General Hobopolis strategy guide for normal runs

[sarspastic]

First off, thank you to Xen and Kongo for their help.

Second, but definitely not least, a *huge* thank you to Beany for editing, correcting and generally helping me out, adding in things I missed and whatnot.  He is a fount of hobo goodness, so if you have questions ask him.  He's a lot more patient than me (kidding, of course you can ask me or any other experienced hoboer anything youre unsure about).

Welcome to 7L hobopolis!  This guide is a must-read for every first time hobo player.  This isnt entirely optimal, but its the general rule for how hobopolis should be done, what order the side zones go in and how to play.  Now, there is no excuse for not knowing the procedures, its all written out here in black and white for anyone to follow.

This guide is made for a NORMAL hobo run.  This includes all runs that are not stunt runs and do not take place on Free for All Friday (after rollover Thursday night to rollover Friday night).

Hobopolis is not an easy place to adventure if you’re between levels 10-20.  All we ask is that you please don’t adventure in hobo if you’re not prepared for the cost of buffing yourself.  We have FFAF in place for experimentation, so if you’re not sure where you stand or how you’ll do, try it out on Fridays when you won’t be making a run more difficult for others.

TIP: You should ALWAYS (except PLD where you boost combat instead and town square if your goal is killing hobos for parts) boost non-combats as much as you possibly can.  Smooth Movement, Sonata of Sneakiness, Chunks of Rock Salt, Deodorant, Ring of Conflict and having the non-combat song playing in the Spookyraven Manor Ballroom all boost non-coms.

Items that are good to have, but not necessary:
Buffing Potions (tomato juice, philters of phorce, oils of stability, etc. will all help bring you to the level you need to be if you’re a lower level player.  Ferrigno’s, Hawking’s and Connery’s, and Pressurized Potions are good for fighting bosses since they have a significant boost to your stats.)

Scented Massage Oil (this is helpful in boss fights, anything that will give you full HP will always be helpful)

To view each section, click on the link below.

Sewer
Town Square (including Hodgman, who obviously should not be killed until after the side zones are done)
Zones should be completed in the order listed. Check each zones link for how they should be done.
Exposure Esplanade
Burnbarrel Boulevard
The Heap
Purple Light District
Burial Ground

[sarspastic]

The Sewer:

TIP:  Have sewer kit ready.  This means having oils of oiliness (3 are used at a time, so stock up), unfortunate dumplings, bottles of ooze-o, sewer wads, and gatorskin umbrellas (must be equipped to work, and are taken away from you in tests, so make sure to re-equip them if they are taken away).  Make sure to have your hobo binder equipped at all times or you won’t pass the tests for exploring.

Fight all monsters (unless in a stunt run and otherwise told).

Turn all valves and open all grates (20 of each, check the progress thread to see if they are already done.  If the progress thread hasn’t been updated, you can check the Dungeon Logs to find out).

If you get trapped by the CHUMs, make sure BEFORE you chew your way through the bars that there is no one else coming through the sewers who can set you free.  Ten adventures is a big waste, especially if someone was right there to help you.

Always check the thread to see if there is someone trapped in the cage (called a Lamb).  They may want to be set free and should post as much on the progress thread if they do want that.  Freeing the lamb won’t do anything until they click to leave the cage, so even if its done, its not that big a deal.  You should post in the progress thread if you’ve already freed the person.

Explore tunnels when possible.  This would be if you do not need to free a lamb and do not need to turn valves and open grates.

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Town Square:

TIP:  Keep at least your Sonata of Sneakiness going if you can afford to.  You will need them in all side zones except for Purple Light District, which won’t be completed til fairly late in the run.

Fighting normal hobos:
Unless you are trying to get your binder, farming nickels in Town Square is not the way to go.  It doesn’t advance the run as much as getting scarehobo parts.  To obtain parts, you have to overkill the hobo.  This means one-hit for at least 503 damage, or in two hits at at least 255 apiece.  The parts are as follows:

Physical damage:  Skin
Hot damage: Boots
Cold damage: Eyes
Spooky damage: Skull
Stench damage: Guts
Sleaze damage: Crotch

You can add elemental damage in a few ways:

Using Phials:  The easiest (and most expensive) way to make all your damage elemental.  You can buy these in the mall, or make them yourself if you’re a Sauceror or have the skill permed.

