector, for one more each of invisibility and speed.
Then it's straight to Scar and Eltan - hitting the Iron Throne first saves some time.
Chapter 6 is utterly safe and uneventful. Talk to Koveras, head up to the top floor and get arrested, run through the catacombs with invisibility and double speed.
Now, in chapter 7, I gather the party. Imoen, Montaron, Xzar, Ajantis, Quayle. They're all near map edges, so I don't need to run far with any of them. Drop them off outside the Iron Throne, sneak through the basement and sewers to reach the Undercellar.
For Slythe, I follow the same tactic I did before - let Chamo out, have him pickpocket Negi's master thievery potions and drink them, then pickpocket Slythe until I get everything. No fight needed.
And with that, it's off to the palace.
I forgot to disable Xzar's auto-attack, but I don't think that was the problem here. After all, he didn't get around to actually thowing any daggers. Just bad luck, really.
Still, multiple castings of Sleep decimate the enemy. Enough stay up that they manage to chase down Ajantis as well...
Sarevok runs around for a bit failing to reach Negi, and then Belt teleports us to the Thieves' Guild. I dismiss the living members of the party, and Montaron takes Xzar's body with him:
Rather than disarm the traps this time, I just buff for immunity. Potions of absorption and fire resistance, scrolls of fire protection and Shield.
Sarevok saves on Chamo's first wand of paralyzation shot, with a 1 (natural 5). He fails the second save.
Party kills: Shank, 5 rats, Carbos, 6 illusionary gibberlings, 4 hobgoblins, Mulahey, 5 bandits, 1 guard, Drasus, Kysus, Davaeorn, 2 greater doppelgangers, Sarevok. Though that last kill doesn't show up in the final save; it cut off just before the Sarevok kill XP was credited.
I knew this was going to be a better time than my last run ... and then I looked at it. More than three hours better? Wow. The slight pathing differences, and picking up the boots of speed, made a huge difference.
I only needed to reload once, and that was the brain fart of forgetting to loot Mulahey's chest after killing him. The many instances of save/load to dodge fatigue don't count, of course.
If you're just interested in the synopsis, keep reading!
In keeping with tradition, I played on Core Rules, no gore, no max hp. Additionally, no reloads (except quicksaving and immediately quickloading, for Find Familiar inventory management)
Sheet is below, of note my array was decided with the minimum 75pt total roll safeguard in mind. This run is easily doable with these attributes, even without exceptional strength. 57 OL and 8 detect illusion to start, as well as 2 pips in Longsword and Sling. Starting spell was Find Familiar, with Friends in the book as well.
In Candlekeep, I chatted up Firebead and the nobles, ransacked the inn for all its goodies, got the +1 dagger, and did the familiar pickpocket trick to steal all the nice equipment. I redeemed a free healing potion voucher, but didn't bother with the rats, the assassins, or with returning Firebead's scroll (gonna need that Identify for later!). Memorized Friends and pawned off most of the goodies, keeping the plate armor for now. Most importantly, I grabbed Hull's Longsword, but never returned it to the bugger. In a strange cosmic twist of fate, him drinking too much and forgetting his weapon will inadvertently lead to Sarevok's demise.
Chapter 1 Timestamp: Day 1 Hour 7
Leaving Candlekeep, I recruited and immediately looted Imoen, Xzar, and Montaron, grabbing the diamond from the tree. I had Imoen tap the border to High Hedge, and left the zone east to discover Lion's Way. We ventured to High Hedge, where my good new friends bravely body blocked Laney from skeleton daggers. The brave Xzar stood alone against a Skeleton while I prepared to shop. Took off the plate and cast Friends just as the notification came through that he'd been gutted.
Selling most of the gear but keeping a sling, Monty's armor, Hull's Longsword, a shield, a helmet, Firebead's Identify scroll, the oils of speed, and the 4 use wand of magic missiles, I liquidate assets for 4700 ish gold. This nets me 3 potions of explosions, 1 insulation, 3 perceptions, 1 freedom, a potion case to store them in, 2 scrolls of shield, 1 sleep, 3 invisibilities, and 2 blindness scrolls just in case. Less than 10 minutes into the run and Laney's inventory is looking spicy.
