Username:
B
I
U
S
"
url
img
#
code
sup
sub
font
size
color
smiley
embarassed
thumbsup
happy
Huh?
Angry
Roll Eyes
Undecided
Lips Sealed
Kiss
Cry
Grin
Wink
Tongue
Shocked
Cheesy
Smiley
Sad
1 page
--
--
List results:
Search options:
Use \ before commas in usernames
Edit history:
talli: 2012-03-23 08:47:22 am
talli: 2012-03-22 09:41:20 pm
talli: 2012-03-14 11:54:05 am
talli: 2012-03-13 11:16:03 am
talli: 2012-03-13 11:14:45 am
talli: 2012-03-13 07:51:47 am
Current Fasters 2:33:06 by L0rdy
The game is new but not so new that we can't brainstorm about it.
I completed the game once as Pure sorcery and again as a Finesse/Might hybrid.
One of my chief complaints about the game was how easy it was.
To remedy this I started a speedrun.
The link below shows how the areas scale to your level and it is pretty apparent that it is speedrun-able.
http://amalurfoundry.com/faelands-map

Each class seems to bring something to the table,
Might users are durable and have some great buffs that will increase dmg greatly.
Finesse users have 1hit kill options with their stealth attacks (smoke bomb) which also lets you skip some spawn rooms. Also possesses dmg buffs.
Sorcery users have fixed damage that is less dependent on their gear.

I recommend investing a couple points in merchantile to gain wealth for potions and late game gear other points should be put in Alchemy to make potions (esp fate potions)..
With these recommendations the Almain are the best for Speedrunning as they give 1 point in alchemy and Persuasion (needed for the Nyralim pendant).

I have yet to find a complete list of shops but the ones at the house of Valor sell damage boosting components, Rathir sells some decent components as well while Mel Senshir sells Master dmg reduction potions.

It may be a good idea to manipulate luck until you can get several threads of fate essence of fate for fate pots.

L0rdy pointed out to me to be sure to keep you LVL up while playing. If an enemy is 5 or more lvls about you they will be shown with a red name and will take a huge damage reduction. Most of the lvl windows can be found in the link above, but Ill list a few more I know:
To avoid "red named" enemies you should be lvl...
17 Before the Tower
19 before House of Pride
20 Before House of Vengeance
21 Before Court of Winter

There are a cluster of shrines in norther Ysa which when combined give the player a massive increase in combat power as well as exp boost. Be sure to stop by there before entering dungeons and unlock Ysa as a fast-travel point ASAP.

When fighting it is a good idea to milk the fate from enemies, by this i mean you should try to use your weapons combos combined with skills (like lunge, harpoon etc) because each will give you a little fate per enemy. If done properly you can get a full fate meter in only a few enemies.

Try to play on the PC version. The PC version has better menu and dialogue navigation as well as less load times and lag while selling.

Using Blink can teleport you through doors you have begun opening. this allows you to bypass the wait for the door to open or raise, saving a second or so.

Rolling gives a burst of speed so roll when entering new area or when you can press the action button, this will often cancel out the delay associated with rolling and save a fraction of a second.

Playing on hard modes will decrease exp received by making it harder to kill enemies while in fateshift mode, you may be able to cancel this out by using exp pots or more trips to the Ysa shrines.

So far there has not been a blacksmithing strategy that is worth it but Didenhil sells cheap damaging components while the house of Valor sells better ones (Also I have heard a rumor that the merchant is bugged and always assumes you have maxed merchantile).
Thread title:  
Also know as L0rdy
Hey dude,

I already played around with KoA like a few days after release. Liked the game and decided to route that thing for fun.
I also streamed my progress for a few weeks and was able to beat it so far in around 2:33. (Should be able to go below 2:30 without too much trouble).(There was also a fun Challenge run I did where I could only equip an Iron dagger for the whole game and still beat the game in ~4hours lol)

I tried around with Finess and Might, full Sorcery is just too slow imo tbh.

Detect Hidden, totally not worth it. You dont need money in the game besides from that you can gain with quests.
My last strat did also put much into merchantile, with this it works out pretty well.
Blacksmithing: I used that a lot in my older strats, skipping that now totally, you can craft some really awesome equip which makes killing so much easier but turns out that it is still slower.

