Another bloggy playthrough diary :)

[Lujo]

[Tinker]

[Lujo]

^ Health potions wouldn't have helped, there's a fairly limited ammount of things you could do. She has very little health on regular difficulty, so people rarely count her among tougher bossess to deal with, but on VT she can be a real PITA, especially for a warmonger who's not going Taurog or TT. 100% Deathgatze means you need either Dodge, DP or Overheal to even hit her. My damage was high enough for killing her in 3 hits, but I only had one dodge + reflex, there seemed to be no way to get that third hit in. Even knockback would've been good, but farming Binlor Warmonger on Ick looked like a total chore and I desecrated him before I even revealed her (I'm actually good with Warmonger Binlor and also Warmonger Gorgon, due to knockback being, you know, a bit exploity and all that, but on Ick... Ick! - In fact, that's the one thing you can't easily do on Ick, you can't cheeze knockback as effortlessly as anywhere else. Still, ~~Bear Mace~~ would've probably won it for me no probs, which only goes to show how ridiculous that thing is.)

#smacklefunky - I used it for (almost) all my dough with the dagger, it's like a cheatcode XD Ought to be pretty hilarious with TT. Fill the room up with lvl1 dudes, pop a glyph (if goblin), kill them all, fill the room up with lvl2, pop a glyph... It's like a popcorn vending machine. Or just fill the room, kill one with the dagger, level up, grab XP from rest, fill the room again, get money from TT, have all your topside popcorn untouched... Extra silly with Gloves of Midas, ofc. Good thing you can't prep subdungeons ^^ Also, SERIOUS contender for 11 badge run, even with no gods, just need a clas which can exploit it well.

Also, PQI decided to send me to Ick Again, and while I did fail and fail at the last trickhot, I've actually always been a bit of a dab hand at Ick Swamp even before it's numerous nerfs (due to folks complaining about it - I only complained when vampires did magic damage as it made it sorta impossible for Monks to get through it), so I got some more payback:

PQI - Orc Fighter! - Specialist! - Ick Swamp! - Vicious Token!



GG, no-bead Enlightment + bossfight purchase Crystal Ball, did Jormungandr in with dodge/reflex/fireballs/getindare, then whoopaz into sticky stick beatdown against Itsssama while fireballing/getindareing other stuff to get my resists up. Didn't even fully explore it or milk it for value, Ick Swamp is a very easy dungeon unless you're a warmonger. Also, Sticky Stick so obviously there for Itsssama ^^ just remember to pick it up when you're cleaning out all the corrosive stuff topside and then drink your ~~Burn Salve!~~.





Not sure if I should be prepping Balanced Dagger. I forgot how cheezy that thing is.

I'm also overdoing GG, but he's such a brainless piety farm that it's way too easy to fall into auto-prep routine with him on just about anything. Gloriously stupid with the Dagger and also plenty daft with Goblins of all kinds (because dooooh, absolve popcorn, level with glyphs, get piety for getting piety, turn Enlightment into ghetto chaos avatar since your inventory has actual beads in it and you're swimming in XP so it dings you.)

[Tinker]

[Lujo]

Oooooh.

Darnit. Woulda been an epic win screen and a bousterous textwally hard to read report with lots of exclamation points if I'd not misremember that and gave up on a won run.... I had plenty of ways to heal myself to full, but I seem to have always played her as if she had 101% lifesteal (d'oh!)

Thank you! Thank you so much!

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Assassin Challenges were fairly easy. I don't think I've ever attempted them except in the usual old Goblin Assassin form, where they all play out the same. The end fight in Gold is interesting. I decided to check the wiki out on it just to see what you guys came up with, and liked the "poison him like mad" approach, which I combined with slapping him into a million walls (pissorff). Went drac for my god, because I found both altars really late and I found the Blood Curse kinda useful (also took one lever of everything else including blood shield, and my inventory was loaded with glyphs which is why I didn't go Taurog, I suppose that kinda useful if you're not going gobbo). Alternately killed berkserkers for piety and thralls for leveling, was nice all in all.

Not sure what I should put into my second veto slot, tbh. I got the spoon in one, and two's nowhere near enough for cheezing optimal shop setups.

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Decided to unlock the Trisword, because I wanna have more interesting stuff to do with offbeat Gnomes. And obv halflings, but they're all off the wall. The warlord storyline is hilarious, as always. Got parched on the first level, which is somewhat trickier than it sounds (it's a well thought out bronze, I have to say).

