Extreme East Spoiler and Discussion Thread

[shade_of_ox]

Yeah, I think we discussed this earlier in this thread, but Yendor breaks lots of runs here. It's pretty much impossible to balance anything around it because it's so much stronger than most other items, especially in EE where leveling is a real challenge. If you want to challenge yourself, don't use it, or only use it in the endgame.

[Unidentified Tower]

Ah, good to know, I won't abuse it in future.

[Unidentified Tower]

Cleared Oasis Town with the four casting classes, starting with Bloodmage, each on my first attempt and aided by Avatar's Codex. It really wasn't hard, I just had to accept that I was only getting one "worthy opponent" (higher level than me, don't know if there's a common term for that) kill per level, and since I was usually able to go for things twice my level I didn't need to pick off too much popcorn in between. New item looks really cool, good stats AND a built-in solution to resistances AND the drawback can be solved by popcorn? Amazing.

Fell a little bit short of winning Heretic Bronze. I didn't notice that I'd gained the "leveling up desecrates Dracul" ability, or that the book in the middle wouldn't actually be able to punish me like it thought it could (only converted it once I'd already run out of gas). I'll probably get it next time.

Bard Bronze was easy, though the second half felt oddly anticlimactic.

Magician Bronze... I took one look at and skedaddled haha, I'll try again later. Looks really really interesting though.

Managed to clear Purist Frigid Battlefield on my third attempt, by the skin of my teeth. First try, I killed one of the bosses, immediately knew what I had to do when it reappeared (what a cool boss mechanic! and them having the naga sprite like Yin & Yang made it easy to figure out), but had spent too many resources on the first fight to stand a chance. After that I went Halfling Thief, figuring the hybrid potions would help me spike both bosses at once. Second try I thoughtlessly attacked a weak enemy in between killing the bosses to clear my Iceburn stacks (I couldn't survive a hit from the other boss even at full HP). Third try I forgot one of the bosses had death protection so I tried to end the fight too early. Fourth try I made it by the skin of my teeth! I had too much Iceburn to survive a hit from anything at full health, but I converted most of my inventory into health potions just for the 2 mana they each provided in order to afford the last couple casts to finish the run.

It's interesting, I feel like Iceburn makes WONAFYT kind of actively harmful? A low-level First Striker is an incredibly valuable resource as a safe way to discharge Iceburn stacks, but if WONAFYT slows them then they no longer serve that role. I thought there was no way to unslow them since they'd die in one hit to anything, but in retrospect I suppose knocking another monster into them with PISORF or knockback would do the trick? Might have to try that in future.

I love Flooded Foundry's gimmick and have absolutely no idea how I'm going to do it as a Parched Thief. Didn't get very far and a bit intimidated to try again immediately.

When I saw the Rat Monarch Hoarder Specialist challenge in Deadman's Pass, I forgot that Rat Monarch also gains Corrosion from leveling and interpreted Hoarder as meaning I'd be stuck on Corrosive 1 for the entire run. Didn't see how I could possibly beat the boss like that, especially since Specialist meant I couldn't have fireballs to help. Then I realized it didn't specify which kind of Specialist the run needed to be, and went after the boss as an Avatar's Codex purecaster. Realized too late that Hoarder also meant I couldn't get rid of the Avatar's Codex once I was low on health resources and it became a liability, but between Dracul's blood pools and the extra exploration space from the Zombie Bridge I somehow made it.

Poked my head into Phantom Citadel just to see what it was like. Ran away quickly, but got to see the whole map with LEMMISI. Love the layout! Kinda reminds me of Wizard Bronze but without the backdoor, I always wished more maps did cool designs like that one. The monsters seemed very tough though, and I've never been any better than "okay" at Half-Dragon... we'll see how it goes!

Did the three quests to unlock Boss Parade, I actually killed all twelve bosses in each of them, fueled by Avatar's Codex. (Is it getting obvious that I love Avatar's Codex? I guess I should ask, is that another thing like Yendor that I shouldn't be leaning on too much?) Was really surprised I managed it in Vicious Steel on my first try, especially since I barely survived the upstairs bosses. Not as mind-blowing a badge as Curious but I really like it all the same.

Going through Frigid Battlefield as the four Cleric classes next. So far I've only done Paladin, but after trying to do the dungeon Purist, having preps available made it feel like a breeze. Don't expect I'll have too much trouble with this quest.

No idea what the "find someone crazy enough" quest is about... I'm guessing either it's about the Fee Fi Fo Fum monster race, or it's like the Witch and it will become obvious who I'm looking for once I find them. Maybe they're in the Troll Laboratory? Haven't checked out that dungeon yet, but could be a mad scientist type thing?

Loving the Gilded Goat quest line. I was a little disappointed to see the level 12 Frank in part one just because it made the One True Lord a bit less unique. Parts 2 and 4 took me a while to figure out, and I eventually had to actually look up where to go for part 3 because it's been years since I did all the bronze and silver challenges and had no memory of Bleatystheno. Nervous for part 5 though... it's obvious what I need to do, but I've only ever beaten VGT once before (Human Paladin of Glowing Guardian). If I'm going to do it again I may as well get credit for clearing it with a different class, so I guess I'll need to finally learn how to not suck (heh) with Vampire?

