I braved 5 hours with Mud, the most frustrating NPC in Gothic Remake, so you can skip the hassle.

Shortly after you step into the Old Camp in Gothic 1 Remake, you’ll encounter Mud, a rather unremarkable villager hanging out near the castle gate. As you stroll past his shack, he’ll ambush you for a chat, eager to tag along for a bit of company. You might find yourself saying ‘why not’ out of sheer curiosity, since turning away a stranger feels a bit harsh, right?

However, if you spend more than a minute with Mud, you’ll quickly discover just how irritating he can be. He’ll constantly interrupt you with his chatter and follow you around, but when you try to engage him, your only option is to tell him to go away again. So, what’s the deal with Mud? I endured his company for hours to spare you the hassle.

In essence, Mud is designed to be a comedic nuisance. The only way to shake him off is to tell him to scram or to beat him up, though he usually flees from a fight. If the remake sticks closely to the original, you won’t have to deal with Mud after chapter four, unless you want to be unkind.

If you manage to tolerate Mud’s relentless prattle for about three hours, you’ll eventually get the chance to ask him to be quiet, which he’ll agree to—at least for a few minutes.

While Mud’s interruptions suggest he might have a larger role—he talks about using you against his bullies, putting in a good word for you with the Old Camp, and his hunger—none of these lead anywhere during my five hours of exploration with him. In fact, he repeats these lines randomly, regardless of your location or progress in the story.

There’s also a chance, similar to the original game, that Mud can glitch and get stuck while you’re exploring. If this happens, he’ll eventually reset and reappear at his house in the Old Camp. He’ll chat with you normally when you pass by but won’t follow you anymore. When this occurred for me while heading to the Swamp Camp, cutting my little experiment short, I found it more amusing than frustrating.