As for "threads of fate", hope we talk about the same thing here, it was named "essence of fate" for me.
You want to collect 12 so you can create 3 Fate potions for final boss. Didnt find any other place where it would help you big time, also I create the potions in the very last castle at an alchemist bench inside the castle, so I dont have to loose time by dropping by anything out of the way.

For your problem with lvl 15 and the Sons of laz. You need to be lvl 17 at the tower. You have to make sure to hit that level before else the enemys will have their name colored red and you barely do any dmg to them. That can happen for every Area btw u need to know which lvl you need at certain points in the game.
To archive that make sure you know exactly where to use Fate-Mode in your route, you should be able to just gain the necessary lvlup on the way.

Sadly I cant just put every small information in this thread, but something you should really be aware of is the shrines in Ysa. The buffs you gain from shrines are really extremely useful and Ysa just have all of the possible shrines directly next to each other.
You can check urself they have like: 15% Chance to leech 20 Health/20 Mana, 5% Crit, 25% more dmg with Crit, 20% more dmg overall, 20% more XP, 15% longer shrine duration and I forget something but these buffs are already easily worthit especially the 20 more xp boost and the life/mana leech makes it not necessary to use a single health potion the whole game.

You can catch me on [url]twitch.tv/aphox[/url]. Didnt stream KoA for the last few weeks tho and my last run with 2:33:06 was pretty annoying because all my friends on skype played different games and we had like chat about 4 different games going at the same time :D. Dont really recommend watching that with sound xD. If you want tho I might stream a new run soon hopefully didnt got to rusty in this game : P.
Edit history:
talli: 2012-03-13 11:36:25 am
L0rdy I was playing on hard mode so I got a lot less exp, because the enemies are harder to kill you get less kills while in fateshift which means less exp for you.
I just watched your run it was very impressive, clearly you have a concrete strategy and have memorized the world map.
The execution was well done but you would probably do better without the distractions of Skype =P
One thing I noticed was at 1:36:58 you can roll under the gate before it closes, saves maybe 10 seconds.
Did you ever consider putting some more points into sorcery to have chackram mastery and use solstice  (90 ish attack) which is found where you get the spear of light or Cydan's faeblades (99ish) attack rather than buying the daggers?
I will be updating my 1st post to include some of the tricks I noticed.
Thanks for playing
Edit history:
Aphox: 2012-03-13 12:13:05 pm
Aphox: 2012-03-13 12:12:18 pm
Aphox: 2012-03-13 11:43:42 am
Also know as L0rdy
I dont know why you play on hard tbh, its not really harder in the first place and it only add more health -> slower combat so I would recommend switching. Also I only got into more detail in the beginning, later stages of the game I kind of still play on the go only knowing where to use fate so there might be still optimizations there.

Oh and yes I got distracted from skype ^^ usually we talk more about the game lol... and as I said should be easily done in sub 2:30 I think 2:25 might be possible with just a copy of my strat + really well executed. Feel free to ask stuff if you want to I most likely will run/stream this game from time to time.

Well for the weapon of choice, it is still a leftover from the last strat where I build more gear and got up to 70% crit and just insta killed everything the whole game and daggers seemed to be fastest option to do that because it is the fastest weapon and 1 hitting with the fastest weapon should be fastest way to kill. So my knowledge about weapons is kinda limited to daggers, I still feel tho that daggers are really fast, but it is possible that you can buy/find a better weapon instead.
Edit history:
talli: 2012-03-13 01:26:58 pm
The question arises if you are not buying the prismere dagger at mel Sinshear, what do you do with the credits you have. You could try to buy the dmg potions they have at Mel Sinshear.
Have you considered using the dlc weapons the omniblades would be a good dagger until you reach Rathir, although admittedly you don't fight much on the way. Shepards armors are superior to the leather unless you're depending on the crit boost from finesse gear.
Then again DLC weapons may be considered a different category.

Im still not entirely sold on the idea that blackmithing is too time consuming but until I can find a complete merchants list I am hopeful for smithing. There are lots of money to pay for fateshifting to alchemy late game and Agart is avaliable in several quests.
Edit history:
Aphox: 2012-03-13 01:14:52 pm
Also know as L0rdy
I dont use the crit strat anymore, so I only craft a dagger in the beginning which gives me 55 dmg and dont build or buy anything until I get to the dagger I buy which has 115 dmg. All Crit I will get is from the shrines and the warden destiny later.

