The Speed Thief Collection

[Luthien]

1. Introduction

In this thread you can find a hopefully complete collection of all information about Speed Thief, a playing mode that has only a single goal: finish either Thief game or mission as fast as possible. All information I could find about any Speed Thief attempts have been included. If you miss any particular information, know about other threads regarding Speed Thief, or want to provide your own mission times (include time, game (TDP/TG/TMA) and difficulty), please tell me.

1.1 References

Thief done fast
Lytha's speed tief run
Telliamed's speed thief run (TDP) and Spitter's run (TG)
Luthien's first speed thief run
Completing TG in less than one hour
Bafford's
Bafford's (another thread)
Bafford's (one more thread)
Speed thief in TDP
Luthien's Cushy Trumpet mode run
Another Speed Thief Thread
The Lost City
Thief 3 Speedrun
Thread with several speed runs and videos!
Speed thief thread in speeddemosarchive
Videos of TMA runs on expert difficulty by TheStefan and Bentraxx

1.2 Keywords (for forum search)
speed thief run hurry haste quick fast record best time one hour hours minute two minutes

[Luthien]

2. Speed Thief Runs

2.1 Completed Runs (J, R)

0:52:19 TG Luthien (K)
1:15:16 TG Luthien
1:42:31 TG Spitter
2:15:59 TG Lytha
3:05:46 TG Lytha
3:15:00 TG Luthien (no saving, real time, actual time is less)
1:26:59 TDP Junkie Doodle (no Training)
1:58:41 TDP Lytha
3:12:03 TDP telliamed
0:44:59 TDP Ace (Bafford's - RtC)
5:31:22 TDP telliamed (Expert, no Training)
1:05:58 TMA Luthien
1:31:15 TDS CannibalK9

2.2 Thief Gold Run Details

Lytha's first run

02:42 A Keeper's Training
01:32 Lord Bafford's Manor
06:57 Break from Cragscleft Prison
04:38 Down into the Bonehoard
07:32 Assassins
32:12 Thieves' Guild
06:25 The Sword
09:25 The Haunted Cathedral
47:55 The Mages' Tower
09:59 The Lost City
14:47 Song of Caverns
04:21 Undercover
10:40 Return to the Cathedral
04:46 Escape!
06:40 Strange Bedfellows
13:07 Maw of Chaos
-----------------------------------
3:05:46

Lytha's second run

02:21 A Keeper's Training
00:58 Lord Bafford's Manor
06:36 Break from Cragscleft Prison
04:08 Down into the Bonehoard
06:42 Assassins
18:33 Thieves' Guild
04:53 The Sword
07:38 The Haunted Cathedral
37:40 The Mages' Tower
03:45 The Lost City
11:13 Song of Caverns
04:44 Undercover
06:43 Return to the Cathedral
01:52 Escape!
05:56 Strange Bedfellows
12:08 Maw of Chaos
-----------------------------------
2:15:59

Spitter's run

02:11 A Keeper's Training
00:51 Lord Bafford's Manor
03:55 Break from Cragscleft Prison
03:43 Down into the Bonehoard
06:47 Assassins
09:41 Thieves' Guild
04:19 The Sword
05:11 The Haunted Cathedral
21:49 The Mages' Tower
06:43 The Lost City
07:53 Song of the Caverns
05:07 Undercover
04:30 Return to the Cathedral
02:03 Escape!
05:56 Strange Bedfellows
11:43 Maw of Chaos
-----------------------------------
1:42:31

Luthien's first run

02:20 A Keeper's Training
00:53 Lord Bafford's Manor
04:18 Break from Cragscleft Prison
03:05 Down into the Bonehoard
05:24 Assassins
06:00 Thieves' Guild
02:49 The Sword
04:49 The Haunted Cathedral
15:07 The Mages' Tower
02:42 The Lost City
05:55 Song of Caverns
03:41 Undercover
02:24 Return to the Cathedral
01:25 Escape!
03:03 Strange Bedfellows
11:13 Maw of Chaos
-----------------------------------
1:15:16

Luthien's second run (K)

01:46 A Keeper's Training
00:44 Lord Bafford's Manor
03:35 Break from Cragscleft Prison
02:39 Down into the Bonehoard
05:02 Assassins
04:49 Thieves' Guild
02:25 The Sword
02:47 The Haunted Cathedral
04:41 The Mages' Tower (with keyholing) (K)
02:04 The Lost City
04:51 Song of Caverns
02:51 Undercover
01:30 Return to the Cathedral (with keyholing) (K)
01:10 Escape!
02:44 Strange Bedfellows
08:31 Maw of Chaos
-----------------------------------
0:52:19

2.3 The Dark Project Run Details

Junkie Doodle's run (no Training)

16:42 The Lost City
~2:00 Escape!
-----------------------------------------
~31:00 Lord Bafford's Manor - The Sword
1:07:45 Lord Bafford's Manor - Escape!
1:26:59 Total

Ace's run (incomplete?)

