Talk:Hardcore Familiar Analysis

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Familiars

"Special" familiars

Bringing back the point that Snarles2 made, NPZR is very good for HP/MP restroation, especially for people new to hardcore. Also, its meat boost, deleveling, toast-stunning and attacking makes it a very valuable resource in hitting harder monsters. I know that many a times an adventurer has been saved just because of his NPZR. I'll put it at tier one even, but up to you. Potato should be bumped up a rank because its ability to stop attacks is crazy. A heavy potato can be strategically used to hit harder monsters. Evil teddy bear should get bumped one spot just because of its use in defeating the NS. --Zeider 04:21, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

• Considering that just about all familiars will be at least slightly changed/balanced with NS13, I think it's pointless to debate the current tiers now. It'd probably be wise to just erase the page when NS13 goes live, and then rewrite it from scratch... --Andemon 05:23, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

Dandy Lion

Why isn't the Dandy Lion included in this list? Is it usable in hardcore? If so, how useful is it? It seems to be more useful than the Sleazy Gravy Fairy as an item drop familiar. --Metroman 22:00, 29 March 2007 (CDT)

MP Cost blues?

You guys have to put Star Starfish and NPZR at tier II. There's no other way to pay for Antiphon before you get stasis without using one of the "Starfish" tricks (which work nicely with Mojomuscular and Madrigal) --As a mox class, use Starfish at high-level area --As a mus class, use NPZR at knob shaft (just re-discovered this, I'm pretty excited)! --Snarles2 21:28, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

Spooky Pirate Skeleton

I think the skeleton is slightly underrated as an ascension familiar. It's not just a straightforward combat familiar -- when it goes "Arrr", I believe it weakens the enemy, similar to a ghost pickle's juice. I haven't tested its effectiveness as opposed to the ghost pickle, but I've got a multi who's gotten a huge boost against the Sorceress from his pirate skeleton. --Fnord

• If I can get confirmation on the 'Arr' thing, I'll throw it up to a nifty rank three or four. I had no idea about that. Doing some searching the wiki itself doesn't even say that. --Zalan 7:36 AM EST 05/10/05

• • Subjunctive KoL — Not authoritative, of course, but I'm still looking. —Fnord (That's the only current mention I can find. An out-of-date page says "arrr" freezes people, but that site had other untrustworthy data.)

Missing familiars

The Doppelshifter, Temporal Riftlet, Sweet Nutcracker, Pet Rock, Snowy Owl, Teddy Bear, and Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot are missing from the familiars section. The doppelshifter is too random to be very helpful, the riftlet can give you an extra adventure or two, while farming for a tower item, the nutcracker attacks like a pickle, and buffs (except for against the NS, where it always attacks), the pet rock is useless, the owl is a basic attack familiar, the teddy bear is (was?) useful against the shadow, absorbing damage, and the NPZR is a cocoabo that gives toast. I was thinking about the following placement:

• Doppelshifter - IV
• Riftlet - III
• Sweet Nutcracker - II
• Pet Rock - Brand new section VI (and possibly moving the stab bat there. <.<)
• Snowy Owl - V
• Teddy Bear - III
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - III

Thoughts? Suggestions? --Ricket 04:41, 9 February 2006 (Central Standard Time)

Those seemed like excellent suggestions so I just put all of them in. The Teddy Bear no longer works against the Shadow so I demoted it to IV. I also added the Wild Hare and Spirit Hobo to III and the Chattering Teeth to V, so as far as I know we're current up to May 2006 now. --Greg1104 06:51, 2 May 2006 (CDT)

• Thanks. I've been meaning to put all my suggestions in. >.> --Ricket 12:20, 3 May 2006 (CDT)

Inflatable Dodecapede

• If the Inflatable Dodecapede is best at low levels, why is it a Level I familiar to ascend with (which will presumably have > 0 kills when ascended with)? --Azimuth 11:35, 12 May 2006 (CDT)
  • I don't think any part of the page suggests it's one of the best to ascend with. --Ricket 16:57, 12 May 2006 (CDT)

Value of elemental Fairies

• At the bottom of the page in the list of the familiars the elemental fairies are valued as equal to the Baby Gravy Fairy, I would have to disagree with this descision. The ability to easily get the familiar equipment for the Baby Gravy Fairy places it high above the elemental fairies in my opinion as the damage dealt by these familiars is negligible in hardcore where item drop percentage is key. (The extra 5 pounds gives 12.5% item drop).

