Holy shnikeys! (Things I missed while I was away)

[Creelie]

Long absences are kind of a thing with me and all my games, not just KoL. It certainly fixes boredom - stay away long enough and it's a whole new game when you come back!

The last 6-odd months look like they brought a lot of changes. I'll be posting about the ones that seem the biggest to me as I decide I'm ready to learn about them. All my questions are from a perma-HC perspective but anyone wanting to chime in with the SC point of view is welcome. Other people's late-to-the-party questions are also welcome, for that matter.

The thing really breaking my brain right now is the new Liver quest. I did it for sheer exploration of content's sake, but that's a crapton of turns to spend every run, BUT new Ode makes every drop of booze terribly, terribly sexy. So what's the general consensus? How few days does a run have to be before Liver isn't worth it anymore?

[stupac2]

The liver quest isn't much longer or shorter now. You probably do it in exactly the same circumstances as before.

What should really boggle your mind is the fax machine.

[Creelie]

I guess the fax machine isn't freaking me out too much because I already knew about 4-d cameras before I went on break.

But yes, when I think about finishing Tour Guide at last and getting to use the fax machine and the acute angel and maybe also 4-d cameras, I get mighty excited indeed.

[stupac2]

Fax machine is so much more powerful. You don't have to encounter the monster in-run for it to be useful, and you don't need to go out of your way to farm anything. 4D cameras might be worth using sometimes, the fax machine easily saves a dozen turns.

[bennieloohoo]

Not that I am any kind of HC expert, but I believe the very fastest HC runs (3-day) get Liver -- I don't see how else you could generate all those turns in 3 days -- while lower-turncount 4-dayers don't. Fax machine >> 4-d camera. I don't know if it's optimal, but it's certainly become popular to fax a sleepy mariachi early in HC runs, YR it, and then have fun with your super-powered hatrack fairy. Plus the other crap it drops is probably useful in HC. Other helpful fax uses are things like ASCII, adding machine, lobsterfrogman, etc.

Delay() is nearly dead it's been removed from some zones (ie. Spooky Forest), and everywhere else it still exists, instead of being a random number between 1 and 9 inclusive, it's just always 5. This makes it much easier to plan around!!

You should read through the announcements and trivial updates, because there are various little things too, like now you don't have to equip the pool cue, etc. You've probably seen the Knob revamp. Crimbo had a new free runaway item called Blank-Out that's pretty sweet in SC, especially SCO.

I'm forgetting all kinds of things but I'm sure other people will chime in Glad you're back!

EDIT: The Hipster is awesome. Just wanted to add that in. I love that guy.

[reverkiller]

The hat from the mariachi is what makes it optimal in Moxie HCNP - 3 moxie substats per combat is nothing to sneeze at! In fact, its probably worth a fax even if you end up not using the fairy aspect of it.

Fax machine is cool. I like it, I'm working hard on chaining 5 day HCNP myself.

[Num deleted]

Couple generic ideas for Faxing (at least from a 4-day HCNP perspective):

Day 1:
KGE semi-rare monster (saves the actual SR for something else)
blooper (immediate olfaction)
mariachi (the hat makes the hatrack into a 2x potatofairy with a max weight of 37.... VERY powerful in addition to the hat substats)
ASCII (less used)

Day 2:
adding machine
ASCII
LFM (between faxes and the obtuse angle, if you start early enough you can finish sonofa even before you get to the lv12 quest)
tower item monster

Day 3:
LFM (I think this is almost always what people do on day 3)
Bob Racecar (if you wanted to speed that area up perhaps)
tower item monsters

Day 4:
Brigand (the nuns trick is a lot easier to do in HC now with this if you can get the Hippy War outfit to drop when starting the war)
LFM (if needed for the last one or so)
South of the Border Monsters (Gate 2 in the lair)
tower item monsters

That's just a general run-down of the top choices for HC runs... There are some other options like the Big Butt to help with leveling if you can manage them but I don't really use them. Hope this helps. =)

[Verdigris97]

The fax machine is okay. Faxbot is what makes it awesome. A fax machine without faxbot (but with photocopiers) is just a 4-d camera that doesn't break on each use.

[Creelie]

Oh I know the fax machine = pure awesome. I just don't find it confusing. /msg FaxBot, get to fight the baddie of your choice.

EDIT: The Hipster is awesome. Just wanted to add that in. I love that guy.

The Hipster is another thing I don't quite get. Is it awesome because it's a powerful combat familiar, or because of the fights? And how do those work? I get the impression they're like FoB and EDdLMB fights, up to 7 monsters a day. Is that right?

