Another bloggy playthrough diary :)

[Lujo]

PQI - Halfling Wizard - Berserker Camp - DING! Max

I failed 2X before I actually did it. I've been trying to do it purist, and both times got GG as my god, and SMM as the boss. And Drac as my second god. But being stupid and unobservant as I occassionaly am, I eneded both runs at lvl 9, and didn't simply get into Drac and take the Blood Curse. D'oh! However, I figured out why this place has low stats on monsters, it's not in fact an easy VT run (I didn't do it VT), it's cramped with little blackspace, and having had 3 runs in a row with 0 access to the secret subdungeon (and that I'm sure I didn't have and not just missed), I'd say it can be pretty nasty (well, for a halfling wizard anyway).

PQI - Elf Crusader! - Magma Mines! - Miser! - Vicious Token



Well, saw Elf Crusader Miser, CB is a more than fine gold sink with Elf sinergy knew what it was gonna look like aproximately. Crusader also doesn't get mana burned or poisoned, and most importantly, dude has extra altars which means you can play him all possible ways and then some. Always something to desecrate, too. Misprepped alchemist (couldn't buy stuff), translocated Dagger, stuck with Mystera (would've gone Mystera into TT if he was on board). Had 20 mana and Mystic Balance, missplayed myself out of using Whoopaz (you can't Wheytwut the magic imune guy and I've burnt the reflex on leveling, d'oh!).

Spikey leveling spellcaster Elf Crusader into TT (with a desecration always an option), ought be really good w Crusaders. I wonder why I didn't pack patches?

And here's a screwy run, not a Vicious Token one, but I decided to try to make life hard on the regular difficulty:

PQI - Gnome Priest - Shifting Passages - Hoarder - Prepped EM



I know gnome has little meaning on a hoarder run most of the time, but still, I'm quite uncomfortable with Hoarder runs, as they cut you off from a lot of things all at once. Faithless I can actually pull off (even VT), Miser just has me channel gold into something else, Warmonger lets me chanel resources I'm not allowed to use into stuff (glyphs have CP), and Purist you can at least use anything you find. Hoarder is kinda like sorta feeling all restricitions from many other badges at the same time while being cut off from various conversion happy strats (and your race entirely). Chafy badge. Always a bunch of stuff lying around unused afterwards.

Anyway, Shifting Passages EM. Prepped, too, so more plants. I even got punished halfway through fighting the first boss, which was Eloxia, so I fought the other guy corroded (but I was a healthmonster due to the Alchemist Scrol and 2-4 Vine Forms). I could've bought a ~~Burn Salve~~ and do my gardening, but due to a terminal brain failure I thought I was playing Miser (d'oh!). Imawal surprisingly good on Shifting passages - stoned monsters don't spawn walls, and you need fewer kills to get levels, so fewer walls. You can still mess yourself up, and I almost did, but good thing I'm handy with the ~~Bear Mace~~. Worth prepping on a hoarder run, on certain maps

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The following was hard. I didn't want to go something uninteractive on it like the Titan Guitar, I wanted to play it like a genuine thing. It was difficult:

VT PQI - Goblin Bloodmage - Hoarder - The Labyrinth



Picking up the trophy full pic I hope

Well, maybe there's more inteligent ways to go at it, but I went at it like it was a regular dungeon and concentrated on skill and looking to see what I can do with Pissroff and how well can I deal with the Hoarder badge. It took me three tries, first one had different preps, then I switched it up but the other boss was SMM, whom I've got down to half even though I used Whoopaz on Rex, which means I would've probably won against almost anything else. On this run the second boss was Bleaty who is highly succeptible to Pissorff. If you check out the map though, he spawned in that corner with a large line of solid walls, so it took a bit of creativity to pissorf him down.

This was an expert level pissorff job, I do have to say, at least as the basic positioning stuff is concerned. But it was also by far the trickiest Pissorff situation I've ever been in, this was no mace and only Pissorff against a boss who moves when you kill popcorn on a small map with a small useless subdungeon, no extra or prepped subdungeons, on a hoarder VT run. If it wasn't hoarder it would've been easy, this way it wasn't.

