Kangra on 12/6/2022 at 22:15
Nice job on that one.
Weird thing about the knockouts. I just checked on discovered I had the same thing on a run through of the Mage Tower: 69 knockouts, 58 damage dealt. So 11 of them take 0 damage on knockouts? Probably a mage thing, I'd guess.
edit: Found the same thing happened in the Lost City. 12 knockouts and 7 damage dealt. I thought it was just gas arrows, but it looks like some of the mages must take no damage from the blackjack.
Galaer on 22/2/2023 at 18:24
MISSION 9 - THE LOST CITY
I'm looking W
CITY
This direction doesn't really help me, so I need to find some wooden beam or ceiling to use rope arrow to turn myself. There is wooden bottom of ledge of house left from pier, but rope is a bit too long to use it for turning. The same goes with wooden planks on ceiling in front of double door, but left from it is another wooden plank on ceiling and floor is higher, so rope is shorter. This way I turn NW to open passage to Lost City. But there is still a lot of things to do, so I return by climbing to top of ladder and jumping in place. Angled ceiling brings me on pier.
By mistake I turned to SW and I tried to turn right to SE, but I can only turn left for some reason. This is almost one year of break from last time I played this challenge, so I really forgot how to use rope to turn myself. With Se direction I can shoot rope arrow into yellow building and jump over fence for loot. On the other side I can't really get out the same way, because of how angled are walls. I needed to shoot rope arrow into walls to turn myself W. Then I stacked 5 crates in front of cart and from it mantled on stack. From there I did strafe left jump and mantled over slippery part of fence. I turned SE to retrieve rope arrow. I'm starting to remember how to use ropes for turning. Also the whole city part took me 30 min.
I leave myself in SE direction and jump into water. I need to do backwards swim, but it's easier than in backwards challenge, because I can swim down and up by using forward button and I can strafe. Still finding airhole above hole with current was hard. After reaching river I mantle to cave with single spider. Killing spiders is easy and soon I end in Library.
LOST CITY
In Library I KO-ed burrick and then avoided lower burrick to exit. I skip loot from bottom of Library for now. In ruins I KO-ed burrick and then heard fireballs. Looks like fire elementals are destroying burricks. Near start is window with goblet on the other side. I need to skip it, because it requires me to look E. I need to deal with 2 burricks. Unfortunately looking into SE makes impossible to hide behind corners, so I need to get seen by them, hide behind corner and when I'm close strafe left from corner and attack them with sword. Eventually they started to run away from me. Later I noticed that fire elementals aren't here. Could it be that burricks killed them? If that's true, that's the first time it happened. I had no idea burricks can kill fire elementals.
Now I'm entering center part of Lost City and SE direction doesn't give me good look at fire elementals to kill them. I'm choosing to go south to lava pool and go right over brick to house with lava. At the top is good enough shadow and from there I snipe 2 elementals. I skip north part for now, because I can't look N. I'm going S to Theater. I don't have too good look at elementals, so I hide behind corner and wait for 1st elemental to fly from behind it to kill him. 2nd elemental gets alerted, so I jumped on stone to lure him outside and kill him in similar way. Getting blue gems is easy - I just need to go under them while looking up to frob them. Here I also realized that once again I forgot to buy Gervasius' request, so ancient masks are worthless.
PATH TO WATER TEMPLE
On the path is higher ledge behind me. It requires me to do jump left and press backwards at the end. Jumping on roofs is easy. On 2nd last roof crouch at it's middle and blindly time mage, then run to him to KO him. Do the same with mage patrolling entrance to Water Temple. Here I get 1st medallion. From ledge with gas arrow it's possible to mantle on roof, but can't return without turning, because of high roof behind me.
Here I realized that I can't continue my journey into Water Temple, because I need to turn S and I also can't return, because I need to look N in order to mantle on high roof above lava. In corridor leading down is vertical wooden beam near torch on right wall. Unfortunately I can't hit it with rope arrow. There are 3 wooden beams on ceiling above lava and I can lean right to shoot rope into 1st beam. I tried to use this rope to turn, but rope is too long. Even dropping on rope and grabbing it back doesn't turn me. And jumping out of rope kills me. I tried to shoot rope arrow on ground and I can only get stick on it's tip by crouch walking on it, but it doesn't turn me. And I didn't spot any wooden beam in Lost City yet.
