Untitled Run: P HCNP, day 10

10/1527 with 10 lucre. I don’t think that’s half-bad. It’s my best run yet, I think. It’s possible my previous 10-day run was actually a 9-day run, but that was during Crimbo, so who knows. I ended up losing to the NS more than 10 times, which was bad, but a low-skill myst class can only hope for so much.

I ended up having to backfarm for a lowercase N, and some stuff below the border, but that was it. The tower was uneventful. It took me three tries to beat my shadow — I’m not sure why. I permed Leash of Linguini.

Untitled Run: P HCNP, day 9

It’s going to be a ten-day run, there really wasn’t any chance it could have been otherwise. The junkyard took 15 turns, and I did 40 turns worth of snowman bounty, plus a big chunk of 33 turns worth of star collection to do the arena. I lost to The Man the first time — couldn’t do enough damage. My mistake today was burning 11 turns in the library looking for Fearful Fettucini, when I ended up just buying Weapon of the Pastalord. Dumb. Ended the day on turn 1426 after 25 turns worth of pixel farming. I realized at the end there that I still needed to finish the L11 quest, which is fine, because I haven’t hit L13 yet. With luck, tomorrow’s bounty plus Ed will put me over the top to L13, and then it’s just the NS tower. I’m fairly confident I’ll be able to beat her by getting the jump and doing lots of damage, but we’ll see.

Taking Linguini Leash this run, and ascending into BM Sauceror. I don’t think I’ll spend much time in aftercore — probably just long enough to smash all the smashable stuff that’s leftover. Since I’ve done the Pastamancer nemesis quest already, I won’t bother doing it again.

Untitled Run: P HCNP, days 7 and 8

I ended day 8 with a turncount of 1253, my fourth turn on the battlefield, somewhere in the middle of L12. I guess there’s a chance I could finish tomorrow, but I doubt it. I’ve still got most of the L11 Pyramid to take care of, plus the stars, the pixels, the gremlins, and another bounty. The plan is to push on killing frat orcs until the junkyard opens, do that, then open the arena. At that point, do the bounty, the stars, and the rest of L12. Then finish the war, farm up some pixels, and hit the tower. I’m imagining ending the day just short of finishing the war. 9 days would have been nice, 10 days will be okay.

Untitled Run: P HCNP, day 6

Slowing down now, as I’m running out of tricks. The bounty today was in the Dungeons of Doom, so I took the opportunity to open that up. Burned off some teleportitis in the Daily Dungeon, where I picked up Boris’s key. I ended up with more teleportitis later, so I spend several turns in the sewer.

I spent THIRTY more turns int he F’c’le today, looking for the darn rigging shampoo. That’s a total of 59 F’c’le turns. Sheesh. Picked up the scrolls semi-rare, and knocked that quest out in 29 turns. That seems like a lot, I guess. Hard to make those adding machines show up. At this point, I needed to level, so I opened the Gallery and poked around in there until I made L10 on turn 812. If I’d been thinking, I would have stopped right there, since both the airship and the giant’s castle can be bounty areas tomorrow. Instead I dropped 42 turns in the airship. It only took 7 turns in the castle to find the chore wheel, but that was my last turn of the day.

Tomorrow, watch, the bounty will be in the Airship, just to punish me. I’m planning on leveling in the Gallery up to L11, and then getting started on that quest. I could finish turning the wheel in the Castle one more time, but I’m betting I’ll be back there for one reason or another later. I didn’t use a yellow ray or a tea party buff today, because I wasn’t sure what would have helped. Not sure what’ll help tomorrow either. I guess zapping somebody in the Palindrome is the way to go.

Untitled Run: P HCNP, day 5

Day 5 is when I hit the wall. Pirates. ARRRRRGH.

I spent an inordinate amount of time on the pirate bounty, first thing. 60 turns. This was ridiculous. I was collecting insults the whole time, but it still took nearly the whole 60 turns to collect all the insults! Yeesh. I had 36 combat adventures and 24 non-combats, so maybe I should have used a reodorant. I guess that probably would have helped. I don’t know why the insults took so long, either. All those non-combats turned into delicious equipment for my slimeling to eat.

