Hardcore Sample Run
From TheKolWiki
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| Information or advice on this page may be out-of-date due to NS13.
Maybe the current contents of this page should be saved for posterity. With the new consumption requirements pretty much all advice below level 6 is wrong, and with the new quests all advice above level 10 is missing.
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Annotated Sample 6-day Hardcore Run
There are plenty of guides to playing hardcore runs. Most of them consist of general suggestions about what to do at each level, or each location in the game. There's generally a long list of hints for pulling a turn or two off the run in various places. But what's really hard to pick up is how the flow of a good no-path run goes. Each day, you have to balance food and drink requirements against trying to get quests done, all trying to maximize your stat gains at the same time. This guide leads you through a 6-day No-Path hardcore ascension, showing how one experienced player balances those requirements on a day to day basis when playing a character with limited permanent skills. In addition to suggesting techniques for play, it also passes along some of the process and thinking that goes into improving your level of play.
Notes and modernization
- This run was made before the number of clovers you could get in a clover day was limited, and as such it uses more of them than would be practical in the current Kingdom. Farming for reagent food ingredients in particular is a little harder now because of this.
- There are now more options for getting a Chef's hat than just the Outskirts of Cobb's Knob, and the approach here can easily be improved on.
- While Spookyraven Manor was available, it was relatively new at the time, not fully mapped out yet, and wasn't used during this run. Current best practices would put more effort into unlocking The Haunted Gallery and surviving there rather than spending as much time at The Icy Peak.
History/Goals
This is ascension #11. Skills already accumulated as Hardcore Permanent include:
Item Summoning: Advanced Saucecrafting - Pastamastery - Advanced Cocktailcrafting - The Way of Sauce
Familiar Buffing: Amphibian Sympathy - Empathy of the Newt - Leash of Linguini
Passive Self-Buffs: Mad Looting Skillz
Buffing songs: The Moxious Madrigal
Skill improvers: Impetuous Sauciness
These are mostly the usual first set of skills you'd expect people to get, with the notable exception of The Way of Sauce which was obtained much earlier than I would recommend. As such, this character obviously can rely heavily on scrumptious reagents to make life easier. With the longer runs unskilled adventurers take, it usually makes sense to get a chef-in-the-box anyway, so might as well use that for potions and sauces as well.
Today is a Muscle stat day, and the 4th day of this run will be a Mysticality day; the first Moxie days won't come until day 7. With that layout, a Myst class makes the most sense. I should be able to line up many of the middle-of-the-run stat gain items and places (Bonerdagon, The Icy Peak, strange leaflet) during the stat day.
My goal for this run is to pick up Elemental Saucesphere, because I want instant access to Guano Junction, getting beaten up The Daily Dungeon is driving me crazy, and I'd like The Icy Peak to be easier to reach. Previous runs have been around 1000-1100 turns total, but that was before I had all the familiar buffing skills. A 5-day run may be possible here, but I expect this one to take 6 with only one stat day in the middle. As you'll see later, knowing about how long your run will take will influence a number of decisions to be made.
Noted no clovers before deciding what class to pick. Saucerors start with spices in their inventory, which helps with the first day's food and gives you an always-hit weapon. Lots of familiar buffs to fuel here, but I expect meat to be lean, so a Myst class makes sense here as well. With only one Accordion Thief skill (The Moxious Madrigal) to fuel and with Magical mystery juice access, I really don't even need to build a Rock and Roll Legend this run.
Picked Blender as sign so I have access to the MicroMicrobrewery, with my low skillset I'm more interested in making sure I get as many turns as possible by always having booze. Familiar I took was my Blood-Faced Volleyball.
Day 1
Initial goal: get to the 5th level with turns to spare
Level 1
- Today is a Muscle stat day.
- Hit Mt. Noob. Sold all the gemstones in the Pork elf goodies bag (can't use them with the Moxie sign).
- Switched to my Gravy Fairy type familiar, a Stinky Gravy Fairy. Won 9 fights at the Arena. Switched back to the Volleyball, won the 10th. Equipped my palm-frond toupee.
- Since I'm going to need a couple of Hermit items anyway, I spend 10 turns now in The Sewer. My hope is that I'll get a stolen accordion so I can cast my one useful buff immediately. No such luck, no spices either, and I only got two worthless items to trade with; extremely low yield compared to average here.