Luckily I found a way to get back. From SW corner of 3rd last roof I can do 2 strafe left jumps to mantle on small ledge on left wall and jump right on high roof. So i went to Colloseum and at the beginning of path to it I found house with wooden beams not too high from ground. This way I can turn directly S and return to Water Temple. It's a bit harder to get through roofs. I mantle roof W from lava. Then I do 2 backwards strafe left jumps and one forward strafe left jump. Then I shoot 3 rope arrows into wooden beams to enter Water Temple.
WATER TEMPLE
Here I KO-ed 2 patrolling mages and doused 2 braziers. Unfortunately can't really deal with pair of mages. I need to turn SW for them. So how to do it without any wooden beams? Well, in this temple are triangle and vertical stripes decorations high on walls under ceilings. They are made out of wood and I can use them for rope arrows to turn. So, could I use decorations from Theater to turn? No, bronze decoration is made out of stone and golden decoration from blue gems room is made out of metal. Looking SW I can lure fire mage and KO him. Air mage is a bit too far for that. There is no "no kill" objective, so I just slashed him to death. Then I used decoration from lever room to turn N, Taking 3 rope arrows while jumping was tricky. By mistake I took 2nd rope before grabbing it. Luckily I landed on 3rd rope.. On roofs I needed to do single backwards strafe left jump.
NORTH SECTION
Since I'm looking N I can visit north section now. There is fire elemental flying above lava, so I jumped on stone to alert him and stood on other side of gate. Elemental can fly through it. I avoided it's shots and jumped backwards behind corner, then I waited for him and killed him. I can mantle on wall on the right and jump on the other side of lava. Return is harder. From left roof I need to do 2 backwards jumps on wall and from it do backwards strafe right jump on ground. I returned to wooden beam to turn E this time.
RETURN TO LIBRARY
First I grabbed goblet on the other side of window, which I skipped previously. In Library I KO-ed burrick and dropped to bottom. I hid under column near passage and waited for patrolling burrick. Before it turned I KO-ed him. This alerted 3 stationary burricks. So I quickly jumped backwards to the end of corridor. Here I needed to fight 3 burricks with my sword. Due to direction of looking I can't do that from behind corner and I can't really back off. I need to attack them and when I see their gas breath, then I strafe right and then back strafe left. If they manage to get on my left side, it's game over. And it's really small space. So this was the hardest fight in this mission. Eventually burricks start to run away. I sneak to shadow near area with columns and wait for burricks to calm down to kill them. I need to do it, because sometimes running away burricks can decide to use their gas breath, which happened once. That was very uncomfortable fight. I would prefer to fight with them with fire arrows while looking W, but you can only mantle to higher floor by looking E and there is nothing ropable there.
PATH TO FIRE TOWER
For Colloseum I decided to turn NW, so I will manage to KO pair of mages by luring them by jumping on stone and leaning forward to KO them from behind corner. There is ladder passage, which took me some time to figure out how to get out of ladder. You need to climb to middle part of it's top and then strafe left jump on higher floor. Near bridge is wooden beam. I could use it for turning, but there is no point. Instead I'm using it to climb to higher floor for more loot.
On path to Fire Tower I get 2nd medallion. Getting to house with silver nuggets is scary. Next to it is house with wooden beam for turning. No point for that. From 2nd floor I strafe right jump and press backwards to get through hole. In small tower I do strafe left jump while being away from right wall to avoid mantling on ledges and windows. Then I just sneak past fire elemental to enter Fire Tower.
FIRE TOWER
To get to top floor I need to use wooden beams outside. Here I realize that ropes are too long for me to turn, so I need to go to south part of ledge and rope up to beam right from window and jump. Even though I'm hugging wall I still can mantle into window and obtain talisman of fire. Then I go to front entrance and wait for elementals to fly away. Afterwards I run to shadow under tower's window near lava. From here I killed elementals. There are still 2 elementals flying over lava on the right, but I can't look in that direction.
