Playthrough notes

[Lujo]

You're right. And I never got around to finishing the big spike guide, there was great stuff in there as well. And during my alpha days I was really, really dependent on that wiki.

Hmmm, some of this stuff is bound to get fixed, but if any of you guys who are reading this and also handy with the wiki, how about you help yourselves to whatever I write and ask for specifics and put it up there? I'm asking because all this stuff just comes out of me, and I really play DD in bursts of RL inactivity and periods where I severely lack day-to-day responsiblities. This latest one came from finishing a phase at work and getting snowed in.

I'll also do a basic spike guide in video form at some point for sure, I just want to go through the entire game and have a load of gold to blow on scumming for preps needed. I'll make them short and informative.

So if you, or Avatar, or Darvin want to use any of this stuff, just pick bits you like and paste them over there as they come and PM (or post here) for specifics. I'm too verbose, you guys always summarise anything I have to say into 5X less space but with same meaning.

EDIT: Checked the wiki out and I'll try to fill up whater I run across that I find undocumented. I tend to create wiki's spontanously, as you pointed out, might as well fill the actuall one up a bit.

Find Odd: Berserker Gold Hasn't unlocked and tells me to go north. This is odd, since I've unlocked all dungeons except vicious ones, Gaan'Telet and Doubledoom, all classes but Paladin and Bloodmage, and have all the kingdom buildings with all the preps to the max (except the locker and veto slot extra upgrades). And I've allready done 4 gold challenges. What on earth unlocks this?

Like: Unlikely Heroes: Forest E. - I did a triswordless halfling rogue run in Havendale Bridge. Because I still have no Trisword ^^ Payed the troll - fair enough, and felt refreshed that that particular hazard is actually working. GG, CYDSTEP, badge of honor and yin yang swords did for Zin Kibaru and Frank, but it was a fun and slightly intimidating run. V nice.

Big Like: Unlikely Heroes: Forest E. - Now I did a triswordless Spongebob, err, the Halfling monk girl. I rolled over the troll this time, but the level proved to be one of the "monk proof" ones. Well, not monk proof, but the monster roster and the layout gave me quite a bit of a challenge and made me bring my A game to the table. V nice. Corrosion, physical resistance, magic damage and curse, even had Thomithy as second boss, and Zin Kibaru does magic damage, very nice. Trisword would've made it trivial, I suppose, but stil A+ for the effort, trisword be damned. Tough damned level

Gameflow note: The "main quest" trophy status has me currently lacking Nose Ring (dooooh, but haven't been there yet), Changeling Essence (allthough I did the bank quest there, I killed the changleing first), De-Animated Helm (didn't go there yet), Naga Tail (didn't go there yet) and Dragon Scale (there is no quest to go there at all it seems). I haven't hit the Grotto, The Slime Pits or Doubledoom (not unlocked yet). The reason I'm listin this is that my proffits are going down, and I need to stop prepping so much junk and start prepping bet on boss again. Goblins are all the way down to 100g, zombies 130, and several other (including Vampire Fangs?) are dropping as well.

Impressions: Unlikely Heroes: Forest E Wizard turned out to be the easiest. Well, I did prep Crytal Ball, forgot the Whoopaz again, forgot to use the Translocation scroll and wasted a bunch of gold on the only item I bought (battlemage ring). Picked up Consensus + Alchemy Pact with no other god and it was great, and picked up Binlor later for Stone Heart. I say, prepped up Wizard rocks my socks. Made Rogue and Monk look bad this time around, and kicked the Trolls behind. Oh well, the west wihout a trisword or a favourable class has been the most difficult direction, funnily enough.

Impression: Unlikely Heroes: Desert Why have monk both here and in the halfling section? Anyway, it's not a very good place for the monk, but martyr wraps and bear mace were my only preps, and Taurog my only god (even though it wasn't a warmonger run by any means). Nasty bussines for intermediate players, I imagine, this questline. Well, again, I imagine a Trisword would make it trivial.

