Dungeon 9 Turn 49
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Correctly anticipating that the freed wraith will pursue them, the party regroups in the lever room. Kamau tanks its attack, taking another 3 damage, and leaving him with only a single HP remaining. Lara and the flytrap then attack it with plant-based weapons, while Ricki backs them up with a (carefully-aimed) fireball, expending her wand until the end of the dungeon. The wraith is defeated, and Kamau scoops up the potion of ectoplasm that it drops.
Meanwhile, Coccyx fires one last arrow and then dies.
Sadly I think that’s it for cyx. I’ll admit he was starting to grow on me.
Yeah, I’d be surprised if he had more than one revival in him. I guess it’s not impossible- it’d be great if the Necromancer was somehow reviving him, since he was killed by Lara on turn 37 and was alive by turn 42 (AKA after the Necromancer summoned zombies)- but it’s equally likely that he just has a ‘last stand’ mechanic like Kamau in exchange for having low HP overall.
I think it’s kind of mean to have a recruitable party member who’s a) hostile, b) self-damaging, and c) suicidal all in one character when any one of those things would have been hard to deal with on its own, but oh well.
dont forget D) ANNOYING
Honestly, if that’s it for him, I really won’t care much? We never got to know his actual personality, but if his implanted one is anything to go by, he wasn’t very likable…
Mechanically, ranged combat in this game is very suboptimal 99% of the time so far – low damage, expensive, no resolution of ranged attacks before melee – the only situation where it is useful is when there is a sniper’s nest. The only ones of which we found were here and at the church. And even so he barely inconvenienced us, despite killing himself twice for it.
And of course, barely any hints were given as to how to recruit him until very late in the dungeon – a very Guide Dang It situation.
My guess is that he can die (and resurrect) as many times as he wants (at least while he’s an NPC).
Probably taking on some kind of penalty with every death, but a constant pain in our butts (or foreheads or wherever his arrows hit) for the whole duration of the dungon.
If he has similar abilities (can die and come back to life), once recruited he will be utterly incompatible to have in a group with Kamau (even if the damage is self-inflicted, the “dying” bit will make Kamau remorse instantly). Which seems to make Coccysx even more useless, because of the way ranged combat works in this game (and Interpose would have kept Coccyx safe from counterattacks at least, while doing ranged combat).
But I’m going to have a look through the past dungeons and see if there are more “ideak archer spots” available, we just never used them or paid attention to them much, because we didn’t have any ranged weapons. Knowing LSN, there are bound to have been some…
Just the church, IIRC.
The church had a “designated” archer spot above the skeleton-spawning graves, yes. But it would also have allowed someone to shoot at the sun-guy from a higher-up level in the winch room (where the 3 skeledogs were) and possibly shoot the dire-rat from below in the room with the chandelier (it might have jumped down, upon getting attacked, but it might had died trying because of fall damage).
In the sewer, the layout in the middle screen would have allowed for a ranged weapon owner to shoot at the beavers (before flooding), and the “gates” would have allowed to ranged attack the King rat and subjects on the left (top level) and the rat king and side kicks on the right (second highest level).
I didn’t spot any suitable spots in the kobold warrens nor the manor to do ranged combat. (“Best” spot in the manor would have been in the knight’s tomb room, and that was behind a locked door, plus I somehow feel that the ladder our char would have had to take in order to even get there, would have also granted the knight access. 😛 )
At the farm where a couple of spots (above the pumpking, above the original position of the bull – in case we wanted to kill him – and in the underground room, the flytraps could have been shot from afar. Any Tomatochets would have definitely returned fire, so not very useful to do ranged combat against them).
I don’t think there is any good position for archery in the caravan dungeon.
So yeah, all on all, there have been about a handfull of occsions. But seeing how ranged combat takes up at least 2 inventory slots (e.g. bow and arrows), possibly more and the ammunition causes us to invest gold in every single attack (contrary to melee weapons, that last forever and do more damage by and large), I’m still of the opinion that this very limitedly useful kind of combat is not worth our time and effort (and gold) more often than not. Sadly. Archers can be SO cool when ranged combat is resolved before melee combat.
