Sauce Synergy

This content has been retired and is no longer available in game.

This is a description of how the Sauceror Sauce Synergy strategy worked. This strategy disappeared with the Sauceror revamp during the Class revamps on 15th November 2013 as sauce splashbacks were removed. This article is being retained for historical purposes.

Goals

The idea is to use Sauceror spells and their Splashback effects to your advantage. This only works for Saucerors; however, other classes can also benefit from using many of these skills. (See the non-Sauceror section below for an explanation).

• The primary benefit is to produce MP during combats instead of spending MP. The amount produced will vary; in some cases you may not even break even. Nevertheless, even a near-zero MP cost for combat is an improvement over most other strategies available to Myst classes.
• A secondary benefit is that combat becomes extremely easy; with a few optional skills, you should never be in any danger of becoming beaten up.

Basics

The core strategy is to use Wave of Sauce plus Saucegeyser to kill a monster. Given enough Bonus Spell Damage to trigger the Wave splashback, and so long as the two spells both fire the same element, the geyser will return up to 40 MP. Since the two spells together cost 44 MP, this means only 4 MP are spent killing the monster. Adding Jabañero Saucesphere or a Frumious Bandersnatch will give back even more MP, resulting in a net MP profit for the combat.

The basic set of skills is:

Skill	Class	Description
Wave of Sauce		Deals Cold or Hot damage, capped. Its splashback is activated with at least +26 spell damage.
Saucegeyser		Deals Cold or Hot damage, uncapped.
Jabañero Saucesphere		Returns 25% to 33% of a Sauceror spell's cost in MP.

Additional skills that supplement the strategy:

Skill	Class	Description
Saucestorm		Deals Cold or Hot damage. Its splashback is activated with at least +16 spell damage.
Jackasses' Symphony of Destruction		An Accordion Thief buff that gives +12 spell damage.
Flavour of Magic		+10 spell damage. This will not align Sauceror spells.
Intrinsic Spiciness		Bonus spell damage equal to your level. Maximum +10.
Immaculate Seasoning		Automatically tunes a spell to the element (Cold or Hot) that will deal the most damage to a monster. Overridden by an elemental cookbook.
Jalapeño Saucesphere		Returns 100% to 125% of a Sauceror spell's cost in HP.

The Frumious Bandersnatch also comes into very heavy play with this strategy. While not strictly necessary, the Bandersnatch greatly increases the MP output of this strategy.

How it Works

In the simplest form:

• Use equipment, skills and effects to get at least +26 bonus spell damage.
• Make sure your spells will always fire the same element against the monsters you will be facing in the current zone. The simplest way to guarantee consistent elemental damage is to use an elemental cookbook -- either Gazpacho's Glacial Grimoire to force cold damage (preferred), or the Codex of Capsaicin Conjuration to force hot damage. Immaculate Seasoning may also be used to tune spells against neutral monsters by adding some equipment or effect that adds damage to either cold or hot spells (such as the imp unity ring or the splashback from a Saucestorm -- see below).
• Use Wave of Sauce against the monster without killing it.
• Follow up with Saucegeyser for the kill.

If using Saucestorm:

• Using Saucestorm with 16 or more bonus spell damage will give you +11 of either Hot or Cold spell damage. Immaculate Seasoning will then cause the rest of your spells to align to whichever element the Storm splashback gave.
• Use Wave of Sauce (if you had at least +16 for Saucestorm, then you will have at least +27 for Wave) to get its splashback effect.
• Finally, use Saucegeyser for the kill.

The disadvantages of using Saucestorm for the alignment are:

• You are spending 10 extra MP for the Saucestorm; without a Bandersnatch, you are very unlikely to reap an MP profit this way.
• The Saucestorm + Wave may kill many monsters before you can throw a geyser, especially if one of them rolls a critical hit.

MP Returns

This is all well and good, but those skills are MP-heavy. This is where the Wave splashback effect, Jabañero, and the Bandersnatch come into play.

