Ronin Strategy Guide

[lechef]

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| Ronin Strategy Guide |
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(could probably also be called "How to get more adventures per day, guide")

Q. Why did I write this guide ?

A. Because everytime I ascend I always forget to buy food/booze/other items that could have saved me lots of turns in ronin. Items that are suited for my class (Mus, Myst or Mox), and or items I can use at an early stage of ronin, like good food/booze for level 2-3-4 etc, and that was when ronin was 600 turns, now with 1000 its even worse.

Now I have written this and not even used it yet because i'm still in HCO, so if you think of other good items I could add here let me know and I will gladly add them to the list. Also I might have made errors in stats or other characteristics, if you see any, please tell me so I can correct them. Also this is for everyone (n00bs included), I tried to add a bit of info on fullness and everything so everyone would understand how things work.

I have seperated in four different categories, the things that can add adventures to your kol day (adding to the 40 given by default everyday) thus accelerating the goal of 1000 adventures to get free of ronin :
1. Food
2. Booze
3. Spleen items
4. Equip and other items

In each of those categories, I have listed a bunch of good items to buy or make yourself, with their respective stats and the level you can use them at. Now as for a strategy, common sense prevails, this means adventure for a while and level up, then when you run out of adventures, take out a few items that you can use/consume at the level you are at.

If you are very close to getting up one level, maybe take an item that gives you the stat you need (main stat) to level up and then take out better items. Keep the best drink for last, when you are at 14 drunk (duh). Also, if you must mix a drink with ingredients (like TPS drinks), make sure you don't forget to keep a couple adventures to do so, which has happened to me before ..

Same thing for equipements, wait until the end of your adventuring day to take out whatever equipements you will be able to wear that day, depending on its requirements, it would be quite stupid to waste a pull the first day on an item you cannot use after all.

Some items listed here can only be obtained from the bounty hunter, now I would probably not waste a filthy lucre for that, but I still listed them here because they were pretty good items, adventurewise.

Remember you only have 20 pulls each day from storage, the first day or two are probably the more tricky ones, then after you have pulled most of the equipements you are going to use you find yourself with a lot of pulls, for twinkly wads for example if you cannot pulverize them yourself.

Now, I will not tell you what to buy, mainly because it depends on what class you are going for next and also what kind of meat you are prepared to waste on good/better stuff. Most of the stuff listed here is under 5k, so you can easily stock up on lots of food/booze.

Here are the categories detailed, and with an approx. mall price which may (read "is most likely") not be up to date..

1. Food (mmmm, doughnut) :
(Note. You cannot eat beyond 15 Fullness, meaning if you are at 13 full, you can now only eat 2 Fullness food)
(3F = 3 Fullness used)

Before eating you can use "milk of magnesium" to get more adventures :
Raw Food   Bonus Milk
   0-4         +1A
   5-7         +2A
   8-10       +3A
   11+        +4A

- Level 2
  honey-dew (4-7A, 12-18 Mus, 2F, Increase item drops for 10 adv, less than 1k)
  escargotsicle (4-7A, 12-18 Mox, 2F, +10 monster level for 10 adv, less than 1k)
  crazy little Turkish delight (1-3A, 30-40 Myst, 1F, ~140 meat)

- Level 3 --------------------------------------------------------
  delicious noodles (or ravioli della hippy) (4-12A, 19-23 Mox, 3F, less than 1k)
  spicy bean burrito (5-12A, 20-24 Mus, 3F, ~1.5k)
  spicy jumping bean burrito (5-12A, 20-24 Mox, 3F, ~3k)
  pr0n m4nic0tti (8-14A, 28-32 mox, 4F, less than 1k)
  painful penne pasta (5-12A, 15-20 Mus, 3F, You lose 20-23HP, less than 1k)

- Level 4 --------------------------------------------------------
  Manetwich (3-9A, 14-30 Mus, 5-18 Mox, 2F, ~1k)
  cherry pie (6-12A, 8-10 Myst, 3F, ~1k)
  spicy enchanted bean burrito (6-12A, 22-28 Myst, 3F, ~2.5k)
  bowl of Bounty-Os (12-15A, 16-23 Mus, 15-24 Myst, 16-24 Mox, 3F, 1 filthy lucre)
  S.T.L.T. (10-15A, 10-30 Mus, 10-30 Myst, 13-27 Mox, 4F, ~5k)

