A Skeletal HC Log

[Foxy Boxy]

I keep meaning to transcribe a log of one of my runs in detail. Failing that, I thought it might be helpful to give a very skeleton outline of a HC run, listing out some basics. I've gotten to the point where I'm pretty repeatably doing six-day HC runs and this is a brief rundown of how I do it. Feel free to ask follow-up questions because I know this is brief and lacking detail.

I am aided greatly by the following big-ticket items:
*) Clan VIP key, gives me access to the Pool table for buffs. Every day I get the myst buff which gives 30 turns of +10 MP (total 300 MP) which is plenty for daily summons (5x reagent, 5x dry noodles, 5x AdCock, stickers, favors) and some basic buffs (fat leon's, leash, madrigal for non-muscle)
*) A handful of IotM familiars, namely the He-Boulder and spleen familiars (Llama, Sandworm). Sadly, I slept on the Bandersnatch and don't have one.
*) Olfaction (a.k.a. Snifftome) and Hound Dog familiar, both bounty hunter hunter prizes
*) Sticker tome and Sugar tome
*) 70+ HC permed skills

You don't need some or all of these items, but they greatly improve run speed. With a smaller subset of HC perm skills (or no HC perm skills if this is your first run) and fewer (or none) IotMs, your runs will merely take longer. They're not harder, just longer. For example, what I accomplish in Day 1 may be your Days 1 through 4. A big chunk of my speed comes from hard work and time accumulating HC perm skills, but I admit some comes from meat and the fortune of being around when some items were cheap.

Day 1

Hit the Toot Oriole, get rewards. Sell all five pork gems for 2500 meat seed. Buy exactly five gums and fish five times in the sewer. Ideally get 2-3 trinkets. Priority from hermit, in order: buttered roll for Rock and Roll Legend, another clover for epic weapon to get boxen, sweet rims, widget for class's epic weapon if not currently an AT, dingy planks. I want a RnR Legend NOW so I need at least one. Everything else I need soon, but not right now now. Note I'm almost exclusively a muscle sign (Mongoose) so smithing is free, epic weapons are free.

I summon three sugar sheets, to make sugar shirts for the +stats. But I've got Torso. These last me the majority of Day 1.

Goal for Day 1 is to get to level 3 without eating so I can at least eat boring spaghetti, and level 4 without drinking so I can use my tavern swill and use my spleen items. Put on the He-Boulder and go to the Haunted Pantry, using a red ray to get a quick burst. Then switch to volleyball familiar (GGG or Crimbo PRESSIE for me personally because of the +MP to feed buffs). Stay in the Pantry to farm some tomatoes and get to level 2 ... I'll frequently Olfact Tomato cans because I'm running a non-fairy familiar here.

Level 2, go to the woods and do the larva quest. Ideally get a barskin tent out of it. If I get the stakes early enough, equip them to maybe get some vampire hearts. If I get the larva before hitting level 3, stay here until level 3 (or go back to the Pantry if I need more tomatoes). I typically hit level 3 with 15 or so turns left. Open the tavern and run through the tavern quest. If I run out of adventures, eat some spaghetti. Finish the tavern quest. If I haven't gotten a barskin tent by now, this is about the time I buy a Newbiesport tent. I get three free rests because I have Disco Nap and Disco Power Nap permed, so that's +10 HP/MP (or +20 with barskin) three times, good for a burst of replenishment.

Now I'm trying to get to level 4 with my remaining turns. Spend one turn at the guild to unlock the two guild quest givers (e.g. Duncan Drisorderly and Stradella in moxieland, the folks who give you the epic weapon quest and Fernswarthy quest respectively). If you are a muscle sign, you don't need a tenderizing hammer until much later, so the 1000 meat here is free money and very helpful. I need to farm a smart skull, disembodied brain, and a box for a bartender innabox. See my dissertation on why I prefer the bartender over the chef or meat maid. I do the Misspelled Cemetary until I get Fernswarthy's Key and hopefully at least one smart skull. If I got more than one smart skull, I may want to Olfact brainsweepers later and make a meat maid or chef innabox.

