So, opening this up with a shoutout to Dislekcia, I suppose:
VT RUN -
Dwarf Tinker -
Havendale Bridge -
Fighting Skill Decay / Fishing for Pactmaker
I went with light and screwy preps (that there's a Cracked Orb ^^), and also the god prep I rarely use, for a "full-lego" experience. The first attempt had way worse shops (allthough the subdungeons seem to be either streaking when you retry or fixed to prop up races/classess/something which would explain why we never got to be involved with them in any way as testers - sounds paranoid, but I kinda get the same sub with the same race class way too often).
Anywho, first try had more spellcastery stuff (allthough, when you get down to it, it was mostly the same stuff except this time there was a platemail instead of the Mage Plate which made a world of difference). Just one single Scholars Pact activation and it took out both bossess in one go. Which is good because I had hardly any bloodpools (used them to level) and I had only the potions left (and well, a DP from Taurog or two as I didn't use up any).
And I didn't rush it, it was Drac into Taurog to let me play with the map, glyphs and everything - heck, a saved-for-later Lemisi let me recharge 3 dings worth of highly resistant dwarf health. Compared to the Yendor/Dagger cash-grab spam from last night/earlier today this felt incredibly satisfying even though I landed the VGT clearing kit. And also Troll Heart + Draco's Heart from lvl1 - makes for tricky leveling, but did it ever pay off...
Also, that Balanced Dagger basically put a freebie-kill lvl 9 guy on the map at the point where I wouldn't be getting any bonus XP from same level guys anyway. And I couldn't fight above level anyhow. Well, a freebie lvl 6 guys at lvl 5, another one at lvl 6, another one at lvl 7, another one at lvl 8 - and it would've made my life WAY easier if I found it earlier. That's NOT a utility item, that's a really cheap, small Yendor painted green. Not that I mind it being Yendor, but everything else, including the green, would probably be better otherwise.
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This took 3 tries, but it was epic:
VT PQI -
Dwarf Paladin -
Ick Swamp -
Purist VT
On the first 2 tries I found Pactmaker first and tried going for consensus and body pact - which would have worked if I had the Balanced Dagger, but so would anything. This time around I found JJ first and played a patient, careful game with a lot of Imawal + Wheytwut +1 lvl kills and popcorn Bowling. Which works as well as you'd expect on a Hybrid JJ Dwarf with some resists.
I found B2P sort of too late (and the sub had no exploration in it), and I found the Dagger totally on time, but since it's kinda 4 in the morning and I'm only playing due to an apparently serious medical condition which causes me to be unable to sleep (on top of obv. insanity), I didn't notice it.
I did, however, flex my DD cult leader muscles a bit and did a nice whole-inventory swap to take out the Wraith and then Itsssamna (identigying Whurgarble as my weapon of choice which was the correct call). I did make a humongous missplay though - I completely forgot to take Scholars pact and I also wasted a whole pool of health while fighting the wraith. High highs and low lows, that's just me I guess.
NOTE: My "apotecary is disruptive" hypothesis seems to hold water. I had to get a Schadenfraude due to the Wraith which meant i couldn't get fortitude, which then made that choice a choice instead of, you know, just getting both and a healing potion. Only one shop also meant I got to actually play with the shops since I had more money than usual and the run was way more interesting, even though my overall power was obviously lower. I can totaly trace a lot of my "didn't notice X was in the shop" and "had X which would've won it for me but didn't pay attention to the shops" moments to getting a habit of just dumping all my money into CB and Apothecary - which is probably the best move by far (or at least the simplest) if you have them, but doesn't work if you don't.
Shoutout to whoever clued me in to the fact that weakening strike doesn't stack with TT desecration, which meant 30 free piety.
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Creeplight Goated!
It was a pretty lousy Goat Run, all things considered. Had GG and Drac, and neither like potions and are stingy with Piety (and GG dislikes Drac's boons). Luckily I ended up in Drac for the end fight, which was the best option (still had it's problems) and I missclicked on a completely pointless lifesteal point during the fight - I wanted to take a second point of Sanguine.
Haven't been cheezing Mas09's ledger on this playthrough, I think I'll do it w Goats. It's like a food delivery service.
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Flaming dungeon streaking. Well, Creeplight twice in a row. Wonder if it has anything to do with Goats not triggering stuff?
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I've done the Aghbaars Academy Puzzles (been doing puzzles a bunch here and there). I had to look up the solution to the B2P one, and the first poison one seems to either have 2 solutions or too many elements in it. Otherwise the slowing ones are bloody tough, and the Halpmeh one took a bunch of tries for some reason.
