Hardcore Class Strategy
From TheKolWiki
While this article is written with Hardcore players in mind, much, if not all, of it is also applicable to Softcore ascenders.
Introduction
While the Hardcore Skill Analysis page is the place to go for information about planning which permanent skills you should be chasing after, it may not be obvious when you're first playing a class as to which ones you should purchase. Hints for fighting Her Naughtiness can be found at Defeating The Naughty Sorceress.
Muscle Classes
Muscle classes charge into battle, smacking, beating, and knocking your opponent senseless. Some general tips for Muscle classes:
Muscle Up
Make use of items that increase your Muscle and boost your melee damage. Blood of the Wereseal increases your Muscle as the moons get brighter.
Ambush
Make use of cheap wind-up clocks from the guild store when adventuring at locations equal to or above your level; the best way to avoid damage as a Muscle class is to beat your foe into submission before they have a chance to raise a finger. Initiative keeps you from getting smacked at least once during combat.
Seal Clubber
Seal Clubbers are the class of choice if you want to play a Muscle class for what it really is: smashing, bashing, critical hits, one-hit (two-hit) kills (except for those annoying physical-resistant monsters).
Important Skills
Permanent Skill Progression
With the drastic changes to how Lunging Thrust-Smack and Thrust-Smack work with NS13 (they no longer provide automatic hits with Eye of the Stoat, and they no longer double bonus melee damage), Seal Clubber Permanent Skill Progression has changed drastically. The best Seal Clubber skill is now probably Pulverize. It provides access to wads, which give turns, stats, and beneficial effects, and are readily available from the higher level quests, and creatable earlier for Muscle classes. It also provides access to powders, which can be used to gain resistances (useful for bypassing the Cold Resistance check on the Tr4pz0r, Elemental Challenges in the Daily Dungeon, Lord Spookyraven, etc), and nuggets, which can add elemental damage to help against physically resistant monsters. It also gets even better in conjunction with other skills and classes. It gives Mysticality classes access to Chefstaves, can allow the cooking of hi mein with several other skills, and with Advanced Saucecrafting, it can give elemental form effects like Hotform, which are one of the best ways for a physical class to beat Physical Resistant Monsters.
Eye of the Stoat, despite losing its status as part of the Lunging Thrust-Smack combo, is still a very useful skill. It increases critical hits and reduces fumbles, making combat easier for all Muscle and especially Moxie Classes.
Tongue of the Walrus removes Beaten Up for 10 MP -- very handy for keeping yourself fighting at your own level and not being forced to fight at locations where you would get less-than-optimal stat points/item drops. Very useful if you don't encounter many soft green echo eyedrop antidotes. It is also useful for recovering from the traps in the Daily Dungeon (quickly back in even if an elemental trap kills you) and the cave-ins in Itznotyerzitz Mine. This skill is also the most efficient healing spell when healing less than 70 HP; after that, Cannelloni Cocoon is more efficient.
Super-Advanced Meatsmithing can be very useful as a crafting skill in Hardcore runs, particularly during pathed ascension when adventures cannot be spared farming for weapons. An asbestos weapon (+7 Primary Stat, +5 Offstat ~100 Power, 35-45 Stat Req) or a chrome weapon (+3 Advs at Rollover, +7 Primary Stat, ~100 Power, 35-45 Stat Req) are beneficial across classes and have a better power value than anything you would normally see until after the Beanstalk, and even then would be difficult to replace until star weapons.
As of August 15th, 2006, a number of improved ore weapons were added thus significantly improving Super-Advanced Meatsmithing as a crafting skill. Seal Clubbers, Turtle Tamers, and Oxygenarians, in particular, will want to put their facsimile dictionary to good use in a sword behind inappropriate prepositions (+5 Advs at Rollover, +7 Muscle, 130 Power, 45 Stat Req) and a hairy staff (Regenerates 5-7 MP per adventure, +7 Spell damage, +7 Mysticality, 135 Power, 45 Stat Req) will prove invaluable on Sauceror and Pastamancer runs.
