History YMMV / KingdomOfLoathing

*** And how do you get access to the Pirate Cove? The one [[spoiler:on the island]] that no one tells you about? You must [[spoiler:go on ''five'' "vacations" (costing you 2,500 meat and 15 adventures) to get the blueprints for a boat, then build it using planks from the hermit. The travel agency mentions a reward for going on 5 vacations...after you take the first one. They also don't tell you what the prize is, and you don't get much of anything out of the first 4 vacations.]] In mid-2012 this was made a bit simpler, as you no longer need to [[spoiler: visit the Hermit]], but getting the [[spoiler:plans]] is unchanged.
** On November 14, 2012, the Level 9 quest was entirely replaced... and in the minds of many players, made ''even worse''. Now you no longer need any outside items to complete it, but it's much longer, consisting of four mini-quests. The source of much of the annoyance is one of those mini-quests, [[TwinPeaks Twin Peak]]: Solving the puzzle requires you to boost certain stats to a degree difficult to achieve without equipment from previous runs, tedious farming for said equipment, or Sauceror potions, thus slowing down Hardcore runs severely. There ''is'' an AntiFrustrationFeature in the form of an adventure that skips that section, but it only triggers after ''fifty adventures'' in the zone- more than you receive at rollover. And (YMMV) in a rare case for Jick and Skullhead, a lot of the jokes are less funny and more fanboy whining.

** The aforementioned dwarven factory puzzle. Dear God.

* {{Squick}}: The basis of Sleaze damage.

** The Orc Chasm quest. Just about every step ranges from GuideDangIt to InsaneTrollLogic. The quest itself isn't hard to do if you know WHAT to do, but for someone trying to figure it out on their own, it's crazy. Most notably, to complete the quest you need to find a way across the Orc Chasm, your only hint being that the pirates might be able to help you somehow (As a sidenote, you might not actually have access to the Obligatory Pirate Cove, and the game offers no hint on how to get there.) [[spoiler: The pirates can help you by selling you an Abridged Dictionary. You take this to the Untinkerer (Whose purpose otherwise is basically to reduce objects to their component ingredients), and have him untinker it into a dictionary and a bridge.]]
*** And how do you get access to the Pirate Cove? The one [[spoiler:on the island]] that no one tells you about? You must [[spoiler:go on ''five'' "vacations" (costing you 2,500 meat and 15 adventures) to get the blueprints for a boat, then build it using planks from the hermit. The travel agency mentions a reward for going on 5 vacations...after you take the first one. They also don't tell you what the prize is, and you don't get much of anything out of the first 4 vacations. Recently this was made a bit simpler, as Jick (in his goal to make the Hermit completely optional) moved planks to the General Store.]]

** The Quest for the Holy MacGuffin. An exceptionally long quest made up of five mini-quests. As a reward, you get [[spoiler: [[AWinnerIsYou a ticker-tape parade in your honor, and some confetti.]]]]

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The ultimate enemy for 100% boredom in Crimbo 2010? [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Best_Game_Ever The Best Game Ever]]
** Also, acquiring the Order of the Silver Wossname. The adventure in which you get it is made of win, despite the GuideDangIt involved.
** The final battle with [[spoiler:your nemesis.]]
** Everyone's pretty much in agreement that [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/The_Bone_Star The Bone Star]] was a CMOA both for the event it was a part of and especially for Jick's art. They even made shirts with the picture.

*** On November 14, 2012, the Level 9 quest was radically changed... and in the minds of many players, made ''even worse''. Now you no longer need any outside items to complete it, but it takes an ''incredibly'' long time to get through, and ''nobody'' has figured out how to complete the second area in the quest's second half without triggering the AntiFrustrationFeature. And in a rare case for Jick and Skullhead, a lot of the jokes are less funny and more fanboy whining.

* The Accordion Thief Tropical Island. Search a hacienda for several keys to the boss's room. One of these must be pickpocketed from mariachis - and if you don't get it in one try, you must one-shot the mariachi or you will be killed. Accordion Thieves aren't good at one-shotting enemies, the mariachis are a lot stronger than the enemies you're prepared to fight at the level you can get to the Tropical Island, and the pickpocket rate is REALLY low.

*** And how do you get access to the Pirate Cove? The one [[spoiler:on the island]] that no one tells you about? You must [[spoiler:go on ''five'' "vacations" (costing you 2,500 meat and 15 adventures) to get the blueprints for a boat, then build it using planks from the hermit. The travel agency mentions a reward for going on 5 vacations...after you take the first one. They also don't tell you what the prize is, and you don't get much of anything out of the first 4 vacations.]]

* HoYay: It's extremely easy to interpret Boris and his minstrel Clancy as being in a relationship.