General grinding places right now are: Outskirts of Cobb's Knob until I get the encryption key, Haunted Pantry until I unlock Spookyraven Manor, Woods until I unlock Hidden Temple, Misspelled Cemetary, "Fun" House, and Fernswarthy's Tower. I usually make level 4 trying to get the smart skull / Fernswarthy's key.

Once I make level 4, buy a cocktailcrafting kit and make 3x tavern swill AdCocks. Cast ode, drink up. At this point I'm at 12 out of 14 drunk. Spend ONE turn at the Typical Tavern. Either I get beer lenses with one turn, or I get a +drunk result and want to spend NO MORE TURNS there. If I didn't get beer lenses today, better luck tomorrow. If I happened to get an ice cold beer from the Tavern quest earlier drink it now. Now I need to start working my favorite spleen items. Hopefully I've gotten a gong or agua de vida or absinthe (depending on what was fortuitous at the time), so start worrying about that now.

This is about the time I check my Telescope to see which tower items I need. Write 'em down, and note which 6th floor item I need. If I haven't gotten my epic weapon Sewer piece, this is a good time to do that as well as farming remaining trinkets mentioned above. Spicy noodles are good here too. I'll spend a second turn in the guild to open the meatcar quest and finish it here. Again, I'm a muscle sign so I can grab the screwdriver for the Untinker and buy all the needed items in the Knoll store. Once I've unlocked the Beach, spend one turns prepping the Shore for my 6th floor tower item. Take stock of my accumulated crap so far, autoselling and pulverizing what I don't need, because I'm going to start needing meat for buffs and things. I usually finish the other four Shore runs on day 2 to unlock the Island and yellow ray a hippy for the outfit, so that's later.

I've also eaten four pastas (mostly boring spaghetti, but maybe a spicy noodles) and this is the point when I eat a fortune cookie to check my semi-rare counter. I usually go for knob lunchbox first.

At this point, I'm pretty much maxed out on consumables (full on pasta, drank as much as needed, working on spleen filling). So start grinding things. My target is to get about halfway to level 6 by the end of the day. Some things I usually try to get out of the way today are: Farm sonars-in-biscuit and kill boss bat, get encryption key to unlock Goblin Knob and then He-Boulder yellow ray a harem girl, Woods to unlock Hidden Temple, Fernswarthy's Tower for disembodied brain(s) and Manual of [x] for day one +20 mainstat, "Fun" house for box and some other useful items, SOMETIMES kill Beelzebozo for the LEW depending on my class and how many clownosity pieces I've gotten by the time I get my box.

For example, I almost always get my AT LEW because 15 turns of AT buffs is awesome. I never get a myst class LEW because it's a waste of time for me. I might get a DB / TT / SC LEW if it seems cost-effective because it's a superior weapon to anything I'm going to find for a while ... unless I've got a stainless steel shilelagh from a prior HC SC run.

At some point prior to ending my day 1, I need one more AdCock drink. I've used all my tavern swills so I've got two AdCock garnishes remaining. Ideally I picked up a few bottles of base booze from shaky clowns, and between soda waters (with boxed wine/bottle of whiskey + little umbrella) or fruit from lesser fruit golems (Fernswarthy's Tower) or lemon-in-the-box I can cobble together one AdCock drink. If not, I've got to spend some turns in the Barrel Full of Barrels.

SUMMARY - Made it to level 5, finished level 2 (larva), level 3 (tavern) and level 4 (boss bat) quests, have level 5 quest (goblin king) prepped, have Manual of [x], either have made or are very close to making bartender innabox (other innaboxen optional), and have knocked out some of the easy prep stuff like Hidden Temple unlock, etc.

