Blowing my own wand!

Why the heck did I blow my wand again?

Gameplay was pretty fine, really. Finished all the quests and closed in on level 11. But then I had to go and blow my wand.

I was wondering if a cornuthaum was zappable. Should've checked the wiki, but instead BOOM. It is, by the way, zappable. I have a ring of aggravate monster.

Why, you ask, did I do this: mainly because of the discovery of a new, mysterious item. The Yendorian Platinum Credit Card.

At least, contrary to last time, I've got all keys and have a furry suit ready (which I used my first zap on).

The chance of being cowed is 50%, but heck, I'll manage to shore it if that happens. Sucks though, but this was a screwed up run, which suddenly turned for the better.

Level 10

I made level 10, and a shitload of meat.

The Peak is really fun with Nimble Fingers, Panhandling, Pickpocketigng AND a Cheshire Bat. The wallet I accidentally got this run is fun as well, and a yeti-fur day at the Bounty Hunter Hunter makes the amusement complete.

I spent quite a lot of it at the Hall of Legends. This helped me to get to level 10, also, I bought a football helmet and got all the non-permed skills.

Sneaky sneaky pete

I wanted to participate in St. Sneaky Pete's day, so I dropped my path on day 5. This really *is* a lousy run.

Before that, I did finish the latest quest of Doc Galaktik, and that reward is pretty good for non-myst classes. 12 meat per MP restoration cost, and best of all, that's single-click restoration. I also got the wand.

So, today, I spend some adventures getting ! potions, and eventually went into the Sneaky Pete Fest with 38 drunkeness and a willingness to see what's out there. I got two portable corkscrews, but not "the" special adventure, which is a bit of a shame, but I've got hopes it's nothing all that permanent.

I did make level 9, yet doubt I will ascend on or before Sunday (today's friday), so this character will go into my vacation unascended :-(

Lessons Learned

Day 3 of Operation Fuckup.

I think I did learn a valuable lesson: The chef-in-the-box is really, really, really not worth it. The adventures spent at the outskirts of Cobb's Knob, Fernswarthy's tower and "Fun" House really are useless and better spent elsewhere.

I'm also thinking that a Mysticality zodiac is perhaps not the best sign for me. The +2 stats per fight at the later stages are cool, but easy extra adventures from a muscle sign (easy car, easy meat maid, easy mushrooms as a myst class, with the minor benefit of cheap gear and meagre benefit of smithing/combining) seems to be more interesting. Likewise the moxie signs give no-turn booze, although, especially once I get the cocktailcrafting this seems a relatively minor benefit.

I don't need the MCD for the Baron, nor for the Goblin King. (their standard benefits are great). The pants from the Boss Bat are nice, but not indispensable, and the same goes for the bonerdagon necklace.

For my next Muscle class run, I think I'll be going Mongoose.

Let me eat cake!

I tried to salvage a little from the damage I did to my run yesterday, but I only minorly added to it, and out of poverty, had to eat mugcake. It's got a lot to do that I'm not doing anything on planning, but I'm keeping it that way. It'll be fun to see where I end up.

A mistake I made was fighting with the Baron, while I had left the MCD on 2, so I (again) didn't get the monocle, but the money clip. I'm going to be annoyed by that, for sure. It also means I will do the Player and Familiar quest, but I probably would do that for the MP-restoring cola alone.

Tomorrow I'll start having proper food. I'm in doubt as to whether or not to drop Teetotal after gaining the stomach. The thing is, I'll be going on holiday for 2 weeks next monday, and I probably won't play for all that time. I have no clue in what state that'll leave my character (I was planning to leave it slightly advanced into HCO, so that, like last time I was in Prague, I might gym some turns in an internet cafe, and get a run easily finished when I got back).

We'll see. Keypunch out.

Jarlsberg love

I did get the key. But it was more of a struggle than I had bargained for.

First, I mis-starcharted, then the Topiary Golems stole my hedge maze puzzle nearly every turn (turned out I had forgotten to de-equip the makeshift scuba gear, which meant -10 melee damage, so gaining them back was pretty tough, as well).

up the tower 4/6 of the items, I didn't have, one of them being the NG.

With that all settled, I ascended. HC Seal Clubber, Teetotal. One of my first goals was to get a chef's hat. Took me nearly bloody all my turns. I was mostly annoyed, so I didn't care all that much. Still... a bad start for a new run.

No Jarlsberg Key

So...no Jarlsberg key, for the rest of the day, I merely fiddled around.

Drop rates were awful, even with a Crimbo Elfling and a miner's helmet. I simply couldn't get the knob goblin elite guards to drop their pants.

