Edit history:
Fragmaster01: 2016-04-29 10:21:48 pm
Fragmaster01: 2016-04-29 10:19:49 pm
Fragmaster01: 2016-04-29 10:19:09 pm
Fragmaster01: 2016-04-29 07:17:59 pm
Fragmaster01: 2016-04-29 05:17:01 pm
Fragmaster01: 2016-04-29 03:07:54 pm
Fragmaster01: 2016-04-29 01:39:43 pm
Wiggle wiggle
Twas rather odd to see no thread for Vicky. It's a top-down ARPG that mainly focuses on skill and good gameplay over Phat Loot(though you can certainly indulge the phat loot). Well worth a look. Anyway, down to speed runnins.
Difficulty: Casual, Normal, Hard. Casual is Boring, and Hard has very awkward balance issues at the start(you will be farming spiders for the first area, and dealing chip damage thereof). Hard NewGame+ would be amusing, but I lack the assortment of legendary weapons to make that happen. Hence, we'll look at Normal, New Game. Timer starts when you hit go, ends when you kill Gabriel.
Weapons: The main strategy of the game involves what sort of weapons you're going to use, both in terms of type and modifiers. Since we'll be frighteningly low level by the end, some things are different than you'd normally expect.
Shotgun - THE boss fighting weapon against proper bosses. Which seems incredibly counterintuitive, as it's the generic pew pew weapon. However, split-timing your attacks makes the enemy vulnerable(next shot auto-crits), and keeping up the DDR chain means that every attack is a crit. Thus, we can stack crit damage to the moon and make it very strong despite our low-level base damage.
Hammer - Useful at the start, for XP Challenges that need killing multiple enemies, or overkilling enemies. Use the Smash when it comes up, otherwise don't bother. It's too slow at our level to whomp on people.
Scythe - Not as useful later, because staying in melee is a terrible proposition. Up front, however, it's a wonderful early weapon, and excellent for the Broodmother.
Rapier - Comes with a base 100 armor penetration, which is excellent for tanky targets. The dash is a good mobility tool, especially if you have weak enemies to hit with E to reset it.
Tome - Not that great for prolonged fights unless you get a really fancy one. That said, it's the best travel item in the game: shoot an enemy every 5 seconds to grab arcane power, and then do 5 dashes in a row once charged.
We don't like the Sword, because it needs good base crit rate. The Hand Mortar is amusing, but Aether Vials and Boomerangs fill the role it does. That said, if you get a Chicken Cannon, go to town. The Lightning Gun needs its Legendary card to be useful, as well as a Cooldown Reduction mod.
Cards: The Runner is obviously our favorite: it makes it so normal running is as fast as constantly rolling, to save our fingers. Sadly, it doesn't seem to pop up in the shop until level 16. Confirmation?
Strength is good for melee weapons. The Rogue is good for the Shotgun. Any card with the Wicked ability that gives speed is awesome. If you have empty spots, the Moon is a good one for free true damage. Sell the rest.
Levelup Rewards: If you see a good card, go for it. Generally, grab the Gift Boxes and use them immediately for swag. The spider scythe at 4 is helpful.
Powers: Boomerang is your best source of damage, because you can fire it and keep running. Blink is awesome for travel, but I didn't see it until late. Confirmation?
Weapon Mods: Weapons in your second slot still give passive benefits, so long as it's not a local mod like +x% crit rate. A good Elder(40%ish) is really handy for leveling purposes, as is Luck/Extraordinary Luck for bosses. Extra gold isn't as needed, since monsters don't drop much compared to challenges, and we can't really afford Irene weapons anyway. Increased Overdrive Rate is nice.
For our actual weapons, Vampiric(health on hit) is the best, followed by Increased Damage Percent, Increased Crit Rate(on non-shotguns), and Increased Crit Damage. Attack Speed is nice on spammy weapons like the Rapier. Reduced Cooldowns are good on travel weapons, as well as the Hammer.
Game Flow:
Tutorial - Run through to the castle. Q the spiders if its up, but don't bother sticking around if you don't get a kill. Try and hit as many dummies as possible to fill overdrive during that part. Take the Constant Overdrive Regen outfit(the dapper black one).
Gardens>Adrian - Need to research exactly which secrets are best for XP, as I don't remember them all. Killing the spider eggs is Very Easy. You want a Hammer to drop from the spider Champion on the way to the first crypt. The crypt with the first Tzar Borimir sighting is good for early XP; use your shotgun, and clear out the side area on the left as you enter: this will give you exactly 80 kills by the end for all those challenges. You need enough gold to buy Aether Vials later.
