Way of the Surprising Fist Strategy

I have done a way of the Surprising Fist run and it wasn’t really too tough…  I did, however find this nifty guide by Alexfrog (the guide guru); you should check it out:

http://hardcoreoxygenation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6769

Strategy: Me and My Nemesis for Saucerors (Caution Spoilers)

Okay, this will just be a quick and dirty:

Let me start by saying since the valhalla redux, you should always complete the nemesis quest (+10 or +20 Karma by discarding the instant Karma you earn).  But you might want to do these in aftercore if you are going for speed runs.

Sauceror: get the viles of slime and make them into the required colors (I will fill this in later).

The boss is really easy, but there is a trick, you MUST have sauce-spheres active, minimum two, hopefully all three… the boss takes one round to remove each sauce-sphere; so get your sauce-spheres on and buff your Myst and Spell damage and hit him hard.  Also, if you are in aftercore, you can pay a buffbot a minimal amount of meat to cast the sauce-spheres on you saving you the cost of buying the skills…. huge meat saver. That’s it.

The truth about Tourguide runs

I have done about 23 tourguide runs so far on my way to the 30 tourguide run trophy, and, for the most part, it has been smooth sailing and fun.  So, how do you pick which familiars you are going to do a 90-100% with?

1. You will need to do a Stab Bat run at some point; just do it later than sooner.

2. If you are running as a Myst class or Muscle class using Shieldbutt to fight high level monsters early, you will need a lot of MPs. So only ever consider MP giving familiars, but know this, Ghoul Whelp-types DO NOT give a lot of HP and MP… you should look for Star-Starfish types where you can stasis to refill your MP.

  3. You should probably save some of the MP familiars for the last 10 runs; as you go through the first 20, you will no doubt pick up lots of awesome buffs and skills that require lots of MP (Inigo’s immediately comes to mind).

4. If you have Superhuman Cocktailcrafting and maybe Disco Power Nap and/or a VIP pass, you will not need your familiar to give you MPs in a Moxie run; especially Accordion Thieves.  Just be conservative with your buffs (Madrigal, MMJ)

5. Be sure to take a familiars that give you money or item drops or stats or MPs…

Stab-Bat tourguide run tips, Slice and Dice Trophy time!

So, in case you are fan of trophies, you will have noticed the Tourguide trophies you get for doing runs with a single familiar per run; you likely also noticed you get a trophy for doing one of these with a Stab-Bat… the Slice and Dice trophy. I am closing out my Stab-Bat 100% run and thought I would share my experiences.

Here’s the skinny:
-Stab-bat attacks you and your enemy; with familiar equipment, it attacks you less often, so getting the “shock collar” should be priority #1.

-Stab-bat is going to take away a lot of HP, so, if you are running a moxie or myst class, prepare to get beaten up quite a bit. There are some things you can do before your run to remedy this situation
1. Have Tongue of the Walrus perm’d… 10 MP to cure beaten up is priceless
2. Buy the CLAN VIP Pass with a clan with a hot tub; hot tub cures beaten up 5 times a day.
3. Saucy Salve is also very useful to regain HP in combat without the stab-bat acting; can save
you from being beaten-up, sometimes.
4. Running as a muscle class will provide you with less stab-bat attacks (as you hit much harder,
meaning battles are shorter) and more HP to absorb the damage, however regaining MP will be
more difficult.

-Stab-bat sucks up your MP by making you heal all the time; to remedy this you should:
1. Only run the buffs you really need
2. Again, VIP key gets you the pool table buff for regen 10 magic per adventure for 30 total
adventures per day
3. Moxie classes, if you have superhuman cocktailcrafting, you can make 10 tonic water per day
and buy Magical Mystery Juice after level 9.
4. Myst classes? Don’t do a stab-bat run with a myst class, you lack the HP and need too much MP
to do it.

Q: How useful is a stab-bat in combat, you know, when it is not attacking you?
A: About as useful as Vent Rage Gland (as skill everyone should have seeing as it is cheap and automatically hardcore permanent), so not very useful for most of the game, but really nice for the initial few levels of combat.

Final Comments:
Stab-Bat runs really suck, but without a way to heal Beaten up (Tongue is highly recommended here), you will suffer for weeks. Wait until you are in a SC run or have perm’d tongue before even attempting it; otherwise, you will HATE this run.

Read this skill analysis!

http://hardcoreoxygenation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6468

Awesome skill analysis by Alexfrog!

Skill-set strategies

I have been in Hardcore/Skill collecting mode for a while now and I have learned that most skills are best when combined with other complimentary skills.  In fact, it is the combination of skills that is the goal, not the single skill.  Here are some of the skill sets I have put together that are super-useful

BASIC FOOD: Advanced Saucecrafting (S) and Pastamastery (P) ; the is a must have skill set

BOOZE: Advanced Cocktailcrafting (DB), Super-Advanced Cocktailcrafting (DB), and Ode to Booze (AT): I get most of my adventures from booze now; and that is a LOT of adventures.

BOUNTY HUNTER: Tracedent Olfaction (Bounty Hunter), The Magical Mojomuscular Melody (AT)

COMBAT BASICS: Moxious Madrigal (AT), Entangling Noodles (P), Amphibian Sympathy (TT); with these skills, combat is much, much easier

ELEMENTAL ATTACK: Cannelloni Cannon (P), Flavour of Magic (P)

THE SHIELD SUITE: Shieldbutt (TT), Hero of the Half Shell (TT), Armorcraftiness (TT)

There are lots more, but, I think, you need to plan your ascensions to get suites of complimentary skills to really make the game easier.