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New day, but I'll just keep to this post, been posting other stuff, don't wanna spam:
VT RUN -
Half-Dragon -
Creeplight Ruins
Since I'm making like Rocky and getting my skills back, I decided to get this out of the way. It took 3 tries, but I only prepped the Dragonshield on the third try. I tried too hard to squeeze Binlor for resists on the first two tries, and the map is not the best for that as noting at all but the boss does magic damage - (which also reminds me that the Binlor Wiki page needs serious work, it's basically out of date). Did the first guy in with Apheelsick (Wonnafyt on the little bastards in Pan's Labyrinth is one of the coolest things in the game if you ask me
). I did the second guy in with Whoopaz, knockback and dodgestep and took Chaos Avatar for the last guy.
Wasn't easy, but it's another tricky VT where JJ pulled my ass out of it. I didn't even use any pact or consensus, so I had more power left, or I could've desecrated Binlor for a shot at last chance.
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And the game didn't register it (I must've closed it when I alt tabbed to post the screenie)
And then it happened again as I was fighting the wraith.
And then it just flat out crashed - and the damned wraith was going down.
Game doesn't want me to have a Half-Dragon done in Creeplight, it seems.
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Well, done it and made it past the bug:
VT RUN -
Half-Dragon -
Creeplight Ruins
Tough ole map, fore a Halfdragon. Various approaches work, but it's still a challenge I suppose. I didn't use Pissorff here, either, went Binlor for the damage (Binlor wiki page REALLY needs full rework, I'll get around to it one day), then full piety swap into M, Mystic Balance, Refreshment, Consensus, Scholars Pact, got an easy ding through the first two forms, and had to really work for my third one and Dragonsoul procs kinda got me where I needed to be in the end despite the kinda heavy (but not really cheezy) preps.
Still, running it past the crashy bugs brings back Unity Beetle flashbacks, I guess they must be implementing the new stuff for the build or something.
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Well, I failed this PQI but won the run and it was strange and weird and pretty brutal:
FAIL VT PQI -
Dwarf Crusader -
Eastern Tundra -
Miser
Sooooo strange. I got the Dagger, so I knew I won (screw momentum, even on a dwarf, dagger = win for sure, it's not even a contest). I went for 5 altars and Collar, anyway, I was playing that angle. I did land Taurog, Drac and Pactmaker, except I found GG and TT first, so I went GG to start out, Humility and then went TT. Desecrated GG, took Tiki's Edge and Dodge, swapped out to Drac. Blew up TT.
Then I FORGOT to take Blood shield -.-'
But I did take Sanguine and used it to level with the Dagger, went Taurog, desecrated Drac, picked up everything from Taurog, picked up consensus, got Scolars pact... and failed the PQI because i bought the Keg of Health. I did bring in a translocation scroll to counteract miser but I saw the Dagger and simply translocated it immediately (yes, the only thing I'd consider over it, even on a Crusader, is Yendor), so I ended up failing the PQI.
But potions + health pool + one scholar's pact ding murdererd the boss. I ended up being parched even though I had 7 healing potions and any DP's I could get off Taurog. I had a few popcorn around which let me keep a stable damage bonus at +30%, which was fine enough.
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Yay, PQI decided I can get a non-dwarf (even though I was kinda enjoying it):
PQI RUN -
Goblin Monk -
Berserker Camp -
Ding! Max
So I decided to take the Codex out for a spin. It took 2 tries, and I got pretty much the same elements on both runs (same sub, same gods, same glyphs, same second boss). The difference was that on the second run I got a Dagger and Soul Orb which made the second run way easier.
Still, one difference was that I didn't have Pissorff (or I converted it I don't remember) so I didn't acess the secret subdungeon, and it came down to a 60% last chance due to 1 gold. Still - this is just because I didn't prep the apothecary.
Not a friendly Monk map, VT Berserker Camp, especially with the Firstborn as the 2nd boss. Still, the berserkers are Dagger fodder and JJ goblins are really strong (as is JJ in general).
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Just a quick cashgrab & getting Half-Dragon out of the pool (and the PQI was a faithless gnome priest on Rock Garden, which I did try to VT but gave up rather than just go full caster on it).
BLATANT VT CASH GRAB -
Half-Dragon of Taurog -
Grimm's Grotto
Well, that's what it was, really. You'd think Iron Man would be a bit challenging due to having 75% resists to magic damage, but, well, no. To be honest, this is kind of an overprepped build, and I suppose I'd have much more tricky runs if I just went in prepped more lightly (and well, no complaining about game being too easy if you bring Yendor in, lol). Still, this guy feels like a priest with Zombie Dog always active.
I guess he does make for a nice cash-grab alternative to Orc Taurog guys which leaves Orcs, Monks and Berserkers in the pool to be played with more interesting guys, and I do have to get him out of the pool somehow. And I suppose there are maps where he isn't that boss, VT Creeplight did give me a nice run for my money (or several). I didn't try it full-retard Taurogdragon though.
Which reminds me, I'm not supposed to cashgrab but play interesting runs.