Double-Fisted Skull Smashing has lost some of its usefulness with the Naughty Sorceress no longer requiring the Wand of Nagamar to be equipped in order to beat her, but it is still useful. It allows players to equip two single-handed weapons. This is most useful for taking advantage of the enchantment on those weapons. In particular, it allows a player to equip both a "business" weapon for high damage (something like the pitchfork, batblade, or black sword) alongside a weapon with a useful enchantment (like the serpentine sword or sword of static).
Turtle Tamer
Turtle Tamers are unique as a Muscle class in that their later damage can be heavily dependent on skills that are extremely MP-intensive, but they can still bash like a typical Muscle class.
Important Skills
Skill Progression
Headbutt will be your best choice for early damage addition to your melee attacks if you have nothing else, but it's not very useful as a permanent skill. During your run, try to get Armorcraftiness so you can wear better helmet turtles and get a better bonus from Headbutt.
In order to deal enough damage to defeat giants and constellations later on, you'll have to headbutt with a chrome helmet turtle.
Coming back to the Turtle Tamer class with Eye of the Stoat and Lunging Thrust-Smack makes life much easier.
Permanent Skill Progression
Amphibian Sympathy should be picked up as soon as possible from the Guild; a passive +5 pounds to all familiars (-5 for the Inflatable Dodecapede) is incredibly helpful for increasing the power of all familiars during the course of an ascension, as well as increasing your familiars' weight to help you quickly beat the Sorceress' familiars.
During the course of a Turtle Tamer ascension, whether or not you will be taking Empathy of the Newt as your permanent skill, you should always learn it and make use of it as much as possible. Empathy of the Newt is a suggested second permanent for a Turtle Tamer. If you are doing two Turtle Tamer ascensions back-to-back in order to pick up both Amphibian Sympathy and Empathy of the Newt, this one should be made permanent first (for it cannot be learned until later in the run and takes more Meat in order to learn).
Shieldbutt is probably the next best Turtle Tamer skill to pick up, as it allows any class to land their Physical Attacks 100% of the time, with a sizable damage bonus and monster level reduction if used with a powerful shield. In conjunction with Entangling Noodles, this skill has filled some of the void left by the nerfing of Lunging Thrust-Smack. However, Pasta attack spells provide a viable alternative to this strategy, meaning many ascenders may skip over this skill.
Astral Shell provides Slight Protection to all elements, which is useful for passing Daily Dungeon tests, the Tr4pz0r Quest, Lord Spookyraven, and the Bat Hole, as well as making some high-level areas like the level 12 Battlefield and the Hole in the Sky easier. Since it also provides a damage absorption bonus, it is never a "dead" skill. This may be preferable to Elemental Saucesphere for this reason, and for another reason as well. With NS13, buffs work differently now, providing 5 turns with a basic item, 10 with the Epic Weapon, and 15 with the Legendary Epic Weapon. Players may already wish to get a Mace of the Tortoise or Chelonian Morningstar for casting Empathy of the Newt or possibly even Tenacity of the Snapper. If they do, it affects Astral Shell as well. This makes the shell preferable to the Saucesphere, as there are no other Sauceror buffs that are worth getting a 5-Alarm Saucepan to boost.
Wisdom of the Elder Tortoises is useful simply for the passive MP boost, which is a benefit throughout all ascensions (especially as you start picking up more and more buffs and skills). Without this skill, it will be difficult to use some of the better buffs in the game, which is why it is suggested as the fifth permanent for this class.
Armorcraftiness gives you the ability to create penguin shorts (+20% combat initiative), a yak anorak (with Torso Awaregness), a yak toupee, and a variety of shields, which is useful throughout all ascensions. A chrome helmet turtle is somewhat useful outside of a Turtle Tamer ascension, but normally you would have a f3d0r4 for Moxie-building, and that normally covers both Mysticality and Moxie classes. It would probably be the sixth and "final" skill to pick up from a Turtle Tamer in terms of usefulness. The only really useful skill beyond this is Tao of the Terrapin, which provides huge amounts of damage absorption, especially when used with the high-power hats and pants from levels 11 and 12.
