Bad Moon Strategy

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Hermit.gif The Hermit humbly requests that this page be rewritten or expanded.

Damn near everything's changed since this article was first written. Needs to be addressed completely.

The Naughty Sorceress is immune to staggering now, so macrame nets are probably not the best way for spellcasters to fight her.

With the removal of Odor Extractors, farming Fruit Golems becomes more difficult, and plans for food should be addressed accordingly

Introduction

Unlike other types of runs, there is a formula to Bad Moon because there are fewer options under this sign. It is, however, only a suggested route. Read through the goals for each day and go about them in the best way. Each run is different, so modify this schedule based on how lucky or unlucky your run is.

Mysticality classes may be a day behind where Moxie classes are a day ahead, but finishing Day 5 with a Liver of Steel is very possible. Do not worry too much about finishing in 13 days - it is a rough way for you to assess how ahead or behind you are. Read the section at the end on skills, survival, semi-rares, and filthy lucre before starting your run. Always read a few steps ahead as it could be beneficial to switch steps around. Once again, every run will be different and choices due to Holidays, bounty choices, luck, and personal goals will alter the ascension. This guide will provide the backbone to customize a BM run and get through it in good time.

The guide should help everyone, but is primarily geared towards players who have never done a BM run before. Top leaderboard spots will require deviation from the guide in several spots, but it should help speed players too, if nothing else, as a checklist of things to do and not to do.

You should always find the best use of the daily Styx Pixie Buffs.

Buff Stat Bonus
Hella Tough +25% Muscle +10 weapon damage, +5 damage reduction
Hella Smart +25% Mysticality +10-15 MP/turn, +15 spell damage
Hella Smooth +25% Moxie +40% meat drops, +20% item drops

If you have questions about a Bad Moon effect or adventure, you can find out more information here.

General tips

  • You can use PvP to run down turns of effects you don't want, such as Beaten Up.
  • You can autosell things you don't need for more meat. If you need even more, there are five special meat adventures in Bad Moon, for a total of 15000 meat.
  • You'll want the Pride and Envy Bad Moon skills in every run, and soon. You'll want Gluttony later on, when you have better food available, and when stats from combats aren't so slim. Greed is very bad and should never be purchased, ever.
  • A good basic diet starts with acceptable bagels with the occasional popular tart or other epic food, and switches to the Hippy war food once you complete the orchard quest. Two meat muck is good for the whole run: the adventures are decent and the stats are great. You can fill up on flavored wine coolers and SR booze.
  • Do Doc Galaktik's Quest for Herbs while you're looking for snake milk and wine coolers for cheaper healing and the +5 stat potion.
  • If you're doing a black cat run
    • The fight against the Tasmanian Dervish is painful: he always hits, hits three times every round, has 300 HP and better stats than you, and can block normal attacks (such as those forced by the cat instead of skills).
      • Getting the jump gives you one extra survivable turn.
      • Using weapon damage increasers such as red eye to increase your damage to a level where you can kill him in a couple of turns, hoping the cat won't block you, works.
      • Other possible strategies: use DA and huge +stat semi-rares to reduce damage to a level where you can plink.
    • The fight against your shadow is also tricky, and will require a bit of advance planning.
      • Pick up the scented massage oil semi-rare, this is particularly helpful for muscle classes who can more easily ramp up their HP, potentially to the point of killing the shadow in 1 hit. Non-black-cat runners may still want this, but it's not critical.
      • Disco Bandit has the skill Ambidextrous Funkslinging which will allow them to use 2 healing items per turn instead of 1. This is more luck based than the scented massage oil, but a possible solution. This strategy can be combined with a scented massage oil.

Day 1

  1. Visit the Toot Oriole and open the letter from King Ralph XI. Equip what you can, and use your clan's klaw, selling any prizes for Meat.
  2. Autosell all the pork elf gems for 2,500 meat.
  3. Eat to 15 fullness on Brimstone foods, this will get you to level 3 right off the bat. Do this before adventuring so you won't have any offstats for the food to kill. Muscle classes should eat 1 Chicken Sandwich, then 4 Beelzeburgers. Mysticality classes should eat 4 Lord of the fries, then 1 Chicken Sandwich. Moxie classes should eat 4 Chicken Sandwiches, then one Beelzeburger. NOTE: IT IS IMPORTANT TO EAT THEM IN THIS ORDER.
  4. Spend 400 meat on Pride ASAP.
  5. Head to town and visit the Pretentious Artist for his quest and Doc Galaktik for his quest. It doesn't hurt to try, as inadvertent completion is possible.
  6. Visit your class Guild and speak to the leader to start the guild unlock quest.
  7. Visit the Bounty Hunter Hunter to pick a bounty (The Triffid is the best bounty for day 1 or 2, since you can at least farm spices while hunting for them).
  8. The Spooky Forest for the mosquito larva. Keep adventuring in the Spooky Forest until you get the 1000 meat from the This Doesn't Look Like Candy Mountain adventure. The Missing Kidney debuff doesn't do anything noticeable. Use this money to buy Envy from Meansucker's House. In the Spooky Forest choice adventure, Arboreal Respite, get the items required for the Spooky Temple Map Quest, and then either spices or spooky mushrooms (for the grue omlette later in the game).
  9. Buy a terrarium and get a volleyball and a seal tooth from The Hermitage and create a blood-faced volleyball as soon as possible.
  10. The Haiku Dungeon for a fairy gravy boat and some early stats, but do not spend more than 10 turns here. If you do not get the gravy boat, come back later. Keep the parts of the Bugbear Costume if you get them.
    Note: If you're a Turtle Tamer, you can hold out for a Syncopated Turtle instead. It may take longer to get, but it doesn't rely on RNG either.
  11. Finish guild unlock quest.
  12. Go visit your guild and start your nemesis quest (this becomes available at 12 mainstat).
  13. Tavern Cellar until you get Of Course!. Be sure to visit the Suspicious-Looking Guy for free goofballs while you're there. Once complete, go back and adventure until you get the Baron's mansion. Do not engage the boss, you will lose.
  14. Drink your reward from completing Of Course!. Although save one Typical Tavern swill until you get 14 drunkness from other drinks. Overpriced "imported" beer will likely be your best option, if you can afford the meat- otherwise drink the crappy drinks you have. (If you CAN mix drinks, then do it. Remember to get to 14 drunkness only though and drink a Typical Tavern swill at the end of the day.
  15. Adventure in the outskirts of Cobb's knob until you obtain the encryption code.
  16. Turn in rat whiskers for a nice pot of meat.
  17. You're going to want a form of Stench#Resistance for day 2. Adventure in The Sleazy Back Alley for bum cheek, and if lucky enough, the Slug Lord's map (Don't farm for the map though). Note that Saucerors can purchase a class skill which will give them the resist. Other means of resist will appear later on too, if you're willing to wait to do the quest.

Your main goals for the day are to get Pride, Envy, a blood-faced volleyball, eat and drink to fullness, and get to level 4.

If you get Beaten Up, run down the turns by trying to get a fairy gravy boat from The Haiku Dungeon. Try to use HP restorers as much as you can without being wasteful with meat so you do not get beaten up. You only have 1 skill that uses MP, so you might as well use that as much as possible.

Day 2

  1. Check the bounty. If you can get it in a few turns, finish yesterday's bounty. If not, try a new one. Do not use the lucre yet. <You will need 2 lucres on day 4. (Filthy lucre can no longer be used to buy odor extractors, making collecting lucre less urgent. More information on day 4.)
  2. Outskirts of Cobb's Knob for a chef's hat and the Knob Goblin encryption key if you haven't already got these - don't forget a Knob Goblin lunchbox for your semi-rare.
  3. Get Degrassi Knoll shopping list from guild, visit The Untinker's Cottage.
  4. The Degrassi Knoll Garage to get a bitchin' meatcar and the Untinker's screwdriver.
  5. See guild quest giver to complete the meatcar quest; make sure you do that before adventuring in The Degrassi Knoll Garage to get Flowers For (Familiar Name) for 2,000 meat. Make sure you have one extra spring left for a Chef-in-the-box.
  6. Get Anticheese from A Ruined House. This can be used to make a cottage, for better HP and MP gains over rollover.
  7. Adventure in South of The Border until you get The Beaten-Senseless Man's Hand. While you are beaten up, adventure in the The Spooky Forest trying to unlock the hidden temple, and get mixed drinks from barrels.
  8. Guano Junction until 2 sonars. Briefcases should most likely be opened since you need the meat, but if you can manage to save one, it may save you some turns much later.
  9. Adventure in the beanbat chamber for enchanted beans, and eat Enchanted bean burritos for all food. If you don't have a Bugbear Costume yet go to the Knoll bakery for wads of dough and the outfit.
  10. Cemetary as much as you can to get your epic weapon, open Fernswarthy's tower, and hopefully get a skeleton key or two.
  11. Do the The Daily Dungeon once any stat, probably your mainstat (buffed) is at 30 (for the locked doors). For It's Almost Certainly a Trap, apply any elemental resistance you have, and make sure you can heal yourself as needed. Use skeleton keys if you got them from the cemetary. Skip the first two chests - they are not worth it. If you have it already, use your fairy and you might be able to snag some nice food and useful combat items. This is to get a Sneaky Pete's breath spray. You cannot use it yet, but it is vital on day 4, or else the Deep Fat Friars' Gate Quest and Fruit Golems will be too hard for you. Accordion Thieves may be able to get by without it, but it is not recommended.
  12. If you are planning on doing the nun subquest for the frat/hippy battle, go to A Barroom Brawl within the Tavern to get a Leprechaun if you did not get one earlier. Note: this gives 1 drunkenness.
  13. Use the Styx Pixie buff to help you defeat the boss bat. Use your leprechaun to get more meat from the bodyguard bats.
  14. Get the elite knobs guard uniform. Also, DO NOT adventure in the treasury so you don't trigger the Animal Exploiter buff, which you will need tomorrow to kill the Goblin King and Baron von Ratsworth.
  15. If you're a Pastamancer or Sauceror buy a Dramatic™ range, as a Disco Bandit buy a cocktailcrafting kit from Nervewrecker's Store. All classes should consider a class specific skill. Healing skills are really nice early on unless you are a Muscle class, in which case you can use medicinal herbs.