EDIT - I neglected to mention on Day 1 as moxie class, buy 10 soda waters and turn them into tonic waters for the +MP boost. You're not make SHCC drinks today, so may as well make use of the Still, and the +MP boost is HUGE on Day 1 for buffs.

Day 2

Use my Manual of Labor / Transmission / Dexterity. Summon stickers. Then I'm trying to get beer lenses if I didn't get lucky yesterday so I head to the Tavern. Ideally, they drop on the first one or two turns but sometimes you get RNG screwed. I've gotten as much as seven drunk before beer lenses and at that point you wonder if it was worth it. But I'm a stubborn dude, and in for a penny in for a pound and I'll usually suck it up and get my lenses.

The goal for today is to get my Liver of Steel. This means I need to get to level 6 and complete the Deep Fat Friar's quest with 40 or more turns remaining, and then obviously actually spend those 40 turns to get the Steel Margarita. A sub-goal of this is to get to level 6 without eating so I can eat reagent pasta today. An added bonus is to get to level 6 before drinking when I'm a moxie class, so I can drink SHCC drinks today. This doesn't always happen. So what I try to do is get as close as I can to level 6 on just spleen and rollover turns, drink one AdCock drink, then plug on. Ideally I can squeeze at least one SHCC drink or two today. Spend the rest of today's Still charges on more tonic water.

Right off the bat I hit the Shore to unlock the Island. Recall that I've already spent one trip there to prep the Tower Item. HINT in case you didn't know. If it's been 30 turns since you've last hit the Shore, your next Shore trip will always be a barbed wire / dynamite / orchid (depending on which trip you take). So I've got a Telescope, I know I need Item X, so I spend my first trip there to get that out of the way. Then the remaining three trips to my mainstat trip, and use the dingy planks to unlock the island.

Strap on the He-Boulder, spend one turn at the Hippy Camp to yellow ray a hippy for the outfit. This is the point when I usually then go and smack around the Goblin King. My stats usually aren't good enough to take him on in a fair fight, but I've got Summon Divine Favors and have usually gotten a couple mainstat ones by now. I put on the harem outfit and buff the hell up (hairspray / ben-gal, "Look High" from my Telescope, wereseal blood if muscle, Stevedave's Shanty, whatever I can get my hands on) and kick his ass. He usually hits me hard in the surprise round, and then I can kill him by Funkslinging two divine items. Sometimes it takes two rounds, but this is worth it to get the Lab Key that the King drops.

Now I'm grinding to level 6. I need to grind quality, so good places to do this are the 8-bit Realm (Olfacting Bloopers) because I need the digital key, Menagerie Level 1 (fruit golems drop limes and cherries for nice 3-drunk drink mixing later), and the Hippy Camp (reodorants are always useful, I might not have gotten a hemp string for a Necklace of the Bonerdagon from the yellow ray earlier). SOMETIMES I'm bronze enough to survive the Pirate Cove, but that's rare. If you can hack it, go nuts. If I need more boozes, I'll go back to the Barrels. A lot of times, this is the point when I do my drinking if I didn't have decent booze left over from rollover. Because of the drunkness from the Tavern, a lot of times I have to get creative. Fine wine / schnapps are nice here, and they're not crap because they're free mixes from the innabox.

Level 6? Great, start Friaring. I'll first hit the Hellion zone, to Olfact Hellions for hellion cubes -> hell ramen. If I'm a myst class, I'll be eating a lot of hi mein later so I may not even Olfact them because I'll only need two for today and maybe another two later if I'm unlucky with elemental nuggets. Once I get my first two hellion cubes, cook two hell ramen and eat. Then the remaining 3 fullness is an olive lo mein, I should have some spices from Sewering and/or the Woods, or best of all, the spice ghost when a Pastamancer.