[Lujo]

Right, so I polished off Fighter Challenges and unlocked platemail. Goblin for silver, wasn't too hard. Gold was a bit of an obstacle as it usually is for me, but I'm proud that this is the first playthrough when I didn't google for a solution. Didn't even remember how I did it last time, so I actually figured out how to do it with a Halfling. Took a big bunch of tries, and I suppose there's other ways, but hey, I did something never did before, and that's get that thing done using only my own faulty brain

Warlord I've done before and allready put my opinion up. It's actually challenging and interesting with a cool funny storyline, allthough I suppose it looks really intiimidating, and silver is much easier if you abandon Cydstep allthogather. And gold was more about EM than anything (Warlord does spike way above his level though).

I've just done Berserker bronze and silver, and the story made me chuckle, something about that particular thing always cracks me up. Arrhawwarttagghhh! Couldn't play gold because I didn't do the Shifting Passages quest, so I went and finished it with this:

- RUN - Goblin Sorcerer of Mystera - Shifting Passages - Vicious Token



It looks like I went for la fromage, but in thruth Shifting Passages was one of the select maps which I didn't get VT done on with a Gobbo Sorc of M last time around (I think I did it with a Rogue). So I decieded that the gobbo and that map have unfinshed bussiness, and, well, I saw someone reffer to it as "a walking barrage of fireballs" over on Steam Forums, felt proud and decided to do him justice. It's a tricky map for a spellcaster, too, so it kinda sorta fits into the theme of this playthrough which is shaping up to me pushing my limits and diving headlong into stuff I haven't done much before.

Anyway, it's basically an elf build which takes less time to assemble a big mana pool with, can ding on demand and has an easier cheeky/leveling time without spending resources. Went with Dragonsoul, too, to try it out as a prep - is speeds up Mystera piety generation occasionally, as well as randomly heal you up a bit more at low levels and even let you get a dodgelike extra hit for the kill on stuff. Strong on anything, very strong on sorcerers. dinged once with conversion fodder, then used 3 glyphs with refreshment for a lot of fireballs and a very easy ding off small popcorn later (time your CP right and gobbos rule).

An interesting thing - the healing from spells has nice sinergy with 3 things, and one interesting interaction. First sinergy is with a bit of a health boost as you don't have to heal up to full and can still get hits in with a healing potion which is kinda cool (particularly on a gobbo who also gets free hits in if possible from his refill). Second, it makes it much easier to munch on popcorn which takes more than one hit to kill or has first strike. Third is that it makes triggering Schadenfraude trivial (and it isn't always so).

And the funny interaction is with Eloxia who only has Retaliate: Fireball occasionally - which then makes triggering Schadenfraude off of her retaliation kinda funny.

- And the Beserker Gold was pretty straightforward. Get Mystic Balance, kill Doom Armors using fireballs and popcorn, finish with Crystal Ball, Refreshment, B2P and Potions. Even took Flames. Three Veto Slots

- I remembered I need to unlock Dragon Isles for when I do Paladin Silver, and I only had the Warlord left, but instead of going self cannon shennanigans I decided to play it as a straightforward run (because I remember it being trickier than it sounds and it turns out it was).

RUN: Orc Warlord of Mystera - The Labyrinth (Firstborn) - Muuu

Went with Bear Mace, Keg of Mana, Mystera, Extra Mana, Subdungeon. It was a fair bit trickier than Warlord runs ussually are and killing Rex and the Dragon took up a lot of resources. Mystera's generally a good choice for non-Gnomes as reducing the cost to 18 and getting to 16 mana means you get one Cydstep per glyph converted. It does cost 140 Piety all in all, but you're casting Cydstep (and I had Endswall), so with a bit of careful play it's all fine.

When using the ~~Bear Mace~~ in the Labyrinth, it takes some practice. I think this might be why people seem to think knockback is tricky, because they use it often on that map, and contrary to what it may seem like, that it's tricky. Most other places - not so much, and it was worth prepping for the damage on my Orc. It's tricky to use as a mobility tool if you keep pushing stuff to the edge of the map, otherwise it's quite handy when you can use it. It's great with bossess, though, as I did slam both my bossess into long series of walls which meant it was at least a +10 damage item.