If you get beaten up, do barrels, spooky forest until The Hidden Temple is open or try to get fairy gravy from Haiku dungeon (in order of importance).

Your main goals for the day are to get the epic weapon, meatcar, eat & drink to fullness, and get to level 5.

Day 3

  1. The Haunted Kitchen (with any stench/hot resistance you can muster), then The Haunted Billiards Room (with drunkenness as close to 10 as possible, but no higher) to open The Haunted Library. Make sure you have an extra handful of hand chalk after the library is unlocked.
  2. If you haven't already, get the Knob Goblin Elite Guard Uniform by adventuring in the Cobb's Knob Barracks. It is better to use your semi-rares for food and drink. Wear it and adventure in the Harem for a nice 75 substat bonus.
  3. Do the daily dungeon and get the key that matches your class.
  4. Adventure in the Cobb's Knob Kitchens in Elite uniform for the cake.
  5. Adventure in the treasury until you obtain the Animal Exploiter adventure.
  6. Use the Styx Pixie buff and the handful of hand chalk, fight The Knob Goblin King. Make sure you are at full health, as the Goblin King will hit hard (20+ damage for non-moxie classes). Thanks to your high muscle, you should be able to kill him in 2 hits. Pastamancers will want to set the monster aggravation device to 3 for the Glass Balls of the Goblin King, which will be used later to make the Staff of the Soupbone.
  7. While you are still buffed, fight and kill Baron von Ratsworth, the monocle is a really nice item to have the whole game and worth the trouble to get. Use Knob Goblin stink bombs if you need to. Any combat items you got from the daily dungeon may also come in handy.
  8. The Cobb's Knob Kitchens for a knob mushroom to make a gravy fairy ASAP, if you didn't get one from The Haiku Dungeon.
  9. The "Fun" House for a box, some new equipment, and the Bugbear Costume (if you didn't get it in The Haiku Dungeon). Defeating Beelzebozo will get you the item to smith your Legendary Epic Weapon.
  10. Your guild will give you meat for a tenderizing hammer now; buy it from Nervewrecker's Store for 500 (not 1000 from market) and make the Legendary Epic Weapon, if you want (see discussion below). Sell your tenderizing hammer afterwards (unless you are a Muscle class and wish to use your class smithing skill).
  11. Beanbat Chamber for beans for insanely spicy enchanted bean burritos (your diet for the day).
  12. If you haven't yet, adventure in the Cemetery for a smart skull and open Fernswarthy's Tower, hopefully getting a dead guy's watch. If you get the Braaains effect, the highest meat drops will be from the Misspelled Cemetary and Fernswarthy's Tower, so do not waste these turns.
  13. Fernswarthy's Tower for a disembodied brain and to complete the Wizard of Ego quest.
  14. If you still have adventures left, don't adventure in the Copse of the Deep Fat Friars, as the monsters there will be too strong for you until you are level 7 (level 6.5 for moxie classes). Instead try completing a bounty, if The Hidden Temple is open get Torso Awaregness, or if the bounty is finished, grabbing some stone wool at The Hidden Temple.

If you get Beaten Up, do The Barrel full of Barrels, The Spooky Forest until The Hidden Temple is open (once you open the temple, do a few more turns to get Torso Awaregness), or go to The Hidden Temple for handfuls of stone wool (in order of importance). If you need the meat consider getting the bad moon adventure in the bat hole entrance.

Your main goals for the day are to get a fairy gravy boat, kill the Goblin King, kill Baron von Ratsworth, make a chef-in-the-box, and have a Sneaky Pete's breath spray. You should be level 6 by now. The chef-in-the-box will save you turns cooking key lime pies later, as well as dry noodles or scrumptious reagents, if you are a Mysticality class.

Depending on your class, consider eating the following foods (in order of adventures): knob pasties, tasty tarts, insanely spicy bean burritos, spicy noodles, painful penne pasta, boring spaghetti, pizzas, lemon pie / strawberry pie / ghoul egg pie / lihc eye pie / brains casserole, and tacos. Avoid eating anything other than these foods. Farm where you need to and get just enough to get you through today and tomorrow. A good way of knowing what it is best to eat can be found here.

You should have the Elite Uniform by now. The outfit itself is useful, but you can now use seltzers as MP restorers, and you have some very nice items to use. Although meat is scarce at the moment, consider using pet-buffing spray when you are farming (it equals about an 8% increase in item drops) in areas with few non-combats and can stand to lose 10% stats. Learning pills are not really worth the stats they give.

The epic weapon is useful in every class, but the Legendary Epic Weapon is not useful as a Pastamancer and optional for Muscle classes. It should be mandatory for Moxie classes, which will not find better weapons until very late in the game if at all. It is not useful for Saucerors who rely on buffing their moxie with sauce potions; get any ranged weapon instead.

Day 4

  1. If you have not done a Bounty Hunter quest, do it now.
  2. If you don't have a Sneaky Pete's breath spray, get it now. Note: If you don't have any dungeon keys, also make sure to farm enough food for you to eat today, as you won't be able to eat any key lime pies until tomorrow.
  3. If you are still not level 7 yet (level 6.5 for moxie classes), train at The Hidden Temple. If you get one stone wool, get the Nostril of the Serpent; if you get a second, save it for level 11; if you get any more, use it to get stats from the choice adventure.
  4. Once you are ready, put on the Ben-Gal™ Balm and hair spray and finish the Friars Quest.
  5. If you have not gotten the Cobb's Knob Menagerie key yet, get it now.
  6. If you don't have a Daily Dungeon key, get it now.
  7. Use your gravy fairy, and use a filthy lucre to buy an odor extractor, and if you have another one, get an Oreille Divisée brandy. Buff up and head to Menagerie Level 1. Use the extractor on the Fruit Golem.
  8. Use the Brother Flying Burrito's Blessing and the Styx Pixie Hella Smooth blessing. If you have it, drink your brandy to get the Hoity Toity effect (+30% item drops). Use Knob Goblin eyedrops. Equip your monocle. Equip a Bread basket if you have one. If you are killing the fruit golems without taking much damage, consider using pet-buffing spray for more drops.
  9. Now farm some cherries and limes. If your Brother Flying Burrito's Blessing runs out and you still have adventures left, stop adventuring and eat and drink to fullness. You will want to save your 20 remaining On the Trail adventures for tomorrow so you can use the Brother Flying Burrito's Blessing buff with it again. (Because Odor extractors are no longer available for purchase, this method of farming for cherries and limes is less efficient, and there is no longer an incentive to save adventures. Instead you can spend the extra adventures getting a magical baguette for a Bread basket and spending more turns in the Menagerie).

You should not get Beaten Up anymore. Keep your HP up and do not fight things that are beyond your ability to hit.

Your main goals for the day are to get a supply of food, and some meat for a new skill. You should be at level 7 now.

From now on, you should be eating 3 key lime pies plus a 3-fullness pie each day. If you eat a fortune cookie, eat 2 tasty tarts/Knob pasties with it instead of having a pie. Consider that you will need to farm the Menagerie again to have enough food for the rest of your run. You should do it sometime in the next 3-4 days.