Laney struts to Beregost, ditching Imoen and Monty at the zone border. Heading straight south, she sneaks past the Ogrillons and prefires a Sleep onto the Hobgoblin with Zhurlong's Boots. With a quick drive by, she loots and scoots straight down to Nashkel and starts chapter 2.
Chapter 2 Timestamp: Day 2 Hour 11
In Nashkel, we grab the Ankheg plate, head to the Carnival and steal the potions of Fire Giant Strength and Heroism in the tent, drinking a potion of perception to get enough OL to hit the other chest for the fire resist, invulnerability, invisibility, and healing potions. We then head back to Nashkel village. I discovered a rather interesting timesave here that is exclusive to the EE version of the game:
If you travel to Nashkel Mines from Nashkel, it usually takes 4 hours. But, if you get ambushed en route, it will put you in Dorn's introduction cutscene area. Now, if you haven't spoken to Dorn at Friendly Arm, he won't show up here. Instead, you'll be ambushed by 6 hobgoblins. The interesting bit is: The area is located halfway between Nashkel and the Mines, and takes 2 hours to travel to, but due to a muckup on Beamdog's part, it doesn't take any time to travel from that ambush site to Nashkel Mines. Hence, you save 2 hours of in game time. I have a video explaining it properly here
Now, the base rate for this ambush to occur is 20%. I tried playing the game without any modifications, but after failing to find a way to rig the RNG for the ambush, and failing to get ambushed on 27 consecutive attempts at the run, I upped the ambush rate to 99%. I hope you can all forgive meeeee.
Anyways, at Nashkel Mines, we drink an oil of speed, potion of heroism, and that fire giant strength on our way to nab the wand of frost from the tree. Laney uses Firebead's scroll to identify it. We have a chat with the guards and cast a scroll of Invisiblity on ourselves. We walk all the way through, disarming traps on the way, until we get to Mulahey, where we promptly backstab him with Hull's Longsword and then wand of frost him for a quick kill. I kept the wand of magic missiles handy in case he freezes solid, but I got lucky with a perfect kill. Here's a great freeze frame of Laney's backstab with the wand of frost queued up.
Laney loots the potions and gold from the chest, as well as a sleep and web scroll, as well as all the gold and Mulahey's ring and boots. Another cast of invisibility, and she's on her way out of here.
Chapter 3 Timestamp: Day 2, Hour 14
Walking out of the mine's entrance, Laney travels straight to the Lion's Way, her scroll of invisibility still on. She drops a potion of explosions on Deke, immediately murdering the cronies and forcing his confession. After that, she hugs the FAI to get the hidden ring, and travels north to the Fisherman's village. From there it's straight to bandit camp.
At the camp, we chug an oil of speed and an insulation, pop up a scroll of shield just in case, and then sneak into two tents: The one south of the main tent, for that juicy fireball scroll, and then the main one. With the insulation and Mulahey's boots, she has nothing to fear from the lightning bolt, which immediately fries Endar Sai. She grabs the letters and the gauntlets before sneaking out of the tent again. If at any point a sneak failed, she could have used a potion of invisibility, but she got lucky this run.
Chapter 4 Timestamp: Day 4, Hour 7
Laney heads back to FAI and ignores the hobgoblins as she walks straight to the cloakwood. In the spider zone, she drinks her potion of freedom and sneaks past the ettercaps. In the druid zone, she has a psychotic, sleep-deprived conversation with Eldoth where she mistakenly says yes to everything and ends up with a new companion. Moving quickly through the next zone, she hands her new sociopathic soulmate a few potions of explosions and scrolls of sleep and fireball, letting him murder the bridgeguards while she begins the buffing sequence (2 potions of perception, an absorption, and the last oil of speed) With a web onto the four bozos, her and Eldoth make quick work of the mercs, earning Laney a pair of fancy new boots. Speaking of boots, Eldoth is booted from the party after the massacre, but just before the exp drop.
Laney's first and only level up results in all thieving points going into 33pts of detect illusion. With new drip and a scroll of invisibility, Laney charges at mach 5 through the mine, ignoring all enemies and most of the traps. At Davaeorn's room, she disarms the traps she can see and then sits next to the boss while dispelling the mirror images. A backstab from Hull's Longsword and two wands of frost later, and Davey is dead.
Chapter 5 timestamp: Day 7, hour 16.
