Speedrun mode preperation
5 years ago
United Kingdom

Hello.

I’ve been thinking about starting to speedrun Dragons Dogma, because I started playing it casually again recently and I forgot how much I love the game.

I’ve watched some of the videos and read the guides but I have a couple of questions specific to the speedrun mode guide here. The pre-run preperation part is still marked to-do, so I was wondering a couple of things:

Is there any character level I should be a minimum of before trying speedrun mode for a good run?

Should I level as any specific classes to prepare to min-max my stats or is it fine to just become a strider with the required skills when starting the run?

I’m sure I had another question but I can’t remember it right now, if it comes back to me I’ll update this post!

Thank you :)

Edit: I remembered another question, at various parts of the guide a a ferrycrystal is used to teleport, these would be setup in the correct locations before selecting speedrun mode on the main menu or am I misunderstanding something here?

Edited by the author 5 years ago
United States

Hey there! I'm just like you, trying to start out at speedrunning this game that I love so much.

However, I think I may be able to clear up some of your questions.

I believe the most optimized DDDA runs are in NG+, for a few reasons. First off, you are probably overleveled and can slay bosses very quickly. I'm not sure about a specific level, but in your main file you should have at least reached the Everfall (post-Final Battle). Often times my first DDDA playthroughs get me close to level 75~ or beyond it, depending on BBI / grinding. Secondly, if you farm for Wakestones in postgame, they can be very useful for speedruns (for example, instead of running down to the Everfall the first time in the Fathom Deep quest, simply carry a wakestone and faceplant alllll those floors into the ground--insta dying from fall damage doesn't matter when you can rez with a wakestone!). You usually don't get Wakestone much before the Everfall, so don't start a speedrun before you can farm for them--they're so easy to get, you should just wait. (Sorry, you probably know that already. just trying to be as helpful as possible.)

As long as you don't spend your whole file as a mage or something, you should be fine on the class front. Min maxing is fun, but probably not super necessary for speedruns--I think augments may be more important than actual stat values. Bringing lots of utility augments (climbing faster, increasing carry capacity, faster movement for your carrying capacity) will help you a lot. So you definitely want to spend your time getting DP in different classes for their augments if not their stats.

As for your last question--I can't remember what guide I read, but there were suggested locations for ferrycrystals. Another reason to start the speedrun in NG+ is, of course, to set these up in advance. When you set them up in your normal, non-speedrun file, they will still be in their locations when you start Speedrun mode, just like if you started a normal NG+. So yes, you are understanding correctly with that!

I wish you good luck and hope we both are able to start speedrunning this awesome game! :D

South Carolina, USA

Here's the guide I used to get started myself. I made a few changes to the basic setup they suggest here, but it'll give you something to go on. https://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Speed_Run

Level 200 is the highest you can reach, at which point the game just shows an infinity sign ( ∞ ). You don't have to be at 200 to do the run. I'm not sure what your stats need to be before you are able to essentially one-shot everything we encounter during the run. Your class affects the stat boosts you get upon leveling up, so you should stay non-mage for most of the time. I chose to go assassin for most of mine since that gives the highest Attack bonus, with a little bit of Warrior for extra health and defense. It's not required, but you can read about the stat growths here if you really want to get into it. https://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Stat_Growths#Consolidated_Leveling_Charts

As Lyrinae said, the augments and skills are a bit more important. I don't remember all of the augments I use in my run. I'll try to post that tonight when I get back to my PC. Two important ones are Resilience and Grace. These together allow you to survive the fall down the Everfall early in the run. However, this could just be replaced by using the skill Skull Splitter to make the leap without taking any damage instead.

And as for the ferrycrystals, I'll try to update the guide with those locations by the end of the week.

I hope you keep at learning the run. Good luck to you both!

United Kingdom

That's some fantastic information, thanks both of you!

I'm still mostly playing the game casually on a second playthrough, makng sure I'm familiar with everything and starting gathering items and placing portcrystals to get ready for when I start speedrun mode. I think I need to do some Bitterblack Isle farming to get some better weapons and equipment before I start seriously trying speedrunning attempts. I'll probably do some Speedrun mode runs to see how well I can do. Hopefully I'll do well enough to get a spot on the leaderboard!