Day 5

  1. Use the Styx pixie Hella Smooth buff, and the Brother Flying Burrito's Blessing and finish up farming limes and cherries at the menagerie.
  2. Obtain the steel margarita. Use as many buffs as you can and finish this quest. It is critical to get this done by the end of day 5.
  3. Whitey's Grove to open The Road to the White Citadel. Use your fairy, and you may be able to pick up a bird rib or lion oil. However, if you don't get them now, that's fine -- come back later when the drop rates increase. Choice adventures worth getting include boxed wine and jars of white lightning. Get a catgut if you are a Pastamancer. If you do not have a frilly skirt get a Mullet wig in the choice adventure.
  4. Whitey's Grove again for the bad moon adventure (gain 5000 meat, -20% stats for 10 turns). (this hasn't been fully spaded, but it appears that you need to complete the White Citadel guild quest to unlock this special adventure. Unless you need the meat, skip this quest)
  5. Do a bounty hunter assignment.
  6. Once you reach level 8, get some hair spray and go to the defiled alcove and try to get a dead guy's watch.
  7. Extra turns should be spent completing the defiled crypt quest. In non-combat adventures, choose the stat gaining option. Don't fight fight any of the sub-bosses yet.

Your main goal is to be done farming limes and cherries, and get Steel Margarita. It is a simple, but very important goal. Follow the order of progression, but days at this point may blend into one another. You should end the day at Level 8.

Day 6

  1. Get Gluttony as late in the day as possible (for extra stats).
  2. Finish your bounty if you haven't finished yesterday's.
  3. Adventure in the defiled crypt until you reach level 8.5, don't fight any of the bosses yet.
  4. With your fairy, adventure in the Itznotyerzitz Mine and get the mining outfit.
  5. Get the requested ore. Seal Clubbers who find chrome may choose to make a chrome weapon for the extra adventures. Pastamancers will want to find a lump of diamond and make the Staff of the Soupbone now.
  6. Use hair spray, get the Burrito Blessing, Hella Smooth, and adventure in the goatlet for 3 goat cheeses. Saucerors should continue until they have at least 2 goat's milk, to make milk of magnesium.
  7. The eXtreme Slope for the outfit for the noncombats to reach the peak. Use your fairy here for the outfit pieces.
  8. The rest of the level 8 quest should be postponed until you can handle Groar.
  9. If you hit level 9, you can do the Strange Leaflet quest to get the house and grue egg (for an omelette).
  10. Remaining turns should be spent either at the shore to unlock the Mysterious Island (and get the UV-resistant compass), or spending more adventures at the crypt.

Let's assess where you are at this point. You have food (key lime pies and stir fries/lo meins), drinks (shots from hippy store & market), and high item drops (20 lb fairy, Envy, Baron's monocle, miner's helmet, and observational glasses). What you may be worried about is the number of quests you still have not completed. Do not worry too much about this. Your goal is to now start leveling faster and completing some quests along the way, but do not go back to fight at lower levels just yet. You should be level 9 now, but if you are still level 8 don't be worried.

Day 7

If you are doing the level 9 quest, try to save the Styx Pixie buff for Twin Peak. You will likely not be able to finish the level 9 quest now, so go as far as you can and come back (much) later.

  1. If you haven't already, unlock the mysterious island and get the UV-resistant compass. (This is the best time to drink any white lightning you found, as all turns with temporary blindness will be used at the shore.)
  2. Obtain the pirate outfit.
  3. Buy the abridged dictionary and The Big Book of Pirate Insults from Barrrtleby's Bookstore. Untinker the dictionary. (This is no longer necessary to obtain the Talisman o' Namsilat. See Day 11 for more information.) Note: if you are out of or are running out of food, make sure to save at least 20 turns for fruit golems at the end of the day. This is more important than finishing any of the following quests.
  4. Drink to 10 drunkeness and adventure in the Barrrney's Barrr using insults until you get 6 insults. If you get choice adventures, always go with stats, even if they give you drunkenness. The exception is the A Test of Testarrrsterone, in which Moxie classes should chose option 3 and other classes option 1 (option 2 usually gives less stats at this level and yields drunkenness). You should get enough bottles of rum to restock your booze. Use Cap'm Caronch's Map with leprechaun equipped. One last turn for the blueprints.
  5. Use the Bridge, boost item drops, wear a Loadstone if you have it and complete the bridge in The Orc Chasm.
  6. In A-boo Peak, run +item and get 3 or 4 A-Boo clues. Save these for later; don't attempt to survive the horror yet. If you think you'll be able to survive the whole thing later, then you can stop at 3 clues (and 90% haunted); otherwise get 4 clues (and 80% haunted). You will likely be able to survive the whole thing as a muscle class or as a sauceror. It is worth waiting for this, possibly until right before the sorceress quest. For the horror buff up cold and spooky resistance as well as max hp. A can of black paint and the eXtreme Cold-Weather Gear will always be available. Fish-liver oil from the poop deck is very useful if you have it, muscle classes can use blood of the wereseal and everyone can use ben-gal balm.
  7. The Oil Peak should only be done once you can obtain at least 20 ML. Since Heartbreaker's Hotel and Victor, the Insult Comic Hellhound Puppet give already up to 16 ML you only need 4 more, which will probably drop over the course of the run. Possible options are:
  8. Run +item on the Twin Peak for rusty hedge trimmers. There are several (relatively) easy ways to meet the stat requirements in Twin Peak:
    1. You can get +50% item drops trivially with Envy, Baron von Ratsworth's monocle, and Knob Goblin eyedrops. Moxie classes who bought their guild's +20% item drop skill won't even need the monocle or the eyedrops.
    2. For Stench resistance, bum cheek and the ghost of a necklace already gives +2. The other +2 can be gotten from pants of the Slug Lord or a Whoompa Fur Pants or Polysniff Perfume from A-boo Peak. There also Elementally, My Deal Watson adventure at the Beanbat Chamber, pec oil from the Giant's Castle, or a can of black paint if all else fails.
    3. The Jar of oil will only be available once you finish oil peak.
    4. +40% Initiative may be harder to obtain, especially if you bought Sloth. If you bought Lust (but not Sloth), you've already fulfilled the requirement. Pastamancers can use Springy Fusilli, TTs have a giraffe-necked turtle, DBs have Overdeveloped, and ATs have Cletus. SCs, TTs and ATs can buy themselves a clock. Other initiative sources include Bonerdagon necklace, oil slacks, Swabbie™ swab and Sugar Rush. If you wait till level 11 Lord Spookyraven's ear trumpet will make it much easier.
  9. Once you complete the Orc Chasm Quest, find an n in The Valley of Rof L'm Fao, and possibly a meat vortex.
  10. Haunted Library to open both upstairs and get a scroll of ancient forbidden unspeakable evil for the nuns quest. It is probably not worth farming for a second one to summon Ak'gyxoth, since by the time you can do so better nightcaps are available and candles are hard to get. If you are a Mysticality class, try to get the Cookbook of the Damned.
  11. Adventure in the menagerie and use an odor extractor on a fruit golem. Get the burrito blessing, Hella Smooth buff, Knob goblin potions, fairy, monocle, miner's helmet, and any other item dropping equipment you have and farm some more limes and cherries. Once your burrito buff runs out, eat and drink to fullness and continue farming limes and cherries tomorrow.

You should be at level 9. Your main goals of today is to get as far as possible in the Orc Chasm quest, get a lowercase n, and to have started to farm some limes and cherries.

Day 8

  1. Use the Burrito blessing again. Farm limes in the Menagerie using an odor extractor and all your item drop gear.
  2. Clear the Cyrpt. Remember to use the non-combats well: always pick your mainstat, always choose the second option in the cranny, and ignore the rest. Use your fairy to get a dead guy's watch and skeleton keys. Use your fairy in the nook for evil eyes. Otherwise use your volleyball in the niche and your leprechaun in the alcove and cranny. You can finally replace that shiny ring with a badass belt.
  3. If you happen to have the Frat Outfit, a frilly skirt and 3 hot wings or a mullet wig and a briefcase you can finish up the Barrr and move on to the F'c'le (see start of day 9). Consider getting the bad moon adventure from the Haunted Bathroom, especially as a myst class for the F'c'le.
  4. The Haunted Bathroom, Gallery, and Bedroom (getting spectacles and a disposable instant camera from ornate nightstands, if you can) to open the ballroom.
  5. Ballroom until you get quartet adventure. Choose second option for -5% combats. This is almost always helpful and the few spots where it is not helpful barely make a difference.
  6. At this point, you will want to do some leveling up. How you do this depends on your class and how you want to play.

As a Mysticality class, the best place to level at this point is actually the bedroom if you fight for every non-combat (Avg.=33 Mysticality per turn), but you will find this very difficult. The next two next best options are the gallery and the bathroom. If you consider that is takes an average of 10 turns to open the gallery using the conservatory, you will average 28 Mysticality per turn. Again, you may find this difficult at such a low level, but this is clearly the best place if you need to level later in the game. The bathroom gives 26 Mysticality per turn, is easy to survive, gives some nice items (towel = cape for +5% items and a tower item), and you can say the guy made of bees 4 times to set up an easy way of completing the arena sidequest. Pastamancers are guaranteed the guy made of bee pollen because of entangling noodles, but other classes should have a good chance to get it, too. It will cost about 5-10 turns to get the antique mirror and another 5-10 to get the bathroom adventure you need, so you actually lose turns from the guy made of bee pollen, but you do not lose much and it makes your life pretty easy. Go the bathroom route, but the gallery route may end up being more optimal if you can manage it.

