Gothic 1 Remake: How to Get Rid of Mud
Early 2000’s RPG design often relied on deliberate friction to ground a setting, and the developers preserved this philosophy through a persistent Old Camp follower named Mud.
Once you cross paths with him in the starting zone, his AI routine dictates that he tracks your position and periodically forces dialogue interactions that halt your movement entirely. Furthermore, he is programmed to interject during your conversations with other specific quest NPCs. Attempting to run away or ordering him to leave only pauses his tracking behavior for a few seconds before he resumes following you.
Achievement Requirements and Utility
Your instinct might be to dispatch him early to remove the navigation friction. Doing so locks you out of a specific completion metric.
The game features an achievement called Mud Freak. Securing it requires you to log all 24 of his unique dialogue interruptions. You have to keep him in your proximity while speaking to specific characters around the map to trigger these exact interactions.
While you are working through that checklist, he does provide a narrow slice of mechanical utility. The script occasionally prompts him to call out the locations of nearby ore nuggets and hidden scrap piles. These specific callouts function as a localized loot radar and do not freeze your character model in place.
Faction AI and Removal
Once you finish the achievement tracker, you have no mechanical incentive to keep him in your party. Removing him from your save file is a straightforward process due to how the faction system treats his character tag.
The Old Camp guards are programmed to ignore any hostility directed at him. You can draw a weapon and strike him in a crowded area without triggering a faction wide response. Depleting his health causes him to enter a knockdown state. Since his AI leans toward cowardice, returning to his feet prompts him to flee the area permanently. You can also simply execute him while he is on the ground.
If you prefer to leverage environmental hazards, you can use him as bait. Lead him outside the camp borders and locate a pack of aggressive lizards. Run in a pattern that transfers the enemy aggro from your character to his. You can let the wildlife handle the combat entirely or use friendly fire to finish the job while the monsters are distracted. Looting his inventory yields a club, a ration of water, and five ore nuggets.
