Am I ready HC for Book 11?

[John Bryntze]

Ok I started a hardcore campaign with one goal.. to fix book 11... I collected all items needed I hope... took all CS boosting skills...
I'm starting book 10... I know I cannot leave stuff since book 11 wont let you switch stored items (makes sense... nearly 7 times ;-)

so look my backpack


am I ready?

[Honza]

Hard to say

I think the problem isn't only in your CS (unless you have chosen 10/20 hardcore), but in the number of unavoidable fights, after the Chaosmaster. I tried HC run too, and had to restart book 11 twice, once killed by Villains, not due to low CS, but due to low EP, and second time by Vonotar's blast. (It is annoying that SS isn't ALWAYS able to deflect enemy spells - book 10 Kimah, book 11 Vonotar).

In my third attempt I had 10 EP left before Vonotar, and luckily won with 3 EP.

The real challenge will be book 11 fresh start, but I can tell you that Dave did some nice improvements in book 11, for Prodigy mode...

[John Bryntze]

I manage to fix book 11 on first run... thanks to Oede and Rendalim I got back EP in time for villains and Vonotar.. but I also chose weaponskill with Broadsword (for Chaos Master), Bow and dagger (dagger to easier kill Kimah in book 9)
I also got with Mongoose stats

[Ofecks]

I'm not quite there yet myself. Just finished book 8 HC. My strategy is a bit different from yours, since I'm starting with 6, so no SS, Silver Helm, +4 Alether, Oede, etc.

Here's the rundown:
- Weaponmastery (warhammer (for bronin), sword (for helshezag), broadsword (chaos-master))
- Huntmastery
- Nexus
- Curing (7)
- Psi-Surge (8+)

Book 6 was very very difficult fresh. You need all the gold you can to buy Alether Berries + the stuff at Luyen, which basically amounts to doing the graverobber fight. Castle Taunor is also required for both the potion and the warhammer (yawshath protip - aim for the legs!). Skipping meals is unacceptible, as you need every last drop of EP without Curing, hence the need for a lot of gold. Bow/quiver is necessary for skipping the fight in the first Roark encounter, the Yawshath (still RNT-dependent), and some pirates (still RNT-dependent). Nexus is very useful in this book for several purposes - getting the Warhammer without a rope; avoiding the extra EP damage from the undead; swimming across the Storn (1 EP, but still); and skipping the door fight. The Dakomyd is a jerk at -3, so you need some lucky rolls to win. I even sold my bow and bought a broadsword in Luyen for a no-damage first round. Makes me wish the Bronin Hammer was a special item. Still not sure if it's wise blowing 2 (or all) the Alether Berries in this book (berserkers, Dakomyd, possibly grave robbers).

Book 7 was easy. Grabbed the Lantern, Bow, more arrows, laumspur, and fireseeds (although in the path I take here, they're useless). Land at the sheltered bay and run run run from everything. Having the lantern opens up the path to the room containing the Shield, a necessary item. If you end up dropping down into the snake pit, Curing helps tremendously, and you can pick up some bonus items (I think? maybe you need Animal Control for that). I managed to avoid it and ran into Tavig. He drops a bottle of water which is useful later. So in the maze, always take the sword (for the worm fight later), go left. Ignore the wolf and kill the bubbles. Invisible bridge - throw that bottle of water on it, pray you don't roll a 0, and escape with 6 EP lost (Curable, no biggie). Kill worm, climb up, and it's pretty much a straight shot to the end. Thanks to the lorestone fullheal, taking on Zahda is pretty easy.