[Lujo]

Did all 3 Priest ones. Priest Bronze was easy since I found the relevant items and Wonnafyt right away. It's also a good place to pick up Zombie Dog instead of scuming for it. Priest Silver - Went Halfling and Found the Balanced Dagger, I killed the guy using only Dodge + Whoopaz + Potions (and one fireball) at lvl 8. Looked kinda tough, though. Priest Gold - remembered vaguely what it was about, went Dwarf, picked up the overheal pact, and used overheal + B2P to level, Endiswall to move around and also Endiswall + Overheal to kill them dinging off of Wonnafyted popcorn in between.

Did Monk Bronze Left Monk Silver and Gold for later.

Did Paladin Bronze & Silver. Went Dwarf on Bronze, it's easy as it is. Went Goblin on Silver, just went stright Taurog Warmonger (might've had the Balanced Dagger), it was also rather Easy. Left Paladin Gold for later, as I remember it being somewhat frustrating (to other people, I remember a time when it was the only gold challenge I had no problems with, back when they were new).

- PQI - Elf Priest - Creeplight Ruins - Purist

Spotted this, thought about going at it VT, decided to just enojy the incentive to do a purist run. This place is sorta tricky on a VT run, allthough it turned out to be too easy on my non-VT run for an Elf Priest who's run into Mystera rather early, and in the end had way too much of everything for the bossess to actually be tough. Plus it's a rather good Priest map, since you can turn all the useless guys to stone for Imawal while you explore, and later into easy popcorn via the sacrifical goat.

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Decided to put the missing stuff on the map so I did:

RUN - Dwarven Paladin - Halls Of Steel - Namtars & Vicious Steel Unlock

Didn't prep a god or anything cheezy, was a fun run (found EM and rolled with it)

RUN - Human Monk - Halls Of Steel - Purist - Namtars & Vicious Steel Unlock

Went purist because the previous run was too easy, and it took 2 tries because I found anything worshipable and the fireball really late. Then it was fine, I even cleansing spammed down the Goo ^^

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I tried going Michael Bay vs. Naga City VT 4 or 5 times and failed whatever I did. But then I went non-VT and this happened :

RUN - Naga City - Michael Bay - Gorgon Unlock win no.1



TT topside, found Glenrick & Vegetarian Vampire (got 2 mana out of him, yay!), bought a keg of mana, and got to lvl 10. Because all the VT runs were horrible, so I was just venting. Got 2 hits of Tikki's Edge, 2 hits of Pison, Dodging, Crystal Ball, and went down with actual glyphs (as opposed to the VT runs). Swapped over to Mystera right away, picked up Mystic balance, picked up refreshment and possibly a mana point, could actually fight the bossess (as opposed to VT), used Apheelsick a LOT, weakening spam on Kinnissch, done. Didn't even touch PM or use refreshment. Was actually rather easy, so someone ought to try it without the guitar or Apheelsick to see if it's this legit.

Naga city regular and Naga city VT are two entirely different things, though.

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And then I went and picked up the Vicious Token on Hobblers, and decided I might just add that to the "only one badge at a time" challenge - has to be only one badge + vicious token ^^

PQI - Dwarven Transmuter of Drac (prepped) - Hobbler's Hold - Miser + Vicious!

Well, it was Fun! I failed it 2 times by forgetting it was a Miser run

[Lujo]

Well, I've been doing the triple quests and enjoying them a lot, done two so far But that accidentaly ended up having a thread, so I might writeup here when I'm done with the third.

Also, I went and did this:

RUN - Dwarf Paladin of Binlor - Naga City - Gorgon Unlock



Well, my preps were kinda strange and backloaded, and I did luck out with getting Glenrick (and the spider temple). Still, worked kinda fine even tough I've had largeish and costly missplays and no cheaty ways to dodge poison and mana burn. If you luck out on leveling, that downstairs keg and yendor really work with Dwarves as expected, and Binlor's probably not the only legit option. Still, stark contrast to Michael Bay in terms of performance, although quite fun to play.

