Let's Play: HC Sommerswerd Run

[zliplus]

I'm planning a HC game where I will never deposit the Sommerswerd into storage, and have created this thread to share the exciting times that will ensue. Feel free to bet on how many lives it will take me!

Planning:
My skills will be weaponskill, mindshield, mindblast, mind over matter, and sixth sense. CM is brutal with the Swerd, so I need every bit of CS I can get - that means the Lore-Circle of the Spirit as well as weaponskill. Kimah is even more brutal, but I can get around him by losing my weapons to the city guard and not picking them up again (until the very end).

The magic spear shouldn't be too hard to obtain since I have all the combat skills. Are there any other notable dangers I've forgotten?

[zliplus]

Starting out, somehow randomed both weaponskill spear and the spear from equipment. I'm tempted to think sword is still better though.

Killed Halvorc like a coward, then crushed several Helghast with incredibly good rolls. Going to take the Triangle + Firesphere route.

Fell into the icy waters, but managed to get out. Killed the Javek with a 0 on the first roll. Took a bit of damage from the crystalwyrm for the key, but smooth sailing from there on.

Missed the monks for the first holy water, went for the tunnel to the second. Ended up with a bag full of potions. Went for the quickest path through the big bandit fight, which may have been a mistak - probably should have picked up the onyx medallion instead.

Evaded most fights and went limbdeath route...I'm keeping my Swerd! Picked the wrong chimney by mistake but made it anyways. Bought the potions then went to the palace via the courier route. Crushed the Elix with 2 0s in a row - amazingly good luck I'm getting here, hope it holds all the way! Mind over matter and a bit of luck carried me past the instadeaths and I dropped the Swerd in order to fight the Dhorgaan with my good ole' Magic Spear.

Hardcore Kai No-Deaths complete! 14/21 fights with the Swerd.

[zliplus]

Starting up Magnakai, couldn't decide what weapons to skill...went with the old sword/dagger/bow combo. Took nexus and psi-surge for the others, in case i need it for the archery contest.

Didn't need psi-surge for the contest after all, but forgot to bring along junk items to barter for the horse - had to give Altan the map and crystal star pendant. Poor Banedon.

Rest of Book 6 was smooth sailing. Fought the giant turtle creature at the start for 2 turns before evading. Took care of the hand in the maze via Psi-surge + Psi-screen, then killed the giant worm. Realized I probably should have taken Divination for the crossbow, but made it anyways. Zahda was easy.

In previous games I found the shadow reavers quite easy even without the grey crystal ring, so I'll skip Tharro in order to avoid the big nasty Helghast monk. Silly me, I missed Jako's sister while trying to avoid the vordaks with the Lodestone. I hope I don't miss that Rendalim's in Book 11. The silver python took an amazing 16 life off me, but no other difficulties.

For Book 9, went in and got arrested straight away. Broke out, killed the pickpocket for the blue pills, and meandered my way to Chiban's to join the Senate vote. Rolled with the Senate, where I picked up the bow and dagger. Went through Zaaryx as usual, and ended up fighting Kimah at -1 for a fairly easy win. Picked up my Swerd and other weapons at the end.

Nearing the climax now - 24/40 fights with the Swerd.

[zliplus]

Starting items for Book 10:
1. +4 alether
2. +2 alether
3. +5 laumspur
4. +10 oede
5. +6 rendalim's
6. +6 rendalim's
7. +4 laumspur
8. +4 laumspur

I'll replace one +4 with the +8 silver flask, but missing the rendalim's in Book 8 means I'm 2hp behind. It'll hurt if that 2 hp makes a difference.

[zliplus]

Went through the swamp route with 15 hp left, fighting a bunch and skipping 3 meals. Luckily the orb bowshot is impossible to miss with full bonuses, because I rolled a 0. Ran into muscle-man, so I used a single laumspur before fighting him. Turns out I only took 6 damage in the fight. On to Book 11!

My fight counter with the Swerd seems a bit low, so I fought the Yoacor and took a ton of damage. I was so low hp I didn't want to risk fighting a Ookor. Later I jumped from the chariot to avoid instant death, and rushed to the Crypts to avoid the assassin. Fairly easy stuff all the way through the Lorestone until the Chaos-Master now.

With all bonuses, 46 CS for a -1 ratio versus the Chaos-master. Wasn't going very well for the first half, then I dropped psi-surge and rolled an amazing series of 8 and 9s to win with 11 hp remaining. Only lost 12 hp in the 6 rounds I spent without psi-surge, compared to 16 hp in the 4 rounds with it.

