Advanced Hobopolis Mechanics
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Contents
Premise
Once you pass the Maze of Sewer Tunnels, Hobopolis is a zone with five different elemental-based areas surrounding a central Town Square. They are Burnbarrel Blvd. (hot), Exposure Esplanade (cold), The Heap (stench), The Ancient Hobo Burial Ground (spooky), and The Purple Light District (sleaze). Each elemental area contains choice adventures as well as hobos who use the zone's element. Often the choice adventures will affect more than one mechanic, and often more than one area as well. The following is a breakdown of the mechanics of this dungeon.
A Maze of Sewer Tunnels
To clear the sewers each person must "explore" 100 times. Each enemy you defeat counts as 1 exploration. Choice adventures that involve a Sewer Tunnel allow you to gain a variable number of explorations.
An equipped hobo code binder will count for up to 9 explorations when you explore each Sewer Tunnel, depending on how many glyphs are in the binder. "Item encounters" will count as 1 exploration, depending on which randomly selected checks are used. The items involved will be used up if the appropriate random check is triggered.
| Encounter | Value |
|---|---|
| Monster (C. H. U. M. chieftain, C. H. U. M. , goldfish, or gator) | 1 |
| Sewer Tunnel: 3 Tunnels (Glyph test, ~3-7+) | 1 |
| Sewer Tunnel: Ladder (Glyph test, ~10-14+) | 3 |
| Sewer Tunnel: 3 Ladders (Glyph test, ~17-20) | 5 |
| Sewer Tunnel: Goldfish (unfortunate dumplings) | 1 |
| Sewer Tunnel: C.H.U.M. (sewer wad) | 1 |
| Sewer Tunnel: Drunken C.H.U.M. (bottle of Ooze-O) | 1 |
| Sewer Tunnel: Iron Bars (3x oil of oiliness for each bars encounter) | 1 |
| Sewer Tunnel: Sewage Pipe (gatorskin umbrella equipped) | 1 |
| Sewer Tunnel: Grate | 5 |
The C.H.U.M. Cage
Randomly, an adventurer will get trapped in the cage when adventuring in the sewers. Only one person can be trapped in the cage at any one time. If you get caught, you have two choices -- spend 10 turns to escape, or wait for someone to free you. People who have cleared the sewers can't go back to free you. Would-be rescuers need to go down the ladder in the appropriate sewer non-combat. The ladder leads to the cage room, where they will free you for the cost of 1 adventure, instead of 10. Note that even after someone goes down the ladder, the player in the cage does not actually escape until they choose to. This way someone can be freed while still allowing others to proceed safely. As this is a superlikely adventure, you cannot attempt to ignore the cage by using Combat Frequency to get 0% NCs.
The Tunnel Adventures
Tunnel non-combats have three choices. The first two choices are always:
- Explore the tunnels
- Go back into the water and encounter a normal enemy.
The third choice (which does not count towards your explorations) can be:
- Go down a ladder -- Free someone trapped in a cage.
- Turn a valve -- Lower the water level, which increases non-combats in the sewers. The levels can be dropped 20 times.
- Open a grate -- When an open grate is encountered in the Tunnels, it counts as 5 explorations. There are 20 grates to open.
At Last!
Once you have your 100 explorations, you will need to spend 1 more adventure in the sewers to finally be able to access Hobopolis.
Hobopolis Town Square
The Town Square is populated with 3000 hobos. Every 250 kills in this zone unlocks something else in Hobopolis. This occurs up to kill 1500 and is detailed here. The image file will start at 0, and the boss is at 25 (3000 kills), with image 26 being a cleared dungeon. 125 hobo kills are needed to advance the image file to 2 and then each image file after that. At image 125 (12.5 which is supposed to be image 13) the tent in the center becomes available as a non-combat, allowing people to play instruments and other people to mosh (kill hobos) or busk (get nickels). Also, you will occasionally encounter a non-combat to buy a hobo code binder for 30 nickels; once that has been bought, that adventure will instead be a marketplace where you can buy things. The Hobo Marketplace Table contains a full list of what you can buy and how to reach each option.
The hobos in the central area have roughly 400 HP. If you deal 505+ damage of a single type to them (it doesn't have to be in one hit) you will "overkill" them, leaving behind hobo parts. If you are running +ML the damage needed for an overkill is greater. There are six hobo parts, one for each element, plus physical damage. Having a full set of six hobo parts allows Richard to make a scarehobo, killing ~8 hobos. Overkilling hobos effectively allows you to kill slightly more than 2 hobos at a time. However, if you overkill hobos you will get no normal drops, including nickels. So, scarehobos are a choice between speed and loot. Using Summon Mayfly Swarm or equipping your familiar with a Li'l Businessman Kit can allow you to get additional nickels, even if you overkill hobos.