As a Moxie class, the most optimal area to level up is clearly the ballroom. It will require surviving the bedroom (29 Moxie per turn if you chose combats or 18 Moxie per turn if you chose meat instead). You do have to do this eventually anyway and it is worth playing the quartet song this early. If you do not use an extractor in the ballroom, you get 36 Moxie per turn. If you spend the extra turns to get an extractor, you average 48 Moxie per turn. Even if it takes you 40 turns to get that lucre, you still come out ahead in stats if you use the extractor. (Extractors are no longer available for purchase). The bathroom only gets you 17 Moxie per turn. You may later find it easier if you set up the guy made of bees now, but it is clearly most optimal to head to the ballroom.

Turtle Tamers should always buy Amphibian Sympathy since it is cheap, skip the arena sidequest, and go to the gallery.

Seal Clubbers have a tougher choice. The gallery will initially give 44 Muscle per turn on average. There are some nice weapons in the gallery, but surviving here may be tough. The next best option is Barrrney's Barrr with an average of 26 Muscle gained per turn. Survival is not hard, but item drops are not great. After this, the peak is the best option with an average of 22 Muscle gained per turn. The meat gain and items (burritos and cheetos) make the peak a great place for seal clubbers, but cold resistance is not easy to get. If you get really lucky, you might zap a ring of cold resistance, but otherwise this option is pretty much out for now. Last on the list is the bathroom with 17 Muscle gained per turn. This is not a great return compared to the gallery, but it is much easier and can be used to set up the Guy Made Of Bees.

One way to weigh your options is to estimate how many turns it will take to level up. Let’s say you are a Seal Clubber and you see that you need 4 Muscle to reach level 10 in your character pane. You look at your Muscle at it takes 277 to gain one Muscle. Add a few points because they will increase, so 280x4=1120. Using the average gains per turn, you can figure out about how many turns it will take for you to level up and therefore weigh your options. For instance, in this case, it will take about 26 turns in the gallery, 43 in the Barrr, and 66 in the bathroom. If you are not worried about losing 40 turns and you want an easy way, try the bathroom.

You may also want to look ahead at the section of leveling up at level 10 and beyond to help in your decision on what path to take now.

You should be at level 10. You should enough food via limes to last until better food becomes easily accessible in a few days.

Day 9

  1. Finish getting to level 10.
  2. There are three ways to get through frat house blueprints (if you haven't already):
    1. equip the Frat Boy Ensemble (option 1),
    2. equip a mullet wig and have a briefcase (option 2), or
    3. equip a frilly skirt and have 3 hot wings (option 3). Option 3 is the easiest - if you do not have the frilly skirt, it drops in the orcish frathouse. Option 2 is difficult because it most likely means waiting until late level 11 for a briefcase. Option 1 may just require a wand zap or may require farming in the Orcish frathouse. At level 10, the non-combats show up quickly to drop your missing parts.
  3. Barrrney's Barrr for 2 turns (Insult Beer Pong).
  4. The F'c'le with maximum item drop equipment and fairy. There are some nice drops here, like the curmudgel. It is worth using cyclops eyedrops and possibly Your #1 Problem here. Finish the quest to get pirate fledges. (This is no longer necessary to obtain the Talisman o' Namsilat. See Day 11 for more information.]
  5. The Penultimate Fantasy Airship for an A. Use your fairy here for many other useful items that can drop. Get the model airship from the choice noncombat. Get the S.O.C.K. to finish the zone.
  6. Cook a cocoa egg and get yourself a cocoabo. Once you hit level 11, this guy is going to be really helpful. He will heal you, let you use more spells to kill things, attack, let you keep your buffs running, and even give you some meat every so often. He should basically replace your volleyball once you get to level 11 because stat gain is based more on noncombats.

You should be level 10. You have plenty of nice equipment by now. Do not get beaten up here! You may be getting hit hard, so keep your HP up at all times. If you do manage to get beaten up, time to farm a few pixels with +ML gear on. This is the reason you waited to go there until now.

Day 10

  1. Castle. You can use a volleyball or leprechaun here. If you got an amulet of extreme plot significance or a titanium assault umbrella, those will help speed up the basement; otherwise, you'll have to get the dumbbell noncombat and then another noncombat to use it. The ground floor has no known shortcuts; use your fairy here for a chaos butterfly, and optionally a plot hole. You may get the electric boning knife from a noncombat; if not, don't worry about it.
  2. For the top floor, wear the mohawk wig if you happened to get one. Once you get the steampunk/goth noncombat turn in the model airship to finish the Giant Trash Quest. After you finish the quest you can get to the steampunk noncombat from any noncombat, and select Investigate the Whirligigs and Gimcrackery to unlock The Hole in the Sky (but don't go there yet).
  3. Finish off Groar if you can. Methods for doing this will be class-specific, and it's a rather tough fight. Moxie and Muscle classes should add as much elemental damage as possible (especially hot or spooky), and consider using a no-fumble potion (handful of hand chalk or orcish hand lotion). The special Bad Moon adventure in the Castle that you just finished adds regular physical damage, but remember that Groar has a soft damage cap, so physical damage over 50 doesn't help very much. Myst classes should use hot/spooky spells.
  4. Level up to level 11. This should not take too long, but here are your options for leveling beyond level 9. Because of caps on the maximum amount of stats you can get based on your current stats, some things have changed since level 9. Also, you are strong enough to easily fight monsters in places that were difficult before. Although the numbers change a little, the order of best places to go does not change at higher levels.
    You might want to adventure in The Haunted Bathroom setting up the Guy Made Of Bees.
    Mysticality classes are best off in the Gallery (average 42 Mysticality per turn). The Castle and the Bedroom are only slightly worse (40 Mysticality per turn). Do not bother keeping the wheel in the castle on your mainstat because you can get just as good of a return in the bedroom.
    Muscle classes in the Gallery gain an average of 54 Muscle per turn. Next on the list is the Castle (40 Muscle per turn), followed by the Bedroom (35 Muscle per turn). Again, it is probably not worth keeping the wheel on your mainstat in the castle, especially since it starts on Muscle.
    Moxie classes have no hard choice to make – always go to the Ballroom. Without an extractor, you gain 48 Moxie per turn, with one you gain 63 Moxie per turn. You probably do not need that much leveling, so it should not be worth wasting a lucre at this point. (Extractors are no longer available for purchase).
  5. The Black Forest to open The Black Market. Picnic baskets and blackberries (for schnapps) can be quite nice drops. Don't forget to get the beehive, and to buy your black paint in advance.
  6. Shore for MacGuffin diary.

Again, avoid getting beaten up by keeping your HP high and farm pixels or use a tiny house if you do happen to get beaten up. Avoid using soft green eyedrops, they are far too valuable to be used now on removing beaten up effects. You should reach level 11 today.

Day 11

Do not drink anything yet. You will likely find better drinks during the day, and you will need 3 drunkeness for the The Hidden City. Make sure you open The Hidden Tavern before you run out of adventures, since it gives you the best nightcap available in bad moon.

  1. Wearing the UV-resistant compass, adventure in The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert until you find Gnasir.
  2. Get rid of any bad effects by going to Hidden Temple for a few turns.
  3. An Oasis until you get the stone rose and a drum machine. Use your fairy - there are lots of great items to be had here.
  4. Finish desert quest. If you have extra turns of ultrahydrated, use then in the extra-dry desert with a fairy because you may get lucky with some awesome items. Use spleen items if they drop (with usual caveats for muscle classes needing spleen for herbs). Turn every 5 handfuls of sand into a brick.
  5. Open Spookyraven Manor Cellar.
  6. If your ML sources are limited, then going for the regular bomb recipe won't make as much difference Adventures-wise compared to the wine bomb. (Unless, you're a Seal Clubber, where it would be faster to make the wine bomb thanks to Batter Up!) If you do go for the wine bomb, then you may find a few bottles of Zindanfel and merlot, laundry sherry plus an extra-flat panini for more gains from food.
  7. If you have a scroll of ancient forbidden unspeakable evil and 3 thin black candles, kill Lord Spookyraven. If not, wait to kill him for when you kill other bosses. If you kill him and have the items, say Ak'gyxoth in the chamber. You get 3 advanced cocktails which you can use for nightcaps. Some good ways to get elemental resistance are the Titanium assault umbrella, Oil of Parrrlay, or the Elementally, My Deal Watson adventure.
  8. Open The Hidden City.
  9. The Poop Deck to open Belowdecks. Check that you have at least 977 meat for the O Cap'm, My Cap'm adventure. Use volleyball. Only item worth using later is the booty chest charrrm. Keep track of how many turns you spend here. If you spent 10 turns and do not get the O Cap'm, My Cap'm adventure, you might consider going back here to level if you need to later. You are guaranteed to get the adventure after 30 turns and if you get it in the next 10 (for instance) your average gain will be 45 of your mainstat, which rivals the best places for stats at your level.
  10. Belowdecks with fairy until you can make the talisman. Good items here include grungy bandana, buoybottoms, acoustic guitarrr, and the grungy flannel shirt. (There have been several changes to the NS since this was written: You would need to complete The Red Zeppelin and The Copperhead Club tasks instead to obtrain the Talisman o' Namsilat)
  11. The Palindome (using a disposable instant camera, if you have one, on Bob Racecar or Racecar Bob) until you get stunt nuts & put photographs in frames.
  12. While beaten up, you can manage 3 turns at Whitey's.
  13. Follow the strategy given in the article on The Hidden City.
  14. Finish getting Mega Gem.

