Baldur’s Gate 3 Has Its First Sub-20 Minute All Acts Speedrun — Thanks to a Massive Invisible Bear

The wonderful world of Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrunning leveled up once again this week with a new fastest time for an all acts completion of the game — and it was made possible thanks to a massive invisible bear.

Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrunner Mae, who IGN has reported on multiple times for various world records in Larian’s sprawling Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, has done it again, setting the first sub-20 minute completion of all three acts.

Setting a verified, load removed time of 19m 20s, Mae employed many of the tactics that have fuelled Baldur’s Gate 3 speedruns over the last few months, such as leaping like a frog through much of the game, and stuffing poor Shadowheart’s corpse in a box to trigger skips forward. But there’s a key difference this time: killing a boss as a 11,000 pound bear.

Those familiar with Baldur’s Gate 3 will know that it’s possible to wildshape into various animals, including a bear. During the Act 2 boss fight with Ketheric Thorm, Mae turns turns Shadowheart into a bear, casts Feather Fall on her, then Enhance Leap, then makes the bear even more massive by casting Enlarge on it. In Baldur’s Gate 3, the bigger you are, the harder you fall, and so this monstrous 5005kg bear falls pretty hard.

All that’s left is for Shadowheart in bear form to down a Potion of Invisibility for uninterrupted movement around the arena, then, from a high vantage point, leap on top of the unsuspecting Ketheric for 120 points of bludgeoning damage. Rinse and repeat for phase two. This is a tactic Mae showed off during the recent AGDQ Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrun, but now in a world record time. It’s pretty impressive stuff.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is only half a year old, so there’s plenty of room left for speedruns to shave off even more time. And given how freeform the game is, who knows what cool tech speedrunners will discover next?

If you’re still playing Baldur’s Gate 3 (and, given how big a game it is, you probably are!), be sure to check out our guide hub for all sorts of helpful tips.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].