44:59 Lord Bafford's Manor - Return to the Cathedral

Lytha's run

~19:00 The Lost City
-----------------------------------
1:58:41

telliamed's run (expert difficulty)

10:33 Lord Bafford's Manor
27:27 Break from Cragscleft Prison
19:46 Down into the Bonehoard
16:02 Assassins
19:20 The Sword
35:23 The Haunted Cathedral
30:57 The Lost City
27:33 Undercover
52:48 Return to the Cathedral
39:07 Escape!
27:54 Strange Bedfellows
24:27 Maw of Chaos
-----------------------------------
5:31:22

2.4 The Metal Age Run Details

Luthien's run (P, S)

03:09 Running Interference
02:52 Shipping, ... and Receiving
02:35 Framed
02:18 Ambush!
02:55 Eavesdropping (with pausing) (P)
03:33 First City Bank and Trust
03:16 Blackmail
07:54 Trace the Courier
03:26 Trail of Blood
06:44 Life of the Party
05:41 Precious Cargo
03:56 Kidnap
02:07 Casing the Joint
03:38 Masks
11:48 Sabotage at Soulforge (K, S at 8:31)
------------------------------------------------
1:05:58 Total

MorbusG's run (no saving, avi-videos)

03:11 Running Interference
06:44 Shipping, ... and Receiving
03:11 Framed
02:54 Ambush!
09:33 Eavesdropping (with pausing) (P)
05:16 First City Bank and Trust
05:25 Blackmail
------------------------------------------------
0:33:05 Total (up to Blackmail)

2.5 Deadly Shadows Run Details

CannibalK9's run (TDS)

02:31 Checking Inn - Cashing Out
06:33 End of the Bloodline
02:57 The City (1)
05:13 St. Edgar's Eve
00:27 The City (2)
05:53 Into the Pagan Sanctuary
04:32 The City (3)
06:45 The House of Widow Moira
01:40 The City (4)
05:49 The Sunken Citadel
00:36 The City (5)
05:20 Killing Time
05:54 The City (6)
04:40 Of Brethren... and Betrayers
01:36 The City (7)
13:18 Robbing the Cradle
07:02 The City (8)
06:13 Still Life with Blackjack
03:59 The City (9)
-----------------------------------
1:31:15

[Luthien]

3. Mission Records

3.1 TG and TDP Missions Rankings
(from TG if not stated otherwise)

A Keeper's Training

01:39 Rogston (TDP)
01:46 Luthien
01:55 Lt-UnRealL
02.11 Spitter
02:08 santaClaws
02:11 Spitter
02:21 Lytha

Lord Bafford's Manor

00:37 Rogston (TDP 1.14v)
00:40 michael_
00:42 Secluded Memory
00:42 TK
00:42 Luthien
00:47 Lt-UnRealL
00:48 Ace
00:48 GrueSlayer
00:51 ACT SMILEY
00:51 Spitter
~0:53 -=V=-
00:54 scarecrow
00:56 Haze
00:58 Lytha
00:58 Paz
00:59 comfortably numb
>0:59 chickenlittle
01:02 Pointdexter43
01:03 Junkie Doodle
01:04 Yenzarill
01:06 Nethawk
~2:00 Tuler
02:10 ThievingME
02:52 Iscariot
~8:00 Tumbleweed (Lytha style, no saving)
~9:00 Burt

Expert Difficulty:

01:59 Luthien
01:59 sumeragi
>6:00 mopgoblin
10:33 telliamed (TDP)

Break from Cragscleft Prison

02:43 Rogston (TDP 1.14v) (M)
03:20 Luthien (with two speed potions from the store, Cutty's speech in German which takes mor time)
03:24 Lt-UnRealL
03:35 Luthien
03:55 Spitter
06:36 Lytha

Expert Difficulty:

27:27 telliamed (TDP)

Down into the Bonehoard

02:26 Rogston (TDP 1.14v) (M)
02:39 Luthien
04:08 Lytha

Expert Difficulty:

19:46 telliamed (TDP)

Assassins

04:26 Rogston (TDP 1.14v)
05:02 Luthien (German voice acting which is longer than english)
06:42 Lytha
06:47 Spitter

Expert Difficulty:

07:54 Lt-UnReaL
16:02 telliamed (TDP)

Thieves' Guild

04:49 Luthien
09:41 Spitter
18:33 Lytha

The Sword

01:46 Rogston (TDP 1.14v)
02:25 Luthien
02:51 Lt-UnRealL
04:19 Spitter
04:53 Lytha

Expert Difficulty:

19:20 telliamed (TDP)

The Haunted Cathedral

02:22 Rogston (TDP 1.14v) (M)
02:47 Luthien
05:11 Spitter
07:38 Lytha

Expert Difficulty:

35:23 telliamed (TDP)

The Lost City

TG:

02:04 Luthien
02:27 Tw1sT (with two speed potions)
03:45 Lytha
06:43 Spitter

TDP:

04:59 SaunaChum (TDP 1.14v) (M)
16:42 Junkie Doodle
~19:00 Lytha

TDP, Expert Difficulty:

30:57 telliamed

The Mages' Tower

04:41 Luthien (with keyholing) (K)
15:07 Luthien
21:49 Spitter
37:40 Lytha

Song of Caverns

04:51 Luthien
07:53 Spitter
11:13 Lytha

Undercover

TG:

02:20 SaunaChum (TDP 1.14v)
02:51 Luthien
04:21 Lytha
05:07 Spitter

TDP, Expert Difficulty:

27:33 telliamed

Return to the Cathedral

TG:

01:30 Luthien (with keyholing) (K)
02:24 Luthien
04:30 Spitter
06:43 Lytha
<5:00 Khamoon

TDP:

00:36 SaunaChum (TDP 1.14v, blocking the front doors with a skull)
00:55 ThievingME (Expert, blocking the front doors with a skull)
01:34 Nightvision
01:43 Lytha
<2:00 Gravel Keeper

TDP, Expert Difficulty:

00:55 ThievingME (blocking the front doors with a skull)
52:48 telliamed

Escape!

00:49 Escape! SaunaChum (TDP 1.14v)
01:10 Luthien
01:52 Lytha
~2:00 Junkie Doodle (TDP)
02:03 Spitter
~5:00 ThievingME

Expert Difficulty:

39:07 telliamed (TDP)

Strange Bedfellows

02:27 SaunaChum (TDP 1.14v) (M)
02:44 Luthien
05:56 Lytha
05:56 Spitter

Expert Difficulty:

27:54 telliamed (TDP)

Maw of Chaos

08:31 Luthien (Expert)
08:31 Rogston (TDP 1.14v)
10:00 - 11:00 ThievingME
12:08 Lytha
12:00 SlyFoxx (Expert)
13:14 SlyFox (TDP, Expert)

Expert Difficulty:

08:31 Luthien (Expert)
12:00 SlyFoxx
13:14 SlyFox (TDP, Expert)
24:27 telliamed (TDP)

3.2 TMA Missions Rankings

Running Interference

02:51 Poesta (v1.07)
02:56 Luthien (no saving)
03:07 StragenessDSS (Expert, no saving)
03:11 MorbusG (no saving)
03:14 Spitter

Expert Difficulty:

02:58 TheStefan
03:07 StrangenessDSS

Shipping, ... and Receiving

01:55 Poesta (M, v1.07)
02:52 Luthien
03:08 StrangenessDSS (no saving)
04:44 MorbusG (no saving)
08:26 Spitter

Expert Difficulty:

06:09 Bentraxx

Framed

02:02 Poesta (M, v1.07)
02:35 Luthien
03:11 MorbusG (no saving)

Expert Difficulty:

02:28 Bentraxx (exploited a bug)

Ambush!

