Here's your official Iron Man thread!

It took me about 200 deaths before I managed to get from 1-1 to 4-4 in one go. After that it took me another 50 or so before I was able to do it again. The catch is, the second time I happened to be streaming live and caught it all on video!

Anyone else manage to put a wrap on this game yet? Leaderboards suggest the amount of people who have completed it is pretty low. I'm still working on some of the extra content, like the City of Gold, etc.

I got 1000 deaths before even beating it with shortcuts. =(

That's nuts! Great work!

Im one of the lucky few that made it through alive, took my about 250 deaths though.

now I get killed while trying to chase the side mission objectives, rather than trying to get to the end.

It would be nice to put a finished time on this weeks leaderboard too though!

@Needle: What's your stream? Congrats!

How are you actually supposed to beat the boss?

Made it all the way to the boss twice, got crushed both times.

Climbing gloves are the opposite of helpful against Olmec.

I aspire for this!! It sucks because I have been at work so much recently and I just want to spend days straight playing this game. I'll get there one day though, great run though!

Man, I'm still working in the tunnel I the ice caves. Feels like I can only play this for a short period of time before wanting to smash my 360 to pieces.

@joshthebear said:

Man, I'm still working in the tunnel I the ice caves. Feels like I can only play this for a short period of time before wanting to smash my 360 to pieces.

My best runs are often my early runs in the day. Later I move faster and with less care, so I come a cropper due to my impatience

@TruthTellah said:

@Needle: What's your stream? Congrats!

I stream at http://www.twitch.tv/fromthedpad - I've been streaming a ton of Spelunky lately, as it's easy to set up and people seem to enjoy watching it. I probably streamed about 5 hours of it yesterday alone!

@ajamafalous: Not sure what the "correct" way to beat him is as my bombing technique has proven to be pretty effective, however baiting Olmec and have him slam hard into the ground will cause him to dig his own hole over a long period of time. It seems super risky though. Consequently enough, this is the same way you beat Bowser at the end of Super Mario Bros. 3!

@Snotty: Couldn't agree more with your statement. I usually start strong and get progressively more sloppy as each game session goes on. It really does pay to take breaks to refocus. Also yes, these days I seem to die a lot chasing side objectives, especially when it comes to robbing the black market. :) I'd probably have finished this game two or three more times if I wasn't so reckless about getting to the City of Gold.

Okay now I made it, too.

I still highly advise against getting climbing gloves, as they will make it nigh-impossible to lure Olmec into jumping up and down in one place, as shown in this video:

I've made it to Olmec about 20 times but I can't fucking beat him :(

@SJSchmidt93: Everytime I tried to get him I used that "Easy" takedown attempt and usually end up falling with him into lava. I ended up beating him but throwing a rope up and gathering bombs from crates and making a hole for him. I think I still got lucky cause it was a narrow hole and he went right in it.

@BamSaidTheLady said:

@SJSchmidt93: Everytime I tried to get him I used that "Easy" takedown attempt and usually end up falling with him into lava. I ended up beating him but throwing a rope up and gathering bombs from crates and making a hole for him. I think I still got lucky cause it was a narrow hole and he went right in it.

Me too. I'm fairly convinced the strategy isn't even that good as it almost never seems to work. It's also fairly lucked-based, as their is nothing you can do about an orange frog blowing you up or a unfortunately placed hole.

Also, whenever I try to just use a ton of bombs I can never manage to get the hole wide enough.. it seems I'd need around 20 bombs to do so.

Well, I finally did it. I just wish you could carry over everything into a NG+ to work 1-1 again. It would create a whole new thing with this game where you can see how many times in a row you can beat it without dying. And if you do it, say, 5 times or something maybe you are at a point where you basically can't die because you have 30 hp, every single item and 100 bombs/ropes. Except of course, lava and the lava pits in the temple.

Just got Ironman using the pickaxe and jetpack. Pickaxe broke before Olmec's hole was finished but I had just enough bombs to finish his hole. I was 4 beers in so maybe drinking helps.

@grayman24 said:

Just got Ironman using the pickaxe and jetpack. Pickaxe broke before Olmec's hole was finished but I had just enough bombs to finish his hole. I was 4 beers in so maybe drinking helps.

I got to 5-3 for the first time after 3 bottles of IPA, so maybe you are onto something!

Even after you beat the game without shortcuts there is still tons to do in this game.

@Snotty said:

@joshthebear said:

Man, I'm still working in the tunnel I the ice caves. Feels like I can only play this for a short period of time before wanting to smash my 360 to pieces.

My best runs are often my early runs in the day. Later I move faster and with less care, so I come a cropper due to my impatience

Same for me. It's probably best for me to only play this for about 15 mins. That's usually when I have my best run and then they start getting shorter and shorter.