A Have/Want List for HC Speed…

Here’s the post I posted on my clan forums.

Okay, guys… here it is… I’m trying to get faster and faster here as I get more skills and this is just one more step which seems to be required. *grins* All the other speed players in KoLA have posted one of these at one time or another (except maybe JD? He’s odd though).

So anyway… I’m looking to purchase something in the form of an item which would assist me in going faster. I currently have about 12m liquid (with no hopes of increasing that by much):

Current Haves:
Rogue Program
Baby Bugged Bugbear
Sugar Tome
Slimeling (which I figured I’d mention for fun)
Crown of Thrones (which I’m strongly considering selling here soon for more liquid meat)
Juju Mask (which I’m also considering selling, but I’ve been holding off due to considering doing a Softcore loop for tatts)
Mini-Hipster

Also, I have already set aside the meat for a Hebo, so that will be added as well before the contest run I’m prepping for. (AFHk’s Diamond in the Rough III).

So here’s some thoughts, but I have no idea what to get:

VIP Key
Stocking Mimic

Furthermore, as an addendum, I have an organ grinder, but I haven’t used it. It’s sitting in my inventory though.. just waiting to get out of BM again. Is it going to be useful at all or more of a collector’s piece? I’m trying to decide if I want to invest in another. I don’t know.

Thoughts are appreciated! And as a side note, I’m a strictly Hardcore player (unless, as I said, I’d go for tatts) so no weird Mr. Gear… 

I also want the Libram of BRICKOs really badly… but it’s not really for the speed, but rather just the nerdiness of having Legos in my game. I love Legos.  Oh, and I’d also like to get a NPZR in my terrarium before they become impossible to find.

~Hobse

Shelled Animal Care

Soo… my last post on here was talking about my Hobopolis adventures, and the desire to fill up my Hobo code binder. Well… I didn’t do that. I did score  a sweet Ol’ Scratch’s Infernal Pitchfork, so that was good but I didn’t end up filling up my code binder right away. In fact, as of now, the only codes I have are the two that I mentioned having before. I have not added even one more code to the binder. As a side note, the pitchfork that I have now, I can’t even see a situation that I’d use it, unless on a Seal Clubber aftercore-ness. But even so, it’s nice to have it, just for complete-ness sake.

Anyway… enough about the past. Let’s look out at the future. In more current news, I ascended again. I spent one more day down in Hobopolis hoping for loot (which I didn’t get due to a slight error in that particular run) and then dropped back through the gash. This time, I decided to do another TT Bad Moon run, though I can’t really figure out why. I figure that having another Brimstone Bunker to play with in the next ascension should be a good thing, right?

I think my plan for ascensions right now is to follow the current TT BM run with another TT HCB run. The fact that I’ll be running boozetafarian will matter some, but not much, due to the fact that I still haven’t figured out how to use food properly in HC anyway. This way, I’ll get some benefit for being lame with food, right? Especially since I don’t currently have any PM skills for food (Or Sauce skills, for that matter) I may as well do it. So, with that in mind, I plan on perming Shieldbutt this time around, with Sympathy being the next one.

Anyway… here’s a shot at TT BM and I hope that things are able to go well with it. I hit the war yesterday and found myself hitting a brick wall for a bit, because I couldn’t figure out how to adventure there more than once or twice before either being Beaten Up or having no hp and having to herb to recover. However, I figured out something that is working for me at the moment. Right now, I’m running the following buffs: Temporary Lycanthropy, Ghostly Shell, Patience of the Tortoise, and Empathy. These, combined with the use of Shieldbutt, is enabling me to kill faster, building up the dimes from the war to buy restoratives from them instead of using spleen. It’s working much better than I expected and so I’ve finished two of the sidequests, and beaten up just 100 of the darn frat boys. (I way prefer the hippy side of things, by the way).

So here’s to a fast war and a TT BM run that ends on a lvl 13.

~Hobse

Hobo Killer Champion!!!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted on here, and for that I apologize but things have been crazy around here lately. I’m glad that I’ve been moving, but man, it’s a lot of work. That said, I’ve been able to keep up with KoL for the most part, which has been great. So, here’s my latest update on my character.