- As I certainly want a Chef-in-a-box, I spend first level in Cobb's Knob looking for a Chef's hat. (Another strategy for players not planning on relying on reagent potions is to adventure in the Haunted Pantry in hopes of getting a razor-sharp can lid and unlocking Spookyraven Manor.) I kill everything with spices. Nothing useful gained, now I'm level 2.
Level 2
- Visit the Council and get assigned the Mosquito Larva quest. Head to the Spooky Forest. Am immediately Beaten Up by a triffid, which happens sometimes if you're unbuffed here. Spend the beaten turns back at the sewer.
- When I first come to the fork, I get the Accordion Thief items so now I can use Madrigal. After that, I Take the Scorched Path and Investigate the Moist Crater in order to get more Spices.
- Once I have the mosquito larva, I don't need to spend any more time here. I switch back to The Outskirts of Cobb's Knob as soon as that happens, still trying to get a chef's hat. Chefs go by, no joy to be found. I get to 3rd level with exactly 25 adventures left.
Level 3
- Visit the Council and unlock The Typical Tavern. I plan to kill the rats with spices because that way I can't fumble; with The Moxious Madrigal active it's rare they can hit me anyway so no rush.
- But all this worrying is for nothing, as I gain access to the Rat Faucet and turn it off on my very first turn. I drink my 3 reward drinks, and equip the shiny ring, bringing my buffed Myst to 14. 63 turns left now.
- I'll need access to The Shore today, so I return to my guild, unlock Degrassi Knoll, and visit the Untinker to kick off that quest. My Myst is now high enough that I can cast Leash of Linguini and Empathy of the Newt, so I do that.
- I'm still using spices to kill everyone because healing fumble damage costs too much. As I come across each Gnollish toolbox, I open them immediately and gauge my progress. Once I have all the parts for the meat car I'm done with this area.
Level 4
- By now I'm level 4. Back to the Council to unlock the Bat Hole, 50 turns left.
- With no way to survive the stench, I spend time in the Entryway to try and get an air freshener. Since the most important thing is that I reach level 5 quickly, I can't afford the stat loss of dropping back to The Sleazy Back Alley to try to find a bum cheek, although it may have been useful to optimize the Adventure Queue to see more rushing bums and pine bats.
- With a Madrigal buffed Moxie of 22, I'm still using spices for enemies to eliminate fumble damage. After 13 turns I get the Pine-Fresh air freshener. Equip that, and into Guano Junction I go.
- I buy an E-Z Cook Oven™ now so I can judge how much meat I have to spare for buffs. I want to keep Leash and Empathy going but it's still expensive using soda water. Once I can buff my Myst to 21, I hit the Guild and finish the remaining tasks so I can purchase Magical mystery juice, which makes the buffs cheap.
- Before I forget about it, I auto-sell some items I won't ever use and I summon one scrumptious reagent and some dry noodles so I'll have them for reagent food later. This a good habit to get in, because it really sucks when you're down to two turns left, you go to cook more food, and discover you don't have enough MP to make all the ingredients.
- Once I have two sonars-in-a-biscuit, I use hair spray and spend some time in the much harder Beanbat Chamber until I have an enchanted bean--which I'll use to make food today.
- With 20 turns left, I get the last sonar-in-a-biscuit that I must have today. Still not 5th level, so I start on the rest of the chef parts I'm going to need eventually. The "Fun" House is my first stop, looking for a box. A handy foolscap fool's cap gets me some more Moxie. After 5 turns I hit 5th level.
Next goal: obtain/create 15 fullness of food as efficiently as possible
Level 5
- The reason why the 5th level is an important turning point is because it's where you can start making Reagent dishes. But you still need the ingredients. I visit the council to unlock Cobb's Knob, and I move into the Kitchens now that I can Safely Adventure there. Am still fighting with spices. I'm looking for a knob sausage or knob mushroom. It's very tight, but I have just enough meat to keep all the buffs going.
- Turn #4 gives me a knob sausage. I plan to use only at most two wads of dough this run, so as I get extras auto-sell them to keep me going. With 4 turns left, I get a second sausage, and now I'm done in the Kitchens for today.
- My buffs are still active for two more turns, so I head back to The "Fun" House. When trying to find a box, I instead pick up disease; why, it's just like when I used to date in New Jersey! (cymbal crash).
- Down to two turns left, so I cook my Spaghetti with Skullheads to buy me another 25.
- Since the next thing to do is cooking, and I have plenty of turns left, I am in a good position to try build a chef in the box today before wasting even more turns cooking. Do not divert from your plan to work on cooking automation until you have food lined up, and make sure you stop adventuring with enough turns left to make your food if you can't build one in time.
