Torchlight 2

2012-10-04 08:18:45 am

Welcome HELL

Picked up this game on a whim the other day and have been having a blast with it, but I kept unintentionally finding some small exploits that I figured making a speedrun could be interesting.

So far I've casually beaten it with an Embermage on casual in 2h 49m time played. Finished on level 22 after handing in the quest.

Stuff I've found that may be useful in a speedrun:
-You can skip Bloatfang fight by getting pushed through the door
-You can skip War Titan by getting pushed through the door
(You can probably also skip the Grizzled Alpha by getting pushed through the door, but I didn't check if this works yet.)
-You can essentially skip a level in the broken mines by opening a portal before fighting the Alchemist and then going to town with the waypoint after the fight and back to the portal on floor 3, this will move you to the down stairs on floor 5 for some reason, I tested it 3 times on different characters and it worked every time.
-You can attack the final boss from the ledge where the teleporter is, but I'm unsure if this is a viable strategy in a good speedrun(due to dying required to get back up on the ledge).

I'm really clueless as to what character and build is actually fastest/most overpowered and where to level up efficiently though, but I figure that a segmented run would probably potentially be really fast due to the high chance of useful items dropping. Getting strong summoning spells for you or your pet in the Forsaken Vaults should be pretty easy too in a segmented run. Looking forward to seeing how fast this game can be beaten.

Thread title:

Picked up this game on a whim the other day and have been having a blast with it, but I kept unintentionally finding some small exploits that I figured making a speedrun could be interesting.

So far I've casually beaten it with an Embermage on casual in 2h 49m time played. Finished on level 22 after handing in the quest.

Stuff I've found that may be useful in a speedrun:
-You can skip Bloatfang fight by getting pushed through the door
-You can skip War Titan by getting pushed through the door
(You can probably also skip the Grizzled Alpha by getting pushed through the door, but I didn't check if this works yet.)
-You can essentially skip a level in the broken mines by opening a portal before fighting the Alchemist and then going to town with the waypoint after the fight and back to the portal on floor 3, this will move you to the down stairs on floor 5 for some reason, I tested it 3 times on different characters and it worked every time.
-You can attack the final boss from the ledge where the teleporter is, but I'm unsure if this is a viable strategy in a good speedrun(due to dying required to get back up on the ledge).

I'm really clueless as to what character and build is actually fastest/most overpowered and where to level up efficiently though, but I figure that a segmented run would probably potentially be really fast due to the high chance of useful items dropping. Getting strong summoning spells for you or your pet in the Forsaken Vaults should be pretty easy too in a segmented run. Looking forward to seeing how fast this game can be beaten.

Freezard

2012-10-04 08:23:50 am

Wow that's a short game. Sounds like some cool glitches, but I figure they will all be fixed really soon so to speedrun you should disable auto updates (it's Steam only isn't it?).

ARF

2012-10-04 08:39:10 am

Welcome HELL

Playing normally you would end up around level 50 by the end of the game Smiley

Got my game from Runic Games directly, but I'll probably be subjected to auto updates anyway. I'll try making a backup just in case.

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-04 08:40:20 am

Pac is Back

When you say you casually beat it in under 3 hours, you don't mean your first playthrough do you? That sounds insanely short if so, but I've only tried the harder difficulties. What do you mean by getting pushed through the door?

ARF

2012-10-04 09:07:35 am

Welcome HELL

No, I mean a casual speedrun, during my first playthrough I explored every cave and read the quests etc.

Here's a video of the bloatfang skip

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-04 10:14:07 am

Pac is Back

Oh wow, interesting trick.

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-04 11:08:02 am

Pac is Back

Any thoughts at all for ideal class? I've only played a mage so far - 24 on normal and 29 on vet. Plan on probably finishing elite before I start any kind of speedrun testing.

TheVoid

Edit history:

TheVoid: 2012-10-04 11:22:18 am

TheVoid: 2012-10-04 11:20:48 am

2012-10-04 11:20:11 am

A berserker (Or was it "Berzerker"? I forgot Smiley

) can have quite a speed boost with full frenzy (Or was it the Rampage skill? Or both?). That's probably handy. Combining it with Haste as well Tongue

Cool door clip trick Smiley

Dragondarch

2012-10-04 01:31:05 pm

Pudding%

Wouldn't each class be a separate category anyway?

ARF

2012-10-04 01:49:00 pm

Welcome HELL

I like Embermage's teleport, it can actually move you through some things when there's pathing available that the other classes mobility skills can't. Maybe there's even some exploits to do with that.