Whether you’re a KoL player, or just a MMO player, you have all heard of huge raid dungeons where multiple people go in and destroy things with the hope of getting the single loot drop that they’re looking for. Kingdom of Loathing includes a raid dungeon like that (two of them actually) and it’s called Hobopolis. A massive area under the clan basement, these clan dungeons are areas where KoL players can come together and work towards downing the big bosses in these areas. As a level 15 Turtle Tamer at the time, I had no real goal of downing a boss myself, but I wanted to get in on the loot, so I headed down through the sewers to get in on the big battle against the hobos.

First of all, when entering Hobopolis, you have to beat your way through the sewers, utilizing the combat and non-combat adventures to explore your way through the sewers. It can take alot of adventures if you don’t know what you’re doing, but I’ve been able to take some advice and push through in about 40 turns, which was good, since I didn’t have a ton left for the actual Hobopolis adventuring. After making it through the sewers (and seeing the Dungeon bot announce that to everyone), I headed to Town Square.

Town Square is the generic zone where you have to kill 3000 hobos in order to unlock the last boss of the zone. However, as you adventure there, and kill more hobos, you do unlock subzones where other bosses reside to be killed as you wish. When you down a boss, the loot from the boss gets put into the dungeon admin account, prepared to be sent out to those that the admin wants to give it to, depending on their rules. In my clan, KoL Addicts, you have to spend 100 advs post sewer and send the admin 100k per piece of loot requested. Anyway… I was looking for hobo nickels, so I decided to stay in Town Square for the moment.

I knew that we were not expecting the main boss to show up in Town Square anytime real soon (he was several 1000 hobo kills away yet) so I wasn’t worried about that. I survived alright, only having to consume scrolls of drastic healing every 7-10 hobos. I had boosted muscle through the Body Facepaint from Black Market and the Blood of the Wereseal from the guild, so I was up to 594 muscle (also had a brimstone bunker) while still having about 145% +items. It took my around 111 turns to get 30 hobo nickels and get the non-combat adventure needed to get my code binder. But it all paid off…

You have acquired: hobo code binder

I got my binder.. then, within 5 more advs, I got the hobo codes from the Noob Cave and the Path to the White Citadel. Rather excited, I have now set up the goal of filling this darn binder as soon as possible.

Overall, my experience in the hobopolis clan dungeon was very positive, because I had people helping me along in what my decisions were. It’s a confusing zone, but I can’t wait to see what loot I’m able to pull from it… very excited about loot and my code binder.

Tomorrow, I have some things to finish up with some other aftercore stuff… and then maybe finish TT Nemesis content. Dunno, but just impatient with waiting for Hobopolis loot distribution. Kill faster guys!!

~Hobse

Preparations for the Next Run…

So, I’m getting close to the end of my kittycore run (finally!) and I’m beginning to look forward to what’s ahead in my career. I’m not entirely sure what run is going to follow this, but I’m hoping it will be something relatively easy (though I think that doesn’t involve many restrictions since kittycore has to be one of the hardest things in the game).  I’ve had people tell me to go PM with the boxers and faux-moxie plink my way through the game for Pastamastery. I’ve also had people tell me to go with AT and get Madrigal (which would be neat, I think and hopefully speed up my Day 1,2). I’m not entirely sure, because at first, I was sure I was going to go with Seal Clubber in softcore for the Trivially Skilled trophy.

But at this point, I’m leaning towards HCNP as either AT or PM (just not sure which, I need both skills). Either way, I should be able to pick up the Sugar Shummoning tome, which I’m looking forward to alot… and I have the rogue program and the Bugged Bugbear still that I haven’t ever used (nutcase 100% runs with other fams).  I might also pick up the slimeling, but I’m not sure if I’m going to go with that, or keep saving up for the He-Boulder or Llama or Sandworm.

It’s looking good all the way around, but I do have to say that I’m rather disappointed with the drop in prices of the Lagers from Cinco de Mayo. They have dropped quite a bit and I don’t think I’m going to be able to get my investment back from them at this point. If I wasn’t so darn slow at ascending, I could have put them on the market and made some money on them, but at this point, they’re so low, I don’t know if they’re going to come back before next year’s event.

Anyway! Things are going well… and I’m looking forward to getting out of this kittycore run and into something much more interesting… and hopefully fast.