- A few more turns get me the box I needed, so it's back to the Outskirts of Cobb's Knob looking for a chef's hat. Since I'm not in a rush to gain stats (I don't need to unlock any more areas today), I switch to the Stinky Gravy Fairy now because I really don't want to be here any longer than I have to. This is one of those runs where the chef in the box is turning into more trouble than it's worth. 17 more turns in there, I finally have the hat. Now I need a smart skull and a disembodied brain. I switch back to my volleyball familiar and start trying to get the skull.
- Once again, I make sure to summon my reagent/noodle combo so I'm sure to have it, and now I'm having trouble funding my buffs. Such is the lot of an adventurer with limited skills and no Mr. Store familiar. When I run completely out, I start using the Star Starfish Trick for MP, switching back to the volleyball when I have all the familiar buffs active.
- Down to 2 turns again, so it's time for another Reagent dish and another 27 turns of play afterwards. Still looking for that skull.
- A whopping 20 turns before a smart skull drops. The only reason I put up with this is because with a maximally buffed Moxie in the mid-30's, there's not a lot of areas I can adventure in safely right now anyway.
- But with only 7 turns left, I decide against looking for a disembodied brain, which is usually even harder to get than the skull. You might note that I never used the ten-leaf clover I got with my Letter from King Ralph XI. Guess what? Reassemble the clover, into Fernswarthy's Tower, and now I have everything I need to build my chef. Except a spare spring. I think I can just assemble my meat car and then disassemble it, but damn! I forgot to hit the Untinker before the Knoll. What a rookie move. Back to the Knoll looking for the rusty screwdriver I go.
- I happen to get an extra spring, so now I assemble my completely operational chef in the box and put him in the The Campground. With that done, I trade the Hermit for a jabañero pepper and cook the lengthy insanely spicy enchanted bean burrito procedure, which gives me 15 Fullness for the day and Chronic Indigestion. Yeah.
Final booze and planning for the rest of the day
The point where you finish eating on the first day is a great place to step back for a second and consider what you have left to do, based on how powerful you are and how many turns are left.
- It's obvious I'm not going to reach level 6 today to get a Liver of Steel, so I drink the two beers I picked up along the way to get two more turns. Now I'm down to 15 turns left and no way to get more without getting drunk.
- A quick glance at some KoL news suggests there's no way I'm making it through The Daily Dungeon, the tests are too hard today. The only other thing to try every day is The Barrel full of Barrels. I'm a little weak for there, with 32HP and a maximum buffed Moxie of 36. But I soldier on anyway. I get lucky, and get a cola drink and two drinks I can upgrade with a little paper umbrella, with only one splosion slowing me down. But there are two problems--I haven't summoned any cocktail parts today, and I don't have a cocktailcrafting kit.
- Ten turns left to try and get all the cocktail parts I need, so I buff back up and head into the Treasury. Once I get enough to meat to summon the cocktail finishers, I don't get any umbrellas, so there goes that idea. Had I gotten the umbrellas I needed, I could have killed The Boss Bat for the 1000 meat I needed for the cocktailcrafting kit.
- I summon the rest of the reagents I can for the day and spend the remaining turns in the Treasury, as I need meat and it's as tough of a place as I can survive as well. When I get enough meat I finish the Bitchin' meatcar and unlock the Desert Beach. Today's choices at the Microbrewery aren't any better than the rum and cola I got from the barrels, so when I'm out of turns I drink that to finish the day.
- As a final touch, I buy a Newbiesport™ tent, which will pay for itself immediately during rollover.
End of day 1 stats and summary
Planning for Day 2
While everything is fresh in my head, now I use the Quest Notes page to make a plan for the next day. What I should do won't be as obvious tomorrow night.
Day 2
Make 15 units of food
- I decide to return to the Kitchens before I run out of time to find food. It takes me 16 turns to get two Knob sausages--the RNG can't even give me enough of a break to give me my class stat food this run. For the final food units, I make boring spaghetti because I happen to have found a tomato. It's not the optimal 3-fullness food, but the alternatives aren't so much better that it's worth farming for them.
Booze
- I burn off the remaining familiar buff turns at the Harem, and then it's back to the barrels again. I just manage to kill the two mimics I come across; with a buffed Moxie of 42, they can still hit me sometimes, and I'm still killing them with spices which takes 15+ rounds. Not a bad yield though--three drinks I have the ingredients to upgrade into Advanced Cocktailcrafting booze.