Strategy: Embracing the Inner Bounty Hunter

When I think about Star Wars and who I relate to, it is Boba Fett, no doubt. So bounty hunting in KoL, though there are “no disentigrations”, it still suits me: Though obtaining 200 filthy lucre is a flat nuts goal, the skill it provides is awesome.  So I have decided to run a bounty hunt each day until I have the skill and the hound dog and the outfit.  So here is how it has been going:

I run a bounty hunt first thing each day and this is actually really useful in the game as I get to level up and farm without having to level up and farm; I am on a bounty.  The real trick is picking a bounty hunt that suits your needs and gives you food or booze or future quest items or campground items and avoid bounty hunts that take you to places with lots of noncombat adventures and useless garbage…  Also try to bounty hunt at your level to avoid getting squashed or not leveling up enough (Mind control device is useful for this if you must).

Overall, taking a bounty hunt each day has not slowed my ascensions that much if at all, surprisingly.

Strategy: Me and My Nemesis for Turtle Tamers (Caution Spoilers)

Okay, This is still in progress as I have yet to kill the demon form of my nemesis, but here is how I got there:

The me & my nemesis quest for Turtle Tamers is designed to test two main turtle tamer traights: Familiar buffing and damage absorbsion.  At the first part, you must equip the whip you get from the guy outside the compund and use the skill it gives you five times in one battle versus a turtle wearing a beret.  Problem is, every time you use the skill, the enemy turtle gets leveled up.  To defeat them here is what I did:

I cast the spell as many times as I could (twice) before being defeated, then I cast entangling noodles (if you havn’t already, perm this skill). Then I would cast the spell three more times.  If you can do this to six turtles, you are now allowed into the chamber! I am pretty sure these monsters scale, so no muscle buffing!  Also, using a familiar that delevels or something could be useful, just do not use an attack familiar or they will kill the beret wearing turtles before you can convert them.

Now I am battling the big demon and I cannot get past it; I kow I need to use a turtle familiar to trip it up, but my damage absorbsion is not high enough to withstand the mega attack that thing unleashes.  I will try at a higher level with Tao of the Terrapin and Hero of the Half Shell and see how that goes.

UPDATE! FINALLY KILLED THE BOSS!

I was level 14 with Hero of the Halfshell and an untamable turtle as a familiar; I used a philter of phorce and it wasn’t even a close battle. Just murdered the chump outright.  The trick is haveing enough damage absorbsion/damage reduction/HPs to withstand those monster attacks. Nice!

Familiar Preview: Slimeling

I just managed to get a slimeling and I am pumped. KoL Wiki has this as a Tier I Hardcore familiar; this is my only familiar on Tier I; and it only cost me $3 Million! (The rest of the Tier I’s cost a minimum of 6.5 Million, at minimum) 

Here is the skinny:

The Slimeling works like a fairy but only on items you have yet to get… AWESOME!!!!

If you feed it equipment, you get MPs and potentially Slime Stacks (combat usable).

Here is how to get one: If you do not have slimetube access (like me), go to the /trade chat channel on KoL.  Ask to buy a Slimeling.  You will have to join another clan (and get whitelisted) temporarily and spend one adventure in the slime hole. The next day, the clan can send you your slimeling and you send off your $3Million meat! What a great value!

Strategy: Me and My Nemesis for Pastamancer (Caution Spoilers)

So I ran through the Me and My Nemesis quest as a Pastamancer and here is the lowdown:

Step 1: DO NOT SUMMON ANY PASTA DEMONS ON A DAY YOU PLAN ON COMPLETING THIS QUEST!

You must beat up cult followers until you get 5 of the coded messages (or whatever they are called. Use them and you get a new pasta demon to summon.  Go fight somewhere, summoning the demon each time until the summoned pasta demon is level 3.  Then enter the temple.  Fight your way through. 

 I found the toughest part of this quest was the end boss.  But, using my noodle (haha!), I figured it out: Here is how to defeat the Spaghetti Demon without too much of a problem:

1. Do NOT buff mysticality.  The monster scales based on your mysticality. If you must buff mysticality, be sure you are using something like pirate fledges that gives an equal buff to Muscle and Moxie to offset the increased damage you will take due to your poor decision making.  The only Myst buff I had equiped was the legendary epic weapon which is required.

2. Buff the living heck out of Moxie and Muscle. I used a Philter of Force, a Serum of Sarcasam, and a Tomato Juice of Powerful Power (This is okay as it buffs Muscle and Moxie the same as Mysticality; see the logic)

3. Equip the highest moxie outift you own.  I had the worn tophat, star shirt (again, balanced buffing), Stainless Steel Slacks, a Cookbook, and some mix of HP and Moxie increasing accessories.

4. Take a good combat familiar with you, Good old Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie did the trick with healing and attacking.

5. Remember, you are going to need to take a couple hard hits and avoid some hits to win this fight, Mysticality will only hurt you.

6. In battle, I immediately cast Entangling Noodles (you can cast it multiple times vs this boss) until it said something like ‘the noodles are reinforced’; this prevents the demon from doing his/her “Super” attack which will kill you right off.  Then I cast the new skill “Noodles of Fire”, then more entangling until “reinforced” then the heaviest spell attack I could muster, then more entangling, then heaviest spell attack, back and forth and that was it. Enemy defeated! And, yes, the healing from the NPRZ was critical.  You might need to bring a good healing potion or two if you lack a familiar that can and will heal in combat.

Good luck!