General Side Area Information
As more hobos are killed in the Town Square, more side areas become available. Every side area has a similar structure. They contain 490-510(*) hobos to kill before encountering a boss. Each side zone begins with image file number 0, and progresses to image file number 10 (boss available), and then image file number 11 (boss killed). Approximately 50 hobo kills are needed to advance each image file, as the image file number is calculated as floor(10 * kills / total hobos).
Each side zone also has a "level" of its appropriate element. When the elemental level is higher, hobos can inflict more damage on you with their special attacks, and additional non-combats may become available. When the level is lower, hobos inflict less damage with their special attacks. All hobos in all zones, including the Town Square, have the ability to hit you for 200+ damage, ignoring Moxie and defensive abilities.
Non-combats are all choice adventures, which vary among the zones but generally follow the same structure. Typically, each zone contains choices which:
- Add Meat to the Clan Stash and add 5 to 10 hobos back to the side area.
- Raise or lower the elemental level of the zone (possibly lowering or raising another zone's level at the same time).
- Kill a number of hobos in the zone.
Every side area also has a semi-rare adventure which allows you to buy something fairly powerful for 5 nickels.
Bosses
Each side zone boss has an "aura" which does an extra 40-60 elemental damage every combat round (in addition to its own special abilities). Hobopolis bosses also have a soft damage cap applied to your attacks and some resistance or immunity to entangling abilities. If you deal more than 500 damage in a single blow, the bosses develop a DA proportional to the amount of damage dealt. The amount of DA depends on the boss you are fighting. Some sample damage values are given in the following table.
| x | Zombo Chester |
Ol' Scratch Muggers |
Oscus | Hodgman (Frosty dead) |
Hodgman (Frosty alive) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 375 | 25 |
| 1000 | 556 | 577 | 605 | 609 | 50 |
| 1500 | 589 | 625 | 677 | 737 | 75 |
| 2000 | 616 | 667 | 741 | 854 | 100 |
| 3000 | 661 | 739 | 853 | 1070 | 150 |
| 4000 | 701 | 802 | 955 | 1273 | 200 |
| 5000 | 736 | 860 | 1049 | 1466 | 250 |
| 10000 | 885 | 1108 | 1462 | 2354 | 353 |
| 20000 | 1114 | 1506 | 2150 | 3944 | 436 |
| 50000 | 1625 | 2432 | 3818 | 8137 | 621 |
| 100000 | 2272 | 3651 | 6102 | 14346 | 867 |
| 200000 | 3285 | 5628 | 9939 | 25529 | 1277 |
| 500000 | 5558 | 10249 | 19288 | 55130 | 2270 |
| 1000000 | 8440 | 16343 | 32110 | 99027 | 3628 |
Hobopolis bosses drop "loot", which generally falls into two categories: regular tradable loot, and special untradable loot. The untradable loot goes into a special holding area until it has been assigned to an eligible clan member.
Each side boss has a consumable item and an accordion thief song book, both of which are tradable loot. The player who kills the boss will receive this loot (if it is dropped) in the regular way. The mechanic for the consumable item is not standard: your +item effects determine the number of consumables you get, rather than the probability of getting one, according to the formula floor(+ITEM/100). That is, if you have a total of +301% item effects, you will get 3 consumable items from the boss. The mechanic for getting the accordion thief song books is not known.(*)
Each side bosses has an outfit (with three parts) and a selection of other non-outfit equipment and items that may drop. Every time a side boss is killed, one outfit piece will be dropped (presumably at random). Some non-outfit items may also drop at a 20% rate, each independent of the others, and unaffected by +item. Outfit pieces can be zapped in the expected manner. Non-outfit items cannot be zapped.
Side Areas
Burnbarrel Blvd. (hot)
- Boss -- Ol' Scratch
- Debuffs you if you have more than five active buffs. One strategy is to use some very powerful buffs (+200% stat) and perhaps SPF 451 lip balm, the hot resistance semi-rare. Scratch's debuff is performed when he acts against you. He is immune to multi-round stunning effects (e.g., Entangling Noodles), but not to single-round stunning effects (e.g., gob of wet hair, macrame net). Getting initiative and then funkslinging a single-round stunner and damage item can kill him without letting him debuff you.
- Hot Hobos
- The damage dealt by their special attacks increases due to (the hot level? going CLUE on pipes?).
- Semi-Rare
- jar of squeeze
- Getting Tired
- Put a tire on gently
- Decreases the frequency of this non-combat
- Increases the number of hobos killed by tire-avalanches
- After stacking 48 tires, attempting to add 49th causes an immediate tirevalanche.