Using Flavor of Magic:  If you are a Pastamancer or have the skill permed, you can use this to make your spells any element you want to be.  Please note that this will only work with Weapon of the Pastalord if you can do >1006 damage in one cast (spaded by Bean ), so if you can’t manage that, and if you can’t do enough damage with Cannelloni Cannon or Stuffed Mortar Shell, this may not be the way to go.

Using hobo elemental spells:  there are at least one different kind of each elemental spell available in hobo, the MP cost of 120 is extremely high but if you are high enough level, you can use this to do the damage.

Equipping spell books in your offhand:  These books (Cookbook of the Damned, Sinful Desires, etc.) will make your spell damage elemental depending on which one you have equipped.  Note that these will add the elemental damage to your physical damage, and only the elemental damage you do counts towards that 503/255, even if you’re also doing non-elemental damage.

Other class specific elemental spells:  Immaculate Seasoning (Sauceror) will let you pick hot or cold as your spell damage.  Fearful Fettucini (Pastamancer) and Spectral Snapper (TT) will do spooky damage.

Make sure that you are keeping the parts you are making fairly even.  If you see someone else going crazy with physical parts or something, tell them to stop and give them this link.

Choice Adventures in Town Square include:
   Mind Yer Binder:  This adventure will only come up if you don’t already have a binder.  A binder costs 30 nickels and should be the first thing you pick up.
   Marketplace Entrance:  Its good to have your binder equipped if you want to go shopping, so you can read the signs.  The more codes you have, the more signs youll be able to read.
   Attention – A Tent!:  This will start to come up once Town Square is on image 125.  Unless you’re in a stunt run, you can ignore this adventure by clicking Just Leave, Steve.

Your first step should be to make enough scarehobos to open up Exposure Esplanade.  While Burnbarrel Boulevard will open first, it should not be done until AFTER Exposure is completed.  This is because having Burnbarrel completed will negate the pipe adventure, causing no icicles and making Exposure run a lot longer.  Creating and blowing up about 33-38 scarehobos will open up Exposure. It takes about 3000 kills in town square to finish it without making and blowing up scarehobos and about 1284 if ever kill makes the correct scarehobo part. Obviously making scarehobo parts is extremely important so please help make them whenever you're playing in Hobopolis.


After killing Ol' Scratch:
Back to Town Square:  doing about 16 - 19 more schobos should be enough to open The Heap, which is the next side zone you should tackle.

After the Heap:
Go back to Town Square and create about 32 - 38 more scarehobos.  This will open up both the Burial Ground and Purple Light District.  You want to do the Purple Light District first.

After the Burial Ground:
Now that all the side zones are cleared, you have to make scarehobos until Town Square reaches Image 25.

Once that happens, Hodgman is up!

Fighting Hodgman:  Even with all the side bosses dead, Hodgy is still a significant amount tougher to fight than any of the other bosses.  Some tips to help you take him down:

   Its important to note that if the side bosses are not killed, they will make killing Hodgman infinitely harder to do.  Their powers are magnified and passed on to Hodgman.  It will strip your buffs, your equipment, your damage reduction, and make his damage reduction go way up.

   Buff the crap out of yourself:  Anything you can throw on to help you do more damage, up your HP (he hits pretty hard) and other buffs.  This is where Ferrigno’s-type potions will come in handy.  Keep a couple scented massage oils on hand, and have a few of Richard’s bandages made (4-6 should be enough if you don’t have massage oils). 

   Hit as hard as you can with your best attack/spell/items.  He has a lot of HP and it will most likely take awhile to take him down.

TIP:  A relatively painless way to kill Hodgman (shamelessly stolen from Shel’s whackin’ stick run plan) is:

Each round either hit him with snowclone (or equivalent) or funksling two divine items (the ones for your class). Watch, watch, watch what the combat messages say. When he starts to flip out, cast one of the 30mp hobo skills (Tales from the Fireside etc...) and you'll calm him down again. The effect lasts for between 2 and 5 rounds and saves you taking heavy damage.

