General-Purpose bragging topic!

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

Wanted to post the thumbnail of the screenshot but it's too big ... Anyway, took Tinker's recipe for Hoarder and managed to do it after a few tries,

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/362903713105099353/CD9BC60153F0D4BED85AD63C7C9CD902571280A5/

It really boils down to luck and perseverance. Sometimes you get good items but Dracul is in the last few towers and you are pretty much out of steam by the time you reach there. Other times, you just don't get any good items against H, be it Bysseps, Martyr Wraps, or Vampiric Blade (or Platemail). I had attempts that failed at the last 1 or 2 floors, attempts that came up short against H (the closest one I had him down to 500+ HP, didn't have any good items for that one, so I actually managed to put in around 76 hits, counted and it's roughly there but just not enough). Also, I had tried a few times to do Hoarder with Tinker class but that was too tough, this at least, I felt I had a chance.

For main badges, I am left with Purist and Miser. Miser should be doable with Vampire or some other way, but Purist is going to be super tough - need more practice. I should try and clear a few more classes normally without going for specific badges before trying Purist.

[eastless]

Nice job. I tried to do this with Paladin too but this was very hard, one try under GG - his silly beads just fills up inventory and whatever I lost this at 9 floor, under Dracul at 7-8 floor.
Hoardered with Wizard in 4-5 tries, all you need is BYSSEPS and Whupaz.

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

So, I did Miser using Human Wizard as they can be really strong with the right glyphs. I think Miser can be done in many ways but this felt easy after the initial hurdles:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... A02F137A6/

Don't look at the time taken, I played too slowly. Anyway, glyphs were great - Endiswal for breaking up walls to give more accessible tiles for the end when fighting H, Bysseps for H, and Getindare (helped me save tons of resources and also allowed me to do things like ignoring Poison and just doing kills with little or no damage - Precast it, spam fireballs, kill).

The start was a little "daunting" as I had to watch my piety and make sure not to anger Taurog. Plus, I used up almost all my potions just to combat the effects of Patches and monsters giving me ailments. But, I was also "lucky" in the sense that the first 2 levels I had both "Triple Curse" and "Misfortune 4" out of the way as well as the Illusion (with Weakening) and the Golden Statue.

Then, I got "No XP" on the 3rd floor with Bridge Troll. I was level 9 then and since I already received 3 shots of Resists Boost from Patches, I decided to just convert it away. Also made the choice to convert to Mystera after killing many low level monsters to prepare for a level up to refill for fighting the monsters on the 3rd floor. Used my Translocation Scroll to nab a Crystal Ball (figured this would be good for putting all the gold to use and it might also come in handy when I have to deal with Phys. Resistant mobs or when I am mana-burned or just to power through something). Mind you there were better candidates like Vampiric Blade and Platemail which would be useful against H but since I already had Bysseps, and I was low on resources by then, the Crystal Ball was the best choice.

The 4th level was a Binlor level with the Gelatinous Thing so it was a breeze and the 5th level had the Dragon Elite (that curses you) but Dracul was there so it was pretty much smooth sailing from then on. Also, first floor was EM so I could desecrate her altar and quaff my prepared Burn Salve by then. Forgot that I was doing Miser and didn't prepare a Fortitude potion but luckily I was able to "ignore" the Weakness stack due to getting a sizable damage boost from the 2 early Sensation Stones and converting off 2 glyphs.

Last (9th) floor was a fully revealed one but by then I was already very strong and had no issues with it. Had lots of resources left in the end and had many potential low level mobs to do Blood Swells from Dracul but those weren't needed. Could even take up to a 6th level Sanguine with my ending Piety (at 85 Piety cost, which is just 1 less than the last level costing 100 piety).

[Tinker]

@ ~'(^ + ^)'~, really awesome runs! I really liked how you were so playful with your wizard run, I probably wouldn't ever dare to get the Crystal Ball over Vampiric Blade (or, for that matter, convert into Mystera) on VGT, it's so cool to see you triumph!