When my semi-rare started to come up, I realized I hadn’t gotten the Knob Goblin Lab key yet, so I spent a few turns in the harem, trying to get it. No dice. I ended up taking the KGE outfit. After I finally finished the pirate bounty, I picked up the harem stuff the hard way and then killed the head goblin. I popped into the Menagerie and disintegrated a fruit golem. Then I took care of the mine and the goatlet. I took all the parts and made a Staff of the Soupbone, which it turns out I won’t be able to equip until I’m mainstat 75. Which was 15 myst away. Sigh.

I popped into the bedroom and got the AFUE dictionary, then spent a dozen turns “leveling” in the bathroom before I realized I could be making pirate progress. To the Barr! That cleaned up easily, but the F’c’le didn’t. Check out this log:

[634] Cap'm Caronch's Map [5,18,11]
[636] The Infiltrationist [0,0,0]
[638] Barrrney's Barrr [0,0,0]
[639-667] F'c'le [195,541,186]
 +> [640] Got ball polish
 +> [643] Got mizzenmast mop
 o> Drank 1 roll in the hay (17 adventures gained) [0,36,0]
 -> Turn [639] Slimeling
 => Level 9 (Turn 655)! (46/68/49)

How’s that for frustrating?! Two of the three f’c’le items drop within the first 5 turns, and then NOTHING for 25 more turns. I bet it was because my very first adventure there was with a volleyball. I can’t say I ended the day very pleased with how that went. At least I made L9, so I can take my next semi-rare in the chasm. And, I’m just 4 myst away from being able to hold the chefstaff I made. Sigh.

Still haven’t visited a dungeon yet. Need to do that tomorrow. We’ll see, once I get this chefstaff going, if I need to get Fearful Fettuccini. I probably ought to farm up some stuff to make scrolls, so maybe I’ll get it en passant. Should I set up the Bees guy? Probably not, since I’ll have bounties and stars to farm.

Untitled Run: P HCNP, day 4

Wow. Things seem to be moving along quite well this run. Today I took a bounty in the hippy camp, which took a little bit of the shine off yellow-raying a hippy yesterday. I took a one-turn break to pick up some massage oil.

[351-363] Hippy Camp [50,95,54]
 -> Turn [354] Blood-Faced Volleyball
[364] Knob Goblin Harem [0,0,0]
 #> [364] Semirare: Hands On
[365-387] Hippy Camp [82,174,88]
 +> [387] Got filthy lucre
 -> Turn [365] Slimeling
 -> Turn [374] Blood-Faced Volleyball
 -> Turn [381] Slimeling
[388-417] Friar's Gate [102,195,102]
 +> [397] Got Azazel's unicorn
 +> [407] Got Azazel's lollipop
 +> [413] Got wussiness potion
 +> [417] Got Azazel's tutu
 o> Ate 1 Knob pasty (7 adventures gained) [6,5,6]
 o> Ate 1 spooky lo mein (17 adventures gained) [0,0,30]
 -> Turn [395] Blood-Faced Volleyball
 -> Turn [403] Slimeling
 -> Turn [417] Blood-Faced Volleyball
 => Level 7 (Turn 395)! (27/40/31)
[418-421] Defiled Cranny [18,46,24]
[422-423] Friar's Gate [2,11,7]
 +> [423] Got steel margarita

I switched the slimeling in and out when I needed MP restoration. I started a little early on the L7 quest because I knew I had about 4 turns before the pencil-necked demon showed up again. At that point I worked on the cyrpt. I picked up a smart skull in the Nook, which meant I just needed to bring a clover to the tower to make my bartender. I did that. Since I was handling this stuff pretty easily, even with +17 ML, I took the Ratsworth hat buff again from the Tea Party. I also played strategic pool three times in here. I buffed up a little and killed the Bonerdagon with 2 HP to spare. I picked up his rib.

At this point, I was close to level 8, and hadn’t used my yellow ray yet. I decided to open up the Manor a little, and level in the Bathroom if possible.