[sarspastic]

Exposure Esplanade:

TIP:  The icicles in here cause a lot of damage.  Make sure to up your cold elemental resistance, with Elemental Saucesphere, Cans of Black Paint and Orange Peel Hat (or other equipment which gives you good resistance to Cold).  Increasing your muscle will increase your HP, and a healing familiar is a good plus in this area (Dandy Lion is great for hobopolis, as it will not lower your item drop rate but will still restore HP/MP as you adventure).  If you find you are getting killed too quickly, proceed back to Town Square and make some more scarehobo parts, they will always come in handy.

There are a few choice adventures in Exposure.  What you choose does make a difference:
   Piping Cold:  you have the choice to divert water to Burnbarrel Boulevard, divert water to Purple Light District, or go all Clue on the Third Pipe.  For the most part, you want to consistently pick the third option, going all Clue.  This will create icicles.  At least a few times during EE, you could divert water to PLD (2nd option).  This will shorten the line for the club in PLD (more on that in the PLD section).  Never divert more than 13 pipes to the PLD, as this makes Burial Ground harder in the longrun.  Its generally always better to create icicles though.  The only time that you really should divert water to PLD is if you’re at image 8 or 9 with someone playing who hasn’t yodeled yet.

   There Goes Fritz!:  Figure out how many times you have created icicles.  If its less than 15-20, you should always yodel a little.  If its between 20-25 icicles, you can pick Yodel a Lot or your Heart Out.    Anything over 25, Yodel your Heart out.  This means you will no longer receive the Yodel adventure.  Be careful picking Yodel a Lot, as doing this twice or doing it after several Little Yodels will mean you will no longer receive the adventure.  If you are close to the end of your adventures for the day, then always pick Yodel your Heart Out.  If you are playing in EE with another player, always announce “I’ve got Fritz,” or something similar and then wait until the other player/s have also got Fritz before yodeling. This will maximize the number of icicles available when you yodel, increasing the number of hobos killed.

   The Frigid Air:  You can take up to two Frozen Banquets per instance, even though you have the opportunity to take all five.  If you take more than two, you will be demoted.  It’s a great item, and its not fair to hog them all unless you’re the only one adventuring in EE and you know you’ll be the one to finish it off.  If by some chance you do accidentally take them all, pass some along to your fellow hoboers.  We will be checking on this.  If someone takes them all and you didn’t get any, kmail or PM an admin to handle it.

   Bowl of Fishysoisse:  This is a semi-rare adventure.  Feel free to buy away (for five nickels, it’s a good deal for a decent food item).

Once you advance to Image 10, its time to fight Frosty, who truth be told can be one of the hardest bosses.  This guy does not respond to damage.  At all.  Here’s how to defeat Frosty relatively easily:

   Equipment:  You need equipment that does either elemental or bonus damage.  Your actual attack won’t hit Frosty for more than 1 HP.  If you equip an offhand weapon, you will get an additional 1 HP.  If you use Rainbow equipment, an obsidian dagger, or any other item that gives elemental damage, you will get 1 HP for each element, as well as an additional 2 HP for hot and spooky damage.  You also want to equip accessories which do damage to your opponent.  Acid Squirting Flower, Bottle Opener Belt Buckle and Groovy Prism Necklace are good for that.  The groovy prism necklace damage does stack with elemental damage from other weapons or the Rainbow Bright effect, but won’t work every round.

   Buffs:  Saucespheres are a must.  Every time Frosty hits you, the jalapeno, jabanero, and scarysauce will cause 1 HP, 3HP and 1HP extra damage.  For this reason, its important not to buff your moxie too high.  If he doesn’t hit you, that damage won’t occur.  Also good if you don’t have rainbow equipment is to use a Prismatic Wad to give you the Rainbow Bright effect.  It will give the same damage as elemental equipment (no use stacking, because it won’t do anything).

   Familiar:  Using an attacking familiar is good.  Using an attacking familiar with a piece of attacking equipment is better.  NPZRs, MAS’s, elemental fairies using ant equipment (hoe, sickle, etc.) or an oversized fish scaler work well here.  A disembodied hand holding an obsidian dagger will give very good damage as well.

The key to Frosty is to average about 13 damage each round of combat.  If you don’t get that much one round, take heart that you may do 20 or so the next round.  Its difficult to beat Frosty in less than 25 rounds.

After you've defeated Frosty, go on to Burnbarrel Boulevard.