• Saucestorm costs 10 MP, and Jabañero returns an average of 2.5 MP from it.
• Wave of Sauce costs 16 MP, and Jabañero returns an average of 4.5 MP from it.
• Saucegeyser costs 28 MP, and Jabañero returns an average of 8 MP from it.

Saucegeyser with the Wave splashback will give back MP equal to the amount of damage Saucegeyser does divided by 3 (before monster-Element adjustment), capped at 40 MP. The Frumious Bandersnatch also returns MP equal to (Spell Cost)/2, which will normally be 14 MP.

This is very useful for any combat as a Sauceror, and can even be used at very low levels in Hardcore -- even at level 2 or 3! If a regular monster fight needs Storm, Wave, and Geyser to take it down, and you are using a Bandersnatch, then in total, what would happen is: Storm (-10 MP + 2.5 MP), Wave (-16 MP + 4.5 MP), Geyser (-28 MP + 8 MP + 14 MP + min(40, Damage/3) MP), for an end result of -54 MP + (29 + min(40, Damage/3) MP). If Geyser does 75 damage, then you are breaking even on MP cost. If it does more than that, then you are gaining MP as a result of the fight. Saucegeyser's formula is, on average, (40 + 7*Myst/20 + absolute)*percent. If you have no percent spell bonuses, and only Flavour, Intrinsic Spiciness, Jackasses', and Storm's splashback running, then you get (at level 2), +35 absolute damage. On average, even at 0 buffed Myst, you are doing 75 damage with Geyser, so you will break even. Entangling Noodles will be necessary to survive things like Hobopolis Sewer or Slimetube fights at level 2, so that adds 3 MP cost, and you need to do 9 more damage with Geyser in order to break even. This can be taken care of with the Myst factor in the Geyser formula. With 26 buffed Mysticality, you will get the additional 9 Saucegeyser damage in order to break even.

To enter a combat and kill a monster like this will take 48 MP. Broken down, this is: 10 for the storm, gives +2 to 3, 16 for the Wave, gives +4 to 5. At minimum, this means you will use 8 MP for the Storm, and 12 for the Wave, so that's 20 MP, then you need 28 for the Geyser, so 48 MP in total. If you use other skills, such as Entangling Noodles, or if you need a second Geyser, then budget accordingly! If you have to use a second Geyser, and Entangling, then as long as the first Geyser does at least 84 damage, you will not need more than 51 MP to finish the fight. Be careful though, that second Geyser will not get the Wave Splashback effect, unless you cast Wave before it. Note that the second Geyser will be available for use due to the splashback effect from the first Geyser.

To entangle or not to entangle: if you are entangling the monster in order to avoid being hurt by it, bear in mind that with Jalapeño Saucesphere running, you will be healed by both the Wave and the Geyser -- typically you'll get back about 50 HP this way. This may be enough healing to eliminate any threat of being beaten up by the monster, depending on your HP and how hard you're being hit. Another reason to entangle a monster would be to prevent the monster from injuring itself by hitting your saucespheres. In many cases, the damage you do from the Wave may bring the monster perilously close to defeat -- quite often, Wave plus the saucesphere damages will beat up the monster, preventing you from hitting it with the Geyser. Entangling it may help keep it alive.

Other than Entangling, another good way to mitigate monster damage if it is too much, is to add a lot of Damage Absorption, including using skills like Ghostly Shell and Astral Shell.

Advanced Skills and Mechanics

There are other skills that come in very handy with the sauce-slinging strategy:

Skill	Class	Description
Ur-Kel's Aria of Annoyance		+2*level Monster Level
Pride of the Puffin		+10 Monster Level
Drescher's Annoying Noise		+10 Monster Level
Springy Fusilli		+40% Combat Initiative
Overdeveloped Sense of Self Preservation		Passive +20% initiative
Slimy Shoulders		Passive +20% initiative
Entangling Noodles		Entangles the monster for 2 to 4 rounds (or 3 to 5 rounds with a Critical Noodle).
The Magical Mojomuscular Melody		+10 Myst and +20 max MP

These skills will help make combat easier or more profitable in many ways. Springy Fusilli, Preservation, and Slimy Shoulders all help you get the jump on the monster, so that it does not hit you. Entangling Noodles helps you further by making sure the monster can't hit you as you're trying to kill it (for a couple of rounds, at least). Preventing the monster from hitting you serves two purposes: it keeps you from being hurt, and it also keeps the monster from being killed by your saucespheres before you can throw a Geyser to get your MP back.

