Superhuman Feats

So, Zair told me a way faster trick to level for a moxie class...the Ballroom. Keep filling in dance cards and adventuring at the ballroom. The Rotting Matilda adventure appears on the fourth turn, and gives a major boost. The choice adventures gives a neat boost and the monster stats ain't bad (with some funny drops).

I made Level 15 very easily and spent the rest of my turns farming the Castle.

When I jumped into the next run, I was pleasantly surprised that by using the Still to convert soda water into Tonic, I had a major MP advantage. I used up all Still turns.

On a boozetafarian character, I've now reached level 5, ain't that sweet? I haven't gotten a maiden wig, so no meat maid, although I just might *go* for it. I did beat all the quests so far (including the Goblin King). A minor mistake, buying a tenderizing hammer, instead of jewelry pliers meant that I didn't have enough meat to buy the "Advanced Cocktailcrafting" skill. With the help of my last Tonic Water, I'd be able to take a head start of 5 garnishes.

Can't have everything, I guess. When I get home, I'll get to PvP. This run has all the inklings of becoming a personal record of sorts.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 5 Beat Snatcher, H
Turns Played (this run): 114
Days Played (this run): 1
Sign: The Marmot
Path: Boozetafarian (Hardcore)

[update]

So, when I got home, I logged in, started boasting in /pvp how I would kick their behinds and take their flowers...and:
"You're too drunk to pick a fight. Somehow."
Doh! There was much pointing and laughing. At me!

Yawning ... in bed

The bedroom is getting a bit stale. Especially since mafia won't work. But I'm getting quite far.

This run, also, could have been a record 6-dayer, although Feast of Boris helped with that. Once I get Superhuman Cocktailcrafting, I might try for a real record next run. On the other hand, I'm also thinking about going pathed (Boozetafarian), simply to cut down on the number of turns I've got to play.

Gallery Play

I'm liking the Gallery. It's a good place for leveling, the monsters are good for stats and meat, and the antique equipment is ideal for pulverizing (3 twinkly wads per item).

I did manage to defeat the Sorceress, after a very troublesome tower. Feast of Boris complicated matters in the sense that I tried to be in the spirit, and wanted to mix cranberry drinks. Sadly, neither rum nor vodka wished to drop.

The problem with cocktailcrafting is also that you are unable to scrounge up enough garnishes and it's a gamble whether they will mix. If you're stuck with reagent food, you always get enough to fill even a Stomach of Steel, and both the noodles as well as the reagents are combat drops. Ice cubes, coconuts and LPU only come from shore holidays. Getting Supercocktailcrafting will help with this problem, but it's still iffy, if you ask me.

The next few days, I'll focus on powerlevelling. I'll break the prism tomorrow, and get myself well-buffed and hopefully can borrow sticks and ice sickles. I'm forced to ponder which location is most benevolent, the Bedroom or the Castle.

I'm leaning towards the bedroom. The nightstands have a higher monster level, I think, and almost all non-combat adventures that don't have a main stat boost in them can be turned into a combat one. (all but one for muscle/moxie, _all_ for myst classes). What I mean with that is, instead of having adventures that give a "thin black candle" and a "warm subject gift certificate", the non-combat adventures in the bedroom are choice adventures, in which you can turn into a fight. The exception is the Ornate One-Night Stand, which will yield meat, magicalness, or Lord Spookyraven's spectacles. For moxie/muscle classes, the best pick is meat there.

A brand new wave

So, I'm back in the game again. Playing it cool, like a groovin' Disco Bandit.

My day 1 achievements were somewhat unfocused, but not altogether unsatisfying.
- Almost killed the boss bat
- Almost got the meat car
- Almost got a rock 'n roll legend
- Almost mixed an Advanced Drink on day 1

But, hey, that's a whole lot of almosts.

Now, then, let's focus.
My food and booze regimen has primary priority. For food, two reagent dishes and some other dish is the way to go. Especially since I've got a chef's hat, which means that I can make an 'in-the-box'. Either insanely spicy burritos or delicious spicy noodle dishes seem the way to go.
For booze, I'm thinking that, for now, the barrels of the best bet. Hopefully I can upgrade the drinks with my garnishes.

Going to White Citadel, getting a boat and having access to the hippy store also seem important things to do in these regards.

Standard stuff like killing the Boss Bat, the Goblin King and getting a Liver is obvious.