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Burnbarrel Boulevard:

TIP: Burnbarrel is arguably the easiest side zone.  The hobos don’t hit very hard, the choice adventures are pretty basic, and its easy to do it quickly.  You can use an Orange Peel Hat, but its probably not necessary if you’re a high enough level anyways.

Getting Tired:    This is the way to go to advance images along quickly.  During this choice adventure, you have three options: Stack the tires violently, Stack the tires gently, or Leave the tire alone.  You want to Stack gently for at least 25 (ideally 34) tires before stacking them violently, which will topple the stack and kill lots of hot hobos.  Do this a few times, and Ol’ Scratch should be up pretty quickly.

Hot Dog! I Mean…Door!: You should always choose “Leave the Door Be”.  This will skip the adventure.  If you choose the other (Open the Door), you increase the amount of hobos to be killed in that area.

Piping Hot:  This adventure can be skipped as well by clicking “Leave the Valve Alone”. 
Diverting steam to PLD increases the length of the line by 1, making the PLD harder to complete.

A Tight Squeeze:  You can spend 5 nickels to buy a jar of squeeze.  This is a semi-rare adventure.

Fighting Ol’ Scratch:
He’s pretty easy to beat as bosses go.  Make sure you have 5 or less buffs, or he will take away all your buffs except for five random ones.  If you have five or less, he won’t remove any.  Buff yourself and hit him with your strongest attack til he’s dead.

Once Ol' Scratch is dead, go back to town square.

[sarspastic]

The Heap:
The Heap can be a lot of fun.  You get the opportunity to treasure hunt, which could give you some really great rare items (or just a pile of junk, this is the Heap, after all).  The stench damage here can be pretty tough (though usually not as bad as the cold in EE), but fluctuates a lot depending on how much stench you have built up.  Here’s what you need to know about the choice adventures in this area:

The Compostal Service:  You get the choice of Be Green or Be Gone (skip adventure).  Pick Be Gone (Be Green would lower the stench level, negating the amount needed to treasure hunt (see below).

You vs. the Volcano:  This adventure gives you the option of  Kick the Stuff into the Hole and On Second Thought, That’s Probably a Horrible Idea (skip adventure).  Pick “Kick Stuff into the Hole”.  This will increase the stench damage done to you in the area.  Stench damage ranges on a scale from 1-10, with 1 being little to no damage, and 10 pretty much hitting you in the 200+ damage range.  The area starts off with a stench level of about 4.  Kicking stuff into the hole six more times will give you the next choice adventure, seen below.

I Refuse:  This adventure gives you the options of Explore the Junkpile or Climb Back Out (skip adventure).  Once you get this adventure, its very important that you don’t click anything until your fellow Heap hoboers get the same adventure.  This way, you can all treasure hunt at the same time.  Once you click Explore, you will go treasure hunting and receive a few random items.  Doing this several times will bring up Oscus.

Juicy!:  You can buy Concentrated Garbage Juice for 5 nickels (semi-rare).

Fighting Oscus:  In order to prepare for Oscus, you want to raise your stench resistance as much as possible.  His stench attacks get exponentially larger as you fight him.  Buffing yourself and using your strongest attacks on him will defeat him, but the key is to defeat him as fast as you can to avoid his ever increasing damage.

Next, go back to town square.

[sarspastic]

Purple Light District:

TIP: For this zone, you want to BOOST COMBATS.  This will make you get the Club adventure more often.  If you keep the same noncom buffs you had before, you won’t see this adventure and it will make both this area and the Burial Ground much harder and longer to do.  Items and skills that boost combats: Hound dog, Monster Bait, Pine needles/reodorant, Musk of the Moose, Cantata of Conflict

You will see the following choice adventures in PLD:

The Furtivity of My City:  You have the choice of Eviscerate Him (fight the hobo), Intimidate Him (move trash to the Heap) or Wait for Him to Leave (increase sleaze hobos and clan meat).  You should choose Eviscerate Him, as the other two won’t do anything really useful for you.  Note: if you are boosting +combat (as you should be), you will never see this choice adventure.