Finished another run with the Embermage just now, placing the heart into the clockwork core at 2h 15m 45s going by the time played. Sub 2h in a single segment run looks very promising.

Apparently you can also hit the Alchemist on his final phase from the teleporter platform.

UraniumAnchor

2012-10-04 01:56:14 pm

Not a walrus

Quote from Dragondarch:

Wouldn't each class be a separate category anyway?

Yes. Unless you can switch midgame or something silly like that.

ARF

2012-10-05 07:24:58 pm

Welcome HELL

Did another attempt with the Embermage tonight, with the new patch. Used wsplit this time to see how different that ends up compared to in game time.

Some things to note about the new patch:
Skipping War Titan seemed to be fixed, but I'm not 100% sure, maybe I just screwed it up really badly. Cost me a minute or so from just trying it though.
Shooting the final boss from the platform is no longer possible (probably cost me like 5 minutes compared to what it would have been in the previous patch).

Anyway, placed the heart into the core at 2:15:34 on the vsplit and at 2:07:10 time played in game.
My strategy for the game right now:

Pick up the quest and try reaching level 3 in the first area before going into town, but don't go out of your way to find mobs, put all attribute points into focus. When getting into town for the first time I turn the quest in (check for something like +% to all damage as the reward) and pick up the warbeast quest, buy waypoint portals if possible, otherwise wait until after Grell. Respec the magma spear and put one skill in prismatic bolt and the rest in charge mastery. Fight mobs and do the quests on the path of the honored dead, open chests, pick up items for gold, check items for mana/sec regen or focus stats for own use. Proceed to the Temple Steppes and kill mobs, finish the warbeast armory, try reaching level 7 at least before going for the guardian quest. In the dungeon, kill mobs try reaching level 9 before fighting Grell. (I didn't quite make it and I don't want to backtrack so I just went ahead anyway). Hope for the caster helmet drop from Grell, and anything else good for embermage pick up gold from chest and finish the quest, when in town for the second time check for any items in the armory that give a healthy chunk of focus or any mana/sec regen, buy many big healing poitions and a few mana potions. Proceed to the Crows Pass, do the dungeon and the quest for experience (goal is level 14 by reaching the regent). Continue fighting mobs in the Frosted Hills, do the Slavers camp first (I also released the prisoners thinking it would be worth it), then Emberscratch, fighting the goblins for the most part to get more xp. Try being level 12 or more before leaving the mine, stay and find more champions after beating Pogg if necessary. Proceed to Watchweald and try getting 14 before entering the third floor. All attributes in focus, skills go in charge mastery, elemental attunement and when getting 14 put 1 into the 3 elemental brands and 1 into frost phase. Beat the regent, if you have level 14 he goes down in a blink. Note that only 1 skill ever goes into prismatic bolt, for mana efficiency (if you find absurd amounts of mana/sec consider putting 4 more points after 15 and onwards). Finish up the quests, sell items and buy potions, check for some more mana/sec before leaving act 1.

Also gem your equipment for some resistance if you can, I also stop for enchanters trying to get some more stats but it's probably a waste of time.

Act 2
Pick up the quest, use frost phase to cross the desert and talk to the sphinx and activate the waypoint, teleport over to the Stygian Aerie and fight the manticore, I still occasionally kill some mobs at this point because it seems slower to do it later in the game. Only kill the manticore that matters and go back to the waypoint by portal. Go for the Artificer, look for spells in scroll cases and open chests that are in your way for gold, skip everything else. Fight the Artificer. Pick up loot and gold, back to town, buy potions as needed, switching to giant pots here. Phase through the empty quarter, go find the genie in the Salt Barrens, I open a portal here in case it is closer to walk from the waypoint to the sadwa mesa and in case the Witherways are closer to the genie too. Go to Sadwa Mesa, lure out the boss so you can fight him alone. Make sure you have enough potions to be safe when going for the luminous area. Kill everything you can here for more experience. Run along ahead of the light when the last bridge comes into place. Proceed to finish the last of the Genie's tasks, just phase through the Haunted Quarter asap. Go through the waypoint portal from before to town and pick up the last quest, if close to a level up I try to get it before reaching the act boss here. Finish up the quests and proceed to act 3.