Like - Assasin - I appriciate all the nice nerfs he got. They didn't do too much damage, but still, it's good that he got some. I'm talking about the fast regen monsters ignoring poison if they in fact are, and the damage penalty.

Wow - Assasins can really grind Drac piety with no trouble, and also do really, really good with lifesteal.

Impressions: UH: Desert Edition - Assasin I just facerolled Rock Garden with a Martyr Wraps Dwarf Assasin of Dracul. The wraps and bear mace were the preps. Stark contrast to most other Unlikely Heroe's Quests, he was about as powerfull as someone I prepped the ledger on, and he didn't have a ledger, and he had a suboptimal race, and a level which shouldn't favour him. Hmmmmm...

[Sidestepper]

The ledger isn't a Barbarian Camp exclusive. It shows up in any of the eastern dungeons. I've had one lockered since I first found it. It is incredible with classes like Bloodmages or Assassins. It was going to be my secret weapon for the Dungeon of the Day games, but now you have spilled the beans

[The Avatar]

For Berserker Gold you need to have MA and DL (it has the same monster set, or a very similar one).

I agree on the monk appearing twice for unlikely heroes. That means one of the classes isn't being used in that whole grouping of quests.

[Lujo]

[Lujo]

Wednesday: Allmost done with the midgame

Impressions: Grimm's Grotto I'm impressed. Done the quest and it was a lot of fun. Made me think and made me use stuff, and I sort of see why they kept it around. It's so much fun! The wizard was easy, I got carried by the thrusty crystall ball + battlemage ring nonsense I've been using a lot. I also used all the other glyphs somewhat, and liked it. The sorcerer struggled, but got through GG Frank in he end on the wings of much the same as wizard except I took flames and mystic balance this time around, along with refreshment, and made good use out of the IMAWAL + ENDISWAL combo (sorc has mana to spam). Bloodmage went Unstoppable, as he is ungodly broken (still had 2 schadenraude and a bunch of resources left), plus I made use of the mage plate. I learned that halfling spellcasters make awesome Drac worshippers, and that B2P is still amazing even without being Bloodmage. Wizard with B2P kicked ass easily, Sorc without it struggled.

Gameflow status: - the map is clear of all but the penultimate dungeon quests. Gonna work on the silver challenges now, and see if any of the gold ones can be scored. Goblin, golem, wraith and zombie throphies at 75 gold. Kingom gold stuck at around 3333 and doesn't seem to budge.

Big Like: - Warlord challenges writing. Pure comedy gold there. In other news, I got the trisword, and silver is probably doable faithless. I've reported impressions in the relevant thread.

O.O - Warlord Gold. That is not supposed to be doable. I know the plants drop horns and stuff, and I'll see about doing it, but it looks preposterous.

[The Avatar]

That's what you'd think, but I'd put it on par with current vicious. Either way, if you like Warlord it's FUN!

[dislekcia]

Is the sarcasm about misclicks really necessary?

[Lujo]

Srry, I'll stop it. And I could wipe the comments of, I can't for the life of me tell why I was doing it in the first place, you're absolutely right about what you said (EDIT: And apparently edited out ). I guess I found a creative way of venting frustration and it went a little out of controll. And I ran out of tasteless learning expirience jokes. And I'm actually happy with the small percentage of overall missclick related deaths this time around (especially since you guys implemented a bit of a guard against them with the "mouse button has to be held a very short while to register" - I dodged a couple that way, great job).

I'm amazed you guys read this thread, really. I let myself ramble and make a fool of myself here and there in it, so it doesn't break out and interfear too much with the regular forum activities, and I'll do mid-game 2-part writeup, and all the other ones precisely so you don't have to waste time with it unless you're really curious about a non-concise playthrough minutiea. I came up with the idea of having a writeup just to be less of an annoyance to you guys, and I'm wiriting this so I can get some feedback from the rest of the guys while it's going on and leave clues about silly interactions.