There are two reasons for doing the level 11 quest in this order: getting useful items early and fighting easier monsters before moving on to tough ones.

If you get beaten up today, place spheres on altars, get wet stew ingredients from Whitey's, and finish farming pixels. You should be more than halfway to level 12.

Day 12

  1. Eat the rest of your best food and drinks. Your goal is to make it to level 12 and finish the filthworm quest so you can get some of the best food and drink you can find in BM.
  2. Buff up and kill Dr. Awkward, Protector Spectre, and Lord Spookyraven. Consider Barrrgain Bookstore, Black Market, Blood of the Wereseal, cans of hair spray & Ben-Gal™ Balm, and anything else you may have in your inventory, but hold off on using the Styx Pixie buff just yet. Do not forget to use your volleyball here.
  3. The Upper Chamber to get wooden wheels. You may pick up a few tomb ratchets at The Middle Chamber along the way, but you are likely to find wheels faster than ratchets when you need to turn the chamber.
  4. Open The Lower Chambers and beat up Ed the Undying.
  5. The Hole in the Sky to start farming stars and lines until you reach level 12. You only need 1 star chart, 8 stars, and 7 lines for the key, but you might want to make some other equipment as well. Do not make Richard's star key until you have all the stars and lines you want, or else it will trigger a BM adventure that is a waste of a turn.
  6. Put on your hippy outfit and get the War Hippy Fatigues by adventuring in The Hippy Camp. The problem in BM is that surviving combats at high levels may be difficult and you want to save resources for when you must fight. By choosing this route, you get the outfit in about 20 turns, the stats are pretty good, and if you get beaten up a few times by the only combat adventure, it is not such a big deal.
  7. Put on your war hippy fatigues, buff up, and start the war by adventuring in the orcish frat house.
  8. Complete the filthworm side quest as a hippy. Maximize item drops (fairy, Object Detection, monocle, observational glasses, miner's helmet, pet buffing spray, Knob Goblin eyedrops, etc.). Now you can eat pies and drink schnapps from the store.
  9. Equip your leprechaun and complete the nun's side quest as a hippy. Maximize meat drops (pet-buffing spray, nasal spray, bag of Cheat-Os, Mick's IcyVapoHotness Inhaler, Preternatural Greed from the Summoning Chamber, Hella Smooth buff from Styx Pixie, Braaaaaains, white collar, booty chest charrrm bracelet, box, acoustic guitarrr, etc.). Buying Greed at this point only saves about 4 turns, but if you have the meat to spare and you are going for a speed run, it may be worth it to you. Preternatural Greed saves about 6 turns if you have 2 inhalers.

Doing the level 12 quest as a hippy is preferable because you can access the Filthworms quest earlier and unlock fruits that can be crafted into better drinks.

If you did not set up the Guy Made Of Bees, you will want to level up instead of doing the upper and lower chamber, killing Ed, and farming the Hole in the Sky so you can use flyers here. Do realize that using flyers during a BM run is really painful, although if you can manage it, it may give you a faster run.

Day 13

  1. Eat and drink from the hippy store. Get to 18 drunkenness. Later you may be able to use a Frat Army FGF for a nice 1 drunkenness drink.
  2. Complete The Hole in the Sky for key, if you haven't already. It should only take a couple of turns.
  3. Complete duck quest (remember to use chaos butterfly and do fence, lantern, drums to get shortcut).
  4. Start killing frat boys until you can clear Sonofa Beach. If you have Sono Un Amanten Non Un Combattente (-5% combat) as your song, and have no source of +% Combat, you may want to skip this, however. You can try changing songs if you wish. TTs can use musk turtles to make the Beach faster.
  5. Kill more frat boys until gremlins opens and complete it. Use the spectre scepter on the gremlins for 15 turns or until the tool shows up and use the magnet. If after 15 turns the tool hasn't shown up, just kill the gremlin because it probably won't show up.
  6. Note: If you are a Mysticality class, make sure to get a lot of macrame nets for fighting the Naughty Sorceress, or else the fight will be very hard. Consider skipping this side quests if you want extra macrame nets. Other side quests cost more adventures when skipped.
  7. Keep fighting frat boys until Arena sidequest opens, and complete it (if desired).
    1. If you have a chloroform rag, a sausage bomb, a brick of sand, or are a Pastamancer, you should go get an antique hand mirror from The Haunted Bedroom. It will be worth it.
    2. Bathroom until you get the Guy Made Of Bees. Use a stunning item or entangling noodles if you can. Use flyers. Use antique mirror. If you stun the GMoB, you can complete the arena quest and get a guy made of bee pollen in just a few turns. If not, you get beaten up and you do not get a guy made of bee pollen, but you still finish the arena quest quickly. Use a soft green echo eyedrop antidote to get rid of the beaten up effect.
    3. Go to the arena to complete quest.
  8. Finish clearing the Battlefield.
  9. Hand in your dimes in exchange for filthy poultices and 1-3 ferret baits. Mysticality classes will want to buy as many Macrame nets as possible, which they will need to kill the Naughty Sorceress.
  10. You should be at or close to level 13 without a need to level up, but if you need to, do so before killing The Man.
  11. Buff yourself to the max and kill The Man with everything you have to throw at him. Do not underestimate how tough this fight can be. There are many ways to beat him. Here are a few methods that seem to be very effective:
    1. Get your Moxie up to about 250, and he will barely hit you. Plink away at him with a ranged weapon or combat items and if you can manage hitting him for 50 damage per round, you will win. This strategy works very well for Saucerors (with serum of sarcasm and other potions) and Accordion Thieves. Disco Bandits may struggle to do enough damage per round.
    2. Use delevelers and stunners. Turtle Tamers excel at the latter; use an Untamed Turtle and Kneebutt, and he may have very few chances to act. Pastamancers can use gobs of wet hair and their spice ghost. The drowsy sword works for Moxie classes or Muscle classes. Knob Goblin stink bomb, patchouli incense sticks, roofies, and ferret bait are just a few other delevelers that you may have extra of. Chloroform rags & bricks of sand make great stunners if you have them, but only use them if you really need to since they also help against the NS. You may need to use HP restorers too, but again use them as a last resort. Using one massage oil is worthwhile if you are about to die.
    3. Kill him fast. This works well for Pastamancers with a Staff of the Black Kettle. With max spell damage, you can do 500 damage per hit, so you only have to last 4-5 rounds. Up your HP as much as you can so you can sustain 2 hits. Using entangling noodles, you have a good chance of killing him before he kills you. If you get worried, you can use one massage oil to make it a sure victory.
    4. Other things you may consider include Mick's IcyVapoHotness Rub, bottle of goofballs, the cannonball charrrm, or even a shrinking powder if you have one.
  12. Prepare for the tower: make the Wand, and skeleton key. Consider using a semi-rare for possibility potion for higher "Fastest Adventurer" placing beforehand. If you need to farm something, the Orange Star of Sacrifice helps you have a pretty good farming outfit.
  13. Enter the contest. Craft or use whatever potions you have to get a higher placement. If you have a semi-rare coming up shortly after unlocking the quest, you can use a semi-rare for the elemental damage potion for the contest.
  14. Enter gates. Use keys.
  15. Clear the Hedge Maze. If you're not in a hurry, go right. If you are, then use a can of black paint, oil of parrrlay, Elemental Saucesphere, and whatever else elemental resists you can get.
    1. If you're a PM, get some HP, Weapon of the Pastalord and kill topiary monsters instead.
  16. Use the beehive on wall of skin, then stack +Meat for wall of meat.
  17. Adventure for an electric boning knife (unless you were lucky enough to get one before this part), then defeat the wall of bones.
  18. Killing your shadow requires either:
    1. 3 red pixel potions and 1 poultice, or
    2. 1 massage oil and a lot of HP, and maybe a poultice or two, or
    3. 4-5 poultices and some luck (or Funkslinging)
    If you go the first route, try to have about 250 HP. If you go the second route, you'll want over 300 HP.
  19. Kill the Naughty Sorceress. All the regular advice applies. Use hair spray and Ben-Gal™ Balm before the fight to absorb her first hit. She can be really hard to beat in BM if you are not used to fighting her with almost no skills or items.
    1. You might want to lose first (up to 4 times) and let her lose some of her blocking ability before going in for the kill. This applies especially to mysticality classes.
    2. You may need to buy skills just to be able to kill her.
    3. If you are a mysticality class, use macrame nets to kill her.
    4. The cannonball charrrm can be amazing against her. It does lots of damage independent of her blocking what you do. It is like having a second chance to hit her each round for 100 damage!
    5. Equipping the Attorney's badge will block about 1/3 of the NS's attacks.
    6. Use HP restorers and let the cocoabo do his thing when you are down on HP.
    7. Use deleveling items like the ferret bait and any stunning items you have.
    8. Finally, when you get low on HP, use scented massage oil to get back to 100% HP.

