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Post by Honza on Aug 10, 2011 18:30:27 GMT
Which award was for you the hardest to achieve? Which one was the most tiresome? Any interesting/funny experience from hunting them?
For me, the hardest was certainly "Low combat run" from book 7, and "Kalkoth hunt" from book 3 was right after it.
However, the most annoying one was book 9 epic fail. I haven't neither Huntmastery, nor Weaponmastery with daggers. So the chance was 50/50. You know what? It took me 11 attempts to gain it ;D
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Post by uziel on Aug 11, 2011 9:59:33 GMT
Well... I don't have all the awards from books 8, 9 & 10 as yet... but for the rest...
The single hardest award for me was the Fresh Start for Book 8. I had so much trouble with that award, it nearly did my head in. The Kalkoth one is right up there as a close second for me. Funnily enough I found the Low Combat Run from book 7 really easy.
But hey, I can't talk... I'm still trying to decipher a few of the awards I still need for book 8 as yet (as I tend to do the fresh starts and then achieve all other awards for each book before I start "award-hunting" in future books). I'm a completionist by nature in all things... plus the award hunting is really fun as I do find myself making choices that I wouldn't normally have taken (which is kinda the point).
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Post by kamikaze1900666 on Aug 14, 2011 19:07:27 GMT
... plus the award hunting is really fun as I do find myself making choices that I wouldn't normally have taken (which is kinda the point). That's exactly the point. Most of the brainstorming for awards was inspired by what is now an epic fail path in Book 3. As a kid, I just skimmed the sections, eager to get to my options, and knew it was a losing path to avoid at all costs. So, I was left with the question "why do I always avoid that path?" when reading through it again as an adult. When I experimented with the failure, I stumbled across a passage which I still think is a totally awesome addition to the Kalte experience- yet the only way to see it was to lose (thus involving a string of options I never took). That, along with seeing how many potions, gems, etc. I could stockpile and whether I wanted a bloodbath or stealthy run kinda drummed up most the rest. Just using this sentence as a shout out to those who helped pointing out new paths I didn't think up of to help bring about the rest- thanks for the input ;-) The hint style is more along the lines of what I grew up with playing old PC and NES RPGs. With no guides to help me, I'd spend hours racking my brain to try to decipher what actions I needed to take to revive the Orbs, defeat the Dragonlord, or seal Exodus. From the subtle vagueness of "there's another king somewhere" and other obscure hints I was supposed to know there was some guy in a remote cave only accessible when the moons are in the right phase with info vital to my quest. I try to be a little more specific than that, but I love a good brain teaser. As for my award hunting and testing- the one epic fail in book 1 proved to be the one with the most difficulty so far. Manipulating my stats to die at just the right passage proved to be a brutal exercise in trial and error. Took me about 40 tries to get it. |
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Post by formentar on Sept 9, 2011 16:55:55 GMT
As for my award hunting and testing- the one epic fail in book 1 proved to be the one with the most difficulty so far. Manipulating my stats to die at just the right passage proved to be a brutal exercise in trial and error. Took me about 40 tries to get it. I tried and failed once, then wrote a program to figure out how to do it. Unfortunately I forgot about the 10 EP lost to the bomb, so I ended up dying again. But just now I managed to get the award, starting with CS 12, EP 29. According to my program, I had a 56.1% chance of success when I went into the battle unarmed and with 27 EP, and by the last round it had risen to 75%. I've taken into account the random number table guiding on Prodigy, but I have assumed that LW's CS is constant in the fight (so ignoring the possibility of equipping weapons with/without weaponskill or dropping them altogether), and I also haven't taken into account potions/chainmail/helmet which may help widen the window of good EPs. Under these assumptions, going into the fight with EP 31 (29 + chainmail - 2 damage) and CS 7 gives you 86% chance of success. I think it's possible to get above 90% with the right equipment. Just a quick follow-up: There's at best a 37.5% chance of not losing your backpack to the Kraan if you avoid the Gourgaz. If you manage to hang on to the backpack and have chainmail + two laumspur meals, you can go into the fight at CS 5-6 (base CS 10, unarmed) and with 33 EP (base 29, plus 4 from chainmail). You can succeed with final EP anywhere between, I think, 4 and 23. This requires you to deactivate the 'intelligent autoheal' rule, then either reactivate it or deactivate 'generous armor removal' after the fight in order to get your EP into the right range before the bomb. This is assuming that you'll be able to eat the meals just after the fight. If my calculations are correct, you then have a >98.6% chance of success. Alternatively, go for the Gourgaz with base CS 15 plus weaponskill for a reasonably safe win, then lose one CS in the graveyard and fight Kolanis's son with CS 10, with >90% chance of success (assuming healing and two laumspur meals). |