Delay() is nearly dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU

Glad you're back!

Thanks! It's good to be back

[stupac2]

The Hipster is another thing I don't quite get. Is it awesome because it's a powerful combat familiar, or because of the fights? And how do those work? I get the impression they're like FoB and EDdLMB fights, up to 7 monsters a day. Is that right?

Yes, it's awesome because of the fights. No, they're not like FoB monsters. They're a completely different. See here for how encounters work, and here for more on the hipster specifically.

[Creelie]

Thanks for those links, stupac. I feel like I have a handle on the practical part of the concept now.

In other news, I just started my 29th Tour Guide run - 30 will be a Black Cat BM DB. My understanding of BM was always theoretical even before my hiatus. Did anything change there specifically that I ought to know about?

[top1214]

Cake shaped arena means it's pretty likely you want to get an eye-pod. Also, I wouldn't do the harem unless you were an AT and wanted to do doc galatik's quest. Only PM/S should go for boxen, and only a chef. Don't do the barrels, drink overpriced beer. Either nightcap day 1 w/the black cat adventure, or make sure you do >/DoD at full drunk in case of teleportitis.

[Creelie]

Also, I wouldn't do the harem unless you were an AT and wanted to do doc galatik's quest.

The alternative is faxless KGE + cake quest, right? Did the KGE outfit drop rate improve? EDIT: durrr, the KGE is also a semi-rare. Shoot me now.

Either nightcap day 1 w/the black cat adventure, or make sure you do >/DoD at full drunk in case of teleportitis.

It took me a while to figure out what you mean here. You're saying everybody has to pick up the black cat, whether they're doing kittycore or not, to prevent tele-drunkenness. Are there any other spots beside the leprechaun adventure in the Typical Tavern where this is a problem?

[top1214]

Sorry for being oblique there. I've skipped the black cat on my last 2 runs (the 2 since the change), but tele has sent me there on each of those runs. But I was at 19 drunk, so it was OK.

No where else will give you drunk, and if you skip the leprechaun (I think this might be marginally faster, but I didn't do numbers, and boss bat meat and nuns healing are fringe benefits that may even it out anyway [but then you can skip inhaler SRs and a second scroll in the library]), it won't be the first turn in the brawl if you get tele'd there anyway.

[Creelie]

Welp, kittycore is in the bag. Now I get to learn how to use my familiar slot! To give you an idea how rusty I am here, the last time I used more than one familiar during a run the only spleen familiar in existence was a pixie.

Which leads me into my next question, actually. I am a collector, so I have all 4 spleen familiars. I have a general impression that the rogue program (because of its slightly higher drop rate) is generally relied upon for at least 2 of the 3 daily spleen items, with a supporting role played by the baby sandworm's agua (or a primary role if you are a big fan of agua adventuring). Absinthe is generally used for powerlevelling, but when and how much? And gongs are used for . . . ?

Now tell me just how off-base I am!

[Sambal]

Delay() is nearly dead it's been removed from some zones (ie. Spooky Forest), and everywhere else it still exists, instead of being a random number between 1 and 9 inclusive, it's just always 5. This makes it much easier to plan around!!

It is so much more awesome now actually, it saves so much mp to know when to start looking for NC's, when to use your hand chalk, when to put your hipster away etc. It is 100 % controlled now.

[Omri]

Welp, kittycore is in the bag. Now I get to learn how to use my familiar slot! To give you an idea how rusty I am here, the last time I used more than one familiar during a run the only spleen familiar in existence was a pixie.

Which leads me into my next question, actually. I am a collector, so I have all 4 spleen familiars. I have a general impression that the rogue program (because of its slightly higher drop rate) is generally relied upon for at least 2 of the 3 daily spleen items, with a supporting role played by the baby sandworm's agua (or a primary role if you are a big fan of agua adventuring). Absinthe is generally used for powerlevelling, but when and how much? And gongs are used for . . . ?

Now tell me just how off-base I am!

I usually use one gong for a roc feather on day 1 (the stats are nice, and you can kill stuff in birdform okay at, say, the 8-bit realm once you've sniffed). After that, I might get one or two more gongs in a whole run, and use them for stat/stat/ML if I'm not muscle. I'm not sure if stat/stat/item is ever worth it for muscle, but I'd imagine it might be worth using once for rats/filthworms.

[FufuBunnySlayer]

I'm not sure if stat/stat/item is ever worth it for muscle, but I'd imagine it might be worth using once for rats/filthworms.

It is.

[Creelie]

Just want to give a shout-out to Sambal who walked me through the basics of sewer-levelling today. Thanks!