Let's Talk - Spelunky 2 Spoilers Galore

jeb wrote: I can arguably shortcut from 1-4 for the City of Gold, but not having Udjat makes becoming royal (needed for City of Gold gate) much tougher. Best bets are to just get lucky and find Black Market, and rob it for Hedjet (not trivial), or luck/steal my way into enough bombs to "dig" to Vlad's.

Forgot to comment on this earlier. I always just start at the beginning. Every single run I do involves getting the eye and freeing Van Horsing to kill Vlad. If I screw up one of those, I usually start over. Sometimes I’ll try to kill Vlad myself if I’m feeling scrappy.
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On my third foray into Duat I managed to kill Osiris and escape. Finding out the ghost doesn’t spawn really helped me slow down and be careful. I also learned to be very careful with using bombs because there aren’t a lot of paths upward and you might destroy your only way up to the top.
After that a battalion of UFOs blew me up in the Ice Caves but that’s okay, I never have to go back to Duat.

My next goal is to make it to the Mothership to free the last character I need to unlock, so the same path as to Duat but I don’t need to sacrifice myself and lose Vlad’s wings.

We were trying to shortcut to Duat from 1-4, and actually got van Horsing, and went Temple, but he needs to kill Vlad and the chances that you can find van Horsing and have enough bombs to get to Vlad without a full Dwelling are basically zero. So we’ll be at that again.

We did a run from 1-1 to Jungle for Hedjet (paid for), Temple for City of Gold and Au, and died in Ice Caves because I guess Parsnip doesn’t want you to sticky bomb Yeti Queen? Hadn’t seen that before.

We only have Pilot, Ninja, and Pixel to unlock now, along with a trip to Duat for the Journal. I can’t see why anyone would ever go Duat, it just looks hard as balls compared to the alternative.

//bonus content
I've actually bounced off the entrance to the Mothership a couple times. And I've managed to find Hover Packs in 5-1 a couple of times, but just never got the height right to get in there. I'm not sure the Alien Compass will even help that much! It's tough to get down there!

Also: A good blood-drinking technique if you haven't seen it: the vomit the mummies spew when they shoot bugs is re-skinned blood. If you hold a corpse up in front of them to block the bugs, you can just stand there and drink 20-30 points of health with Kapala.

So it seems like they just really packed this newest version with little side achievements and special quests as mini-goals for a particular run?

jeb wrote: I've actually bounced off the entrance to the Mothership a couple times. And I've managed to find Hover Packs in 5-1 a couple of times, but just never got the height right to get in there. I'm not sure the Alien Compass will even help that much! It's tough to get down there!

I think it's just one tile below the edge of the screen, because you can see the button prompt. A cape or wings or parachute and you can just glide right to it if you have the alien compass. With the Hoverpack, just move over the compass arrow at the very bottom of the screen and then drop.

Gary Sax wrote: So it seems like they just really packed this newest version with little side achievements and special quests as mini-goals for a particular run?

Kiiiind of? You're a Platinum trophy guy, so you know the urge to get all the things; that's what I'm doing now. Getting these things is also easier and more directly achievable at my skill level than just beating the game. If you played SPELUNKY HD--it was a rogue-like platformer, with the mixed physics model, and that's great. SPELUNKY 2 has all that and a "branching" element per run that adds a huge amount to the game.

Where SPELUNKY HD's "flowchart" was basically a straight line of 16 Worlds, with some nuance related to Hell, SPELUNKY 2 is

Yeah, I like this model honestly. *especially* for ultra-hard run based game. Who cares about the trophy, but having a bunch of tough but achievable mid-term goals is a structure the genre really needs to prevent quitting and frustration.

I made to Alien Mothership, and I am not ashamed that I just brute forced it. I started on 5-1, dropped down to the lower level, got my body six from a sidewall and dropped straight (or Cape'd or used a Mech I found in there). One out of three times you hit the mark. Got the Pilot and a journal entry. There's more to do in there, but this tides me over.

Gary Sax wrote: Yeah, I like this model honestly. *especially* for ultra-hard run based game. Who cares about the trophy, but having a bunch of tough but achievable mid-term goals is a structure the genre really needs to prevent quitting and frustration.

For what it's worth, the stakes in SPELUNKY are very low. The game moves at a good pace, so you don't feel like you lose too much in any one run. The anxiety creeps up when you've been spoiled, honestly, as you might know how close you are to getting/seeing something! I play this almost daily and still feel like I am learning things. For example:
If I am holding a backpack item when I ropestun the shopkeeper, the item is immediately equipped to my back, which lets me steal his Shotgun too.
Shooting the shotgun and jumping at the same time gives you a THREE-height jump backwards (normally jumps are two-height).
Parsnip and team get mad when you throw a bomb NEAR them--even if you throw it AWAY from them.

jeb wrote: I made to Alien Mothership, and I am not ashamed that I just brute forced it. I started on 5-1, dropped down to the lower level, got my body six from a sidewall and dropped straight (or Cape'd or used a Mech I found in there).

Can you explain a little more? 6 tiles from a side wall? Can you survive the fall from the lowest level? I'm totally down for trying this.

Edit - Nevermind, it totally worked. Got the Pilot. Thanks!

The mothership doorway can only spawn in the exact middle of the level or six blocks from either side. So you can just pick a side, lower a rope, or use a Cape, Mech, parachute, or a well placed alien parachutist dropping in that area to try to land on that spot. Or ledge grab if you can. One third of the time you will hit it.

Finally got Iron Man! Beating the game from a 1-1 start. Had an easy Kapala by 2-1 and that’s the difference maker for me. I still took my time, ended up at 33 minutes, but a lot of that was drinking delicious blooood. Dwelling to Jungle to Tide Pools to Ice Caves to Neo Babylon for the win. I had Kapala, Cape, Shotgun, Hedjet, played with Excalibur for a hot minute, but mostly it was the 40 Bombs and Paste that makes easy work of the levels. Ooh, I got to go to Madame’s as well, that was nice.

Hey Spelunkers, there is a great seed to play with:
5ADE686C

1-2 has a Tun Shop behind Yang's with a Jet Pack and an Energy Cannon. Not to mention a Kali Altar and enough bodies to get Kapala. And you can just buy a Machete and not even anger the Shopkeeper. Tun can kill herself accidentally on 2-1 Jungle and you're in the clear. It's amazing.