Wow, unluckiest run so far once the tougher challenges start...5/7 artifacts are eyes. :p Well, at least the broadsword is one of the two useful I got.
Just wanted to add: Not buying stuff other than healing potions is implied for all challenges, of course. True Ancient Cave style. I wasn't sure if I should buy potions every time I'm at a shop, even if it's expected to be a waste, because I won't make it to the next shop, anyway. For the last challenge I opted to not buy a smaller potion, if I almost had the gold to buy a bigger one. I think I will keep it that way, because otherwise, it will take forever and waste tons of gold.
Finished special run #3, selling no items. With 9 wings...just barely! I had 14hp left after the boss. Just took the chance, wasn't going to wing out another time. One more hit and it would have been game over...whew! It got quite tough when I had to escape for the 5th time with tons of stuff on level 9x. Took 4 wings just to get powerful enough to get to the last shop. That was a lot of fun planning. Already needed a lot of heal, because I was running low on potions. It was already pretty important to kill all one-hit-dead enemies (Ninja knife ftw!) for that extra gold. Next one is gonna be much harder, NO money bags. That means getting strong enough to one-shot-kill enemies. Probably going to take 20+ wings. :D
I got into this game again. It is very easy to beat the usual way. The secret is to create your own challenges. Then it becomes a fun strategy game 1) a run based on speed, which broke towards the finish line, because I had to escape and lost all the speed items and never got the really good ones 2) only sell duplicate items, took 3 wings 3) sell NO items...that's the run I am at, right now...just used the 3rd wings on level 54 --- So, future runs: 4) like 3 and NO money bags 5) like 4 and NO potions whatsoever 6) like 5 and NO heal...well, that one's probably gonna take a while... 7) finally, a mage with no restrictions (yeah, I don't like the mage in this game) 8) die on purpose every level prior to the next shop 9) forced to collect every gem on a level
@Kenkage Oh, monster HP is based on your gear and not on (the added percentage of) your level. Well, all that gold was spent pretty fast after the ascension and he doesn't buy gear too often now. But I haven't really looked at him in quite a while and didn't notice when HP increased so ridiculously for those enemies... Yeah, I'm gonna delete the other three and try a few more combos. This one is useless, I can tell...
@Kenkage What level is that? Well, it was not a good idea to change from the Bard to a crappy Goblin Archer (I wanted to try max dex, but whatever class is best, the character could not be created in that combination...), but I didn't expect getting to level 14 *that* much harder than getting to level 13. This guy only makes 275 dmg, while I think the Bard would now do at least double. The monsters I meet seem to range from 60k-150k HP. --- I used all slots and they are ALL broken except for this one...maybe I delete one of those and get a Bard and never change or pick a strength char...
I remember when I was joking at level 13 that we will speaking again when I have reached level 14 in a week...which was TWO weeks ago!! And I am not even at 50%...this is nuts. In this state, this "game" is useless. I saved one ascension. I will probably never get that one, right?
Excellent game! 5/5. Yes, you are forced to run through levels again with almost nothing new, but that would be hard to avoid here. I picked the second ability first, because I figured the game would otherwise be much easier. That was a challenge with no coin left to barely get the next upgrade. If Tenacity -> Spiderman is possible, that confirms how easy the Ledge-first path must be...but getting the Super Strength then sounds like another challenge. Now I need to look for the previous games. --- The bottom level that you reach through Tenacity is strangely easy. The game is not entirely on a curve. --- That one room has a separate ladder embedded in the rock for no good reason. Slipped in the editor?
Selling all the junk is quite a chore. I could do well without the confirmation for selling items. Just drag it on the sell and sold. Or auto-sell all that crap.
Regarding that game I am looking for: It was a DOS (maybe Windows?) Freeware game. Nothing fancy from a company. It is not Mystic Towers. ;)
I ascended twice during level 12 and those two other characters spent the over 2 million gold acquired by the Gnome Bard I played previously...that shows how imbalanced this exp system is (not to mention the bard). I am close to 13 now. We will speak again in a week when I have made level 14. :D The entire first page on "max level" must be cheating...
@Nik Well, if you are playing something else on this site, that's a different matter. While not being properly connected to Kongregate, it might cause trouble. Although, to be honest, I can't see why this should affect the game mechanics. The only problem I can see is that if you lose connection or power, I doubt it will have saved and I imagine you lose all progress.
@Samuli That is bad news. =( --- I had to kill the quest in a labyrinth, because it was so far away from town that my guy already was half-packed with loot by the time he arrived and then just could not find the quest item without being fully loaded. --- In my AEther Temple there was another location called "Safe Floor". I've never seen a location in a location before. Except for recently when I complained about the town being a tower? Turned out the Tower was a location inside the town, so that might have been no bug. However, going shopping in a grass tile was certainly not intended. :D
Just one more thing: Years ago I played a game similar to this one, with automated fights. No, not the Ancient Cave of Lufia 2. It was a DOS game, no Flash. I think it had "Tower" or "Mage" in its title. But it wasn't Mage Tower, I just googled that and it's something else. If anyone knows what game I am talking about, please tell me. I would love to play that game, again!
***SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR ENTIRE GAME, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!*** Buying equipment other than potions is a waste. You will find everything else. The further you get, the less items there are. I got the Golden Boots a dozen times, for instance. Once you get that sword that is twice as powerful as any other you've seen, there is no use in thinking about what weapon causes the most elemental damage. And I even got that one twice. Worst of all, on the later floors you find a lot of wind defense items...but there are never any monsters that attack with wind! Except for the boss. So, yeah, all that stuff is specifically for the boss. I suspected this at around level 90, when there was ONE additional monster introduced and that's it.
I LOVED the Lufia 2 Ancient Cave. I spent more time in there than outside, although I finished the game at least three times. I would love more games that use this concept, which was taken from Nethack, I suppose. That said, this game is fun until the half-way point, then it utterly falls apart. By then it shows that it isn't well-balanced, at all. It's far too easy. And it becomes ever more obvious that the developer ran out of steam. I deliberately died (well, sort of...I took a gamble :D) to make it more challenging and still got through with the next run. I will spoiler the next shout and vote it down, you can vote it further down, then you have the option to hide it properly. Although I would have been happy if someone told me the first part of that spoiler, in retrospect...
Are there any impossible race/class combinations? I just tried to ascend to a Goblin Ninja, but clicking "Finish" didn't work. I changed to Goblin Archer and that was fine. By the way, he doesn't have ANY base skills OR spells (yup, an Archer with 0 natural Ranged Skill). Great. Still, it doesn't matter, because I played a Bard up until this point and you know what that means...
Addition: The ghost-fight glitch is probably more of a ghost-stuck glitch. I suspect it always happens if you suicide during anything but travelling a square. My best advice until it's confirmed that this can happen without having clicked suicide: Hit pause, make sure you are moving and nothing else, then suicide, then unpause.
@honnza I think the ghost-fight only happens if you suicide during combat. Or did anyone get this while completely idle? This has never been clarified. If anyone got this idle, please tell us. And yeah, randomly the ghost will go on a quest, if your char was on its way there. @Munkey I am pretty sure the 7th ascension is cheated. It makes no sense that all the top people in the other highscore boards still have 6 ascensions?