Also I've been thinking that I might try focusing on and learning the new game Any% route mainly though, it takes a lot longer compared to Speedrun mode but to me personally it feels a more interesting route to actually play and do things than purely the speedrun mode route. Although if I end up enjoying/becoming good at speedrunning this game I'll be learning all the categories I can so I'll be doing both I'm sure :)

As mentioned this is the first game I'll be seriously trying to speedrun because I enjoy playing it casually so much and I've been hunting for a game I like that I would want to try spedrunning.

I'm sure I'll have more questions to come in the future when I think of them!

United States

Thank you so much glasnonck! I really look forward to your guide updates, I can't wait to start getting into these runs!

United Kingdom

I just did my first speedrun on speedrun mode and got an ingame time of 25:39! Quite a bit off the world record, but not bad for my first go I think :)

Real time it's quite a bit higher though, lots of menuing added up time. I made a bunch of mistake but with pracrtise I should get that down some more I think. My character isn't too optimal though, takes me a couple of shots with fivefold and blast arrows to kill things like the gryphon, but I think I can fix that with weapon upgrades and some more levels.

I do want to learn the new game any% route before I put a lot of time into speedrun mode though, that just appeals to me more even though it's a lot more effort and takes a lot longer.

EDIT: Got myself 20:03 today, on my way to sub 20 I hope! Still not great but I'm improving :)

EDit2: Got myself 18:38! incredibly happy with that, I think I might submit that to the leaderboards and hope everything is okay for it to be accepted :) I still want to try to get better though but I feel that might be my current limit.

Edited by the author 5 years ago
South Carolina, USA

Nice work on your runs, Lyrinae and RoboJoe. I'm looking forward to your future runs. Thankfully, I put more work into the New Game Any% guide so there shouldn't be any missing information for your runs. Just be sure to save your NG+ character file before starting the new game runs. Wouldn't want to lose all that work!

Sorry for the delay in updating the guide, real life has been very busy lately. I've added the augments and skills I used during my runs. Three of them are to increase strength, two are to help survive falling down the everfall, and the last is making sure I can carry everything in one go. I haven't played around too much with different combinations. These just seemed to be the ones that would help the most.

United Kingdom

Thank you :) Your new game any% guide is really helpful too, thank you for the detail and effort creating it!

I've been learning that route the past couple of days, and I just finished getting a 1:38:36 run but I think I can get sub 1:30:00. I think if I manage that I'll submit an Any% run to the leadersboards.

I keep making mistakes though, especially some big ones in certain areas (running slightly off course when travelling to some areas, slowness on the Ox Escort, and just some errors like forgetting things when I think I know that part of the route so I still need the guide). Plus the Everfall still gives me trouble in that I'll run out of blast arrows sometimes due to needing extra shots on some enemies if I don't hit them quite right, which makes the last enemies a bit more challenging unless I go refill on blast arrows. Basically I just need to keep practising.

Although I had the most incredible Evil Eye kill where as soon as I ran near it, it cancelled all it's casts and launched into the air so I could kill it in less than 10 seconds, I wish I could get that to repeat!

South Carolina, USA

Haha, the Evil Eye was the one big time loss in the current record run. I didn't apply all my buffs before entering the room, so the eye didn't prepare the attack to make it open to getting shot immediately.

Nice work learning the run so far - 1:38 is a good start. Keep it up!

I had trouble with having enough blast arrows when I started running any% too, and you're right. More practice will clear up the issues you're having.

United Kingdom

I just got a 1:27:09 any% run today! Super happy with that and I'll submit that run to the leaderboards, hopefully it will get accepted and that time is correct. I still have some areas I could do some improvements on so I think I might be able to get below 1:25:00 sometime :)

Your notes are still incredibly useful to me, I'm finding it hard to memorize all the parts, especially things like the number of greenwarish and mushrooms, etc, and exactly when to buy them. Hopefully that will get stuck in my memory soon.