I'm also short one star chart.

And a muscle point.

Stats were the last thing on my mind, though. Ascending will be a formality, as soon as I get that key :-/

In the meantime I can prepare to get items for the tower.
Beer batter: baseball: check.
Big Meat Golem: meat vortex: check
Bowling cricket: sonar-in-a-biscuit: fail
Electron Submarine: photoprotoneutron torpedo: check
Enraged Cow: barbed-wire fence: fail
Fickle Finger of F8: razor-sharp can lid: fail
Flaming Samurai: frigid ninja stars: fail
Giant Desktop Globe: NG: fail
Ice Cube: can of hairspray: check
Pretty Fly: spider web: fail
Tyrannosaurus Tex: chaos buttefly: check
Vicious Easel: disease: fail

First I'll get the "easy" ones, then get that extra lowercase N and lastly, I might even start shoring for that piece of fence. I've also considered I could take the "opportunity" to work on the Hippy trophy.

Let's just hope for the DD to be friendly to me...

eXtreme.....ly stupid

Yesterday, I defied the elements to be able to make it a good run. And I was pretty good at it. I got the wand, zapped a jarlsberg earring into a key, tied up all the other loose ends, etc.

It was really rough to work on my laptop, clinging to the building from which I could steal wireless network, while wind was blowing all around me.

That was eXtreme!

Today, everything went pretty dandy as well. The only snag I ran into was that it took a long time for a giant needle to drop. But the second raver giant after equipping my Crimbo Elf finally participated.

With that all settled, it looked as if I could easily ascend tomorrow. And then I did the stupidity. First I zapped one of the keys, because I had jarlsberg and sneaky pete, and would love to have Boris to get more muscle.

And then, I thought "I surely can get another zap". Even though I have armorcrafting (and actually don't even need that whole furry suit to defeat the NS), I zapped a wolf mask. BOOOM!

This means that
1) If I run into a cow, I'll have to shore for a fence.
2) I'll need a daily dungeon key. For which I could still just try today, after using one adventure to mix a shot of orange schnapps and getting 2 adventures back.
And then I clicked on the "Dungeon of Doom". But the calendar had told me that there were two skeleton key doors...and of course my key broke at the first one.
SCHEISSE.

Although I still have chances if a) I get the key I want tomorrow, b) I don't meet the cow (or get a barbed-wire fast if I do), I've made it difficult for myself and so reliant on dumb luck now. There goes my shoe-in 6-day run.

Signed,
Keypunch

Planning for Post-Peak

First, I'll spend 5 turns at the peak. Then I'll be run out of buffs. Then I'll check for clovers. If it's a clover day, I'll get 1 clover for the tower, and after that I clover a few grab-bags.

I'll rebuff with elemental, empathy and linguini and do the DD, after that I farm for food at the Knob Kitchen, if it wasn't a clover day.

Food plan: Two spaghetti-with-skullheads, delicious spicy noodles.

Then an enchanted bean for the road. Why have I stopped farming this at the lower levels, and in my last few runs always had to go back?

With that settled, I'll tackle my booze problem at Menagerie Level 3.
I need 7 bottles of booze, preferably one of which is bottle of rum, so I can make eggnogg.
First 6 drinks + bloody beer.

Then, I depart from the norm and get the zapping wand. My rationale is that if I get a non-key item on day 4 and plan to ascend on day 5, I'll have enough zaps to not require going to the DD again, and still be able to zap a white picket fence, if it comes to that.

After that it's all standard as she goes. Yeti-slaying at the Peak. Into the Castle, with hopefully a quick metallic A. Turning the wheel over mysticality to gather star stuff and back over mysticality to muscle in order to gain fast levels.

From there on it's the standard crap of the Sorceress Tower. We'll survive, and probably not reach that tomorrow (and probably neither the day after, but we can have our hopes).

Day 3: Peaking

This second muscle day, I tried to get as much stats as possible. Farming for knob sausages took a lot of turns though. I finished part of the tr4pz0r and quickly also wrapped up the Baron's quest.

From the pirates, I got myself a funky Pirate Shirt and also 3 spices. One of them was used for spiced rum, the other I can use for cooking tomorrow (delicious spicy noodles).

My drinking was muched improved by the barrel of barrels, but tomorrow I think I'd rather farm the Menagerie level 3. Now that I'm able to drink again, I really notice how much I'm missing out on not being able to cocktailcraft advanced drinks, and that skill has risen on my desired skill. I also think that Rage of the Reindeer is the most prominent skill on my desired list of Seal Clubber skills, rather than Northern Exposure or Claws of the Otter.

