Shared Record History

Since some techniques that spawned distinct categories were only found later the early record progression of these categories is identical.

Early Segmented Runs

The history of Gothic 2 speedruns starts with segmented runs. Years went by before someone tried to run Gothic 2 in a no reset setting. The very first segmented speedrun was done by TheWonderer and intentionally did not use glitches. It was shared on worldofgothic.de at the beginning of 2004, but it may have been uploaded somewhere else earlier. The exact time is not known and the video is lost.

An improved version that added the trick to kill the thieves via fire rain was uploaded in 2005:

1:38:?? by TheWonderer (Link)

In 2006 ZeRo uploaded a run that used tricks to bypass gates but otherwise mostly followed TheWonderer's run. The video has been lost. It's not explicitly stated whether the run was performed in segments or in real time, but the context suggests segments. TheWonderer states that at one point the player doesn't lose health despite being hit.

1:10:25 by ZeRo (Link)

In 2007 TheWonderer followed up with another segmented speedrun using glitches. It already featured killing the thieves via animal transformation, bypassing walls via animal transformation, looting traders via ice block damage and the black ore glitch:

40:42 by TheWonderer (Link)

No Reset Runs

In 2015 the first known real time run was performed. Improvements over the old segmented run include strafing on slopes to take a shortcut over the mountain at the start, clipping out of bounds after killing the thieves, killing the fire dragon as a dragonsnapper instead of using summoning scrolls, transforming into a sheep to skip Fajeth's quest and dropping the Eye of Innos while talking to the dragons to not have to charge it again. However due to it not being segmented the triple fire rain hit that TheWonderer used to kill the swamp dragon was exchanged for a slower combination of spells.

37:34 by Saradoc (Link)

Up until this point it was believed that the targeting glitch with Destroy Undead required an undead target to be in the focus, when in reality having nothing in the focus also works. So the next record didn't summon an undead creature at the rock dragon anymore and generally had better execution. The Destroy Undead targeting glitch was also attempted at the swamp dragon but the spell missed:

35:29 by Saradoc (Link)

In the next record more animal transformations were used in the Adanos temple and the Destroy Undead targeting glitch on the swamp dragon worked:

33:40 by Saradoc (Link)

In late 2017 it was discovered how to do the catapult glitch in Gothic 2, but it would only cause a category split in 2023.

Any%

BlackSecret discovered how the catapult glitch works in Gothic 2 and used it at the beginning of the run to fly from Xardas' tower to the harbor. He also used a different route in Jharkendar to get to the Adanos temple. While previous runs ran through the bandit camp and risked being killed in one hit, he ran into the swamp left of the camp and used an animal transformation in a corner to get out of bounds and enter the temple from above. In the temple he used the field raider transformation to clip through a wall and fall down to a later part of the temple while previous runs only skipped individual doors with animal transformations. After killing the swamp dragon he clipped through a corner behind it using the method entering and exiting combat mode and ran to the ice dragon from there instead of teleporting back to the castle, which also allowed him to run a part of the way while waiting for the demon to kill the frozen swamp dragon. Interestingly it's also using the D3D11 renderer. There was no rule allowing or banning its use at the time.

33:32 by BlackSecret (Link)

BlackSecret also discovered that the wait time at the ritual to repair the Eye of Innos can be skipped by casting a Fear spell on Vatras. Previous runs saved and loaded to skip the wait period, but that required obtaining a second black ore and setting up the glitch a second time.

31:44 by Saradoc (Link)

30:56 by Saradoc (Link)

Karstix took a risky strategy at the rockdragon and killed it with two untargeted Destroy Undead spells without first freezing him. He also took the faster path through the water to the ice dragon instead of running around it.

30:53 by Karstix (Link)

Up to this point Raven was always killed with ice block and summon golem, but now a shadowbeast transformation was used to kill him and also pass through the wall behind him.

