Baldur’s Gate 3 speedruns are already down to ten minutes
If you’re encountering videos of a bunny-hopping wizard that detonates himself like a nuclear bomb over the next couple of days, then you’ve just witnessed one surprisingly effective speedrunning technique for Baldur’s Gate 3. While it can easily take you over a hundred hours to finish a single playthrough of the game, speedrunners have already figured out how to skip most of the content that developer Larian Studios has painstakingly handcrafted over the last six years.
At the time of writing, speedruns of Baldur’s Gate 3 are already down to just over ten minutes. One example is the run of Mae, who needed a mere ten minutes and three seconds to reach the credits. You can watch this particular run below:
The key to success for this Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrun is to choose Gale and begin the game with a specific set of skills, such as Jump and Ice Knife. Jump, a Level 1 Transmutation Spell, allows you to triple your jumping distance and sticks around for a duration of ten turns, which equals a minute outside of turn-based mode. This is the skill you need to use to quickly traverse the world. Ice Knife is another important spell you should bring right from the start, as it allows you to kill off early enemies like the imps on the Nautiloid, which you can’t avoid fighting, in a single hit.
You won’t have to fight any other time for the rest of this particular speedrunning route. You just happily hop through the world and make the right dialog choices like picking up Misty Step along the way, ending the game without even reaching Act 3.
This is going to get a bit spoilery below, so if you don’t want to have any story-related information, please refrain from reading on.
Basically, it comes down to Gale accepting the mission from Mystra to kill himself in a magical detonation when the chance reveals itself to get rid of the Absolute. That opportunity comes by below Moonrise Tower in the hidden Mind Flayer Colony, where all the cult leaders meet up in Gale’s presence. Just pick the dialog option to detonate the Netherese Orb embedded inside of Gale and destroy the Absolute there and then. Yes, it’ll kill Gale and the entire party, but that’s a sacrifice any speedrunner must be willing to make. Once you’ve hit that button and the rest of the cutscene played out, it’s mission accomplished.