- Level 5 --------------------------------------------------------
  tofurkey gravy (3-10A, 70-75 Mus, 2F, ~2.5k)
  tofurkey leg (7-14A, 70-75 Mus, 3F, ~3k)
  candied yams (7-14A, 70-75 Myst, 3F, ~2k)
  insanely spicy enchanted bean burrito (8-15A, 30-35 Myst, 3F, ~2.5k)
  (also gives you the Chronic Indigestion skill)

- Level 6 --------------------------------------------------------
  can-shaped gelatinous cranberry sauce (9-17A, 70-75 Mox, 3F, ~5k)
  Hell ramen (22-29A, 23-28 Mus/Myst/Mox, 6F, ~3.5k)
  fettucini Inconnu (21-29A, 47-52 Mox, 6F, ~2.3k)
  gnocchetti di Nietzsche (21-29A, 47-52 Myst, 6F, ~2.3k)
  spaghetti with Skullheads (21-29A, 47-52 Mus, 6F , ~2.2k)

- Level 7 --------------------------------------------------------
  herbal stuffing (15-21A, 70-75 Mox, 4F, ~2.2)

  hi meins (21-29A, stats detailed below, 5F, ~5k)
  (Stats: Mus  , Myst , Mox)
  cold  : 70-75, 30-35, 15-20
  hot   : 70-75, 15-20, 30-35
  sleazy: 25-30, 25-30, 70-75
  spooky: 15-20, 70-75, 30-35
  stinky: 30-35, 70-75, 15-20


2. Booze (hic) :
(Note. You can safely drink to 14 drunkness, then if you drink some more you will not be able to adventure the same day anymore but you will be able to go well over 15 drunkness depending on the quality of the booze you will drink to finish your day with.)
(3D = 3 Drunkness used)

- Ent cider (2-5A, 30-45 Mox, 70-80 MP, 2F, no level requirements, ~250 meat)

- Level 2 (you should probably not drink at level 2..)

- Level 3 (if you must..)
  shot of blackberry schnapps (1-5A, 5-7 Mus/Myst/Mox, 1D, less than 1k)

- Level 4
  bottle of Pinot Renoir (4-8A, 15-30 Mus, 8-18 Myst, 2D, ~1k)
  Flask of Amontillado (10-15A, 11-30 Mus, 15-30 Myst, 10-30 Mox, 4D, ~4k)
  Oreille Divisée brandy (12-15A, 15-25 of each stats, 3D, 1 filthy lucre)

  **Advanced cocktails (10-14A, 4D, ~1k each)
  fuzzbump / slip 'n' slide (34-36 Mus)
  horizontal tango / roll in the hay (34-36 Mys)
  perpendicular hula / rockin' wagon (34-36 Mox)
  ocean motion (25-27 Mus, 8-10 Mys)
  pink pony (25-27 Mus, 8-10 Mox)
  a little sump'm sump'm (25-27 Myst, 8-10 Mox)
  ducha de oro (25-27 Myst, 8-10 Mus)
  calle de miel (25-27 Mox, 8-10 Mus)
  slap and tickle (25-27 Mox, 8-10 Mys)

- Level 6
  **mushroom wines (10-14A, 3D)
  flaming mushroom wine (12-15 Mus, ~20k)
  icy mushroom wine (12-15 Myst, ~21k)
  stinky mushroom wine (12-15 Mox, ~20k)
  flat mushroom wine (8-10 Mus, ~19k)
  cool mushroom wine (8-10 Myst, ~25k)
  pointy mushroom wine (8-10 Mox, ~13k)
  Knoll mushroom wine (4-6 Mus, ~25k)
  Knob mushroom wine (4-6 Myst, ~15k)
  spooky mushroom wine (4-6 Mox, ~13k)

  **Superhuman Cocktailcrafting drinks (14-18A, 4D, ~4-5k each)
  teqiwila slammer / Mon Tiki (41-47 Mus)
  yellow brick road / gimlet (41-47 Myst)
  Mae West / prussian cathouse (41-47 Mox)
  neuromancer / vodka stratocaster (25-27 Mus, 16-20 Mox)
  Divine / Gordon Bennett (25-27 Myst, 16-20 Mus)
  mandarina colada / tangarita (25-27 Mox, 16-20 Myst)

  **Sword drinks (aka TPS drinks) (22-26A, 6D, TPS's are around 9-10 mil..)
  (Note. Great to finish the day with and sword is re-usable)
  bodyslam / grogtini (16-20 Mus)
  cherry bomb / sangria del diablo (16-20 Myst)
  dirty martini / vesper (16-20 Mox)

3. Spleen :
(Note. You cannot consume spleen items beyond 15 spleen. Same as food, you cannot go beyond 15)
(5S = 5 Spleen used)

