The Hardcore OxygeNation

pastamonstr · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:54 pm Post subject:

Update: Just hit basement level 300 and I'm almost lvl 23. Moxie tests are the most difficult so far. I do have Tao so Gauntlet tests aren't too bad.

I agree that level 30 trophies would be nice but I've been stuck on this same run for 1.5 months now because of crazy work schedule. I'd like to get the telescope and move onto the next ascension as quickly as possible now.

Edit: And before anyone asks why I'm not level 78 within 1.5 months it's because I couldn't log in every day and I spent a lot of time catching up on trophies and tattoos. So there.

ludomonster · Harder than Hardcore Joined: 08 Apr 2008 Posts: 99

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Creelie · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 9:23 pm Post subject:

Question:

What about funkslinging divine favors? With elemental phials where needed? As far as I can tell it would do a lot more damage than Snapper, and one is equivalent to an uncapped spell even with % spell damage increasers, and you can use two in a single turn.

JediJules · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject:

Shao Mi · Shao Mi the Lucre! Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 4085

bengen · Harder than Hardcore Joined: 08 Jul 2006 Posts: 63

will spectral snapper work just as well as an uncapped spell.

From reading I'm guessing it does, but Im trying to make sure there arent niche uses for either.

Shao Mi · Shao Mi the Lucre! Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 4085

Cristiona · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 11:06 pm Post subject:

Until divine combat items broke the basement to pieces, I'd get a lot of use out of Snapper for the beer golems.

Waiting4Oct · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:08 pm Post subject:

Snapper doesn't get multiplied by navel rings or cheffstaves.
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Shao Mi · Shao Mi the Lucre! Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 4085

Yes, it does damage propotional to buffed muscle.

Added benefit is that you're probably already keeping muscle buffed to the roof anyway. And it's cheaper than those other spells in terms of MP, so who cares if it takes a couple extra shots for the kill. I'd entangle-snapper-snapper-snapper. Works on everyone as well (spell immune, physical immune, etc.)

Waiting4Oct · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject:

Shao Mi · Shao Mi the Lucre! Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 4085

Yeah, but with a navel ring you'll never get hit anyway Smile

QuantumNightmare · Hard as a math test Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 195

What about talon slash? Snapper deals 20% of your muscle in damage, for 20 MP. Talon slash deals 75% of your muscle in damage for 5 MP. And you can make meat at the same time, turning gongs into feathers.

tekDragon · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:29 pm Post subject:

Wouldnt bird form make dealing with the psysical resistant critters nearly impossible, or are those elemental bridform abilities a viable alternative also?

I cant remember at all if birdform works with phials or not.
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Jesus_Fish · HCO Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 1128

Elemental forms do work on Talon Slash. Fairly sure that elemental forms work on everything.
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Shao Mi · Shao Mi the Lucre! Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 4085

You can do regular attacks in birdform, with regular modifiers. Phials should work fine for that attack, if you were desperate.

scottsaxman · Hard as a math test Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 143

Phials work well while in bird form, though I've never tried it in the basement. I combined roc feather gathering with phials while in hobopolis town square to get scare hobo bits, and it worked great.

Lespectre · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject:

I don't really care about trophies, so I'm planning on doing my runs all as a sauceror. I have a few questions for those with the chops -

Does Form of the Bird make Spectral Snapper unnecessary, or is Snapper still worth having? Since I'll be a sauceror, I'll trivially also have saucegeyser.

By the time I dive, I'll have full brimstone/plexi/SS. When you throw in hobopolis gear and new stuff like prismatic wads, does that mean that I'll be fine without expensive Mr. Store Gear and Baios, without having to get to a really high level?

Because there are three skills that are nice to have for the basement that come from the moxie sign and there aren't really six sauceror skills I want, I was planning on doing my first three basement runs under a moxie sign. Will not having access to the Myst gym impair my leveling too badly?

