Hardcore Mode!

[SPKrylos Lvl 54 USEastPolar BearPosts: 39]

With this new patch, I got pretty curious about how the underworld looked, so I took a dive in last night. I managed to make it down to UW31, but was falling asleep at the wheel so had to call it a night. Tonight, I wanted to see what it could look like from a newbie’s perspective. So, I decided to make an alt, and just send him in to see how far I could get! I gave him a wood spear and 50 cooked meat. I chopped 40 wood with my new Mr. Burlington before I went in for replacement weapons since I didn’t think the spear would last too long. So, by the time I made it down a hole to UW4, I was lvl 2 from just running around and chopping a bit.

I spent some time on the fourth level before I went further, and I think since I was killing mainly weak stuff, some strong stuff came in to replace it. I ran into a couple flame demons, which was kinda scary, but they’re pretty slow so I was able to just avoid them. Once, I found one fighting a snake, and the snake isn’t hurt by its aura, so the snake totally rekt it and I snagged a lantern from it. I found a reaper too, but he was super slow and easy to kite with the spear. I also found out it’s possible to kill a rust golem unarmed if you run around a lot. They don’t always hit you if they’re not facing you!

I eventually met my end on UW12 when I got cocky and thought I could kill an archmage. I allllmost did it, but he was a bit too stronk. Through chests and stuff I looted in the dungeon, I ended up with a bronze dagger, an obsidian spear, and two guardian rings for my equips, with around 30 meat to spare (I had healthy trait). Made it up to experience lvl 10. So, although it’s a bit intense, it seems possible for total newbies to go down there, and with the reduced death penalty, it’s probably even worth it, since I only lost about 1/3 of my stuff. I probably should have just lanterned out though. :p

If anyone else feels like doing a hardcore run, post here and share how you did! 😀

[WolfPosts: 22]

Hardcore? With a spear? Yes, you’re a Man. Next time give Mr. Burlington a bow and 1k arrows.

[GoblinPosts: 73]

At the risk of making it so that nobody responds, can you answer some of my questions from my previous post?

1. Did you get a chance to mine gold rocks in UW? If you did, or anybody else, how was the rate of gaining gold?

2. The “Penetrate” ability, does the damage output vary between kinds of armor (did you get any chance to test this?

3. Following up on that, is it a constant skill (every hit is a penetrate) or do some of their hits have a chance to penetrate?

I’m glad you only lost 1/3 of your stuff. Howard Hill got warped out of the TC for the second time and was skilled while sleeping. He lost all of this stuff.

It is also good to know that with understanding of the UW and being extra careful (so much for being risky) one can make it, for the most part, a successful trip.

Although, according to Odovir’s post there is some concern about the actual difficulty as you work your way down. Things being just more of the same.

I guess that’s all, I better cut it short before it becomes too long for people to read.

[SPKrylos Lvl 54 USEastPolar BearPosts: 39]

Hardcore? With a spear? Yes, you’re a Man. Next time give Mr. Burlington a bow and 1k arrows.

Yeah, I know it’s not really a big deal, but it was a pretty fun experiment. Hopefully some other people will feel encouraged to try, and maybe be more impressive than me (which isn’t hard imo).

Nefer, to answer your questions: Getting down to UW31, I found two gold ore rocks, from which I got 1 gold each, although I wasn’t using a pick, so you could probably get more. I’m not sure if the armor type affects the penetration, but I was getting hit for 20 from flame demons in medium armor if that helps. It seemed to be from every hit. That’s actually less than pre-armor changes which was 25, and then 17 after the armor changes but before this patch. So, I think the base damage was lowered to compensate for the penetrating.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by  SPKrylos.

[SPKrylos Lvl 54 USEastPolar BearPosts: 39]

Blockquote fail! lol.. Oh I just figured out editing too.. Forum skill (2)!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by  SPKrylos.

[GoblinPosts: 73]

Gotcha! Thanks for replying!

[Kaylovespie Lvl 2 LondonSkeletonPosts: 173]

That’s awesome Krylos! That sounds like a fun new challenge. I wonder how far people could get with nothing? lol. As for your trip to level 31, congrats on the leaderboard spot! You’ll be happy to know JVH is working on a ‘dungeon recall’ structure that will let you continue your adventure from a deep floor.

Nefer, I can honestly say I’m not sure how to answer those questions lol. I was hoping someone else would jump in. I know you could test out the armor stuff with a hammer or mace.

Edit – Nevermind Krylos has it covered 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by  Kaylovespie.

[WolfPosts: 22]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Seems like to make a recall feature is easier than rebalancing levels or adding safe zones. Well, that’s a good point anyway. I’m quite interested and can’t wait to see how deep I could go then. Any more information? He-he.

[Pino Lvl 9 USWestWolfPosts: 13]

I had decided to play on a new character myself, although I wasn’t planning on diving straight into the UW. I figured I’d recap my experience with a new character here as well.

I was fortunate enough to spawn near some old ruins, that still had some items laying around. Felt pretty nice to luck out and get some basic accessories and an obsidian spear. Felt like a pretty good start, even though I didn’t have a safe place to live or drop things off yet. I basically ended up just leaving things on floors and hoping noone took it all while I was off trying to gather things to build a simple shelter. I quickly ran into the trouble many new players have, of not having inventory space and having to repeatedly drop things, or leave things behind that I felt would be useful.