- I'm still poor, so I do some more starfish recharging until I have all my familiar buffs back on and I have 15MP leftover. I kill the Boss Bat using Chronic Indigestion, as that's my most powerful attack right now. Only two hits needed with that skill. Use the meat raised from that to buy a cocktailcrafting kit as planned.
As you can see from these first two days, it's vital to line up your food and booze before getting involved in quests or other tasks. It's very easy to end up getting nailed by the RNG and find yourself without the items you planned to eat or drink. Plus, since food and drink give you stat gains, putting them first helps toughen you up for the quests.
- Since I don't want to waste buffed turns making drinks, I return to the 8-bit realm until all the buffs wear off. Then I make my three advanced cocktails and drink them, leaving me with 81 adventures left for the day.
- With only 4 more White pixels to go, I finish off the 8-bit realm before I forget about it. After buying the digital key, the leftover pixels buy me a spare red pixel potion. Normally it's a blue or green potion you get, but that's the way the pixels dropped this run.
Level 6
- 79 turns left. At this point, the next logical thing to do is either work toward killing the Goblin King, unlocking the Island, or finishing the Friar's quest. But I'm dead broke, and none of those are possible without meat to spare. With a buffed Moxie of 41 without hairspray now, the logical thing to do in order to raise meat is to hit the Treasury. This is the area of the run where not having a Mr. Store combo familiar that also picks up meat really hurts me.
- After 30 turns, I have 2600 meat and picked up some useful items along the way, like the Knob Goblin elite pants. I use the meat to spend 5 sessions at The Shore, Inc. As always, I start with Large Donkey Mountain Ski Resort, hoping to get a barbed-wire fence. Five tries, no luck this time.
- I trade the Hermit for the dingy planks, use the Dinghy plans, and now I can reach the island. Must remember that I don't have a barbed wire fence and plan accordingly; I put a note in my quest log so I don't forget.
- One of the shore adventures gave me some meat back, I use that to purchase Stream of Sauce. Combined with the Knob Goblin spatula I found during my plentiful kitchen trips, that's a decent attack. The shore also increased my buffed Moxie to 52, and now I feel comfortable working on the Friar's quest.
- Some of these monsters aren't strong enough to hit me; them, I kill with plain old spices. The bigger ones I use Stream of Sauce on, which does 10-11 damage when it's cold, 1 point when it's hot; call it an average of 5 per round, which means it's 10 rounds to kill the bigger 50HP monsters. 30 turns left, first item found. It's slow going on the second section, though, and my meat shortage starts to drag me down again. I equip the Star Starfish again, which will give me useful MP while also hurting the enemies badly. It's not optimal for stat gains, but being able to finish this quest today will gain me many turns which is more important.
- I cackle when I find infernal insoles and equip them immediately. 20 turns left for the day, I find the second Friar item. I should be able to finish the quest today and then drink some more booze.
- At one point I get several Hellions in a row, and run out of meat to heal. A quick trip back to the Treasury, and surprise! I get the remainder of the Elite Guard outfit.
- I run out of turns before I get the final friar item drop. I did get two Imp Ales, though, so I drink those to bring me to 14 drunkenness. 3 more adventures!
- And nothing else special happens. Since I'm expecting this run to take at least 5 days, I wasn't concerned about not hitting the Daily Dungeon today, either; will have three full days to worry about that, and technically I only need two items. The best drink I've got is a White Canadian from the Barrel, so I swallow that to end the day, eh? I'm such a hoser.
End of day 2 stats and summary
- Muscle 34.
- Myst 39.
- Moxie 29. Can buff as high as 53.
- Turns played: 330. Kind of disappointing, but with my awful luck in the barrels and the Copse that's the best I could do. Turns banked for tomorrow: 5
Plan for Day 3
- Easily finish Friar's quest tomorrow. Have one hellion cube for reagent food, plan to get another one of those.
- Accumulate clovers if they're available, making sure I have enough reagent food parts to last until the end of the run.
- Want to leave as many turns as possible leftover at the end of the day, up to 160, because day 4 is my stat day. Basically it's eat, accumulate booze, hit the daily dungeon, and then stop for the day.