[474-481] Haunted Billiards Room [21,26,23]
 +> [479] Got pool cue
 -> Turn [474] Stocking Mimic
 -> Turn [481] Slimeling
[482-488] Haunted Library [24,50,22]
[489-490] Haunted Bedroom [0,0,0]
 +> [490] Got Lord Spookyraven's spectacles
[491-493] Haunted Bathroom [8,139,4]
 +> [493] Got fancy bath salts
 -> Turn [491] Blood-Faced Volleyball
 => Level 8 (Turn 493)! (35/53/39)

I tried to do a little mimic stasis in the Billiards room against chalk wraiths. I got one Polka Pop to drop. After this, I disintegrated a mine foreman, took all his stuff, and mined until I was out of turns. I was looking for chrome, but I didn’t find any.

Tomorrow, I’ll find that chrome ore. A bounty, and then I’ll think about finishing off a chefstaff. I haven’t really had much trouble killing stuff, since I’m maxing out the damage bonus on all my spells already. Maybe I’ll wait to see if I actually end up needing a chefstaff before I go looking for the rarer parts. I haven’t killed the Goblin King yet, or even gotten harem pants or perfume. Maybe I’ll keep putting it off. I should be able to finish the L8 quest for the most part, except for cold resistance. I’ll try to get started on the dungeons tomorrow. I’ve got a semi-rare coming up really soon, and I won’t be able to use it in the Orc Chasm, so I might be stuck getting either a lunchbox again, or the Knob Goblin elite outfit.

Untitled Run: P HCNP, days 2 and 3

I feel mildly good about how this run is going. At the end of day 3, with a turncount of 350, I was level 6 and had completed the Friars, the Bats, and the Tavern. I’d finished my vacations, and I had a full hippy outfit. I’d made my legendary epic weapon. I had a chef, a maid, and a pair of beer lenses. I was also sitting on a pile of about 5,000 meat. In contast, my previous HCNP run’s day 3 ended with a turncount of 323, having just barely killed the rat baron and the clown lord. So, an improvement.

Some stuff I did. I took the tophat off the baron instead of the monocle. I wanted to get the Turtle Titters buff from the new Tea Party. I also figured that maybe with the slimeling, I wouldn’t need the +items monocle. I ate a powdered donut on day two, since I had an extra one fullness to spend. I yellow-rayed a cola soldier on day two (for a grenade) and a hippy (for the outfit) on day three. The soldier might have been a mistake, since I probably could have taken out the baron with just noodles and some spells. I don’t know what else I would have used the ray on at that point, though. Managed to get the Battlefield hobo code while I was there. I picked up an annoying pitchfork on day 2. I got a lunchbox for a semi-rare on day 2, but forgot to even open it until the end of day 3, when it was too late to eat or drink anything inside. I need to remember to open them right away.

So, on Day 4, I’m in position to get my steel liver in about 30 turns. I’ve also got to do a bounty, pick up a semi-rare about 15 turns in, and it would be great to finish off my bartender (still need a skull+brain). I could pick them up in one swoop, if I wait until after the L7 quest and use a clover. Could that happen on day 4? I also need to think about chefstaff parts, since once I hit L8, I’ll be able to make it. The next yellow ray on my chart is a Dwarven miner for an outfit, but that’s also L8, and might not be a day 4 thing. If I’m sure I won’t make L8 tomorrow, I could yellow ray for a brain or a skull, I guess, and clover for the other one. That sounds like a decent plan, actually.

I still need to figure out which hat buff to take tomorrow. I’m thinking I’ll see how the L7 quest shapes up, and figure out if I need help in there.

Untitled Run: P HCNP, day 1

Another Day One, another confusing mess. I’m adventuring with a He-Boulder, a Slimeling, and a VIP Lounge Key for the first time.

So first things. I permed Pastamastery at the end of last run, deciding that I’ll take Entangling Noodles this run, and pick up Leash of Linguini in a future run. That means I’m working with Moxious Madrigal, Ode to Booze, the two Cocktailcrafting skills, Tao of the Terrapin and Amphibian Sympathy. That’s just one buff I need to keep running.

The bounty today was in the Outskirts of the Knob. I suppose this was my top priority. One of the difficult things about low-skill lucrecore is knowing how to budget for your bounty turns, especially on the first day. Could I have post-poned adventuring at the Knob until a more advantageous time? Probably, but I’m not sure how to figure it out.

