Borderlands [2:29:02 by YoukaiDragoon

Edit history:

Linkinito: 2011-05-12 03:05:14 am

2009-11-06 11:55:20 am

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I think Borderlands would be a great game to speedrun. I finished it twice, and it would be cool to see a speedrun of this game.

About the strategy on how to perform it, I can say the levels of the bosses are always the same (the final boss is level 33), using Lilith would be faster (thanks to Phasewalking), and some elemental weapons can be very useful during the playthrough.

However if the level stays low, it will be hard to kill mandatory bosses, and have good weapons that can be usable for low levels. I guess loot manipulation will be the thing to make a good speedrun.

Also we can't go straight to the ending, because the zones are locked until you didn't completed the mission that unlocks the zone. About the average completion time, I guess 3 hours is a minimum. However I can't really record it, because my graphics card is crappy and can barely run the game (i'm at 20 FPS most of the time).

By the way, the jumps in the game are quite high, and I guess some places in the levels can be reached early.

Thread title:

I think Borderlands would be a great game to speedrun. I finished it twice, and it would be cool to see a speedrun of this game.

About the strategy on how to perform it, I can say the levels of the bosses are always the same (the final boss is level 33), using Lilith would be faster (thanks to Phasewalking), and some elemental weapons can be very useful during the playthrough.

However if the level stays low, it will be hard to kill mandatory bosses, and have good weapons that can be usable for low levels. I guess loot manipulation will be the thing to make a good speedrun.

Also we can't go straight to the ending, because the zones are locked until you didn't completed the mission that unlocks the zone. About the average completion time, I guess 3 hours is a minimum. However I can't really record it, because my graphics card is crappy and can barely run the game (i'm at 20 FPS most of the time).

By the way, the jumps in the game are quite high, and I guess some places in the levels can be reached early.

Ghoti

2009-11-06 02:33:31 pm

Currently occupying the grey area.

I'd agree with this, but I have a question. Does the PC version autosave like the PS3 version does? and if that's the case, would you have to set up a system for running segements like Diablo 2?

Linkinito

2009-11-06 03:13:19 pm

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Yeah, there's an autosave feature on PC.

bimanc

2009-11-07 06:20:21 am

Lay waste to everything...but I still love SDA!

I agree on the game, and i'd love to see a run of this. I didn't finished it yet, but here's my opinion: i think the challenges can make the leveling faster, so you should look after a list of them. Sledge's shotgun would be a good weapon to kill bosses, plus a good revolver or a double anarchy could be useful. Are you sure Lilith is the fastest? The vehicle adds a nice speed boost, and has good weapons, so, i don't know. Also, i'm not sure about the jump, i always get stuck, or just can't jump on higher objects.

Linkinito

2009-11-07 10:13:11 am

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Quote from bimanc:

Are you sure Lilith is the fastest?

Yeah, using Phasewalk, you are much faster on foot.

We should take a look on the skill tree: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/lilith/
I guess we should try to go on the Assassin Tree, since there are useful skills:
Slayer (increases critical damage, level 6)
Hit & Run (increases Phasewalk time, level 11)
High Velocity (increases bullet damage and velocity, level 16) or Blackout (reduces Phasewalk cooldown time, level 16)

That should help much better than other trees.

cortez

2009-11-10 09:13:27 am

Stalker!

Saving will be the biggest problem, while running this game since there is just autosave

mcbroiler

2009-11-10 10:27:21 pm

Run, you pigeons. It's Robert Frost!

If you stay away from the save pole (things) there is no autosave.

jp

2009-11-11 01:32:21 am

I have a feeling this will be a rather long run (unless it's a New Game with a level 50 character) since even if you manage to avoid most fights and only kill what is necessary you end up underleveled and unable to do significant damage to necessary enemies/bosses (which in turn slows the game down). Or you level up enough to keep up with the enemies and... slow the game down.

HobocidalManiac

2009-11-11 01:05:21 pm

Quote from mcbroiler:

If you stay away from the save pole (things) there is no autosave.

I think it automatically saves every five minutes and poles are only respawn checkpoints. But I'm not positive on that.

Kibbo

2009-11-11 02:07:16 pm

TIOLET!

Exactly why is the autosave an issue? This is PC, copy-paste save files, problem solved.

