The Orcish Mines

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The Orcish Mines dungeon is the Class: Rogue Rogue gold challenge. The boss is a unique Race: Orc Orc named Yohoho.

Preparations

None allowed.

Resources Available

You start out with 3 Item: Wall Cruncher Wall Crunchers. Certain enemies will drop more. These items are essential for navigating the dungeon, unless one is lucky enough to find God: Binlor Ironshield Binlor Ironshield in the first room.

Monsters Present

  • Monster: Zombie Zombie. Not the worst monster here, but their high health and fairly high attack make them rather hazardous.
  • Monster: Goblin Goblin. These guys suck for a Rogue, as always. They're still better than some of the other monsters here, though. They're also very useful for setting up dodges using God: Tikki Tooki Tikki Tooki, so if that's how you're killing the boss, keep as many low level ones around as you can.
  • Monster: Animated Armour Animated Armour. These guys suck here. They will almost certainly kill the Rogue in one hit until you knock off a couple of Death Protections, as their attack is tied to the number of stacks of protections that they have. That doesn't help the fact that they're still likely to kill you in one hit. Unfortunately, you're forced to focus on them, as they are one of the few monsters in this dungeon to drop Item: Wall Cruncher Wall Crunchers when they die.
  • Monster: Minotaur Minotaur. These are the other monsters that you should seek out. As long as you can kill them in two hits (and survive their first), you have nothing to worry about from them.
  • Monster: Bandit Bandit. These are the easiest monsters in the dungeon. They have subpar attack, and Curse stacks aren't something to really worry about, as you shouldn't rely on them in this dungeon to begin with.
  • Monster: Goblin Miner Goblin Miner. An uncommon monster, they have lower attack than normal Goblins, but have the traits Knockback (50% health) and Mana Burn.

Unique Dungeon Traits

This dungeon is a series of rooms(though caves would be more accurate) that are completely sealed off from one another. Item: Wall Cruncher Wall Crunchers, Glyph: PISORF PISORF, or Glyph: ENDISWAL ENDISWAL are required to navigate this dungeon. This natural obstacle makes life regeneration difficult, as one might find themselves in a small chamber with very few tiles to explore.

The dungeon has a guaranteed altar to God: Tikki Tooki Tikki Tooki, and may have altars to God: Binlor Ironshield Binlor Ironshield and/or God: The Pactmaker The Pactmaker as well.

Yohoho

Yohoho is a level 10 Orc (former adventurer) with 145 attack and 515 health. He has the First Strike and Curse Bearer traits. The curse bearer attribute means that you cannot effectively reduce his damage through physical resistances (which aren't easy to build up as a Rogue, anyway) without extremely careful popcorn management, and First Strike ensures that you will be unable to hit him before he'll hit you. Simply put, he is designed to make most standard Rogue strategies very difficult.

Strategy

It is recommended to play either as an Class: Rogue Orc Rogue or as a Class: Rogue Dwarf Rogue. Each will require slightly different boss fight tactics. Other races may be more challenging, but probably nevertheless feasible with the right tactic (except, perhaps, the Class: Rogue Halfling Rogue).

Regardless of which Race you play, initially you will have a hard time killing monsters above your level. Once you reach level 2-3, you can start experimenting with higher level foes. In fact it is advised to spare as many low-health enemies as possible, ideally Slowed, for the finale. Also keep a low-level goblin or two without slowing them. Don't forget to strip the Animated Armors once you have enough Health to survive their initial hit; removing all of their Death Protections (and Slowing them if possible) is a good setup for your future Piety (and XP) farm. One more advice: even if you see some really good stuff in the stores, try to resist buying anything except the Fine Sword, Spoon or Gloves of Midas. You may need the gold for the endgame.

Use the Wall Crushers (and any other resources you find, Glyph: PISORF PISORF / Glyph: ENDISWAL ENDISWAL come to mind) to navigate the dungeon. Break critical walls (those that appear thin) to gain access to neighboring chambers. Do not forget that you can take advantage of the Knockback ability of the Miners and Minotaurs - if you survive the monster's melee damage, the Knockback damage will never kill you, it will leave you alive instead at 1 Health. This can be useful by standing right between one of these monsters and a wall before attacking, as being knocked into a wall breaks it.