So, what's the plan, Dan?
a) Kill the boss bat, buy a cocktail shaker with the proceeds.
b) Acquire a Rock 'n Roll Legend.
c) Make a chef-in-the-box.
d) Farm for food and booze, cook 'em, mix 'em, eat 'em, drink 'em.
e) Finish the cart.
f) Goblin King.
g) Choice time: Either visit the Shore, visit the Friars or visit White Citadel.
Either choice is costly in meat and adventures.
My instincts say Friars, and gotta go with my instincts.

The thing is, this is not the ultimate speed run. I can afford to slack 1 or 2 days, due to incompetency.

SMASHY SMASHY!

Yay, by tussling with Nightstands, I got up to level 15. I immediately smashed my plexiglass helmet, a pair of white satin pants and, I will be punished for this, surely, some helmet turtles.

There's little sadder than
"You smash the helmet turtle"
followed by
"You gain a pile of useless powder".

Poor turtle. I'm sorry.

Eight new zones

The second day after their introduction, it's still buzzing. Which is good, because yesterday, my modem crapped out!

The up-the-stairs area is a good place to gather stats, and I've managed to unlock a lot of content (with and without spoilers). I've got a cool new tattoo, and am very close to getting the new bony familiar. *thrill*

I'm also in the early stages of level 14.

The content is, in all, very good and interesting to see how the new foodstuffs will fit into the game. I'm leaving that to the true spaders, however. The one thing that dissapoints me is the clover adventures. They seem too underpowered.

I'm sure there's a Trophy hidden there as well. I imagine for Perming all the "Spooky" skills. Six New Skills!

Tomorrow, I'll try to level up to 15 and ascend. Let the Mansion be the mansion, until I run across it in-game.

[update]

I've got a new familiar, and named him McCoy (you know, after "Bones" McCoy!)

TLAPD

Arrr!

Avast, ye mateys, while I....
No, let's not go there. I don't have enough vocabularrry for that.

Leveling...is boring. With the help of my clan mates, it goes faster (two ice sickles, two hockey sticks of angry furious rage). BUT STILL TOO SLOW! Really, does it have to take ages, like this? That promises tedious, tedious Ascensions for NS 13. And even worse for NS 15.

Just for kicks, let me calculate my ML.
Ice Sickle (*2): 15*2 = 30
Green Cupcake of Wrath = 10
Goth Kid Shirt = 5
Hockey Stick of Angry Furious Rage (*2): 30*2=60
Mystical Canadian Device: 11
Ur-Kel's Aria of Annoyance: 13*2=26
For a grand total of: 142 +ML.
Neat, eh?

I've got antiphon and a knob learning pill for the flat extra stats.

I've got my Hovering Sombrero (Shakira) out, shaking with her hips, at 13 pounds already, showing a wax smile. For her, I've got Plexiglass Helmet, Sympathy, Empathy, Leash, Pet Buffing and Green snowcone going. That's 30 pounds of bonus.

To get more wheel adventures, I've got a ring of conflict, Fresh Scent and Sonata of Sneakiness.

This setup, combined with good foods, took me from somewhere at level 11 to the end of level 13 in a day. If I used up my booze adventures, I might make it all the way to level 14. It's all a bit eXtreme, though.

I decided to call it a day, dress up like a pirate and shout Yarr! for the rest of the day.

The Invention of the Wheel

One of the first inventions, and oh so useful. In KoL too. It's currently stuck on Myst, though, so tomorrow, I'll have to turn it counter-clockwise. Level up to 11.

In retrospect, I understand why everybody said "Take Polka", from AT, it really chafed of turns of farming off my run, giving me all sorts of useful stuff, and I should've gotten it earlier.

The advantage of having all the (passive) meat+ and itemdrop+ skills pays off as well, even though I mainly got them to expedite getting the Golden Meat Stack Trophy.

For tomorrow this is the plan:
0) Dear Jick, let it be a clover day, because getting past the skeleton key guy is so much easier that way
1) Farm for scrumptious reagent food. (yes clovers, yes?)
1.5) Turn the wheel to Muscle.
2) Fight in the Castle, up to level 11
3) The Tower
4) Kill the Sorceress, break the prism
5) Drink TPS drinks (yay Bodyslam!)
6) With all the combat-avoid++ skills, I will use the Wheel to get to level 15, ASAP.