Mojomuscular Melody gives you more Myst, which increases your spell damage (and therefore the profitability of the Geyser), and also gives you a larger MP pool to use.

Ur-Kel's Aria (and the other +ML skills) are very interesting in this strategy. In a place like the Deep Fat Friar's Gate or its sub-areas, casting Wave of Sauce without any +Monster Level will kill the monster, and you will not get the splashback effect. Ur-Kel's Aria and the Monster Aggravation Device of your moon sign will help you by increasing the HP of the monster, allowing you to Wave it without killing it, so that you can Saucegeyser it, and get the splashback effect for a great deal of MP. This is particularly interesting, because normally, adding Monster Level makes combats harder. However, in this case, it actually makes the combats easier, since you'll get a lot of MP (in fact, you'll be gaining MP every fight).

Many ascenders will also choose to bring the astral belt with them through valhalla. This gives the monster even more HP to survive getting hit with Wave. Note, however, that raising +ML may also give the monster a huge boost to initiative. If you're running with a lot of +ML, then it may be difficult or impossible for you to win initiative.

Additionally, at level 5 or higher, if you have a pen pal as a Sauceror, you will receive an electric crutch (+20 spell damage 1H weapon) which gets you nearly all the way to the splashback effect. By the time you receive the crutch (most likely on day 2 of the ascension), if you have Intrinsic Spiciness, then you should always be able to trigger Wave's splashback effect, since you will have at least +26 spell damage from the crutch and the passive skill.

Bander-stasis

Another, more advanced, application is in the Deep Fat Friar's Gate. The player equips a Codex of Capsaicin Conjuration and then enters combat with both Jabañero and Jalapeño Saucespheres active. In combat, the player continually fires Wave of Sauce and Saucegeyser. Since the MP returned by Burning Soul is calculated before the elemental factor, receiving up to 40 MP is still possible. This technique will return large amounts of MP, as well as leveling up your Bandersnatch since it receives +2 experience from each Wave. Every two combat rounds will return min(40, Geyser_Damage/3) - 17.5 MP. At least 53 damage from Saucegeyser is required to be MP-even, but since you are level 6 (29+ base myst), and you have at least +26 spell damage, your Saucegeyser should deal 76 damage on average or more. With no extra +Myst or +spell damage buffs, you should gain about 4 MP per combat round. Using any +Myst or +spell damage buffs available, such as glittery mascara or Intrinsic Spiciness, it is very easy to increase the damage of Saucegeyser and gain huge amounts of MP every fight. A maximum of 11.25 MP per combat round is possible. Increasing the monster level will allow for a longer fight, which allows the player to gain more MP, but survival can become an issue, even with Jalapeño Saucesphere returning HP. Using +HP or +DA buffs and skills, and elemental resistance, will make it easier to survive against higher level monsters. The saucespheres and repeated hits for 1 damage should eventually kill the monster, but in Softcore, where more +ML is available, it may be necessary to cast Stream of Sauce to finish off the monster. Stream will do Hot damage just like your other spells, but it will activate a physical damage attack from your Bandersnatch to deal the last few points of damage.

Without a Bandersnatch

This strategy is also quite viable without a Bandersnatch; the MP you gain from the Saucegeyser splashback is smaller, but it's still better than paying for your spells like a filthy Pastamancer.