The Warlord Silver asks a difficult question and offers impossible looking answers, but it's doable in several ways I suppose. I failed trying to do it using Cydstep, so on the second try I simply took up TT, went full on Wonnafyt + Tikki's Edge spam and it was overall just more balckspace-efficient. Used Imawal on stuff, too, ended up with only one guy apart from the boss alive (prepped subdungeon and... not sure, but I suppose mana boosters would've bee ok?). I was a Gnome, but I suppose an Elf or a Goblin would've also been fine. Had a million TT potions by the end, didn't even touch Pactmaker, though I suppose it's there for the potion pact and possibly a consensus for a set of TT potions or something?

Didn't find it too difficult, or too confusing. Flavor simple but lolworthy

Now for Gold, I remember that one being (or at least looking) tough.

[Lujo]

Did Warlord Gold with a an EM Goblin. Was rather easy. Took 1 try to remember all the elements. Explored a bit, got a bunch of horns, Went EM, Imawalled Goats, Spiked stuff way above my level with Cydstep and Entanglement, Fireballed the Wratih and the Goo, Dinged through SMM, Killed Bleaty, did a bunch of Vine Form and Greenblood to fill the place up with plants. Dinged with the Gobbo for both refills and to get my damage up, worked out fine...

Eh, I supose it's a testament to just how messed up EM Warlords are...

RUN - Goblin Paladin of Extra Altar (Binlor) - Doubledoom - Felt Like it!

There's an unfinished quest in Doubledoom (and several in other places), so I decided to take an off-the-wall combination with no preps (apart from extra altar, on a Paladin of all things). Goblin Paladin, of Binlor it turned out. Not the best Binlor map, not the race you'd associate with Paladins (or Binlor), but I did have an interesting experience. I had Wonnafyt, so I popcorn Bowled, and I had Imawal so I used it on popcorn - and when I took the Binlor Bigass Damage TM boons, it destroyed all the statues leaving nice piles of gold ^^

Bin-bin punishes you for making empry walls, but he doesn't for stoning popcorn, was a nice and different run. Ended up at +1 Prestige, not something you hear often on a random Binlor run ^^

RUN - Gnome Priest of EM - Halls of Steel - Felt like it! (Also 2 quests)

Regular HoS are easy, but I wanted someplace like that to start fiddling with off-beat gnomes. I went for an Alch Scroll, Imawal (from EM) + ~~Bear Mace~~ (for getting money to help with the scroll), Blue seal for more money and subdungeon access (ended up doing something else w it). The idea was to use mana potions to spike stuff as I level and fuel the Scroll and ending up with 4-5 priest full heals healthmonster in the end, and if worked swimmingly. Also too a few Vine forms to make it even better.

Really funny thing was that the other boss was the Goo - not something you want to see on an Non GG priest (DD priests being mislabeled fighters), but I also found a B2P, and have been very efficient in leveling due to my Imawal and regular potion spiking (no res orb, even) that I had plenty of blackspace left over. Huge Healthpool + B2P murdered that Goo, and the Indomitable is a pushover anyway. Went unstoppable and actually had a ton of money, a mana keg in the shop, full EM piety and clearance fodder, plenty of blackspace and didn't reach the secret subdungeon.

A trisword in the shop would've made it even better, and it was a very, very strong priest hybrid and those are refreshing to see. I also enjoyed a gnome who wasn't trying to maximize his mana pool and still had a coherent role in the whole package.

[Lujo]

RUN - Elf Assassin of TT - Doubledoom - Vicious Token/Piercing Wand Unlock



It's all up there. Screwy RNG, a bunch of fireball + poison kills, unfavourable map for assassins first strike, too. Made mistakes (those boots, lol, the dungeon was Zombie Gold), and it's quite possible I overdid on the tribute as I only got money for CB after killing the first boss. The late B2P was nice as all the dingage let me have plenty of blackspace left over even as a poisoning assassin. Dodgestep did a lot of work because it's VERY resource unintensive if you have the piety for it - allthough I had to stop after getting to lvl 10 because nothing could trigger it (and not a single set of potions was a dodge on the first try). No secret subdungeon acess and no slow, no actual love for Michael Bay, but with Fabulous Treasure you can still totally do it.

Also, couldn't trigger either the Schadenfraude or 2 sets of potions due to swift hands, and couldn't survive a single hit from either of the bosses. #Michel Bay Problems

NOTE to self - Unlock the Stone Sigil and find the Crumbling Ward thingy too.

Also did this, wanted to go Rogue, but I needed an assassin run to unlock Naga City:

RUN - Elf Assassin of TT - Ick Swamp - Vicious Token/Naga City Unlock (No Fabulous Treasure!)