[Unidentified Tower]

Ooh I forgot to mention, I've also been doing a bunch of Curious runs! Really loving the mechanic, my thoughts on each one:

Hobbler's Hold: Amazing.

Creeplight Ruins: Mind-blowing. Got it on my second try (after first try showed me what the insane gimmick was) as a
Rogue, got lucky and found Ticki Tooki.

Venture Cave / Den of Danger: Had one very quick aborted run where I went in with the unsuitable class. The resistances aren't the most crazy Curious rule, but the missing level 1's threw me at first.

Southern Swamp: I thought I understood the rule and I really liked it. Then I tried punching down all the plants before leveling up once, figuring that as a Codex Magician I didn't mind Weakness or Corrosion... and found that very quickly the Weakness reduced my attack power to 0 and I was no longer able to kill the plants at all. Lost that run, absolutely no idea how I'm going to eventually tackle this but I LOVE it.

Havendale Bridge: Yay toll troll boss! Good thing I could get him out of the way haha.

Magma Mines: Won it on my second try after foolishly killing the easier twin on my first try. Love the twist here, feels like a completely natural twist on the original.

Northern Desert: I'd probably have found the mirror clones more intimidating if I hadn't been a Rogue.

Western Jungle: The plants were nice, but the twist I really liked was that the boundary of the map felt smaller.

Eastern Tundra: Not a difficult run, but getting lifestolen every few steps was really funny. Considering this is where you first meet Vampires, it felt like an appropriate extension of the original.

Grimm's Grotto: Since I did this before I'd done more than the first couple expansion dungeons, seeing so many new monsters here for the first time was a trip. Had a big of a heart attack when Horatio showed up, until I realized it wasn't his VGT version. Somehow pulled out a win.

Shifting Passages: Water instead of walls is the perfect Curious rule for this dungeon. I've always been much more of a "stand on lattice points so the walls don't spawn" type than a "break the walls" type, so I was able to handle it rpetty easily. Evolvia's "all at once" twist would probably have given me a lot of trouble if I hadn't been running Avatar's Codex.

Berserker Camp: LOVE the gimmick here, absolutely perfect. Takes the dungeon's unique rule, the enraged and leveling monster, and makes it completely impossible to ignore or cheat around. Actually 0-2 here at the moment, but it doesn't feel unfair and I can't wait to give it another shot.

Cursed Oasis: Thought I'd just hang out in minus world forever until I saw those Cursed Shade stats. Love the twist here, "the original dungeon's gimmick but turned up to 11" is exactly what I love about Curious runs and this had that in spades.

Remaining dungeons I haven't tried yet. Overall, amazing mechanic, love it, best badge ever. Also I just noticed all the new EE dungeons have Curious versions too, so I'll need to try them as well!

[shade_of_ox]

Glad you're enjoying them! Some comments:

Southern Swamp - I was pretty sure Weakening only puts you down to 1 damage minimum... did you have a negative attack bonus somehow? Maybe Mystera?

Really excited to see what you think about Slime Pit and Labyrinth since those are my personal favorites. Also, don't forget that all the new dungeons in the EE also have their own Curious version, as well!

By the way, the Curious versions of Normal and Hard dungeons are intended to be more interesting and fun versions of the original dungeons that aren't a lot more difficult than the original version. The Vicious Curious, on the other hand, are intended to be brutal challenges that are very difficult to beat, so feel free to go all out on the preps and use whatever power build you like for those.

Also, have you tried out the class challenges yet? Heretic Gold in particular is one of my favorite runs in the mod.

[Nurator]

And dont forget the new puzzles The master pack is one my favourite things in the mod!

[Unidentified Tower]

[Unidentified Tower]

Okay I just tried Curious Labyrinth for the first time.

First of all: oh my god, AMAZING.

Second of all: picking up the titan guitar was a Very Bad Idea.

[shade_of_ox]

Only one of your blind guesses is close. I guess that's a good thing - means there are still plenty of surprises.

[srid]

I'm glad you are enjoying the EE that much

I just wanted to say that it indeed looks like you like the Avatar Codex a lot
I don't think there's anything wrong with that, unlike Yendor, it doesn't cheese that much and brings an interesting twist to the gameplay. Moreover, I think that several EE monsters come with a set of traits that can make using the Codex a real pain, so kudos if you manage to use it there.

It looks like you completed almost all the quests, but did you find 'someone crazy enough' ?
He will lead you to another dungeon that you don't want to miss (especially the Curious version, you'll see).

If you do feel stuck on that :


Speaking about Curious, you still haven't talked about one of the very best vanilla dungeon curious, so I assume you haven't played it yet. I think you'll know when you see it

Most of all, your feedback is very much appreciated, please keep posting and don't be afraid to give many details, it will all be read!

And please put the most spoilery things between spoiler tags (Gilded Goat secrets, Heretic Gold strats and twists)