~Hobse

Possible Amazing Score!

So, I have been trying to find ways to make more meat and I haven’t been able to really find any. So, I was browsing around and found someone trying to auction off some Cinco de Mayo Lagers for really cheap. So I’m working on trying to get those. If I do get them for the price I’m trying to get them for, it’d be a great boost to my current meat status. Well, here’s to hoping.

That said, I should probably start paying attention to the market a bit and seeing if I can’t start picking up some good deals like this and re-sell since I have the ability to do so right now. I have about a million meat to play around with, though if I get this Lager thing, that’s going to be nil until I can re-liquidate those. But still… it’ll be pretty sweet, without a doubt.

So here’s to hoping that my first attempt at playing the KoL market works out exceedingly well, since I definitely need the money at this point.

Bad Moon Madness Begun!

So I started the Bad Moon run with the Black Cat finally. I just don’t see how well this is going to go, but we’ll see… it could be a lot of fun. I’m definitely already enjoying the uniqueness of Bad Moon in general. Of course, the fact that I had to waste like… 32 turns or something like that for the cat and the terrarium was definitely depressing.

I was impressed with myself for getting to full drunkenness and fullness though… that was pretty awesome of me, if I don’t say so myself. I’m also relatively close to the correct spot according to the general Bad Moon guide I’ve been loosely following on the wiki. For those interested, it’s located here: Bad Moon Strategy.

I will have to say that Bad Moon is a great content set that I haven’t seen… and I’m looking forward to exploring it… I’m just afraid that the cat is going to make me stay and keep exploring it much more/longer than I would have wanted to… oh well… life goes on, eh?

Anyway… I’m logging this run, and posting it on the KoL Addicts forums (the greatest clan ever!). You can see Hobse’s BM DB Kittycore run there.

100% Familiar – Blood-Faced Volleyball

I’ve recently completed my first 100% familiar run, an experience that I found interesting, though entirely not optimal. I figured I’d start with the Blood-Faced Volleyball, just because it seemed like a good thing to do. So that run is finished now.

My first hint of advice about 100% runs… don’t decide to start doing gourdcore in the middle of a familiar run that’s not an item drop familiar. This was a rather stupid decision on my part and caused me to take longer to farm up gourdcore than I had originally planned on. The run ended up taking 31 days, which is the shortest hardcore ascension I’ve had, but is still ridiculously long by pretty much any standards.

My next run will be a Bad Moon – 100% Black Cat run, unfortunately. But since I’ve done the setup run now, it makes sense that I want to do this thing properly and get it finished. We’ll see how it goes… still looking for a good guide to follow, but I’ll probably just base the majority of my run off of the Bad Moon strategy guide on the wiki.

Synopsis: Don’t choose to do farming while doing a 100% with a non-item familiar. Keep doing these runs, as they’re fun and are working towards tour guide trophy. Finally, the volleyball is actually a fantastic familiar to start with 100% runs, since it gives us +stats to keep leveling nicely. Great especially if you haven’t figured out how to level without it yet.

Meat Farming Demon Summoner

Well, I believe that as my quest to find more meat is beginning, I’m going ot have to go and find my darn demon that gives Preternatural Greed (which is an awesome buff for meat farmers). Sooo… that’s definitely on the list of things to do within the next couple of days. Supposedly, I just have to go find someone to give it to me in the Spooky Woods, which would be pretty nice, becuase that should be an easy thing to do, especially if I can get Trifflid Bark tomorrow (pray for it, pray for it).

Also on the list of things to do is start working on getting the Gordon Bennetts made up, so I don’t have to spend the meat to buy them. Would decrease the budget for farming food, by a lot!

Which, that said, here’s the diet I’ll be trying to use, though it may take me a day to work up enough meat to start this diet really.

1x mojo filter [1737.5 meat]

1x milk of magnesium [955.7 meat] 5x fishy fish lasagna [3.9k meat]

4x Gordon Bennett [5.8k meat] 3x distilled fortified wine [6.1k meat]

1x Corpse Island iced tea [15.9k meat]

4x agua de vida [5.0k meat]

Anyway, here’s to a great day tomorrow farming for meat!

~Hobse