Building / getting additional gear has proven to be slower since I tinkered around with a lot of different builds.
If you still insist on playing it on hard it makes a big difference so you could gain time in crafting stuff on hard difficulty. Still I dont get why you would like to speedrun it on that difficulty : P, I can understand in other games where hard is really more challenging but in this game exactly as easy :x.

For potions, its a little bit stupid there are like 1-2 areas where I tried/thought of using potions. However potions really dont last long so it would kind be 1 fight only thing which are only boss fights. The boss in freeing mel senshir was one of my thoughts but still you should be able to kill him with fatemode and wouldnt save time...

I dunno about DLC, I dont use it for now but I doubt it would be different categorie.

What I also want to mention is that I speedrun through the game like around 30 times by now and I had to find out the hard way how much time it wastes if you do just slight detours. I had really great ideas for damage improvement and really nice ways to gain money at certain points, only to find out that you'd be faster with building nothing and just using the iron dagger you got in the tutorial... that was a very funny experience when I did that run.

Anyway let me tell you that it is hard to make up for the time you go out of your way. You loose time (and much time) far faster then you imagine.
Quote from L0rdy:
If you still insist on playing it on hard it makes a big difference so you could gain time in crafting stuff on hard difficulty. Still I dont get why you would like to speedrun it on that difficulty : P, I can understand in other games where hard is really more challenging but in this game exactly as easy :x.

I agree that the potions aren't really going to help as a fateshift will kill almost every boss.
Hard has the standard increase to monster durability and attack power but it also allows for more chaotic combat as more monsters will be allowed to attack at once.
Watching you play through I noticed that there were fewer enemies spawned in certain areas (like the tower where I had so much difficulty which spawns a lot more Ancient Leanashe).

The reason I'm interested in a hard run is that it has a better chance of benefiting from crafting and potions which means better execution and planning will be needed.

I can see why you shy away from hard run as the optimal time will be a segmented mess of luck manipulation of loot and salvaging to get overpowered gear which is a headache to make and less fun to watch.
Also know as L0rdy
I shy away from hard diff because I dont think it adds too much complexity tbh, I agree that crafting could be worth in hard, but I already figured out so much about crafting when to craft etc that this is not shying me at all. Also I dont think you need to luck manipulate too hardcore on hard mode because of crafting. With the stuff I crafted and that amount of crit you can rush through hardmode all the way easily (its not like I never played it on hardmode). In my opinion only thing that changes is that it is slower : P.
I noticed when one is playing as a character with teleport/blink you can pass through some doors faster. If the door requires you to press a button to begin the unlocking (or raising in the case of gates) you can blink through the door saving a second or two for each door.
Also know as L0rdy
Funny, didnt know. I only tested blink for movementspeed and its much slower then dodge-roll so I didnt really consider it.
I doubt it will become really useful if its only for that, not only is it slower in dodge you also need to invest 28 points into sorcery to get the seer destiny and with it blink : /. But still something to keep in mind, maybe at somepoint you can figure out how to pass locked doors with this, that would be fun : P.
Edit history:
talli: 2012-03-14 11:48:28 am
Hmmm, does poison blink come with less sorcery points.
The way that I understand it is that
Running > Rolling > Blinking (teleporting)
But rolling gives a burst of speed and then has a slight delay where inputs are not allowed.
You can use this to quickly get to doors or new areas or loot because pressing the button for opening doors that change the area will begin the loading screen and you will not have to wait the half second of delay rolls have.
This will only make you a fraction of a second faster for each door but after several areas it may add up.

Another idea I though of was pursuing the light spear 1st and getting solstice from the chest (90ish attack) which may be better than the 55 crafted daggers even with dagger mastery, this really only makes sense if you go after the light spear 1st (before the desert).
Edit history:
Aphox: 2012-03-14 11:58:44 am
Also know as L0rdy
Dunno if you watched my run only partially or so, because I go lightspear first, pretty much as fast as you can.

I build the 55dmg dagger right after the first cave I go into because I get the amulett from the green spirit (always forget his name).
From that point on it is faster to build a dagger (tested a lot of different ways). You could try using the solstice (which I grab anyway for money) but you have to consider that skill in fitness tree that gives +30% more dmg with daggers and +10 physical dmg, which basicly means ~81 dmg. The dagger is still much faster weapon and imo easier to make use of.
I wouldnt like to put to much skills in sorcery to get the same boni for the solstice, I found the early point in fitness really useful up to the point where you get the skill with +30% more dmg with crit.