Book 8 was interesting. Road path, met Jako at the inn. Because I'd amassed 40+ gold at this point, I skipped the vordak fight and headed to the ferry house. Free items, whoo! Back on the highway, reach Tharro. Now here, the only reason I went into the town was to get the Grey Crystal Ring. Since it only has that one use in book 11, and we now get a full EP restore after the fight, I'm not sure how useful it will be. Also, gotta deal with that Helghast. Thankfully I have Weaponmastery/swords and Paido's gives an additional +2 for being magical. Without Psi-screen, the fight sucks and I barely made it out alive. Instead, one could discard the Pass and skip Tharro entirely, but foregoing the ring and being able to sell off excess special items. I don't think money is even useful after book 8, unless I'm forgetting something. Anyway, the Anpheg encounter was a real nail-biter as I missed the bow shot, and he has a crapload of EP. Barely made it out of that one too. The swamp is EASY. The only thing I had to fight was that snake, and I have curing so the double-EP penalty didn't apply. Grabbed the lorestone, get a full heal, omg vordaks. I absolutely HAD to chug an alether for this one, and set it to mongoose rules. Even then, I BARELY killed both within 6 rounds. That's it for book 8, hopefully I haven't fucked myself by using alethers before book 11.

Edit: Yeah, I'm pretty much fucked, unless I roll nothing but 8-0s on the book 11 nasties, which hasn't happened. On my 5th attempt now.

So anyway, book 9 was easy, even though I had to restart once... I ignored the wagon heading to the north gate and hung around at the West. Ended up getting crushed by catapult fodder. Kimah is pretty manageable with the psychic ring.

On to book 10. This one required a restart as well. I messed up at the partisan camp and they chased me off to the Isle of Ghosts. Killed some doggies, then ran into the BOSS DOGGY. Thankfully I don't have the SS so I wasn't forced into a bullshit fight, so I pushed Roark's [nuts] in and nuked big doggy with his amulet. Ran ran ran without stopping all the way to Torgar. Unfortunately, I rolled very poorly on the drakkarim fight, and was too low to withstand big ugly sarge's attacks. 2nd try was successful.

Book 11... brutal as always. You actually have to FIGHT one of the Yaccor dudes if you don't have divination. Not a huge deal, there isn't much danger until the first EP restore. Chaos-master was a close fight as always, +0 ratio, -2 EP every round from psi-surge. Thankfully I had a backpack full of consumables to help with recharging. Now the next part is what broke all my other runs - I can't afford another boss fight, and I don't have invisibility so I gotta get lucky on the RN roll. My last attempt I rolled an 8 (lucky!) and fought the weaksauce lizard instead of the LW version of friggin Deathwing. Had plenty of EP going into the mindfight with the reavers. Didn't even really need that Gray Crystal Ring, afterall. I was +5 with it, and finished in 3 rounds with plenty of EP to spare. So yeah, healed by Kai, fed the sewer snake, and made my way to the villians. My life and my quest ends here. Seriously, this fight is impossible with my skillset/gear. -5 ratio, -2 EP every round. They have a crapton of health, and you pretty much NEED to roll 8, 9, or 0 the entire fight to stand a chance. I honestly don't feel like poopsocking on SS until the stars align, so I'm gonna start a HC run from book 1 and get the following advantages:

- The 'Swerd, although it may turn out to be a curse.
- Silver Helm
- Various Alethers/Laumspurs/Elixirs from the kai series
- Having a one-handed special weapon will 1) allow carrying a broadsword for first-round shenanigans and 2) let me not only grab bow in weaponmastery but also win the tourney. Having +6 and +8 to bow rolls could certainly prove useful.
- Not having to chug all my drugs in books 6-8 just to stay alive.
- I'll definitely be skipping tharro next time around.
- Will need 3 (or possibly 4) alethers for book 11, and will have to dump the swerd into storage starting with book 9.
- Same skillset, I think, but weaponmastery in bow, sword, broadsword.
- Instagibbing Gnaag. That is a rough fight without the swerd.

[Ofecks]

New HC run:

Deaths - 1
- Book 2. Facemelted by Helghast.

[John Bryntze]

Jan 3, 2012 1:12:01 GMT Ofecks said:

New HC run:

Deaths - 1
- Book 2. Facemelted by Helghast.

yeah Book 2 is hard! I took these skills that helps to defeat the helghast (had to replay 2 times)

Weaponskill - for book 11
Mindblast - for book 11
Healing - for book 11
Mind of Matter (not for book 1-5 but when it becomes Nexus in Magnakai)
Hunting (I don't like this one but it also get pretty good in Magnakai) and for book 11 I didn't want to carry any meals so I could put potions on all places in backpack then I need hunt to get food

[Ofecks]

Yup, that's the exact same skill setup I'm doing. From my experience so far that seems to be the optimal HC spec. In Magnakai, the only other ones that I'd consider taking would be Psi-Screen and Invisibility (only for book 11 bullshittery). Animal Control would be useful in many other situations too.

