The shortest way through
 

Amidamaru86 started a thread called "No losses Imp Mage high score help" in which Elwin wanted to find the shortest way through the game. I think this thread became a little clogged, so I start a fresh thread dedicated to Elwin's quest for the shortest way through. The Elwin Meta-quest :)

"KBAP travel quest" is a breakdown of what Elwin wrote (including his remarks in post # 14).
- Quests are broken down in 2 or 3 stages (1=start, 2=task, 3=collect reward, which is not always necessary).
- The challenge of the islands and the location of the navigational charts are taken into account.

"KBAP travel time" is my solution to for least amount of travel time. It's 108 hours.

No fancy pictures, just excel. Feel free to comment and I will update. If someone can make better looking attachments, feel free to do so.

i think uncicornxp did th shortest way

Unicornxp wrote: I thought the point here was to do all the quests in the shortest possible time, not to finish the game in the shortest possible way without doing all the quests. But maybe I misunderstood Elwin.

But he made second try with all quest.

Unicornxp wrote:
Loop 1: 3+4+4+4+6 = 21
Loop 2: 9+0+0 = 9
Loop 3: 4+3+4+5+5 = 21
Loop 4: 5+4(?)+0+0+5+4+4+3+7+4+4+5+4+4 = 53
Total = 104.

Yep, that's 4 hours shorter.

I have added all three routes into one pdf-file so that they can be easily compared. I modifyed my route so that it is even slower :-) - but on the other hand it should at least be easily played.

By combining Petwins and unicornxps routes it is possible to use only 102 hours. It requires going to Reha only once. It looks like this:

Debir
Scarlet Wind
Rusty Anchor
Verona
Bolo
Debir
Dersu
Elon
Uzala
Nameless
Reha
Umkas
Montero
Tekron
Rusty Anchor
Scarlet Wind
Debir
Sheterra
Dersu
Elon
Uzala
Nameless
Verona

Until proven otherwise, this is the optimal route :-)

Your wonderful spreadsheet missed "The Fallen Paladin" the bounty-hunting quest, which begins on Scarlet and ends either on Elon or Montero (depending on the game).

Not that that invalidates any of the proposed solutions. But in the interest of completion, I thought I ought to mention it.

I am aware. I left it out because you always begin in Debir and continue to Scarlet Island. If you talk to everybody you will not miss it. Another reason is that the desitnation of Torkve is random. He can be in Montero Underground, River of Memory in Elon or (i do not remember the third place where I have met him - think it was 3 locations.). In order to complete the lists I should also have included the contract for the Hungy Beast. But what is missing is the contract for Zag-Zag. This contract is picked up in Bolo and is completed in Rusty Anchor. Not all routes go to Bolo before Rusty. In this case Zag-Zag must wait until the second visit to Rusty.

Debir
Scarlet Wind
Rusty Anchor
Verona
Bolo
Debir
Dersu
Elon
Uzala
Nameless
Reha
Umkas
Montero
Tekron
Rusty Anchor
Scarlet Wind
Debir
Sheterra
Dersu
Elon
Uzala
Nameless
Verona

Are you meant to kill K'Tahu on your first visit to Reha?