And for my next run?
Well, I've become somewhat obsessed with all the cool, high quality drinks, and a bit bored discovering that for best gains, I'm stuck to drinking straight from the bottle (farming fruit ain't worth it, except perhaps a fast hippy suit). Once I'm able to craft advanced cocktail, the White Citadel Quest might be worth it, though. (Hippy Suit, White Citadel Burger as filler, Cloaca Cola for MP restore and the reward as neat bonus), even though it's a turn-stealer.

So: I keep Pulverize and go straight for Disco Bandit (don't pass Turtle Tamer, don't collect a TT skill). I've considered following the traditional Class trail, and keeping "Chronic Indigestion" from the TT as some sort of "food-related" skill, but it just doesn't seem worth it. So, a pathless Disco Bandit it will be, with Super Human Cocktailcrafting as my goal, to be followed by another DB run, to keep the "mere" Advanced Cocktailcrafting skill.

Could it be a record?

My fastest Hardcore Ascension run is 7 days, as far as I can see. Today I'm on day 4 and very close to level 10.

Is this a record in the making. It's not unpossible that I ascend tomorrow, so what will it take? Well, there's a slight problem: I'm going for the Pulverize skill :-/

Would be funny if I still made it in 6 days, but unlikely. What I will do in any case, is try to hurry it up, but take it careful with stuff like zapping.
Sooo:
0) Check if it's a clover day. Get appropiate clovers.
1) Get a DD Key (or zap the DD item)
2) Farm the Kitchen for reagent food items (use a clover or two if necessary)
3) Adventure my effects off at either the Peak or the Airship
4) Cook foods, eat foods. (3 reagent pasta and bat haggis)
5) Barrel for drinks, drink drinks
6) Get to level 10, if I'm not there yet. Do the Airship, don't forget to get a Metallic A.
7) Turn the Giant Castle Wheel over moxie (visit the Council), get all the items, open the HitS
8) Farm the Hits, turn the wheel back to muscle (visit the Council before that).
9) Do the Tower Dance.
10) Level like a madman at the Castle.

Easy enough?
The thing is, suppose I want my 5-day or 6-day record, the skill I'd have to settle for taking if it's close is "Hide of the Walrus", and if it's not close, but I don't make it to level 15, It's "Musk of the Moose" or "Northern Exposure". Wanting specifically more combat adventures is pretty rare, and you need cold protection every run... We'll see how it goes.

As Foreseen

All went according to plan. Besides a few misclicks. No clovers though, and the booze sucked, tomorrow, I'll rather try the Barrels, see how that works out.

Just about to reach level 10. We'll see tomorrow. I might possibly even ascend. I'll make a planning post and in this will focus on food.

I've only recently learned that bat haggis is a good food for Hardcore. My count is now up to 7. And of course I recently got the White Citadel Trophy. And the Hippy Trophy.

Here's the top 10, without brownies and burgers
165 pr0n chow mein
152 bat wing chow mein
147 Knob sausage chow mein 147
108 spaghetti with Skullheads
90 Lucky Surprise Egg
59 mugcake
53 rat appendix chow mein
51 hot wing
48 spicy enchanted bean burrito
43 gnocchetti di Nietzsche

Interesting to see how long the chow meins manage to stay up there, although the reagent food is creeping up. Mugcake and hot wings are there as typical "fillers".

Here's the booze top 10, without TPS drinks.
373 Infinitesimal IPA
--- white Canadian
138 fine wine
106 ice-cold Willer
89 Imp Ale
66 a little sump'm sump'm
56 whiskey sour
53 green beer
49 bloody beer
48 shot of orange schnapps

I've obscured my Canadianity count for sentimental reasons. You can see how "fillers" are right there on the list (willer, bloody beer, shot of orange). With IPA an old staple (not drunk so much recently, as I've been picking non-moxie signs). The white canadians are there for PVP obviously, and whiskey sour is explained by the fact that whiskey drops at the goats, and this is the most mixed.
Maybe I should sort the boozes out in base drinks some day. My bet is that the order will be very much: whiskey (goats), rum (pirates), vodka/gin, the others.

Oh Em Gee. It's a planning post.

Yeah, figured that I should do that, to keep all the things in my mind from escaping me tomorrow.

Things are looking up and well, but there's stuff to be thought of:
Food:
I've got three knob mushroom. It'll be Gnochetti di Nietschze day. Myst points don't hurt. Bat Haggis for the closer.

Drink:
Let's hope it's a clover day tomorrow, that way I can hopefully make eggnogg with the rum from the pirates. Otherwise I'll be stuck drinking straight from the whisky and soda, booze straight from the bottle and...Imp Ale? Actually, I have some ram faced lager left.
I'm pondering whether going to the Booze Giant, or testing my luck with the Barrel of Barrels is better. I like the former better.