• That may be so, but a lead necklace gives only 2 pounds less, which loses you only 5% worth of item drop bonuses (resulting in only +7.5%) which isn't that big of a difference if you manage to level it up significantly. --Quietust 17:02, 30 March 2006 (CST)

• HOWEVER! Something that doesn't get noted is the disgusting ease one can obtain the Sleazy Gravy Fairy's hot pink lipstick, at times getting it on their very first adventure. Free +5 to Item Gain familiar level plus occasional combat damage makes it marginally more useful than most, perhaps even bumping it to level I. --Katarani 04:43, 30 June 2006 (CDT)

• I just updated all the notes on the elemental fairy listings to reflect the familiar equipment issue. During that, I agreed with Katarani that the sleazy fairy deserves a bump to tier I because of the equipment issues. I also pushed the Crimbo Elf back to II. My thinking is as follows: whether an item drop familiar does or doesn't attack is largely irrelevant in hardcore as far as I'm concerned; none of them do enough damage to really distinguish based on that. The tier I item drop familiars should be ones that provide very useful features in addition to item drop (like adding meat or having trivial to obtain equipment), while the ones in II don't. That's how they're split now. --Greg1104 00:30, 8 July 2006 (CDT)

Astral Badger

Personally, I think it should be grouped with the rank 3 familiars. It doesn't get a targeting chip, which automatically means it's worse than the MicroMechaMech as a combat familiar. Although the cupcakes have mostly similar effects to snowcones, you have to spend adventures trying to acquire them when snowcones can just be summoned. --Redwinger 17:43, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

• The person who inserted this familiar placed in I, with some good reasons as to why. I'm not sure I completely agree; while there are stat gains to be had via the Great Trips, they're expensive to obtain and you lose stats during the adventures with the Badger equipped. This topic deserves a hard look at the stat gain numbers involved. --Greg1104 00:30, 8 July 2006 (CDT)

Ghost Pickle on a Stick

I just demoted this familiar to II and updated its description to reflect why I felt that was appropriate. Does anyone have a good reason to defend why it belongs with the extremely useful familiars in I? --Greg1104 00:30, 8 July 2006 (CDT)

Wild Hare

I really think the Wild Hare should be ranked higher. I've been using it for 2 oxycore runs and have found it to be better overall than any other familiar. Granted that it doesn't give a set boost, but during my runs, I need random healing, I need greater item drops, I need great money drops and I need more stat points. I agree that those random traits would make it an iffy rank II familiar, but I have to say that getting around 3 - 4 bonus adventures a day plus the fact that I never lose 3 adventures to getting beaten up should really bolster this familiar's ranking to tier II. --Junyr 03:05, 8 July 2006 (CDT)

• You're solving problems that are better addressed by accumulating more skills with your familiar. If you're getting beaten up, make Tongue of the Walrus a permanent skill. If you need more item drops, add Mad Looting Skillz and Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric. For more money, add The Polka of Plenty. Once you add those basic skills, you'll only need more stat points from your familiar, and occasionally an additional boost to item drops; the Wild Hare will fall way behind a volleyball-type familiar plus gravy-type one at that point, even with the extra adventures the Hare gives. I'd suggest that you switch to unpathed ascensions for a while to get skills faster before returning to Oxy. --Greg1104 05:56, 8 July 2006 (CDT)

• Ah, point(s) taken. It works well for me since I'm trying to complete back to back oxycore by Crimbo, but I understand I'm not a normal hardcore player. Thanks for the discussion. --Junyr 00:50, 10 July 2006 (CDT)

Volleyball vs. Sombrero

There's a lot of information on which type of familiar you should use in softcore runs, but not so much for hardcore use. I just did a little reading and thinking on this subject in light of one recent subtle changes to the game in particular.

The basic strategy is:

• Go through the gash with the volleyball familiar
• When doing the usual 10 adventures at the arena to get a familiar buffing item very early in the run, level up the Sombrero with the first 9. Then switch to an elemental gravy fairy, so that you can't get a specific equipment item for at the arena. This will guarantee you get a lead necklace.
• At some point during your run, switch to the sombrero and keep it active until the end.

What would that point be though? The usual answer is somewhere around level 8, with the peak being one suggested breakpoint.

At http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/viewtopic.php?t=32838&start=120 d0om notes that for the typical case where your volleyball type familiar is a bitten/pixie that generates meat:

"Of course the 40 pound bitten giving 3 times as much meat as a sombero means that at the peak your getting an extra 2ish stats / adv just from extra meat to donate."

