Hey there, Cardhunters! I've got a bit of a challenge for all of you. I've recently invested a whopping 10g in an Elvish Mage, and I was planning on leveling her up solo all the way to 10 where I have two other characters waiting. But what came of this crusade was far more interesting, and I wanted to extend it to you all. I've gotten the Mage to level 7, and I want to know if anyone can level a single character to level 20. Even more challenging, without using a revive. I have yet to do it with my Elven Mage ('Cause Duh, Elven Mage solo), but I want to see folk do it with everything from a Dwarven Fighter all the way down. I'll be keeping people updated on this as well if there's a want for this extra challenge. Happy Hunting!
The challenge is on! Will post back when I look at what gear I have available for this. Edit: Meet the Shark! Background story: El Tiburon was a Spanish elf who grew up just fine. One day, he discovered a special power - when he concentrated really hard and touched a living thing, it drained the life right out of it! He became greedy, and starting robbing elf nobles' houses by sneaking in, and draining the life right out of any menservants that dared to stop him. He wasn't impervious to blades or sorcery, but he would heal right back any wounds - just like Wolverine from an alternate universe. One day, while being chased by the elf police, El Tiburon was grievously wounded by an arrow straight through an eye socket (ouch!) and out the other (OUCH!). Blinded, he stumbled around, frantically grasping for any living thing to heal himself. Finally, he laid hands on a squirming object, and without thought, exerted every ounce of mental effort to heal himself. Just then, the police caught up with him, and he felt a hard thump on the back of his head... then silence. When he awoke, he was in a lump on the floor. He heard a woman, wailing loudly beside him. He shook his head, opened him eyes, and beheld the consequences of his actions. In her arms lay a baby staring with unblinking eyes. The police gave him an ultimatum - to be charged and executed for murder, or to exile himself. Ashamed of his actions, El Tiburon set off on a journey of redemption. He started walking towards the woods... and came upon a village beset by kobolds. El Tiburon Level 1 Elf Priest Vigun's Blessed BladeBertha's Big ClogsShuddering RelicThoughts: Priest is essential for healing and nimbus, especially if I make it all the way to the later stages with the big OHKO bosses. I picked Elf (which I may dearly regret, we'll see) because I have nightmares about my Dwarf warrior party struggling with the first map of Shieldhaven Prison. Also, in the stages with blobs and skeletons, magic draining attacks can bypass both types of immunities. Let's see how this fares...
Quick question: how do you add images to posts? I have screenshots. Meanwhile, some quick notes on playing a solo elf vampire: Wear step shoes! This is probably the most important thing when dealing with Trogs of any kind. I am still stuck on L3 adventures because of sodding ranged Trogs. Use the Hand! The Hand allows you to Spear them from afar. I will probably be farming the Throne of Strench for a while to see if I can roll another Hand perchance.
The button next to the link and unlink buttons above the posting box is an insert image button. I think you can also attach images using the Upload a File button. Step shoes against Trogs is definitely the right way to go I'm running an elven vampire and I just beat the Highway Robbery. The hand is cool but I find that the Mass Frenzy on the Shuddering Relic is too good to pass up. I wouldn't have beaten the goblin king without my invigorating touches dealing (and healing) 9 damage each. That said, Vulnerable + Loner = lots of game losses. I haven't bought any revives yet but I'm pretty sure the challenge is actually impossible. Here's a screenshot of my build ATM: That's: Vampire's Blade Glowing Hide Armor Cheap Fencer's Boots 2x Shuddering Relic and Trained Cleansing.
I've found that Officer's Harnesses are *Stupendously* good when doing this. I'm rolling my Elf Mage as a Firestorm Mage at the moment. I'll be uploading screenshots shortly of my Mage and where I'm at. Edit: I'm also not 100% Sure this is possible, but I assume a Vampire Priest has the best chance of this. Either that, or a tricked-out Warrior. I'm actually about 600% farther with my Elven Wizard than I thought I'd ever get, although it's a result of some really lucky rolls. On the other hand, some maps that were unfathomably hard for me rolling warriors and priests are now cake with just a single wizard. Go fig.
My vampire just beat Dungeon of the Lizard Priest. Still haven't paid a revive fee—though I did scrub out on round 2 of Ruby Demon Portal. I may return to it when I'm level 5.
That's pretty much how I ran the low level vampire priest I have (haven't done solo though). I also have the epic vampiric shroud which s nice and I went with St. Portia's Maul for my 2nd weapon because I found 4 loners to be a bit too much.
A Firestorm wizard just straight-up wins some of these scenarios. Stench Cavern, for instance. I drew a Firestorm and a Firestarter, played both, and auto-won.
I died so much that I gave up trying to get through the L3 adventures. Instead, I'm farming L1 and L2 until I hit level 4 and have some more HP. Then they won't know what hit them.
Beneath the Frozen Earth is *murdering* me. Literally. I'm also farming the lower level adventures for XP as I can. It seems vital to this challenge.
So, as I continue down the road doing this, there are an increasing number of missions that are increasingly difficult for a solo mage to get through. As a result, I'm figuring out that in order to successfully do this, you've got to trick out your single-character beyond belief to accomplish every mission. For instance, my Wizard still has yet to clear Slub Gut's Sanctum, Rescue from Shieldhaven Prison, Beneath the Frozen Earth, or anything level 9 or above. Especially where the AI starts to split their units (Slub Gut in particular), you've got a single Lizardman with enough damage to kill you within range, and the second one hasn't even moved yet. And I don't have the equipment at the moment to take this on - Certainly someone with better equipment than I could give this a shot. That all said, I've found a few things absolutely invaluable to this challenge; 1. Officer's Harnesses! My Wizard currently has access to five, and there's absolutely vital, for a number of reasons. Obviously, armor is gonna be tops when you're taking a lot of hits as my Wizard is, but if you're rolling in with Enchanted Armor (For the sake of argument), if you fail that single roll, you're done. Especially with an Elf Wizard (Dunno why I chose Elf Wizard to do this challenge with, but eh). Secondly, you quite simply get them in addition to everything else in your deck. My max hand size has been 8 at the most (5 Harnesses, Resistant Hide, something else and a move). Third, if you get hit with Buzzsaw or Dissolve Armor or something like that, it's vital for an Elf Wizard to protect his Resistant Hide above all else (Especially in Ruby Demon Portal and the like). 2. Resistant Hide! As a Firestorm Mage, Resistant Hide is where it's at. A lot of my losses have come in games where I don't top into Resistant Hide, but also considering that there's a stupendous amount of Fire and Electric damage flowing around, this thing has single-handedly beaten campaigns for me. Also, the fact that it triggers on all other damage as well, *and* on a 3+? Yes. Very yes. 3. Reflexive Teleport. Dude. This thing rocks my socks apart. There have been games where I would have died six or seven times except for this. Also, the fact that you can use it against Lizardmen darters as that extra move at the end of your turn to put space in-between you and their Range 2 makes it unfathomably good. 4. Dimensional Traveler. Especially in the early levels, I'm using Electroporter Novice both for the mobility and extra damage. Especially since I side in items with Squeamish, Electoporter Novice is 110%. The Dimensional Traveler oftentimes can get you out of a sticky situation when you're backed into a corner (By goblins, etc.), but can also put distance between you and your opponent that would otherwise mean that they'd catch and murder you on that turn, or before you act (If they act first on a turn). 5. Firestorm. This dude is my MVP. There are games where I resolve this, and regardless of my HP, I can either kill off enough things to handle the rest of the map, or combined with other points of damage, kill an Acid Imp that would later dissolve my Resistant Hide. Combined with Resistant Hide, of course, this thing's super, but alone, it's a beast and a half as well. I've lost a fair few games to it after getting hit post-Firestorm, but the biggest challenge I've faced in this as an Elf is getting the AI's numbers down to manageable, and this usually gets me halfway (or more) there, and within range of killing. 6. Slippery. Hahaha. Even better than Dimensional Traveler. This has single-handedly won me a ton of games. The ability to just bounce out of trouble before anything happens in a round *plus* a free move across the board or into position for a killshot on that last turn is vital. Haven't tried this challenge with any other classes yet, but I may do a Vampire Cleric or Warrior here to see how they fare.
I started up with a human priest, I call him, Han Solo. I've suffered defeat at Slub Gut's Sanctum, but will try again tomorrow. Those darters are bad news. Update: So it appears that Han Solo has trouble with lizard creatures with three letter surnames, so I'm going to have to put off Slubba until later. Rescuing the princess from the prison fortress is also proving highly difficult, so I moved on to smuggling diamonds... everything was going fine as long as I was encased in my metal shell, Dark Chain Shirt, even the armored pig guards couldn't stop me, but it didn't hold out until the final battle so I got overrun.
