Speedrun Tricks Any D2R Group Can Use This Season
The 8-man speedrun plans were written for eight players, but several of their ideas shrink fine: split lanes, portals on boss groups, potions at the portal. Here is what carries over to a group of two to four, and what does not.
A group of two to four can level fast by copying the parts of the 8-man speedrun plans that don't depend on headcount: split up to search, drop a town portal on every good boss group, keep potions at the portal, and hold quest items in town. The full taxi needs eight.
The ideas come from three sheets in jymnasium's (twitch.tv/jymnasium) speedrun planbook. Taxi Strat 3.0 was created by jymnasium (twitch.tv/jymnasium) with the help of the 8Man Speedrunners. 8-Man Norm was created by jymnasium (twitch.tv/jymnasium) with the help of the speedrunners. Classic Strat is from jymnasium's (twitch.tv/jymnasium) speedrun planbook, created with the help of the speedrunners. None of the nine plans in the planbook is written for fewer than eight players. What follows is our adaptation of their ideas, not a published small-group route, and no time is attached to it.
Split to Search, Regroup to Kill
Searching is the part of a route that divides best between people. Taxi Strat 3.0's Game 1 (levels 3-9) does it everywhere: the team spreads out along the road to find the Stony Field waypoint, spreads out again in Dark Wood for the Tree of Inifuss, and spreads out on the road to help find the Forgotten Tower. 8-Man Norm gives one Druid the Black Marsh waypoint and the Tower, and another Druid the Black Marsh portal, Tamoe Highland and the Pit.
With three players you get three lanes, and with two you get two. The habit that carries over is that whoever finds the waypoint or the Tower drops a portal, and the others hop to it instead of walking. Public groups already do a loose version of this, since the fastest way to level during a ladder reset notes that groups traditionally split tombs and re-form. The plans assign the lanes in advance.
Fast Normal to Hell With Portals Instead of Walking
Hopping between portals needs no Teleport, and it is the cheapest speed habit on this list. The self-driven route for a fast Normal to Hell run is in Normal to Hell fast. In Game 1 the Tele Sorc already leaves a portal in Tamoe Highland and hops to XP shrines and boss groups from it. Classic Strat loosens the rule further: harvest portals don't have to sit at the exact spots the sheet names, because any decent boss group within 90 seconds works. For a small group we would adopt that rule as written and ignore the named spots, since they were chosen for a team that can cover several at once.
Keep the plans' level gates and drop their clock. Taxi Strat 3.0 has the team kill the Ancients at level 40+ in Nightmare and 60+ in Hell, and those gates hold at any group size. The level goals on the way, such as 19.75+ before Travincal in Normal, assume eight players' worth of XP, so treat them as a rough check on how far ahead or behind you are, not a pace you must match.
A One-Person Taxi
From Nightmare the Tele Sorc takes the outside portal, teleports ahead and drops portals beside boss groups. All three Sorcs in the Taxi build tables take Teleport at level 18. That job doesn't shrink: one Sorceress with Teleport can taxi a party of any size, and the gain is the one the big team gets, with nobody spending time searching.
What you give up is the second searcher. The Limo Sorc runs outside and finds boss groups for the harvest team, which a three-player group can't afford as a full-time job. The sheet itself floats a fix for the early going: the Taxi Sorc and the Tele Sorc switch duties until the Tele Sorc reaches level 26. In a small group, swapping the scout and the teleporter every so often is a sensible default.
The 8-Man Norm sheet adds one more idea: funnel boss groups to a single main XP character, and let the others serve her. That suits a group that has one engine character, such as a Nova or Static Sorc, and wants her levels first.
Small Jobs That Save Minutes
Taxi Strat 3.0 has the Barb set potions and Battle Orders at the portals from Nightmare Act 1, with extra mana potions at the portals from Act 2. One person restocking one spot saves everyone else a town trip. The plan also has the team drop the Gidbinn and the golden bird in town and wait until everyone has turned them in, and has players drop the amulet piece and staff at the town portals for the Tele Sorc. All of that works at any size, and none of it needs a spreadsheet.
What Does Not Shrink to Four Players
Several pieces only work with eight bodies, and pretending otherwise will cost you time.
- The booster trick. 8-Man Norm uses three level-1 Amazons to pad the game's player count for bigger monster XP, and they stay out of the Main Sorc's XP range. You need those extra characters in the game, and the sheet has no smaller version.
- Stealth math. The "up to six useful Stealths" in Taxi Strat 3.0 comes from three Sorcs and three Pallies. A smaller group gets fewer.
- The tomb call-outs. The plan hands six runners six Tal Rasha tomb symbols. With three players you would have to rebuild that split yourselves.
- Dedicated roles. The Limo Sorc's scouting, the Cold Sorc's Throne lead and the Barb's Battle Orders at every portal are three different people on an eight-slot team. In a group of four, one person holds two of them.
The end of the Hell route scales down fine. The Cold Sorc leads the Throne and spawns Baal on P1, and everyone else leaves and rejoins to leech the quest. Nothing in that step needs eight players.
If we could copy only one habit, it would be putting a portal on every boss group and making the hop the default. For a longer look at small-team play, leveling with a small group of friends covers the basics.
FAQ
Can you speedrun D2R with only two to four players?
You can play fast, but the planbook has no route written for fewer than eight players, so none of its times apply to you. Borrow the ideas above and time yourself against your own earlier runs.
Do you need Teleport to level fast as a group?
Not at first. In Taxi Strat 3.0 all three Sorcs take Teleport at level 18, and in Game 1 the Tele Sorc already hops from a portal to XP shrines and boss groups. The taxi proper starts in Nightmare, and any Sorceress with Teleport can run it.
Why do the 8-man plans add level-1 characters to a game?
In 8-Man Norm, three level-1 Amazons pad the player count so monsters give bigger XP, and they must not gain XP themselves. Group size scaling is explained in the leveling route post, and the Norm trick needs more bodies than a small group has.
Take the Idea to Your Group
Season 16 starts Friday, November 13, 2026 at 5 PM PST, according to Blizzard's season announcement, and the reset countdown tracks it. Read the full plans in the strategy library, then fill your group: post on the LFG board, ask in the Discord, or create an account and see who is in the free-agent pool.