- Level 4
  not-a-pipe (4-12A, 20-30 Mus/Myst/Mox, 4S, ~8k)

- Level 6
  Wads, they use 1 spleen each and give 1 adventure each (less than 1k each) :
  cold wad (27 Mus, 18 Myst, 9 Mox)
  hot wad (27 Mus, 9 Myst, 18 Mox)
  sleaze wad (13.5 Mus, 13.5 Myst, 27 Mox)
  spooky wad (9 Mus, 27 Myst, 18 Mox)
  stench wad (18 Mus, 27 Myst, 9 Mox)
  twinkly wad (9 Mus, 9 Myst, 9 Mox)
  If you can pulverize (skill) then you can take out certain items to pulverize like didgeridooka, energy drink IV, fire poi and the likes to get 3 wads on each pull and then save up some pulls that way.

- Level 8
  guy made of bee pollen (6-10A, 18-60 Mus/Myst/Mox, 3S, ~50k)

- Level 9
  Breathetastic™ Premium Canned Air (20-25A, 60-70 Mus/Myst/Mox, 5S, ~210k)

- Oyster Eggs
  All non-plastic oyster eggs use up 1 spleen and have no level requirements, they do not give adventures but some give stats so it could enable you to level faster, thus eat/drink better items.
Here are a few examples :
  lavender polka-dot oyster egg (22-30 Mox)
  mauve paisley oyster egg (22-30 Myst)
  puce striped oyster egg (22-30 Mus)
  Other eggs give a little less stat points, but also give MP or HP if needed, here is a link for all of them : http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Oyster_Egg_Day 

- Facsimile Dictionnary :
  It can come in handy (autosell value of over 21k) if you find yourself out of meat to buy stuff like the malus to pulverize or MMJ or other items..

4. Equipment and other items :
- Outfit: (~4.25 mil each of the time trappings item)
  Time helmet (+3A, 35 Mox required)
  Time sword (+3A, 35 Mus required)
  Time trousers (+3A, 35 Mox required)
  Note. You can equip two swords if you have the double-fisted skull smashing skill.
  Note. Wearing the whole outfit adds another 3A, so equip the helmet, sword and trousers would give you +12A, and if you equip another sword +15A total !

- Grimacite items:
  Will not bother to elaborate since they are more than 30 mil each..

- Weapons:
  chrome sword (+3A, 35 Mus required, under 1k)
  chrome staff (+3A, 40 Mus required, ~3k)
  chrome crossbow (+3A, 45 Mox required, under 1k)
  sword behind inappropriate prepositions (+5A, 45 Mus required, ~45k)

- Shirt:
  General Sage's Lonely Diamonds Club Jacket (+3A, 50 MUs, ~4k)
  Note. Only if you have torso awargness permed, or select a mox sign and buy the skill in the gnomish camp for 5k.

- Accessories:
  imitation nice watch (+3A, 35 Myst required, ~4 mil)
  plexiglass pocket watch (+3A, 75 Myst required, hardcore oxy reward)
  stainless steel solitaire (+2A, 30 Myst required, hardcore reward)
  dead guy's watch (+1A, 10 Myst required, under 1k)
  tiny plastic bitchin' meatcar (+1A, 13k)
  tiny plastic Crimbo reindeer (+1A, ~20k)
  tiny plastic skeletal reindeer (+1A, ~15k)

- Campground items:
  Meat Maid (+4A, no requirements, ~4k)
  Clockwork Maid (+8A, no requirements, ~19k)

- Familiars
  Wild hare (gives adventures at rollover if used) (~18 mil)
  Temporal Riftlet (sometimes gives an extra adventure) (~10 mil)

Hope this helps you stock up on better stuff before ascending ..

Have fun !

[teh_bigquack]

Food wise, if you are a myst class, you really can't go far wrong with pulling some crazy little turkish delights - level 2 requirement, 1 fullness and 30-40 myst substats.

Yeah, the adventure return is awful (but, hey, it only adds 1 fullness), but it'll get you to level 6 much more quickly so you *can* eat those reagent pastas on day 1 (which need to be added to your list).  It is also usually a good idea to have milk of magnesium stored up for use before eating.  Ode to booze would need to be permed by the player, so more of a personal choice there...

Also, in the +adventures category, plexiglass pocket watch adds +3 adventures, but *does* require an HCO Pastamancer run to get.

With respect to the advanced cocktailcrafting drinks, when you clear the tavern, you get 3 base drinks which, with the addition of the right accessory, will take care of that days drinking needs (with 2 drunkeness left over for a top-up).  If you don't happen to summon the right accessories, well worth pulling them.