Also, patches got ditched right away, inventory space issues. Should've been subdungeon, and the badge should've been ~~Bear Mace~~. Brain malfunction there, playing before/while making breakfast -.-

- Question: What do you guys grab in the Metal Spider Temple? I went for both seals, whoopaz and the altar.

[Tinker]

[Lujo]

^ Ty, that sounds quite legit (I saw it on the wiki too ^^). Since I run ~~Burn Salve~~ a bunch anyway (free piety + indulgences in case I run into EM, and all that), and since I also run Alchemist a bunch, I kinda tend to go for the Seals, whoopaz and the Essence potion.

Also, decided to pay homage to both Tinker and Tinkers in general, as I've been saving them for going nuts with them once I've got all the toys. So I finished the Gorgon unlock with a fun blow-it-out-of-the-water style romp (and boy does this girl play a mean Michael Bay ^^):

RUN - Elf Tinker of prepped TT - Naga City - Gorgon Unlock



Trolololol, TT is proud of me. Also, what with them being conceptual idealizations by default it's actually hard to come up with an Elf girl picture with this much genuine character, no "fake" nerd girl this one. Stunning portrait, and totally looks like a girl who'd go and plot out how to dismantle a dungeon in the most literal sense - using only her brains ^^

Anyway, I went out to win it with gold, and did I ever. I must've tributed something like 10 times along the way, but it wasn't all mindlessly dumped into it. I did run into the gold subdungeon and found a gloves of midas while still going around looking for stuff and wheytwuting stuff for the first 25 TT piety. 3 hits of Learning, dodging, 2 hits of poison, converted a ton of stuff, was efficient with blackspace up top (and B2P), bought and desecrated altars down below, to swap into Mystera and stay there, weakening'd Gobb, weakening'd Kinisssch, dinged 2 times through Iron Man (whoopaz, too). Don't think I converted a singly glyph for refreshment XD 25 mana too, I got up to 28 eventually, might've had 30 if I had actual mana items (I converted the only one I found). Was more than enough, and I did have B2P.

Also had leftover... Kegs. Strange. But, well, I did have Crystal ball.

Still, hugely satisfying, even though it was more of an arty run than anything.

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Then a bragworthy Goblin Tinker did the Goo in with so little map drain that there were ample resources left to kill the SMM. And very few relevant preps/items, too, allthough I even used Slayer Wand and Reflex to ding mid fight . And then ding to 10 off of that kill ^^

PQI - Goblin Tinker - Slime Pits - Faithless! + Bonus Bravery



Dorky little gal (or was it a guy?) burnt the goo really early. Also dinged something like 4 levels using popcorn, and spiking other stuff mid Goo-fight. She did use Dodge-Whoopaz on him, but just about everything else was useless apart from the popcorn bowl. Having went through lvls 3-7 like that, she found the SMM, picked stuff up from the subdungeons, translocated stuff, and generally did the fat guy in as well.

Ahhh, tinkers. And also goblins. And goblin tinkers... I adore them soooo much.

An Interesting Thing I Finally Figured Out, D'oh! - I always disliked the Vegetarian Vampire subdungeon, but now that I started actually using Endiswal and wasting large chunks of Blackspace to open it up a bit before I start squeezing it I like it better. Not sure it's worth it, but at least I'm not hugely dissapointed by it every time I see it. If the instructions didn't cover the "field", so that you coud look at both at the same time, I'd like it a lot better (I suppose everyone would, it's not really worth busting out a notepad for).

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And then I had this huuuuuuuuuuuge luckout which redefines "everything went my way" VT run:

RUN - Halfling Bloodmage of prepped Drac - Doubledoom - Vicious Token / Piecing Wand unlock



Eh... Monster Zoo subdungeon 1, Exploding signpost subdungeon 2. That's a lot of blackspace, lifesteal + piety + popcorn + bloodpools, Packtmaker for Overheal Pact, Aequitas right on the main island (glyph friendly boss), other boss Wraith (VERY fireball friendly). Also Vampiric Blade and Mage Plate. Eh, when it rains it pours, I started on Aequitas at lvl 3, and it was just fireballs + B2P + popcorn munching from there. I'm not sure I drank a single health potion (allthough I did convert a bunch to help keep the overheal pact going on while also killing undead while in Drac).

