Zamiel
Sodbuster
Hello OldMcKeg,
Thanks for the comments.
1) I've not heard about the tulip strategy, so it might be good. However, with the changes in the meta from fishing --> farming Void Essence as a means to get the gold for the Vault, you won't need to eat anything and thus I would imagine that you wouldn't need the tulips for the extra energy.
2) Yup, Trout Soup entered the meta this year around January/February, but I haven't done a run since then, so I haven't had time to try it out.
3) Probably agree. I haven't done much testing around Summer 11, as in almost all my challenge runs I have stopped min-maxing money at this point and am attempting to do other goals.
4a) Yes, you should buy as much coal as you need from Clint.
4b) Yes, you should aggressively bomb, but not so much that you don't have enough ore left for sprinklers and/or don't run out of coal. Later on you can craft Mega Bombs to avoid using coal, but I generally build up 100 Solar Essence first for the Iridium Rings.
4c) Master Slingshot should be used with explosive ammo on big chunks of rocks. I don't use it on enemies.
4d) It is extremely cumbersome to snap a screenshot and then look at the screenshot. Don't do that. Instead, just zoom out using my recommended mod.
4e) I don't have a lot of experience using explosive ammo, so for now I would recommend using a mixture of that and other Bombs + Megabombs.
4f) Yes, it's fairly easy to distinguish the crabs, since they are offset. That isn't stated in the guide since it is fairly obvious for players who have played the game before.
4g) Yes, definitely fight multiple bats, as you need the batteries and the loot. It's most efficient to gather up an entire floor worth of bats first, though. As I've said elsewhere in this thread, don't stand in one spot killing one bat like a noob, just ignore it.
4h) Yes, lucky rings are nice, but it would be suboptimal to go out of your way for barrels, as they are a very rare drop.
5) The tightest part of our route is getting back to Clint on day 5, so your adjustment does seem preferable in that sense. If I am following correctly, you just buy 25 copper ore and 25 iron ore, then use the iron pickaxe to get floor 80. Does the iron pickaxe actually 1 shot everything like the gold pickaxe does?
Anyway, as I've said earlier, the route is a little outdated now because of the existence of Void Essence farming, so everything, including when to upgrade the pickaxe, needs to be re-routed around that.
6) You can use appendix C in the guide to measure average expected value gain/loss from farming when compared to fishing. Feel free to measure something more specific. However, note that appendix C is out of date, because farming would need to be compared to Void Essence, which would make it even more difficult for farming to be viable.
7) Potentially agree. Day 1 is structured around meeting villagers mostly because you can talk to most of them whilst looking for foragables + checking garbage cans. (This leaves only a few that you actually have to travel inside of buildings to meet.) The gained friendship is pointless and not a consideration. Day 1 is also structured to give you the most possible money for day 2. By eating all of the foragables instead of selling them, you go into day 2 with less money, won't be able to buy the rod as quickly, might not be able to get fishing level 4, etc. But if you've played through two routes for day 1 + day 2 side by side and believe that one is better, feel free to submit a PR.
9) I typically go against the guide and get Iridium Pickaxe before as soon as possible, but that decision is dependent on the specific kind of challenge run that I am doing. Feel free to break from the guide if you feel like you need to to cut down on bomb usage.
10) Yes, for most runs it will be optimal to complete the CC as soon as possible, but of course it depends on the specific challenge run. A section on when to buy a barn might be nice, but probably not necessary, as it will be variable depending on many different factors. I expect that most players will have everything that they need for CC by Winter.
Thanks for the comments.
1) I've not heard about the tulip strategy, so it might be good. However, with the changes in the meta from fishing --> farming Void Essence as a means to get the gold for the Vault, you won't need to eat anything and thus I would imagine that you wouldn't need the tulips for the extra energy.
2) Yup, Trout Soup entered the meta this year around January/February, but I haven't done a run since then, so I haven't had time to try it out.
3) Probably agree. I haven't done much testing around Summer 11, as in almost all my challenge runs I have stopped min-maxing money at this point and am attempting to do other goals.
4a) Yes, you should buy as much coal as you need from Clint.
4b) Yes, you should aggressively bomb, but not so much that you don't have enough ore left for sprinklers and/or don't run out of coal. Later on you can craft Mega Bombs to avoid using coal, but I generally build up 100 Solar Essence first for the Iridium Rings.
4c) Master Slingshot should be used with explosive ammo on big chunks of rocks. I don't use it on enemies.
4d) It is extremely cumbersome to snap a screenshot and then look at the screenshot. Don't do that. Instead, just zoom out using my recommended mod.
4e) I don't have a lot of experience using explosive ammo, so for now I would recommend using a mixture of that and other Bombs + Megabombs.
4f) Yes, it's fairly easy to distinguish the crabs, since they are offset. That isn't stated in the guide since it is fairly obvious for players who have played the game before.
4g) Yes, definitely fight multiple bats, as you need the batteries and the loot. It's most efficient to gather up an entire floor worth of bats first, though. As I've said elsewhere in this thread, don't stand in one spot killing one bat like a noob, just ignore it.
4h) Yes, lucky rings are nice, but it would be suboptimal to go out of your way for barrels, as they are a very rare drop.
5) The tightest part of our route is getting back to Clint on day 5, so your adjustment does seem preferable in that sense. If I am following correctly, you just buy 25 copper ore and 25 iron ore, then use the iron pickaxe to get floor 80. Does the iron pickaxe actually 1 shot everything like the gold pickaxe does?
Anyway, as I've said earlier, the route is a little outdated now because of the existence of Void Essence farming, so everything, including when to upgrade the pickaxe, needs to be re-routed around that.
6) You can use appendix C in the guide to measure average expected value gain/loss from farming when compared to fishing. Feel free to measure something more specific. However, note that appendix C is out of date, because farming would need to be compared to Void Essence, which would make it even more difficult for farming to be viable.
7) Potentially agree. Day 1 is structured around meeting villagers mostly because you can talk to most of them whilst looking for foragables + checking garbage cans. (This leaves only a few that you actually have to travel inside of buildings to meet.) The gained friendship is pointless and not a consideration. Day 1 is also structured to give you the most possible money for day 2. By eating all of the foragables instead of selling them, you go into day 2 with less money, won't be able to buy the rod as quickly, might not be able to get fishing level 4, etc. But if you've played through two routes for day 1 + day 2 side by side and believe that one is better, feel free to submit a PR.
9) I typically go against the guide and get Iridium Pickaxe before as soon as possible, but that decision is dependent on the specific kind of challenge run that I am doing. Feel free to break from the guide if you feel like you need to to cut down on bomb usage.
10) Yes, for most runs it will be optimal to complete the CC as soon as possible, but of course it depends on the specific challenge run. A section on when to buy a barn might be nice, but probably not necessary, as it will be variable depending on many different factors. I expect that most players will have everything that they need for CC by Winter.
