Extreme East Spoiler and Discussion Thread

[Bwrgarbl]

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[General_Milky]

I've used platemail, but never prepped it. I've merely picked it up in a shop when it's come up and I had the need for it. I guess if frostbite works like corrosion in that it can't deal damage if the original source is 0,then platemail and even indeed Taurog/EM just got even nicer than they usually are, and I already thought all three of those were potentially some of the best situational tools you can get in the entire game. Also, for the record, I attempted my first runs of Purist Frigid Plains as paladin, but switched to Monk later and beat it with PISSORF and Binlor's knockback boon, to soften the Memory of the South while using Monk's high regen and relatively low damage to pop frostbite on more types of monster. I realize Monk isn't optimal for knockback damage, being that their base damage lags behind everyone else, but "pissorf strats" were fresh in my mind anyway, I found Binor quickly, and I just went for it.

I also spoke of the death gazer because it's the only reliable way, outside of slowstrike, to dispel some of that frostbite. So, in the Frigid Plains, it'd be great to smack the frostbite boss a few times and then go hit that level 1 first striker, but that doesn't work. You must regen up to full, or more likely use a potion instead given your regen is even FURTHER behind the boss's while afflicted, just to stub your toe on them and end up right back to half HP again because the level 1 did 38 damage instead of 8. In the Citadel, the Shadowsires take the role of "cheap frostbite dispel" but they come with the heavy cost of two curses. I favor taking the retaliate:Fireball of the Fireweavers most of the time because of this, because said curses were more or less my life against the bosses (I was running Half Dragon of Dracul to do FeeFiFoFum2, sanguine is a generally awesome ability, and lifesteal overheal was a decent answer to the first boss when combined with a health-based shop item. The Swampsouls ended up being ideal for getting said overhealth, and if using blood pools to get health up, ended up being the blackspace saver I needed. And yes, after the first attempt, I knew immediately that whupaz would be the way to go on form one.

I'll write up more indepth thoughts and opinions later tonight. I've officially unlocked all the content in the game with the one exception of the Serpentine Shield, which I'll be doing today along with checking out some Investigations. I'll put it all in spoilers of course to preserve the surprises, but I've a lot to say and I'm eager to say it.

[Bwrgarbl]

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Yeah, if that happens then basically nothing is going to save you. But barring being *absolutely screwed* by the RNG I find something like Elf Warlord works pretty darn consistently (you can explore most of the map immediately since leveling is trivial, a wide selection of gods will win it for you, blowing your mana potions early in the fight more than halves the boss' resists, etc). So sure you can't guarantee things nearly as much purist, but you can still build a strategy based on the class and modify on the fly based on your items and gods.

[Bwrgarbl]

Oh, the first time I went in there is was also really bad... and the time after that one was pretty much screwed as well. As I said, do not underestimate my luck on this sort of map. So I ended up scumming the start and going through a pile of them looking for one with stuff good enough right at the very start to make up for the worst arrangement later, because I was getting them. So I passed it... and the progress is still gone.

EDIT: Did some poking around... went in with LEMMSI confirmed big boss still there. Exited the game and restarted and that seems to have fixed things and brought the progress back.

EDIT2: However, now I've lost three locker slots (and the items in them of course).

EDIT3: And restoring the old save and starting up fresh reveals that those three were gone from the start. I probably hadn't noticed because I haven't been prepping things. This includes two runs of Deadman's Pass which I failed Miser (but still easily beat the boss)... probably because I didn't have my inventory filled with prepped junk (I need to get a post note back up to cover the Buy button... I hate Miser and Hoarder quests).

[choongmyoung]

I've also lost the three locker slots, but it's maybe because of the new class challenges.

[General_Milky]

I decided to split my feedback into two halves, one now mainly talking about the main dungeons and quests, one later focused on talking about classes, items, features, and the new badge.

Alright... so where to begin. First, I'll start positive. The Extreme East was amazing as a whole, the new badge alone probably is going to overshadow the expansions henceforth just in how much variety it opens to casual play. It's what the Vicious Token always should have been. There's so much to see here that it almost actually overwhelms. So many interesting items, so many cool gimmicks, ways both familiar and completely new to experience the gem of a game that is Desktop Dungeons. However... all's not gold and rainbows (and probably won't be for some months, with all this stuff to do...) here. Let me recap my experience in every dungeon doing every quest, that I can remember.

Deadman's Pass



Everfrost Peak



Frigid Plains



Phantom Citadel



Troll Laboratory



Final Dungeon



Wow... that took a while. In conclusion, the content is great. It has some BS moments here, quests that are too hard IMO to be gating content behind there, but taken for what it all is, it's one hell of a fantastic expansion. If I could change anything about the mod, it'd likely be easing up on the quests, especially early on. In both North and here, it's sometimes, just a little, felt like merely unlocking the vicious dungeons was a harder task than beating them. These multi-badge quests are daunting, exhausting, and while they certainly do push the player into the deep end in the intent to get them to swim, sometimes I miss the simplicity of the old days, where the quests just asked you to beat a dungeon as a certain class with only one badge, or asked you to complete the dungeon a few times as a number of classes of your own choosing. As it is, when I finished Hidden Workshop for the first time, and indeed now Everfrost Peak and Frigid Plains, it left a scar that pushed me away from wanting to take another look at them. The quests only imprinted them in memory as super hard pains in the ass, that are much harder than they actually are when playing them without (multiple!) restrictions. That's just me, however...

Well, with that all said, I'm going to keep discovering the mod. There's oh so much I've yet to even see. I'll probably want to talk about those too, so I'll be back in some number of days for that.

[The Tapir]

Man, when I heard there was a new badge with this update, I was not expecting it to involve full-on remixes of all the dungeons in game. Some of these dungeons look downright impossible, and I can't wait to torture myself trying to beat even the normal ones. Kudos to whoever first beats Curious VGT because that looks horrible.

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