Part 17: MinoMax, MiMo - What if? Mode

So what went wrong?

Biggest mistake: playing online so I couldn't save, cheat, or scum. Second biggest mistake: going into a new area unprepared.

This area was out-of-depth, but my main issue was I did not have the proper resistances to be fighting demons. I look up Sun Demons after my death and find out they hit for 10-19 fire damage every hit in melee, bypassing AC. I also find out a simple wand of cold (I had one) can take them out immediately. From the Orcish Mines on, it's important to have good resist gear. There are three "pips" of resist possible for most elements and for some (like life protection) you'll want to be able to equip to have all three. Fire, acid, lightning, and mutation all get more common the deeper you go and god help you if Nikolai Tesla shows up and you haven't found rElec yet. Not kidding.

Edit: and as people are noting, Wizlabs are deathtraps. This is the first one I've ever seen. I don't even know what 1's and 2's are, although after watching Arrythmia's win I have an idea it means "depressingly hard demon" and "even more depressingly hard demon."


The Sun Demon was the least "threatening" of the demons so I left him alone while I focused down the other three. Meanwhile he was lighting me up, and I guess he got a good last hit in! If I had any resist fire, only the Hellbinder would have given me real problems. And I still don't know what they do, other than crap out about 37 courics of demons.

It's okay, though. It's frustrating, but the rush you get fighting something you're not totally spoiled on is worth it. I love, and I mean LOVE, to spoil game mechanics, but not monsters or areas. If I had, I would have missed out on some scary and hilarious stuff.

As you will see now, in the brief but violent second leg of the MinoMax Trilogy:



MINOMAX II: THIS TIME IT'S DISTRESSINGLY FURRSONAL

And what's this? Someone is doing a ride-along with the camera crew...




Meet Captain Horfe. If you're playing webtiles, other players (or anonymous folks) can hop in, watch, and comment. You can hit F12 and bring up the chat to view comments and reply.

Horfe commented on my finding an amulet of rage 2 steps from the dungeon entrance. For a melee, +RAGE is amazing because it lets you berserk (as noted in the first LP, massive boosts to HP, Strength, Speed). The amulet ALSO increases the duration of the berserk for each kill just like Trog's berserk, making it invaluable to people who don't like winding up slowed and exhausted in the middle of a giant scrum.

Horfe watches me run from a bunch of uniques trying to get to the temple for heroism. And then, well, the funny thing about Webtiles, you don't know who will show up...




Chakan gets on in time to see my lay waste to a few people who had knocked me around before, such as Edmund, Sigmund's pathetic brother. We also talk about the thread a little and invite Horfe to come by.




We run into a mess of bees at the end of a berserk and beat up. I have no poison resist. You cannot zap or read while berserk, so I drink a potion of invisibility and take them down, reberserking just as Menkaure shows up around a corner. He does not survive the altercation. But as I step behind him....




Welp, that's down 4 levels. And around the corner we run into a group with a centaur warrior, yak, scorpion, some kind of snake, and an effing CYCLOPS. I'm popped by a huge rock and some arrows. I kick heroism, but I'm also very hungry, which means I cannot berserk!




Luckily, I am a Mino. I have 2 potions left unid'd, and I've found a lot, so there are very fewp possibles left. I quaff one, and sure enough, it turns out to be porridge. Then I just leave Minomax-sized holes in all of them.

This trend continues (Chakan will tell you). I get in a craaaazy situation, quaff and read a bunch of crap, then pretty much go berserk and pretty much barely win. Berserk is nice but a guy gets a few steps away suddenly you're in a lot of trouble. I have a distressing habit of getting in a lot of trouble.

Unfortunately, I also have a distressing habit of running around moving with the cursor keys instead of letting auto-explore stop me when it sees something. Which means you wins up with situations like this:




I see this treasure trove and start sprinting to it, taking two hits in the process that poison me and do over 90 hits of damage. And all of a sudden once again it's OH BOY WHAT HAVE THE DUKE BOYS GOTTEN THEMSELVES INTO THIS TIME???

This is a Vault Guard. I have never seen one before, but apparently they are quite the rascals. This one has a bardiche of venom, which means he can hit me from two squares away, so running would be very dicey. I hit berserk and get hit again, taking me to 29 hits even with the berserk.

Then...



Chakan leaves, wishes me well, and shortly after...




Yeah, I knew they got large, and you just backed them into open space to split up.

I didn't know they did THAT.