As luck would have it, I have weaponskill in spear in my new run. I just can't get three 1's in a row during that Helghast fight. =(

Edit: Kai series complete! A few thoughts so far:

- In book 1 I murdered the caravan dude so I could steal his money. I ended up giving half of it to the Ragadorn beggars in book 2, for no particular reason (remorse, maybe?).
- Getting weaponskill in spear was really awesome. Once I got the Magic Spear, there was no reason whatsoever to use the 'Swerd, unless fighting undead.
- I had to restart book 3 because I thought I'd be all clever and skip the silver key because I had Mind Over Matter. GUESS WHAT? I failed the roll to open the chest.
- I was potentially able to grab all 4 kalte potions thanks to my setup, but I smashed the black bottle.
- Got both flasks in book 4, but only kept one. I made sure to grab the Alether from the chest in the mines.
- Dumped all the potions I had into storage at the start of book 5 + 40 crowns for a rainy day (books 6/8 maybe)?
- Had to restart book 5 because I took the wrong path in the sewer and lost all my gold. I have a feeling the potions from the herb-mistress will be the difference between success and fail in the MK series.
- I decided to kill Haakon with the 'Swerd. Probably not the best idea, as I had to chug a couple healing pots beforehand, ended up at a 0 CR, and won with 5 EP left. Yeah, don't do that.

Edit Edit:
Deaths: 2
- Book 6: Shot full of holes for stealing a horse. I had just won the archery tournament too. I think I'll grab some red herring special items from deposit to give to Altan next time.

I'm going with weaponmastery in spear, sword, and bow this time. I'll be taking the 'Swerd with me to all books... we'll see how it goes (gulp).

[John Bryntze]

I didn't know you could find Alether in book 4!!!! nice.
Wait? Weaponmastery and not in Broadsword? what weapon will you use in the battle again Chaos Master? Sommwerswerd?
And in book 9 how will you finish of Kimah?

[Ofecks]

Gonna 'Swerd the both of them. I'm hoping the mongoose CS/EP variants nerf them considerably.

Edit: Deaths: 3
- Book 7: I'm considerably more powerful with the goodies from the Kai series, so I've been [fudgeing] around and getting into fights. I went RAWR to smash the boulder-eye on the beach but I don't have Psi-Surge so it ate me.

Also, I "bought" Altan's horse in book 6 with a Copper Key and a Brass Whistle, lol. ;D

Edit Edit: Deaths: 4
- Book 9: Okay, so I won't be 'Swerding Kimah then. He basically breathed on me and I died. Gonna leave lazersword in storage and do Magic Spear + Psychic Ring.

Edit ^3: Deaths: 5
- Book 11: 'Swerded the [fudge] out of Chaos-Master, but got pretty weakened by LW Deathwing, and ended up at the Shadow Reavers with 12 EP. Was down to the Oede + 1 Rendalims for restoratives, and debated on using one, but there's a full restore coming up, so [fudge] it. Psychic helmet activate. Had some ok rolls, 5, 4, 7... 1. Uh oh. EP critical. Next round... 1.

[Ofecks]

Bumpity bump.

Eat [nuts], book 11. I rolled quite poorly against the villians, but just barely scraped out a victory with 4 EP left. Chugged the rest of my drugs (oede + rendalim's), and decapitated Vonitar for making the previous fight 5-on-1. [pregnant dog].

Deaths: 6
- Book... 12?!? Yes, really. I failed the roll to dive-race Kraagenskul to his sword. *failhorn*

[Dave]

Jan 6, 2012 4:10:50 GMT Ofecks said:

Deaths: 6
- Book... 12?!? Yes, really. I failed the roll to dive-race Kraagenskul to his sword. *failhorn*

Ha! I'm enjoying this death by death account of your run... very entertaining!