Friday 12:00 pm: The challenge starts
According to the speedrun community’s common knowledge, it is crucial to take the direct shortcut to the IMW and not pass by the meeting point to shave two extra hours off our time. We start at ETH with an off-road/endurance hybrid build and allocate 2 extra skill points to our spatial awareness. I personally like equipping the LC Zurich traveller standard package for its unbreakable party spirit and portable JBL speaker.
Friday 13:33 pm: Shortcut to the IMW location
We take the train to Milano Centrale from Zürich HB. However, we will leave it already at Como S. Giovanni. Here we can restock on Italy’s best consumables: ice cream and espresso, to boost our blood sugar, heart rate, and mood.
Next, we board the bus to the IMW location. Here we don’t have much to do, so we can gaze at the beautiful Lago di Como under the afternoon sun. Truly one of the best next-gen overworld experiences on the market. We exit the bus at Lanzo d’Intelvi and start one of the most important sections of our playthrough.
Friday 17:10 pm: Learning the secret forest path
We leave Lanzo towards the East and walk uphill for about 1km. Here we will come across an overworld barrier, a mine, which we can not pass and which blocks our path to the accommodation. Notably, our minimap can not show the correct way to get around this yet.
Only through excellent platforming on the stones in the water, we can get to the other side of the small stream which is right next to us and the mine.
Here we can scale the forested mountainside for 100 m with our off-road abilities. Here we meet a path through the forest which will now be marked on our map and that leads us to the accommodation.
Friday 18:45 pm: Dinner and party
We should not forget to replenish our endurance stat at the excellent dinner prepared by LC Milan. Generally, the food here is always excellent and should not be missed out on. The following party is more optional. Not that it was not fun. LC Milan are great party people and always bring fun costumes.
But the other player and non-player characters at the site are not needed for our objective, so we can miss out on them.
Saturday 10:00 am: Breakfast and volleyball
Breakfast is very important here. Luckily, LC Milan has a dangerously over-motivated kitchen team that manages to work all day and party all night for us to have great food 3 times a day. Thank you very much to them at this point.
Now we basically just have to wait for the hike that is planned today, where all our preparations will come to fruition and we can save the day. In the waiting time, I decided to play some volleyball with the other attendees to kill the time faster. It definitely was fun too.
Saturday 12:07 pm: The hike
Starting from our accommodation, we follow the group on the hike through the surrounding cinematic hilly landscape where small villages are separated by lush green woods. Today a car rally takes place here, and we can watch different parts of the racetrack being prepared on our walk.
On our way back, we come to a now familiar area. Just 500 m from the accommodation, our tour guides will run into a problem, the mine.
Saturday 15:53 pm: Being a hero for 5 minutes
Now it’s our moment to strike. We notify the tour guides that we have been lost here before, but now know a way around the mine. We use our learned knowledge on the minimap to find the entry to the path we found through the forest next to the mine. This entry separates from the street we are on that leads to the mine 200 m earlier and seems to go in the wrong direction initially. But we try it regardless and reach the accommodation 10 minutes later.
Saturday 16:07 pm: Challenge completed
Thanks to us, the IMW group doesn’t have to walk all the way back the way we came from the accommodation when reaching the mine, saving everyone from exhaustion and an overall unpleasant time.
The rest of the weekend
Unsurprisingly, I spent the rest of the weekend avoiding parties, enjoying food and spending time with LC Milan, who are super fun people. I even made some new friends, though you wouldn’t believe it.
