It's on hold until I can figure out how to get High Combat in book 2.
e: Thanks to a kind soul in the awards FAQ thread, issue has been resolved! Book 3 coming
soon eventually now!
e9: And here it is,
The Caverns of Kalte.
LOTSA SPOILERS BELOWWe will be getting 4 awards in this book: High Combat, Charitable, Bounty, and Death-Defying. I learned my lesson from the last book, so I found UrQuan's post where he lists the changes in SSS' High Combat awards. In this book, we will need 10 combats (was 8 in vanilla SS). The bounty will take care of one of those, but it's a double-Kalkoth fight, ugh. No damage at all can be taken from them. We'll have max combat ratio, but will need to roll all 7s-0s to survive. ~16% chance at best (less if any 7s are rolled). Not that good. At least it's not too far into the book. In case you're wondering, the third Kalkoth we need will be killed via text in the same section as the combat, since we're ambushing the pack. So we only have to mess with them once.
Further complicating things are two RNT rolls that we need to
fail to get into the needed fights. One is 40%, the other (at the end of the book) is 50%. Both of these are past the half-way point so between those and the Kalkoths, so there will be a lot of restarts. On paper this doesn't look as bad as book 1's ridiculous odds, but there will also be a lot of non-healable EP damage. A LOT. As in, you'll be wandering around the last 1/3 of the book nearly dead on your feet and bleeding profusely from numerous mishaps.
While I mostly have the proper discipline setup for doing the Mischievous award (can't have Hunting, Camo, or MoM), we didn't do the graveyard in book 1 so that's out. Additionally, the Death-Defying route I take here will skip the potion section entirely. A few days ago I wrote out a path to do all the death-defying awards in the series, but the award total was less overall than my current plan. Seems a waste to get the permanent CS loss on this run when I won't be going for the meta after book 12, but it must be done.
Set-up: To get the High Combat award, we can't have Hunting, Camouflage, or Mind Over Matter, so the only Discipline choice here is Tracking. For equipment, take the Padded Leather Waistcost. The other item does not matter since we don't need weapons and will be losing our Backpack AGAIN in this book. Unless you rolled horribly in book 2's death-hulk battle, you should still have the +5 healing potion from our man Rendalim. If you already used it, take the Laumspur.
1) we are going up through Viad Glacier. Hm, up until RIGHT THIS SECOND, I always thought it was "Vlad" Glacier, like Dracula's real name. Too much Castlevania, man.
160) A Baknar draws near. Command? | Magic | Animal Kinship -> 318 ->
134) hello RNT, nice to see you again. | 0-3 (57) will have you dealing with snow-blindness. you can use Healing (17 then 62) to avoid a 2 EP loss (in addition to the upcoming unavoidable 3) | 4-6 (188), sledge obstacle. pick the using the sledges as a bridge | 7-9 (331) unfortunate weather, but we have healing to block the EP loss. we still lose 3 if we roll 0-4 | all paths lead to either:
167 or 232) both sections are functionally the same. roll it. we need to get a 0-6 to continue on this route. getting 7-9 is a book reset. we'll end up at:
85) Sixth Sense it
98) spooky. let's see what it is! before you do so, however, drink any healing potions you may have to restore lost EP.
49) I wonder who or what that was. geronimo. rip Backpack. I also wonder what your guides are thinking at this point. I guess they would wait all night watching for you, then when you don't return by morning, presume you dead and head back to the ship (and, canonically, die on the way there
). ANYWAY, let's see what our new discipline Tracking has to say.
342) useful info! let's derp it up and head away from our goal, though
199) caves behind waterfalls usually have treasure! let's find out what we...
82) uh oh. AK, whachu got fer us fam?
329) oh good. we need to kill these fuckers for the Bounty award. run in there with 'Swerd blazing
138) our ambush kills one outright (Bounty 1/3), but we still have two more to deal with. as stated in the book summary above, we can't lose *ANY* EP here, otherwise it's an insta-death. with the 'Swerd out, you have well over the +11 maximum ratio, so you need to roll multiple 7s-0s to pass here. good luck! (Combat 1/10)
25)
Victory! (Bounty 3/3 complete!) and they dropped TRESURE! grab that necklace
284) we get to play
Ninja Warrior! now imagine that obstacle, except it's ICE and the water below is exactly 1ºC. fun stuff, roll it | we want to succeed on this roll | if not, you can still survive, but you take 3 UHD (un-healable damage) which makes dealing with the rest of the book more difficult.
176) aw, tummy grumbles. let's see if that delicous aroma is, in fact, meat
5) it is! also ugly old men, ew. well, we can't possibly abide their existance in our beautiful world, wipe em out!
14) one down, one to go. he pops Adrenaline Rush but he's still a feeble old man (Combat 2/10)
309) cool, sick loots! grab em both! and we get to steal their food. a wonderful turn of events.
132) ah geez, nevermind. well, what do our disciplines have to say about this one?