Act 3
Pick up the quest and go to the Blightbogs, open a waypoint portal over at the Middenmine entrance, kill the werewolf, fetch the dynamite, let the small werewolfs kill you and go to town and use the waypoint back to Middenmine. Pick up the mana regen gem reward and gem something if possible. Phase through the mine, start the Bloatfang fight, do the doorskip and go back to town and finish the quest. Pick up potions of necessary then go for the Emberworks door, place a portal. Proceed to the Forgotten Halls and fight Thiss. Stay at the little outshoot in the arena where the teleporter takes you to avoid getting adds. Pick up the crown and go back to the arena to let the adds kill you. Use waypoint to go directly to the Emberworks door. Phasing makes the Emberworks very fast. Go behind War Titan and skip the door (failed). Finish up buy potions as needed and go to Minehead.

Ending
Make sure you have a portal left for the floor skip thing after the Alchemist, then go phase through the broken mines. You don't need to fight the brutes on floor 4, just use the valves and wait a bit. Fight the alchemists first 2 phases and then then die to get up on the platform again, finish up from there. Activate the waypoint, go back to town, buy more potions if needed then use the portal to get to the downstairs on floor 5. Fight the netherlord. (My strat here was to get killed and finish it from the ledge, but this didn't work in this patch so I was short on healing potions, making the fight drag on forever...) Place the heart into the core.

My splits were
Grell 19:33
Eldrayn 46:08
Artificer 59:49
Breaking the Siege 1:24:41
Bloatfang 1:32:58
War Titan 1:48:19
Alchemist 2:01:30
Core 2:15:35

Did another attempt with the Embermage tonight, with the new patch. Used wsplit this time to see how different that ends up compared to in game time.

Some things to note about the new patch:
Skipping War Titan seemed to be fixed, but I'm not 100% sure, maybe I just screwed it up really badly. Cost me a minute or so from just trying it though.
Shooting the final boss from the platform is no longer possible (probably cost me like 5 minutes compared to what it would have been in the previous patch).

Anyway, placed the heart into the core at 2:15:34 on the vsplit and at 2:07:10 time played in game.
My strategy for the game right now:

Pick up the quest and try reaching level 3 in the first area before going into town, but don't go out of your way to find mobs, put all attribute points into focus. When getting into town for the first time I turn the quest in (check for something like +% to all damage as the reward) and pick up the warbeast quest, buy waypoint portals if possible, otherwise wait until after Grell. Respec the magma spear and put one skill in prismatic bolt and the rest in charge mastery. Fight mobs and do the quests on the path of the honored dead, open chests, pick up items for gold, check items for mana/sec regen or focus stats for own use. Proceed to the Temple Steppes and kill mobs, finish the warbeast armory, try reaching level 7 at least before going for the guardian quest. In the dungeon, kill mobs try reaching level 9 before fighting Grell. (I didn't quite make it and I don't want to backtrack so I just went ahead anyway). Hope for the caster helmet drop from Grell, and anything else good for embermage pick up gold from chest and finish the quest, when in town for the second time check for any items in the armory that give a healthy chunk of focus or any mana/sec regen, buy many big healing poitions and a few mana potions. Proceed to the Crows Pass, do the dungeon and the quest for experience (goal is level 14 by reaching the regent). Continue fighting mobs in the Frosted Hills, do the Slavers camp first (I also released the prisoners thinking it would be worth it), then Emberscratch, fighting the goblins for the most part to get more xp. Try being level 12 or more before leaving the mine, stay and find more champions after beating Pogg if necessary. Proceed to Watchweald and try getting 14 before entering the third floor. All attributes in focus, skills go in charge mastery, elemental attunement and when getting 14 put 1 into the 3 elemental brands and 1 into frost phase. Beat the regent, if you have level 14 he goes down in a blink. Note that only 1 skill ever goes into prismatic bolt, for mana efficiency (if you find absurd amounts of mana/sec consider putting 4 more points after 15 and onwards). Finish up the quests, sell items and buy potions, check for some more mana/sec before leaving act 1.

Also gem your equipment for some resistance if you can, I also stop for enchanters trying to get some more stats but it's probably a waste of time.

