UPDATE: I have now beaten Yama! Thanks so much Patrick for getting me into this fantastic game. I already owned it, but didn't realize the subtleties to it so his stream really helped me learn how deep this game really is. I put in 93 hours and do not regret it.

Original Post

So I beat Spelunky and I'd like to thank Patrick. I'd played it a little before Spelunkin' With Scoops but this stream helped me learn some key strategies and after a week I've beaten Olmec on Ironman. On to Hell next though it sounds mighty hard! Anyway one else beat the game because of what you learned on this stream??

Congrats! I've been on Olmec for probably over a year without sealing the deal, but I don't play that often.

Even though I've been playing since the original XBLA release (so I feel like I've sort of seen it all sometimes), I did learn something new from Patrick's streams: that you can sell idols to shopkeepers. Shows you that there's almost always something new left to discover in Spelunky.

@cloudymusic: I never knew that either about the shopkeeps.

Congrats! I have not beaten Olmec, but I got the Kapala for the first time today. Damn that thing is awesome.

well done! even after King Yama you may feel inclined to do other stuff like visit the Castle, Worm, or Mothership. Good luck in hell!

Do the Worm next so you can play as Super Meat Boy.

I dont know if i will ever get to Omec but I have learned a lot from just watching Patrick play. Its fun to learn something new and be able to jump into a game and try it out. Usually if i see something cool in a game is 3 hours in and there is no way im going to try and find it.

I've been to every place except City of Gold & Hell. So yes, I have gotten him! I find it really hard to get to the black market and be able to afford the ankh, so I'm finding it hard to get those places. I also don't want to kill the shopkeepers because I know its possible to buy the ankh at that point without killing them because I've done it before.

Man, I finally managed to kill that fucker Yama. Almost died after blowing him up and trying to get out, because of a damn bat (fell one square next to lava pool), but manged to pull through somehow .

It's been a while since I cursed so much, while playing a game.

@counterclockwork87Oh, and it's always best to just kill of the shopkeepers in my opinion. I think they are only a problem in the mines, because at that point you are probably ill equipped to handle them easily. Nevertheless it's worth the hassle.

Wow, man I haven't even been to hell yet. Recently I've gotten to City of Gold a couple of times.So, do I kill the shopkeepers once I get to the black market? If you kill the shopkeepers in the mines I find I get killed very easily by them. I've actually been able to afford the ankh more lately because I've been doing some ghost mining to get some extra cash.

@counterclockwork87: Well, I don't think it makes that much of a difference if you start killing shopkeepers shortly before or in the black market itself.

If you just stay on the left side, as was already demonstrated in some of Patrick's runs, it's easy enough to anger and pull the shopkeepers on the first floor. Of course you'll need to have a few bombs for this strategy to work out.

I owned the game but didn't start playing until I started watching Patrick's stream... now I'm addicted. I've spent 19 hours on the PC version in about a week and probably 3-5 hours on the Vita version.

I guess watching that and the QL gave me some "ammunition" to work with going into the game but I find I still died a lot in the mines, ugh... Just beat Olmec today after 121 deaths, ironman style. The stage right before Olmec was a bit dicey because of how the exit was positioned and where the shopkeeper was, but I managed to pull it out with only twice almost blowing myself to smithereens.

Unlocked my ninja dude on the Olmec stage though so I'm gonna keep going, hopefully visit some of the alternate areas like hell, city of gold, etc.

UPDATE: I have now beaten Yama! Thanks so much Patrick for getting me into this fantastic game. I already owned it, but didn't realize the subtleties to it so his stream really helped me learn how deep this game really is. I put in 93 hours and do not regret it.

93 hours? Okay I feel less bad about myself. I finally got to hell earlier today, and I've been playing the game off and on since July. Probably never gonna beat Yama. Think I might be done with the Xbox version for now, but if I grab the pc version one day I might play the daily challenges.

The game is fucking great, I just want to play other things. I wish I knew how many hours I'd played of it. I've got 640 or so runs under my belt, so probably a lot.

Oh, right! Congrats! That's a hell of an accomplishment.

Beat Olmec for the first time tonight! Feeling pretty good right now.

I beat Olmec last week for the first time, and then a day later I made it to the city of gold but ended up dying there when Anubis II cornered me. Then I beat Olmec again just to get revenge.

Since then, I haven't even made it past the ice caves. O cruel Spelunky, thou hast forsaken me...

I finally beat Yama last night on my Vita, what a satisfying feeling. I've also been doing fair better on the dailies on my Vita compared to PC, but I think that might also be that there are less people playing it on PSN and maybe the better players are on the PC version. Still, I'm only lacking the Speedlunky trophy and hopefully I'll get that soon.

I finally beat Olmec today. What a feeling. After an awful daily run today, I decided I wasn't going to let Spelunky beat me. I then cursed and yelled my way to 10+ deaths in a row without even making it to the caves. Then on the final run I defeated Anubis for the first time, made it to the City of Gold for the first time, killed Anubis 2, got the book thing, and went on my way to defeat Olmec.

I didn't want to go to Hell on this run, as I was sure death was awaiting for me there. And I wanted that damn Olmec head as a trophy. Still many more things to accomplish in Spelunky, I feel like I'm just getting started!

Less than an hour after posting an abysmal Daily run where freeze gun recoil sent me onto some spikes (I'm really not joking), this happened. Granted, I did use Tunnel Man to start in the Jungle, but I still count this as an achievement of sorts. Managed to find the Black Market without the Udjat Eye and robbed it with relative ease, but somehow missed the Moai in the Ice Caves, meaning no City of Gold or Hell. Ended up using the Ankh on 4-3 after a brave encounter with a shopkeeper went pear-shaped.

So yeah, thanks gang! Couldn't have done it without watching some of you guys and knowing how to approach things better

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@jayc4life: Congrats! Next stop, HELL! :D

Finally beat Hell today! It was actually the first time I've been past the first level of Hell, too. (I got to Hell three or four times before and always died in the first area because I was low on health.) Feeling pretty great right now!

Yeah, man. I beat Olmec the other day, and it felt so goddamn good. I don't think I would've given the game another try if it weren't for Patrick's feature. Now on to Yama...

I wish there was a way to see how many hours I've put into the game (I'm playing it on Vita), it's probably the game I've put the most hours into next to P4G.

I've beaten Spelunky twice so far. Once a week ago and again today. This time though I made it all the way to hell and beat Yama on my first try. My key to victory though was getting the cup and using the mummy to fill up on health. Without those extra hearts I would've died in the City of Gold and on three other separate occasions in hell. 40 hearts is not overkill.