30:36 by Saradoc (Link)

30:11 by Saradoc (Link)

29:39 by Saradoc (Link)

In 2020 Karstix discovered the infinite scroll use glitch that would drastically change the run. While previously the limited spell scrolls had to be carefully managed and you had to kill the dragons in different ways and could only abuse animal transformations as often as you had the relevant spell scrolls, you could now use powerful spells like Transform into a Dragon Snapper and Destroy Undead infinitely often. Most animal transformations were replaced with dragon snapper including for the Raven kill. In chapter 4 the 3 dragons were all killed with Destroy Undead spam

29:34 by Karstix (Link)

The next record by Karstix also swapped out the fire lizard at the thieves guild for the dragon snapper.

29:22 by Karstix (Link)

Saradoc switched out glitching Destroy Undead for Fire Rain and killed the 3 dragons in chapter 4 with it more quickly and safely. He also added the Lurker jump to skip waiting for the bridge in Irdorath to extend. The details of the route were also optimized and more other transformations were swapped out for the dragon snapper. The route was pretty close to the current No Flying All Chapters route at this point.

28:35 by Saradoc (Link)

28:11 by Saradoc (Link)

27:59 by Saradoc (Link)

All the runs up to this point only had a single catapult at the start to get into the city more quickly. Now a second catapult was added after landing to get from Lares to Ignaz more quickly.

27:54 by Karstix (Link)

27:44 by Saradoc (Link)

27:19 by Saradoc (Link)

26:55 by Karstix (Link)

At this point CrazyDoGaming started running Gothic 2 and his proficiency at sideways catapults significantly changed the Any% route. While previously the catapult at the start was done backwards and at 30 fps, now all catapults were done sideways and at 50 fps. The sideways catapult is way more reliable and the higher fps drastically reduce the time the game has to be paused for. That new reliability and speed caused the catapult to be used in more places. The next record by Karstix added a catapult from Ignaz to the thieves guild, from Andre to Hagen and from the entrance of the mine valley to the rock dragon. The latter is referred to as a "speedglitch catapult" and is harder to execute and requires a longer waiting time. It was also very inconsistent at that time, which could later be helped by playing at 48 fps and drawing a spell for a better visual cue in the strafing animation. It also added OOB paths in Jharkendar from the the loading screen to the water mages and the reverse.

26:37 by Karstix (Link)

Karstix mentions having had a record run just before the above one, which according to his splits would have been around 4 seconds slower. It didn't take long for CrazyDoGaming to get records of his own. He did his runs using the D3D11 renderer, which both saved time by reducing lag and made the catapult more reliable by having a more consistent framerate. The use of the renderer was controversial at the time, but eventually it was accepted. He added another catapult from Hagen over the city wall, but did not do the speedglitch catapult to the rock dragon due to its inconsistency. While jumping as a dragon snapper at 30 fps with the black ore glitch was slower than regular running, it is faster at 50 fps and transforming into a dragon snapper and continuously jumping was worked into the route for longer period of running. It's also the first run that included targeting Orlan through the wall.

26:10 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

More catapults were being discovered and added to the run. This one added a speedglitch catapult from the monastery bridge to the mountain on the left to save time on the way to the circle of the sun.

25:50 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

25:24 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

This run was the first to use drawing magic to make speedglitch catapults more reliable and also did them from the tavern to the circle of the sun both times. Karstix also got the very inconsistent "Snapper Jesus Glitch" in the water to the swamp dragon allowing him to run instead of wade through it.

25:05 by Karstix (Link)

At this point talking to Lares to learn that Bennet has been imprisoned was swapped out for talking to Bennet inside the prison by clipping into it as a dragon snapper and clipping out of it by wallstrafing.

24:32 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

A new runner called BartusJD started doing even more catapults. This run included new ones from OOB near the black ore cave to the mine valley loading zone, from the prison to the upper quarters of the city, from the tavern to the monastery, from the castle to the swamp dragon, from OOB near the swamp dragon to the ice dragon, from OOB in Irdorath to the Undead Dragon and also back to the ship on top of the all the previously used ones. He also looted Lutero instead of Ignaz in chapter 3 since it fits in better with the speedglitch.