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Post by melusca on Sept 14, 2011 18:43:06 GMT
Fresh run on book 10 was insanely hard for me (even though it's labelled as "easy"  ). That roll in the stairs near the end is extremely unfair: running into Porky (8 chances out of 10 or something) usually means instant death. Kalkoth hunting is pretty easy once you know the trick (thankfully a friend of mine told me how he got it, or I'd still be dreading those OHKOs). I got book 9's Epic Fail twice in a row without even trying :x I had a lot of fun with high-combat run in book 8 (LW probably killed every Monk of the Sword in Magnamund this day) and no-equipment run in book 7 (dunno why but throwing the Power Key in section 1 felt hilarious). I usually like low-combat runs a lot too (especially if you can finish the book without even one fight). |
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Post by Dave on Sept 14, 2011 19:37:34 GMT
(dunno why but throwing the Power Key in section 1 felt hilarious). I know what you mean... Can you imagine the exchange of horrified looks by the people that sent Lone Wolf off through the Power shield? Lone Wolf stands up in the small boat and casually tosses his only means of escape over the side into the water... "What is he doing?!?! Is he crazy?!" Oh yeah... totally nuts. |
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Post by uziel on Sept 18, 2011 2:42:11 GMT
I know what you mean... Can you imagine the exchange of horrified looks by the people that sent Lone Wolf off through the Power shield? Lone Wolf stands up in the small boat and casually tosses his only means of escape over the side into the water... "What is he doing?!?! Is he crazy?!" Oh yeah... totally nuts. He's a guy that willingly throws himself at undead, Darklords and all manner of other fiends on a regular basis. The same guy who walks alone into Helgedad, telling himself he can totally wipe out the Darklords and undermine their entire rule over Magnamund in a single adventure. The same guy who never "checks himself before he wrecks himself" before clicking his heels on the way to the Plane of Darkness to effectively slap Naar upside the head. No, he's totally sane and not at all kooky. |
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Post by Dave on Feb 6, 2012 4:19:31 GMT
I just earned the Tragic Son of Sommerlund. Sheesh! That took me an hour or more, the worst part was when I repeatedly got exactly the roll on the last round that would kill the robber, while still leaving me with exactly the right number of hit points. It probably took 12-15 tries. I know that's nothing compared to the recent 40+ attempts at book 11 fresh starts, but still... that's a lot! I have yet to attempt the daring-do award for book 1, but I've got the rest of the Book 1 awards.
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Post by uziel on Feb 6, 2012 8:35:13 GMT
Not at all, the Tragic Son of Sommerlund is tricky for entirely different reasons. Not to mention the fact that it's right near the end of the book. I'm struggling to get a few of the book 8 awards still, but at least contracting Korovax occurs right at the start... so if I get a good roll, then I just can restart and in a few clicks try again.
Only 3 awards for Book 8 to go!
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Post by melusca on Feb 6, 2012 20:29:47 GMT
The do-daring attempt for book 1 seems insane. Do you actually HAVE to meet that snake? Just finding it seems more improbable than surviving all the other hazards combined...
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Post by uziel on Feb 7, 2012 8:30:01 GMT
The do-daring attempt for book 1 seems insane. Do you actually HAVE to meet that snake? Just finding it seems more improbable than surviving all the other hazards combined... It's actually not that bad to achieve, compared to some of the other awards in the later books. Except for the part where your horse plunges into the marsh and you need a specific die roll. That can be brutal if you're unlucky. If you want help some help on where the Marshviper is, highlight below... After defeating the Gourgaz, hide from the Doomwolves and head deep into the forest. Beat the disguised Drakkar and Vordak, then you need to fail to escape the marsh twice and then you need to roll a 9. Tough stuff!