02:04 Poesta (v1.07)
02:18 Luthien
02:54 MorbusG (no saving)

Expert Difficulty:

02:13 TheStefan

Eavesdropping

02:55 Luthien (with pausing) (P)
07:28 Poesta (M, v1.07)
09:33 MorbusG (no saving)

Expert Difficulty:

10:04 TheStefan

First City Bank and Trust

01:07 Poesta (v1.07, blast open metal door, not possible in 1.18)
03:33 Luthien
05:16 MorbusG (no saving)
07:04 S_Hole

Expert Difficulty:

03:51 TheStefan

Blackmail

02:16 Poesta (M, v1.07)
03:16 Luthien
05:25 MorbusG (no saving)

Expert Difficulty:

05:21 TheStefan

Trace the Courier

03:27 Poesta (M, v1.07)
07:54 Luthien

Expert Difficulty:

07:54 TheStefan

Trail of Blood

03:21 Poesta (M, v1.07)
03:26 Luthien

Expert Difficulty:

03:56 TheStefan

Life of the Party

06:42 Poesta (M, v1.07)
06:44 Luthien

Expert Difficulty:

11:49 TheStefan

Precious Cargo

04:41 Poesta (M, v1.07)
05:41 Luthien

Expert Difficulty:

08:49 TheStefan

Kidnap

03:43 Poesta (M, v1.07)
03:56 Luthien

Expert Difficulty:

05:40 TheStefan

Casing the Joint

01:06 Poesta (M, v1.07)
01:56 Luthien (without optional goal)
02:07 Luthien (with optional goal)

Expert Difficulty:

5:22 TheStefan

Masks

03:24 Poesta (M, v1.07)
03:38 Luthien (without optional goal)

Sabotage at Soulforge

11:08 Poesta (M, v1.07)
11:48 Luthien (K, S at 8:31)

[Luthien]

4. The Quickest Missions

00:36 RtC (TDP 1.14v, blocking the front doors w/ skull)
00:37 Lord Bafford's Manor
00:49 Escape!
01:06 Casing the Joint (M)
01:07 First City Bank and Trust (v1.07)
01:30 Return to the Cathedral (with keyholing) (K)
01:39 A Keeper's Training
01:55 Shipping, ... and Receiving
01:56 Casing the Joint (without optional goal)
02:02 Framed (M)
02:04 The Lost City
02:04 Ambush!
02:16 Blackmail (M)
02:20 Undercover
02:26 Down into the Bonehoard (M)
02:27 Strange Bedfellows (M)
02:43 Break from Cragscleft Prison (M)
02:47 The Haunted Cathedral (M)
02:51 Running Interference
02:55 Eavesdropping (with pausing) (P)
03:21 Trail of Blood (M)
03:24 Masks (M)
03:27 Trace the Courier (v1.07) (M)
03:43 Kidnap (M)
04:26 Assassins
04:41 The Mages' Tower (with keyholing) (K)
04:42 Precious Cargo (M)
04:49 Thieves' Guild
04:51 Song of Caverns
06:42 Life of the Party (M)
08:31 Maw of Chaos
11:08 Sabotage at Soulforge (M)


Appendix A: Notes on cheats or bug exploits

Some of the listed mission times were achieved by exploiting certain bugs in the game engine. One may or may not consider these techniques cheating. For my own mission times, all applied techniques are noted in parentheses. For the mission times of others, it is unclear which techniques have been used.

J - Kangaroo Jumping
By jumping and jumping again immediately when landing Garrett can accelerate to insane speed in TG and TDP. Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that everybody playing speed thief uses kangaroo jumping.

K - Keyholing
In both games it is possible to lean through some closed doors and hatches and frob objects behind them. This can cut down some mission times dramatically.

M - Money Run
A run with all the money from the previous mission with lots of stuff bought from the shop.

P - Pausing Conversations
The command console can be opened in game with a keystroke. For example, put "bind p edit_command" in the user.bnd file. In T2, NPC conversations are played in chunks of a couple of seconds. If you pause the game at the beginning of a chunk with the key binding above, the sound chunk continues to play. Hit return on the console before the sound chunk ends. You have heard part of the conversation, but no game time has passed. Repeat this process until the conversation ends. In Eavesdropping this can save more than three minutes game time.

R - Strafe Running and Jumping
In both games, Garrett moves a bit faster if the strafe left or right key is held in addition to the run key. Unless stated otherwise, it is assumed that everybody playing speed thief uses strafe running.

S - Speed Potion Bug
By accident, I managed to permanently gain the effect of a speed potion. If this could be reproduced reliably, many mission times could be cut down considerably.

[Lytha]

... why do you compile those lists? It is not as if we were having a competition or somesuch. At least I had only a competition with meself when I ran twice through Thief Gold.

Uh.

[Luthien]

* To have one thread to point to when the topic comes up again.
* For future reference by myself. It's difficult to find all the Speed Thief related threads in this place.
* I like statistics
* Why not?

[Lytha]

Very well.