About Rolling, its pretty much the exact same speed then running, it might be slightly slower but I couldnt really pinpoint down if it is since I would never hit the stop button at the exact same speed then I hit it before : P. I can only say that it was equal on the range of a second, only blink was much slower ( ~6 seconds lost on a 10 second long travel rofl). That does include the delay tho, so if there is a really small space to cover which you can reach in 1 or two dodge it is slightly faster.
I looked up the destinies finally and a finesse / sorcery hybrid (arcanist).
if you put points into mark of flame and/or chackram mastery (if you decided to uses solstice)
Arcanist requires 14 in each has poison blink and dread which has potential for speed, although you would lose the + to melee dmg and crit rate from other destinies.
Edit history:
Aphox: 2012-03-15 04:18:56 am
Also know as L0rdy
Well for me its really hard to imagine when you want to put these 14 points into sorcery. I put 4 at the start of the game into sorcery to get the 4-4-4 destiny which gives u -25% item requirements and +1 to all abilitys. And I skill dagger-mastery + the chance on poison with the rest of my skillpoints. Next useful skills in Finess are the +30% dmg with crits ability and possibly smokebomb, you could delay / not skill them if you feel that they are not worth it and go to sorcery at that point.
You would loose Hunter-Destiny at some point and maybe Warden-Destiny depending how it will work out.
As pro I would say you could make potentially use of the solstice this way and add additional point into sorcery to get the +30% +10 dmg for that weapon. Could work out overall, I think I leave the lightspeer with lvl 12-13 if I remember correctly so that should easily do the trick.
Hmm that makes me think about how long we actually would use the solstice, you have to loot some enemys for "essence of fate" anyway so it is more then possible to buy the dagger before you free mel senshir (you have access to the city but cant go outside at that point). So that would leave us with only the desert part / killing the templar where we could profit from the solstice, thats another thing to consider.

I have a little bit free time on my hand right now, if you would like I could stream a run of KoA and you on skype so we could discuss things while I am playing / I can explain in more detail.
Sorry about not responding sooner...

The blinking is easier to get than I had realized you can have 12 might and 12 sorcery for Battlemage, still testing to see how much Blink actually helps for door teleporting/hurts from slower than rolling

Here's the Strategy I've seen you use:
My comments are in () some are suggestions some are just things I noticed you using and wanted to remind myself to do the same thing

YS = Ysa Shrine Visit
JDP = Jump down Point
NSEW = North South East and West
FT = Fast Travel
FS= Fateshift

