So, I ran a 2 hour 46 minute speedrun using the pure rules. That means that I started timing the speedrun with a blank slate (zero characters, default Garths) and rolled characters after the timer started. This was my fastest overall speedrun but also done with the hardest constraints yet.
I only rolled 4 heroes, an Elf Paladin, 2x Half-Orc Hunters, and an Elf Conjurer. Rolling is an interesting dilemma because the timer is running, but you need good stats to save time. I could have rolled a few extra heroes for the gold, but chose not to just to keep it the run as minimal as possible.
There’s a fair amount of flexibility as to what stats are critical for each position, so roll time does not consume as long as I thought it would. However, the roll time still adds to the overall time, and forces playing characters who have weaker overall stats and weaker growth. It also means that early team wipes that end a speedrun are more costly in real life due to the extra investment of time. As such, I’m currently playing a more conservative early game because there’s still room for improvement in other areas and it’s a waste of real life time to be aggressive in the early game if I don’t need to be.
The overall progression was as follows.
Roll 4x heroes. Pool gold into Paladin and level him solo to lvl 10. First few levels on Samurai, then remainder on Ogre Lords. Solo level each Hunter to 100+ hp, first few levels on Samurai, then remainder on Ogre Lords. Then solo level Conjurer to lvl 7 (FLRE) on Samurai.
(There’s probably 3-5 minutes of time that could be saved by having the Pal/Hunts skip the first 7-10k xp on Samurai and going straight to Ogre Lords, but then you’re reliant on RNG for 12 non-fatal rounds in a row, which is not hard to do, but still would could take an hour or so.)
The party then went as 4 to Catacombs 1 until about 30k gold and SHSP. Ate a dragon breath for a 18k gold penalty. Stayed at Harkyn 1 until APAR. The item drops in Catacombs were better than average, which helped speed things up. The item drops in Harkyn 1 were average. Once APAR was available, the Conjurer was immediately bumped to a Magician.
The party then immediately got the Crystal Sword and the Silver Square and spent a fair amount of time farming Harkyn 2. Unfortunately, the item drops in Harkyn 2 were mediocre. Only one Luckshield and no Adamantite shields were obtained.
Once the Magician was level 10/11ish, the party then went to farm out the Spectre repeatedly to level the frontline up a bit. The Magician once 13 was bumped to Wizard. Wights were farmed for a few Wizard levels, then Paladin and Wizard farmed Spectre as a pair. The Paladin ended farming as level 30 or 31, the Hunters were 18-20, and the Wizard was 14.
Once the Wizard was 14 (even levels bump up the save roll), the party immediately went to Kylearan’s Tower to get the Triangle and Onyx key, and then Mangar for the win. Mangar was a simple APAR to Circle, APAR to Mouth to unlock stairs, walk to stairs, and then up to Mangar 4. On Mangar 4 the red dragon fight went well with GRSU Demon Lord disposing of one dragon, and the party survived the 2nd dragon’s breath just fine.
A Hunter got caught by the possession trap and caused some chaos, but the Wizard fixed things up. The party otherwise fled from everything on Mangar 4/5 until the final battle.
The party walked to Spectre Snare, gave it to the Wizard, summoned Thor, and went in. The final battles are always a blur (and it’s late at night which doesn’t help). As I recall, Paladin and 2x Hunters targeted the Demon Lords, and Wizard cast REDE on the Vampire Lords. Mangar was ignored. Thor dropped a Demon Lord. A Demon Lord stoned Paladin. Hunter dropped the other Demon Lord. REDE killed 1 Vampire Lord. Unclear what Mangar did the first round.
The second round, I think Mangar or a Vampire Lord DEST’d the Wizard or Mangar crit-hit the Wizard. Thor and a Hunter disposed of the remaining Vampire Lords and the other Hunter killed Mangar. Kylearan came and the game was over.
Overall, there is still room for improvement at all stages of the game. An aggressive early game (pre-Harkyn 1) can cut about 10 minutes. Good item drops in Harkyn 1 and 2 can easily cut another 15 minutes. Efficient Spectre farming can also cut another 5-10 minutes. So, I think using the above overall strategy a 2:15 using pure rules is obtainable with a reasonable amount of luck.