Used potions until I was up to 32 hp for the shadow reavers, though I've never had any problems with them before. Only took 4 damage from the fight, so quite a waste heh.

Unfortunately I only had 3 meals so I had to fight the sewer snake. Took 6 damage. Really wishing I didn't waste so much healing on the shadow reavers now. Taking on the Villains at -2 ratio and 37 versus 46 hp. Still shouldn't be too bad.

Beat the Villains with 26 hp left. Took Vonotar's hit, then used my remaining heals for 35 hp total. Cakewalk now!

Crushed Vonotar easily as expected. 38/54 battles with the Swerd.

[zliplus]

Well, one last book to go, and no deaths so far. I need 10 fights with the Swerd (and none without) in order to make the cut for the award, which seems like a hard sell without healing. We'll see what happens though.

Bit of bad luck at the start - took 10 damage in shrapnel. Combined with chip damage from all the fighting and I'm in pretty bad shape by the time I wash up on land. Only 16 hp left, but I've gotten 7 fights in with the Swerd, and picked up the Chainmail and Adgana. I'm out of healing though, I wish I had saved up some extras before. Or if i hadn't wasted my oede and flask on Vonotar when I didn't need it.

Alas, after making my way through over a dozen fights, I die an ignoble death to a Giak Wagon-guard.

Thinking now, I realize I should have given up on the Swerd (with the odd illegal fight, 14 fights total is really crazy) and just used the Magic Spear for the free round. My CS was high enough to not need any more. Also, missing the free potions in Book 8 and wasting some on Vonotar turned out to be enormous mistakes.

[Dave]

I don't know if you're factoring this in or not (regarding using the spear for a first round/no damage round) - If you don't use the Sommerswerd *exclusively* to complete a particular combat, it will not count toward the total. In other words, if you spend even one round with another weapon equipped, that entire combat will not count. (Forced unarmed combat for X rounds does not disqualify, as long as you've still got the Sommerswerd equipped the whole time... I think!)

That was an entertaining read, and quite an epic attempt!

P.s. what were/are your opening stats and disciplines?

[zliplus]

Regarding the counting - yes, I was using the Sommerswerd exclusively in every battle I could, excluding the case where I 'lost' it. I'll have to avoid battles more at the start and use it more often in some of the easier books, I think - I didn't expect to be so far behind on the count as I neared the end books.

One thing I'm not clear on - does the count include combats that you don't finish, such as evasions and interrupted fights?

I used the standard 17/23 opening stats, and weaponskill + circle of spirit (mindblast, mindshield, mind over matter, sixth sense) for disciplines.

[zliplus]

Overall, I just never expected that failure on Book 12 was even a possibility, and didn't take it into account. Every previous time I went through, excluding the fresh start, I just rolled through it so fast without a care in the world.

For my next attempt, I'll have to try and save up more heals ahead of time. I took another look and realized the Gnaag Helghast also has a Circle of Spirit bonus, so I'll probably go through that path next time - gets me the other ring and more fights ahead of time too.

[Dave]

Jun 19, 2012 16:04:54 GMT zliplus said:

One thing I'm not clear on - does the count include combats that you don't finish, such as evasions and interrupted fights?

I used the standard 17/23 opening stats, and weaponskill + circle of spirit (mindblast, mindshield, mind over matter, sixth sense) for disciplines.

Yes, interrupted fights still count for the total, as long as each round had the Sommerswerd equipped.

[zliplus]

Alrighty...going to start up a new run from the start. Will focus a bit more on reducing fights without the Sommerswerd as well as laying in more potions for the end. Using the same skills as before though.

No camouflage means at least 1 fight is unavoidable in Book 1. 2 fights are unavoidable in the first half of Book 2, and the magic spear fight is similarly required. Went for the maximum carnage route after getting the Sommerswerd - 5/9 combats. Died to the Javek on the first round.

Restarted - died before reaching the Javek due to hilariously poor rolls in combat (4 1s, 2 2s, 3 3s). Restarted again - died to the Javek on the first round. Restarted again, no problems this time. 10/14 combats.

Randomly missed all the bandits in the early portions, took the cave holy water, fought maximum bandits in the later portion, including the wounded one in the hut. Skipped Barraka due to low hp (only had 3 at the end even without fighting him). 16/20 fights, much better than last time.

