Shortcuts: A How-To

[MonkeyThief]

With the new (and new-ish) quest revamps, I thought it might be a good idea to collect together information about how and where shortcuts can be taken. Some of these are likely to be old-hat for some, but could help others to speed up a few turns. If you know of any, post them up and I'll incorporate them into the post so there's one collected list.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Lvl 2
No shortcuts for getting mosquito, but +NC helps.

Lvl 3
Some adventures can be skipped if you have enough +elemental damage.
Enough +ML and some luck will get you Drunken Rat Kings (useful for later)

Lvl 4
Hold off until doing the level 5 quest if you have no passive stench resistance.
A ten-leaf clover can be used at Guano Junction to get 2 sonar-in-a-biscuits if you have none in your inventory.

Lvl 5
Going the harem route can help with the level 4 quest.
Going the Guard route can give access to the dispensary, which can provide buffs for other later quests.
There are no specific ways to speed up the Guard route to my knowledge, though +NC helps with the cake I think.
If you have the harem outfit, you can equip it and adventure in the harem to get the effect of the perfume.

Lvl 6
+NC in each zone works, but I believe ()delay affects the zones. It is possible to have a 9 turn level 6, but don't expect it!

Lvl 7
Each corner of the Cyrpt has a way to speed it up:
+item helps with acquiring Evil Eyes in the Defiled Nook
Banish and/or free runaway from the Lihces that are not Dirty and Old in the Niche
Increase ML and +NC and open the Rattling one in the choice adventure to remove a whole heap of evil in the Cranny
Increase your Init and fight Modern zombies in the Alcove

Lvl 8
Other than things like Unaccompanied miner/pulling ore there's nothing for the first stage.
The second stage can be sped up by boosting +Combat and +init/cold res/DA & DR and going to the Ninja snowmen lair to fight assassins. You need your own Cold Resist for getting to the peak at that point.

Lvl 9
The bridge will get you at most 1/2 way across. Smut Orc perverts will drop a keepsake box with 5 wood and fastenings, and you can clover for 3 wood and fastenings as well. Fax & Arrow or pulling are your friends for this stage.

A-Boo peak is normally best saved for later when you can run more +HP and +Resistance gear. Grab yourself 3 A-Boo clues and get the level to 90% or lower before using your clues. A clover gets you a pair of clues if you don't see any by that time.

Oil Peak - Pump that Monster Level and get yourself 12 bubblin' crude for your Jar.

Twin Peak is a mixture of things, +NC and/or +item (to obtain rusty hedge trimmers) is necessary to get to the Non-Combat where it all happens.
Room 237 needs 4+ Stench Resist (I usually do this while I have my buffs from the A-Boo clues active). Familiars count.
Searching the pantry needs 50% +item and/or +food. You can mix and match to obtain it. Familiars do not count.
Faint sound of music is all about that Jar of Oil you have.
Wait, who's that... needs a total of +40% init. I don't know if familiars count there.

Lvl 10
Airship is a +NC zone, but you want to try to obtain certain things:
A Titanium umbrella or an Amulet of Extreme Plot Significance.
A model airship (gallivant down to the head in the choice adventure) and/or a Mohawk Wig

Giant Castle basement, run your +NC, if you have a Titanium Umbrella, you can wield it so when you crawl through the ducts you'll be taken to the Ground Floor. Or you can wear your Amulet and examine the mirror to get the same result. Finally you can grab a weight, and then use the dumb waiter (taking two NCs). Without an umbrella, crawling through the vents takes you from one NC to another. Leaving through the window means next adventure will be the NC without consuming a turn (I think).

Ground floor is just a flat 10 turns. Nothing speeds this up (that has been discovered as yet).

Upper floor, you'll want to investigate the Whirligigs to get access to the Hole in the Sky.
Your model airship can be traded to the Steam Giant by harrumphing. This completes the L10 quest.
If you get the Punk's attention while wearing a Mohawk wig, you can also finish the quest.
The quest will auto-complete after a set amount of turns if you do neither of those things.