Reach Gorhart – Lorestone on the way on the way (if using DLC you can get 21 attack Omniblades as well as some shepards armor which is decent for an early game set)
NE to next area (there is an area with a few boggart fight and lorestone you skipped, may be worth the fight for the stone)
SE to discover shieldring keep, follow the path to next area
N a little in next area for stone and JDP and discover Didenhil (cheap dmg components can be found here)
NE on main path to starcamp exit to Haxi and N
Discover St. Edrick and Vorms lodge then SE (another lorestone is skipped in this area before barghest)
S to talk to Nyralim and lorestone in area
FT to Vorms Lodge and N
NE to main path in next area
E thru graveyard to Stone and JDP to discover Ayten
E then NE to lorestone then E
Follow path a small alcove to the N has a lorestone (I often get Ambushed here but I can usually get stone and run)
E to discover helmguardkeep then SW to JDP
S to JDP then E to lorestone and then NE
E to discover tams wagon a little past the town is a lorestone to the N then E
Curve N for next area
N to discover Gloamthicket NE on path to Tirin's Rest and NE to lorestone (I call this the sneaking stone since I can only get it by sneaking and hiding behind it)
S to stone discover Rathir (May be worth the effort to discover mooncamp, Dolve Arne neaby for Exp)
FT to Rathir (FT saves some walking time and puts you further into the town) - inside haed N to customs house and loot red ledger for quest later
At this point you assign skill points to Mercantile, dagger mastery and storm bolt
FT to Ayten and W to Shrine (May want to get the death's touch shrine as well)
FT St eadricks (maybe FT to star camp instead)
Head W kill bogart for shrine
Then W to Haxi Dam (complete dungeon saving FS for Boss the 6k troll)
FT to Nyralim persuade (Make sure you have wayfarer destiny so you have best persuasion chance and for better mercantile)
FT to Vorm's lodge E to Ysa (missed lorestone SE of YSA entrance * be sure to talk to NPC for FT point*)
FT to rathir and sell outside town (Does the outside merchant buy the things you sell for better price)
FT to Rithin and buy components from left shop and craft 55 attack dagger
FT to Shieldring keep and head to Alden's Hut
The SW (may want to discover webwood) follow main path to spider ambush with lorestone nearby
Enter Enttinmere and hed north (another possible discover to the N), continue W discover gnomish expedition lorestone outside Dellach
YS
FT To Dellach, (you use FS before boss at the Enttin/Kobald room, but I was able to build up my FS bar to use in the kobald ambush room and gain another full bar by the time i reached that room [on hard] and have a 3rd FS for the Tuatha attack at the end)
YS
FT to Didenhil (I agree front is the better route) N to Hunter's pit and complete dungeon
FT Ysa and speak to king
YS
FT Ayten then N
Discover Emaire and talk to Alyn Shir
NE to Bargehist then SE to Blogan Troupe for massive FS spawn
NW to new area and W to Stone + JDP then S
SW to lorestone and Tilera  then go to nearby Windstone
YS
FT to Gloamthicket E to Windstone (fighting optional)
FT to tams wagon SE to Windstone
FT Hemguardkeep SW to JDP then S to Windstone
FT to Emaire NE to Winstone (Massive Spawn great time for FS)
YS
FT to Urul Tusk FS before boss vs 3 niskaru (because you get free FS kill against boss)(If points in chakram mastery solstice is a fixed chest on NE in bossroom, this would make a good temporary replacement)
YS
FT Nyralim, exit NE discover Rundamire E to new area
SE (optional lorestone)
W (optional discovery)
Discover mining outpost W
Discover overlook camp
JDP S to Salwell Caverns
YS
FT to Saltwell Caverns (save FS for assassin at the end)
Exit and E to JDP
East to new area middle path NE  follow SE (optional lorestone)
SE to discover Adessa
YS
FT to Adessa and do quests (Rush Octienne bc his HP are reset,  FS midway when 5 spawn appear)
FT to Rathir and do quests go to Mel Sinser
points assigned envenomed edge/blade honing and wasted pts for destinies
Sell and try to buy Electrifying Prismere Daggers and visit YS then begin Seige
afterward buy daggers if you don't already have them the YS
E discover lorestone N to Foes Hearth (can ignore quest)
SE till branch then SW then E taking 1st branch N
Go back and discover Balor's crossing (before crystal)
YS
SE to tyrant then NW to Niskaru for good spawn
NW to new area and S and W to Alfar camp W to crystals (build fate)
E to thresh and Fate then NW to massive spawn
FT Alfar Camp SE to Crystals
FT to Foes hearth
YS
FT Alfars Camp the SW to Odi Camp E to Tower Stone (may be better to dicover Odi camp before YS for the buffs to still be active in the final area in tower)
leave area after tower
YS
FT to Odi Campt then SE follow main path
Discover Castle Ansilla and FS for the Tuatha horde
Main path to Sinsear and loretone and Fight Dren
YS
Enter dungeon and FS before boss (1 bolgan many tuatha)
Exit and follow main path for the rest of the game
discover moon ridge (cant recall the name)
(nearby optional discovery)
Discover Araid Camp
(May want to YS after discovery)
FS for P.Troll and good spawn
(optional  lorestone nearby)
Discover Ashmore
YS (may not need it gotten earlier)
(Optional lorestone)
Reach lv 20 before House of Vengence complete dungeon
YS
Make Fate Pots in Dungeon
Reach 21 before Baile, Discover baile
YS
Final Dungeon and boss
Dont Kill Gadflow's Illusions
Also know as L0rdy
A few comments from my side, you mentioned in your comments a lot that I skiping stuff for xp. I kinda want to explain why I do that, its sad to because there are so many thing I just learned from experience and could provide you with far more information if I just stream once and you watch / maybe skype with me if you want and explain as things come up : P.

So after running this game for a few times I am aware of how much xp I need at certain points and I am aware that the xp I get is enough. So I got more and more bolt in skipping certain lorestones/enemys if I think it would be faster. So that is most likely what you saw and you couldnt figure out the real reason behind it, its kinda only experience on how much xp I need/want.

The Lorestone after Ayten you mention you get backstaped a lot. You just need to copy how I walk there, you take 2 stairs down walk down to a different stair a little further away. Not taking the stairs further away from start is because it would spawn assasins, so you avoid that and wont get backstabbed at all.