Anyway, turns out plants don't trigger prepped TT's punishment (I think we appealed to the devs to prevent that because he was allready prohibitive looking enough, only I forgot about it). RNG not on my side again, wen't dodging first thinking I'd get a piety bonanza out of it, ended up getting something like 12 piety all in all. Still, Wonnafyt spam, Blue seal on Glyph + Sensation Stone Conversion = tons of mana, Poisoning stuff, Mage Plate, had a ton of resources left over by the end which is telling me Rogue is probably rather possible. Didn't pick up (or see) a single Spoon, and spend most of the level with Apheelsick, Fireball, Troll Heart, potions and Gloves of Midas in my inventory.

TT Elf Legit, I have to say. Well, it's Ick Swamp, but TT's an in-universe patron God of exploiting cheezy bullshit anyway... I even had a proper Elfy mana pool and everything, and I'm enjoying non-gobbo Assassins (and Assassins being everyone's brainless VT clearer I've been avoiding them like the plague on the last playthrough , Drac Dwarf and Michael Bay variants are hip enough to be delightful to play).

NOTE: Ick randomly spawning prepped gods in the ass end of nowhere really annoying. I'd dig it if it was half a map away, but behind high level monsters in the opposite corner is just whaaaa....

[Lujo]

See, this is why knockback is silly in general:

Run - Orc Bloodmage - Eastern Tundra - Flaming / VT



The end screen doesn't really tell it. Thing is I only took the glyph from Binlor, swapped into an Imawalles EM, only took a single entanglement from her, and could've killed this guy at VT difficulty at about lvl 1/2/3 (for dings). In fact, I could've killed 2 VT bossess if there were 2 VT bossess, at lvl1, and I've payed attention to what I was doing more on Hobbler's Runs when I try to avoid getting badges. Because if I went and really tried, I could've cheezed Vineform at lvl 1 a bit to get more out of my B2P, and I also had a load of resources left over, not to mention that I took neither a plantation or a clearance, and had TT sitting on the board off of a potential 100 piety EM into TT swap and then EM desecration into 3 sets of Dodgestep + one leftover Reflex with a rather heavy hitting Orc. Also a second Bear Mace in the subdungeon (and I haven't even picked the other stuff up), which could've easily ammounted to a lvl1 bosskil on it's own what with the TT on board and being a Orc.

NOTHING spikes like a Pissorff Orc Bloodmage, nothing. Not even the Halfling. Not with so little effort, not at such a low level, not with only a bit of the map explored and with the whole lvl1 bosskill shebang sitting there untouched (on top of the whole "I win Warlord Gold, not the Warlord" EM basically used as a fancy mass slow and Binlor used as "Magnet: Pissorff").

EDIT: The end screen is also missleading in that it looks like I killed the guy at lvl 6, but nothing had been happening from level 2 or 3 apart from me pissorffing the boss into a meatman (if it was two bossess they both would've died and Blah Blah is actually fatter than the average VT boss).

[Lujo]

RUN - Orc Bloodmage - Northern Desert - Flaming/Bet on Boss/VT



Nothing. Walked up to them, got to Lvl 2, pushed them next to each other (pissorffed one of them across the map because the other spawned in a corner), didn't even use Whoopaz, didn't use Burndayraz and Pissorfed the tower of Goo through it's Physical Resistance all the way (allthough I did get pretty high level off off mid fight dings and the Warlock kill, but none of it was complicated in the slightest). Had resources left over. Easy VT run, but still, a more difficult one wouldn't have been significantly more difficult, two bossess with more HP but no Physical resists would've probably been significantly easier. And I didn't have anything special going for me, either and I wasted a lot of exploration on finding them.

[Lujo]

PQI - Elf Priest - Cursed Oasis - Faithless



Eh, this time I got lucky. That's an Alchemy seal not the +8 health scroll. I got lucky because I scored both B2P and Pissorff. Got the money subdungeon which I used on CP fodder, and I got an extra Schadenfraude (24 mana), which is also lucky I suppose. Otherwise same as any Pissorff run, except I had priest health refills. Except I wasn't an Orc, Bloodmage or able to use gods. I did prep the Balanced Dagger, so that also kinda makes it meaningless in any bragging sense, but at least I played a kinda Elfy elf with Schadenfraude and everything.

B2P Priest is also plenty good, and doesn't really requite any optimization. You find B2P on a priest early enough, you can probably kill any boss just with that and dings (or if you're using Pissorf any 2 bossess) at regular difficulty.

Nice thing about brainless Pissorff VT farming is that if the level involves Animated Armos, and you're Pissorffing the boss into one of them, you can start pissorffing him into the boss and level up easily once you get into damage protections.