23:51 by BartusJD (Link)

In early 2023 MF the Tunapizza discovered how to hover via animal transformation. As the run seemed frustrating and luck-dependant due to its many catapults at the time, the discovery of this glitch and its easy execution made the run more bearable and also saved a lot of time again. At the beginning it seemed to be inconsistent and reliant on a consistent framerate, but it was soon discovered how to make its execution 100% consistent. This run featured wolf hovers from the black ore cave to the mine valley loading zone, from the mine valley entrance to the castle and from the prison to Hagen. It still contained 7 speedglitch catapults. In Jharkendar it uses a faster method to enter the Adanos temple that was discovered by Bgm_, which is falling OOB next to the temple and transforming back at the right height. In chapter 3 he simply bought speed potions from Lutero instead of looting him.

23:35 by Jaffra (Link)

BartusJD in the next record killed the thieves as a warg, which he also used for hovers, and he uses regular snapper transformation scrolls. It's the first run to not kill the fire dragon in chapter 2, but instead catapult to the fire dragon at the start of chapter 4 from the mine valley entrance and kill it with fire rains instead of dragon snapper bites. Another speedglitch brought him from there to the rock dragon. In Jharkendar he skipped getting the focus stone from Merdarion and hovered directly from Cronos to above Raven, killed him with fire rain from above and hovered back again to the loading zone. He decided to again loot Lutero in chapter 3. He added an additional warg hover in chapter 4 from the castle to the swamp dragon and in Irdorath both speedglitch catapults were replaced by warg hovers, one from the orc general's room to the Undead Dragon, the other from the seeker hall back to the ship.

22:20 by BartusJD (Link)

Initially BartusJD did not consider this next record worth uploading since it contained no improvement besides better execution, but he was convinced to do so anyway, when someone saw his splits in a clip he uploaded.

21:58 by BartusJD (Link)

A new improvement to the hover called "hoverboosting" was discovered by MF the Tunapizza and it was used by BartusJD instead of the speedglitch catapult to the fire dragon and also to save time on several other hovers. It's also the first run using a trick discovered by Saradoc based on a glitch documented by "Slavemaster" to glitch the count of the coins in the hero's inventory. Now the 2500 gold required to hire Torlof as the captain were reduced to less than 1250 and looting Lutero could be skipped.

20:28 by BartusJD (Link)

In 2023 maciolo69 discovered how to kill the dragons without first obtaining the Eye of Innos. He streamed a prerecorded 18:17 No Flying run and BartusJD published a new Any% record immediately afterwards. Due to this discovery it was no longer necessary to do any of the storyline required to obtain the Eye of Innos. Joining the militia, getting the letter from Garond and getting and repairing the Eye of Innos could all be skipped. Some setup in the city is however still required to obtain infinite wargs and fire rains. After killing the 4 dragons he hovered from the Khorinis loading zone to the monastery to get the map and from there to Onar's farm to hire Torlof and finally from the monastery to the Paladin's ship.

11:59 by BartusJD (Link)

11:16 by BartusJD (Link)

10:57 by BartusJD (Link)

9:58 by BartusJD (Link)

9:54 by binesmen69 (Link)

9:36 by binesmen69 (Link)

9:29.615 by BartusJD (Link)

9:29.150 by binesmen69 (Link)

8:50 by BartusJD (Link)

8:44 by Milgar (Link)

No Flying

Shared History Between Skips And All Chapters

Although the catapult glitch was discovered in late 2017 the category split only happened in 2023. See Shared Record History above for the history of this category up until the 33:40 by Saradoc in 2015.

The history continues in early 2023 after the category split:

27:39 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

27:21 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

27:19 by Karrypto (Link)

27:10 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

26:47 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

26:45 by Karrypto (Link)

26:39 by Saradoc (Link)

Skips

In May 2023 maciolo69 discovered how to kill the dragons without first obtaining the Eye of Innos and streamed the following prerecorded run. This also caused the creation of this subcategory.

