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Live Blogs A return to the good ol' hack-n-slash... Let's Play Spiral Knights!
nomuru2d2011-07-17 01:30:51

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The first days are always the hardest...

Been 2 days since I started playing Spiral Knights, so I figured that I could document my thoughts here.

The game's art is very nice, and the locations are always beautiful to look at when you're not being torn apart by monsters. The monsters themselves, when they aren't reskins with different attributes, are quite unique as well.

When I first stepped into the game, getting out of the tutorials and moving into my first dungeon, I discovered one thing...

This game will PUNISH you if you screw up.

You decide to open that gate that requires 3 energy and leads to an open area? Good luck trying to kill mobs of high-level monsters, especially if you don't have a party with you! Don't have good-enough equipment? You won't be able to take on the lower floors without dying! Think you're prepared to take on that boss? First time through, you'll die. A LOT.

But the beauty about the game is that, while it's difficult, it stays fun.

Figured that I could also try sinking my teeth into two of the game's other aspects as well: the auction house and item crafting.

The auction house is quite full of surprises. You can look for any items that you need, be it crafting ingredients or better equipment, and you're almost guaranteed to find a good deal... when you don't have to deal with overly competitive bidders. You're quite lucky to find an auction with a Short or Very Short timeframe that has a low bidding price, especially with the 3-5 star ranked items. Considering how little certain items drop unless you go lower, though, it's necessary. Speaking of...

The item crafting is quite good, but there's one part of it that I really don't like. Whenever you craft an item, you need to have learned a recipe for it first, and then you need all of the ingredients. Recipes are already costly enough, especially if you're going for a 2-star item (say hello to 1000 crowns minimum in a shop, and kiss your chances of winning one at an auction goodbye), but needing multiple rare drops is just a pain, especially when you can't even get far enough to get those items without risking running out of energy. On top of it all, for each item you craft, you lose 10 energy!

And speaking of energy... their idea of Anti Poop-Socking requires you to wait a whole day to be fully recharged to 100 from 0 so you can do anything! The problem is that damn near everything requires energy! Going into a dungeon requires at most 10 energy! Gates leading to either treasure hoards or high-powered mobs require 3 energy each! Dying multiplies the energy cost for revival by 2 every single time! Crafting, as noted above, costs 10 energy for each item! You could craft 10 items in a single day, and have to wait another whole day just to freaking play the game with them!

In spite of it all, however... I still love this game. Teamwork is fairly easy, people are friendly, and the challenge never gets old.

I'll continue playing, and hopefully I can get some pointers along the way... Your thoughts, tropers?

EDIT: Ended up teaming up with a high-equipment group to take down that tier 1 boss. Was quite happy...

Until I got blocked off from the rest of the group because I didn't have tier 2 access. Turns out that I need 2-star equipment all around.

2-star equipment is expensive for me, and crafting just one 2-star item takes up 50 energy.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

Comments

WapoleLanguray Since: Dec, 1969
Aug 18th 2011 at 4:56:32 PM
Hi! Thought I'd give ya some tips in a permanent place. :). Okay, for weapons, go with something that does Normal damage, Striker, Calibur, or Troika weapon paths are all three good, depending on whether you want a fast but weak, upgraded proto-sword with a really good charge, or a big honking stick.

As I told you in-game, go with status effects for bombs and guns. The best status is Freeze, since it basically nullifies most enemies for several seconds. So a Cryotech Alchemer and its upgrades, as well as the Freezing Vaporizer Bomb and upgrades are both good.

For shields, You'll want either an Owlite, or Plate shield line. Owlite is more common, and gives you Elemental damage resist, which is really nice, while the Plate has a ton of health, so it'll be better against Shadow and Piercing attacks than the Owlite.

For armor, you want the following resists in order of importance: Normal,Elemental,Shadow,and Piercing a distant last. Almost everything does at least some normal damage, Elemental is by FAR the most common damage type you'll find (At T3 basically everything does elemental), Shadow is used by some of the nastiest enemies, so it's always nice, but piercing is worthless. It's only used by Slimes and Beasts, which are both REALLY easy to dodge or shield, making poison resist on your armor pointless. You might also consider any of the damage boosting armors, particularly the Wolver line, leading to Vog Cub, which is incredible popular, but will hurt your defense before Tier 3.

P.S., The only gear worth getting from the Snarbolax is the sword. It's probably the best Piercing damage sword in the game. The Shield isn't tough enough for the deeper T2 levels, and the bomb is just crap.
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