The Adrian crypt with the Gangnam Style dancers you should get all secrets. You'd need to go down for the dancer's XP anyway. Additionally, the second and last Deflied Dead sarcophogi have boomerang enemies: you really want one.
Adrian - If you have a rapier, E him for bleeding, then go around shooting him a lot. Don't stand in melee, his swords hurt.
For the Bane miniboss, wait until his minions spawn, then use a Fire Bomb to clear most of them out.
Still working on strategies for later. 4 Secrets in the Hunting Grounds is easy to get, and I think that one is 5000xp? A lot.(edit: 2000)
Vail the Immortal is easier with a mortar cannon to shoot yourself over the first ledge. You have to finish it without dying, as the phylactery and the gargoyles will respawn.
Rachnos needs a high base damage weapon, as the pillars are immune to crit damage.
The Broodmother is the best source of XP in the game. If you have a spider slayer scythe(level 4 gets you a weak one, but you can find more hopefully), go to town. Bombs clear out eggs as well. Not sure of where you want to be final levelwise: I died a LOT at level 16 final boss(since you're supposed to be like 30+). To reset the boss, die without killing her. Additionally, if you fight her before the quest to do so, it will still count.
Elsa dies easily to targeted Boomerangs. You can talk with Borimir after she dies, even if there's other monsters around.
Apocalypse is a lesson in shotgunning. You'll really want Aether Vials here: spam boomerang like the dickens once you kill the first Shade and Apocalypse falls down. If done well, he'll die before you get mobbed. If done poorly... yeah.
Bring a Rapier for the Well of Worlds mob fight. You need it for the gargoyle champions.
The solicitor is another shotgun fest. Bring an AoE melee weapon for the demon seeds. Note that the dungeon prior, you don't have to fight Anyone at all. Just run to the exit.
Hopefully you have a Blink by the final dungeon. It'll help if you get enemy blocked.
I went clockwise on Gabriel's machines. This ends you at one overlooking the final arena, so you can just jump down. Kill yourself immediately once you're in the final fight: this will reset your overdrive, items used, etc, and he'll still be at full health for that stage, rather than reverting.
I got 1:58 with a ton of deaths at level 16. It could easily go sub 1:30.
Attempt 2: You need need an Elder weapon by level 10. Broodmother farming takes too long otherwise.
Stock up on Aether vials. Goober stopped selling them in my game, and I only grabbed 5 at the start. Bad plan.
Attempt 3: Farming to 16 is "safe", but not entirely helpful. You're better off farming to 12, and using challenges to get to 16 by apocalypse. As a note of how the run is very much about adapting to what you get, the Repeater dropped, which made Gabriel a joke. At the same time, I didn't have any good travel weapons, nor did I get a blink even with gambling all my spare powers to see if I could get one. That cost a lot. 1:50.
Difficulty: Casual, Normal, Hard. Casual is Boring, and Hard has very awkward balance issues at the start(you will be farming spiders for the first area, and dealing chip damage thereof). Hard NewGame+ would be amusing, but I lack the assortment of legendary weapons to make that happen. Hence, we'll look at Normal, New Game. Timer starts when you hit go, ends when you kill Gabriel.
Weapons: The main strategy of the game involves what sort of weapons you're going to use, both in terms of type and modifiers. Since we'll be frighteningly low level by the end, some things are different than you'd normally expect.
Shotgun - THE boss fighting weapon against proper bosses. Which seems incredibly counterintuitive, as it's the generic pew pew weapon. However, split-timing your attacks makes the enemy vulnerable(next shot auto-crits), and keeping up the DDR chain means that every attack is a crit. Thus, we can stack crit damage to the moon and make it very strong despite our low-level base damage.
Hammer - Useful at the start, for XP Challenges that need killing multiple enemies, or overkilling enemies. Use the Smash when it comes up, otherwise don't bother. It's too slow at our level to whomp on people.
Scythe - Not as useful later, because staying in melee is a terrible proposition. Up front, however, it's a wonderful early weapon, and excellent for the Broodmother.
Rapier - Comes with a base 100 armor penetration, which is excellent for tanky targets. The dash is a good mobility tool, especially if you have weak enemies to hit with E to reset it.
Tome - Not that great for prolonged fights unless you get a really fancy one. That said, it's the best travel item in the game: shoot an enemy every 5 seconds to grab arcane power, and then do 5 dashes in a row once charged.
We don't like the Sword, because it needs good base crit rate. The Hand Mortar is amusing, but Aether Vials and Boomerangs fill the role it does. That said, if you get a Chicken Cannon, go to town. The Lightning Gun needs its Legendary card to be useful, as well as a Cooldown Reduction mod.
Cards: The Runner is obviously our favorite: it makes it so normal running is as fast as constantly rolling, to save our fingers. Sadly, it doesn't seem to pop up in the shop until level 16. Confirmation?