Laney grabs a few valuables from Davey and then books it to the Gate. Just outside the city, she talks to Quayle, invites him to join, walks 5 feet away, and then changes her mind, leaving him next to the zone border. She gets catcalled by some red robed wizard (never seen him before but he called her a ho?!?!). She stops at the Shop of Silence and at sorcerous sundries, engaging in another mass liquidation, and buying so many scrolls and potions that i'm not even going to bother listing them all. Within the gate, she dips her head into the Iron Throne building and talks with the first person she sees, which is enough to form a bulletproof accusation against the corporation. She also hits zone borders for SW baldur's gate and the palace.
Along the way, she remembers that Xzar's body has been with her the whole time, so she ditches it in the streets (leaving some peasants aghast)
Before she leaves, she follows one of my own personal traditions, and has a chat with my very favorite NPC
One quick chat with Duke Eltan later, and Laney is off to Candlekeep!
Chapter 6 Timestamp: Day 11, hour 20
Chapter 6 is really fast, not much to say about it. Laney drinks an oil of speed from sundries at the start for extra zoomies. She talks to Koveras and receives a very pretty ring, walks outside and immediately get arrested. In the secret library, she casts Shadow Door upon herself and then books it straight out. Chapter 7 starts within less than an hour of Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Timestamp: Day 11, hour 20
Finally ready for revenge, Laney travels straight back to the gate, only being stopped by a bandit ambush (solved with a potion of invisibility heehee). Back in the gate, Laney chugs an oil of speed on her way to the Undercellar, taking the sewer entrance south of the Iron Throne building.
With a quick pickpocketing trick, she smuggles several potions of master thievery onto her ferret, and the two take a moment to buff up before things get too dicey. Familiar chugs 4 potions, Laney starts going through loads of buffing potions and scrolls. Ferret sneaks up to Slythe, nabs the invitations without a fail, and goes straight back into Laney's pack.
Laney heads back to Wyrm's crossing and invites Quayle back in, giving him a wand of sleep and a scroll of haste. Casting a quick haste upon them both, they rush to the palace and get ready for doppelgängers. With some monsters summoned from a wand, the crew malisons the doppelgängers and repeatedly sleep them. With the dukes saved, Quayle is kicked from the party and Laney teleports after the runaway Sarevok.
At the Labyrinth, Laney opens up the map with a scroll of Clairvoyance and then clicks the exit, using appropriate buffs as necessary to ignore enemies and traps. A scroll of invisibility, shield, scroll of fire resist and potion for 100%, and absorption have her off to the races. Clicking the exit rockets her through in no time at all.
She zooms past the last party, entering the temple and dropping her inventory for the ferret to steal once again. This time, he grabs a wand of paralysis and a wand of monster summoning. Laney chugs potions to the side while the ferret does his thing. Luckily, Sarevok fails the first save against the wand of paralysis, leaving him hopeless against the onslaught of Laney's backstabs and the infinite monsters from the wand. Even without the horde of monsters, Laney would have killed Sarevok in exactly 4 backstabs from Hull's Longsword (owing to her awful luck score from the 2 weeks of fatigue she accrued)
Final save time: 12 days and 18 hours. (or, Day 13 hour 1 if going by the in-game clock.)
Elapsed game time: 94044 in-game seconds
11 kills to her name. The hobgoblin with the boots, Mulahey, Deke's boys, some cloakwood bandits, Davaeorn, and a greater doppelgänger or two.
If it wasn't for the 2 hour time save from EE jank, i'd have only beaten jmerry by 2 measley in-game hours, but it's still a neat improvement! Huge thanks to each of you, Grond0, jmerry, and sarevok57! I've been attempting low in-game time runs since 2019, found out that Grond0 started their first run around the same time, and have been silently watching from the sidelines. I was hoping for a more exciting reveal, but with the run more than a year old at this point, I decided to settle for something tamer.
Thanks again! This run has been a blast to route, and opened my eyes to a very exciting way to assess the game! If I have enough patience and free time, I intend to try something similar with Shadows of Amn... but that's a ways off, lol
Details soon to come! Stay tuned!
All right. 😎
Same rules as those before me: core rules, gore off, no max HP on level up, and no reloading saves
Sheet for my character is below. I made Laney into an Elf F/M/T, with pips in Longsword and Sling. I allocated 8 points into detect illusions and the rest into open locks to hit the threshold required to steal the Candlekeep star sapphire. My Int, Wis, and Con are low because I allocated these stats for a 75pt roll.
