Extreme East Spoiler and Discussion Thread

[Nurator]

Grrr, I got to the third part today! With this loadout: https://ibb.co/jtYK4z
Sadly, I didnt know what I was up against. Wiped the first floor pretty clear, but forgot to take a pact... went downstairs and got crushed, because I had less than 100 HP and thus couldnt tank a single hit. Damnit, that felt so powerful, its just a matter of time till I kill that thing

[The Avatar]

[Nurator]

Yeah I was just lvl 8, when I went down. And also, I got punished by Dracul once. That was really evil, had 6 piety and killed the undead enemy with Corrupting Aura. But first the aura triggered and then Dracul punished me for killing an undead and not the other way around.

PISORF is useless against the boss, right? It would take a lot of pushing him around to maybe have access to 2 or 3 walls. Also, is it a good strategy to use BURNDAYRAZ to remove his resistances every second strike, when having no access to the enemies? Anyway, its just a matter of time, hopefully today or tomorrow I will get him Had no time to play last week, yesterday took like 5 tries to get to the end, so difficulty is not really an issue.
And the quest is really fun and unique! Thanks for making it

One last question regarding triple quests in general: Do have my preparations have any effect on the second or third quest? Stuff like extra attack boosters?

EDIT: Okay I dont understand the (hopefully) last boss. https://ibb.co/bUaD1e
This time I could easily tank him and got him down quite a lot. But there seems to be no way to circumvent his attacks with PISORF, because there is nowhere to use walls against him... wait would normal enemies work? God damnit, if this works I threw away a guaranteed win... Had to attack him twice for every attack and still got him down to nearly 0...
And what is the deal with the statues? If I could PISORF there, I would really help but they dont let me...

[The Avatar]

[Nurator]

Thanks for all the tips! I wasnt able to beat the second part again in the meantime... either I got extremly lucky the first few tries or I am doing something wrong

Right now my strategy is to take WEYTWUT with me, convert directly go Binlor for PISORF, destroy a ton of walls while leveling and getting use out of WEYTWUT by positioning and extra XP. Then my first target is the 90% magic resist guy that goes down to 60% resists by Binlor and proper knockbacking into walls /pisorfing him. Next target is the weakening regen fight, where I hope to fight some counter like the fire sword or corroding knuckles (I dont know the names ). I got him down a few times, but most of the time I run out of blackspaces fighting against him.
If I manage to defeat him with near 100 piety, I take one hit of 60% resist(to hopefully survive one hit), then convert to TT, get a lot of reflex/dodge potions, look at the new shops and then tackle the final boss. Most of the time, my dodge does not trigger, so I have to drink two for the effect of one, but oh well... after getting him down to 1 HP, PISORF will take care of the DPs.

I think the strategy is pretty solid, but somehow I fall short most of the time. Any ideas how to improve?

[The Avatar]

I actually go about it in the reverse order, which likely makes a world of difference. The reasoning is as follows:

1. Put simply, one boss requires regen fighting, one boss requires magical burst damage, and one boss requires physical damage.
2. The earlier I tackle a boss, the more I'll have to pay in its "currency" (namely magical burn resources, tiles, or joker currency).
3. Magical burn resources are fairly useless in the third dungeon.
4. I cannot tackle the weakening boss before the magically resistant boss.
Conclusion: I should start with the boss that requires magical burst damage, then move on to the one that can be beat any way, and finally end with the one who I must regen fight.

With that in mind, there are a few revisions to the run. First, if you're going to take any single glyph with you I'd recommend B2P or CYDSTEPP. Second, Binlor, while essential for that free PISORF, isn't that useful. Stone Form is worth it for the regen fights (and a tad more damage on Gharbad if you have DP/dodge) and ENDISWAL is good for opening space, but otherwise he kind of sucks. Fortunately, using him as a piety farm to swap to TT right before you start the boss fight is incredibly powerful. Speaking of, start that boss fight versus Gharbad early. While mid-fight level ups are meh vs. the other two, they are huge against Gharbad. I usually get 2, but occasionally get 3. Plus, sinking your popcorn early means you can get huge Tikki's Edge value, Dodging, and Reflexes (which may be necessary to finish off Gharbad depending on circumstances), which in turn means you are going to be much higher level against the other two bosses. Other than that, just sink every last mana resource you can pull out into killing him with PISORF. Grabbing a schadenfreude in part 1 can really help (although depending on how you do in part 1, you may need to buy a strength potion or may simply have done so to avoid having to convert a precious glyph), but with a switch into TT it's pretty hard to actually run out of steam vs. Gharbad. Taking out the other two after that usually isn't too bad (regenerating more per tile than the bosses do helps), and you can always fall back on reflexes or sinking money into items for CP for levels if necessary. You don't even need to worry about angering TT after you start the final boss fight, since it already has weakening. At that point the bigger question is whether you can survive with enough worthwhile gear for part 3.

Perhaps that was overkill relative to what you wanted, but there's a rough outline of how I run things. Is it optimal? Probably not, but it works well enough. The real key point, though, is switching up your boss order. Hope it helps!

[Nurator]

Ok changing the boss order definitely helped! I got punished by TT during the first fight, but managed to get through to part 3 again. Having LEMMISI in part 2 really helped piety generation with Binlor.

Got way further in part 3 as well: https://ibb.co/dFzZXK
How many bosses are there?!?!?! I used pretty much all my resources on the first goat, second one was down without problems, but the fast regen boss was the end of me... I was one strike from victory when I ran out of steam

Any further tips? I could have easily saved a double hit potion for the thrid form, just didnt know what was coming. Are there any more forms after this?

