Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrunner finishes game in 10 minutes with explosive Gale strategy

A Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrunner was able to finish the game in just 10 minutes by using a unique feature of Gale to make the credits roll early.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive RPG with a long main story that will easily take most players 75 to 100 hours to complete. However, speedrunners are finding ways to significantly reduce that time and roll credits in under an hour.

A new record for Any Percent speedruns was set by Mae, who managed to complete the game in just 10 minutes and 3 seconds. In a video, Mae shows how they were able to breeze through Acts 1 and 2 and trigger one of Baldur’s Gate 3’s darkest endings in less time than most players likely spent in the character creator.

Mae’s strategy relies on choosing Origin character Gale who, for story reasons, is uniquely suitable for this type of speedrun.

Note, spoilers for Gale’s storyline to follow.

Larian Studios

Why Gale is so important for Baldur’s Gate 3 speedruns

The Origin character and potential companion Gale has a condition that requires him to consume magic items to survive. Those who play as Gale or get to know him through gameplay will eventually find out that he was once the lover of the goddess Mystra and, following an act of hubris, ended up with a Netherese Destruction Orb in his chest.

At the beginning of Act 2, Gale is offered a path to redemption: Mystra will forgive him if he uses the Orb to take out the Absolute in a heroic sacrifice.

While not the best option in a normal playthrough, Baldur’s Gate 3 Any Percent speedruns use this incredibly dark feature to their advantage, making their way to the end of Act 2 to detonate the Orb – and Gale with it – as quickly as possible.

How the Baldur’s Gate 10 minute speedrun works

To set up the run, Mae gives Gale a Strength stat of 17 and the Enhanced Leap spell to maximize his movement. He also has Ice Knife to take out the Imps in the first area, plus Misty Step and Feather Fall to get out of combat and avoid fall damage, respectively.

Mae also picks up Shadowheart for the spell Sanctuary, which protects Gale in what would otherwise be deadly encounters.

From there, Gale essentially hops across the world, avoiding and escaping combat as much as possible, making it to the confrontation in the Mind Flayer Colony just before the 10-minute mark – though not before stripping down to his underwear. From there, Mae allows Gale to blow himself up, and the credits roll.

Mae’s latest video shaves 49 seconds off of their previous record, which was achieved by swapping the spell Magic Missile for Ice Knife.

While skipping most of the story and triggering a dark ending in which the elder brain is destroyed but the illithid tadpoles are able to mature and infect or enslave everyone on the Sword Coast probably isn’t the way most players will want to experience Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s still incredibly impressive.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has only been out in full for about a week, but with players already accomplishing impressive feats like 10-minute speedruns, using Owlbears as nukes, and sneaking into a castle using crates, it’ll be exciting to see what the community does next.