Day 3
- Yeah, clovers are here. I start the day clovering the Kitchen to get a Knob Kitchen grab-bag, which gets me some sausages and some spices. I eat a sausage reagent dish and hell ramen, which is just enough get me another precious Moxie point. Then it's back into The Dark Neck of the Woods to finish that quest. Just to taunt me, the RNG gives me the dodecagram that I wanted so desperately at the end of yesterday on the first turn. I stay there anyway until I have the wussiness potion and the ruby W. Perform the ritual, get Liver of Steel, and now I'm done with that area.
- Now I just need the booze to drink that hard. Summoning cocktails, I can finally upgrade one of my old drinks from day 1. Into the Barrel for more ingredients, that gets me two more matches. So now my drunkenness is at 12. I really should make two more advanced drinks, and I have two coconut shells and some magical ice cubes.
Level 7
- At this point, in order to make any more booze, I'd need more bottles and fruit. Fruit I can get very efficiently from the hippy island with a clover; booze is more of a problem. Given all that, a trip to the second row of the barrel seems in order, which I normally don't do. Remember, I want as many turns as possible left for stat day, so wasting time looking for booze elsewhere doesn't fit my agenda. Good score right from the beginning at the barrel--2 vodkas, a rum, and some gin in four turns. Looking at the Advanced Cocktailcrafting chart, almost any fruit would be helpful, so I get a clover and visit the hippies. The fruit bowl gives me a lemon and cranberries. Ugh, a low and worthless yield, bad RNG! I get another clover and try again. This time it's two oranges, a strawberry, and some non-cocktail fruit; that's better. It's enough to use all my existing cocktail finishers and make three advanced drinks, which will give me a head start on tomorrow.
- With all the RNG abuse I've been taking, it's obvious this is going to be a 6 day run. That means I need 6 more ingredients to make reagent foods. I'd like to get most of those today while I can clover into the kitchen to earn them; the rest I'll pick up by spending extra time at the Goatlet (I'll be hard pressed anyway to move onto Yetis early this run with my limited skillset). I want to accumulate clovers until I have those, plus another to stash for the NS quest. I also want a big rock, and in addition, I'd like one spare clover. I may decide to use it to get a Knob Goblin Perfume, if that area gets to be a drag, or I may use it for more reagent dishes. It's back into the Treasury to get enough meat for all the hermit permits and chewing gum.
- Three kitchen grab bags get me 9 reagent dish ingredients, which is more than enough. I stash two extra clovers.
- Now I have to consider taking a run at The Daily Dungeon, because getting either a key or a buff item would be helpful progress. I check some [KoL news] and see what areas I'll face. I consult the Daily Dungeon Stat Tests and discover none of the stat tests will be a problem except the locked door. Luckily my earlier time at the Cemetery left me with two skeleton keys, so no problems there. I breeze through and get my first key.
- Nothing else that has to be done today, and tomorrow is stat day, so I call it quits. I do have three fullness left. If I had any tomatoes left I'd have made a plain pizza instead, or used spices for spicy noodles but I don't. Instead I gobble two leftover hot wings I kept from the Friars, then finish off the day with a fortune cookie. It tells me I should be hitting The Daily Dungeon. Hello? Last adventure was right there? Duh!
- Drink a final advanced drink and I'm all finished.
End of day 3 stats and summary
- Muscle 37.
- Myst 41.
- Moxie 31.
- Turns played: 392. Turns banked for tomorrow: 98. Would have liked more, but wanted to grab all the clovers I needed now which cost me many turns. I've done too many runs where there's only one clover day the whole time to deviate from that strategy.
Plan for Day 4
- Eat 12 fullness of reagent stat food to start day. Should be able to finish the day with pizza of some sort.
- Quick trip to the barrels, grab whatever booze I can, may come across more before the day is out.
- Accumulate the Filthy Hippy Disguise, to unlock plentiful reagent potions and make booze easier to cope with.
- Finally kill off the Goblin King. Use that reward to obtain Elemental Saucesphere, the skill I want to earn this run, which is 3200 meat.
- Clear The Cyrpt and try to complete the Trapper quest.
- Try to advance to level 9 to read the leaflet on stat day.
Day 4: Stat Day!
- Today is a Mysticality stat day.
- As planned, I eat my 12 fullness of reagent food and head into the barrels. I get two matches on the cocktails there, plus my leftover drink from yesterday gives me 12 drunkenness. The spare cocktail ingredient today is a coconut shell, will have to farm specifically to get useful booze for that.
- 219 adventures is my total, with a few more expected from food and booze before I'm done for the day.
