Tuesday, March 25, 2014

KOL Journal (03/25/2014)

Recently, I've been seeing a couple of posts on the boards about doing budgetcore (and I guess softcore) runs. Mostly, I think that there are just lots of strategies and that most people do their research for their specific situation, whether they have any IOTMs or faxing or whatever skills or for specific challenge paths. Generally, the advice is Smith's Tome, fax, spleen familiar, and of course, normal turn cutting like decreasing combat frequency.

I've never been able to cut a run down to 3 days, currently I go over by about 30 turns into day 4 starting with 8 + 1 points. I suspect this is because I have a couple large holes in my current technique that waste turns. AoSP seems to be cheaper than normal, but it requires set up to be comfortable.

I haven't done a fully worked up run log for a long time to analyze these holes, but generally:

1. I need to cut down the time to get a digital key, though likely I will have to pull a crackpot mystic jar.

2. Level 11 and 12 still take such a long time I need to be in the middle of level 11 by day 2, if I wanted to have a chance of getting a 3 day run.

3. Related to 2, I need to generate more turns per day, or cut more turns. This may be extremely solved by doing about 15 more runs and starting with 25 points, switching to using unmuffled etc.

4. I need to manage ML better (i.e. not die).

5. Trying to flip between hate for incite riot and love for snap fingers etc is annoying, and I suspect this would be alleviated by either timing when I'm at 30 hate (no jacket, of course) for "safe" regions and using jukebox to turn the scale back at opportune moments.

I'm not sure what the next challenge path might be, but I'll try to squeeze in 10 more runs before Halloween on May 5. I probably won't excessively try to get it down to 3 days.  I think I would only be able to squeeze in about 12-13 more runs in the season, which is 1100 extra karma. I might just continue to do those runs because they are so comfortable (with a moderate starting skill amount) that it's pretty insane.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

KOL Journal (03/23/2014) after rollover

So let's see what else I have to do for tomorrow:

Rest of Level 11
Level 12 (skip nuns and ducks because it won't save many turns)
Level 13
digital key 
star key
set up ballroom

Possible Pull List
borrowed time
wrecked generators
2 violent pastilles
dungeon gauntlet
irresistibility potion
large box
star hat
star crossbow
possibly 2 gate items
possibly 5 stairs items
wet stew

Looks like it will be again impossible to finish in 3 days. Level 11 takes forever (~150 adventures), Level 12 will take a while too (~100 adventures). And I also have to get the star and digital keys, and level up enough to get to level 13. 

KOL Journal (03/23/2014)

So yesterday I started my 10th AoSP run. I give up on doing the rebel path until I start with 15 points or something.

Currently, I'm a third into level 8. I didn't finish the level 7 cyrpt quest yet, but I skipped most of the mountain quest and finished off Groar with +5 all elemental resistance using check mirror and the warscarf.

Today after rollover:

Normal:
Level 7 cyrpt
Level 9 and 10
Part of level 11?

Extra:
Pirates
Unlock hidden temple
Get killing jar
digital key
star key

I doubt I can finish in 3 days unless I get far into level 11 today...

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

KOL Journal (03/19/2014)

I don't remember much about Day 2, so I must not have messed up too much.

For Day 3, the Hidden Temple gave me trouble, and I accidentally used Jukebox before I got to 29 Hate to use Incite Riot. The useful bits of that are the ashes, mostly. I wish I could just choose to get 3 ashes instead of 1 of each type. I survived before without a banisher, so it's not that useful to me since if I use it, I end up needing to level in some other place anyway.

I think I died a bunch of times, so those were wasted. I did manage to almost finish the level 11 quest and I'm almost at level 12 now.

My mistake this round was to not get Easy Riding as fast as possible, as the 5 extra stats from that is really a lot, especially compounded over time.

Next time, I will start with 9 points (8 from runs and 1 from level 1). Then if I do my normal thing and get to level 3 with dream jars, I will have 11 points at the beginning.

My plan for next time is to go to 6 in the Motorcycle Guy path (to get Easy Riding) and then to 5 in the Loveable Rogue path (to get Snap Fingers).
Then...
4 - Shake it Off
5 - Check Hair
6 - Cocktail Magic
7 - Check Mirror
8 - Riding Tall
9 - Biker Swagger
10 - Make Friends
11 - Natural Dancer
12 - Flash Headlight
13 - I guess Insult since it's the only one left.

Perhaps in 3 ascensions, I will go back to the Dangerous Rebel path. I probably won't do unmuffled ever since I seem to have more pulls than I know what to do with every run now.