I just think it suggests that this community here was a place held together by some competitive nature. As if people had nothing better to do than to try to win in some sort of contest... ah, I dunno.

At least that was my impression when I found a thread like this one in some other community's forum, and it was one of the reasons why I did not stick around there for long. Schwanzlängenvergleiche are not one of my favourite hobbies, so to say.

Ah... nevermind me.

[SlyFoxx]

The Maw....TDP Platinum

Expert: 13:14

I think I could shave off 60-90 seconds but it would be way more dangerous. I liked the pace I kept. Moving fast but not too stupid.


I guess a BANZAI run might be in order. Might need a lot of reloads.

I like stats too. I'ts fun to see just how fast things can be done. We have some mighty quick taffers 'round these here parts.

[S_Hole]

i'd love to see some demos of top records
the record quake video was unbelievable.. perfect coordination

[ACT SMILEY]

Just for a laugh, I tried to record a speed run on Baffords using Fraps, but the problem was that the whole system more or less ground to a halt at 640x480 - whenever I record, my framerate drops to around 10 from 160 and unfortunately Fraps doesn't seem to record properly at 400x300, which gave me a steady 15fps, which was about good enough to get decent times, and throws up errors when I try and play the video I recorded at that setting :S

[S_Hole]

there's a demo record function in thief for that

[Luthien]

Yes, but the replay function does not work. After a few seconds, it stops replaying and you can take over control. In the many attempts I made to get it working, I replayed a ~45 second demo successfully from start to end only once. :P

[ACT SMILEY]

Well, I successfully recorded a run under a minute (59 seconds)... I'm compressing it up now... I'll put it up in a bit...

(dont laugh at the mistake at the end - it was at low fps)

[deadman]

Originally posted by Luthien
Yes, but the replay function does not work. After a few seconds, it stops replaying and you can take over control. In the many attempts I made to get it working, I replayed a ~45 second demo successfully from start to end only once. :P

Yeah, I had much the same problems, and didn't really hassle around with it enough to see if I could get the entire 'demo' to play all the way through . Would it be conceivably possible to play on one computer and record the demo (I guess using fraps?) on one that is networked ? I guess since this one has more processing power I'd have to play Thief on my 333 Mhz machine . Can this program (or any video capturing one) work over a network though?

You think by now they would've come up with something sophisticated enough so as not to gobble up everything and reduce the framerate to pennies.

I really wanted to show taffers my "psycho thief" murder run .

deadman.

[Spitter]

Impressive times, Luthien. It'll be interesting to see how quickly you can manage Kidnap.

[Morpheus]

02:52 Shipping, ... and Receiving
02:35 Framed

These are in MINUTES?!

[Luthien]

Well, according to my plan it should take no more than 3 minutes But then I had to correct my 5 minute estimate for Life of the Party to 10 minutes already.

[Luthien]

Originally posted by Morpheus
02:52 Shipping, ... and Receiving
02:35 Framed

These are in MINUTES?!

Of course, minutes. I'm especially happy about the 2:55 for Eavesdropping (the conversation between Truart and Karras takes 5 minutes).

[Luthien]

Originally posted by Spitter
It'll be interesting to see how quickly you can manage Kidnap.

In 3 minutes 56 seconds. Almost a minute more than I hoped

[Luthien]

I finally completed my T2 speed thief run with 11:48 in Sabotage at Soulforge and a total game time of 1:05:58.


03:09 Running Interference
02:52 Shipping, ... and Receiving
02:35 Framed
02:18 Ambush!
02:55 Eavesdropping
03:33 First City Bank and Trust
03:16 Blackmail
07:54 Trace the Courier
03:26 Trail of Blood
06:44 Life of the Party
05:41 Precious Cargo
03:56 Kidnap
02:07 Casing the Joint
03:38 Masks
11:48 Sabotage at Soulforge

1:05:58 Total

[dhaelis]

You sir, have way too much time on your hands.

Go get a dog or something!

Seriously though, fantastic times!

[Mortal Monkey]

I'd bet Garrett is turning in his grave right now.

[ionia23]

A few revisions from my own attempts.

01:31 - First City Bank and Trust
03:01 - Trail of Blood
04:31 - Sabotage at Soulforge

That oughta get you under an hour easily.

[Luthien]

Excellent times! You must have found some new shortcuts in all three missions - otherwise I can't explain the huge difference between your results and mine. Would you please enlighten me?

[S_Hole]

a speedpotion bug would be useful here