If you do manage all of that, then make sure you don't screw up now! You need to continue into the marsh, and voila is the Marshviper. If you lose any EP, you're toast, so be careful.
Handy tip: If you're playing in Hardcore mode then this should be easy to achieve with a long weapon, as you can't lose any EP in the first round of combat and with avg CS and ultra-low EP, the viper should go down in a single round. |
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Post by melusca on Feb 7, 2012 20:59:40 GMT
Actually I knew where the snake was (thanks for the Hardcore suggestion though, I hadn't thought of that), but I wondered if this encouter was mandatory. The hint reads "You don't have to lose your horse, but if you do, a snake and an arrow in the back can help", or something like that. So I suppose you can earn the award without meeting the snake. I hope to, because getting that 9 feels more improbable than defeating the Chaos Master with your bare hands in book 11. Which awards could require more luck than that? I didn't try most of the death-defying ones (I have really bad luck with instant death, like that stupid horse after the archery contest in book 6 that kills me everytime, even with Huntmastery and Animal Control).
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Post by Dave on Feb 7, 2012 22:14:09 GMT
Most of the death-defying awards have a bit of leeway in terms of which actual sections you visit. Which means, no, you don't have to do the snake encounter to earn the award.
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Post by Ofecks on Feb 8, 2012 2:54:41 GMT
I finally finished my MK Hardcore run, so now that I can read all the hints, I'm doing a full Epic Failure playthrough (minus book 1, that will be last), with some random achievs along the way: Book 2 - Survive being poisoned... twice. This one's interesting because you can't bring Animal Kinship and thus have to get the spear later. And not only do you have to roll to encounter the snake (and not die), you have to roll to see if you even get poisoned. And then for the 2nd time, hope you got the Laumspur, otherwise it's a 50% instadeath with Healing. So yeah, lots of RNT analysis to find the ideal position for number guiding. Probably took a good dozen attempts. Book 4 - Kill two dudes with a bow. "Difficulty - Easy". HA! 3 important rolls here - the sniper (bottom-right has no zeroes!), the 1st shot which is maybe 60%, then the 2nd which is like 30%, and also requires specific actions to get there. Another dozen attempts. Book 5 - Kill Steamspiders. Not too bad, but again, a very specific path is needed. And I completely forgot that if you escape the sewer without getting Limbdeath, off to jail for you! I also grabbed the Potion meta. Book 4 showers you with them. I didn't even need to buy any in book 5. So do you absolutely need the SS to get Epic Failure #5? I noticed #9 and #12 also require a legacy item, which kinda sucks 'cause you have to do a ton of books to get there. I'm kinda surprised you didn't go with the Juggernaut sabotage, that was always my favorite death in the book. Next up, in book 6, I plan to knock out the "disrupt rituals" and what I assume is the Mischevious feat (steal a horse, clobber a kid, steal a boat). As far as the epic fail, do I have to get trampled? Wouldn't the cauldrons of boiling lead work just as well? Edit: The "Backpack weapon" medal in book 5 needs some more hints. Seriously, I'm stumped.  |
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Post by hemulen on Feb 8, 2012 8:35:13 GMT
Yeah, it's my experience too that the "difficulty level" can be a bit "off" at times.. At least concering how many restarts I needed for a certain award. For example the "high combat award" for book 11 is marked as "expert", and I got it by accident on my first run throuh the book, all the while trying to AVOID as many combats as possible...  Also I just completed book 1-12 on hardcore without healing / animal control, and it was probably easier that the other award that leaves you without weapon skill / psi surge. I had problems with that one too, but the answer was quite simple, as I've gone though the passage a number of times, but somehow ignored it. Minor spoiler: If I remember correctly, you want to go to jail first, in order to get it. |
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). That roll in the stairs near the end is extremely unfair: running into Porky (8 chances out of 10 or something) usually means instant death.