Act 2
Pick up the quest, use frost phase to cross the desert and talk to the sphinx and activate the waypoint, teleport over to the Stygian Aerie and fight the manticore, I still occasionally kill some mobs at this point because it seems slower to do it later in the game. Only kill the manticore that matters and go back to the waypoint by portal. Go for the Artificer, look for spells in scroll cases and open chests that are in your way for gold, skip everything else. Fight the Artificer. Pick up loot and gold, back to town, buy potions as needed, switching to giant pots here. Phase through the empty quarter, go find the genie in the Salt Barrens, I open a portal here in case it is closer to walk from the waypoint to the sadwa mesa and in case the Witherways are closer to the genie too. Go to Sadwa Mesa, lure out the boss so you can fight him alone. Make sure you have enough potions to be safe when going for the luminous area. Kill everything you can here for more experience. Run along ahead of the light when the last bridge comes into place. Proceed to finish the last of the Genie's tasks, just phase through the Haunted Quarter asap. Go through the waypoint portal from before to town and pick up the last quest, if close to a level up I try to get it before reaching the act boss here. Finish up the quests and proceed to act 3.

Act 3
Pick up the quest and go to the Blightbogs, open a waypoint portal over at the Middenmine entrance, kill the werewolf, fetch the dynamite, let the small werewolfs kill you and go to town and use the waypoint back to Middenmine. Pick up the mana regen gem reward and gem something if possible. Phase through the mine, start the Bloatfang fight, do the doorskip and go back to town and finish the quest. Pick up potions of necessary then go for the Emberworks door, place a portal. Proceed to the Forgotten Halls and fight Thiss. Stay at the little outshoot in the arena where the teleporter takes you to avoid getting adds. Pick up the crown and go back to the arena to let the adds kill you. Use waypoint to go directly to the Emberworks door. Phasing makes the Emberworks very fast. Go behind War Titan and skip the door (failed). Finish up buy potions as needed and go to Minehead.

Ending
Make sure you have a portal left for the floor skip thing after the Alchemist, then go phase through the broken mines. You don't need to fight the brutes on floor 4, just use the valves and wait a bit. Fight the alchemists first 2 phases and then then die to get up on the platform again, finish up from there. Activate the waypoint, go back to town, buy more potions if needed then use the portal to get to the downstairs on floor 5. Fight the netherlord. (My strat here was to get killed and finish it from the ledge, but this didn't work in this patch so I was short on healing potions, making the fight drag on forever...) Place the heart into the core.

My splits were
Grell 19:33
Eldrayn 46:08
Artificer 59:49
Breaking the Siege 1:24:41
Bloatfang 1:32:58
War Titan 1:48:19
Alchemist 2:01:30
Core 2:15:35

MSK

2012-10-06 12:42:31 pm

What difficulty is this on? For embermage are you just using a Prismatic Death Brand build?

ARF

2012-10-06 01:23:23 pm

Welcome HELL

Casual, build used in the previous run:
7 points in charge mastery
6 elemental attunement
4 fire brand
5 ice brand
3 lightning brand
1 frost phase
1 prismatic bolt

Would invest more points in Prismatic Bolt if I got enough mana regen.

dalai

2012-10-07 02:05:12 am

Hi ARF,

can u record your next speedrun so we can watch in on youtube?

ARF

Edit history:

ARF: 2012-10-07 12:09:23 pm

2012-10-07 07:18:21 am

Welcome HELL

Hi,

I got a 2:05:26 real time/wsplit run recorded (~1:58:05 time played) I'll try compressing it, but it'll take a while.

This run was done on the previous patch and even after the worst Forgotten Halls ever I was still 12:25 ahead after skipping War Titan (needed 2 tries to get it). Had a really bad broken mines too and since I lowered the resolution I seemed unable to kill the Netherlord from the platform again. Also VERY iffy vendor/potion management. Don't remember getting a single mana regen equipment either. Finished at level 19 this time.

New splits are (for reference)
Grell: 18:05
Eldrayn: 42:39
Artificer: 53:09
Siegebreak: 1:17:32
Bloatfang: 1:24:08
War Titan: 1:35:54
Alchemist: 1:49:09
Clockwork Core: 2:05:26

I'd guess that a 1h 50m real time run (or 1h 45ish time played) is possible but will have to be very clean and lucky with gear to pull off. But hopefully faster strats are found as well.

I'd also be interested in seeing how fast a hardcore run will be. Anything over the easiest difficulty setting could be interesting too.

-edit-

Yup, exporting the run right now, let's see if the filesize will allow me to upload it to youtube.

Hi,

I got a 2:05:26 real time/wsplit run recorded (~1:58:05 time played) I'll try compressing it, but it'll take a while.