Here I noticed that I'm stuck. I can't use small tower I used to enter this area. I can mantle to small ledge, but then I can only do backwards jump that is too short to reach passage. Decorations in Fire Tower aren't ropable and outside wooden beams are too high for me to turn. My only option is to use passage on the other side of lava. Normally to get there I need to do forward strafe jump and mantle. I can't look towards passage, so doing that is impossible. After many tries I figured out that by standing in front of entrance to Fire Tower I can do 4 backwards strafe right jumps to barely jump over lava. From there I just need to blindly avoid fire elemental near Library to safely return to waterfall.
STATS:
Time: 2:21:33; Loot: 2820/2845
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 12
Damage Dealt: 241; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 12
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 3
Busts: 0
Galaer on 22/2/2023 at 22:13
MISSION 10 - SONG OF THE CAVERNS
I'm looking N
Unlike in previous mission yellow building on the left has no ropable walls. This mission is very easy - from crayman cave there is a lot of places to shoot rope arrow. Opera is flooded with them. So couple of things I had no idea about. I had no idea that dancers in basement actually train dancing. I thought they just stand, because I usually quickly KO them. Another thing is alerted singers from flute room run left and drop from ledge to backstage. I never knew it was possible for them to do it in original game other than through exploit. And here it's their intended escape route.
STATS:
Time: 1:33:53; Loot: 2420/2920
Pockets Picked: 4/13; Locks Picked: 7
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 38; While Airborne: 1
Damage Dealt: 39; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 1
Busts: 0
Galaer on 23/2/2023 at 21:11
MISSION 11 - UNDERCOVER
I'm looking SE
I start mission without any rope arrows. In reliquary I KO-ed Hammerite by going behind him and leaning right. Hammerite in entrance room requires to go behind him, look down and KO him. The same thing I did with single Hammerite in barracks. Hammerite on bridge must be nudged right to KO him. Pair of Hammerites in barracks I KO-ed after using flashbomb. In church I mantled on altar and gassed both Hammerites who were looking at me with only 1st alert. For high priest I mantled on armchair and waited for him to leave other room to drop and KO him. Sleeping priest in basement requires crouch walking backwards and strafe jump right on bed. This way I KO-ed everyone.
After visiting every room I realized there is no rope arrows, so even though there is a lot of wood in this mission, there is no way for me to use it to turn. There is some tricky loot in this mission because of that. For 2 bottles on shelf in library I need to do stack of 2 crates and from it do backwards strafe right jump on shelf and look down to take bottles. In high priest's room is bottle on shelf. You need to jump on it from bed and look down to frob it. There is tiara on shelf in one of priest's room. This one requires standing on right side of shelf, lean left and then jump. This way you will stay leaning on top of shelf. Then you just look down to take tiara. There are 2 vases in catacombs that are behind you on sarcophagus. For one of them you can squeeze to the side of sarcophagus and mantle on it to take vase. But other sarcophagus is too close to wall, so that's not possible. Lean and jump trick doesn't help and it's impossible to make 2 crates stack near sarcophagus and crouch walk on it, because of low ceiling. So this vase must be skipped for this run.
Now for 5 switches run. Garden and cemetery switches are easy - just look up to frob them. Switches from reliquary and torture room are also easy - you just need mantle on pedestal/torture bed and look down to frob them. Switch from old kitchen in basement is impossible to frob, because it appears behind you and both low ceiling and fireplace don't allow you to frob it by looking down or up. So that's the only bust #1 in this mission.
STATS:
Time: 1:01:56; Loot: 2658/2758
Locks Picked: 2
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 18; While Airborne: 1
Damage Dealt: 18; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 1
Busts: 1 (old kitchen's switch)
Galaer on 25/2/2023 at 19:37
MISSION 12 - RETURN TO THE CATHEDRAL
I'm looking N
When I was starting this challenge I thought about this mission being penultimate challenge. Because my only way inside is though church, which is patrolled by 2 haunts. I would be forced to climb to Eye somehow and then walk behind undead to garden, because I can't use side doors. And speaking about doors - they close automatically, which forces me to interact with them more often than in previous missions. Some of them opens towards me, so after frobbing them I need to quickly back off. Plus there is a lot of undead to worry about and kill objective. So it should be hard mission, but it's not really that hard.
