Shortest amount of game time to beat IWD2?

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I don't really pay attention to game time at all, but I'm sure some of you do. What's the fastest anyone has beaten the game? In both Normal and HoF modes?

I'd guess under 15-20 days for normal, and same for HoF?

 

I've never done it in less than 150 days so I'm way out of contention.

 

I usually finish the game (normal mode) with between 30-45 days, doing all side quests. Minimum I think was in 28 days, but I waited quite some time for Oswald to finish 2 full plates and loads of hats and scarfs.

 

Obviously Windrunnder runs through the game and doesn't sotp to smell the roses.

 

Insane! I use up 20 days just getting to Shaengarne.

 

You're telling me HB ... HOW do you do it so quickly! You probably don't rest much ey?

 

LoL, sorry if you guys misunderstood me, but I meant to say that I don't care about game time at all, which means that with a 6-person party, it usually takes me 500+ days, and with a solo guy, it took me over 1300 days!

I said I was *guessing* that the record would be around 15-20 days, or even less, not that I've ever even come close. Has anyone purposefully done a speed run through IWD2?

 

No, but I usually play as far as possible and lvl-squatt as much as possible to make the game a bit more challenging. The only problem is that when I level up someone he usually becomes too powerful, but with a party of 6 they all have their chance to show them selves at some time. (For example I lvl up my deep gnome decoy before the slaughter of the duergars at the outpost)

 

In "real" time, it usually takes me about 2-3 months - I usually take a few days break at certain parts of the game.

My best in "game" time is currently 51 days, with a 2-character party in normal mode. Until I met the guardian, I was at about 28 days - after that I pretty much gave up trying to complete the game reasonably quickly.
I personally think that the time was still pretty decent, considering I used no Haste spells.

 

That is something I´ll love to try!!
A "run like hell" game mode!
Anyway,just a Q: That includes beating the Battle square "straigth"(no Ease of use)?

 

In a true speed race, I don't think you would do BattleSquares as it is not essential to getting to the end.

 

Yea, this means beating the game straight, no Mods to skip things. However, I think it would be reasonable to use Infinite Stacking mod, and Bug Fixes mod.

Oh, and for Heart of Fury mode, I think your characters should start at most at level 20, with only the items and boosts (i.e. after killing Guardian) that can be gotten from 1 play-through. 6 guys all starting at level 30 with 10+ Guardian boosts would be a bit unfair, methinks

So, the only person who's piped up with an actual time is Da Rock, at 51 days, with a duo in normal mode.

I won't bother posting my times since they're all in excess of 300 days

 

HoF mode is too easy for characters over level 20. I'd rather start with the standard level 16-17 characters that have finished normal mode. The other problem with having characters too high when they start HoF is that you run out levels too quickly, making XP pointless and therefore it all becomes less fun.

 

Yeah, but for the purposes of speed contests, I think level 20 is a fair compromise, since some guys will have completed normal mode with 1-3 characters and could reach quite high levels in normal mode with a bit of squatting. 16-17 for no squatting and mule, up to 30 with tons of squatting and/or muling.

Level 20 sound like a decent middle ground?

 

ok, checked it up. Almost 29 days in the last save right before the final battle with a six man party consisting of:
DG rogue1/monk1/pal2/fighter1/wiz X
Dwarf clericx/fighter1
half-Orc druidx/barb1
aasimar sorcx
drow rogue1/wizx
human bard11/some squatted lvls that were supposed to become sorc-lvls.

A bard and a decoy shortens the gaming time quite much since the bard-lvl 11 song usually gives more HP to the decoy that he loose from the 20:s the enemies sometime hit. this gives the decoy the possibility to save mirror images and use them only in the thoughest fights. This also makes the cleric and the druid less important as healers.

 

Sweet. 29 days without even trying to speed run it. Do you think a lot of time could have been shaved still or was that pretty close to optimal?

 

Some time could of course be shaved. I didn't complete battlesquare that time but I think I only rested one time in the ice temple part, so I had to wait a long time for Oswald to finish his stuff (about 2 days). I also made almost every possible quest.

The drow rogue-wiz could be exchanged for something more effective (maybe another cleric for more healing and attack power).
I also used only a minimum of healing potions (ending up with over a hundred potions in inventory).

By squatting all but the sorc and maybe the cleric and only lvl up the bard when he reaches lvl11 would give access to the song earlier and also some healing for hard battles (almost all low-lvl buff-spells should be converted so that you almost never have to rest and by singing the luck-song (might be worth lvl-ing up the bard then) gives quite good healing and no need to rest.

Use spells only at the difficult battles and then try to lure the enemies to the decoy, change to the luck-song (to make natural 1:s impossible) and blast away. Use mirror images on the decoy only when he's about to die.
Rest only when everyone is about to die and the next encounter is really powerful (some more resting may be needed at low-lvls.) When the bard has reached lvl 11 you actually gain HP by meeting low-lvl encounters.

Buy loads of healing potions so that you never need to rest. The only limiting factors would then be the few super-hard battles where you really need mirror images. In my last play through I also had a DG rogue1/wiz as backup decoy when the other was out of mirror images and I had a difficult fight before me.

All this would make it possible to reach maybe around 15-20 days (most of them being travels between maps, therefore these must be minimized).

It would be fun to play through this way, but I would probably become boored before finishing the game.

 

There are several "time drains" in the game:

- Traveling on the overland map. Haven't added it up, but I bet it is at least a week. There is little you can do about this. Never backtrack unless required (Fell Wood, etc), and definitely don't do sidequests if they require time-consuming travel.

- Walking across maps. Not that much time. If you like, give everybody the Dash feat, which will help you in combat too.

- Combat. The faster you kill the monsters, the better. But if you spend lots of blasting spells, you'll have to rest more often. Not sure where the balance is. Definitely need to get good with using tank or summons to attract monsters, because if your archers and spellcasters spend half the battle running in circles trying to survive, it will last twice as long... You can cast invisibility sphere to just walk past certain battles, but that will temporarily slow your level gains.

- Resting. The more casters you have, the less often you'll need to rest. Or you could go with a high-AC melee party, with few casters, using spells only to heal the occasional wound. I prefer the caster-heavy party, though. This is yet another area where sorcs surpass wizards, because they don't need to rest to get spells the first time. For any party, healing potions and NPCs are your friends.

- Inventory. Pause the game before messing with inventory.

 

Yes, if you don't have any healing spells, you're doomed because you'll use up 20 days just clearing the goblins from the Targos Docks.

 

I wonder how long it would take to speedrun it. Icewind dale was done in 58 minutes or so. BG1&2 are also done quite quick on speedruns.