*** The [[spoiler:pyramid]] portion is extra-nasty. You have to play a LuckBasedMission to change the contents of the lower floors, so that you can get a token, buy a bomb with the token, and blow up a pile of rocks with the bomb. If you go to the bottom area at the wrong time, [[BanditMook rats will steal your token before you get to use it]], or [[GuideDangIt the bomb will be wasted on the wrong rubble pile]]. Once you finally blow up the correct rock pile, you can fight the boss...[[spoiler:''seven times'', using up an adventure for each iteration. The boss has less health each time, but always has full attack power; if he beats you up, you have to go through all seven forms of him again]].

** Hobopolis. If you want a shot at "beating" it, you'll need to join a clan and donate enough money/items to the Clan Stash just to get access to their basement. Then, you have to spend millions in meat to get the necessary healing items, adventure turn increasers and optimal gear. If you somehow manage to do all this, you'll likely still have to organize several other players to assist, approve said request with a clan leader and (if you're going for Hodgman's best loot) coordinate your actions with near-pinpoint accuracy. Mess it up? You're be out millions for the cost of reflooding the area. All of the prior steps don't even take into account the fact that you need to collect "hobo glyphs" (special signs) over several ascensions just to read the signs in the zone.

* ThatOneSidequest: Building the Misshapen Animal Skeleton. It's not so much that it's long, but that the only way to get all the bones for it without spending meat is to quest for a long time in an area where the monsters drop weak items and are so weak themselves that you get almost no XP for beating them.
** Don't forget that the item that you get the bones from frequently gives you ''nothing''.
** Or the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot familiar. It needs a pineal gland! They don't even drop anymore. The only way to get one is to spend hundreds of thousands in the mall.

** Much of the Nemesis Quest is this, but especially the Lava Maze. Platforms appear and disappear, seemingly at random, on a huge lava field, and you must somehow work your way to the island in the middle without getting trapped and being forced to swim to shore, taking massive damage. You can skip it after failing a few times, but if you do that [[HardModePerks you miss out on most of the rewards for beating your nemesis.]] [[spoiler:There's a pattern, of course: it cycles through a few arrangements of platforms. Even so, the shortest possible route is always very long, so finding your way across will be incredibly tedious.]]

** Much of the Nemesis Quest is this, but especially the Lava Maze. Platforms appear and disappear, seemingly at random, on a huge lava field, and you must somehow work your way to the island in the middle without getting trapped and being forced to swim to shore, taking massive damage [[FridgeLogic (why can't you just swim to the island?)]]. You can skip it after failing a few times, but if you do that [[EasyModeMockery you miss out on most of the rewards for beating your nemesis.]] [[spoiler:There's a pattern, of course: it cycles through a few arrangements of platforms. Even so, the shortest possible route is always very long, so finding your way across will be incredibly tedious.]]

** The Orc Chasm quest. Just about every step ranges from GuideDangIt to InsaneTrollLogic. The quest itself isn't hard to do if you know WHAT to do, but for someone trying to figure it out on their own, it's crazy. Most notably, to complete the quest you need to find a way across the Orc Chasm, your only hint being that the pirates might be able to help you somehow (As a sidenote, you might not actually have access to the Obligatory Pirate Cove, and the game offers no hint on how to get there.) [[spoiler: The pirates can help you by selling you an Abridged Dictionary. You take this to the Untinkerer (Whose purpose otherwise is basically to reduce objects to their component ingredients), and have him untinker it into a dictionary and a bridge.]]
** The Quest for the Holy MacGuffin. An exceptionally long quest made up of five mini-quests. As a reward, you get [[spoiler: [[AWinnerIsYou a ticker-tape parade in your honor, and some confetti.]]]]

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: The entire game is filled with strange, quirky, and above all else, hilarious humor, but the Bad Moon adventures take the cake for the sheer punishment your character goes through. [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/This_Doesn%27t_Look_Like_Candy_Mountain One of the more notable ones]] is basically one big CharlieTheUnicorn ShoutOut, complete with [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Missing_Kidney getting your kidney stolen]] (don't worry, [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Spare_kidney you can buy a "new" one later]]).
** How about the slime monsters in the Slime Tube?
--> It tries to ooze under your toenails, but is repulsed by the smell of your feet. Congratulations, you just disgusted a living booger.

** The Quest for the Holy MacGuffin. An exceptionally long quest made up of five mini-quests. As a reward, you get [[spoiler: [[AWinnerIsYou a ticker-tape parade in your honor, and some confetti.]]]]

** The Quest for the Holy MacGuffin. An exceptionally long quest made up of five mini-quests. As a reward, you get [[spoiler: [[AWinnerIsYou a ticker-tape parade in your honor, and some confetti.]]]]
* UnpleasableFanbase: About anything and everything, just like [[strike:most]] all popular games. One example: to keep from losing money running the annual convention, yet still keep admission costs down, Jick decided to sell attendees (''and'' next year's attendees) a special familiar. Cue complaints that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint he didn't also offer it anywhere else]].