Beginning is like I mentioned opening door to church. Here a note - haunts patrol very close to door, so after opening it they can immediately spot you, so lean forward to know where they are. Then go along left wall past lying zombie. There are wall carpets around doors on the left and right. These carpets can still be ropable by having them on the middle of screen, so you don't see them anymore. Shoot rope arrow above doorway and rope arrow will look like it's stuck in air. To turn you need to crouch jump into it. For now I use it to turn NW
I go to basement first and wait near toilet to kill undead. You can turn power on by looking up while crouching. For coin stacks on shelf you just need to lean right. There is candlestick on shelf and you can get it by strafe left jump and quickly frob it by when looking down before you slide down. 2 bottles in wine cellar require strafe right jump on shelf. Near candlestick I got there is another candlestick, but it requires using wooden fence to turn NE by crouch jumping on rope. I moved brother Renault's body to garden.
In Sw part of 1st floor I'm waiting for zombie, then I go behind him to pick up goblet and quickly drop to 1st floor before he will turn around. I returned to SW part of 2nd floor and went forward to ledge. Path is blocked by wooden planks, but I can rope up to 3rd floor. I did forward strafe left on wooden beam to get to brother Martello's room. I blocked door with healing potion and I can't recover it and it's hard for me to frob door to fully open it. I needed to jump on chair, go fully backwards and lean right to open door, then take potion. With brother Martello's body I dropped to 2nd floor. To get Eye I did backwards jump and then forward strafe right jump to return to room on 2nd floor. Undead alerted, but quickly calmed down, because taking Eye or 2nd alerting them before taking Eye leads to scripted alert, which ends with undead patrolling cathedral.
I dropped to 1st floor and waited behind W bench to kill apparition and 3 haunts. Zombies from cathedral are immune to sword, so I want to avoid being spotted by them. Afterwards I went to garden with brother Martello's body. Cathedral completed in 47 min. Here I learned that Murus only speak to you if you walk into light in front of him, so you can easily go around him and if you are behind him, he doesn't see you. I talked with him. This doesn't trigger new objective yet.
I went to shadow on the left and from here I killed haunt and apparition. I lured 2 zombies closer to pool where I killed them. Here I decided to try to achieve faster end. For this I need to shoot rope arrow into tree to turn NW, mantle on tree and do forward strafe right jump on roof. Go to NW roof and stack healing and speed potions to mantle on it. From here you need to go backwards on wall while occasionally tapping strafe left and after wall will turn you need to do the same, but tap strafe right instead. Lastly you do backwards strafe right jump on cathedral's wall to finish this mission.
STATS:
Time: 0:55:52; Loot: 751/2126
Locks Picked: 7
Back Stabs: 8; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 270; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 10
Busts: 0
Now let's try to complete Murus' quests. In St. Yora in dining room is plate behind zombie in alcove. I lured him to entrance room and killed him. I can't frob plate yet, so I used wooden doorway to turn SW. Then I went along W wall to kitchen where you can use shelfs or beams to turn (it's better to use beams). On 2nd floor I avoided zombies. Fight in these tight corridors feels very risky. Before leaving I returned to kitchen to turn NE, so from SW corner of cloister it will be easy for me to kill apparition and 4 haunts. At the end I explode 2 patrolling zombies, so they will not get in my way.
So the whole cloister with building is easy to do. No need to turn. So I went to winter tunnels. Here I had problem with haunt. I needed to go behind him and then use 4 slashes to kill him. For switch opening secret passage I need to do strafe left jump from top of stairs and quickly frob it. Then I went to cemetery and exploded all zombies, but I couldn't frob gate to exit. I could only frob it when looking down while jumping, but gate opens towards me and immediately stops on me. To turn I needed to use Brother Martello's grave and crouch jump on rope. It was very awkward, but finally I managed to turn SW, so I can easily leave cemetery. For entering it I just need to do jump trick and this time gate opens normally.
So I go to garden for both bodies. Good thing is that I don't need to go through St. Yora, I can mantle on destroyed stairs. Then I complete all ghost's quests and need to use 2nd floor ledge in library to turn E in order to explode cathedral gate. Afterwards I finish this mission.
STATS:
Time: 2:07:15; Loot: 1401/2126
Locks Picked: 9
Back Stabs: 17; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 720; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 34
Busts: 0
FINAL NOTE
When playing this and previous mission I got weird situation when rarely after quickloading my character very slightly turns right. Initially I thought that this is the reason why I can't frob cemetery gate to exit, but I was wrong. This glitch happens very rarely - once per longer mission and it doesn't affect this challenge too much. still I will try to not abuse it. This also may be optical illusion and turn doesn't ahppen. It's hard to tell.