This suggests the break point may be a little later than the peak.

Strangerer includes a big table comparing the two familiars to help answer many questions like this at http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/viewtopic.php?t=32838&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60 and he writes this sample commentary:

"You're in hardcore, with three familiar skills. Ever wonder if it would be useful to train your sombrero, and grab a lead necklace on a specialty fairy?

Answer: 9 arena trips and 4 combat adventures will set you up with a 25 lb sombrero. That's better than a 38 lb volleyball at 150 monster level, according to the table. On normal ascensions - not worth it, you'll only get to that level in the Hole in the Sky. On myst ascensions? Meh. The +11 levels the mind control device gives are just enough to make the sombrero useful in the castle."

I regulary equip a hippo whip for the entirety of the run once it's available to me in mid 8th level. That's +10 to ML, or basically the same as the MCD boost. Once in the Castle, I also equip the goth kid T-shirt for a total of +15 to ML. I think the Sombrero may very well be a win in this situation if I switch as soon as the castle is unlocked.

You also can't forget the dynamics of the Tower familiars here. If you're doing an ascension run with multiples of your main stat late in the run (like many speed Muscle and Moxie runs), it's not unusual to have your primary stat hit Level 11/104 well before your offstats are at 70. One situation I've run into several times is starting the tower with stats like 104/67/67. I haven't seen the tower quite get me all the way to 70 in that situation, but that was with a wimpy little sombrero. Going in there with a well trained one from the castle use may very well get you closer to a full 3 off-stat points in 6 adventures, which is quite a nice gain.

Finally, the changes of this week alter my thinking on this a bit (which is what rekindled my interest in the subject). The fact that you can buy a good MP boosting item at the Knob Goblin laboratory can change the dynamics of Muscle and Myst runs considerably. The meat savings of that over buying soda water are so huge that it's much easier to justify spending time to get the Elite Guard outfit. And once you've got that outfit, the pet buffing spray also becomes available; now we're comparing a 30 pound sombrero with a 43lb volleball. If you can survive there with a hippo whip, I believe that makes a switchover point at the Airship possible. Hmmm... --Greg1104 05:42, 8 July 2006 (CDT)

Comma Chameleon changes

A few changes to the Chameleon may in fact change its ranking. Namely,

• As an example, if it eats a prosthetic forehead, it turns into a goat for the purpose of the NS's familiars, as it does with the other respective equipment. This Makes Hardcore Easier.
• The wait for equipment has gone from 5 adventures in the arena to 2. Still a bit of a fight, especially if you're looking for the said familiars, but not that bad, considering.
• The duration of equipment use has gone from 30-40 to 40-50 adventures.
• The equipment eaten adds +5 no matter what, making objects like moonglasses more useful when eaten by a L20 Chameleon than when worn by a L20 Grue. This, again, Makes Hardcore Easier, though it's situational - you won't always face a boss on a day the Grue is active, and you won't always have moonglasses handy. --Katarani 01:02, 17 August 2006 (CDT)

I think the main interesting thing to do with the Chameleon is to use it instead of a fairy-type during the 9-turns at the arena players do at the beginning of the game to get an item for their volleyball type familiar. That should give you 4 familiars worth of equipment that may come in handy at various points. It also may be a useful place to go while beaten up. Unfortunately, the last time I tried to test this strategy the Chameleon (which is only good at Hide and Seek) couldn't beat any of the Arena familiars that day. --Greg1104 03:39, 26 August 2006 (CDT)

Robogoose

It's worth noting that the robogoose occasionally drops eggs at the end of combat, which can be sold for a bit of money, or used in combat (for, admittedly, the exact same thing as the robogoose itself does, but much more reliably.) Still, that extra bit of coin has the potential to be helpful at early levels. --GroovyJ 20:58, 24 October 2008

Baby Yeti

Why is this rated higher than the Starfish? I don't have a Yeti, but going from the wiki it seems to be worse as it attacks 25% and restores 25% of the time whereas the Starfish does both 33% of the time. The range for both looks the same. --Campboy 15:07, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Temporal Riflet

So if I'm reading things right, it's pretty much exactly the same as the emo squid, but also gives extra adventures. I'm confused as to how this got ranked in a lower tier than the Emo Squid. --Lxndr 16:43, 15 February 2008 (CST)

Because you get more e-peen for doing emo squid runs? --Flargen 17:09, 15 February 2008 (CST)

Black Cat/OAF

Correct me if i am wrong, but isnt the black cat functionally worse than an OAF, as it destroys items rather than autoselling them? and the fact that you can perma-unlock BM is thoroughly unrelated to this page, as nobody doing a cat run would need this page. Shouldnt it either be tier 8, or OAF tier 7 as well?--Alabit 22:26, 5 September 2008 (CDT)

The only thing good about the Black Cat is that it lets you unlock Bad Moon permanently, so it's a trade-off, while using an O.A.F. is good for nothing. That should be noted in the description. --JohnAnon 06:00, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Exotic Parrot?