Skills

Listed in order of importance with cost noted

Seal Clubbers

Pride (400) - Get ASAP (after eating on day 1). More stats, less fullness.
Envy (800) - Item drops are worth far more than meat drops throughout the run.
Lunge Smack (125) - A cheap combat skill that benefits from Smack-augmenting skills, but falls off in use early.
Fortitude of the Muskox (125) - Good of maintaining HP early game.
Thrust-Smack (750) - Best combat skill for SC overall. Works well when Wallop can't do the job.
Wrath of the Wolverine (750) - While making the most out of Fury will cost you, some Fury skills are really good to have.
Furious Wallop (2500) - Your main combat skill mid-late game. It's cost-free if you can one-shot with it.
Gluttony (1600) - More fullness, fewer stats from combats. Get as late as possible in the day, on day 5 or 6.
Batter Up! (6250) - Excellent turn-saver. Say bye-bye to those turn-wasting pygmies or AMC gremlins!
Ire of the Orca (6000) - Required if you wanna use Batter Up! Otherwise, has less priority.
Tongue of the Walrus (4000) - Good source of heal when needed.
Audacity of the Otter (125) - Makes Furious Wallop better.
Club Foot (3250) - Your only stunning skill. Costly to use constantly, but is useful when you need it.
Lunging Thrust-Smack (6000) - Can be used if you really need the extra damage.
Super-Advanced Meatsmithing (1250) - For extra adventures from chrome swords.

Turtle Tamer

Pride (400) - Get ASAP (after eating on day 1). More stats, less fullness.
Envy (800) - Item drops are worth far more than meat drops throughout the run.
Amphibian Sympathy (500) - Get ASAP.
Headbutt (125) - You first combat skill that gets quite a mileage all game. Becomes more useful with Butts of Steel and/or a turtle helmet, and even better with Storm Tortoise.
Blessing of the War Snapper (250) - Your first Turtle Blessing. It alone really helps thanks to its Muscle bonus and Weapon Damage. Good synergy with Shieldbutt.
Gluttony (1600) - More fullness, fewer stats from combats. Get as late as possible in the day, on day 5 or 6.
Stiff Upper Lip (500) - 10 whole DR for 10 turns. Mitigates a significant amount of damage especially early game, increasing your survivability and reducing the need to heal.
Shieldbutt (5000) - Advanced combat skill that auto-hits. Somewhat high MP Cost, but works great with War Snapper (and very handy for the Castle).
Blessing of the Storm Tortoise (6250) - May be picked over War Snapper depending on your playstyle. Makes Headbutt and Shell Up a lot better, but Shieldbutters should stick to War Snapper instead.
Butts of Steel (3250) - Makes Headbutt more damaging and accurate, and deal more damage with Shieldbutt.
Shell Up (1250) - Only really worth using if you have Storm Tortoise as your Turtle Spirit, or at least She-Who-Was.
Pizza Lover (750) - Pizzas can serve as decent foods if you can find the ingredients for it. However, they are still inferior to key lime pies and spicy burritos, and should be used as tertiary foods. A nice bonus if you find an incredible pizza, though.
Spectral Snapper (free) - A good source of elemental damage. Useful when fighting the Spectres.
The Long View (7500) - By the time you can learn it, its use is greatly diminished, but any free adventure is good. Get only if you absolutely need it.

Pastamancer

Pride (400) - Get ASAP (after eating on day 1). More stats, less fullness.
Envy (800) - Item drops are worth far more than meat drops throughout the run.
Ravioli Shurikens (125) - Cheap spell for Friar's. You can use it your whole run doing 60 damage per hit when you have the staff and a spell book.
Cannelloni Cannon (750) - Required once Ravioli Shurikens can't deal enough damage.
Entangling Noodles (250) - Very useful spell overall, especially for Baron and Guy-made-of-bees.
Pastamastery (1250) - Good foods like lo miens become available.
Bind Vermincelli (1250) - A Pasta Thrall that gives MP after every combat. It's your best source of MP regen throughout the run.
Lasagna Bandages (500) - For cheaper healing.
Gluttony (1600) - More fullness, fewer stats from combats. Get as late as possible in the day, on day 5 or 6.
Stuffed Mortar Shell (3250) - Efficient, high-powered spell that can kill almost anything, but requires a stun.
Springy Fusilli (1750) - More initiative means more HP saved. Also speeds up the Defiled Alcove and Twin Peaks.
Bringing Up the Rear (1750) - Gives Shurikens and Cannon much more mileage, indirectly saving MP.
Thrall Unit Tactics (5000) - Lets you spam high-level combat skills or conserve your MP for non-combat skills.
Spirit of Rigatoni (2500) - Needed for Soupbone, Teapot or Kettle staves.
Weapon of the Pastalord (5000) - For high level combat & possibly NS.
Fearful Fettucini (free) - For high level combat & possibly NS.
Bind Penne Dreadful (6250) - May help you survive against The Man or NS.
Bind Undead Elbow Macaroni (4000) - May help you survive against The Man or NS.

Sauceror

Pride (400) - Get ASAP (after eating on day 1). More stats, less fullness.
Envy (800) - Item drops are worth far more than meat drops throughout the run.
Inner Sauce (750) - Get MP regen all game!
Saucy Salve (500) - For cheaper healing.
Saucestorm (1250) - Your all-purpose combat spell. Great throughout the entire run.
Soul Saucery (1750) - 6 skills of great to situational usage rolled up into one package.
Advanced Saucecrafting (1250) - For making milk of magnesium, serum of sarcasm, and tomato juice of power.
Gluttony (1600) - More fullness, fewer stats from combats. Get as late as possible in the day, on day 5 or 6. Lets you eat 4 key lime pies on days where you don't need a fortune cookie an 11-leaf clover.
Expert Panhandling (500) - It will pay for itself.
Elemental Saucesphere (750) - Useful for level 4 & 9 quests, Lord Spookyraven and daily dungeons.
Curse of Weaksauce (7500) - Restores a lot of MP when combined with stuns or staggers. Effectively restores 30-50 MP per combat.
Curse of Marinara (1750) - Restores a lot of HP when combined with stuns or staggers. Better healer than Salve later on.
Itchy Curse Finger (3250) - Allows more flexibility when using curses for HP/MP.
Saucecicle (4000) - For high level combat. Good to have for the Level 12 quest.
Saucegeyser (6250) - May be needed for NS if you aren't using macrame nets.
Master Saucier (5000) - May be needed for NS if you really don't want to use macrame nets.
Intrinsic Spiciness (4000) - May be needed for NS. Why aren't you using macrame nets?
Scarysauce (free) - Useful for level 9 quest.

Disco Bandit

Pride (400) - Get ASAP (after eating on day 1). More stats, less fullness.
Envy (800) - Item drops are worth far more than meat drops throughout the run.
Advanced Cocktailcrafting (1250) - Good drinks. Make sure you can get this as soon as you hit level 5.
Gluttony (1600) - More fullness, fewer stats from combats. Get as late as possible in the day, on day 5 or 6.
Disco Nap (500) - Cheap source of healing.
Adventurer of Leisure (6250) - Makes Disco Nap much better. Free rests are also a nice bonus.
Mad Looting Skillz (3250) - More items is always good.
Lust (3200) - Helps with pickpocketing.
Nimble Fingers (1750) - It will pay off in the long run.
Disco State of Mind (500) - Disco Momentum has its situational uses, from getting more item drops to improving your plinking or adding more damage.
Disco Greed (4000) - Improves item drops with Disco Momentum. Good for when hunting down specific item drops.
Disco Dance of Doom (250) - Required if you need Momentum.
Disco Dance II: Electric Boogaloo (750) - Required if you need more Momentum.
Disco Dance 3: Back in the Habit (6250) - Required if you need even more Momentum. Also the strongest delevel skill in your repertoire.
Flashy Dancer (2500) - Helps when building Momentum against tougher monsters.
Frantic Gyrations (750) - Allows better survivability in longer fights.
Deft Hands (125) - Helps with flyering.
Knife in the Dark (4000) - Good mid-game combat skill. Can deal a lot of damage if you build up Momentum.
Disco Shank (6000) - Can deal a lot of damage if you build up Momentum. Scales more with Moxie than knife damage.
Wrath (3200) - Increases plinking damage, reducing the chance of combat loss by fumbles and monster crits.
That's Not a Knife (1250) - Makes shanking slightly better.
Disco Inferno (7500) - May be needed for The Man or NS.