Galaer on 26/2/2023 at 18:27
MISSION 13 - ESCAPE!
I'm looking E
Just like Song of the Caverns this mission is pretty easy, because there is a lot of places to shoot rope arrow to turn yourself. Difficulty is increased a bit though - enemies can hear others being KO-ed if they are close enough. I could kill stationary spiders while in front of them by backstabbing them while looking down. I had problem with fighting with spiders from the front and shooting hopping frogs. Alerted fire elemental killed 3 ratmen.
Other than that I discovered very crazy visual glitch in this game. Basically when I got to treehouse containing Constantine's plans I accidentally shot gas arrow in wrong direction while having bow in zoom in view and immediately quickloaded game. When I selected gas arrow again game went into extreme zoom in (much bigger than max zoom in Thief 2). For example in later part of game most of the screen could get cover by part of ratman's head. After selection game would very slowly zoom out to normal view. I played with this glitch a bit and I noticed that selecting other arrows zoom out game quicker and selecting sword/blackjack or hiding weapon makes zoom out stop. Eventually switching between different arrows game would immediately return to normal view.
Later I decided to explore this glitch even more and I managed to achieve this extreme zoom in with other arrows as well and eventually these other arrows also started to very slowly zoom out just like gas arrow previously. After returning to normal view and quickloading it was possible for arrows to not shoot until I would attack with sword or blackjack. Later simply shooting arrow while in zoom in and simply quickloading would activate extreme zoom in (no need to select arrow after quickloading) and arrows wouldn't activate zoom out anymore until I would attack with sword or blackjack.
But using this glitch even more made it impossible to zoom out, so I decided to equip arrows and tap attack button and I was amazed to discover that for this short tapping I could see normal view and then it would return to extreme zoom view. So basically I could have both normal and extreme zoom at the same time. That's amazing. After tapping attack button even more game decided to slowly zoom out to normal view. I didn't explore this glitch afterwards. That's one crazy glitch and I wonder if it works in Thief 2.
STATS:
Time: 1:36:22; Loot: 2816/3381
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 4; Knock Outs: 27
Damage Dealt: 423; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 15
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 5
Busts: 0
Galaer on 26/2/2023 at 20:25
MISSION 14 - STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
I'm looking SE
This time I can buy rope arrow in shop to turn. I used outside building's ledge to turn NE to defeat spider, frog and 2 ratmen in garden. Then I used wooden pillar to turn SE to creep and moss marble floor to quickly run to room with purse. Because creep in this game is glitchy I was forced to restart game. In garden I mantled on tree and on wall to return to street and turn NE to get to underground. Here I can turn NW by shooting rope arrow in green star decoration around hammer on wall. It's tricky to use, because rope is super short and you need to do crouch jump. I need to turn S for chisel, but shooting into decorations doesn't allow me to grab rope anymore. I tried to use wooden fence, but I can grab rope from slope. So I went downstairs to meet with Hammerites and there I had problem getting out of water quietly, because current brings me upwards. To turn S I used grass stripes in earth room. When gassing spiders I activated by accident this crazy zoom in glitch again. In final area there is wooden ceiling everywhere, so I could turn W to open exit door and bring priest through it to Hammerites. That was pretty easy mission.
STATS:
Time: 0:55:13; Loot: 100/100
Locks Picked: 3
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 10
Damage Dealt: 105; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 3
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 1
Busts: 0
Kangra on 8/3/2023 at 19:01
That's pretty neat stuff about the zoom glitch. I'm fairly sure I have seen that happen before but it's not something I ever experimented with. I probably just restarted or did something to make it go away quickly. No idea if it's there in Thief 2.
Was there any risk of being hit by a bugbeast when doing Strange Bedfellows? Seems like it could have been an issue.
Galaer on 8/3/2023 at 22:41
Quote Posted by Kangra
That's pretty neat stuff about the zoom glitch. I'm fairly sure I have seen that happen before but it's not something I ever experimented with. I probably just restarted or did something to make it go away quickly. No idea if it's there in Thief 2.