Candlekeep was pretty simple. I didn't do rats or assassins, but I did most everything else. I made sure to hold on to Hull's Longsword (my backstab weapon of choice) and Tethtoril's scroll of identify. My ferret yoinked all the valuable items off of the tutorial adventurers, and I left town with lots of wands, potions, and some plate armor.
Chapter 1 Timestamp:
Leaving Candlekeep, Laney recruited Imoen, Xzar and Monty, and grabbed the diamond. We unlocked the Lion's Way, but traveled south to High Hedge instead. The companions body blocked for Laney on her way to Thalantyr, with Xzar losing a duel to a Skeleton in the process. At the shop, Laney casted friends and sold off most of the gear in exchange for the tools she'd need for chapters 1-5. Below is a snapshot of her inventory leaving High Hedge.
All of those items but the scrolls of blindness were super necessary for the run. Everything had a use somewhere down the line.
Leaving High Hedge, she ditched Monty and Imoen outside Beregost and left straight south. Sneaking past Ogrillons, she prefired a scroll of sleep onto the hobgoblin with Zhurlong's boots, and made away with them after a quick loot and scoot with her sling. Her first kill after leaving Candlekeep! From there it was straight down to Nashkel.
Chapter 2 Timestamp:
At Nashkel, Laney grabbed the Ankheg plate, and then looted the southmost tent at the Carnival for its potions. She then did a bit of a sneaky timesave:
In the EE version, if you get ambushed on the way to the mines from Nashkel village, you go to Dorn's ambush site. If you never spoke to him at the FAI, you instead get waylaid by 6 hobgoblins. Due to an oversight when programming the zone, you immediately travel to the Nashkel Mine zone from it. What is usually a 4 hour journey now only takes 2! The wonders of modern gaming, on full display:
Anyways, with two hours of in-game time saved, Laney grabbed the wand of frost and then used a scroll of invisibility to sneak up behind Mulahey. With a backstab and a wand of frost, she managed a flawless kill against him, looting some potions, scrolls, and boots.
Chapter 3 Timestamp:
With another scroll of invisibility, Laney travels all the way to the Lion's Way, where she drops a potion of explosions on Deke and the boys, immediately frying 5 of them (7 kills total!) Deke spills the beans, and Laney sneaks into the bandit camp, loots the letters while wearing Mulahey's boots and a potion of insulation (killing Endar Sai with a lightning bolt trap in the process. Not her fault tho! Not her kill either...), beginning chapter 4
Chapter 4 Timestamp:
Cloakwood was a cakewalk. Potion of freedom to get past the ettercap webs in the 2nd zone, recruit Eldoth into the party, and then buff up while Eldoth blasts Drasus and the mercs with scrolls of Web and Fireball. Laney boots Eldoth out of the group just as the EXP drop hits, securing her first and only level for the run: 25 points invested into Detect Illusion, negligible increase in HP.
Speaking of boots, Laney now has the Paws of the Cheetah! With her oils of speed, she flies through the mines at mach 5 and rushes straight to Davaeorn. With two potions of perception, she has just enough Find Traps to disarm everything, and she sees through the mirror image in no time at all. One backstab and two wands of frost later, Laney sends Davey to his locker.
Chapter 5 Timestamp:
Rushing to the gate, Laney crosses the bridge in a fatigue addled stupor! She hasn't slept for more than a week! She talks Quayle into joining the party, and then immediately kicks him out next to the zone border. It's a good thing for Quayle, too, because Laney gets accosted by some old man wearing a red wizard robe who called her a rather rude term. Selling loot and buying potions from the Shop of Silence and Sorcerous Sundries, Laney rushes around the city unlocked all the important areas.
While in a rush to investigate the Iron Throne, Laney realizes she's been hauling Xzar's body around for 10 days. It's starting to stink! She drops it on the ground, much to the dismay of the common folk.
She also takes a moment to have a chat with my favorite, most beloved NPC
Running into the Iron Throne building, Laney chats with a dude on the first floor, and now has a bulletproof case about their schemes! With her one witness testimony, she asserts to Duke Eltan that the Throne is up to no good! She is sent to Candlekeep again, for reasons!