After FT to Rathir imo its not worth discovering mooncamp at all, I dont need the xp, you will actually notice that in the cave after rathir I start to skip enemys because I exchange xp for time, I only do that since like the last 3-4 trys also the magic attack to gain additional fate is pretty new use of mine. A big thing is also that you can do a full combo with daggers and when the combo is finished you usually have a big delay before you can do anything else (dodge/move/attack again) however for some reason you can cancel that delay with magic, so it is double useful give far more dps this way as well.

The Fateshift at the end of Dellach you mentioned. Yes indeed in my first playthroughs I also used one there, got rid of it to save time Cheesy not necessary! Instead skip a few enemys and have Fate up for the 2-3 ogres after the last fight.

Oh Hunters-Pit after I FT to Didenhil, btw there is something I didnt test 100% yes, depending of the dialog with the fateweaver (man I am bad with names) there are 2 different entrences he will walk you to, am not 100% sure which one is faster tbh. I tried both but didnt really timed it in a serious manner.

And now that I think about it, the YS travels please dont set these in stone, as said I kinda only have though about the beginning in more detail. At that point I am doing things just from experience and hope I dont forget the shrines, but there might be 1-2 Ysa trips you could get rid of or time them better.

After Emaire, when I use Fatemode its so random what kind of enemy spawn you get... so you need to make sure to compensate at some place if you have bad spawns, little bit randomness there.

I use Emaire Windstone last because there are moster spawns all over that place any you can just create a good fademode this way, with the already good monster spawn from last windstone fight.

Saltwell Caverns, dunno there isnt really a good point to use fatemode for xp, thats why I use it at the assasins, if you kill the first wave in fatemode the whole new wave respawns at once on the same point which makes you hit all of them very often.

A little comment to the fight with Octienne (man I wouldnt have remembered that name in years u much better with names), the time I use fatemode I dont know how those assasins give you so much xp :x, it usually a really decent amount dunno why they give you so decent xp at this time ^^.

Oh damn is it in this run that I forget to go to the waypoint below and have to travel to the camp again? xD, yeah sorry that didnt happen for so long that was just missplayed by me. I usually go to the Odi Campt after I killed the cristal, because its faster anyway, less time to travel then from the Alfar Camp... all my other runs on twitch should have that route : P.

You have to keep in mind that you need to be lvl 19 after the dungeon after Dren ( I think its house of pride or something? ).
That should be your goal, from that point on, it is really really easy to get lvl 20 before castle and lvl 21 before Gadflow, so you just want to focus on what to skip instead on what to kill : P.

Hope these comments helped.
Edit history:
talli: 2012-03-23 06:36:08 am
Sorry for the absence,
I've spent the last few days speedrunning the game, trying different strategies and playing the new DLC (Legend of Dead Kel).
I didnt mean to sound so ignorant about you skipping lorestones. I was playing on hard and needed to make up some of the lost xp so I made note of them, not so much  to criticize you just to tweak your strat to work with a hard-mode run.
From my testing I have reached some conclusions;

Teleporting through doors is neat but almost certainly not worth the loss in ability points required to obtain as the dmg buffs provided by Finesse and Might will more than make up for the time lost waiting at doors.

Blacksmithing is not worth it. Until you pass Mel Sinshear, money is scarce and finding the money need to craft is going to cost more time than it is worth. But if you do craft it is probably best to craft for crit dmg/chance on your armor as you weapon is sufficiently powerful as elec prismere daggers.

Speaking of money, you can (if you have the dlc) get a few thousand quickly by accepting the quest at the bar, easily faster than finding the red ledger.

The house of valor (DLC) may offers an insane amount of exp and can be completed in 15 mins. The gear it offers up are good for might/finesse players. I am unsure if it is worth the effort but it is worth consideration. The weapon offered upon completion gives 20% bonus physical dmg and piercing dmg, great 2nd wepon to support the daggers. And the 5% dmg and 5% dmg reduction isnt bad either (twist of fate card).

Playing on hard is a bad idea. as L0rdy pointed out (ad nauseum) hard makes the fights take a little longer. The time it takes means less kills in FS mode and thus less exp which must be made up elsewhere adding further to the playtime. The strategies are still going to work for the most part, so I would argue that there shouldnt even be different categories for difficulty.