Was there any risk of being hit by a bugbeast when doing Strange Bedfellows? Seems like it could have been an issue.
When I was doing test run of Lady Lisa's Harbor (for ghosting report) I accidentally triggered this zoom in glitch. So yes, this can happen Thief 2 as well. I think this glitch is about corrupting your save. I seen that new Thief 2 speedrun corrupts save by loading save from different mission. They use if for example for making speed potion to have infinite effect or in Soulforge to fly while out of bounds. As for bugbeasts - only first can be a problem and because of it's medium patrol route it's still not a big problem.
Galaer on 15/3/2023 at 20:09
MISSION 15 - INTO THE MAW OF CHAOS
I'm looking S
On stairs I KO-ed bugbeast and it alerted crayman and bugbeast walking to portal. I noticed that new enemies stopped coming until these 2 beasts calmed down and went to the portal. I guess there is a limit how many enemies from floating eggs can be active in one area. Then is time for the scariest parts: frogs near 1st slide are behind me, so I need to do backwards left jumps and blindly slide down while avoiding blue crystals. I can slow down by running forward and blindly strafe to avoid crystals. Fire elementals are on the left, so I can't target them yet. When they fly away I run to shadow on the left and try to douse them. Even though they are alerted they can't fly over lava to me, there is only one path in front of me and they can't see me, but still dousing is tricky. 2nd slide is forward, so no problem. Water passage is tricky. Partially I need to do it backwards, but from my backwards run I learned that at the end of upside down water it's possible to drop on slope to regain air. To get to last air hole I need to swim backwards and right.
Tree's passageway is 1st instance for me to turn and I turn SE to kill spiders, then I turn W to get to red spider. Despite magic ladder being on my left I can still jump on it and mantle on ledge under spider. Here I tried to make small rope to turn N, but I only managed to turn NW before red spider spot me. I crouched, but it's possible for it to go to edge and start shooting me from above. I reloaded and when spider went to edge I looked up and started slashing him with sword. Spider didn't move and it died. Then I did backwards jump to lower ledges and turned SE to climb to the top. Exit from giant tree is another good way to turn and I turn N to kill red spider at the entrance of spider cave.
Going to portal is pretty easy and destroying portal is also easy, because it's located N from me. But ritual is behind me (S from me) and the same is return jump over lava, which requires mantling. Luckily there is still a way to get to Trickster. I climbed middle vine to the very top. This trigger ritual to start. I jumped and sloped ceiling brought me on wall behind me. I can't use vine to descend, but I can bump into it to drop without getting hurt. Then I go around ritual arena along right wall to south part. I also save and load to reset Trickster's speech. Here I moss floor to the Eye and switch it with fake, then go to shadow on the left and watch ritual. I noticed that Trickster didn't say anything when he was close to last 2 elemental pillars.
STATS:
Time: 0:53:49; Loot: 0/0
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 7, While Airborne: 1
Damage Dealt: 97; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 6
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 1
Busts: 0
TOTAL STATS:
Time: 24:15:31; Loot: 28596
Damage Dealt: 2691; Damage Taken: 0
Busts: 14-15 (different values from A Keeper's Training)
FINAL NOTES
And this playthrough is over. It was really stressful challenge. No idea if I mentioned it, but when looking almost max down and up you move slower forward/backwards and if you look max up or down there is a chance to block movement forward/backwards until you will look more down/up. Since I need to look max up and down a lot to highlight levers, doors, loot and other items this mechanic was troublesome.
I started this challenge more than 2 years ago and I took a lot of really long breaks. During this time I learned that it's possible to use rope to turn, which made this challenge much easier, but also a bit less interesting. But it didn't nullified stress. I think my biggest problem was playing one mission for 30 min every day until it's beaten and rest of the time spend on making ghost reports. And after beating mission stop doing challenge until next week. Right now when I save the whole week for only doing my challenges and stress vanished completely. And because of that I have a lot more fun with them.
So this playthrough is over, but not completely. Rope exploit I discovered after The Sword mission, so there are 3 missions with busts I want to replay and minimize number of busts. These missions are: A Keeper's Training, Cragscleft Prison and Thieves Guild. I also plan in much later time to play missions where I used rope exploit, but without it.