(EDIT: And apparently do exploratory photography for the wiki )

And for some more of proper feedback:

Warlord Gold: Well, I did it on the 4th try. Orc warlord, JJ into EM, early Fine Sword, APHEELSICK for the Meatman (and most of the blackspace), Chaos Avatar for the corrosive Creepers, Inventory management shennanigans, the works. No trisword at any point, but trisword would make it trivial I suppose. It's the way most difficult thing I've seen so far, and I don't know what to think. On one hand, I was forcing an Orc where a Gnome might've done better, and I had no trisword, and on the other, the level took as much familiarizing with as Gaan'Telet would.

Warlord Gold idea: The biggest gripe with the level for me was inventory space issues. I guess it would be too much to ask for a Compression seal drop on the first boss you kill, but if something needed help it was inventory space. I think. Either that or gold, since the bosses don't drop any and it's really tight.

Concern: The ammount of times the thought "well, the Trisword would make it trivial" came to mind is a bit alarming. Especially as I almost always get them just after a difficult run, and am probably right about it. Just saying.

Like: Priest Silver is doable without a Tri-Sword, apparently. Well, possibly not if the fix GETINDARE, but still nice to know. Anyway, I used GETIDARE to set up dodges in pretty much every fight I won, and, being a moron, sunk all the trisword money into buying a platemail. Trisword ended serving as a Fine Sword (+4). And the platemail was useless at the boss fight because I had to take a drink at every swing. Whoopaz, Reflex (no stacking I think), Dodge, GETINDARE dodges, DING!, more GETINDARE dodges, load of potions, convert everything, even more potions, and I did it.

Like: Priest Gold It's great Took me a few tries for some reason, but it's a nice puzzle. I hope it wasn't ment to be done another way, and that Consensus + Pact didnt mess it up. It's really easy when you figure it out, and it was the only ever map I had to scum for yet. But it makes sense in context. Not sure if I want to spoil the solution.

Impression: Monk Gold - Well it's a bit less difficult version of what the old Martyr Wraps unlock used to be. I found it challenging, took me a few tries (and I'm supposedly good with Monks), and it's one of those where you simply have to learn the timings and sequences. Since it's a purist Miser run, I don't know what to think, vets will figure it out, newbies will ask the vets... Wouldn't recommend trying it before APHEELSICK is unlocked as I don't think it's doable without it.

Gameflow Issue: Apparently, the Paladin SILVER suffers from the same syndrome as Berserker gold - it uses the DRagon isles map, so you have to unlock Dragon isles to unlock it. Which is damned annoying, especially as Dragon isles uses the same layout as Doubledoom -.- these things ought to change one way or another. I find this all the more annoying, seing how it's keeping me from my second veto slot - Paladin Gold was the only one I managed to beat on my previous playthrough and was writing it off as a given...

Find Odd: - Paladin Bronze is incredibly easy, even by bronze standards. And it's a GG tutorial.

Big Like: I've managed Bloodmage Silver in two (carefull) tries. It's doable, and agter months and months I've got the vampiric dagger again. Last time around I simply could not beat that challenge. Beat Gaan'Telet two-three dozen times, and didn't not once manage to beat BM silver. Well, hurrah! It's about on par with the more difficult silver challenges, or even as hard as some gold. I can't immagine what BM gold looks like.

Info Request: Err, BM gold seems to be a forced purist and faithless run against a 500ish HP guy with magical attack and retaliate fireball. What's the catch? There's got to be a catch, silver was harder than this looks like -.- Tip, anyone?

[Lujo]

Thanx for the info ^^ Dvarwen Bloodmage or just PISSORFF him into oblivion?

[The Avatar]

When he gets low enough he turns a bloodpool into corrosion, heals himself, and lowers his damage. Once its low enough he isn't too much trouble.

I beat monk gold without APHEELSIK, but it was an incredibly tight run.

All you need for priest silver is whupaz, LEMISI, and any damage reduction or extra regen. Use fireballs to lower his regen. You can substitute whupaz for GETINDARE or a tri-sword.