Linkinito

2009-11-11 02:43:51 pm

This is my avatar

Quote from Kibbo:

Exactly why is the autosave an issue? This is PC, copy-paste save files, problem solved.

The FPS god has spoken. Grin

Ghoti

2009-11-11 11:28:42 pm

Currently occupying the grey area.

i"m working my way thru this game (very slowly) on PS3 as the soldier, and i'd love to see a run up.

Sledge's shotgun has zero accuracy, so you need to get right in the enemy's face. the weapons caches i think will be far more valuable.

Also just a thought on Mad Mel, if you die while up against him, you don't have re-enter the arena. you can just sit on the ramp leading in and nail him with a rocket launcher, he couln't hit me there. might be more effective than dodging inside the arena.

bimanc

2009-11-12 01:16:04 pm

Lay waste to everything...but I still love SDA!

Quote from Ghoti:

Also just a thought on Mad Mel, if you die while up against him, you don't have re-enter the arena. you can just sit on the ramp leading in and nail him with a rocket launcher, he couln't hit me there. might be more effective than dodging inside the arena.

I did that the same way. Grin

Also, you can farm Skagzilla, because he respawns in every game, after you complete the quest. You can shoot him outside the arena, in a complete safety.

chalmo

2009-11-12 06:38:23 pm

Quote from Ghoti:

Also just a thought on Mad Mel, if you die while up against him, you don't have re-enter the arena. you can just sit on the ramp leading in and nail him with a rocket launcher, he couln't hit me there. might be more effective than dodging inside the arena.

Haha, that's pretty funny, 4 out of 4 people I've spoken to who've played through that part did exactly the same, and so did I.

kn1ves

2009-11-12 07:15:49 pm

rabble

Quote from chalmo:

Quote from Ghoti:

Also just a thought on Mad Mel, if you die while up against him, you don't have re-enter the arena. you can just sit on the ramp leading in and nail him with a rocket launcher, he couln't hit me there. might be more effective than dodging inside the arena.

Haha, that's pretty funny, 4 out of 4 people I've spoken to who've played through that part did exactly the same, and so did I.

i shot him in the face with sledge's shotgun. worked pretty well Tongue

. was using lilith to do it too.

Quote from Kibbo:

Exactly why is the autosave an issue? This is PC, copy-paste save files, problem solved.

more of an annoyance than an issue. having to manage save files outside of games is tedious. probably part of the reason why there is no assassins creed run right now.

whoever takes a crack at this will have to be very dedicated to deal with the constant restarting for random item drop manipulation to get good stuff.

also, something not mentioned yet directly;

Quote from mcbroiler:

If you stay away from the save pole (things) there is no autosave.

death abuse much? staying away from the poles will provide opportunites for deaths to take you back pretty far in some cases i would imagine.

[quote="chalmo"]
[quote="Ghoti"]
[spoiler]Also just a thought on Mad Mel, if you die while up against him, you don't have re-enter the arena. you can just sit on the ramp leading in and nail him with a rocket launcher, he couln't hit me there. might be more effective than dodging inside the arena.[/spoiler]
[/quote]

Haha, that's pretty funny, 4 out of 4 people I've spoken to who've played through that part did exactly the same, and so did I.
[/quote]

i shot him in the face with sledge's shotgun. worked pretty well  :P . was using lilith to do it too.

[quote="Kibbo"]
Exactly why is the autosave an issue? This is PC, copy-paste save files, problem solved.
[/quote]

more of an annoyance than an issue. having to manage save files outside of games is tedious. probably part of the reason why there is no assassins creed run right now.

whoever takes a crack at this will have to be very dedicated to deal with the constant restarting for random item drop manipulation to get good stuff.

also, something not mentioned yet directly;[quote="mcbroiler"]
If you stay away from the save pole (things) there is no autosave.
[/quote]death abuse much? staying away from the poles will provide opportunites for deaths to take you back pretty far in some cases i would imagine.

Stu Rodriguez

2009-11-13 12:51:56 am

I discovered something which maybe could be useful in a run:
During the quest "By the seeds of your pants" you have to collect 8 flowers. After I got a few of them I turned the game off. On the next day I continued playing and all the flowers respawned. I finished the mission without even going to the last flowers.

sshplur

2009-11-13 01:48:36 am

A similar thing happened to me when I was reactivating ECHO. I turned on the same computer thing twice by exiting the map after turning it on, and returned to find it off again.

