Larian nearly killed it, but a Baldur's Gate 3 runner has resurrected the RPG's 'Sex%' speedrun by swapping Lae'zel for Minthara

The Baldur's Gate 3 'Sex%' speedrun category has been reborn after Larian attempted to patch it out, though now the scene is working with a different paramour.

The somewhat niche category tasked players with romancing one of the game's characters as quickly as possible. Prior to Patch 4, the target of speedrunners' affections was Githyanki Fighter Lae'zel, who could be wooed at World Record pace thanks to a strategy that simply hinged on the player being a Githyanki too. Larian patched that, requiring players to have actually proven themselves to the character in order to get her hot under the armor, but not before leading speedrunner Mae got the time down to less than two minutes.

Now, Mae has returned, and while her latest run might not be quite as fast as the official record, it's still pretty quick. The new strategy involves turning her desire away from Lae'zel and towards Minthara, who can be pursued fairly easily if you help her raid the Tiefling Grove. With her strategy in place, and with use of the Enhanced Jump spell that's a staple of the Baldur's Gate 3 speedrunning scene, Mae picks her way carefully through Act 1, making sure not to stray away from the optimal path and thereby trigger time-wasting cutscenes.

Once she's found Minthara in the Goblin Camp, she returns to the Druid Grove, stealing the Idol of Sylvanus to disrupt the Tiefling's defenses. Job done, Mae takes a Long Rest, during which Minthara is able to sack the Grove, and at the ensuing party, the run completes at the four minute and 17 second mark. That might be more than twice as long as the current record, but given that that original route is essentially dead, it's the best we're getting for now. I also want to draw attention to the fact that on this run, Mae's Tav was named 'Justice for Sex%', which is a detail of the run that I feel could easily have been missed.

Not only concerned with getting Tav's rocks off, Mae has held world records across multiple Baldur's Gate 3 speedrunning categories, including a sub-20 minute run of the entire game that works by respeccing Shadowheart into a Druid, and then Wild-Shaping her into a bear that can take out bosses by jumping on top of them.

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