Accordion Thief

Pride (400) - Get ASAP (after eating on day 1). More stats, less fullness.
The Moxious Madrigal (125) - Greatest skill ever for price.
Envy (800) - Item drops are worth far more than meat drops throughout the run.
Accordion Appreciation (1250) - Gives your accordions a nice boost. Best with Rock and Roll Legend, accordion file, baritone accordion, and Accordion of Jordion.
Accordion Bash (750) - Excellent source of stun.
Crab Claw Technique (500) - Makes your attacks way more accurate.
Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric (2500) - Very useful, for obvious reasons.
Cletus's Canticle of Celerity (500) - Helps with pickpocketing.
Lust (1600) - Helps with pickpocketing.
Gluttony (3200) - More fullness, fewer stats from combats. Get as late as possible in the day, on day 5 or 6.
Thief Among the Honorable (5000) - Item and Meat drops are always good to have, even if this skill comes late.
The Ode to Booze (7500) - Extra turn generation. Get this after the filthworms if you can afford it.
The Polka of Plenty (1250) - It will pay off. Start using after Whitey's Grove.
Cone of Zydeco (7500) - May be required for The Man or NS.
Cadenza (250) - Rock and Roll Legend's Cadenza serves well as a heal. Pygmy concertinette has a powerful delevel. Other accordions are okay at best.

Skills that MAY be worth getting

Sloth (Price varies, usually 1600 if you are following the guide) Sloth provides 8 Damage Reduction but at the cost of -25% Combat Initiative. If you notice yourself getting beat up around day 3 or 4, and can afford the Initiative loss, then it may be worth investing. Note that buying this before completing Twin Peak will make completing that quest much harder.

Skills not worth getting ever

  • Greed - Item drops are always going to be more helpful than meat drops. Even for the nun quest, it only saves a few turns to have this skill, and getting it reduces your battlefield loot, and gimps your ability to backfarm tower items and chamber familiars.
  • Wrath - You may think it sounds pretty useful for Mysticality classes, but because other skills are more worthwhile, you cannot afford it until late in the game where that plus damage is not that helpful.
    Actually, a good skill for Disco Bandits who need extra plinking power and don't care about the penalty. It definitely helps against the NS, letting you plink her down faster than she can heal herself (hopefully).

Semi-rare Adventures

Semi-Rare Adventures no longer exist. Some have been converted to Lucky! adventures, but you won't be seeing any of those in Bad Moon.

Semi-Rare Adventures occur every 160 to 200 adventures (except the first one), so narrow down when yours will occur and pick up a consumable most times. Remember that the special Bad Moon adventures have priority over semi-rares, so keep track of which Bad Moon adventures you have encountered. You may want to trigger an area's BM adventure in advance to keep it from overriding your semi-rare. Remember that you cannot encounter the same semi-rare twice in a row. Keep track of when your semi-rares occur, and you'll only need to eat 1 fortune cookie to predict the next occurrence.

The first semi-rare window is 11 turns long, starting at turn 71. If you're eating 5 evil foods on day 1 as this guide suggests, you won't be able to fit in a fortune cookie. But you can "brute-force" the semi-rare by spending turns 71 through 81 in one of the semi-rare zones.

Later, the window grows to 40 turns. If you plan on spending the 40 adventure window in a desired semi-rare area, you may not need to eat a fortune cookie at all. The Castle is an example of this (perhaps the only feasible one remaining in the game).

You will likely encounter only about 8 semi-rares during your whole run. Here is a list of semi-rare rewards worth considering in Bad Moon:

A suggested yield for an 8 semi-rare run would include 4 consumables (wine, lunchbox, or tarts), 2 inhalers, and a set of 3 massage oils, plus one more (consider cyclops eyedrops, shrinking powder, or another consumable).

Filthy Lucre

Plan to get a few lucre during your run by choosing bounties in areas that you need to go anyway. Do not go out of your way for them, except to have an odor extractor in Menagerie 1 to get limes and cherries on day 4 and again later in your run (Extractors are no longer available for purchase). Check each day and if there is a choice that you might get on the next day, pick it in advance. Expect to get a lucre every 3-4 days. An odor extractor is nice (but not essential) for the kitchens, meat maid, bugbear outfit, and ballroom, but otherwise, bowls of Bounty-O's are usually the best use of lucres. Food is generally harder to come by than drinks (unless you are a Pastamancer). Using an extractor on a blooper to get white pixels is a good idea. Using one at the goatlet is a bad one because whiskey is useful, it is not a bad area to get meat and stats, and you do not save that many turns by using an extractor.

Do not suggest normally going for around-the-worlds. The rationale is as follows: The Whitey's grove / citadel route potentially gains you 2/2 hippy outfit parts, 2/3 orcish fratboy parts, 1/3 cold weather gear parts, a rabbit's foot, a white collar, some drinks, meat (remember the 5000 meat BM adventure), and cheaper MP restorers. It is also easy to fight there early. The orcish frat house / pirate's cove / hippy camp route potentially gains you 2/2 hippy outfit parts and some drinks, including around-the-worlds. The problems include no meat gain in the hippy camp, having to survive a few turns in the cove, and low drop rates for the hippy outfit. Go for the around-the-worlds only if the BHH wants greasy dreadlocks. After 40 turns, you should get about 3 around-the-worlds. Unless you are a DB, you should wait and only use these as nightcaps because there are no other 4 drunkenness drinks available to you. The 3 around-the-worlds will translate into 18 extra turns and the bowl of Bounty-O's, another 4. With some luck, you should get the hippy outfit in the process. Also, don't forget that this is a good place to use learning pills and perhaps pet-buffing spray. The only reason to get an around the world is for Pastamancers wishing to create a Staff of the Black Kettle.

Class Specific Survival

The main class difference in a bad moon run is how you kill things. Here is how it works:

Seal Clubber

Start off using Clobber to plink. Focus on increasing HP, damage reduction, and melee damage. Increasing initiative is also good, but you see less of a difference than you might expect. Don't be afraid to use blood of the Wereseal if necessary. For high level combat, it can be good to run it most of the time.

Seal Clubbers need to maintain their momentum to keep their Fury at max. Mid-game, use Thrust-Smack to blow through enemies, and heal up with Medicinal Herb's medicinal herbs. Later, use Furious Wallop will be your main combat skill. Wallop doesn't cost any MP is essentially a free crit every combat, since you gain Fury after you win. Thrust-Smack will take care of anything Wallop alone can't destroy. Club Foot has a pretty high MP cost, but it's there when you need a stun.

Passive Fury-based skills are good for quality-of-life. Buoyancy of the Beluga and Thirst of the Weasel are useful for keeping your HP up between fights, and Seething of the Snow Leopard adds more damage, but they are not required. Ire of the Orca makes these skills even better by increasing the Fury cap, and is required for Batter Up!, which saves a lot of turns and is just too good to pass up.

In cases where you don't have max Fury (you got Beaten Up or used Batter Up!), do some backfarming to build your Fury back up, then tackle the tougher areas.

Turtle Tamer

Start off using Toss to plink, then switch to normal weapon attacks once you have your epic weapon. Focus on increasing muscle/HP, damage reduction, and melee damage. Increasing initiative is also good, but you see less of a difference than you might expect. Don't be afraid to use blood of the Wereseal if necessary. For high level combat it can be good to run it most of the time.

Your first goal is get enough MP to cast Blessing of the War Snapper ASAP, a task which takes some time in BM. Even the basic blessing adds a decent amount of Muscle and Weapon Damage, and once it turns into a Glorious Blessing, combining that with the Crown of the Goblin King and your Epic Weapon adds enough Muscle to hit just about any monster (although not enough to one-shot things easily).

For combat, Headbutt alone can be made to work through the entire game. While it's fairly weak early in the game, it should give you enough damage to one-shot slightly stronger monsters. Butts of Steel will make Headbutt more worthwhile and allow you to hit monsters with defenses that are slightly beyond your Muscle. You can craft a chrome helmet turtle to make Headbutt much stronger, and if you can get Storm Tortoise as your Turtle Spirit, Headbutt can deal more damage than any other combat skill you have. Factor all that in and you get a very strong combat skill for a measly MP Cost of 3.

A lot of TT skills can be skipped to save meat. Kneebutt can be skipped since Headbutt should be adding enough damage anyway, and deleveling defense w/ War Snapper isn't a very useful effect. Blessing of She-Who-Was can also be skipped because Spooky Damage isn't strong against most common elemental monsters and doesn't help when you need elemental damage (i.e. The Haunted Billiards Room & A-boo Peak), and doesn't provide anything particularly useful to your combat skills. (Kneebutt w/ She-Who-Was can help increase your survivability, but requires you to have initiative). Shell Up isn't worth using until you get Storm Tortoise, and Spirit Snap is not worth your meat at all.

