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--INTRODUCTION--

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Here we go dudes and dudettes for the next installment of my Baldur's gate 2 speedrun. I am very proud of this achievement because I basically destroyed my old run by a terrific new time. I barely slept for a week because I just kept working and working on one miserable segment as luck manipulation is one enormous pain in the butthole. Finally this would be the end result and that is all thanks to:

• Clone_rizzo - Without his various tricks I wouldn't have been close to a time like this.
• DJGrenola - <3
• Mike Uyama - The coolest and most laid back half-Japanese speedrunner
• Nate - Why do we keep thanking this guy! -_- *Run*
• whathuh - He was my rival
• Bioware - They created the best PC games in history
• Me - Someone has to do it!

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--INFORMATION--

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Game is played on the original D&D rules

--Character--

• Human Sorcerer
• Lawful Neutral

All in

• Intelligence : I need intel because I have a sorcerer and other reasons
• Wisdom : I need a good wisdom for the Limited Wish spell
• Charisma : I need a good charisma for 2 areas in the run

• Level 1
  • Chromatic orb : Won't need because my character will never reach a high level
  • Identify : Won't need
  • Find familiar : I'l need it once
  • Magic missile : Will use it often
  • Protection from evil : Will need it once

• Level 2
  • Invisibility : Very useful
  • Knock : Amazingly I don't recall using it even once
  • Mirror image : Couldn't live without it
  • Luck : Useful to find secret doors faster

• Level 3
  • Melf's minute meteors : I had to use them at two occasions
  • Haste : Couldn't live without it
  • Fireball : I can only remember using it once

• Level 4
  • Minor sequencer : Used it once
  • Polymorph self : The spell that made the difference
  • Stoneskin : Barely used it

• Level 5
  • Cloudkill : Good old cloudkill
  • Monster summoning : I needed summons and this had to do it

• Level 6
  • True sight

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The run is done on the latest patch

This character finishes the game at level 12 alone.

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--SEGMENTS--

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Segment 1:

After creating the character with the above spells I proceed with the game. As you listen to the wonderful cinematic you will also notice the english voices (They do sound better than the french ones). I quickly proceed to the door behind the clay golem at the very beginning and I don't kick Imoen out of the party just yet. You will notice how I teleport myself through the door using the familiar's colision size, a trick found by Clone_rizzo and now performed by me. Using this trick I can easily get to the key and imoen can also use the SOUTH portal to bring me to the next area.

Yoshimo comes by and I invite him to the group as well because I will need his assistance against the pesky mephits. While I destroy the portals with meteors imoen shall grab the nearest gem (sometime it's there sometime it isn't) and use what we in the infitiny engine speedrunning world call the "unsigned integer underflow" (another trick I found from Clone_rizzo but whathuh gave me the idea). Basically it will duplicate gems by thousands and will allow me to sell them for profit. The trick is simple, go in the item screen try to drink a potion and replace it with a gem. Do this twice and the gods will smile to you. Imoen gives me the gem, I kick both of them out and get the hoo-hoo outta there.

Before leaving to the next area I use my gems and buy the following scrolls:

• "symbole death"
• "symbole stun"
• "limited wish"
• "monster summoning" scrolls x3

I still didn't find a reliable strategy against vampires, so decide to go against the puny thiefs. Before Valen comes to see me I need to have pockets full of money (check) and it needs to be night. The rest is self explanatory.

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Segment 2:

Using the Lawful Neutral familiar I can pickpocket the crate from the thief. To stop her from attacking my familiar I try to engage a dialog and cancel it before reaching her. I found the locking trick by myself but it's nothing too hard to discover. I use the locking trick again against Gaelan Bayle to erase him from the realms cleanly.

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Segment 3:

I do the exact same as the old run here to skip Bodhi's rescue quest. A quick "fireball" on the poor halfing allows me to simply get rid of the mission and to get right onto the next one. I use the familiar and the spell "Luck" to find the secret door.