[0] Ascension Start [0,0,0]
 #> Turn [0] pulled 1 Clan VIP Lounge key
 #> Turn [0] pulled 1 floaty stone sphere
 #> Turn [0] pulled 1 hobo code binder
 -> Turn [0] Slimeling
[1-3] Unlucky Sewer [0,0,0]
 +> [1] Got worthless gewgaw
 +> [2] Got worthless trinket
 +> [3] Got spices
[4-11] Outskirts of The Knob [3,11,4]
 -> Turn [5] Blood-Faced Volleyball
 => Level 2 (Turn 11)! (3/5/3)
[12] Spooky Forest [0,0,0]
 +> [12] Got stolen accordion, ten-leaf clover
[13] Lemon Party [0,0,0]

I started out by sewering for two trinkets and spices. I took my slimeling to the Knob for two turns, which yielded a scimitar and pants, a nice upgrade for my equipment. Then I switched to the volleyball until I made level 2. This opened the Forest, where I picked up an accordion on the first turn. I made a Rock and Roll Legend. Was this a good idea, given that the only AT buff I use regularly is the Madrigal? I’m thinking I probably should have smithed my epic weapon instead. Mistake number one.

[14-27] Outskirts of The Knob [12,25,11]
 +> [15] Got Knob Goblin encryption key
 +> [19] Got chef's hat
 +> [20] Got chef's hat, little paper umbrella
 +> [21] Got magical ice cubes
 +> [22] Got little paper umbrella
 +> [23] Got coconut shell
 +> [24] Got coconut shell
[28] Guild Challenge [0,0,0]
[29-31] Outskirts of The Knob [7,5,3]

I visited the VIP pool table and picked up the myst buff, which is a pretty nice MP restorer. While this was running, I could cast all my Pastamasterys and Cocktailcraftings, and get Madrigal going pretty good. Back to the Knob. At turn 31, I started to get nervous, since I didn’t have much in the way of food or drink.

[32-37] Haunted Pantry [8,4,7]
 +> [32] Got quasi-ethereal macaroni fragments
 +> [35] Got razor-sharp can lid
 -> Turn [37] He-Boulder
[38-39] Haunted Kitchen [0,2,2]
 +> [39] Got leftovers of indeterminate origin
 o> Ate 1 ancient frozen dinner (7 adventures gained) [0,8,0]
 }> [39] Disintegrated demonic icebox
 -> Turn [39] Blood-Faced Volleyball
 => Level 3 (Turn 39)! (6/8/5)

I switched to the Pantry, opened the Kitchen, and then decided I was going to try out my new He-Boulder. One thing I learned very quickly was that the He-Boulder is also Whelp/Leprechaun, which was nice. I need to remember that, even though I also have a Gibberer, which is Whelp/Potato.

[40-45] Outskirts of The Knob [13,10,9]
 +> [40] Got chef's hat
 +> [45] Got filthy lucre

The rest of the day was kind of a mess. I picked up my lucre, and then bounced around from Pantry to Kitchen to Barrels, looking for consumables. I made Level 4 too late to take advantage of either my dry noodles or my garnishes. I stupidly held onto the non-uprgradable rum and cola from the Barrels and drank two vodka martinis before hitting Level 4. This was a mistake. I got confused about the He-Boulder, and tried to use a red ray in the Slime Tube. That didn’t work. I fell one can lid short of a gourd potion. The worst thing I did was finish the day by eating catsup by misclicking in Mafia. This burned 100 meat and a trinket. Sigh.

I won’t reproduce for you the log from turns 46-78, since they’re not worth looking at. I did pick up some scintillating powder. I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be better on Day One to rush up to Level 4, and then start worrying about the bounty? I need to think about it more, I guess. It’s nice to be ascending again, though. Sure beats farming for Hobo Nickels.

Tomorrow. Okay. I need to use my yellow ray on a Harem Girl tomorrow. The day after that, a hippy. I should open the Beach and start vacationing. That means more sewering. I need at least three trinkets (meatcar, epic weapon, and a clover) tomorrow. I should finish the tavern quest tomorrow. With entangling noodles, I ought to be able to get the monocle, I think.