The Hardcore OxygeNation

MagiNinjA · Last edited by MagiNinjA on Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:01 am; edited 7 times in total

Since this is currently in development, AND it is a decently huge guide, it will take me quite some time to finish it. If you have suggestions, please give me a drop.

Hello, all. This is my first guide here at HCO. This guide will be focused around PvP and how it relates to ascending. Now, when I say "ascender" in most cases, it should mean a character that plays hardcore and/or softcore runs that are GENERALLY, but NOT limited to sub-Ronin runs, for softcore. This guide sits in the middle of snarles2's Newbie's Guide to Hardcore PvP and Strangerer's Biggerer and Betterer Guide to PvP. I recommend you to check them out.

And now, let's begin!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. What is PvP? How does it work?

II. Why do it?

III. Analysis of Minigames - TBW.

IV. Applications of PvP

V. Strategies for PvP

X. Tips,Pointers and Cautions for Ascenders - TBW.

XI. Tools and Links

XII. Optimal Ascension Line

XIII. Final Words

MagiNinjA · Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:41 pm Post subject:

I. WHAT IS PvP? HOW DOES IT WORK? Return to Top

PvP is KoL's player vs. player combat system. You must break your Hippy Stone located in your Campground to participate. After doing so, you can choose or search for an opponent, choose your attacking stat and spoil of war. You are normally given 10 attacks to use, but more can be added on, which is detailed in a different section.

The first time you break your Hippy Stone, you DO get access to /pvp, and you don't ever lose that access again. Known moderators include Marshall and thunkles. /pvp itself is a very cultured channel. The denizens there are often quite experienced and competitive PvP players. Yes, meatbegz0ring and jackassery is very much condemned. In fact, people in /pvp will attack you in game to prove it, so don't try them Smile

. Activity in /pvp is nothing like /hardcore or /trade. Activity is quite molasses slow, until several people start chatting.

You also get access to the PvP leaderboard, which is really not that glorious to get on because rank is not that hard to achieve compared to how long it takes for a speed ascender to get on an ascension leaderboard. However, more leaderboards = more diamond. Smile

PvP is very much diamond oriented in many respects. Managing your minigames does require the mindset of a diamond to be competitive.

Onto PvP battles themselves, you and your opponent duel in 3 stat minis and 4 other minis out of a pool of 15. The attacker must traverse through his/her opponent's defenses, some of which are white picket fences, barbed wire fences and the like. The first 3 minigames are comparisons of your stats to your opponent's. Here is an example to explain.

After selecting him, the next thing to choose is the stat to attack with. The buffed and unbuffed numbers of this stat are compared to the same stat on your opponent. The third stat mini is a comparison of a buffed stat the attacker did not choose.

After that, 4 more minis are chosen to be compared. These minis have been analyzed in a different section of this guide.

II. WHY DO IT? Return to Top

There are plenty of reasons to PvP, most of which is analyzed in the applications section of this guide.

Since the advent of NS13 has put restrictions on food, booze and spleen items, accounts everywhere across the land have been set back in the early levels by the sudden loss of massive gains due to pates, whiskeys and airs. Well now, to help the early levels, flower items will do quite well. Probably only for newer ascenders, though.

Other than consumption restrictions, PvP, as it stands, is all about being a diamond and devotion, really. It's all about how many flowers you can pick, what gear you have and the optimization of your minis, since there are in fact several choices to make for minis (white Canadians or vary up my booze?).

III. ANALYSIS OF MINIGAMES Return to Top

IV. APPLICATIONS OF PvP Return to Top

There are many applications of PvP to your character.

Flowers
Flowers can help in a speed run through consumption of them. You have a shot of flower schnapps for the booze oriented and flower pie for the hungry. They are 1 drunkenness/fullness each, and both give 3 turns of Flower Power, which gives +20% to stats. Invaluable to crucial times requiring such stat boosts. The booze itself may be consumed by the Spirit Hobo for quite a bit of MP.

Rank/Hearty Heart
Fame and Fun, of course! The leaderboards, while not hard to get onto compared to the speed ascension boards, are interesting. Pair that with /pvp chatting and you get fun! The community you bond with due to rank, skill and /pvp is quite nice. Also, you get to prove to others that you can formally OWN them. Screw beating them by 1 turn. Owning their faces is so much cooler. Wink

Dignity
Dignity hits are one of the best ways to actually level up when you are a much higher level, as the points given off from dignity hits scale with the attacker's (currently believed) level. PvP doesn't take adventures either, so that's a nice side dish, if you are competitive enough.