Only real consistent use is against ranged flyers or other snipers.
Our next dungeon is in a well. Other than his poison immunity, Coccyx didn’t offer us much for that.
Potential suggestion on recruitment method: we must take some item of his (headband, maybe, or bow?) while he’s dead.
I think it’s been suggested already, just bringing it up again
Ricki: go left and attack leftmost ghast
Kamau: go left and interpose.
Lara: go left and attack leftmost ghast with corn spear.
All pets but golly: attack rightmost ghast
Botanya: move up, and right.
Sorry guys, I really really want to know what’s in the puzzle chest and it’s not like we’re going to be able to finish this up before t50 anyway.
If you’re going to let Kamau tank, how about we have him drink the ectoplasm first?
Also (can’t edit): the puzzle chest is up and left of where Botanya is now, not up and right.
That is on purpose. She’s going out to scout the roamers.
Drinking a potion is an action, we’d need another turn.
He’s at one hit point. He’s going to die without it.
Noticed a movement error on Botanya, check out my corrected plan in another comment
Correction to my plan:
Ricki: go left and attack leftmost ghast
Kamau: go left and interpose.
Lara: go left and attack leftmost ghast with corn spear.
All pets but golly: attack rightmost ghast
Botanya: move right and up (to scout roamers)
Sorry guys, I really really want to know what’s in the puzzle chest and it’s not like we’re going to be able to finish this up before t50 anyway.
Isn’t there a trap that Botanya can step on if she moves up?
Not upon entering the screen.
It is technically possible to do this and attack the necromancer by turn 56, but if the turn 50 spawn is bad we’ll be significantly further away and committed to the ghast fight (assuming paralysis) until probably turn 52 when anyone paralyzed in the second turn of the fight shakes off their paralysis. Getting the puzzle chest and over to fight the necromancer means not taking one of the gold spears and dropping Ricki’s shield. If 18 damage doesn’t kill an armored ghast (spear adds 1, chain adds 3) then this will take even longer and make killing the necromancer before 60 unlikely. I think this is too greedy.
I’m serious about this being too dangerous. Here’s a timeline with literally 0 spare turns if we don’t get lucky on paralysis.
T50: Enter ghast room. Kill one ghast, have pets hurt the other hopefully. (Does 18 dmg kill a ghast with chain and a spear?). Kamau interpose, Ricki and Lara fight.
T51: Kill second ghast while Kamau is paralyzed. Zombies below owlbear. Lara get one gold spear Bot get other.
T52: Ricki or Lara paralyzed. Kamau unparalyze and drink potion then move right. Zombies in ghoul room.
T53: Ricki and Lara move out of tomb. Kamau pull lever and move right to see Zombies arrive. Bot and Lara trade to get siegesword on Lara, 2nd gold spear on Bot. Ricki move into puzzle chest room and open chest, dropping rusty shield for contents. Lara ?. Zombies in pot rope room.
T54: Everybody move right to fight zombies.
T55: pray Zombies are dead. Everybody double move to above necromancer
T56: Move down and fight necromancer
We might not be able to easily handle the Zombies if the spawn is bad or Coc revives because in this plan (and Siv’s above) we have to fight the Zombies in his rooms.
We likely can herd them to the snake room or puzzle chest room if push comes to shove. Agree we may be risking turn 60, but if the turn 50 spawn is that bad, we’ll likely be forced to abandon regardless.
This plan received further corrections. Please check out the “Safer correction” version.
Kamau is at one hit point. He needs to heal or he’ll die.
Hmm… Just to have the option to move this along.
Kamau : drink your ecto cooler and move right.
Lara : get your siegesword from golly and move right
Botanya : move right ( not sure if letting trading with golly takes an action on her owners part so here we go)
Ricki : move right. Give wolf hide to Botanya for golly.
That’s a pretty boring turn but I’d like to at least have the option of wrapping this up soon. This basically gets Botanya up in the room above the necro on turn 51 to steal the zombies. Everyone else can double move up there to get ready to fend them off turn 52 and we can start wrapping up necro as soon as turn 53. Anyone feel free to suggest a better use of turns. I know we need ricki to guide everyone across the trap up there and any new zombies will arrive in the room across and Above turn 51 and Botanya can steal up to 9 no problem.
