Summary
One player managed to beatBaldur’s Gate 3in just over ten minutes, setting an impressive speedrun world record for the game less than two weeks into its release. The footage of their incredible achievement surfaced online just asBaldur’s Gate 3became the highest-rated PC game of all time, with many of its players having yet to even beat Act 1.
Warning! Act 2 and Gale-related spoilers forBaldur’s Gate 3ahead.Larian Studios has long been open about the fact that its latest game also happens to be its most ambitious one to date. More specifically, the Belgian developer previously estimated that a fairlythorough first playthrough ofBaldur’s Gate 3would take at least 75 hours, whereas a completionist one could run up to 200 hours.
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Nevertheless, it turns out that the game can be completed within minutes, so long as the players pick Gale as theirBaldur’s Gate 3origin characterand are willing to engage in some serious shenanigans. Namely, Canada-based speedrunner Mae managed to beat Larian’s massive RPG in 10 minutes and 3 seconds—loading times included—by pretty much jumping through all of its challenges until they reached a location near the end of Act 2 where Gale can choose to blow himself up below the Moonrise Towers by detonating the Netherese Destruction Orb stuck in his chest.
This particular course of action is currently the only known way to legitimately skip the game’s final boss fight and the rest of Act 3, which technically didn’t even start by the time Mae had Gale blow himself up for the good of the realm. As for how they managed this feat, their strategy was to cast Enhance Leap on Gale to triple his jumping distance, quickly recruit Shadowheart, then perform an incessant series of leaps all the way to Act 2. From there, they leveled up for the first time to get a crucial health boost and had their sole companion cast Sanctuary on Gale, protecting him from single-target attacks.
A couple dozen leaps later, Gale found himself in the immediate vicinity of the area where he could make his final stand. Mae then leveled up for the second and final time, learning Misty Step in the process. The Conjuration spell allowed them to teleport past the two bosses guarding the final section of Act 2, detonate Gale, and complete the game. For context, even the most impatient players rushing through the RPG’s main quest normally takeat least 25 hours to beatBaldur’s Gate 3.
Mae now holds the current world record for speedrunning Larian’s hit game, according to third-party tracker Speedrun.net. It remains to be seen how long their time will stand, especially since the largest online speedrunning communities only recently began accepting run submissions forBaldur’s Gate 3. The delay between the RPG’s release and the start of submissions is a standard practice in the speedrunning circles meant to encourage players to enjoy and experiment with new games before they embark on the quest to beat them as quickly as possible.
Baldur’s Gate 3is available now on PC and launches September 6 on PS5, with an Xbox Series X/S port also in development.
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