Later in the game, Shieldbutt is a good alternative combat skill to use, thanks to auto-hit and its synergy with War Snapper (bonus flat damage and stagger), but as a downside it requires much more MP than Headbutt to use. Also at that point in the game, you should consider switching to Storm Tortoise as your Turtle Spirit, since it makes Headbutt much stronger and makes Shell Up stun, and as a consolation makes Shieldbutt useful for long fights (i.e. Level 12 boss).

By the time you have to face the NS, you should consider switching back to War Snapper if you haven't, since the added Muscle can help you reach the threshold needed to hit the NS. Do this somewhere in the latter part of Level 12.

You can get a lot of freebies from Turtle Taming adventures since they're all automatic, and you can find most of them along your typical ascension zones. Notable items include the turtlemail hauberk, spiky turtle shield, musk turtle, mocking turtle, and various back items.

Pastamancer

Pastamancers are difficult due to their relatively weak early game, but get progressively better late game. Start off using Spaghetti Spear to plink. Craft a Pasta of Peril early on, and use Utensil Twist instead. This will last until you need to do the Friar's quest.

You will need a spell book soon. Try for one of the free books in the library (get the Cookbook of the Damned -- it's by far the most useful). Later in the run you may want to buy Gazpacho's Glacial Grimoire for the zones where cold damage is doubled. You can skip the kickback cookbook, especially if you're going to be using a chef-staff. Random elements are less useful than predictable ones (but do be sure to remove the cookbook if you're going into a zone where the forced element may be resisted).

Before Level 5, when you can bind a Vermincelli as your Pasta Thrall, you need to save as much MP as possible. Early game, if you can't one-shot with Ravioli Shurikens, Entangling Noodles plus Utensil Twist will make the most out of your MP, assuming you crafted a Pasta of Peril. Afterwards, you can be more lenient with your MP management, but you should still strive to save MP. For optimal MP usage, once Utensil Twist stops being useful, switch to one-shotting with Cannelloni Cannon, or use Noodle + Shurikens (+ Spear) if you can't. If all else fails, Noodle + Stuffed Mortar Shell is the most MP-efficient, while killing almost anything. Focus on increasing Mysticality, Spell Damage, and Initiative.

Crafting a Chefstaff is your next highest priority. Staff of the Black Kettle or Staff of the Soupbone, in particular. It makes a huge difference at both medium and high levels and it increases MP regeneration by a lot. Of course, it requires meat and a little extra work.

  • For the Kettle: With aggressive leprechaun use or good luck with sellable item drops, you can get the Staff of the Teapot Tempest at level 7 (as soon as you can get Spirit of Rigatoni). Otherwise, you will likely not have the meat until level 9. Remember to save one concentrated magicalness pill from the council quest, get a catgut from Whitey's Grove, get a jug-o-magicalness from the barrels on your last day there, save a bat guano, and go for an around the world. These things do not waste that much time to get and will save you the frustration of getting beaten up again and again at high levels.
  • For the Soupbone: use the Hellevator to get the Glass Balls of the Goblin King and the rib of the Bonerdagon when you fight them. Get spooky mushrooms from the spooky forest by revisiting the marsh after you've already got the mosquito larva. Get herbs while farming the hippy outfit on the road to White Citadel (or buy more herbs at the fruit stand after you have the outfit). Get whiskey from the goatlet, and a cherry from the menagerie. Get a lihc face while doing the level 7 quest (run a fairy in the lihc niche until you get one, it might even be worth to use cyclops eyedrops there). Finally, get a lump of diamond from Itznotyerzitz Mine. Remember that you need 75 base Mysticality to equip it, so you'll have to struggle along with ordinary utensils until then -- but it's worth the effort.

Once you have a Chefstaff and Thrall Unit Tactics, MP management is no longer a major issue. Noodle + Mortar Shell + whatever will kill everything except The Man and NS.

Around level 10, you should be able to do the mansion quest and get Fearful Fettucini, which is like Weapon of the Pastalord except it's free (and always spooky, and does not split damage into two parts -- which actually makes it far less powerful than Weapon against monsters that have damage mitigation, like Groar and the NS). This or Weapon will be needed to kill the toughest monsters, including the NS.

Sauceror

Start off using salsaball to plink. Use equipment to keep your moxie as high as you reasonably can in the early game. Consider using damage reduction (Sloth, a shield) as well. Get Saucestorm as soon as possible, as it will serve as your main combat spell for the entire run.

You will probably want a spell book, and the kickback cookbook is your best option although it costs 4000 meat. You may try going to the library to get a free book (not as good for Sauceror spells, but still gives +10 spell damage and sells for 2000 meat), but that adventure is not a sure thing. In the long run, investing on a kickback cookbook is the better choice, due to a lack of other good spell damage boosters.

Completing the Friars quest and getting Liver of Steel is one of the largest hurdle you have to face in a Sauceror BM run. Fortunately, Saucestorm with a kickback cookbook will one-shot most monsters for the Friars, but it won't be enough for Pandamonium. Having Soul Funk will let you one-shot in that case, but at that point you do not gain enough Soulsauce to keep it up constantly. It's recommended to use your tomato potions for Pandamonium, or even spend 1 Adventure on Simmer, which will give you the Spell Damage you need to one-shot them.

Maintaining HP is one of the Sauceror's weak points. Boosting your Initiative is highly recommended. Have Soulerskates up as often as possible. Later in the game where Saucy Salve starts becoming less effective, Curse of Marinara will serve as your main source of healing. You gain more HP from killing with Wave of Sauce or Saucecicle than with Saucestorm, so it can be worth buying either just to milk HP from it. Itchy Curse Finger is nice to have for this, since you won't have to spend Soulsauce on Soul Bubble for a positive net HP gain.

At Levels 10-11, you will no longer be able to one-shot monsters with just Saucestorm and kickback cookbook. At this point, start casting Soul Bubble on any non-elemental monsters you can't one-shot to conserve MP. If you need more Soulsauce, take a hit and two-shot monsters and use Curse of Marinara the next combat to heal. (Also at this point, Itchy Curse Finger becomes more essential.) Exploit elemental weaknesses as often as you can, and remember that Saucestorm deals double damage to group monsters. If you need more spell damage, Master Saucier will make the most out of your Meat.

At Level 12, Curse of Weaksauce and Saucecicle will get you through most of the quest, thanks to an abundance of elemental monsters. Weaksauce will restore a lot of MP on a spell kill, making MP management a non-issue.

An alternative strategy is to keep boosting moxie. Try to use reagent potions sparingly until level 10, and stockpile your reagents for the late game. Tomato juice of powerful power should keep you going in tougher zones until you get the hippy outfit -- then switch to serums of sarcasm. Use a ranged weapon. You should have enough reagents to get through level 12 using serums 100% of the time. In a pinch, you can always farm some in the Laboratory.

Do not get a special sauce glove as a Sauceror. You can survive without a chef-staff, and the only one you can make is the Staff of the Teapot Tempest. Going this route costs a lot of meat and adventures, and you lose one accessory slot, for very little increase in spell power.

Collect macrame nets during the war, and use those for the Sorceress.

Disco Bandit

Disco Bandits should stick to the tried and true plinking strat. Unfortunately, they're not as good at plinking as Accordion Thieves because you don't have Moxious Madrigal (They get Disco Smirk at Level 8, but it's vastly inferior), nor are their Epic Weapon as useful as the AT's (ATs can get 7 extra Moxie with Accordion Appreciation). Thankfully, they have Disco Nap to heal up damage they take (as well as getting a free rest for removing Beaten Up), which becomes incredibly MP-efficient with Adventurer of Leisure.

Disco Momentum is situational, but never worth using constantly, because it needs MP. Early on, trying to build momentum on significantly tougher monsters won't help you much, but once you learn Flashy Dancer, which basically makes your Disco Dances stagger, you can delevel a monster quite a bit, allowing you to plink tougher monsters easier. Later on, Momentum building is good for hunting specific drops with Disco Greed, and stabbing-type skills can deal a good amount of damage with Momentum. Disco Shank in particular is very powerful with level 3 Momentum. Most combat skills should still be skipped, though.

Overall, Disco Bandits may not be the best nor the most efficient fighters, but they at least make up for it with better non-combat skills.

Accordion Thief

Accordion Thieves are great at plinking thanks to their excellent options early game. Use Madrigal 100% of your run, get a ranged weapon and plink. Focus on equipment that increases Moxie. Crab Claw Technique makes you attacks almost never miss, and Accordion Appreciation with Rock and Roll Legend gives you 7 more Moxie. Accordion Bash gives you a stun when you need it for tougher fights. Because all this can be learned so early, ATs are very easy to play as a result.

Early on, HP and MP restoration will be slightly expensive, but there are ways to work around it. Rock and Roll Legend's Cadenza heals for a decent amount early game, or use ailment ointments from Doc Galaktik if you need healing now. For MP, steal a accordion file from the Treasury and equip it for a while, which gives 4-8 MP per adventure with Accordion Appreciation. At Level 9 you have access to MMJs and medicinal herbs, making HP and MP restoration more cost-efficient.

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