The only guaranteed altar seems to be that of God: Tikki Tooki Tikki Tooki, which is essential to kill the boss. One of two other altars may spawn, either God: Binlor Ironshield Binlor Ironshield or God: The Pactmaker The Pactmaker. In essence these other altars serve the same purpose: to give you extra piety. The level is easier if you get God: Binlor Ironshield Binlor Ironshield, but still possible with God: The Pactmaker The Pactmaker. Resist the urge to pick the God boon: Warrior's Pact Warrior's Pact (or any other pact for that matter).

If you got Binlor, start worshipping him relatively early. You will want to turn regenerated Mana into Piety by breaking down as many walls as possible. The side benefit is that you no longer need to rely on the Wall Crushers to get around the dungeon, and can convert them for 25 CP apiece. If you do not see Binlor, only Tikki Tooki or The Pactmaker, ignore them for the time being, they will only be needed in the endgame.

Once you have explored the dungeon completely, and killed all the higher-level monsters you can (you may end up having to spare some level 8 or 9 Animated Armors or Zombies), convert to Tikki Tooki and kill off the lower-level monsters you preserved until now (except one or two Goblins). This should gain you considerable Piety. If it nets you an extra level, consider picking up a level of God boon: Tikki's Edge Tikki's Edge before the mop up (just make sure you have enough Piety for multiple God boon: Reflexes Reflexes). If you play an Orc, generally don't worry about leaving any monsters for a mid-fight level up, unless you have for example Glyph: CYDSTEPP CYDSTEPP. If you play a Dwarf, though, you should be able to build up enough Health to survive one hit from Yohoho, and in this case do save the last monster(s) for a level-up. If you did not find some means to gain Death Protection, it might make sense to leave a couple of low-level Goblins unslowed to cycle through the Quicksilver potion dodges. If you forgot to do so, try pushing another monster into a Goblin, this removes the slow from the second monster without killing it. If you are desperate, you can also pick up the God boon: Scholar's Pact Scholar's Pact for the overheal effect, and then level up before the boss fight. This costs you precious 10 Piety, but practically guarantees that you can survive a hit from Yohoho. Make sure you get God boon: Consensus Consensus first, though.

You will most likely need to get the Reflexes boon two or three times to beat Yohoho. If you converted out from Binlor, you should have 50 starting Piety, plus the amount you rack up from killing the weak monsters you left lying around, this will easily rack up another 50 Piety. You may also desecrate his altar to gain further 30 Piety. If you did not get Binlor, but got The Pactmaker instead, use God boon: Consensus Consensus at the right moment to gain (up to) 50 Piety (ideally, use it when your Piety is closest to zero, because it sets your Piety at 50 irrespective of how much you had before). Then drink up, and start bashing Yohoho. Obviously, don't drink the Reflexes potion until you know that you can hit Yohoho, always start with the Quicksilver potion. Don't worry about angering Tikki Tooki at this point, if you have Death Protection, use it shamelessly, because Yohoho already has first strike, and the Weakening Blow doesn't make him significantly more dangerous. If you have Glyph: PISORF PISORF, you can push him around a bit, even using up your Mana Potions as needed to round up the damage. If you have Glyph: WEYTWUT WEYTWUT, you can Slow him for a free killing blow.

If you play as a Dwarf, most likely you will only have around 70-80 damage, so you will need to hit Yohoho 6+ times. If you can survive one hit from him, you are in a pretty good position, because you don't need to worry so much whether you get an immediate dodge from your Quicksilver potion. Drink up, most likely you will get in 3-4 hits before he hits you, then level up and repeat. It helps to have either a layer of Death Protection, or WEYTWUT, or a bit of extra mana and a PISORF to round up the damage. If you have Piety to spare, getting Dodge can help your chances a bit.

Alternatively, you can do the challenge by sticking to Binlor. His God boon: Stone Form Stone Form and God boon: Stone Fist Stone Fist boons offer a ton of damage, and proper popcorn management makes tanking hits with God boon: Stone Skin Stone Skin a very viable option. With a midfight level-up and potions, it shouldn't take more than three or four hits to kill him.