Baldur's Gate 3's champion speedrunner just smashed two world records in as many days through the power of friendly fire, invisible bears, and throwing a guy off a bridge

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(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Even after a standout AGDQ showing, prolific Baldur's Gate 3 speedrunner Mae shows no signs of pumping the brakes any time soon. Building on the strategies shown off at AGDQ, the runner brought BG3's all-acts world record under 20 minutes before zipping through the megahard permadeath Honour mode in 21:17 for another world record the very next day.

I didn't notice any new strategies on display in these two runs, just a faster, cleaner implementation. Indeed, there are some maneuvers from the two-act any% run that remain crucial here. Max Strength with magically enhanced leaps allow Mae to moon jump past encounters, while killing companions and stuffing them into boxes or other characters' inventories seems to be the Divinity Engine's kryptonite, enabling all kinds of skips and mischief.

The real highlight vs. the any% run, for my money, is how Mae deals with the main villains of the game. We start off strong with Shadowbear, a polymorphed, invisible Shadowheart who repeatedly jumps on top of act 2's boss to deal a ton of crushing damage (see also: Owlbear orbital strike). Staying invisible means Shadowbear can keep jumping back and forth in real time while the boss is stuck in turn-based mode, a hilarious abuse of the split between BG3's combat and exploration.

Tunneling into Orin the Red's pocket dimension developer room by getting reverse-pickpocketed in there is inspired, but my favorite moment has to be the fate of Lord Enver Gortash. While invisible once again (so as not to trigger a lengthy cutscene) Mae picks up the would-be tyrant in his throne room, carrying a good 200 yards to the drawbridge of his castle to unceremoniously chuck him in the moat for an instant kill.

There could very well be further improvements to be made to the all acts record as well: a good two thirds of these runs are spent in act 3, and I can only guess what optimizations remain to be found. In the meantime, you can check out a back catalogue of great speedruns and stay abreast of future updates via Mae's YouTube channel.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.