[The Avatar]

I mean there's really only one boss, but he's just got multiple stages

The answer is that you're close, but not quite there. If your strategy isn't capable of regen fighting forms 2 and 3 then you're probably going to run into some trouble before the end. As for where you're falling short and how to fix that, here's a few scattered items on the third segment:

-You absolutely want either 3 lifesteal or 25% physical resist and 2 lifesteal. It makes an absolutely staggering difference in terms of regen fighting ability. This usually means avoiding bankers like the plague and *maybe* cleaning them as popcorn later if you can afford to without getting punished. Alternatively, Stone Sigil is a pretty great grab in part 2.

-Try to keep your permanent damage (ignoring momentum) *below* 97. This will allow you to milk your level 7 goats repeatedly throughout the fight. Furthermore, they pile up over the forms. This means that by the third form you can have 3 blood cows to repeatedly refill off throughout the fight. The third layer of lifesteal also makes this stronger.

-Speaking of, generally do everything you can to save those goats as long as you can. They offer momentum damage, potential mid-fight level up, and health refills. So save them for a form that is really giving you trouble (typically not 2 or 3).

-Other items that help with regen fighting or survivability are great. Venom dagger, for example, basically provides +20% damage against the boss for small slot during the entire fight. Platemail is obviously fantastic. Probably avoid Whurrgarbl though, as the burning can screw you over when PISORFing to break his shield in form 1.

-Keep that PISORF. Keep it and hold it tight and never convert it. You will need it at the very end unless your run is going exceptionally well. Similarly, I dearly hope you have at least 1 fortitude tonic when you descend that ladder for the final fight, if not 2. You're going to want it. A single salve can also be handy.


However, more than likely the efficiency you need to make up is in parts 1 and 2. Although part 3 is epic, has a fully unique monster set, and ends on a ridiculous boss, the play of it is pretty straightforward. So instead try to get out of part 1 with a 2nd or even 3rd glyph (for example, bringing HALPMEH+B2P/CYDSTEPP/WONAFYT/LEMISI for part 2 and then keeping the HALPMEH to part 3 is great). Clear part 2 with 3 sets of quicksilver and reflex, or some great items. Make sure your locker prep has good value through all three parts (I think I used Cursed Cutlass?). Ultimately, since it's a triple quest, small improvements in play--especially in part 1--can snowball hugely over the course of the three runs. Keep me posted and feel free to ask for more tips for other segments if you're having trouble.

[Nurator]

Ok wow so I am not even close to the end? Thats insane
Part 1: I got this one pretty much down right now. My last two attempts I got three glyphs and 1 item out of it. Using BYSEPPS was a huge improvement for the final boss.
Right now I am prepping Fine Sword, but I thought about changing that up to something more fancy... where do I get the cursed cutlass?
Part 2: After switching up the bosses, I defeated it in my first real attempt, even after TT punished me. I got there once and didnt find Binlor till the end, so it does not count But LEMMISI helped with that^^ You mentioned taking B2P with me... but what for? I think I still dont know why this glyph exists, because I nearly never get good use out of it.
Part 3: This part (before the boss) is really easy. Every time I got there I steamrolled the upper floor, so maybe I should ignore bankers altogether and still be able to get to a high level. Last time, I had 3 reflex potions and 1 fortitude left when I went down, but I wasted the reflex all on the first form.... were to eager

I must say, I really enjoy this triple quest. But its really long. My last real attempt took around 1,5 hours, I dont have that much time often. Hopefully I can squeeze in some more attempts in the next days, but my vacation comes to an end

[The Avatar]

In terms of percentage complete you’re very close to the end. It’s just that the last hurdle is the biggest hurdle, so even getting there doesn’t mean you’ll succeed.
Part 1: Yep, if you’re regularly finishing with 3 glyphs you’re definitely doing it right. Cursed Cutlass is the quest item reward for clearing Oasis Town with all mage classes. Shouldn’t be tough to steamroll that quickly if you haven’t already, and if you have then just go into a dungeon and prep quest items and it’ll show eventually in a shop.
Part 2: B2P is excellent vs Gharbad (the damage goat) since your health would have gone to waste anyways during the fight. It ends up being worth 3 extra PISORFs per mid-fight level up.
Part 3: Yep, Drac being your best friend from the outset and all the gear you bring in means even the preposterously overturned monster set shouldn’t give you too much trouble. And with 3 reflex and a fortitude it seems like you definitely could have won it (although what happened to your quicksilver?). So in that case let me reemphasize keeping that permanent damage below 97 and saving your goat refills. If you don’t clear a form right as you run out of reshrouding tiles, you wasted resources (or are overkilling enough that who cares). Also, the first form, while slightly tougher than 2 or 3, is made just barely so by PISORF, so you really shouldn’t need more than 1 reflex.

Ultimately, I suspect you’ll win the next run where you bring really strong gear into part 3. After all, even the above run could probably have been won with slightly tighter play or just you having a tower shield. If you happen to play very well and pickup strong items, then you might even curbstomp the boss. Platemail, Tower Shield, or Vampiric Blade, for example, can save even bad runs (and should be instantly purchased if seen). Yet even just a bunch of solid items like Venom Dagger, Stone Sigil, and Fine Sword can massively tip the balance in your favor. If you don’t mind finding them, try vetoing all the magic-only items (Battlemage, Blue Bead, Witchalok, Mage Plate, Crystal Ball, and Piercing Wand) as even spoon is a better pickup than these. Beyond that, I assume you are prepping compression and perseverance badge as not grabbing those is strictly a bad choice here.

But yeah, ir’s definitely a dedicated effort to win this. Even just testing the various iterations took more time than any other dungeon. After all, it’s not just 3 DD runs squished together. It’s a micromanagement run, a shop-deluged run, and then something more like a standard run.