- Put a tire on violently
- Piping Hot
- Turn the valve
- Hot Dog! I Mean... Door!
- Open the door
- Increases Hot hobos by 5-10
- Increases Clan Meat by 9-11k
- After the door has been opened 5 times, the adventure no longer occurs.
- Note: You can't open the door if the Hot elemental strength of the zone is too high.
Exposure Esplanade (cold)
- Boss -- Frosty
- Frosty reduces all damage dealt to him to 1, except elements against which he is weak, which deal 3 damage to him. He has roughly 350 HP. The basic strategy is to deal damage from as many sources as possible. Use Prismatic Damage in combination with either gremlin juice or chalk dust to eliminate fumbles. Then wear three accessories and layer on effects which deal Passive Damage. Boost your cold resistance and your Muscle so that your HP are high, and weaken your Moxie so that Frosty can hit you, to trigger the passive hits. An attack familiar with a plastic pumpkin bucket or some sort of ant sickle-type gear will help as well. An Angry Goat is especially helpful because it can do more than one damage type per turn (normal and stench) along with other familiars that do different types of damage.
- To maximize item drops (for the consumable item drops) while still killing Frosty within the 30-round limit, one cannot rely on prismatic damage weapons or retaliation accessories (because those slots will be used for +item equipment). However, prismatic damage is still available using elemental nuggets, or Benetton's Medley of Diversity. An obsidian dagger is also helpful since it is a one-handed prismatic weapon and since Frosty negates all damage anyway the low weapon power doesn't matter. If your Moxie is sufficiently low, the retaliatory damage from the saucespheres and psalm, together with your prismatic damage effects (and the +1 per round from your offhand bottle-rocket crossbow or duck-on-a-string) will be enough. Don't forget to turn off your +ML!
- To most efficiently kill him and retain all +Item gear and buffs, simply funksling a possessed tomato and a Colon Annihilation Hot Sauce, each of which do 3 damage a round, coupled with any other source of prismatic damage for your weapon; this will kill him easily within the 30-round limit. A paint bomb is even more effective, dealing three times the damage of the hot sauce or tomato each round to Frosty.
- Turtle Tamers also have the benefit of their combo attacks to add another 3 damage each round. This could get counterproductive if you're relying on 'when player is hit' passive damage, since Kneebutt has a chance to stun him.
- Cold Hobos
- Every time a cold hobo gets hurt he "cries out". One feature of this zone is that there are icicles hanging from the ceiling. Depending on how much you have yodeled, an icicle can fall from the "crying" dealing about 250 cold damage(*). High cold resistance, high HP, and something like Cannelloni Cocoon or a good stock of healing scrolls are recommended, as well as the ability to one-shot the hobos here.
- Alternatively, these hobos will not cry out if you do less than 39(*) damage to them. If you are having issues healing yourself, another option is to try to stun them as much as possible to avoid their 200+ big attack while plinking them down.
- Semi-Rare
- bowl of fishysoisse
- There Goes Fritz!
- Yodel a little
- Decreases Cold hobos by 1%(*) of the number of icicles on the ceiling, and dislodges 5%(*) of icicles.
- Yodel a lot
- Decreases Cold hobos by ???% of the number of icicles on the ceiling, and dislodges ???% of icicles. May cause the adventure to become less common.(*)
- Yodel your heart out
- Decreases Cold hobos by 9%(*) of the number of icicles on the ceiling, and dislodges 30%(*) of icicles. Prevents the adventure from appearing again for the rest of the dungeon instance, or until you ascend.
- Note: The game keeps stock of how many icicles are on the ceiling (1000(*) icicles to begin), and the more icicles there are, the more effective each level of yodeling becomes. Each time you yodel it subtracts from the stock of icicles, causing the further yodels to become weaker. Once you've yodeled at least once at any level, the hobos "crying out" can cause icicles to hit you, causing massive damage, although weaker yodels will cause this to happen much less frequently than heavier yodels.
- Piping Cold
- Turn the first valve
- Decreases Hot elemental strength
- Turn the second valve
- Go all CLUE on the third Pipe
- The Frigid Air
- Pry open the freezer
- You acquire an item: frozen banquet
- Pry open the fridge
- Increase Clan Meat by 8,566-11,935 meat
- Increases Cold hobos by 5-10
- After the freezer or fridge has been opened 5 times, the adventure no longer occurs.
The Heap (stench)
- Boss -- Oscus
- His damage aura gets stronger each round. Buff your stench resistance and beat the stuffing out of him.