L11
(coming soon)

L12
The war has it's built in mechanism of doing the sidequests, and most tricks here are already well known. But for completeness's sake, here they are:
Acquiring your outfit: A YR target.
Arena - Lots of +ML will speed this up, and if you leave certain quests (or parts) unfinished you can do those while advancing the Arena flyering. A popular trick is to leave the Level 11 sub-bosses alive, to Flyer. Then to do the pyramid fighting Tomb Rats and flyering them. Then making up any difference in the Hole in the Sky while acquiring your Star Key. Alternatively enemies like Cyrus the Virus (from empty Agua de Vida bottles) or the Guy Made of Bees will complete it in one go, but the turns required to set them up are not used for any other function. Pick your poison there.
Sonofa Beach - Lots of +Combat and a Spooky Putty - or a Fax and Putty target.
Junkyard - It's possible to banish the Gremlins that don't have the tool, ensuring the next one you see of that type will be your tool carrying friend. Survival is an exercise for the reader, though I do enjoy reducing their ML and buffing Moxie/DR to ensure a hit can be countered with some of Doc's potions.
Filthworms - +items, no real other way to speed it up. YR works if you're desperate.
Nuns - +meat and grind. The super trick is if you do it while dressed as a hippy EXCEPT the last fight. Then you use a Copy of the brigand while wearing the Frat Orc outfit. This will seriously boost the speed of the war if you have enough +meat%. (Related note - I'm no good at maths, so I don't know how high that +% should be.)
Dooks - While there is a trick of shortening this sidequest, if you have done 4 or 5 sidequests it will actually take you longer to complete this one than to finish clearing the battlefield. If you are doing it as a Hippy on the other hand, it's a no-brain include. The Dook shortcut requires you to use a Chaos Butterfly in combat (can be anywhere, any time). Then choose to Make a fence out of Barbed Wire (choice 3), Knock over the Lantern (choice 1) and finally Dump out the Drum (choice 2). Finally, enjoy only needing 15 more adventures in the back fields to kill the Dooks, rather than 30. +NC does not work here.

[Foxy Boxy]

Lvl 4
Hold off until doing the level 5 quest if you have no passive stench resistance.
A ten-leaf clover can be used at Guano Junction to get 2 sonar-in-a-biscuits if you have none in your inventory.

Remember that killing a screambat will also open up a zone (and reduce the number of sonars you'll need to use). A screambat will show up on the 9th turn in the Bat Hole, and every 8th turn spent thereafter. Depending on sonar-in-a-biscuit drops, I will usually wait until I get the first screambat and then use my clover to get +2 sonars; especially if (via the Telescope) I know I need a sonar for the tower.

Note also that you need an enchanted bean for the L10 quest, and beanbats also drop sonars. Once I open the Beanbat Chamber, I'll farm my enchanted bean there and hopefully get my last biscuit as well.

Lvl 5
Going the harem route can help with the level 4 quest.
If you have the harem outfit, you can equip it and adventure in the harem to get the effect of the perfume.

If you have access to "yellow ray" type mechanisms (he-boulder, pumpkin bombs, etc.) this is a perfect place to use one as the harem girl drops the complete outfit. Conversely, the residents of the barracks don't drop the complete outfit (except for the semi-rare).

Lvl 7
Banish and/or free runaway from the Lihces that are not Dirty and Old in the Niche

Also, the dirty lihc can be Olfacted.

Lvl 8
Other than things like Unaccompanied miner/pulling ore there's nothing for the first stage.

Though note that you can get the pieces of miner's outfit from the NC choice adventures (the same is true for the eXtreme cold weather outfit and the pirate outfit), so +noncombats will help speed up the outfit acquisition.

Lvl 9
Oil Peak - Pump that Monster Level and get yourself 12 bubblin' crude for your Jar.

The ML break points are >= +20 ML, >= +50 ML and >= +100 ML. With VIP access you can get an easy +20 ML from swimming laps in the pool (Lap Dog for 50 turns) to hit that first break point. MCD, Ur-Kel's, and a purse rat with +weight are other good HCNP options (also astral belt if you ascended with it).

(more Lvl 9)
Wait, who's that... needs a total of +40% init. I don't know if familiars count there.

If you still have Lap Dog active from Oil Peak, that's +30% right there.

[ketchup monger]

Hey, this is pretty neat

For level 5:
The guard outfit can be sped up though boosting non-combat and looting the locker. The locker will always give you a piece you're missing, and will give a jelly donut if you already have the full outfit.
The Semi-Rare (guard captain) drops all three parts of the outfit (100% drop rate).
As far as I know, the cake non-combats are super likelies and always occur, so you don't need to run non-combat (but it doesn't hurt anything if you do)

For level 9:
A lodestone can be found in the level 8 mine, which gives a bonus to collecting fasteners from the orcs (seems to always be in the middle-ish area). Similarly, if you go canidian sign you can get a ax on your first adventure in the logging camp that gives an extra piece of wood. Both need to be equipped to get the benefit.

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