The day was finished on the Peak, and I got halfway to level 10, which is pretty good, I guess, although I had secretly been hoping for more. I also didn't get a much-needed DD key.

The PvP changes are interesting. I'm pretty good at the variety of foods and boozes, I thought, which seems to be a new mini-game. 106 different foods, and 77 different boozes. Still that's an easy area to significantly improve in. The best moment to improve here is after a run, and at the end of this run, I'll try to make the time (and liver and stomach) to add some variety. (They say it's the spice of life).

This run seems to be looking pretty good, after all, if I make level 10 tomorrow (likely) and level 11 day after that, I could do a 5-day run! Or a 6-day run. Reality is always a bit more stubborn, but let's try to make it happen with a planning post.

Day 2: And on and on!

So, I did tie up a lot of those ends.

The List:
Pixels - Done!
Meatcar - Done!
Steel Liver - Done!
DD Key - Jarlsberg, need 2 more.
Rock 'n Roll Legend - still no clover day
Chef-in-the-Box - passing on this one, this run
Meat maid - passing on this one, this run

The Rock 'n Roll Legend is really an annoyance. I was pondering the other day and thinking that spells like Polka and Antiphon might actually be very useful, but this dual non-clover day reminds me of their mana-intensivity. The lack of clovers also means: no spices. So, I ate two Spaghetti with Skullheads and a delicious noodles (instead of delicious spicy noodles).

I was pleasantly surprised by the Guild Quest. I casually got the hippy outfit (twice over), which helped me to craft cocktails. Not being able to mix something more impressive than a margarita is a downer. Perhaps the Barrel of Barrels isn't such a bad place, instead of farming. Or I need Advanced Cocktailcrafting and Superhuman Cocktailcrafting permanent'd. I could also use the herbs for aforementioned delicious noodles. The reward item is very neat.

For tomorrow I've got the following things to do:
- Get DD key.
- Finish tr4pz0r quest
- Get zapping wand, perhaps. (perhaps later)
- Reach level 9

My food options would seem to be again 2 Spaghetti with Skullheads and delicious (or delicious and spicy) noodles.
Boozewise, I can mix whatever I get from goats and pirates and shore it up with barrel of barrels spoils.

[update]
*giggle* I drunkely smithed a chrome weapon. Hurray!

Radio Silence

I've been quiet for a few days, but I have been adventuring. I finished the run, took Gnefarious Pickpocketign and am currently engaged in a no-path Seal Clubber run.

I hadn't looked at the moon phases, or I might have done a few things different. As it is, I've just adventure-goofed around and reached level 6, with a few of the basics taken care of, but also a host of loose ends.

Loose ends:
Pixels (Still need the digital key)
Rock 'n Roll Legend (not a clover day)
Meatcar (I need sweet rims)
DD Key (currently 0)
Steel Liver (No parts yet)
Chef-in-the-Box (don't have any of the parts, except for a spring and an oven)
Meat maid (don't have any of the parts, except for cog and sprocket assembly and a meat stack)

I didn't get the monocle, but the walllet this time round. I'm still not sure why. I'll be sure to finish the "Keypunch and Grin Reaper" quest as well, this time, for the 7% item drop bonus.

Bloody bloody mary

I screwed up today. I started off badly and kept making dumb mistakes. To top it all off, I overdrank.

At least I've managed to open up the Island and obtain the zapping wand. So, tomorrow, I can make my own cocktails.

Still level 8, though :-/

Skills wanted, runs planned?

There are a lot of skills I want, but none that are *vital*. Just useful, some more useful than others.

Still, to have some sense of planning:

Skills:
SC, Northern Exposure (13000)
SC, Claws of the Otter (2000)
TT, Wisdom of the Elder Tortoises (11000)
DB, Overdeveloped Sense of Self-preservation (2000)
DB, Advanced Cocktail Crafting (5000)
"TT, Hoxy, Skin of the Leatherback (2000)"
AT, Polka of Plenty (5000) <- Go for Golden Meat Stack?
S, Diminished Gag Reflex (13000)
P, Tolerance of the Kitchen (13000)
P, Canneloni Cocoon (12000)
S, Impetuous Sauciness (12000)

If I want to go for Golden Meat Stack, my best plan is to come off a TT Oxy, because of the Plexiglass Pith Helmet.