Chapter 6 Timestamp
At Candlekeep, Laney sips some more speedy juice while she walks into the library. Some chap named Koveras gives her a pretty ring! She walks outside and gets arrested, because apparently rings from Amn are illegal in Candlekeep!
In the library below, Laney immediately casts the first scroll she finds on the shelves (Shadow Door) and uses the time it provides to book it out of the secret caves. Back outside, she's finally ready to take revenge!
Chapter 7 Timestamp:
Back to the Gate, she runs into the sewers and unleashes her ferret upon an unsuspecting Slythe. With 4 potions of master thievery, an invitation to the palace is earned! Laney regroups with Quayle, giving him a scroll of haste, a wand of sleep, and a mission. At the palace, Laney summons monsters that Quayle immediately buffs, and then the duo prefire a scroll of Greater Malison at the doppelgängers! With two wands of sleep, the Grand Dukes make short work of the monsters. Quayle and Laney may have picked up a kill or two here, not sure.
Quayle is kicked from the party as Laney is sent to the labyrinth! She applies several buffs and casts Clairvoyance, then naruto runs invisibly to the exit, ignoring the damage from all the traps thanks to scrolls and potions of resistance. She sneaks past the last group of adventurers and into the temple, where she once again unleashes the ferret! Arming him with two sticks: one for stunning and one for summoning, the critter runs forward and lands a paralyze on Sarevok (1st try, was very lucky). Laney and her ferret follow up with several backstabs and lots of ogres, culminating in the ruthless slaughter of a helpless Bhaalspawn!
Even without the ogres, Laney would have killed him in exactly 4 backstabs, thanks to her whopping 22 points of fatigue. After just under two restless weeks, a oil-of-speed addicted Laney avenges the death of Gorion with 11 kills to her name!
Final save time and seconds posted below. I followed jmerry's strategy for the most part, but with the Nashkel ambush skip giving me 2 hours lead and some more measured uses of Oils of speed, Laney was just barely able to scrape by Negi's score, leaving her just 4 more hours faster. I'd be really impressed if someone was to top this!
Thanks for proliferating this run category! I've had a great time with it! I have a fully recorded, single-take run of this as an unlisted youtube video, but I don't know if beamdog forums are happy with low-post accounts posting external links. Huge shoutout to Grond0 for being the first to post about it, and big thanks to Negi for defining an excellent strategy!
Incidentally, I've thought of some things since I did that run. A scroll of Chaos would be very useful in the palace fight - it's a no-save confusion effect because of the doppelgangers' low level. It doesn't make them completely helpless like the wands of Sleep, but it pretty much eliminates the risk of losing.
Yes, I had a really rough time getting the ambush because of that 20%. I was trying to go with a true "no save scum 1-take" experience, and getting to Nashkel took 15 minutes. I did end up altering the ambush rate to 99% because I failed 27 consecutive times (6 hours and 45 minutes of runs that just never went anywhere lol)
Besides that, yeah a lot of time save occured in Beregost and Nashkel, where I just never spent time. I remember jmerry went for the Wand of Lightning Bolts and a shop at Thunderhammer Smithy which I cut altogether (using Eldoth and explosions to kill the Cloakwood mercenaries instead of bolts). We also used oils of speed at different points, with me using them at Nashkel Mine, Bandit Camp, and Cloakwood Mines and you using one somewhere else.
I tried using Chaos, as well as a Resilient Sphere on the dukes, but I ran into two problems: Hasted Doppelgängers running around erratically with Chaos are difficult for the guards to kill, and a Resilient Sphere takes too long to return the person. I think greater malison and multiple wands of sleep firing is the fastest way to go.
There was one thing I used reloads for systematically in my runs: avoiding fatigue. Save and load immediately after entering a new area, and the game loses track of the fatigue you should be accumulating for some reason.
My oil of speed spots: Nashkel and carnival, Nashkel mines, Cloakwood mines. Then buy three more at Sorcerous Sundries; one for chapter 5 in the city, one for chapter 6, one for chapter 7 in the city. So I saved back some of the time I spent running around in Nashkel looting stuff, but at the cost of not getting to save time later running past bandits.
I also went all the way to the top floor of the Iron Throne building and picked up the documents for some hard evidence in chapter 5. No fight there, of course.