Hey so I'm playing the game and really enjoying it (I suck though). The one thing I can't manage to do is fulfill the elevator guy's request.

He asks for 120 coins and 3 keys. I can get the keys easily in a 2 floor run, but I just can't seem to get 120 coins by the time I beat floor 2. What am I doing wrong? Is there some kind of trick to this that I just don't know or is it just something I gotta keep trying again and again?

Are you getting hit too much? When an enemy hits you that enemy will not drop money when they die. Other than that you can sell guns to the sewer guy in the shop when he appears. Beyond that you are at the whims of the randomly generated floors, some are smaller than others and have less to do. The skips are mean't to be hard to obtain by the very nature of the type of game it is.

Wow, it's 120, not 150. I could've turned it in last night but I thought I didn't have enough! Gah!

Knowing that now, I can say that the way I had that amount was selling all of my guns and items to the sewer guy when he spawned in the first shop. I waited till I killed the boss, sold everything, and then went to the second floor.

Shoot things until they are dead and don't die.

Another thing that helps is do the secret floor between the first and second, that'll give you more time to accumulate money.

holy shit I had no idea you had to not take damage from an enemy for it to give you money. that will definitely help me out.

What exactly is the secret floor and how do I access it?

The secret floor that requires 2 keys? You're just trading one shortage for another one.

@l0rdenglish: How to access the secret area for floor 1 Find the fireplace, then go looking for the blue barrels (when you push them around they leak water) and shove it into the fireplace, or use a water gun. Go inside the fireplace and flip a switch (same button as picking up ammo). A new room opens somewhere on the floor, at this point you spend 2 keys and then fall down between floors.

@westernwizard thanks man!

@neocalypso: Yeah, if you go to the secret floor, it almost assures you won't have enough keys for shortcut guy.

All things considered, my least favourite thing in Enter the Gungeon is how many things are locked in the game, and that the key drop rate is dramatically lower than something like Binding of Isaac.

I've found using the Pilot good for grinding the key/money requirements for the shortcuts. In order to hit the numbers, you're basically required to buy nothing from the shops or open chests. The pilot, with his lockpick, lets you at least have a chance at getting items to fight the boss with under those conditions.

Though, I hate to say it, further unlocks will have even more outrageous requirements.

What's funny is, how many times are most people even going to USE elevator man's benefits? To do a "real run" you have to go through every floor anyway. Only benefit I can imagine is wanting to practice say 3rd floor and dealing with the damned Treadnaught (and probably 4th floor with the wall, whatever it is called) without having to deal with all the time in the previous floors. But is that worth all the hassle of accumulating the stuff? Honestly I'll probably just do it when I feel like I don't care about a given run but have the materials fall into my lap (lucky 50 casing drop, that sort of thing).

@westernwizard: Yeah, in Spelunky it was good for practicing later levels, because sometimes it was nice to skip the Jungle because I swear to god I somehow randomly died in that zone all the time even though it's still early. Though frankly the last couple shortcut requirements in Spelunky were kinda ridiculous too.

But in this game especially, since it's a Binding of Isaac-like where it's all about accruing powerups and guns, why would you willingly skip the first few floors, unless the skip just gifts you like 400 casings to make up for all the lost money? At least in Spelunky the game is kinda completeable with nearly any item loadout, and missed money is meaningless except for score because eventually most players just steal items from the shop keeper anyway, and you can pretty much always steal a shotgun from the shopkeeper.

@westernwizard: You unlock some pretty sweet items along with the shortcuts, so they're definitely worth doing even if you don't plan on using them.

@rickrockmann: Ah ha so they did give a real incentive. Good to know. Still will probably not go out of my way early on, just do whatever as it makes sense.

@westernwizard to be honest I just want to try and complete it because its something I can incrementally work towards. I doubt I'll be good enough to beat the game any time soon, but its definitely a reasonable goal to try and get the items he needs within 2 levels.

I can confirm that enemies who hit you definetely CAN drop money. I have no idea if accuracy and overal speed of cleering rooms affects money drops but it is definetely not as simple as enemies hitting you not dropping cash.

But 120+ runs in I am definetely getting more money somehow, as my play improve.

As for the shortcut guy, I don't really see the point of it either, but it propels me to play and progress further, just to have the goal. I am currently almost done with shortcut to Chamber 4, missing only Hegemony bucks. It's pretty great you can complete all the steps for the given shortcut in any order, even if not asked for an item yet he will accept it. So if you are collecting money and keys and in the process manage to kill the boss without getting hit, the shortcut guy will take the artifact as well.

@quipido: Getting more money in later runs might be a consequence of the game spawning harder enemies earlier as you play the game more.

At least, it seems like I see more blue shotgun shells, green books, and gun nuts on floor one than I ever had seen before.

@joystick_hero: Have you beaten the game, either normally or the full clear? If so I wonder if the game is like Isaac where after completing certain conditions it makes the game harder (in Isaac it was like 5 or 10 mom wins I think that upped the difficulty on earlier floors).

I have not beaten the game yet but the 1st Chamber did get harder for sure, but it also has a chance to spawn a room with a friend (Winchester etc.)

I've gotten the full ending at this point (beat the game with all characters, beat the bonus boss), but I'm pretty sure the difficulty ramped up as I cleared more floors, even before winning.

Hm interesting to know. I'm still mostly pretty bad (been to the 4th floor 4x, never made it to the 5th despite several runs with the super meat gun).

Plus side I did clear the side quest related to Manny.

"Helps" goddamn Oublitte is so rough on my weak body. I have yet to "git gud"

@chu52: I'd probably pass on the Oubliette, unless you've already gotten to the point where you can reach the fourth floor pretty reliably. The enemies there are on par with floor 3, but without the added benefit of two floors of loot.

Though, the added loot from taking a detour definitely has an appeal.

@joystick_hero: oka . That sets a good goal. I finally got reliable at getting up to and through most of level 3. Been to 4 once thanks to ridiculously good drops. Fat bees really wrecked Treadnaught (for babies not real Treadnaught)

I'm on the final step of the third shortcut and in retrospect it's insane how much harder this 3 key/120 cash requirement was than the other ones. Even the next level which is 4 keys/180 cash I was able to finish on the run immediately after completing the first shortcut. The keys and money is such a dam in progress that when I finally got them to that guy I was able to immediately finish up the shortcut entirely because I already had a master round and Hegemony Credits.