Evaded the horseman on round 1 and fought the bloodlug for 2 quick combats. Fought the kwaraz forgetting I lose my gold for it...restarting. Next run was smoother though I still couldn't afford the hp to fighting all the fights through the escape. Decided to use 1 4EP boost at the end to fight the boss with the Sommerswerd - turned out to not need it and beat him with only 3EP loss. 23/27 fights. Chose Weaponmastery (sword, spear, bow), Psi-screen, Divination this time around.

Totally forgot about junk items again, so tried to steal a horse and died. Next try was smoother, except I realized on reaching the potion shop that I forgot to deposit preexisting potions. Oops. Got in too many fights the next time around and died to the Dakomyd. Eventually got through this book, wasting an alether and potion on the Dakomyd at the end. Castle Death was quick and easy, 32/38 fights total now.

[zliplus]

Book 8 took quite a few attempts. I decided to get the ring this time, which meant fighting the helghast. With the full circle of spirit boost and an alether, the fight's -2 ratio with psi-surge and double dmg...but I still lost tons of hp every time. Eventually got through, dumping 3 4hp heals into it and survived the snake via lucky rolls. Skipped the vordaks again and just bought the ring outright. 35/41 fights.

For book 9, I scored some early battles by attacking the early giaks with the Swerd with 2 free rounds, fighting the ambush, and killing the drunk. The first prison guard and roctopus are unavoidable, but I wandered my way to the courts, skipping the pickpocket. The senate rolled against me, but I managed to avoid the guards and head straight down with no extra fights. The first ghoul and psighoul are unavoidable, and I forgot to bring the mirror to avoid the croc fight. Kimah killed me at the end anyways, so restart time. The next time around everything went fairly smoothly. 38/49 fights.

Items at the start of Book 10:
3 Rendalims
1 Oede
1 +5 Laumspur
1 +4 alether
1 +2 alether
1 Meal (An extra space is fairly essential, and might as well take a meal instead of a precious laumspur).

[zliplus]

Used up my meal fairly early and starved the rest of the way. Fought 2 animals in the swamp and captain ugly. Straight onto Book 11. Skipped the yoacor fight since I'm not behind on fights this time and can take things easy. Still fought the ookor since they're so easy. Stayed with the chariot at the bridge for 1 extra fight (and no instadeath). Ditto for skipping the equipment. At the silver flask, dropped a +5 laumspur instead of a meal, judging that skipping the snake fight later is worth the 5hp.

Decided to start off without psi-surge for the Chaos-master (-5 ratio). Turned out well because my rolls were excellent. There's a great strategy - never use psi-surge because it screws up your rolling Unfortunately ended in a double-kill despite rolling 3 0s and 2 8s early on. Time for another go-around...

Fought both the yoacor and the ookor this time for laughs. Had no problem again up to the chaos-master, where I got crushed hard....I should have switched to psi-surge after getting that major advantage early on last time around, sigh.

Giving up temporarily after being beaten up some more by the CM, curse him.

[Dave]

Sounds like you're on your way to earning the award, though. Keep up the good work! It's entertaining to read about your experiences with each book in such a succinct and focused summary. Keep it coming...

[zliplus]

Had a busy work weekend and start of the week, but back to it now.

First attempt led to a double-kill on CM, using psi-surge the whole way. First 3 rolls were great too. I've rethought my calculation/analysis on psisurge and come to the conclusion that it's beneficial when you roll poorly, but actually hurts when you roll well. However, you have to (overall at least) roll fairly well to beat the CM no matter what. My new strategy will be to not use psisurge until i've rolled well, then turn it on to cover the bad rolls that may come after.

Worked like a charm! Started with some middling rolls, but I held firm until I rolled 2 0s in a row...then turned on psisurge and guided through to the end. Still ran out of EP at the end and went the last round without it, but rolled a 7 and won with 3 EP left.

I have both rings this time, so used 2 rendalims to pick up the 3 meals. As it turned out, killed the shadow reavers in 2 rounds with 0 damage taken. Used alether on villains, but rolled very well and killed them with 24 EP left. With a +2 on Vonotar, judging my 19 to his 21 EP is enough to finish him without using more potions (and it was, easily).

47/56 fights with the sommerswerd. I can afford to fight 6 more times without it and still get my ratio.

Items for last book:
4 +4 EP Laumspur
1 +6 EP Rendalim
1 +8 EP Silver Flask
1 +10 EP Oede
1 +2 CS Alether