229) why yes, we do have a Firesphere! -> 46 ->
269) yes, let's try to climb out. what could POSSIBLY go wrong with this decision?
335) risk our life and hands? lol, do you know what we've been through to even get there? keep going
55) oh. oh, dear. welp. (Death-Defying 1/4)
182) Track it
75) Some help you were, Tracking. left I guess?
235) stop and look for treasure on the floor
115) always open boxes!
218) NIIIIICE, we're rich!
52) that's a neat camo technique you got there. KILL IT!
265) gross, it's like those transparent plastic human dolls with the organs inside, only like, a snake (Combat 3/10)
3) always take treasure!
280) ow! [fudge]! another EP to add to the un-healable pile
344) hell yeah, we have TWO! -> 41 ->
221) always go in rooms, always investigate contents!
38) because it pays in dividends. new backpack yay! and a huge-ass rope
237) there's no way to have meals by this point on our route, MORE UNHEALABLE EP
east worked out fine for us last time, let's go that way again
92) yes we do indeed!
133) oh, you're damn right we want to play
Indiana Jones201) I'm kinda surprised there wasn't a RNT roll for that. open the spooky door
110) eh, re-inacting
that Indiana Jones scene doesn't seem like a good idea, though
256) this looks bad, we better duck
7) let's see if we can get this door open
242) are you thinking what I'm thinking? 'SWERD THAT SLAB
42) YES YES KEEP BEATING IT
294) okay, the UHD (un-healable damage) at this point is really concerning.
this is fine. we're fine. (Death-Defying 2/4)
106) freaky white-eyed ice barbarians! kill them! (and hope you roll well) (Combat 4/10)
338) disembodied heads with feet and a tail? nah, let's search for treasure instead
26) drop poor Halvorc's dagger for one of these neato bone ones! oooooooh, shiny. what do you want, Sixth Sense? I'm lootin here
231) oh shut the [fudge] up. it's GOLD man, look how rad this bling looks on...
187) AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH, HELP MINDSHIELD HELP
258) you're going to need to roll a low number here. as in, even if you survive this, if your max EP is 7 or less from UHD, you will not survive the Helghast encounter later, so just reset. (Death-Defying 3/4)
63) always open doors!
246) always open
chests loot containers!
45) slide that silver key on in there, mmmmhmmmm
303) ooooooooooooooo... what now Sixth Sense?
127) oh ok, I figured that anyway. always put on strange helmets! -> 308 ->
323) we want to win this roll, but ultimately it doesn't matter. | upon success (2), pull the lever | if you fail it (76), listen to your AK (51) and gtfo (261). both outcomes lead to:
290) Sixth Sense:
"HEY! LISTEN!"341) uh huh. cool story bro
264) I don't feel like playing hopscotch, just gonna walk over there...
60) hm, this could be bad. let's get out of here
306) yup, squeeze on through that portal. mmmmhmmmmm
206) ow. this book just keeps nickel-and-dime-ing us. let's try to evade this guy
183) roll it! we want to fail this time! if we pass the roll, we won't get enough combats for the award and have to reset the book. it's a 40% shot, good luck!
89) contrary to our Kai name, these puppers are not our friends. carve em up! (Combat 5/10)
161) more automaton natives (Combat 6/10)
210) oooooooh hello there shiny
316) Sixth Sense: "hey, you idiot, do you not remember what happ..." SHUT UP, LET ME LOOOT
236) AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH, HELP MINDSHIELD HELP (Sixth Sense facepalms)
345) whew. ok I think we've learned our lesson this time. maybe. more importantly: (Death-Defying 4/4 complete!)
215) always open doors!
13) oh hey a person! let's say hello
128) ask him about ragadorn if you need some healing from the previous fights. when you're good to go, free him from the magical shield
170) OH [fudge]! welp, that's what we get for being Lawful-Good! unleash the god-blade!
304) I'd might consider this a boss fight, but it's the 'Swerd vs an undead so naaaahhh. Hopefully you have enough EP left to survive up to 3 rounds. roll well! (Combat 7/10) -> 20 ->
254) ok THIS guy has to be a good guy. JD wouldn't put two helghasts in a row here would he? -> 56) whew.
-> 192 -> 44 ->
270) tsk tsk, slaughtering unarmed savages. for shame (Combat 8/10)
340) oh thank Ishir. That 6 EP is certainly welcome. It doesn't even cut our UHD in half, though
-> 301 ->
179) big RNT time. it's a 50/50 and we need 5-9. unfortunately if you don't get it, you'll need to reset (tragically, on the very threshold of victory...)
296) shouldn't be an issue to survive 3 round here. it's reaching this section that's the real concern (Combat 9/10) -> 173 ->
164) Heeeey big ugly!
