XP and Gold are the two most important and time consuming factors in a speedrun. If you could start the game with each character having 5M XP and 50k gold, it would be a 15 minute speedrun. (Guild->Board->Spectre Eye->Harkyn 2->Kylearan Tower->Mangar)
But since we start with 0xp and 150 gold or so, it takes a little bit longer. And so, efficient farming is the heart of the speedrun.
Figuring out the most efficient farming patterns and routes is the heart of the speedrun. Here are some approximate numbers based on my tests. These numbers assume that you farm indefinitely, have an average number of random encounters, include average amounts of time spent healing hp/sp, and only briefly manage inventory. They do not include time spent advancing, selling items, resetting daylight, or managing party members at the guild.
These numbers are also RNG dependent and can vary widely based on various circumstances (levels, eq, creatures, etc.), but are set out here to give an approximate sense.
The team of 4 means Pal/Hunt/Hunt/Conj where all are lvl 13 or less for up to Harkyn 1. For Harkyn 2, Conj is substituted for a Sorc w/o MIBL.
- [ INCOMPLETE DATA – will update ]
- Samurai – One hero at a time- 6.5k / min / hero
- Ogre Lords – One hero at a time – 17k / min / hero
- Catacombs – Team of 4 @ 10k/min/team (2.5k/min/hero * 4 heroes)
- Harkyn 1 – Team of 4 @ 20k/min/team (5k/min/hero * 4 heroes)
- Harkyn 2 – Team of 4 @ 30k/min/team (7.5k/min/hero * 4 heroes)
- Wights/Ghouls – TBD
On a per minute basis, farming Ogre Lords with solo heroes is the fastest way to level up outside of Harkyn 1. However, this is offset by two critical factors: 1. no mithril/adamantite item drops, and 2. Ogre Lords’ damage (15-32 hp * 10 gold = 150 – 320 gold/hit) exceeds gold drops (0-128 gold/kill). In the MSDOS version, the Ogre Lords have a particular affinity for Stone Elementals, but some unfortunate RNG can quickly leave you with 0 gold and very few hp.
HP, Gold to heal HP, and gold to obtain spellcaster spells is the early bottleneck in farming. As AC decreases (improves), SP and time to spend restoring SP is the bottleneck. Farming is also substantially faster (and safer, leading to fewer team wipes and game resets) with lower AC.
Note – Theoretically, LO AC is not really required for Mangar. But the process of obtaining LO AC yields items that are rather important for a successful run such as Luckshields and Exorwands. LO AC simply gives you some moderate (30%?) chance for melee hits from Demon Lords and Vampire Lords to miss.