Getting Clubbed:  This is the most important choice adventure in PLD.  You have the option of Try to Get Inside (will only allow you inside when the line is short enough), Try to Bamboozle the Crowd (shortens the line) and Try to FlimFlam the Crowd (shortens the line and adds the dance adventure to the Burial Ground).  You want to FlimFlam at least 21 times (you can get into the club with less if you diverted water from Burnbarrel to PLD, just subtract the number of times water was diverted from 21 and that’s how many times youd need to flim flam). Likewise, if you diverted steam from BB, add 1 for every divert. This gives the following overall formula:

Flimflams required = (21 + BB steam diverts) – EE water diverts

After the 21st time, you can then choose Try to Get Inside, which will trigger a new choice adventure.
Exclusive!: You are offered three choices once inside the club. First is Pick a Fight. This starts a combat with a random sleaze hobo. Don’t do this. Second is Pick Several Fights. This starts a brawl, reducing the number of sleaze hobos needed to complete the PLD significantly. You should almost always choose this. Third is Pick Your Nose. This will give you 1000 of each substat, which is awesome, but will increase the number of flimflams required to get back into the club by 1. Therefore, only pick your nose if you have flimflammed more than 21 times. It is common courtesy to ask before you pick your nose, both in real life and in the game, since some people may object to you forcing an extra flimflam.

Maybe it’s a Sexy Snake!:  Buy a lewd playing card for 5 nickels (semi-rare).

After killing club hobos a few times, Chester will come up.
 
Fighting Chester:  Buff as you would with any other boss, and rely on damage from spells and hitting to beat chester.  He’s not terribly difficult, but you can’t use items on him, so things like Divine Favors, etc. won’t hit him.

After Chester is defeated, head over to the Burial Ground.

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Burial Ground:

TIP: Make sure you go back to non-combat boosting for this area.

Choice adventures in this area:

Returning to the Tomb:  You have a choice of Pry Open the Door and Disturb Not Ye These Bones.  You should pick Disturb Not, as prying open the door will increase the hobos in the area.

Ahh, So That’s Where They’ve All Gone:  You have a choice of Send the Flowers to the Heap or Tiptoe Through the Tulips and Leave.  You should pick Tiptoe, as sending the flowers will just increase the amount of hobos in BG.

A Chiller Night:  You have the choice of Study the Hobos’ Dance Moves, Dance with Them (useless for now) or Duck Out the Back Way (skip adventure).  You want to study the hobos dance three times.

A Chiller Night (after watching three times): You can choose Dance With Them or Resist the Temptation (skip adventure).  You want to choose to dance with them every time you get the option.  Do this over and over til the zone is empty.  Having multiple players will help it go quicker, as the number of hobos you take out with dancing goes up each time until you hit 14, then starts to drop.  The more people who get to 14, the better you are.  Note: the number of dance adventures is limited to five times the number of flimflams.

Flowers for You:  Buy a deadly lampshade for 5 nickels (semi-rare).

Fighting Zombo:  Zombo will unequip your pants, hat and shirt in the first three rounds of combat.  You want to make sure you’re buffed a little extra so that missing those equipment items won’t hurt you too much.  Elemental damage to Zombo is reduced, so physical attacks are the way to go with him.  Divine favors help a lot, since they never miss and don’t have elemental properties.

Now that the side zones are cleared, its time to finish up town square.

[paulatz]

Excellent, I've been looking for something so concise and clear for a while now. As soon as I have some real-life time I'll dive in hobopolis again.

I also wanted to point that's you've forgotten the spectral snapper as one of the useful skill to elemental-kill hobos for parts.

[King Beanface]

Spectral snapper... wow. It's been oh 4 years since I first used that skill to one-hit-kill the NS >_>

Back in the days before Jick nerfed the crap out of Turtle Tamers...

You can delete this now Sars

[sarspastic]

I also wanted to point that's you've forgotten the spectral snapper as one of the useful skill to elemental-kill hobos for parts.

Added, thank you

[Zaranthos]

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It takes about 3000 kills in town square to finish it without making and blowing up scarehobos and about 1284 if ever kill makes the correct scarehobo part. Obviously making scarehobo parts is extremely important so please help make them whenever you're playing in Hobopolis.
Added to town square section so people know why it's important to make scarehobo parts.

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(except PLD where you boost combat instead and town square if your goal is killing hobos for parts)
Added to tip about boosting non-combats. Eliminates confusion about PLD and there isn't much need to boost non-combats in town square unless your goal is something other than making scarehobos.