- Since The Hippy Camp is so hard to adventure in, I decide to complete the White Citadel Quest instead. That may give me some of the Hippy outfit parts I need, and the enemies there actually drop meat. While there are lots of non-combats there, the stat gains on them is higher than any place I can adventure in safely right now.
- After 40 adventures, I've moved well along into the middle of level 7, I have the entire Hippy outfit, and I've saved up 700 meat. Now it's time to start working on the Goblin king. After a few turns, I have the outfit, I just need the perfume. With such small stat gains in this area, I don't want to waste time here on a stat day, so I burn the spare clover I saved yesterday to get the perfume. I'm still a little weak to actually kill the king, I'll return shortly for that.
- The next area to hit is the Cyrpt. With a Moxie that buffs to at most 58, and only weak spells available, the monsters there will shred me. This is why I wanted the Hippy Outfit! I could use Chronic Indigestion here, but that gets expensive fast and I want to be saving meat right now, not spending it. I buy two olives to make serum of sarcasm, and now I have 20 turns where nobody there can touch me. With the potion active, I start with the harder areas and work my way back. Only takes me 9 turns to burn through all the mini-bosses. Then I bop back to kill the Goblin King. Now my buffed Moxie is up to 99, so The Bonerdagon is easy to finish as well. With the remaining turns of Superhuman Sarcasm, I head into Menagerie 3 to collect some booze.
Level 8
- Onto level 8 with 153 turns left. I purchase Elemental Saucesphere as planned and equip my new Badass Belt. Now I'm set to enter the Mines without being hittable. Accumulate the mining outfit, then back in for mining. During the turns I'm beaten up, I push through The Daily Dungeon; with the Elemental protection now, I can pass many challenges without an issue, and I have plenty of skeleton keys from the Cyrpt. Pretty sneaky, huh?
- Now I can take on the Goats. Equipping my shiny new asbestos staff, my Moxie buffs up to 72. I equip the miner's helmet to get the goats to drop as much as possible, but it's too tough. Inevitably, I get beaten up again, which lets me finish off the Daily Dungeon and find a second key. This time I return with the Knob Goblin visor equipped, and that extra 3 Moxie makes the Goats much easier going. Periodically I run out of meat for buffs, and have to drop back to the Starfish for a turn to recharge; that's pretty efficient with enemies that have this many HP. Again, I wouldn't have this problem with a combo meat drop familiar.
- It takes me 30 turns before I get a single goat cheese. To get all 6, it's a grueling 77 turns of just surviving every combat with enough meat to go on, occasionally having to fall back on the Starfish for buffs, trying not to get beaten up while not wasting resources. Luckily today the Bounty Hunter is buying penguin skin, so I can immediately turn everything the Trapper gives me as a reward into meat.
- I eat the goat cheese pizza and finish off my food for the day. I also have plenty of whiskey to use my leftover coconut shell with, and drink to 19 as well. I end up with 83 turns left for the day. I want to spend as many of them as possible toasting monsters at The Icy Peak.
- Chronic Indigestion is my weapon of choice. My ascension reward, the stainless steel skullcap, is perfect for this: it raises my HP considerably so I can survive a pounding while I just use chronic on everybody. It's just enough that I can kill even the difficult rams when they get first strike in.
- The fighting gets boring so I script it with KolMafia. It's very easy to forget to heal completely when you have to do it one Ailment Ointment at a time; using the Bot keeps me from making mistakes like that.
- Without a combo familiar, I'm losing about 100 meat every adventure. Good thing I started with a bunch. Trading in skins at the bounty hunter is just enough to keep me going.
- I have one combat to go against me and I get beaten up. I fall back to the Laboratory, which lets me search for (and find, happily) scrumptious reagents for use later. Once you've got the chef going and the hippy outfit, you've paid all the overhead for reagent use--every one you get after that is gold.
Level 9
- I cross level 9 with 60 adventures to spare. Of course I immediately read the leaflet and use the magic word, which means I got both of the big stat gain single items here on stat day as planned.
- Since I already drank to 19, it's too dangerous to actually advance to the valley today, but that was never my plan--I wanted the big stat boost from the Peak instead for as much as possible. I do decide to drop back to the Island for long enough to accumulate the outfit, because I'm running low on meat to sustain the peak anyway and I'd like to get this out of the way.
- My plan to not unlock the valley turns out to be a very bad move. Without the meat generation of a combo familiar, I find it extremely difficult to finance the long stay at the Peak, and end up having to fall back to easier areas when I run out of meat. I should have drunk about 12 or so until I was running out of adventures for the day, so I'd have had the options either way. I blame being spoiled by the Mr. Store familiars.
