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Originally Posted by perth
How in the HELL are you on ascension 4 (5?)?
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I'll censor myself as best I can on this, since we have a lot of new players listening in who might not want blatant spoilers.
* The Naughty Sorceress has variable stats that level with yours. There's no point in levelling to 15 if you can take her out at 11, which is the earliest you can get that quest.
* Obviously, the best food and drinks == more adventures == faster Ascensions. If you cook/craft/purchase up good items and have them in storage for your next run, you can pull out things like Chow Meins and umbrella drinks on Day 1 and get out of Ronin in about six days. Not that you _have_ to get out of Ronin to beat the Sorceress, as the record's a bit under 600 turns right now... but I don't have three Mr. A's (or better items) per character to speed things up. With one each, I can barely survive in the Castle in the Sky around Turn 1000, and when I end Ronin and can hit the Mall and such again, Ascension comes quickly.
* The path to the Sorceress's Chamber doesn't have a lot of variation to it. The puzzles are similar every time, the monsters going up the Tower have set solutions (though you might get different ones or a different order each time through), and you can plan ahead by keeping stashes of items you'll need later in your inventory/Hagnk's Storage.
* Likewise, before you Ascend, pre-assemble cool stuff (food, drinks, x-in-the-boxes, meat maids, beanbag chairs, cottages, etc.) that you can pull out and benefit from right away on the other side. Put the items for things like the Pagoda, the outfits, etc. on standby, so that when you find a Hey Deze Map you can go straight to Hagnk's and *whammo* instant quest reward, instead of having to slog through certain zones for hours on end. If you need Ores, have the Miner's outfit handy. If you need to cross the Orc Chasm, have the proper outfit ready to get _that_ quest item. And so on.
That can get expensive, particularly for the food and drinks. I think I worked out up-front costs for my characters at something like (Chow Mein components: (~2500 + ~400 + ~1000 + 64 + noodles I make myself) x 3 = ~12000/day, DB drinks = (~2400 x 5) = ~12000/day, putting that around 150K meat for a six-day Ronin run. That's a lot of meat, but when I've Ascended I can spend some time hammering on the Icy Peak or playing the mall to make a lot of that back. You'll also earn a guaranteed 27K or so along the way, plus whatever you get from adventures.
But anyway, the point is to spend adventures building up stats with your trusty Volleyball boosting them, not slogging through 75 unproductive trips through the the Haiku Dungeon waiting for a fucking Fairy Gravy to drop.
* High Moxie or items/skills that lower monster power are important for keeping you alive in fights that should be killing you.
* Abuse stat days to their fullest. A newly Ascended character starting on a stat day that matches its new class's primary can be Level 7 by end of day, if he's got the proper edibles ready to pull out.
* Abuse familiars to their fullest. Skills and items that boost familiar levels are wonderful. Between Empathy of the Newt, Amphibian Sympathy, Leash of Linguini, Tiny Figures and each familiar's signature equipment, you can start _new_ familiars at Level 24, or jack them all the way up to Level 43. THAT's something we couldn't do in the old days, and a level 43 Volleyball or Leprechaun can have startling results. The Cake-Shaped Arena is vital for boosting familiar levels.
My current characters have three "extra" skills each from prior Ascensions, took advantage of the Myst day yesterday, and have played through two days each on these runs. Their stats:
#1: L7 Turtle Tamer. Muscle 65 (45), Myst 61 (41), Moxie 66 (31). Currently battling the Cyrpt. Equipment: Lihc Face, Linoleum Sword (can pull out better tomorrow), Miner's Pants, Mr. A, (bonus item giving +5/all), Sneaky Pete's Breath Spray, Palm-Frond Toupee.
#2: L8 Pastamancer. Muscle 47 (32), Myst 70 (55), Moxie 61 (31). Currently battling the Cyrpt. Same equipment as above, but subbing in a Homoerotic Frat-Paddle and Kickback Cookbook.