The All-Natural Challenge: most frustrating gameplay ever

Dark Mage Ascended

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I am proposing a new challenge to all experienced EK players. As far as I know, no one ever suggested anything like this before, because it is so counter intuitive to play the game in this way. But I think it will be a good experiment to see just how good you are at the game and how much you know about it. Please do tell if you ever tried this before and how you went about handling it.
The challenge itself is pretty straight forward: start a new Iron Man game, with whatever class you prefer, and attempt to complete the game. There is only one rule: No consumables of any kind.
Simple enough, right?

This means:
-Absolutely no potions, be it healing, mana, might, or resist elemental damage.
-No one-time use items, like the Ankh of Life.
-No scrolls of recall, teleport, no circles of Restoration, not even a God damned Secret-revealing scroll. And yes, this means you have to beat the Underking and connect the Sunken Citadel to the Inori the very first time you go to the Ashen Wastes because no scrolls are allowed to get out. The ONLY tolerated use of a scroll is during the completion of the Dead God quest to exit the Forgotten Temple.
-You CAN pick up consumables that drop from enemies, but you can only sell them,not use them.
-There is no actual scoring system to this challenge, but you get Bonus Points for defeating any Non reoccurring enemy in the game (rumour bosses not included).

Obviously, I am not expecting anyone to make it. The goal here is to get as far as humanly possible, and then die trying to go beyond. No one, regardless of skill, wit or luck, is gonna make it through the Ark without medipacks, so you can forget about it. The point to this is to put all you've learned to the test and see how far you can go.

If this is something you've tried before, please do share your experience.
 

BattleLord

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Actually, you can do this theoretically entirely without scrolls, but only as cleric or mage. They can use the gate skill which would remove the need for a recall scroll in the Dead god quest.

Also, on the topic of the Ark. Do batteries count? Of course using the EMP skill is forbidden but I'm talking about using batteries to sleep in the medical bays. Since that's more like sleeping in an inn, but it does use up batteries each time.

On a final note I wouldn't give points for people defeating rumor bosses. This could let you in theory just keep farming them for infinite points and never even trying the late game areas.
 

p4ran0id

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Dark Mage Ascended":1dfqmvat said:
-No one-time use items

That is impossible. That way you can't use the letter or the keys, they are also one time items. Same goes for shards and Co ;)


Also it would be only a competition in Iron mode, otherwise you could just reload if you fail the ashen capes. :lol:
 

Dark Mage Ascended

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Clearly, I did not explain the rules with enough depth. Imwill try to address all the problems that will come from this challenge.
As mentioned, in the Ark, the EMP ability if off the table. That being said, you ARE allowed to to use batteries to rest. I say this because it basically works as an extension of the Recovery ability. If I didn't allow you to use the batteries to rest, the same thing could be applied to using gold to rest at an inn, or even using your own recovery button at all. I'll let it slide, thinking of the battery as simply "alternative gold" to rest in the Ark.
About it being impossible, it isn't. At all. Because the Shards are no consumables. I prohibited the use if one time use items that are consumed by the player. They are consumed by the eye of Tol to complete the quest, not by the character, so doesnt count. Much in the same way, the ruby keys are consumed by the doors, not you, and the letter is consumed by the searching of Steinz's body, not you.
The point of this is that you cant use consumables that will help you in battle, or teleport you safely away from danger, or help you transverse the map easily, or help you find secrets. Thats why I allowed a single scroll of Recall to be used, because it is necessary (unless you are a mage or cleric, in which case, no scrolls for you).
And I don't get your point about it only being a competition in Iron Man mode. You're supposed to do this In Iron Man mode, I specifically said that.
Also, this would sadly mean you cannot use Ancient Tolassian Tomes and Tomes of lost wisdom.

Also Also, there is a bright side to all of this: all these rules only apply to YOU, the player. Your companion can consume as much as he (or in this case, you) wants.
 

p4ran0id

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Ups, yes you're right and overread the iron man part... :oops:

So to be clear, you are only talking about consumables by player (including thomes)? Well it should be possible, but not sure if anyone will do it. But nice idea :)
 

DavidBVal

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Heh, I am a terrible Iron Man player myself... Always try my luck too hard and end up dying on a spike trap before level 6. So I won't even consider, but if someone does, I'll cheer him :D
 

Dark Mage Ascended

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DavidBVal":3rtz51kk said:
Heh, I am a terrible Iron Man player myself... Always try my luck too hard and end up dying on a spike trap before level 6. So I won't even consider, but if someone does, I'll cheer him :D

I know exactly how you feel. I once managed to get myself killed in the God damn tutorial.
That being said though, human ingenuity is pretty impressive, and there is no limit to the luck some people can get. So I have no doubt someone could get quite far into the game before getting slaughtered by some beast.
Don't expect anyone to be bold enough to fight the Dimensional Parasite or the Undermother.
 

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