- Without any meat or any way to obtain meat easily, I get pounded at the Peak. It's sure not like the old Yeti-only peak, as Snow Queens kick my butt without dropping anything useful. My last 40 turns for the day are awful, as I repeatedly get beaten up and have to fall back to places like the Treasury for meat, only to not quite recover fully and get beaten up again. I end the day beating myself up on a fumble. Brew a decent second level cocktail, and I'm done.
The basic rule I violated here is this one: anytime you're near level 9, never drink more booze than you absolutely have to for turns. You'll regularly get 2 drunkenness looking for the abridged dictionary, and one particularly unlucky run I got 4. The reward at the end of the Valley quest is so large, especially on runs without a lot of meat generation, that you want to grab it as soon as it possible
End of day 4 stats and summary
- Muscle 53.
- Myst 74.
- Moxie 49.
- Turns played: 646. Turns banked for tomorrow: 7. I'll be extremely lucky to finish this one in 6 days now; that mess at the peak on stat day really cost me.
Plan for Day 5
- Have stat food to eat with milk of magnesium to start the day
- See if I get the 3rd key I need; if not, start working on a wand.
- Head right into The Obligatory Pirate's Cove to get the abridged dictionary, then cocktailcraft to fullness. Don't expect to need the barrels.
Day 5
- Start out drinking milk of magnesium, a double dose of gnocchetti di Nietzsche, and a tasty insanely spicy bean burrito. Before I drink anything, I get the abridged dictionary so I know how much drunkenness I have to spare. Now it's into the Valley.
- With a buffed Moxie of 85, most enemies can't hit me. I wear the Miner's Helmet to improve drops. After 17 turns, I can complete the quest, but still need a lowercase N. By the time one of those drops, I have 2 of the 3 parts necessary to make a 31337 scroll. Rather than repeat my premature trip into the Peak, I stay a few more turns looking for either another N or to finish the scroll. After another ten, I finish the scroll and move on.
- I autosell the facsimile dictionary, then purchase Wave of Sauce and a Codex of Capsaicin Conjuration. I make and consume the rest of my drinks, having IPAs to get me to 18 drunkenness, and swallow and Ram's Face Lager to reach 19. Now I'm ready for the Yetis with 118 turns to go.
- Because MP is cheap for me, but healing isn't, this radically changes the dynamics of my meat situation; now I'm almost breaking even for my time at the Peak after I autosell everything I don't need.
- With 72 turns left, I'm almost out of meat. But I'm almost at the 10th level, too, so I make sure to get an enchanted bean.
Level 10
- 69 turns, I reach level 10. There is no way I can ascend today, so I might as well wait until tomorrow to move on after I've gotten the stat gains from food/drink. I burn through the Daily Dungeon though, and get the 3rd key I need. Now there's very little reason to get a wand; the only thing I might want it for is a barbed-wire fence. Given my meat situation, I'd rather take that chance; the 6000 meat a wand costs buys 12 trips to the shore looking for a fence.
End of day 5 stats and summary
- Muscle 61.
- Myst 85.
- Moxie 58.
- Turns played: 757. Turns banked for tomorrow: 67.
Plan for Day 6
Climb the beanstalk and see if I can ascend!
Day 6
- Food is basically same as previous day, milk of magnesium, a double dose of reagent food, and a tasty insanely spicy bean burrito.
- It's easy enough to make three advanced cocktails from my inventory. The Micromicrobrewery has very good drinks for sale today, so I add two of those, then some Ram's Face Lager to reach 19 drunkenness.
- That gives me 233 turns to play today. My Moxie buffs to 100 which makes the Airship pretty easy with Wave of Sauce.
- Since I'm still poor, I sell the Codex of Capsaicin Conjuration to raise meat. Once I start on the Castle with Reagent potions, I'll have the meat to purchase the Kickback one instead.
- There are still occasional moments when I run out of meat, so I drop back to using the Starfish at the Ninja Snowmen to get a big MP recharge as I run low; I get some handy frigid ninja stars while I'm there. Another useful tactic is switching to the Leprechaun for a turn or two to recharge. Super-spikey hair gel is a big help when I come across it
- With 182 adventures left, I finally get the S.O.C.K. Since I have 17 reagents left, I brew up a lot of Superhuman Sarcasm using olives from the The Hippy Store. I almost have enough for the entire rest of the day. With a buffed Moxie of 155, I'm almost untouchable in the Giant's castle. I buy a lead yo-yo as the ranged weapon to attack with.