Below are some general stategies i use. 99% of it comes from L0rdy's run.
The way I apply ability points are put 2 points into blocking (might) to use the shepards gear (dlc) then i get dagger mastery up to 6 (finesse) because daggers are great 1v1 weapons. I put 3 points in elect bolt for the stunning and so I can use the wayfarer destiny (more mercantile and -equip requirement costs). Finally I climb the finesse tree assigning points to envenomed edge and wasting points until I can get blade honing and 1 point in smoke bomb. Afterward I switch to the might tree and put points into the passive buffs that increase my durability/dmg to stunned. I have gotten enough xp for relentless assault before but I dint notice a large increase in my combat power from it.

As for skills I put points in mercantile until I cant put in anymore then I switch to alchemy. Once I buy the prismere elec daggers I stop with mercantile and only assign points to alchemy.

The weapons I use are the omniblades and twinned souls (dlc weapons with 22 and 27 att respectively) until I get Nyralims pendant which is sold to forge flame daggers from Rathir (55 attack). I use Twinned souls until I get solstice (99 attack). The dagger master makes it so that the daggers still do about the same dmg even with lower attack stats. I keep these until I buy the 73k prismere elc daggers from Mel Sinshear.
I am still a fan of chakrams because despite how difficult they are to use, they are far better at fighting groups of enemies and while in FS mode I have better luck making kills with them (bc daggers too often auto-target the already dead enemies) also the game gives you a great one in Solstice/Twinned Souls)

The dead kel DLC is not a good speedrunning option. Aside from the money for accepting the quest, everything takes a lot of time to accomplish. One thing I noted is an increase in fixed loot, for example you always get the leviathan carapace from the beach. 
Also know as L0rdy
Sounds good so far, hope I can convince you at some point to switch from hardmode tho xD so I can have someone to compete with (far more interesting). The money quest in the new DLC I dont know you said it would be faster then the red ledger, but you dont get money fort that quest its only purpose is to give you XP and hit lvl 5 before the cave : P.
I still havent touched the game for weeks but I am pretty sure I will run it a few times again in the near future.
For using Solstice I think thats just preference at this point I fought so much with daggers that I dont have to much trouble with targeting etc I am feeling very comfortable which I do not have with the chacrams : P so I would still continue using the daggers, but since the do about the same dmg I doubt its a big difference either way.
Hello there.

I know this thread is very, very old, and this game isn't played anymore, but whatever. As easy as he is, I think there's great possibilites about speedrunning this game, and also about some bingo cards. If anyone keeps playing that game, could he contact me @ -> yassine.badache@gmail.com ? I'd like to submit a run to the SDA that beat 2:30:00 but I need some help & hard work, especially since I'm a student.


Thanks mates.
PS: I'm a new speedrunner, I actually never speedrunn'd any game, so that's why I ask for some early help about routing, etc etc.
Thanks again !
Truljin @ Twitch
Been interested in this game for a while and would like to know if the previously mentioned route is the one that is still optimal?
Edit history:
Ginzuishou: 2014-07-23 11:13:59 am
Same I've been wanting to run this for a while now. Just wondering if anyone is even running this or if anyone has been doing any routing on it since it looks like Aphox/L0rdy seems to have given up on this over 2 years ago.

Being that it's the only route posted, I'd assume it's where to start. I've watched the vod of Aphox's run a few times and that's where any new routing I will do will stem from.
Also know as L0rdy
Good luck @Ginzu, yeah I have given up on this game a long time ago and dont plan to pick it up again.

I hope you watched the right VOD I think the best time I recorded was 2:33:06, altho if you say you watched it a few times I am sorry for the retarded skype conversation I had in that VOD hahaha.

If you have further questions to the run you can just PM me, I think I still remember a few things ^^.
Yeah I watched the 2:33:06 a few times, the skype call was interesting =P

I plan on working on some routing in the next little while, next couple of weeks, while I wait for my capture "device" to arrive and then start streaming it.

The only question I really have to ask is, since I have seen that no one is running this or has even touched it since you last did it, am I correct in assuming your PB is the WR?
Also know as L0rdy
As far as I know this is WR. I am kinda sad about the VOD, because I dont really explain much anymore. I was already burned out of the game at that time, so it is much harder to pick up the reasons why I do certain things in the run.
But as I said if there is anything that doesnt make sense to you, just PM me and I try to explain from what I remember.