Sounds like you can abuse this and the auto save for every fetch quest to rape the game clock and segment numbers.

Ghoti

2009-11-13 04:14:57 am

Currently occupying the grey area.

Quote from kn1ves:

death abuse much? staying away from the poles will provide opportunites for deaths to take you back pretty far in some cases i would imagine.

Sometimes (in particular in Sledge's Safehouse) you can't avoid activating them. from memory, you go right past one to get to the mini boss in the arena.

your_name_here

2009-11-13 06:49:35 am

I don't think a run would have much, if any, death abuse. Most of the time saving and reloading will get you where you want to go(to the last new-u).

bimanc

2009-11-13 12:16:54 pm

Lay waste to everything...but I still love SDA!

The game saves many times, like when you get close/enter an area, or finish a quest, etc. It is not possible to skip all the autosaves in the game.

ZenicReverie

2009-11-13 12:43:54 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Why do some many newer games have auto-auto-save? I wish it was a disablable option.

Would SS be out of the question?

your_name_here

2009-11-13 08:22:02 pm

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Would SS be out of the question?

Depends on the runner's sanity.

saTo

2009-11-14 04:14:00 am

The second Arena (in the rust commons west) can be reset by going to THIS corner.
Afterwards you can go outside the entrance and back in to start it again.

sshplur

Edit history:

sshplur: 2009-11-16 07:21:35 pm

2009-11-16 08:33:45 am

Some things I noticed:

-Reload trick: When you reload your gun you normally have to wait for the gun to settle. You can skip this by open and closing the inventory as soon as the gun is reloaded. Not a major skip or anything, but it should help in hugely combat.

-Another thing to keep in mind is grenade jumping and boosting off explosive barrels to get over walls. Grenades are tricky to place, depending on which one you're using. The damage a grenade does doesn't affect the boost, it's always the same.

Long Bow grenades are the easiest to GJ off because they don't bounce and because they blow up, as far as I know, the quickest out of all grenades. I recommend using these or even the Contact grenades to boost directly off of enemies instead of waiting. Try and get these as soon as possible by retrying segments for them to drop, Diablo 2 style (Xbox360 version you just need a memory unit and too much patience).

-The explosive barrels are easy to boost off because they don't explode as soon as you shoot them. So shoot, and then jump. The Jakob gas barrels I wouldn't try to boost off because they take ages to blow up, but this comes down to where they are placed and where you need to go.

-You can also stack explosive boosts. Grenade+barrel, 2 barrels, 3 barrels, etc.

I haven't tested the story quests so I don't know of any short cuts in them.

Some things I noticed:

-Reload trick: When you reload your gun you normally have to wait for the gun to settle. You can skip this by open and closing the inventory as soon as the gun is reloaded. Not a major skip or anything, but it should help in hugely combat.

-Another thing to keep in mind is grenade jumping and boosting off explosive barrels to get over walls. Grenades are tricky to place, depending on which one you're using. The damage a grenade does doesn't affect the boost, it's always the same.

Long Bow grenades are the easiest to GJ off because they don't bounce and because they blow up, as far as I know, the quickest out of all grenades. I recommend using these or even the Contact grenades to boost directly off of enemies instead of waiting. Try and get these as soon as possible by retrying segments for them to drop, Diablo 2 style (Xbox360 version you just need a memory unit and too much patience).

-The explosive barrels are easy to boost off because they don't explode as soon as you shoot them. So shoot, and then jump. The Jakob gas barrels I wouldn't try to boost off because they take ages to blow up, but this comes down to where they are placed and where you need to go.

-You can also stack explosive boosts. Grenade+barrel, 2 barrels, 3 barrels, etc.

I haven't tested the story quests so I don't know of any short cuts in them.

Kibbo

2009-11-16 11:33:29 am

TIOLET!

Quote from jp:

...even if you manage to avoid most fights and only kill what is necessary you end up underleveled and unable to do significant damage to necessary enemies/bosses (which in turn slows the game down). Or you level up enough to keep up with the enemies and... slow the game down.

Yeah, this is something that needs to be sorted out. Going up against enemies that are a few levels higher than you and you deal like 3 damage per hit, and crit for maybe 10 even if you have luck manipulated awesome gear. Lots of testing has to be done whether underleveled actually works for a speedrun or if you have to do a ton of side quests to stay on par with enemy levels.