Mysticality Classes
The two Mysticality classes' skills focus on spellcasting and cooking.
Boost your Spell Power
Buy cookbooks and invest in spell damage increasing equipment. Search for weapons that increase the amount of spell damage you do as well, and buy the correct elemental cookbook to take advantage of elemental enemies.
Pastamancer
Ah yes, the Pastamancer. The skills from this class are a must-have for most players, especially Pastamastery. Pastamastery enables you to create dishes with noodles, which are among the best foods in the game and give a large number of extra adventures each day.
Important Skills
Skill Progression
The first skill a Pastamancer should get is Lasagna Bandages, which heals 14-20 HP for only 6 MP.
Entangling Noodles should also be obtained in order to handle bosses. The Goblin King and Boss Bat are especially susceptible to this; however, the NS and the Bonerdagon can block it. This skill is one of the better spells in the game, preventing attack for a few turns, at the cost of only 3 MP.
Springy Fusilli is essential for killing higher level monsters. By increasing the likelihood of a first-strike, this skill makes it much easier to kill tough monsters before they kill you. The only other way to handle adventuring above the Beanstalk is liberal use of reagent potions, goofballs, and flower schnapps.
The Spirit of Ravioli gives you extra HP, which is always helpful.
Cannelloni Cocoon can be used in place of casting a weaker healing spell or buying restoratives, and saves a lot of MP or Meat on large healings.
Permanent Skill Progression
Pastamastery is the first permanent skill you should pick up from this class. Without it, you cannot use noodles to cook, and you'll be left with only horrible food to eat at least once during your ascension as a result.
Leash of Linguini aids immensely when one needs familiar weight. It will also increase the rate of leveling considerably. It's also good for handling the familiars guarding the NS -- with it and your familiar's specialized equipment, your familiar only needs to be 10 lbs. If you also have the Turtle Tamer skills Empathy of the Newt and Amphibian Sympathy, you can go in with only a 1-lb familiar.
Springy Fusilli is generally the third most useful permanent skill from this class. Every type of player can benefit from its large improvement in the odds you'll get the first attack against tough monsters.
Entangling Noodles is the fourth (or even third) most useful permanent skill for Pastamancers. It entangles the monster for multiple turns, providing the opportunity to attack any monster at least twice before it can attack back. Combined with Springy Fusilli, this provides a devious strategy where you get the jump, immediately entangle the monster, and can land two blows on it, usually killing it before it ever gets the chance to retaliate.
Cannelloni Cannon is the generally accepted "most useful" combat skill for the Pastamancer, due to its low mana cost and significant possible damage. As mentioned above under the Turtle Tamer, Shieldbutt or this combined with Entangling Noodles is the generally accepted combat strategy in lieu of LTS. If Cannon is the path you take, Flavour of Magic and Spirit of Rigatoni may be of interest to you, as the first improves spell damage and element, and the second allows earlier equipping of Chefstaves for Pastamancers and Saucerors.
Beyond that, Transcendental Noodlecraft is a generally acceptable choice for players favoring Myst classes, as it allows access to chow mein, hi mein (with enough skills), and the NS13-introduced lasagnas and wontons.
Sauceror
Advantages the Sauceror has in Hardcore ascensions include Elemental Saucesphere and potion-making skills from Advanced Saucecrafting.
They also feature better spell damage and MP-efficiency. The Sauceror also receives several intrinsic bonuses to reagent potions, being able to craft 3 times as many per scrumptious reagent, and receiving 5 additional turns of their effects.
Important Skills
Skill Progression
The first skill obtained should be Advanced Saucecrafting. This skill allows you to create the sauces required to make reagent dishes, essential for faster ascensions. reagent potions can help you defeat bosses and pass through difficult areas quite easily.
The second skill should be Saucy Salve. This skill can be used together with the Starfish-weak monster MP regeneration technique to restore your HP to full; this will slow down combat though.