Also, also, elemental wads are generally better than twinkly wads if you have them in that (a) they give more focussed stats, (b) the buff they provide is stat-specific and (c) they add elemental damage to your attacks

[lechef]

Cool, thanks for the tips and infos , I will add them to the list tomorrow (will be away today).

I thought about adding the plexiglass pocketwatch but then I figured since it took 75 Myst you would probably not use it before a long way, but I think you are right, it probably should be in there so I added it. Can you get far along in ronin (assuming you don't have *all* the skills, maybe just a few skills like moxious madrigal or so), like how many days until you can actually use level 6-7 stuff like hi meins, TPS drinks etc ?

I was also wondering, are the drinks from the barrels worth getting on the first few days, to mix with cocktail items ?

Edit. WOW just looked up that turkish delight, that is a good food if you are a myst class !!! thanks

[CaptainGoogle]

Impressive. I do have one question, though. Where was this guide when I was doing SC runs?

[pat pat the monkey king]

Since NS-13, my first pull(s) on any class are Oyster eggs for stats.  One egg will get you to L2, two eggs will get you to 3, and four eggs will get you to 4.  If I pull one egg, I can easily eat L4 food (or booze, but not always both) by the end of the day.  If I pull 4 eggs, I can almost always eat L6 (or L7 food on stat day) after I adventure and drink.  I haven't optimized the strategy yet vis-a-vis pulls, but with eggs only costing 2-4k each, it's well worth the money.

Feel free to delete this post if it's incorporated into the guide.

[sex_factory]

as a mox class I like to stock up on ent ciders, 2-5 adventures, 30-45 mox, and 70-80 mp can level you up fairly quickly, plus it only takes 2 fulness

[Zaranthos]

This will come in handy when I start ascending again.

[teh_bigquack]

I thought about adding the plexiglass pocketwatch but then I figured since it took 75 Myst you would probably not use it before a long way, but I think you are right, it probably should be in there so I added it. Can you get far along in ronin (assuming you don't have *all* the skills, maybe just a few skills like moxious madrigal or so), like how many days until you can actually use level 6-7 stuff like hi meins, TPS drinks etc ?

Well, I use a volleyball familiar and can reach level 6 on day one with enough fullness left to fill up on at least one reagent pasta.  And that's without adding any monster level (though I *do* run antiphon of aptitude, equip a pilgrim shield [+3 stats/battle] and use white candy hearts whenever I get them [+1 stats/battle and +1 familiar experience/battle]).  You could get broadly the same effect by running some extra monster level and compensating for it by pulling some chintzy jewelry if you are a moxie or muscle class.  Myst class is a little harder, but early equipping of a spellbook should see you okay if you have some decent spells permed.

Certainly if you have prepared well for your run, you should be reaching level 6/7 by day 2, 3 at the latest.

In my current run, I pulled the pocketwatch and equipped it overnight on day 3, so it will contribute 6 whole adventures to my escape from ronin . 

Additionally, the time trappings outfit has a +3 adventures bonus, giving the 3 items a total of 12 adventures when equipped overnight, +15 if you have two swords.

I was also wondering, are the drinks from the barrels worth getting on the first few days, to mix with cocktail items ?

In hardcore, absolutely.  In softcore you should have your first 5 days (at least) food and drink already prepared and ready to pull from Hagnks.  I mentioned the possibility of day 1 using summoned cocktail accessories to make better drinks from the tavern as you probably want to pull a lot of equipment on day 1 and, hence, keep food and drink pulls to a minimum if you can.

Edit. WOW just looked up that turkish delight, that is a good food if you are a myst class !!! thanks

Nice, isn't it.  I'm suprised more people haven't picked up on that one.

Also, as you get more experienced, it is worthwhile saving your facsimile dictionary to pull on day one of your next run.  The 21,337 meat will keep you in MMJ, soda water or spleen items (don't forget the demon market items here) for a good few days.

edit: on the spleen front, the black arms and armour items are not the best to pull - they either smash into 2 wads, or 1 wad and 3 nuggets.  Far better to pull things like beer bongs, energy drink IVs, digeridookas and the like which always yield 3 wads.

edit edit: Also, excellent work on the Ronin guide.  Sorry if I seem to be critical - it is always a lot easier commenting on someone else's work than doing some original thinking for yourself!

edit, edit, edit: Also, I hadn't thought about the oyster eggs for early stats - excellent idea.  Now all I have to do is rid myself of my Mr Item habit to free up some pulls on day 1...

[lechef]

edit edit: Also, excellent work on the Ronin guide.  Sorry if I seem to be critical - it is always a lot easier commenting on someone else's work than doing some original thinking for yourself!