- Stench Hobos
- Hobos in the stench zone get an aura similar to what the bosses of other zones have. It's not a lot of damage, and as long as you can kill them quickly it won't be much of an issue. The damage of this aura is determined by the zone's stench level.
- Stench Level
- This zone starts out with a stench level of 4. Sending trash here from the PLD or setting off a trashcano each increase the stench level by 1. Sending compost to the Burial Ground decreases the stench level by 1. Either choice of I Refuse! resets the stench level to 0.
- Semi-Rare
- concentrated garbage juice
- You vs. The Volcano
- Kick the stuff into the hole
- The Compostal Service
- Be green
- Both options reset the Stench level of the zone to 0.
- Only occurs when the stench level of the zone is at least 8. By simply not selecting an option, it is possible for other people to get this adventure before the stench level is reset. This seems to require the stench level to be at least 7 + N, where N is the total number of people that are to get this adventure.
- Explore the junkpile
- Gives you three "trash" items, including some items that cannot be obtained through other means. The items dead guy's piece of double-sided tape and Ralph IX cognac can only be obtained by exploring the junkpile. See I Refuse! for more details on what can be acquired here.
The Ancient Hobo Burial Ground (spooky)
- Boss -- Zombo
- Zombo's first successful hit will unequip your pants, the second will unequip your hat, and the third will unequip your shirt. He does not unequip anything else. You want to buff yourself up and use Divine items or melee attacks to beat him, basically. Using the funkslinging technique described above for Ol' Scratch will prevent Zombo from unequipping your gear.
- Spooky Hobos
- Spooky Hobos (including Zombo) are effectively immune to elemental damage. They have to be killed with physical damage, meaning you want to use Weapon of the Pastalord, Divine items, or strong melee with things like a Brimstone Bludgeon or stainless steel shillelagh.
- Semi-Rare
- deadly lampshade
- Returning to the Tomb
- Pry open the door
- Increase Spooky hobos by ~5-10
- Increase Clan meat by ~10k
- Ah, So That's Where They've All Gone
- Send the flowers to The Heap
- A Chiller Night (1)
- Study the hobos' dance moves
- Choosing this 3 times unlocks A Chiller Night (2)
- Note: Can be seen five times for each time flimflam is chosen in Getting Clubbed.
- A Chiller Night (2)
- Dance with them
- Kills some a variable amount of hobos up to 23 times.
- Note: Can be seen five times for each time flimflam is chosen in Getting Clubbed.
The Purple Light District (sleaze)
- Boss -- Chester
- He disallows the use of Combat Items. Just buff up and blast the grease out of him.
- Semi-Rare
- lewd playing card
- Getting Clubbed
- Note: Boost Combat Frequency to gain access to this adventure.
- Try to get inside
- Enter the club once a minimum of 21 turns have been expended either piping cold water from the Exposure Esplanade, or flimflamming and bamboozling hobos. This is a clan, rather than individual, counter.
- Every turn spent piping in hot steam from Burnbarrel Blvd. increases the number of actions needed to get inside the club by one.
- Otherwise, ends the turn without expending an adventure
- Try to bamboozle the crowd
- Helps gain access to the club
- Try to flimflam the crowd
- Helps gain access to the club
- Unlocks 5 A Chiller Night non-combats in the spooky burial grounds.
- Exclusive!
- Pick a fight
- Fight a Sleaze hobo
- Pick several fights
- Starts a large bar-fight killing 10% of the sleaze hobos remaining in the zone, rounded down.
- Pick your nose
- Gain a large amount of substats, capped at 1000 each
- Decreases the count of the number of actions needed to get inside the club by one, just like piping in hot steam from Burnbarrel Blvd.
- You will lose club access if the count goes below 21, but spending one turn of either bamboozling or flimflaming in Getting Clubbed or piping cold water from the Exposure Esplanade will give you access again.
- The Furtivity of My City
- Eviscerate him
- Fight a Sleaze hobo
- Intimidate him
- Wait for him to leave
- Increase Clan Meat by ~5k
- Increases Sleaze hobos by ~5
Hobo Boss
- Boss -- Hodgman, The Hoboverlord
- He has 25000 HP, and he will sometimes flip out and start dealing significantly higher damage. All of his attacks can be any of the five elements or physical damage. If you leave side bosses alive, however, he gains extra "abilities":
- Frosty seems to add 95% damage resistance
- Oscus gives him an aura that starts at 10 damage (5 stench and 5 physical) and triples every round
- Ol' Scratch debuffs everything
- Zombo unequips everything except your weapon and offhand
- Chester allows Hodgman to ignore your elemental and physical damage resistances.
