Hey! My apologies for lack of activity this past month, I have been busy with work and my family is in the process of moving. I did want to give an update that I have found speed items for all items that can be equipped including capes; what it took was wearing items that say "treasure" on them while grinding through bonus maps like "Moria" and "Helm's Deep" as the "treasure" attribute increases the odds of finding better items including speed items. I also have grinded Gandalf, Eowyn, Aragorn, and Frodo to level 52. As soon as I have a day free where I can record some runs I will try to do runs for all four. I have also been working on maximizing Helms Deep for speedrunning as it is both timed and extremely laggy due to excessive sprites such as enemies and items dropped, so easily the hardest bonus map to optimize - hopefully I can also get that one recorded and at least set an initial time for it going forward.

Thanks, and hopefully I will be submitting some more runs soon!

~Nick

You're very welcome! And thank you for your kind words!

As I've been grinding I've found a few other helmets, shirts, and shields with speed listed as an attribute. It's funny - it's almost like the devs didn't view this as a game to be speedrun and didn't really prioritize speed items as they tend to be lower level and few and far between. That being said, I've found a few items that seem to be consistent for speed:

Prefix "snowbird" reliably produces weapons with about 10% speed listed.

Prefix "Boatman" or "Horseman" reliably produces gloves and shoes ranging from 5-15% speed.

Suffix "of the Fox" or "of the Hound" have reliably produced speed items such as a staff, two necklaces, and a hood with 5% speed each.

Prefix "green copper" has reliably produced two necklaces with 5% speed each.

A few oddities I have found include suffixes "of Osgiliath" (shield, 5%); of the Eorlings (shield, 5%); "of Rangers" (shirt, 5%), and "of the Eldar" (necklace, 7%). Additionally, I found a pair of gloves with the prefix "worn" that have speed listed (5%).

One item I have yet to find in all my grinding is any form of cape, cloak, robe, or vestments with speed attributes listed. If anyone does find any I would greatly appreciate it, as I don't want to give up but also don't want to keep searching if, for some reason, the devs never included speed attributes on capes and their ilk.

Thanks and hope this helps!

~Nick

Hey everyone!

I have been playing this game for about 20 years now on and off. Up until recently I have always viewed it like I did Mario or other games I grew up playing - take it slow and build up lives/strength, get every treasure/secret place to get maximum points, etc. I recently decided to try speedrunning it and found that the game is perfectly setup for it - when you don't stop to fight the bad guys or gather all the items, the levels are actually super quick and able to be sped through. That being said, the amount of RNG involved is what makes this game so fun - you never know what kind of items you'll get when grinding, and the villain patterns can make or break a run. That being said, I wanted to start a thread with a few ideas for optimizing characters and runs to make this game better for speedrunning. Unfortunately, I don't think we have a TAS or anyone who has gone data mining through the game's codes, and most of the forums are from 20 years ago and are focused on strength instead of speed. I figured we as a community could discuss things we've found that have worked, so we can help each other as well as new players figure out how best to speedrun this game. That being said, here are a few of the things I have found so far:

Glitches:

Obviously anything that is used needs to be in game for it to be valid. That being said, I've found a few interesting glitches in the game. In Pelennor when Eowyn is fighting the mumakil, on the second wave you are supposed to kill two - however, if you kill the third mumakil first, it triggers the end of the level without you having to kill the second at all. This is obviously very advantageous for saving time. I have found a few other glitches that I am unsure if they can be used - for example, on Gandalf's black gate end boss, if you ignore the three boomerang orcs you're supposed to kill and simply wait, the game breaks and starts triggering the cutscenes of Aragorn fighting the mouth of Sauron several times and he gets swarmed with more and more red orcs each time. Eventually, after three or four cutscenes the game spawns eight Ringwraiths and, if you kill them, bypasses the end boss and spawns the heros and the exit. However, I'm not sure if this glitch is very helpful since it takes much longer than simply killing the three orcs, two trolls, and one Ringwraith. Also, outside of one accidental softlock on the cave at the beginning of Eowyn's second level, I haven't been able to clip through anything in a functional manner so I'm not sure if this can be used either.

Items:

One of the things I recently discovered is that certain items have speed percentages listed on them. For example, most wrappings have 10% speed listed as one of its benefits. Since discovering this, I have started looking for items that have speed listed while grinding. So far I have found that wrappings are your best bet and range from 10-15% speed, while boots/sandals sometimes have 5%. Other reliable items include gloves (5%) and necklaces/charms (5-7%). I have so far found a few swords and axes that range from 5-10% though these are less common, and have only found three shields, two shirts, and one staff/helm with speed percentages on them. I am still looking for capes and will keep you posted if I find any. It is important to note that this is literally how to shave off minutes from your runs as I have taken Aragorn from 20 minute runs to 16ish minute runs just from equipping items that say speed that I've found while grinding.

In-Game Abilities:

It can also be useful to use abilities that the characters themselves already have. For example, if you use Eowyn's Rohan Sprint ability, she runs much faster than she would just by walking. Additionally, using Gandalf's light beam attack is extremely helpful against Ringwraiths on Amon Sul as it can kill them in one or two hits and avoids hand to hand combat, which can lead to knockbacks, poison, and large hit point losses.

Routing:

Though this may seem obvious, finding the quickest routing is key to making your run as quick as possible. I recently figured out that on the first Dunharrow level, you can cut through the trees after the first pine tree instead of following the path all the way around. I am still working on my routing myself, and am wondering if the portals on bonus levels such as Fangorn could be used to our advantage (ex. Instead of running through the level, run to the first portal that warps you to the end of the level).

Runes:

Though there aren't any runes that increase speed, I have been experimenting with the Elf Rune Nimblefoot that increases your ability to dodge - I am trying to figure out if this will help prevent bumping into enemies in tight areas or in laggy spots such as the snowy mountain areas.

Things to Avoid:

While looking for new ways to maximize this game, it is also important to play fair and avoid any strategies that are not allowed. For example, abusing stat boosting (equipping a two handed item and then alternating it and a shield to unfairly increase your attack and defense since the game forgets to reset the stats when they're switched) is not allowed and also isn't a fair or fun way to play the game. Part of the joy of this game is the satisfaction of knowing you put in the hard work grinding to build up skills and attributes as well as searching for and finding cool items as you play the levels and bonus maps. So remember to play fair while looking for new ways to maximize speed and save time, as we want everyone to have a fair and equal chance at running the game!

Summary:

These are a few of the things I have figured out so far regarding optimizing this game. As I continue to explore and figure things out I will post them to this thread. Hopefully we can all bounce some ideas off of each other and figure out how to maximize speed and run each category as fast as we possibly can!

~Nick