BOSS FIGHT!!! Badass BGM aside, it sadly isn't much of one. at this point, your massive CS and the 'Swerd will make quick work of him. actually, it's impossible with our stats to NOT kill it in 5 rounds or less. zombie calamari for dinner tonight! (Combat 10/10 complete!) (Boss Fights 3/5)
272) We have the Sommerswerd and we wish to use it. -> 213 -> 252 ->
350) Finish! A well-earned victory of a really difficult run.
(for clarification, all the below edits were made before completing the book and posting the route above)
e2: Hoo boy, 13 attempts so far in book 3. These might not count since I'm not entirely sure if I can get the Death-defying award on this route, but it's proving to be a difficult thing to even test. Assuming I even survive the Kalkoth encounter, the amount of non-healable EP damage I take is insane. I'm wandering around the last 1/3 of the book nearly dead on my feet and bleeding profusely from numerous mishaps.
e3: 50 attempts. Book 3 is not looking good as far as difficulty goes. About half of those deaths were to Kalkoth, the vast majority of the others were from RNT rolls that took me off the route I need to go. I had a couple deaths to a combination of rolling poorly in other combats and all the un-healable EP damage. I've made it to the roll I need to fail to fight the wolves + ice barbarian (section 183) 3 times, but I have yet to fail that roll like I need.
e4: 100 attempts. This book on a max-awards run is officially brutal. Unlike book 1 where your success lies in just a few RNTs, here you need a significantly increased number of favorable rolls, spread throughout the book. About every 20 attempts I managed to pass the Kalkoths. After that, you'll take 15 unavoidable, unhealable damage, then a RNT roll for more unhealable damage (you want 5 or less), followed by another point. Then you get to the first roll you need to fail. Even with a favorable outcome, you have to fight 3 wolves separately, then an ice barbarian, THEN a friggin Helghast, all likely on 10 EP or less. All of these fights basically need to be next-to-perfect. Loi-Kymar heals you for 6 which is good, but then you have another fight, then need to fail the 2nd roll, get next-to-perfect rolls on that combat, followed by the boss fight.
Basically the Kalkoths are the brick wall, the middle portion drains your EP, then the finale has you in a nasty series of fights all back-to-back, on low EP to boot. Not only that, but I'm starting to wonder just how many Death-defying sections I'll need to get the award. I managed to beat the book once (in 100 attempts, lol) by skipping a bunch of stuff, and 3 DD sections is not enough. Feasibly I can do 5 (one of which requires yet another RNT), and 6 at absolute most (assuming it's actually a DD section, but that one blasts you with 10 damage [un-healable, of course] which will require all the rest of the fights and rolls to be perfect and damage-free).
Gonna throw out a wild estimate of 500 attempts to get all 4 awards, assuming DD can be done with 5 sections. 1000 if you need 6. *gulp*
e5: 200 attempts. While I don't know for sure if this counts, you can evade that Kalkoth fight, choose to hit the rock outcrop to collapse the tunnel (50% roll) and kill(?) them that way, which is more likely than killing two in combat. Ideally, if you're covered in Baknar Oil, you don't even have to combat-evade them. Too bad, as on this route, you can't get the Baknar Oil because Animal Kinship skips that fight. Anyway, I really wish I could look at the source code and figure out all this stuff for sure, but I don't know which version of Visual Studio to use. UrQuan hasn't responded to any of my posts or the PM I sent him a while back, I'll see if I can get in touch with Dave.
e6: Dropping the rocks on the Kalkoths does not count as killing them.
Oh well, at least I tested it before resuming full runs again. I should be testing each part of this path anyway. Gonna try for just death-defying next.
e7: Progress! The death-defying award on this route can be achieved by doing the following: rolling 0-3 then 0-6 (28% overall) in the ice floes section, climbing the ice walls and losing 2 CS permanently, destroying stone door with the 'Swerd, putting on a golden bracelet (and surviving the damage roll), and putting on ANOTHER bracelet later (thankfully the 2nd one doesn't cause any UHD [un-healable damage]). Now, to combine this and the high-combat and bounty... yeah 500 attempts for sure. I'll keep banging my head against it until all the RNT rolls fall into place.
e8: Finally victorious.
232 attempts. Turns out you only need 4 of those Death-defying sections I mentioned above. I found this out by not getting the outcome I wanted on jumping the ice floes, but I continued my route anyway, just in case. I got super-lucky in all the rolls I needed from there, so I'm glad I didn't restart! Full final route incoming.
). They give you a retarded amount of CS-increasing loot, plus all my goodies and bonuses from before... I was a walking tank of death. I gravity-bong'd the Adagna on the Gnagg fight (yes, I made him wait while I smoked up), and ended up with a CS of 67(!). That's probably the absolute highest you can ever get in Prodigy mode. Swatted Gnaag (ha!) in 3 rounds - 70 EP, 61, 47, 0. Owned. Scoring a "K" on him felt pretty damn good. Also grabbed the bounty hunter award during my killing spree. The streets will flow with the blood of the nonbelievers... or something.
east worked out fine for us last time, let's go that way again
-> 192 -> 44 ->
-> 301 ->