- Once I come across it, I turn the wheel clockwise for the Myst bonus, and leave it there until my stats are high enough. After 70 adventures, my Myst is up to 102, and I decide to start turning the wheel to move on. I use my extra meat to buy a kickback cookbook and equip that.
- At The Hole in the Sky, my buffed Moxie is 164. That's enough to safely combat everyone except The Astronomer and the harder monsters like The Hooded Warrior. When I come across him, I use the Wave of Sauce (augmented with the cookbook) to finish him off before he kills me. To lower my spending on healing, I also pick up Saucy Salve now. When going against the weaker monsters that only only hit me with a critical, I use that skill the recharge all my health so I'm fresh for the tough enemies.
- When I run out of meat, I switch to the Leprechaun and return to the Giant's Castle for a bit. Bopping between the two, with 74 adventures left I'm done with the star equipment.
Level 11
- Still need one more Moxie point before I can progress far into the Lair. Since the barbed-wire fence is my biggest fear, as I get extra meat from the Castle I hit the Large Donkey Mountain Ski Resort, which advances the Moxie and has a shot at giving me the fence. On the second adventure, there's the fence. Now the most difficult to get item I'm missing is the lowercase N, so I spend time in the Valley until I cross 67 moxie. I get the extra N, which is a big bonus. I hang out just a bit longer to finish up another 31337 scroll, which gives me hermit items to build the Disco Banjo I needed. Beats looking in the sewer for items!
- Now the only three tower items I don't have are sonar-in-a-biscuit, razor-sharp can lid, and spider web--all easy drops. So it's back to the Castle looking for more meat and that final Moxie point.
- With 53 turns left, I cross 67 moxie and head into the Lair.
- After using the skeleton key, I Untinker it to make the bone rattle. You only need one skeleton bone here. Similar tricks are documented in the Hardcore Checklist page.
- Re-equipping for the Hedge Maze gives me a Moxie of 179, not quite high enough to be completely safe. With so many turns left and very few missing tower items, I feel comfortable using Goofballs to get the extra boost. They're free!
- I use a gravy fairy familiar for the Hedge, because I want a maze drop every turn. Clear the maze and head into the tower with 45 turns left. I switch to the Hovering Sombrero familiar, which will bring my lagging Moxie up to 70 before I get to the top. I also use the Knob Goblin Elite Guard Uniform, which I didn't have the meat to really use before, and buy a Knob Goblin pet-buffing spray to make him a little heavier even.
- There's the cow, so it's good I found the fence.
- First five tower enemies drop easily, then I have to drop back to the The Sleazy Back Alley to get some spider webs. Easy enough.
- Clearing out the Chamber, I use all my HP buffs and kill the shadow. With the pet buffing spray, any familiar gets to 21 pounds. I pick one of the 5 NS familiar (so I might get lucky and not lose HP) and head into the chamber again. Switch familiars around a bit, all done.
- Now it's just the NS. I have plenty of turns left, but no resources. Not much meat, no acid-squirting flower, and my best attack familiar is, hilariously enough, my stinky gravy fairy--at least that has some pounds on it. I drop back to the Airship with the Leprechaun (because meat is my big concern) for a bit to build a stash.
- With 15 turns left, I feel like I've got a good shot at the NS. But past experience says I'm going to lose at least my first three attempts. I so throw the fight--I go in there planning to lose, knowing that between my soft green echo eyedrop antidote and tiny houses I can get beaten up three times and shrug it off.
- Remember--I'm trying to ascend today, period. I don't care about number of turns or playing fair, I'm just playing the game to accomplish that goal, period. I continue to alternate between accumulating resources as the Airship and going into the Lair to get beaten up until I'm down to 5 turns left. I know it's time to finish her off because the damage done to me each round by the NS has just dropped dramatically.
- With 20 Doc Galaktik's Homeopathic Elixirs and plenty of plot holes, it's a fairly easy fight. At 992 turns, the NS is done and I'm finished with this run. It was easily accomplished in 6 days; with these skills and no Mr. Store combo familiar, a 5 day run is still out of reach for now. That's a nice drop from the previous best 1040 turns with this character, and I know I could have made the run faster if that was my priority. I was playing very conservatively this run just to make sure I got it done on-time, so I can move on to getting the next skill.
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