A cookbook is recommended, in order to make it easier to get the splashback effect from Wave to line up with the element of Saucegeyser for the massive MP splashback. Gazpacho's Glacial Grimoire is the cookbook of choice for this, because very few monsters that you will fight in the course of a regular run are Cold aligned, but some are Hot aligned. In addition, many are Spooky, which takes double damage from hot sauces (that's bad for you -- they die too quickly). Using cold sauces will do double damage to everything on the battlefield, and most of the Hole in the Sky, but those monsters may be tough enough to survive a Wave, at least most of the time.

A combat like this will typically look like: Entangling Noodles, Wave, Geyser. Meaning the MP that gets used is: Entangle (-3), Wave (-16 + 4.5), Geyser (-28 + 8 + min(40, Damage/3)), for a total of -47 + 12.5 + min(40, Damage/3). In order to gain MP, the splashback needs to return 34.5 MP on average, or the Geyser needs to do 103.5 damage. With +30 spell damage and no percent modifiers, on average, a player will need (40 + Myst*7/20 + 30) = 103.5 => 96 Mysticality. The +30 damage can easily come from Flavour, Intrinsic Spiciness, and a cookbook.

With Kung Fu

Attempting to mix Sauce Synergy with Kung Fu Hustler (no weapon or off-hand equipment) greatly increases the difficulty of coming up with +26 spell damage, since most of the readily available bonus spell damage and elemental tuning resides in those two slots.

Without the Gazpacho's Glacial Grimoire, you are forced to rely on Immaculate Seasoning tuning. Against monsters that are sleaze- or stench-aligned, your spells will naturally tune to cold (and do double damage, which can be bad when you need them to survive Wave). Against hot monsters, your spells will naturally do cold damage, but it won't be doubled. Against spooky or cold monsters, your spells will do hot damage, doubled. Against neutral monsters, you'll need to rely on the imp unity ring or an equivalent item, or on Saucestorm, to force tuning to hot damage.

With Flavour (+10) and the imp unity ring (+5 hot), you need another 11 points of bonus damage. This can be done in a number of ways:

• Jackasses will cover it, at the cost of a song slot; you'll probably have to use Jackasses during a large part of the run.
• A demonskin jacket will give an additional +5 to hot spells. Flavour + ring + jacket is +20, so you can synergyze against neutral monsters with Intrinsic starting at level 6 (which is when the demon skin becomes available).
• The Bugbear Costume gives +3 spell damage in the hat + pants slots, so with Flavor, ring and Bugbear Costume you have +18 damage. This means you can synergize starting at level 8.
• At level 10, when Intrinsic is giving its maximum +10 damage, you can drop to the ravioli hat or Hollandaise helmet for +1, and wear some real pants.
• At level 11, you can pick up black sheepskin diplomas for +15 damage, at a cost of 300 meat every 10 turns.
• Also at level 11, you might get a cold water bottle (+20 damage to cold spells), which can be used for cold tuning. However, this is a rare drop, from a monster that is often pseudo-banished, and because it's a hat you can't wear it on the battlefield.

Non-Saucerors

Non-Saucerors cannot benefit from splashbacks. However, since Saucegeyser is an uncapped spell, they can use it with their Sauce Synergy skills to deal massive, cheap damage. After Jabañero and Bandersnatch adjustments, Saucegeyser has an average net cost of only 6 MP (though 28 MP is required to initially cast the spell). This does a very large amount of damage at a very low cost. With some additions like the Sugar chapeau and Mental A-cue-ity, even a non-Sauceror can efficiently kill monsters in the Hobopolis Sewers or Slimetube, even at level 2.

Ascension Strategy
Rankings:	HC Skills - HC Familiars - HC IotMs
General:	Class selection - Familiar usage - Lucky adventures
Paths:	BHY - Fist - AoB - BI - ZS - AoJ - BIG! - KOLHS - CA2 - AoSP - SS - HR - Picky - Ed - Random - AoWoL - Source - NA - GN - LtA - L.A.R. - PF - G-Lover - DD
Additional Paths:	DG - 2CRS - KoE - PotP - LKS - GG - Y,Robot - QT - WF - GY - JM - FotD
IotMs:	Tomes - Faxing - Copying - YR - Garden - Correspondent - Workshed - Tea party - Florist