Grind through the Friar quest. I have Smooth Moves and Sonata, so what I'll do is spend the delay() turns in each zone then buff up +noncombats and bop through until I get all the items I need. Finish the quest, then spend the first 30 turns getting the three Azazel items. Now, ideally I've got a fair number of turns left for today and at least 10-15. I need to spend 10 turns anywhere before the pencil-necked demon is queued up, so there's a lot of things on my plate to do:

I need to farm the Pirate outfit in the cove. I need to get the digital key if I haven't yet. I need to start doing the Spookyraven necessaries (billiard room for library unlock, library for second floor unlock ... and conservatory prep when muscle class, conservatory for gallery unlock when muscle class). So there's plenty to spend 10 turns on, so get to it.

Get the Steel Margarita, use it. Now everything else today is bonus gravy. I've generally been able to have enough turns left over on Day 2 to get the above things accomplished and get to level 7. On really good RNG days I've not only been able to get to level 7, but I've been able to make progress in the Cyrpt. This current TT run, I actually killed the Bonerdagon on Day 2, something I don't think I've ever done before. I was impressed.

SUMMARY - Made it to level 6 or 7, have Liver of Steel. I'm now almost set up on consumables, as I've got enough hellion cubes to get me another day or two (I should be able to get some goat cheeses tomorrow to carry me through if I'm short some hellion cubes) at least, I've got the Hippy outfit for making whatever booze I please, I've got at least the bartender innabox (and maybe if lucky the chef innabox), and I've Steeled my Liver. All I'm missing is a good supply of basic boozes and I'll take care of that tomorrow farming Olfacted booze giants in the Level 3 Menagerie (and elemental wads if I'm a myst class). If I didn't get many spices (I've never gotten -zero- spices, usually I get one or two at least) I can usually get by filling up on pizza or boring spaghetti if I have to for the 3-fullness item, until I get fixins for casseroles on day 4 at level 11. So with my daily consumption essentially laid out in front of me, I can focus on knocking down all the quests and quest preparation, starting tomorrow.

Day 3 - coming next

[Zagadka]

I didn't read all of your post yet :-p but I think we should start posting logs here in the forums. Mafia does this automatically, uh somehow that I am not familiar with. It would be great to compare and provide feedback to speed up our runs. It would also make us more aware of how we're spending our turns.

Good start Foxy. Two Thumbs Up!! I think this is great for those beginning, but for those serious about speed / or experienced, we'll need to start looking at activities by turn.

Edit: I'm doing a lvl30 run this time, but after this, I'll figure out how to record logs and I'll post one. Not that mine are that good, but something to comment on, which I'm sure I'll get a few :-P

[Foxy Boxy]

I didn't read all of your post yet :-p but I think we should start posting logs here in the forums. Mafia does this automatically ...

The big problem for me is that I've never used Mafia, so I'd have to install + learn Mafia to get their logging feature. I've been off-again/on-again trying to track down if there's a Greasemonkey logger but I've not found one yet. It's been a while since I last looked though.

[Guest]

I was resistant to Mafia for awhile as I didn't want to learn something new, but I was very happy to discover there really wasn't anything that I absolutely had to learn in order to use it. On top of that, it's not really an install. Just download the jar, put it in whatever directory you fell like, then run it. It's got a nice interface for repeatedly doing stuff but there's also a button that just loads up KoL in your browser like normal but it still logs everything and keeps track of a number of useful things (fortune cookie numbers, He-Boulder rays, dance card turns, etc.) Mafia by default logs everything, it's a separate tool that someone else has created that people usually use to turn their logs into useful information. I can't remember off hand where I got it, but it's out there and pretty nice. It also comes with a nice visualizer to give you some different ways to assess your runs.

Of course there are lots of cool scripting things you can do with mafia once you get into it, like slimetubing, but for the logging and tracking features alone, mafia is really a nice tool without changing the game experience.

I'd post a log or two if people were interested, recently the only real "speed" I've attempted were a couple of HCO runs, one of which was 11 days which is decent. With that said, there are better logs on other clans' boards that are better than mine.

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