I didnt think it was critical, actually i'm happy to have some tips/ideas from other players, it helps make it a better more complete guide this way.

thanks for all the input, its been added to the first post, and with the other posts/ideas it make it a pretty good thread with tips on how to start-up an ascension the *good way*

(I hope I didnt forget anything to add in there.. if so, well, smax0rs me lol)

[achtung5]

also put in there that jacking up your stats with mr. accessories is BAD.

you should use those 3 mr a's for buying a shaman

[teh_bigquack]

also put in there that jacking up your stats with mr. accessories is BAD.

you should use those 3 mr a's for buying a shaman

*really*?

Though their Boss Drum album was arguably the herald of a dance revival in the early 90's....oh, you mean the Pygmy Bugbear Shaman   

The shaman sucks donkey.  Honestly.  Unless you are an experienced ascender with a decent number of skills permed, you won't have the MP to fuel the item drop mechanic, let alone take advantage of it.

I agree with the general drift of not equipping Mr Accessories though (unless you are relatively new to the game (<10 ascensions) in which case they make you pretty much indestructible up to level 10) as I would recommend converting them to Mr Accessory Jrs and two Mr A Jrs and a volleyball are better than a Shaman, unless you are hardcoring, in which case you don't care about Ronin.

If you have the meat, I would suggest getting a Mr A Jr now - the prices tend to rise mid to late November as everyone stocks up on +item% for the Crimbo content.  Conversely, the price drops significantly in Jan as a huge pile of them are offloaded.

Anyway, neither the Shaman or Mr A/Mr A Jrs help you get out of Ronin any faster (well, arguably they do if you are making food as you go and need the items to drop) which is the intent of the guide above.

Of course, the fastest way out of Ronin is to tick the box marked 'casual' 

[achtung5]

answer: use shaman at higher levels and perm wisdom.

dominated.

EDIT: dominated is not in any way rude.

 

[teh_bigquack]

dominated.

EDIT: dominated is not in any way rude.

It is if you do it right

[Daitezen]

I always pull 3 Mr. As day one, makes it very easy to get levelling up quicker.

[lechef]

I've gotten out of ronin .. details :

Day 1 Food/Booze/Spleen :
- 1 oyster egg
- 2 crazy little Turkish delight
- 4 candied yams
- 3 yellow brick road
- 1 bottle of pinot renoir
- 1 sangria + 1 cherry (sangria del diablo)
- 3 not-a-pipe

Took out clockwork maid, TPS and a few equipements I could use on day 1. Got to level 6 but ran out of time to continue adventuring to get liver of steel, which will cost me some adventures later in ronin. Approximate cost for day 1 (consumables) : 50k + 22k (clockwork maid) =  72k

Day 2 Food/Booze/Spleen :
- Food
- 1 Milk of magnesium
- 3 hi mein
- 3 sangria (farmed for the 3 cherries)
- 1 bottle of pinot renoir
- 3 not-a-pipe
- 1 didgeridooka (pulverized for 3 wads)

Got to level 9 and also got liver of steel. Took out some equips that I can now wear like the time outfit, imitation nice watch etc.. Approximate cost for day 2 (consumables) : 48k

Day 3 Food/Booze/Spleen :
- Food
- 3 hi mein (made the milk after access to goatlet)
- 4 sangria/grog (to fit fruits I farmed in the menagerie)
- 3 not-a-pipe
- 1 didgeridooka (pulverized for 3 wads)

Also took out the ore needed for the mountain quest to gain access to the goatlet. Approx. cost of day 3 (consumables) : 48k

Day 4, a little different day :
was going to be a day pretty much like day 3, 3 hi mein + 4 TPS drinks and not-a-pipes, calculated it all and came down to about 7 adventures short of getting out of ronin on day 4 .. with another day at about 48k it would have brought the total to around 220k to get out of ronin in 4 days if I had gotten liver of steel on day 1 (which I ran out of time to do, didnt run out of adventures..)

The luck I ran into is that on day 4 of ronin was Boris day, so I could eat 6 hi meins instead of 3.. that helped a lot and still got me out of ronin in 4 days..

So 4 days would be around 220k, if you don't use not-a-pipes (which are around 8k each) it would cut the price down to about 124k. But would probably get out in 5 days instead of 4. Could also not use a clockwork maid and use a regular one, save about 15k this way.

Of course I was using the time suit (2 swords), imitation nice watch and a tiny plastic sword which raise up the price a bit.. I'm guessing without those you can probably get out in 5 days, or maybe 6 easily.

Have fun !