By the time I start basementing, I'll have most of the relevant skills, if that's a factor. I'm looking to minimize cost and days spent. (I'm willing to pay more if it saves me time that I could use to farm that cash back.)

thrawn · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 11:11 pm Post subject:

My understanding is as follows:
1. If you have plenty of gongs for Form of... Bird!, Snapper is only trivially useful, if not situationally useless. Heck, I've gotten through easily with just ~200 divine favors (summoned using Nuns + Plexihelm MP while supergymming), a V mask, and funkslinging, and just used the gongs for Form of... Cockroach!
2. Brimstone + Plexi should be enough to get you through the basement if you start a few fullstat points into Level 28, preferably on a stat day. You'll still have to burn a couple hundred dense on potions, though, especially if you don't make them yourself. I myself use my V mask, hobopolis gear, and Navel Ring to help cover my lack of Brimstone. It gets much easier, in my opinion, if you bank 200 adventures right before a mainstat day and start your dive then, after you've finished the bulk of your leveling, since you'll get ~2k mainstat roughly every 15 floors (and even more as the ML ramps up).
3. I spent over a week extra in the "levelling" phase the time I did a Muscle sign on a Myst dive -- partly because I didn't use clovers and I spent more time in Hobopolis. Your mileage may vary, especially if you have a surplus (or shortage) of gongs, absinthe, and clovers for levelling purposes.
The wiki has a "moderately decent" guide to basementing as well, and shows when to start running specific buffs for "maximum cheapness" (assuming no Mr. Store gear or ultra-rares and 750 starting mainstat, your mileage may vary). It hasn't been updated to take advantage of some of the newer buffs and the change to elemental resistances, so caveat emptor.
Also, note that prismatic wads use 3 spleen for only 10 adventures of a +30% buff to all stats. You can get the same benefit and then some by picking any two or three assorted "normal" wads. (Naturally, I'm assuming your HP and other sources of elemental resistance are high enough that the extra level of resistance from using the prismatic instead of elemental wads isn't going to make a make-it-or-break-it difference.)
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Cristiona · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 11:41 pm Post subject:

No myst gym will probably hurt, since it's a handy way to quickly burn turns while marching towards your goal.

My softie already had every Sauceror skill after 3 dives, so I just did the runs as casual to speed up the nonsense before diving.

A parrot plus the passive myst elemental bonus makes the stat tests a non-issue. Divine favors make the monsters a non-issue (except for the physical immune one, but a geyser solves that). The hardest part will probably be the gauntlet, but Tao and equipment solves that.

Honoraemulo · Hard as a math test Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 137

I was thinking of doing a couple, or at least one, basement dive to get a telescope. I have nearly all skills available, both librams, pixie and lama. I have full stainless and plexi outfits (couple of them, actually) but no brimstone. I have no Mr Store items at all, I have concentrated on ascending HC all my KoL life and never thought I'd need them.

I read that starting at 23-24 will get you to 500 if you plan on running a few potions. Is this true? I hear a lot of people are combining these with the level 30 trophies, but I have no interest in them. At what level can I expect to finish the basement given that I use potions and am prepared to moderately spend meat for the dive? Starting at 23 and then paying 100k will do? 200k? Just a rough estimate is enough, thank you.

What do you do to get to level 23? I never tried hobopolis, but that might be an idea to burn a few turns and have some fun while reaching level X. What would I need for hobopolis?
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Shao Mi · Shao Mi the Lucre! Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 4085

You'll spend more than that. I don't remember the actual numbers, but 100k is way low. Just the festering powders could cost you 100k.

It's a lot cheaper if you have access to the good gear (navel ring, baios, etc).

My advice (repeated in various threads here) is to spread it out over a week or two, using wads for cheap stat boosting. That also lets you get more free MP out of the nuns, etc.

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Honoraemulo · Hard as a math test Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Posts: 137

Well, I'll spread it over a few days, want to do some lucre anyway. Will see how that goes! Smile

Need to find the willpower to not ascend...
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Oddity · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject:

So then, would the new IotM + Hodgman's whackin' stick = even easier stat, gauntlet, and powder tests? Ele would want parrot probably and a sombrero for combats is obvious too. Good idea, possibly? (provided you have a second or third stick)