Adventurewise, I've got to tie ends together.
The zapping wand, a daily dungeon key, the rofl'mao quest.

I'll probably return to the Peak after that quest, although I *am* going to do the h4xx0r thing.

Another thing. I forgot all about pixels...whoopsie. *note*
The quest order:
Daily Dungeon
Zapping Wand
Rofl'Mao
Digital Key
Up to level 10 at the Peak.

The New Peak

Maybe because it's since I don't know what I'm missing and hadn't honed my runs to perfection, but I'm *loving* the "new" peak.

I can dispatch the dreaded snow queens with two LTS's using my spiked femurs, while wearing Ninja Hot Pants. It is a pity that any "hot" weapons require Pulverize, so I can see that it can be tough there. I'm having few issues myself.

The items that drop there provide interesting options. It's probably slower progress, but I'm having fun. Hoping for an extra crazy little Turkish delight and then finding out that bat haggis (of all things) ain't half bad.

Warp Speed

Compared to the farming, I'm moving at Warp Speed.

Not only did I get the Stomach of Steel, I also made mince-meat of the Bonerdagon, and got all the way up into trying to steal the pants of miner's. The longest interruption was trying to get an empty meat tank from the gnolls.

I should take more care to keep Phat Loot running, though, especially now that the meat crunch seems to be over. I also nearly forgot to eat an entire spaghetti with skullheads, accidentally plied a porquoise bracelet, thinking it was a baconstone. And the worst, I overdrank before PvP-ing.

Oh well, details, details.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 8
Otter Crusher
Turns Played (this run): 294
Days Played (this run): 2

Those are mighty fine numbers.

...with just a pinch of spices

How fun it is to adventure again. I had the most fun with the cooking, and trying to maximize my adventures.

It felt pretty cool to first eat two knoll-mushroom kabobs and due to that make it to level 5 and able to enter the kitchens.

Having enough storage for a purple snowcone, I gathered quite some ingredients with my new skill "phat loot", and was able to cook a gnochetti di nietschze quite fast, in order to be able to keep adventuring.

With only room for 5 fullness of food left, I decided to make a painfull penne pasta and after that waited for some spices to drop and fill the final bit with bat haggis. How's that for a diet, haha.

No luck on completing the meat car (3 toolboxes, no meat engines) nor on getting a pine-fresh air freshener.

This leaves opportunities for tomorrow, however, especially since I've already got most of the ingredients for spaghetti-with-skullheads. It'll still be muscle-day tomorrow!

How appropiate

So, today, at exactly 13:37 (I kid thee not), my home internet was restored. Wirelessly distributed from the point of entry, I might add.

After which I set to KoLling. Which included getting the herb brownie trophy, as expected. And the Three Amigos Trophy, as less expected. And ascending, so that I got the Accordion Thief HC Tattoo, which completes my tattoo set.

A bag of delights, altogether.

And now I've entered into a new hardcore run, probably going to teetdrop it, although I also might Teetotal it totally.

In unkingdomly news: I also got a haircut.

Yay, me!

Ice Stein!

Now I know what an Ice Stein does. Luckily it didn't hurt me all that much to suddenly have 6 drunkenness bestowed upon me, haha.

One more brownie to go, and yet another five percentage points closer to the Three Amigos. And another balloon. That balloon trophy is the most tantalizing.

Tomorrow I ascend. It's getting too boring, farming.

Getting Edgy

Thanks to some birthday gifts (thanks people!), I'm now up to 66 red balloons. That's 2/3rds of the way. Only 21 herb brownies to stuff, and an uncertain amount of meat to pledge to the Legends.

Wednesday I'll be getting home internet. I was hoping to be able to "get going" after that. Perhaps I'll end my farming run that day and continue with actual ascending then. I can scrape the final parts of the various Trophies together _on the run_.

85% and counting

Added a clean 100k today.

Also, I should've bought the "Cantata" earlier. I need to get my combat-encounters up. Tomorrow I'll probably break through the barrier. I'll get the trophy and break the prism.

My plan is to stay in this ascension a few more days, while eating nothing but brownies and donating max. to the hall. Maybe get some red balloons as well.

[edit]

As someone noted. The new Mr. Store pants will give 5% discount on red balloons. Seeing that I still need 50, that is a savings of 5,000,000 * 5% = 250k.