This plan is utterly unrealistic, but would keep me off the street for a while.
In the SC runs, I could always insert a few extra to get
SC, Musk of the Moose (14000)
SC, Rage of the Reindeer (11000)
SC, Hide of the Walrus (7000)
SC, Hide of the Otter (1000)
Likewise for the Disco Bandit
DB, Superhuman Cocktail Crafting (15000)
DB, Smooth Movement (14000)
DB, Heart of Polyester (13000)
And for the Mysticality classes
S, Way of the Sauce (15000)
P, Transcedental Noodlecraft (15000)
P, Spirit of Ravioli (9000)

But these are second tier to the ones listed above

Keypunch and Grin Reaper go to White Citadel

Heeee! New questage! And full of references to a fantastic movie I saw and liked.

I also managed to tie up the loose end of getting the Knob Gob screwdriver and the tr4pz0r quest (used the 5k for Gnefarious Pickpocketing), plus a DD key.

The new quest took about 40-ish adventures. The benefit is the access to White Citadel, with the better-than-soda MP restorers. The lucky rabbit foot isn't half bad either. You can increase your droprate with 27% by merely using the right items, now (+15% monocle, +5% miner's helmet, +7% rabbit's foot).

The opportunity to get a few outfit items (orcs, hippies, eXtreme) in advance is also a neat feature.

I missed out on a Trophy yesterday! Bummer! Doubly so because I had considered the possibility of it being there, then didn't pursue it because I considered that Jick is not much of a "patriot" in the polluted sense of the word.

It's another "shirty" day at the Raffle House, "shirty" being the nickname that has been given to the Grimacite guayabera, which is a shirt that give monster level bonus, which is a *want* item for softcore speed ascenders. I've bought 100 tickets this time, participating in the silly meat sink.

Boozewise it was a downer day. The special was green beer. IPA seems nerfed? I drank White Lightning and IPA, topped with a shot of orange schnapps.

Plans for tomorrow:
- Get a zapping wand
- Fight Yeti
- Open up the Mysterious Island
- Farm some quality booze

I'm moving into end-game, mostly hampered by the low turn-rate of Boozetafarian. I've mostly made up my mind to keep Gnefarious Pickpocketing as skill. After all, it allows me more choice in Zodiac if I keep it now. My next ascension should focus on a skill I'd really want. I'll make a separate post for that.

Planning Post

Boozewise, I'll mainly simply have to see what the Brewery offers, or accept that IPA is my staple for the day.

I'm in the middle of farming pixels, and that has top priority. Another 6 or so white pixels to make Richard's star key. And while on that issue, I might just as well run the Dungeon.

After that I can decide to make a start with the Bonerdagon quest, but probably skip hurting the big guy. My main concern is getting meat, for which there is no easy source available, besides the Knob Goblin Treasury or Laboratory.

A purple snowcone would be very helpful in keeping MP restoration prices down, and I could use it to fight in the Menagerie. The main goal of tomorrow is to be as effective to reach level 8, so that I can go on the trapper quest and start raking in the meat.

If my muscle creeps up, I shouldn't forget to get a bokuto. I can also always use the bloody clown pants and the disembodied smile to increase damage.

Priority list:
Pixel hunting
Daily Dungeon
Gnefarious Pickpocketing (5000)
Tr4pz0r quest
Zapping Wand (6000)
Bonerdagon

p.s. And I just put on the stainless steel skullcap...I failed to notice I hadn't yet. The great thing about Tao is that it alone provides me with a defensive power of (90 * 2 + 60)= 240.. A rating that is tough to achieve with even the better items without Tao. Together with a troutpiece (110) that is 240 + 2 * 110 = 460 defensive rating...at early level 7.

p.s.2 Another question is what skill I keep at the end of this Ascension
Possible contenders (price in parenthesis):
Overdeveloped Sense of Self-Preservation (2000)
Superhuman Cocktail Crafting (15000)
Gnefarious Pickpocketing (5000)
Advanced Cocktail Crafting (5000)
Smooth Movement (14000)
Heart of Polyester (13000)
I've put them in some sort of *want* hierarchy, but there's also the cost (of both meat and time) to consider.

Uberpants

I did make it, and Tao of the Terrapin is now mine, odd that I don't have a post about it, but I was in a hurry to make it to the weekend.

I had a great day as a Boozetefarian Disco Bandit with 200 adventures on a moxie day. I was totally inefficient, though. For example, I accidentally wasted a clover and got Uberpants. Hilarious :-)

Also, I hadn't realized that the Brewery did serve the new super-human drinks. I managed to gulp only one parisian cathouse. It's easier, although not as easy as foodfarming, to get the right booze stuffs to make decent drinks, and I had focused on that.

On another note, I didn't get a smile-sharpening stone for my familiar until the last adventures.

What I need: a planning post.