This run was done on the previous patch and even after the worst Forgotten Halls ever I was still 12:25 ahead after skipping War Titan (needed 2 tries to get it). Had a really bad broken mines too and since I lowered the resolution I seemed unable to kill the Netherlord from the platform again. Also VERY iffy vendor/potion management. Don't remember getting a single mana regen equipment either. Finished at level 19 this time.

New splits are (for reference)
Grell: 18:05
Eldrayn: 42:39
Artificer: 53:09
Siegebreak: 1:17:32
Bloatfang: 1:24:08
War Titan: 1:35:54
Alchemist: 1:49:09
Clockwork Core: 2:05:26

I'd guess that a 1h 50m real time run (or 1h 45ish time played) is possible but will have to be very clean and lucky with gear to pull off. But hopefully faster strats are found as well.

I'd also be interested in seeing how fast a hardcore run will be. Anything over the easiest difficulty setting could be interesting too.

-edit-

Yup, exporting the run right now, let's see if the filesize will allow me to upload it to youtube.

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-07 01:27:40 pm

Pac is Back

Wow, tried doing a low level run to see if the time saved by rushing through is more than the time saved by being a high level like you. Could get to Grell very very quickly at level 4 but the fight will take much too long to be worth it on Zerker or outlander I believe. I haven't tried mage because I figure you know what you're doing there already, but perhaps later Smiley

It seems a lot of "extra" leveling will be required as I suspected and as you have been doing. Makes me wish we could level up 100's into a traditional NG+ against level 1-50 mobs instead of NG+ being its own difficulty!

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-07 01:28:32 pm

Pac is Back

@ your edit that I just noticed: You should be fine with file size, it will just take a long time. I uploaded a 12GB speedrun at some point and it worked fine. I'd assume that means there are no limits.

ARF

2012-10-07 01:50:55 pm

Welcome HELL

Good to see that you've started testing stuff too, don't assume that I know what I'm doing though Smiley

I have tried going lower level with Embermage, and it just doesn't pay off, bosses become extremely slow after a point and you'll fall behind by not getting Frost Phase. I'm interested in seeing if the luminous area can be sped up, probably going to test that later. Also did a test run with a melee Engi, getting to the Alchemist at around 2h 30m played, but I just gave up there because I was too underpowered to continue. Should probably try doing a cannon engi for running instead.

Reassuring to know, expect the run to be up on youtube in about 3 hours.

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-07 01:59:02 pm

Pac is Back

Yeah just tried mage anyways even though I assume you tried the low level style as well. Grell is killable at level 3/4 no doubt, but the time saved vs time spent doesn't seem worth it in the long run compared to your style. It's a shame the characters are so mana-starved at early levels. My 60 mage can cast all day with no issues! Almost forgot how different it was starting out.

ARF

2012-10-07 03:00:08 pm

Welcome HELL

Yeah, I think that is the most important thing to get in the early game, unless you get something like 2 mana/sec from gear before leaving act 1 then maybe it's a reset? I think that the lack of mana regen was the biggest reason my Netherlord Fight was 2 minutes slower in the most recent run.

List of items and stuff
http://torchlight2armory.com/
Might be worth looking for the Spellweaver armor from the gambling dude in act 3 and then gemming it with the mana regen gem from the Middenmine quest as it will most likely speed up the end game a lot. It might actually be plausible to pull off that gamble since you can see what items are usable before gambling for them in the previous patch. I suspect the gold cost is the same every time too.

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-07 03:56:49 pm

Pac is Back

Wish there was an "energy" class (WoW rogue etc. with regening attack resource) but it seems like ALL four classes rely on mana to do most of their damage? Bah. Maybe I didn't get far enough on them (10 zerk, < 10 on the other two non-mage) but it seems like it will be very tricky.

ARF

2012-10-07 04:54:41 pm

Welcome HELL

Yeah I guess mana regen will be a prevailing issue. But gearing up just got easier, there's a glitch in the previous patch which allows you to drag vendor sold equipment into the buyback tab to get it at a fraction of the price, also works with the gambling which reveals the item as well. This will really help i think.

Should probably check the patch notes to find out more exploits that are availible in the previous patch...

My run is up but still processing.

Take it as a crude draft run and nothing more, much better will be needed for a submitted run I think.

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-07 05:09:04 pm

Pac is Back

Sorry for the stupid question, but is it simple to delete old patches / switch between current patch and old patch? First time running a game on PC where there are patches to remove.

mattBLiTZ

2012-10-07 05:11:58 pm

Pac is Back

Btw will watch that full run when I get time. Probably going to be a late night tonight with so many speedrun things to do :[