Strangely fortuitous run. If that word means what I think it means. Strangely enough, this is my 3rd Doubledoom run, and only now grabbed Cheeky. And I allready had VT badge o.O

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Then I thought I'd do something tricky - peekaboo Warmonger VT on Doubledoom. Prepped for it, but forgot to prep the VT. Would've ended up going parched, except I missclicked and drank a potion. Meh.

RUN - Gnome Warlord of JJ - Doubledoom - Piercing Wand Unlock

Well, it murdered that dungeon (also health boost on warlord not half bad). Found the other Bear mace, had +50% from that, found a getindare too, and, as I said almost ended up parched. With just health and mana boosts from JJ (and Wheytwut to start with, ofc). Woulda been a semi-murderous VT run, ended up being a quick stomp. Well, I got my Piercing Wand at least, that thing's actually kinda handy.

[Lujo]

Well, I finally went and did Paladin Gold, Monk Silver and Monk Gold.

Paladin Gold - was easy, allthough I remember people struggling. It's more of a high-end Earthmother puzzle than anything. I tried with an elf and screwed myself over due to a hasty decision, and then went Halfling and did it immediately. Corrosion spam, some vineforms and a platemail in the shop, some Bycepss fighting, 2-3 clearances, potion spike. The elf would've done it too, I just never really played a dedicated EM acid caster, so I screwed up a few things (and, well, halflings have that healing potion spam that's so good in challenges).

Monk Silver - this one's more of an "Ick Swamp with a Monk" trolling bit, except easier because the boss is easier. And you can bring Whoopaz. So it's mostly about how well you can move around Ick. Took 2 tries due to missclick death, otherwise if you can play Ick, this is easy.

Monk Gold - well, this also took 2 tries. One time I had JJ and EM but I found EM first, and I would've won if I got JJ first (also there was a lot of golems in passageways, and I thought there's be more meat man so I was hesitant to kill them early). On the second run I had JJ first and the other guy was Taurog, you can immagine how that went. There were a Bycepps and a Cydstepp in the level and JJ is very generous with piety for Bycepss use, so I took Petition, Boost Health, Boost Mana and a very early Chaos Avatar (helped me spike something big, too), then jumped over to Taurog, picked up 3 of his tings, went back and regen-fought the guy down at lvl 8 (had full piety and an unspent last chance on top of some exploration left by the end). Was and Orc, allthough I suspect a human might've done better, not sure.

Comments: Paladin and Warlord gold were both more EM puzzles than class challenges, Monk silver is funny in that you play Ick where Monk gameplay is nothing like regular prepped Monk cheeze, and gold can vary depending on which altars you get (and has an early JJ as probably the optimal early pick, which is something I don't think I've ever done on a Monk). Seeing how well it went, I've got an idea or several...


IDEA: Is it possible that you can go well and truly stupid on a Dwarf or Halfling Monk? JJ, Martyr Wraps, ~~Bear Mace~~. Dwarfs lack damage and need health regen, JJ rewards Byscepps spam, Peekaboo is perfect for Byceps spam, Peekaboo needs you to have little damage, Monks have little damage but can push big things and slowly accumulate Wraps corrosion, Wraps like overexploring, Peekaboo overexplores, Dwarves want levels, JJ gives and rewards leveling, in the end you have a crapton of health and ding like a bastard with all the slowed popcorn. Alternatively, same thing with halflings where you just potion spam like an idjit. Wurgarble or MW or both for the end fight. If possibly Scholars pact for lolz, but also Drac after you're done with JJ.

Pick a VT run with a purely physical boss, this ought to be crazy good. Save a subdungeon or two for blackspace in case you overexplore. Looks like THE dwarf build.

[Tinker]

[Lujo]

[Lujo]