I did cheat a little, in using my prior knowledge of the game to head to an abandoned base I was already aware of, and looting even more stuff from there. I ended up with a full set of bronze gear, as well as warrior rings, so I was ready for combat. I really felt like I was having a good start with being lucky enough to find the abandoned gear.

From there I decided to try and continue my quest hunt to get them finished, since it’s kind of the only direction to go in the game naturally. Eventually I got to the quest to go down under ground to kill a bat. I found some stairs nearby, but when I went down there, it was almost completely covered in dirt, so I figured I’d try and dig around a little to try and find things. I’m assuming this was mostly bad luck, since I don’t remember it being quite as bad normally, but after 3-5 minutes of solid digging at a wall, I only managed to about 3-4 tile away from the stairs… So, I gave up and went back to surface, and again, used some priory knowledge, and went to some public stairs that I know are almost always kept up. I eventually found a bat, around the same time I found a hole. Knowing how many new players I’ve gone to help, they instinctively try and go to the hole to see what it is, and fall through, so I repeated this.

Immediately upon entering the underworld room I dropped into, I was pleased to see a skeleton, and a snake… and then I saw it…
“Blud xtestp has fallen on underworld level 4! They were level 11 and skilled at destruction. Killed by a Rust Golem.”
I was dropped in a corner, and blocked by the skeleton and snake, so I couldn’t get around the rust golem. I hit it once, maybe twice and then died. I didn’t lose all my stuff, which was nice, but I figured it must have been that rare spawn fluke I was told about, so it would be pretty safe to try and go get my gear back.

I ventured down into the UW once more. I was pleased to see a fallen knight, since for the very first level of the UW, it feels like that would be a more accurate “slightly more difficult mob for the current level” that was discussed. But it was on the other side of a wall, so I left it alone, and carried on with my search. Then I ran into a flame demon. Fortunately I know to kite, but even still, I only barely managed to kill it. Right as I did, a mage showed up on the other side of a wall, and with no way to fight back or block damage, I was forced to run. I was lucky enough that it missed 3 shots on me, otherwise I would have been dead without a way to fight back. Sadly in my running, I had no choice by to run straight past a room, that much to my surprise, had a Reaper in it, which lead to this:
“Bllud xtestp has fallen on underworld level 4! They were level 8 and skilled at destruction. Killed by a Reaper.”
Then I respawned, and he instantly teleported to me again, and hit me, so I couldn’t equip armor…
“Blud xtestp has fallen! They were level 7 and skilled at destruction. Killed by a Reaper.”
“Blud xtestp has fallen! They were level 6 and skilled at destruction. Killed by a Reaper.”
Eventually I managed to punch him to death, but by then I had lost almost all my gear in random parts all over the world, and just didn’t feel like trying to go find it.

Now, could I have run from all these things immediately, knowing what I do as someone with almost 6 months of experience with the game? of course! but would normal players know there are near endgame mobs spawning on the very first floor of the underworld? I highly doubt it, and by the time you try get even a hit or 2 in, you’re almost dead. This patch has been out only a couple days, and a we were informed that there would be ‘rare’ spawns of ‘slightly more difficult’ mobs, that wouldn’t likely be seen again for weeks, and yet I managed to find even more of of these mobs that can kill a lower level player in only a few hits (flame demon takes what? 5-6 hits, that can come rapidfire, to melt you? not to mention with things like mages firing over walls, and reapers teleporting in behind you) On my main account, I really don’t care about this for myself, as I enjoy hunting and killing all of these things, but, as stated from the beginning, new players don’t know to turn and run instantly from certain mobs that are out of their league, and in some cases, even if they thought to, there are things that can trap them, so it wouldn’t even matter. This large amount of high level mobs on the very first floor (not to mention green dragons showing up by the 3rd floor of the UW, and possibly sooner) just amazes me. I still feel the UW is one of the best parts of the game, and should introduce players a little more, let them wade into it, instead of throwing them, not just into a deep end, but straight into a shark, but what do I know.

I had already started this player/project, which is the main reason I’m posting here now. In all likelyhood, this will be my last post, and last attempt to give feedback for the game, since my opinion isn’t wanted. I’ve been outgrown, I’m just an oldman that’s dragging things down. I’ve been playing ‘ML’ for over a decade now, I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, and still remember dreaming back in school of being part of… what was it called… “JH Caves” or something like that I want to say…(I share the J.H. initials, so that fed the dream even more back then) I never really thought I’d get to the point of saying goodbye, but legends is gone entirely now, and apparently I’m killing the only pieces that remain, so I should just let go now. Goodbye ML

[Kaylovespie Lvl 2 LondonSkeletonPosts: 173]

The harder monsters were explained to me. SPKrylos touched on it in his second paragraph too, but the reason these harder monsters spawned was because he spent hours re-rolling the dungeon generator last night. Basically since there is a rare roll that will bring up a scary monster.. and he was clearing out bats, snakes, and skeletons for a long time on level 4 so it would eventually roll those harder monsters. Then he would either test if he could kill it or run away. The end result being an unusually high amount of rare monsters on that level.. normally a higher level player would come through and clear those out to restore the balance, or it will expire in a few days anyways and reset. So you just chose a really bad time to do this experiment it seems. I think in any case the numbers will be tweaked over time to make the rolls rarer or check for overall difficulty maybe? We will see! Take care.

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