Item Looting
Honestly, the only item that is really worth looting is toast. And that's only on toastbots, usually. Sometimes you get lucky and get semi-rares or rares (one attacker actually stole a hemp backpack from a guy who was holding it for his friend, but it did get returned), but otherwise, there isn't much use for item looting.

Meat Looting
To be written.

V. Strategies for PvP Return to Top

VI. Items for PvP Fights Return to Top

There are several items and things that give fights at rollover.

I'm proud to say that Hardcore Nation does maximize its PvP fights with these fixtures in the Clan Rumpus Room.

MagiNinjA · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:47 am Post subject:

Please do post suggestions, criticisms and what-have-yous.

EDIT: Not done yet, of course.

feng shweez · Hard as Pat Buchanan Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 350

What do you mean by optimal ascension line? Do you mean which skill should they get in which order? Or what you should do once you have all the skills (as in back-to-back-to-back muscle casualcore ascensions)?

Include it other PvP and/or Supporting PvP skills skills:
* Reptilian Fortitude
* Rage of the Reindeer
* Stevedave's Shanty
* The 3 +10 AT songs.
* Impetuous Sauciness can be convenient as well.

A useful tool is Holatuwol's flower-picking greasemonkey script. I posted a link into that recent thread about PvP.

Might be worth noting Mojo Filters in the section about getting more phights. As a oxy you need 1, as a NP/Booze/Teet you need all three to be able to consume another red minotaur.

In terms of some of the other things (like analysis of PvP) to some extent you're just going to be rehashing Strange's guide. Is that really necessary?

Finally: worth noting, the doppelshifter is no longer a must have. The exotic parrot now does the trick.
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MagiNinjA · Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:12 am Post subject:

Added castable skills, as far as I know. Except hearts and snowcones. I'll add those there in that section there.

Reagent potions, toad horn stuff and buffs given by items will be placed in Item Buffs for PvP.

Thanks a bunch, feng!

Mad Hamish · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:18 pm Post subject:

MagiNinjA · Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:53 am Post subject:

j12601 · Hard to the Core Joined: 23 Oct 2006 Posts: 52

snarles2 · HCO Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 1741

Most of us aren't overflowing with clovers. Razz

And I don't think MANA implied that the best strategy for powerleveling was to boost PvP fights. Looks like he said "dignity hits are useful" and then, "here's how to boost pvp fights", and not "dignity hits with boosted pvp fights are useful". Anyhow your natural 25 pvp fights from clan are indeed useful -- and a Pike Pike is probably better than a sword of annoying chat effects too.

j12601 · Hard to the Core Joined: 23 Oct 2006 Posts: 52

Right, and for most casual HC players, being in a +fitez clan is better than being in a +turns clan since you'll rarely benefit from +turns, but +fitez may get you something tangible. But the stats from dignity hits just... aren't all that great, and in the places one would really want the stats, the stat gains are not going to be as good as clovering (which is not as expensive as folks seem to think unless one is clovering for a 30 trophy), and possibly not even as good as using the additional turns and boosting non combats in the bedroom, or other manor places.

For a casual player who is not going to be concerned with flower count, spending a day outside HC/ronin restrictions would likely be better spent in a +turns clan, and with as much +turns gear as one can muster, then using the basic 10 fights for dignity, and using the extra 20+ turns getting stats.

MagiNinjA · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:04 am Post subject:

This is still focused on PvP being a higher priority. Razz

Shameless bump because guide got a section and a half written.

Criticisms? I'm started to feel like I'm just looking at the wiki and taking them here. Anyone can do that.

I need to write something to motivate people to PvP.

Ideas?

PavoNariz · Soft Like a Bunny Joined: 01 Aug 2007 Posts: 2

I was wondering about the optimal ascension line section.

Do casual ascensions give the normal ascension tattoos?

Cristiona · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:24 am Post subject:

No idea, but I would guess "no".

MagiNinjA · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:19 am Post subject:

Cristiona speaks the TRUTH!

And man, I'll have to update this thing after some more work...hmmm...

theripperfex · Hard as a math test Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 125

Creelie · Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject:

Flower petal pies are 3 fullness, not 1. Schnapps are 1 drunkenness though.

Rapped Scallion · HCO Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 237 Location: Montreal

If you want to keep your rank low (which is useful for flower picking against much lower level opponents), during rollover I'd wear nothing except your +adventure equipment and a 1 lb. familiar.

Also if you're Moxie sign and your rank is way too high then there's a gum you can use to beat yourself up after getting hung over before rollover, and the candy skulls at the Gno-mart give the poisoned effect.

hellsfruition · moooooooooooooooo Joined: 03 Jul 2006 Posts: 887