The Exotic Parrot is currently in two tiers of familiar. This should be cleared up by someone who has a bit more authority and opinion regarding Hardcore relevance-- although I'm rather confident in saying that it's not a Tier I familiar. --Southwest 06:27, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

• Well, for those lacking certain skills it lets them get through various ascension relevant elemental tests; the trapper and the daily dungeon in particular. It could also be used to get into Guano junction, but this is probably unwise. It is a utility/niche familiar. Handy to have both before and after freeing the king, but not something you would really use to any extent. --Flargen 07:34, 3 November 2008 (UTC)
  • It's definitely not tier 1. Hardcore ascenders tend to get elemental resistance skills that make it unnecessary fairly early on, and comparing its utility to any of the other tier 1 familiars makes it clear that it belongs in a *much* lower tier. Likewise, the Crimbo Pressie probably deserves to be tier 1 (being about as useful as a NPZR). --Improv 15:09, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Some thoughts

Disembodied Hand and Mad Hatrack are probably Tier 1 or 2. They both aren't exactly tops of anything, but they're fairly versatile in allowing you do everything.

Cuddlefish is probably tier 4 or 5. It's 75% a Carnie in the hardcore context and doesn't drop healing items.

SFF is probably a tier 1. It costs a bit more than the PBS from accounts, but it drops stat items and serves the same purpose, just for players not around in 2005.

Mutant are all tier 1, per Jumpsuited Hound Dog.

Anyone have comments or suggeestions?--Toffile 16:11, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

• With the caveat that I am not at all an expert, I would argue that in the context of hardcore analysis, the Disembodied Hand, having to find a proper item (unless you prepare an SC HC/BM lead-in) before it can be put to use, should probably be in even a lower tier than II. I'd rank the Hatrack a bit higher than the Hand because of multipliers and plentiful hats. Slotting the Cuddlefish into VI and SFF into I seems fair for the reasons you've outlined. I'm not sure I'd slot all the mutants into I--have they been spaded out yet? The information doesn't look like it's propagated into the Wiki. The lep mutant I definitely wouldn't raise much higher than the regular lep unless the bonus is quite big. From my perspective, familiar attacks aren't all that useful. Maybe +1 to the unmutated familiar tier, for those whose enchantments aren't all that powerful? --Bagatelle^T/_C 04:32, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
  • Another not-an-expert here. I agree with making the mutated familiars +1 to their base type, except in the case of the fire ant. The fire ant probably deserves +2 because of how important +items is. As for the Hatrack and Hand, how about Tier 2 and Tier 3? The Hatrack is obviously powerful, especially when you know what hats to use. As for the Hand, you always have some extra weapon around. The question is whether using the Hand is better than using something else. I. E. what would you use the Hand instead of? The answer to that question should tell us where the Hand should go. Irregular 22:45, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
    • A fully buffed sleazy gravy fairy is a 130-115% weight fairy. An unbuffed one is much more. (Only in hc, of course.)
    • The problem is of price, and I know people don't like that, but it's important. If you can afford everything, you don't need a chart, but otherwise, you need to know the best order to get things in. Having the shaman, the dark jill, the volleyball and the sleazy gravy fairy in the same tier is very silly.
    • I don't know. One way is to have 2 tiers of useful mr. a familiars, and a third tier of everything else, which is basically what's there now. Another way is to have a list of just fairies and just volleyballs under the first 2, and move the starfish and parrot and dodecapede to the bottom and call them Niche Familiars. That kind of breaks the symmetry, but it's partly like that now. I think that makes a little more sense. A list of pure volleyballs doesn't need tiers. You could make a tier of useless mr. store familiars, but where would you put it? This is too much work. :( Mar 23:55, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Thoughts on a new organization