To skip the whole door unlocking and key finding garbage I just go straight to the source, using the the air elemental and the Colision size glitch. If I transform into a mustard jelly I go from a small size to a big one and someone has to make a decision. The game simply decides to bring me to the next available free spot and (since there is a giant elemental behind me) that would be behind the locked gate right in front of my character. Before saving I cast "Protection against evil" to prevent myself from dealing with the demon in the next segment.

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Segment 4:

By casting my own colisions (summons) I can use the same technique to go visit Aran Linvail and his butt-buddies. For this to work you need to create a perfect funnel and it's really not easy. After alot of practice I have been able to achieve near perfection and I was able to teleport myself with ease. The mustard jelly transformation is quite wonderful in term of defense. I am pretty much immute to magic and most weapons in this form. I use limited wish and ask the djinn to make me cast wail of the banshee. Extreme luck manipulation was needed to achieve the first 45 seconds of this segments. I transform back to an ogre and teleport myself behind the door again. If I go from the jelly to the ogre, a weird glitch seem to happen where everytime I get hit or if 30 seconds goes by my colision size will change back from small to big and from big to small in a matter of second. I can't really explain why the game would do that but obviously I found that trick by fluke after trying this segments hundreds of time. With the same trick I go through the first door again and use some kind of weird maneuver to get myself from the bridge to the other side. Using the familiar and the colision size I can teleport myself to the bottom.... Needless to say Luck needs to be one my side. To be able to escape the fireball trap I had to transform back into the ogre for HP and go back to human to use "Haste" and escape this hell.

It's very hard for me to explain everything but I think I covered most of it. I hope you enjoyed this one because I sure didn't.

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Segment 5:

Since I have 18 in Charisma I am able to trick Desharick and go straight to Spellhold. Using the same tricks used in Segment 4 I am able to just skip everything and go directly to the next chapter. Obviously this saved me precious minutes.

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Segment 6:

Because of the patch I am not able to pickpocket the stone from Goldander so I just decided to petrify him. Since I don't get enought experience to cast the "Death" spell and I need it badly in the next segment I only need to buy scrolls from the svirfneblins. With the drow disguise and my high charisma I am able to go straight to the surface.

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Segment 7:

I buy more scrolls:

• "Protection from energy" - I will need it to protect myself against fire
• "Incendiary cloud" - I will need it to make a fire
• "Wail of the banshee" - I will need it to be really loud
• "Shapechange" - I will need it to nuke Sarevock and Irenicus
• "Time stop" - I will need it

Any other scrolls bought are dumb planning mistakes.

Everything else in this segment is self explanatory.

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Segment 8:

I bribe the dragon to give me his cup, I get everything else and get it to mr tree.

Along the way I get a second "Time stop" scroll, an "Absolute Immunity" scroll, and a "Meteor swarm" scroll.

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Segment 9:

I use "Protection from energy", "Stoneskin", "Mirror image", and "Absolute Immunity" to protect myself against my "Incendiary cloud", my "Meteor swarm" and 4 hungry and angry elementals. I used "Wail of the banshee" to kill the fire elementals (Just more luck manipulation). The same technique as the old run (Long ranged "Cloudkills") as been used to defeat the first Irenicus.

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Segment 10:

It's very easy to skip all challenges with dialogs except for Sarevock. I use "Time stop" and "Shapechange" to defeat him. Basically if you get someone's stats to 0 they will die automatically regardless of their hitpoints. The Mind flayer drains intelligence easily once time is stopped. The same strategy is used against Irenicus. However, I needed to cast true sight to be able to target him in "Time stop" mode.

No brain cell is wasted.

*burp*

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--CONCLUSION--

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And there it is... I can't believe I told myself 2 years ago that it was impossible for someone to beat my time. But at least I was the one to crush it, but I don't believe this is the end of it. Alot more tricks can be used in this game and maybe Clone_Rizzo will be the one with his own page here. But for now I am the champion.

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--CONTACT--

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Aim : TehMurdoc
MSN : DAMURDOC AT gmail DOT com
Email : DAMURDOC AT gmail DOT com