18:17 by maciolo69 (Link)

16:57 by Karrypto (Link)

16:38 by Karrypto (Link)

16:16 by vaiiii (Link)

16:05 by vaiiii (Link)

15:39 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

14:32 by BartusJD (Link)

14:22 by vaiiii (Link)

14:15 by Karrypto (Link)

14:12 by vaiiii (Link)

14:05 by Karrypto (Link)

13:47 by Karrypto (Link)

13:39 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

13:10 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

12:39 by BartusJD (Link)

All Chapters

After the 26:39 by Saradoc the history of this subcategory continues with Karrypto's runs:

26:34 by Karrypto (Link)

26:12 by Karrypto (Link)

25:31 by Karrypto (Link)

23:10 by Karrypto (Link)

Glitch-Restricted

The first known real time run was performed in 2017:

1:27:55 by Saradoc (Link)

1:23:38 by Saradoc (Link)

1:19:04 by Saradoc (Link)

1:18:55 by Karstix (Link)

1:16:58 by Karstix (Link)

1:14:35 by Saradoc (Link)

1:09:40 by Milgar (Link)

Damageless

The first known attempts at beating Gothic 2 without taking damage were done by Saradoc in 2017 and he succeeded on his 13th attempt. This was neither intended to be a speedrun nor did it follow all the speedrun rules. Most importantly he had a softlock due to an animal transformation "ghost" being killed. This was not understood at the time and seemed like a totally random glitch, so he freed himself with F8 and continued.

4:05:?? by Saradoc (Link)

The first proper speedrun of this category was done in 2021:

1:34:03 by Saradoc (Link)

1:12:57 by Milgar (Link)

No Annoying Glitches

This category was created in 2021 and got the following run as the first record:

46:35 by Saradoc (Link)

46:02 by Karstix (Link)

42:29 by Milgar (Link)

41:28 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

Undead Dragon Kill

In 2006 ZeRo uploaded a video of "beating" Gothic 2 in 18 minutes. But in fact he killed the Undead Dragon, ran back to the ship and there the screen faded out, which would make it the first run of this category (besides the earlier full game segmented runs, which of course also killed the Undead Dragon). TheWonderer said that he did not have the Eye of Innos and thus should not be able to kill the Undead Dragon. It's unclear whether he cheated or whether TheWonderer was unaware of the bag containing the Eye of Innos spawning in Irdorath, if you enter without it. It's also unclear whether he used segments or did it in real time.

18:?? by ZeRo (Link)

The next run of this category would only happen in 2015

10:10 by Saradoc (Link)

9:17 by Dejw (Link)

8:13 by Valerio (Link)

7:59 by ledonol (Link)

7:43 by Saradoc (Link)

6:51 by Saradoc (Link)

6:48 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

5:57 by Saradoc (Link)

5:27 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

4:27 by Milgar (Link)

3:16 by BartusJD (Link)

Raven Kill

This category was created in 2022.

5:13 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

4:08 by xKoRx (Link)

3:54 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

2:59 by Milgar (Link)

2:45 by Milgar (Link)

2:34 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

2:26 by Milgar (Link)

Garond Kill

6:40 by Valerio (Link)

6:16 by Valerio (Link)

6:08 by Karstix (Link)

6:07 by Valerio (Link)

6:06 by Valerio (Link)

5:44 by Valerio (Link)

5:32 by Saradoc (Link)

5:31 by Valerio (Link)

5:09 by Karstix (Link)

4:42 by BlackSecret (Link)

4:34 by ledonol (Link)

4:17 by BlackSecret (Link)

3:59 by ledonol (Link)

3:40 by ledonol (Link)

3:20 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

3:05 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

2:44 by Milgar (Link)

2:33 by CrazyDoGaming (Link)

2:22 by Milgar (Link)