The next skill obtained should be Elemental Saucesphere. This is one of the more important skills in the game, and will come in handy throughout. In the Sauceror ascension, get it early so that you can start working on The Daily Dungeon.
Intrinsic Spiciness increases the damage of your spells, allowing you to kill monsters more efficiently.
Stream of Sauce is a low-MP spell that is helpful when fighting the Naughty Sorceress.
Impetuous Sauciness helps with the high-level areas such as the Hedge Maze and the Hole in the Sky, halving the amount of Reagent Potions used in these areas.
Permanent Skill Progression
Advanced Saucecrafting is great for making pasta dishes when used in conjunction with Pastamastery, and reagent potions let you adventure comfortably above the beanstalk and in level 11 and 12 zones.
Elemental Saucesphere comes in handy several times in an ascension. It gives you stench resistance for Guano Junction, cold resistance for the Icy Peak, and reduces the damage the Bonerdagon and creatures in The Hole in the Sky do to you without using an equipment slot. It may be preferable to pick up Astral Shell over this, however, because of the way NS13 buffs work.
Impetuous Sauciness is a decent bonus for those who are Reagent Potion-dependent, as it provides a bonus five turns to all reagent effects, letting non-Saucerors use them like Saucerors, and Saucerors use them even better.
The Way of Sauce is hard to actually make use of how it is intended, as hi mein takes four other skills (Advanced Saucecrafting, Pastamastery, Transcendental Noodlecraft, and Pulverize), and the Way of Sauce potions themselves need access to delectable catalyst and Superhuman Cocktailcrafting improved mixers, a feat accomplishable only by an Accordion Thief. However, it does provide two additional scrumptious reagents a day, which makes it easier to eat multiple reagent dishes while maintaining reagent potion coverage, and possibly even throw in milk of magnesium for a greater effect from your food.
Sauceror attack spells and the Saucespheres and intrinsics that help them are largely useless, due to the clear-cut superiority of Pastamancer spells for multiple ascensions. This is due to the much lower damage cap on Sauce spells (as well as elemental damage counting towards this cap), and the more heinous backlash if this cap is exceeded.
Moxie Classes
Moxie classes have 1337 dodging skills, and should stick to ranged weapons like crazy.
Moxie Mania During an ascension, Moxie classes should focus on one stat -- Moxie. Look for equipment that will increase this valuable stat, and buy skills that further enhance your dodging ability.
Accordion Thief
Accordion Thieves are the masters of song. This class can be quite powerful if you make smart choices about what skills to use when and what equipment to carry. However, remember that you have to have an accordion in your inventory to cast these buffs.
A Rock and Roll Legend should be created whenever you wish to buff yourself with any Accordion Thief buffs, as it will make each buff last 10 turns instead of 5.
Important Skills
Skill Progression
The Moxious Madrigal should be bought as soon as possible. It will make an Accordion Thief's life much easier for the entire run.
Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric should be bought early as well. The MP cost is tolerable, and +item drop is always good.
The Polka of Plenty should be purchased before Meat farming. More often than not, the +50% Meat drop will more than pay for itself.
Stevedave's Shanty of Superiority is heavy on MP, but with access to magical mystery juice later in the run, running this buff should be no worry. It provides a small boost to Moxie, making it easier to outmoxie enemies above the Beanstalk.
Permanent Skill Progression
The first Accordion Thief skill that you should make permanent is The Moxious Madrigal. The skill gives 10 Moxie for the very low cost of 2 MP, which helps speed up every class' early ascension.
It begins to get complicated when you go back to the Accordion Thief class to pick up another skill other than The Moxious Madrigal, due to the fact that the buffs call out to different people.
Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric costs 11 MP for a 20% increased item drop rate. This is a fairly sound first choice skill.