Yes, this ditches both the ghasts and the owlbear clear but I think I’m fine with that. I’m very tentatively okay maaaaaybe trying the ghasts for that chest which could be helpful in the final fight – but I also really am concerned with any turn 50 twist and want to be closer to the end boss and be nimble for what this turn may bring. Kinda worst case is if we start seeing summons every five turns but let’s see what the infamous turn 50 brings
We don’t have to totally ditch the zombies plan doing this one. We could still fight the ghouls and see what happens. If too many people get paralyzed we just move onto the necromancer. I really think this is the best option. Going for the puzzle chest means in an absolute best case scenario we don’t fight the necromancer until turn 56, with no room to have the zombie fight take longer than a turn, and guaranteeing that we have to fight the zombies in Coc’s room (thus preventing pets from participating if he revives).
So it’d look roughly like this.
T50: As above
T51: Zombies arrive below owlbear at bottom of that screen by ladder (see turn 11). Kamau interpose ghoul fight. If Coc is still down, this is totally safe and Botanya can move to below owlbear right now to be prepared to block zombies on 52. If Coc is back up, Botanya SHOULD be able to stick around for this fight and intercept the zombies on their screen as they move from the bottom to the top to enter the ghoul screen.
T52: Ricki and Lara clean up last two ghouls. Kamau paralyzed. Botanya blocks zombies.
T53: Ricki and Lara paralyzed? Kamau unparalyzed. If one of Ricki and Lara unparalyzed, go fight owlbear. Botanya pipe from zombie group below owlbear.
T54: If owlbear fought last turn, move to get ready for zombie fight. If both Ricki and Lara were paralyzed, depending on the zombie crowd could potentially still go for owlbear this turn with Ricki and Lara.
T55: Clear zombies.
T56: Engage necromancer.
The important benefit of this plan is that it lets us bail from our pursued goal (kill zombies) to go kill the necromancer without any real risks. Going after the puzzle chest does NOT give us this freedom, because the zombies will perforce not be intercepted out of Coc’s room, and we’ll have paralyzed characters stuck 5 moves away from the necromancer.
Ricki: Trade your wolf hide to Botanya so she can store it on Golly. Move right one screen.
Lara: Get your siegesword from Botanya and move right one.
Kamau: Drink the ectoplasm potion and move right one.
Botanya: Trade inventory as above then move right one.
This gets us on our way back to the necromancer spawn. If Coc doesn’t revive we can probably still do the owlbear. Doing the ghasts is quite likely to give us less than 4 turns to kill the necromancer before 60, and if turn 50 does a weird twist we won’t be in position to handle it and move onto the necromancer immediately.
I didn’t realize Holographic Golem had edited in my suggestion, so sorry for the duplicate post.
I think botanya should heal kamau.
That’s not needed at this moment. I am keeping it in reserve in case a new flytrap is needed after we fight the t50 roamers.
He has literally one hit point. He needs healing. Why are you arguing against healing him?
Safer correction to my plan:
Ricki: go left and attack leftmost ghast
Kamau: go left and interpose.
Lara: go left and attack leftmost ghast with corn spear.
All pets but golly: attack rightmost ghast
Botanya: move left and pipe the leftmost ghast.
Sorry guys, I really really want to know what’s in the puzzle chest and it’s not like we’re going to be able to finish this up before t50 anyway.
LSN, to be clear, we want Botanya in the ghast battlegroup, using her aroma on the ghasts.
This is like your fourth post ignoring the fact that Kamau is at one hit point and ready to die.
I have the impression Cocyx needs arrows to “live”, or at least, a way to make ranged attacks. The wording in previous pages seem to suggest this. Maybe if provided with a ranged weapon he could rise again?
Pretty sure he just pulls bones out of him to make an arrow, causing damage to himself.
Kamau is at one hit point. Next turn he needs to heal.
Dauntless I
?resize=26%2C26&ssl=1 : Once per dungeon when reduced to 0 HP, regain 1 HP at the end of the turn.