So, how many badges to go before you post *that* win?

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

So, Monk badge was supposed to be the "easiest" of my hard badges left, but it was tougher than I expected. I had Platemail on my most successful run but still came up short. Even though he has good phys. resists, his damage is too low and this makes Phys. Resistant mobs (like Slimes) and Mobs dealing magical damage super hard to deal with. This and also, the various bad statuses like Poison, Mana-Burn, Corrosion, Weakness (Ouch!) and Curse all hit the Monk very hard and make it really tough to continue. I have tried both Human and Orc Monks but still couldn't succeed after several attempts.

So, I tried to go for Purist badge. This one eluded me too, have tried Human and Orc Rogues but couldn't even reach H, and also tried Human Tinker, Human Paladin. Lost count of the number of times I failed without even getting to H (sometimes I had too low HP to tank hits, sometimes Taurog and Dracul floors were super late, sometimes, I got screwed by a First Strike or Fully Revealed level, etc.)

Then, I got this epic win! Perhaps, the gods have seen and are moved by my perseverance, and decided to give me a victory to lift my spirits.

After killing H:
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... 6514ACE24/

Victory Screen (2nd one to show the last row):
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... A8EC5C6BA/
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... C0FDD34FA/

Yeah, I won Purist as a Human Wizard !!! And the 2 items bought were Dragon Soul and Soul Orb (and also the Burn Salve). Believe it or not, 1st floor was Mystera and I just went along with her, managed to get 2 shots of Magic and 100 piety to convert to GG which was so conveniently found on the 2nd floor. 2nd floor also had Bridge Troll for me to get a nice damage boost after completing it.

I stayed with GG for a long time, and was able to make good with my awesome glyphs: Endiswal (for phys. resists to tank hits), Bysseps and Getindare. Managed to get the Illusion (with Weakening) and the Golden Statue (with Weakening and Corrosion) while I was still with GG and was able to cure off all my Corrosion and Weakening.

At a later point, I had to convert to Dracul due to not having enough resists and HP to tank hits from mobs (I only had 5% phys. resists and slightly more magic resists from the Resistance Scroll and GG's beads). Pretty hard to believe I could have made it so far with that little resists. Bought and drank a Burn Salve then after desecrating EM. Since I knew I wouldn't be able to get my resists up that high, I also took LifeSteal together with the Resists from Dracul.

Taurog was found only on the 8th floor and I had to convert to him to get his armour by taking Consensus from PM. Luckily (and very conveniently), this level also had the Dragon Elite (with Cursing) and I was able to cure off the Curse stacks while getting piety from killing lower level Dragon Spawn (which I avoided killing in the beginning due to worshipping MA and also because I didn't need to kill them since I mostly went for higher level kills). So, was able to get enough piety from killing mobs and dumping a glyph (Imawal which I didn't use at all, Alpheesik was used before I went to GG and converted then).

Converted back to Dracul. Took Body Pact to get that bit more resists with the remaining few enemies left (Got 8% more resists to end with 43% phys. resists which was close to the max of 45% that I could get with Lifesteal). In the end, I could only afford 1 more level of Sanguine (10%) since piety awarded from Dracul drops to 1 whenever you detour from him to another god and go back to him.

Won with almost everything expended - all remaining blackspace, all blood pools, 2 blood swells from the last 2 remaining mobs, all my mana potions (I was lucky and got several more free fireballs from my Dragon Soul after I had stripped off all of H's resists). Last hit was a Getindare hit (could only afford 1 more hit with the DP from Yang's Sword at most if that wasn't enough).

Sorry for the long post, I am just too overjoyed!

[William]

@~'(^ + ^)'~ That sounds like an epic win. Congrats!

[Tinker]

[~'(^ + ^)'~]

[William]

I gave an Orc Monk a spin in VGT. Got GG on my first floor and PM on the 3rd. I managed to get to floor 8, which was fully revealed. Floor 9 would have been Dracul. I was sitting at 75% Physical and Magical resist. One or two differences, and I think I might have had a chance.