The Sonata of Sneakiness is expensive, costing 20 MP, but it is well worth it. It increases the rate of non-combat adventures. This is even more useful than it sounds. It provides greater access to the Louvre It or Leave It adventure at the Haunted Gallery, which is a good way to quickly level up between quests. It makes collecting the components for the Deep Fat Friar's Ritual faster. It makes gathering Immateria on The Penultimate Fantasy Airship easier. It makes portions of the level 11 quest (unlocking The Haunted Ballroom and the Haunted Wine Cellar, getting the required items in The Palindome, and getting the items and adventures needed to unlock The Ancient Buried Pyramid) go a lot more quickly. It helps at The Obligatory Pirate's Cove, Cobb's Knob Harem, and Itznotyerzitz Mine to collect the required outfits faster. It even speeds up The Cyrpt, as it makes the mini-boss trigger non-combats more frequent.
The Ode to Booze is indeed the best song ever for Boozetafarians, and a decent skill for No-Path ascenders as well. Giving 1-4 extra adventures per drink, this skill can give up to 20 extra adventures per day (depending on type of drink).
Aloysius' Antiphon of Aptitude gives +3 experience in substats after battle, but costs 40 MP per cast. Its high cost may deter people from using it without easy-access to MP Restorers, but it should be noted that the high cost can be taken care of by using Meat from early Meat farming.
Disco Bandit
The Disco Bandit is the King of Booze, and is generally regarded as one of the middle-late ascension classes. Their skills which increase Meat and Loot gains are invaluable, and they are quite hard to hit.
Important Skills
Skill Progression
Advanced Cocktailcrafting. What else? A DB's main source of adventures should be elegantly crafted drinks. However, keep in mind that this skill cannot always be used to full effectiveness, as you can only create three Advanced Cocktailcrafting ingredients per day without Superhuman Cocktailcrafting. It is also prohibitive to farm enough ingredients to make full use of these accessories; properly mining The Barrel full of Barrels every day (including the first when you don't need the drinks yet) is a good way to get matches for the finishing touches.
Mad Looting Skillz can speed up a lot of quests tremendously. It should be bought as soon as possible.
The middle-level deleveling skills (Disco Dance of Doom and Disco Dance II: Electric Boogaloo) may be useful for dealing with disproportionately powerful monsters (like the Hellion in the Friar's Quest). Otherwise, it may be better to just save Meat for the better Disco Bandit skills, and simply outmoxie every area.
Disco Face Stab is a very effective combat ability, lowering the enemy's Attack and Defense by 7. If you are being hit, face stab them until they cannot hit you, then attack normally.
Overdeveloped Sense of Self Preservation is a must-have. It helps you get the first attack in a fight for a convenient Disco Face Stab (or pickpocket), and also helps save your neck when you realize you're overpowered.
Permanent Skill Progression
Disco Bandits have more problems than most classes in deciding which skills to keep.
Advanced Cocktailcrafting is vital for Boozetafarians and should be the first Moxie class skill permed for aspiring speed ascenders. The extra adventures and stats gained from quality drinks can make a huge difference in speeding ascensions. This skill becomes even better with the addition of Superhuman Cocktailcrafting.
Some consider Mad Looting Skillz the best DB skill because of how it speeds up quests without spending any MP points. If not picked up before, it should be picked up after Advanced Cocktailcrafting, as it speeds up many required quests and optional sub-quests significantly.
Overdeveloped Sense of Self Preservation is a prime skill choice for any players pursuing a combat strategy other than Moxie-buffing. Even Moxie classes can also pickpocket in combat when they win initiative.
Smooth Movement: everything that can be said about The Sonata of Sneakiness (see above) can be said about Smooth Movements, only for half the cost. It helps to level quickly in the Gallery, and can speed up every single quest except the levels 3 and 4 quests.
Nimble Fingers is useful if you need Meat in your later ascensions. If you lack a Meat drop familiar, or are shooting for the Golden Meat Stack, this may be a good skill to keep.
Ambidextrous Funkslinging can make the final battle a bit less hectic. Funkslung bombs or feathers from the level 12 quest can make quick work of the NS, and Funkslung gauze garters or filthy poultices are a good way to survive her attacks.
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