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Like this one, brag material right here:
VT PQI -
Goblin Monk -
The Labyrinth -
Warmonger
Dagger so silly, but it was still a thinking man's Warmonger run. I could've prepped ~~Bear Mace~~ now that I think about it, but this just makes this more of an accomplishment. I knew all those no-nonsense Labyrith PQI's would pay off with something like this ^^ That second boss Goo and swap into Binlor for the BA damage and res removal spam (which also opened up some blocked up passageways, very important) made it very, very interesting indeed.
Maybe someone would've found a more dodgy/intelligent way around this particualr Gobbo Monk run, but I'm kinda proud of this. I made good use of all that was at my disposal. There's poisonous snakes in there and dragonkin, and the Soko Trolls don't give any exploration, and all in all I think I did rather well.
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PURE AWESOME RUN:
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And then I decided to go plain weird on something that looked like a cash-grab PoS job:
VT PQI -
Elf Fighter -
Slime Pits -
Miser / Being a hipster
Ok, so this one was pretty much won at the prep screen, as far as how the boss was gonna go down due to CB being what is - HOWEVER!
I've decided to go full hipster on it, which is something you can do when you prep the PoS essentials, because winning it a forgone conclusion. Decided to play with strange stuff WHILE CB just wins it for me (Would be a cool mod, you just prep CB and Binlor and the game hands you the VT + Bet on Boss + Flaming money, removes the CB, all mana potions, the bossess and a bunch of money from the map and lets you play sandbox with other stuff).
What I did was, spam some Wonnafyt, get a bunch of Binlor piety and move the two guys across the map to each other, and that was that. But then I swapped over to Drac and took Spirit Pact. Simply because I wasn't going to really need anything from Drac, or the healing potions, or other glyphs or anything. The Spirit Pact got me all the way to 24 mana on a miser run ^^ Then I took Blood Shield, and being an idiot, cancelled it's whole effect with a Binlor descration, so it would've been much stronger. Then I piled on as many Drac boons as I could just for +1 dmg, and picked up the spoons from the subdungeon.
Since I converted Halpmeh and Cydstep and all the health potions, I ended up with 3 lifesteal (eventually), 2 sanguine, fake lvl 2, and 3 hp. Which then led to playing 2 games: the boring one where I press O a lot and drink a potion or activate CB occasionally and VT SMM and the Goo Blob drop dead, where the only interesting bit was moving a new meatman to slap into the SMM at one point - and the interesting almost purist/miser/hoarder/parched one where I level up full warmonger using only Drac stuff (drawbacks included and apparent) and Binlor damage (no bloodswells! no resists!) in VT Slime Pits without the Balanced dagger and only one hit of Tiki's Edge out of my Race/Class.
On a fully revealed map, with the secret sub hidden under some monster and me unable to find it.
Was actually incredibly fun! The gameplay part with Drac would've worked a lot better had I just not desecrated Binlor (or at least desecrated first and THEN took Blood Shield), the cashgrab part pointed me towards how good Spirit pact can be on Elves (and if Scholars wasn't so brutal, I'd try it with Dwarves, too ^^).
Very, very fun run all in all, was pleasantly surprised. The two runs even intersected a tiny bit when I started simply putting overheal knockback hits into the SMM -> Goo simply because I could ^^
EDIT: Eh
Sadly, the two runs did intersect in an important aspect. All the pissorff spam got me two dings because stuff I was slaping into the SMM died. But that FELT so random, one press of the O button just got me a ding, it's kinda unavoidable. It's like something that happened offstage while i was playing this strange Drac run.
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And then the PQI decided it wanted to give me some more cash, and since I just took my sleeping potion I took it up on it:
VT PQI -
Western Jungle -
Orc Paladin -
Specialist
Didn't try to sneak anything clever in here, just prepped m' dagger and grabbed the money. Felt surprisingly tame compared to all the Half-Dragon's I've been playing lately, for some reason.
Avoiding Orcs in general is a great way to troll the PQI, though ^^
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QUESTION: Does anyone have any idea if the PQI picks from your all time statistics of underplayed stuff or just per-playthrough?
Because I should be streaking humans like mad by now, and for some reason I'm not. The only thing which could explain it is if it counted puzzles and challenges, but that then is a bit of a flaw. I can hardly remember the last time I played a non-hoarder human, and I've only remembered to do that once or twice. And the last time I saw a human in the PQI was before I did most of the challenges and all of the puzzles.
And I'm kinda getting a lot of goblins and halflings, both of whom I've kinda overplayed by now for sure. Lots of Dwarves, too. That's actually why there's so many goblins, halflings and dwarves in the playthrough, PQI keeps kinda spamming them, then I get into it and just keep exploring them on flaming runs.
Anyway, good night, sleeping potion seems to be working.
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Fun, though!