Monday, March 17, 2014

KOL Journal (03/17/2014)

So I finished the last jar sword, and avoided spending 775,000 meat. I got a sharp tin strip, so I zapped it to get the goblin collarbone.

I bought 6 wrecked generators, so I think I should have about 6 runs total, since I use about 2 wrecked generators per run.

For my 8th run, here's my analysis for Day 1.

Friday, March 14, 2014

KOL Journal (03/14/2014)

Pretty strangely, the price of the goblin collarbone has surged, so I guess I won't be getting that through the mall. The three bits are zappable, but the sharp tin strip is still 775K at the moment.

Maybe I should do a HC AoSP next, but I'm afraid that will take a really long time (as in more than 8 days) I suppose it's OK not to pull things... but I would really miss having the warscarf.

Nah... I guess I'll keep doing softcore for a long time yet.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

KOL Journal (03/13/2014)

So I can do four day AoSP, which is pretty relaxed. I might be able to do a 3 day BIG! run, with all the skills I've permed.

Usually, the schedule is like this:

Day 1:
Level 2-6 quests finished.
Get liver.
Open ballroom (I skip the ballroom song now, since the muffled skill is powerful enough.)
Open Hidden Temple.
Start Level 7 cyrpt quest.
Get 5 skeletons from garden.
Semi-rare is guard outfit.
Get UV compass.

Day 2:
Level 7-9 quests finished.
Start Level 10 castle quest.
Get 5 skeletons from garden, use 7 to get skiff.
Finish pirates part.
Get killing jar.
Set up guy made of bees.
Semi-rare is the eyedrops from the haunted library.

Day 3:
Level 10-11 quests finished.
Get the star key and digital key (using jar of psychoses).
Semi-rare is inhaler.
Start Level 12 island quest.

Day 4:
Finish Level 12-13 quests.
Peel out on stairs monsters and pull the ones I don't happen to have.
Pull Jeans of Loathing so I survive the last 3 bosses.

Friday, March 07, 2014

KOL Journal (03/07/2014)

Well, what's the next skill I should perm? (a.k.a. skill I can't use)

Saucemaven? LTS? Astral Shell?

Anyway, ~10 more ascensions to go until I clear my skill list. Then I can pick off other ones (like Splattersmash).

I'm trying to restrict my Wrecked Generator use during AoSP runs, but I kind of need both the stats and the adventures.

I'll change my motorcycle upgrade list:

Level 2 - Cowling: Sweepy Red Light - I always need stats the entire run.
Level 4 - Muffler: Extra-Quiet Muffler - Rev Engine grants muffled (I don't want to use unmuffled, I pull + combat frequency stuff)
Level 6 - Gas Tank: Nitro-Burnin' Funny Tank - + 50% combat initiative
Level 8 - Tires: Snow Tires - skip most of the Peak, but still need the cold resistance. I mostly just want to skip getting the ore and goat cheese and the yetis. If I had better ML sources, like the biker swagger skill, I might want the racing slicks to have 30 total peel outs instead...
Level 10 - Headlight: Blacklight Bulb - +2% desert exploration
Level 12 - Seat: Deep-Seat Cushions - Massage Seat - regenerate 5-6 HP/MP after combat

I'm currently having trouble finishing off the Avatar of Jarlsberg at the end of the run, so I guess I'll pull the jeans of loathing or the sea scrub shirt before that.

In terms of things that it is possible to do early, I pretty much have to unlock the hidden temple and ballroom early because I need to grind stats at various times. I guess the next thing I have to do is set up the bee guy in the bathroom, which I won't be able to do in the future when they remove that exploit. I suppose this just means I have to ascend as much as possible before then, which is likely a few weeks to a few months away.

I seem to always forget to let the accountant out of the ice house after I finish meat farming, but at least I can still do it after ascending.

Sunday, March 02, 2014

KOL Journal (03/02/2014)

I took a short break from ascending to hold the pool table. I got to a winning streak of 77. (Super lucky)

I totally forgot that I ascended close to rollover, but I finished in the same time as normal.

It's been hella boring, but I will continue doing AoSP and perming random stuff until I either run out of skills to perm or the AoSP season ends. So that's like 11 more times.

Halloween is in 64 days, on May 5, so I should have enough time (5 days * 11  = 55 days)

I have to update the palindrome section of my walkthrough, since it's changed.

Stuff to get:
Dungeon Fist Gauntlet for combat frequency

Possible pulls:
2 celestial au jus
2 violent pastilles
frat warrior fatigues x3
natty ascot
2 inhalers
large box
other 2 gate stuff
star hat
star crossbow
black kettle drum
stolen accordion
3 red pixel potions

Missing:
17 of the stairs items