Since this page has become rather out-dated, I think it might be time to look for a new and better way to rate familiars in Hardcore. As I see it, the order most speedsters desire things in is stats, items, MP, spleen, and meat. I know that I've probably missed something in that list. Anyway, we should probably reorganize the list so that the familiars that provide these things are higher tiered, and move the others lower. Thoughts? Irregular 04:38, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree that an organization with familiars separated based on their 5 main uses might help newer players, but I think most hardcore ascenders who are really into speed (which is why they come to these help pages, to speed up!) already understand these core mechanics. As the page is right now, true its coarse in ranking them in pretty generic tiers, but the individual notes on why each familiars is better/worse is what will really help them decide, while the tiers are just sort of guidelines to help them focus on which familiars are basically better than others. --Levio 04:55, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

He-Boulder and Rock Lobster

Rock Lobster, for all intents and purposes a starfish in hardcore play. Floaty sand is largely irrelevant to HC play as it stands, you need to be a muscle class and have to use at least 2 days worth of lobster drops in order to make pebblebrau.

He-Boulder has the 100% drop on non-conditional items, which is damn useful in early game as it lets you get most items needed for the eaarly quests easily, and frees up a semi-rare from the KGE outfit.

I hesitated on the Sandworm, since I'm not quite sure how the zones compares to Badger/Pixie/Llama.--Toffile 02:10, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

From the boards I've been reading, it's not as well-liked as the llama but it synergizes wonderfully with the other spleen familiars, especially in an Oxy run. I'd suggest Tier One or Two, because if you have neither of the spleen familiars then it's a no-brainer, and even if you have one or both, the guaranteed turns - with a sombrero, to boot! - is pretty appreciable. Although maybe not as much if you're not playing Oxygenarian. Oh, and I agree with your placements. I'm gonna put the clownfish with the other starfish. --Azeltir 03:55, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

The sandworm area drops definitely aren't really useful in a Hardcore run (and even moreso in Oxycore) (and the best applicable drop are what, the two pills?), but the bottles of Agua de Vida themselves are very useful. Unlike the other two spleen items, you don't need to wait 10-15 turns to obtain them, so you have a better chance to squeeze in extra adventures if you get lucky. However, they also don't give any stats. The sandworm definitely belongs in either Tier I or II, but that depends on how important those extra adventures are. Personally, I'd say Tier I, in that case.--JohnAnon 04:55, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

About the Sandworm, I can't verify this, but a lot of people seem to think the drop rate increases per Agua drop, if this is even relevant. Again, this is unconfirmed and even if it is true, it is probably offset by the lack of stats and slightly smaller adventure gains when compared to Roc feathers and !Pipes.

One notable use for an empty Agua de vida bottle is to flyer Cyrus and complete the Mysterious Island Arena quest within 6 turns provided you have a clover. Yet at the same time, the Arena quest can probably be done while star farming with enough +ML. Either way, it gives another, possibly easier option than throwing on +ML or the GMoB.

Additionally, is anyone planning to add the Slimeling? I'd think Tier I would be appropriate, given the fact that in addition to being similar to a Spirit Hobo and GGG, it actually helps feed itself in a way, because of the disgorging. --iridescentFUZZ 18:55 27 August 2009 (IST)

Okay, you know what? I'm adding the dang Baby Sandworm already. I'm making it Tier 1 based on the discussion already done here and elsewhere, and someone can move it to Tier 2 if they think it's justified. I'm just tired of all the other familiars being added and leaving the Sandworm hanging! :)

Don't forget to sign your posts please. Anyway, I've slightly changed the description on the Slimeling to accommodate the part about the disgorging, since that would very likely be a factor to consider when buying one. --iridescentFUZZ 20:35 29 August 2009 (IST)

Yet even more classification

• Gibberer - Maybe a bit early, but it's not going to be better than a Wild Hare, and probably not anywhere below it.
• Turtles - Grinning & Syncopated are essentially the same with a minor tweak above their basic counterparts that only affects 1 class. Familiar equipment is as easy to obtain as well. Wereturtle falls under the "yet another combat familiar" or YACF syndrome.
• Imitation Crab - YACF.
• Dragonfish - The spell damage boost is nice, but for hardcore myst, it's not an essential, and you'd probably be better off with a whelp or potato.
• Ragged Claws - YACF.
• Purse Rat - Probably the hard one. In any hardcore run, getting above 35-40lbs with any long-term consistency is hard, and the volleyball beats out the bonus stats. This means you'd be fighting harder enemies for no gain to you. The only real advantage is the Arena quest, but adding +10-20 ML isn't going to shave off many turns.--Toffile 17:33, 1 October 2009 (UTC)