Strength is good for melee weapons. The Rogue is good for the Shotgun. Any card with the Wicked ability that gives speed is awesome. If you have empty spots, the Moon is a good one for free true damage. Sell the rest.
Levelup Rewards: If you see a good card, go for it. Generally, grab the Gift Boxes and use them immediately for swag. The spider scythe at 4 is helpful.
Powers: Boomerang is your best source of damage, because you can fire it and keep running. Blink is awesome for travel, but I didn't see it until late. Confirmation?
Weapon Mods: Weapons in your second slot still give passive benefits, so long as it's not a local mod like +x% crit rate. A good Elder(40%ish) is really handy for leveling purposes, as is Luck/Extraordinary Luck for bosses. Extra gold isn't as needed, since monsters don't drop much compared to challenges, and we can't really afford Irene weapons anyway. Increased Overdrive Rate is nice.
For our actual weapons, Vampiric(health on hit) is the best, followed by Increased Damage Percent, Increased Crit Rate(on non-shotguns), and Increased Crit Damage. Attack Speed is nice on spammy weapons like the Rapier. Reduced Cooldowns are good on travel weapons, as well as the Hammer.
Game Flow:
Tutorial - Run through to the castle. Q the spiders if its up, but don't bother sticking around if you don't get a kill. Try and hit as many dummies as possible to fill overdrive during that part. Take the Constant Overdrive Regen outfit(the dapper black one).
Gardens>Adrian - Need to research exactly which secrets are best for XP, as I don't remember them all. Killing the spider eggs is Very Easy. You want a Hammer to drop from the spider Champion on the way to the first crypt. The crypt with the first Tzar Borimir sighting is good for early XP; use your shotgun, and clear out the side area on the left as you enter: this will give you exactly 80 kills by the end for all those challenges. You need enough gold to buy Aether Vials later.
The Adrian crypt with the Gangnam Style dancers you should get all secrets. You'd need to go down for the dancer's XP anyway. Additionally, the second and last Deflied Dead sarcophogi have boomerang enemies: you really want one.
Adrian - If you have a rapier, E him for bleeding, then go around shooting him a lot. Don't stand in melee, his swords hurt.
For the Bane miniboss, wait until his minions spawn, then use a Fire Bomb to clear most of them out.
Still working on strategies for later. 4 Secrets in the Hunting Grounds is easy to get, and I think that one is 5000xp? A lot.(edit: 2000)
Vail the Immortal is easier with a mortar cannon to shoot yourself over the first ledge. You have to finish it without dying, as the phylactery and the gargoyles will respawn.
Rachnos needs a high base damage weapon, as the pillars are immune to crit damage.
The Broodmother is the best source of XP in the game. If you have a spider slayer scythe(level 4 gets you a weak one, but you can find more hopefully), go to town. Bombs clear out eggs as well. Not sure of where you want to be final levelwise: I died a LOT at level 16 final boss(since you're supposed to be like 30+). To reset the boss, die without killing her. Additionally, if you fight her before the quest to do so, it will still count.
Elsa dies easily to targeted Boomerangs. You can talk with Borimir after she dies, even if there's other monsters around.
Apocalypse is a lesson in shotgunning. You'll really want Aether Vials here: spam boomerang like the dickens once you kill the first Shade and Apocalypse falls down. If done well, he'll die before you get mobbed. If done poorly... yeah.
Bring a Rapier for the Well of Worlds mob fight. You need it for the gargoyle champions.
The solicitor is another shotgun fest. Bring an AoE melee weapon for the demon seeds. Note that the dungeon prior, you don't have to fight Anyone at all. Just run to the exit.
Hopefully you have a Blink by the final dungeon. It'll help if you get enemy blocked.
I went clockwise on Gabriel's machines. This ends you at one overlooking the final arena, so you can just jump down. Kill yourself immediately once you're in the final fight: this will reset your overdrive, items used, etc, and he'll still be at full health for that stage, rather than reverting.
I got 1:58 with a ton of deaths at level 16. It could easily go sub 1:30.
Attempt 2: You need need an Elder weapon by level 10. Broodmother farming takes too long otherwise.
Stock up on Aether vials. Goober stopped selling them in my game, and I only grabbed 5 at the start. Bad plan.
Attempt 3: Farming to 16 is "safe", but not entirely helpful. You're better off farming to 12, and using challenges to get to 16 by apocalypse. As a note of how the run is very much about adapting to what you get, the Repeater dropped, which made Gabriel a joke. At the same time, I didn't have any good travel weapons, nor did I get a blink even with gambling all my spare powers to see if I could get one. That cost a lot. 1:50.
Thread title: