@pyrodactyl: More Jackalling (two Fun Shrooms from expeditions today, tried grinding for 2 hours at the end of my day pass without finding a single one):

Also the raiding thing I was talking about earlier:

The opponent probably has something like 400+ hours played, at the very least he had to use like 20+ Bronze shrooms for the anti poison stuff. No need, just use evershrooms. If I had grinded a similar amount to the opponent it would probably take 2 and half minutes to kill all of these guys with no bad luck, almost all defenders with defense set bonuses and tank or double tank.

As far as the Jackals/myself I do kind of want the full fashionable outfit, fashion souls is paramount after all; so I guess I'll just focus on killing Jackal Z if she spawns first whenever I get more fun shrooms; other than that rejoice for my bank has 60 empty slots now (60 guardshrooms in 3 days I imagine). I'm *officially* in the wasting time camp now, but at least I never grinded out level 4 4 star weapons and armor or level 5 like some sillies. Just like 20-30 minutes of inventory management a day at this point.

Note: You do get the trophy for killing each individual Jackal once, no need to kill all of them at the same time.

Still don't have the 100 deaths trophy though I wouldn't even be close if I hadn't rushed through 30-35.

@takayamasama 4 more death metals for California soon, huzzah. There's something weird with how they hand out death metals on dailies if you're low level; will report back eventually.

I can't decide what this game does worse - lock on targeting, or touchpad.

Also, the hunter placement in Wanoki is brutal. Twice I've come around a corner, expecting to one-shot a low level dude, and surprise, it was a hunter with a machete that one-shots me. It's that train area that is literally impossible to tell who exactly is around the pillar without putting your face an inch away from their blade.

@roomrunner: In situations like those just listen for the dumb dialogue lines that all the hunters shout, then you'll know one is around.

@roomrunner: Pretty much always be crouching!

That's a bit over the top. Just be on your guard and bait enemies that are out of sight instead of engaging them head on. Dealing with haters really isn't that bad if you use mushrooms and if you see them coming.

PS: Forget the lock on and touch pad weirdness, the worst control quirk of this game is that the mushroom throw is on X.

@pyrodactyl: well not really over the top based on how you play. I'm doing Shooter right now so I'm always crouching to get that head shot/scoped shot 1 hit kill on most enemies.

Okay, today I learned that Jackals appearing does not equal instant death.

I was taking my time clearing out a floor on the early teens (the one with the big crater in the middle, and a bunch of snipers). I cleared it, and was gathering materials when the alarm sounded, and a Jackal warped right infront of the corridor that leads to the escalator. I ran back to the entrance, missed the jump at that crater(!!!!), ran around the swamp to climb back up with her breathing down my neck, made the jump on my second try, and another Jackal was warping in to the entrance just when I was using it.

Maybe I got super lucky, and it was the one Jackal that doesn't teleport around or use ranged weapons, but it's a relief to know there is a chance to live if I run.

@roomrunner: You have a chance but don't underestimate them. The shots of the one that has a gun are homing, he shoots in bursts and every single bullet kills you in one hit. Having them between you and the exit is a death sentence in my experience unless you have a transparengus or a protect shroom.

I just unlocked Tier 5 Fighters. Wow have I never been more upset at the game. Not for the layout or anything, I really like how floors 31-40 look, but I hit so many bugs in the 31+ floors that cost me a lot.

First I hit the invisible weapon bug I had seen reported. It only effected ranged weapons and was horrible. Think this thing charging me was hand to hand but nope, it's shooting invisible baseballs at me. Then I hit the worst bug I've had in the game, right during the new mini-boss in the 31+ floors of all times, in which I COULD NOT move my camera left or right. I popped a slowshroom and my stingshroom and proceeded to try to snipe this new boss, to learn that the game had no locked my camera looking right in front of me. It was so painful, i just sat and watched as my shroom buffs withered away and the boss murdered me since I couldn't move. Cost me a few death metals and I was furious.

But whatever, I killed it and moved up to unlock my fancy new 5* Striker. Feels nice to have 10k HP. Now I start the insane item grind to upgrade stuff. Just got my Iron to the 3* Burning Iron. That thing is a beast.

I don't think enemies leash. Good job you can outrun them, at least from the early stages I've played.

@shindig: Yep! if you take off fast enough and weave/bob around corners, they will lose sight of you and stop chasing. Makes it easy to double back around for a suplex.

Juggled to death by two level 27 haters on the second floor. Twice. That's your first strike, Uncle Death.

@shindig: The second floor frequently has two haters, almost never happens anywhere else.

The almighty Yo-Yo:

Not pictured: a comical amount of farming; though I might have gotten slightly unlucky. Jackal Blueprints (I still don't have one) are absurdly rare and half the time when you kill them they don't drop anything /shrug; just to make things more grindy I guess? It also takes 5-10 minutes just for them to spawn every time you want to kill one (or more); AGDQ made this process less painful.

Went back to the third floor to open up the spare path only to find I was being juggled by three dudes. Then ran into the miniboss who, despite beating him, respawns.

Deleted.

I'm starting to do a big clear out of my one star fighters. They say 4 star fighters are a ways out, and I'm being hit by raids often, so I'm happy to grind out a bunch of 3 stars. Only problem, the grind takes forever.

What is the preferred exp grind process?

@fredchuckdave: How does the damage compare to a good top tier weapon like the saber +, katana + or the cleaver +?

@roomrunner: Floor 16 Okusa has a room where 3 Golden Snails always spawn, when the room is up on rotation. People like to farm that a lot and bank the snails for future character. You can also get a lot of snails sending people attack folks on the floor.

Otherwise it's not hard to level up the normal way of just going through the tower for mats/explore other rooms, etc.

@pyrodactyl: I imagine fully upgraded the Yo-yo (held second attack) is comparable to any high level weapon but the process of upgrading it and getting a blueprint drop would take like 200 hours (not an exaggeration). The sword is not so great comparitively, also its moveset is identical to the Machete; gun seems okay.

@fredchuckdave: My impression was that the only realistic lvl of jackal weapon you can craft is lvl 0 (not even +1). So since you seem to have a few of those lvl 0 yoyos, how do they compare damage wise to other top tier weapons (katana+ cleaver+ saber+) on enemies in the 30s? Because looking at the attack stat, they just seem very bad.

Second boss

Last night (first try): THIS IS THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF BULLSHIT I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED IN VIDEO GAMES!

This morning (bringing three transparent mushrooms): huh... didn't even have to heal once.

@roomrunner: From now on, you are going to need to combo the transparent/slow shrooms with sting shrooms.

@roomrunner: the game has a weird difficulty scale where when you first meet a new boss, it destroys you, so you go towards transparent shrooms or slow shrooms and the like.

Then after playing a bit, nothing scares you and you just say "fuck it" and go into them with only life shrooms. I dont even bother with transparent/slowmungus anymore on anything, and I'm farming the 36 boss a lot for metals.

@roomrunner: Second boss is fairly easy compared to the first mid boss of the 20s. Craft tier 3 weapons and find slowshrooms and stingshrooms before you face it on floor 23 (after the elevator).

Alright, I've got these P stickers for DOD/MILK/whatever items. How do I know when I have one of those items equipped?

@roomrunner: The way I have done it is to match the items/clothes I am using to the sticker. For example, I am wearing a DOD helmet, jacket and pants, with a DOD 20% defense sticker. I see the Item affiliations when I buy/sell them at the store.

@roomrunner: you can see the manufacturer of an item if you hit r3 and look at the backround of the item. The sticker will also be grey/faded at the bottom of your screen if it's inactive (have the wrong stuff equiped).

@noobsmog: @bybeach: @roomrunner: The brand of an item (DOD, war ensemble, etc) is indicated with a logo in the background of the item stat window (behind the stat requirements and defense/attack stats).

okay, well... I slapped on the Military Enthusiast decal; and despite equipping boots and and vest with the W.E. background, the decal was greyed out.

So, maybe it's glitched, like the hide & seek decal, and certain quests.

@roomrunner: you need a head piece too

@pyrodactyl: agh, i see. thx

Game is available in Japan/Asia now; only a few weeks away from the larger update but they changed a fair number of things. Most of the bugged quests actually work now for one and it's harder to get two death metals from fights; have to be in the top 5% instead of top 20%. California has 50,000+ now, but Tokyo is already up to like 700ish; maybe they can compete with Germany eventually.

Some handy usage of Jazz in Paris:

@fredchuckdave: Anything new outside of bug fixes?

@pyrodactyl: There's a 1 dollar for 10 death metal deal that's one time only for the next two weeks and it's possible the bosses have better drop rates of crafting materials, especially the floor 30+ ones.

Japan has like 40 different places to choose from which is vaguely interesting if you like existential geography (Korea/Taiwan/Hong Kong are in weird places as well).