OUTDATED. See 2nd post for WR strats.
Sub 30 is quite possible, even without 100% knowledge of maps and average RNG. Here are some pro tips.
- Find potions to use on the boss.
Poison potion is essential for massive time save, but you can also use lead and speed. Use potions found on floor 1-4 to find PU as you need those early power points.
- Use Scrolls Late Game.
You are likely to find 1 or 2 appraise scrolls and these can be used to identify potions. Potions found at L10-15 are likely to be poison, but they rarely appear TWICE. Speed and lead potions can be found L10-L30.
- Don't go too fast to avoid levels, you need power points.
Once you find a hand or battle axe, you're going to want to train at fast kill floors. 7-8, 11-12, 19-20. Kill most enemies that are on your path early on then only touch a few safe isolated ones. AVOID SPELLCASTERS.
- SUICIDE STRAT
Should you fail at finding appraise scrolls or you have several unidentified potions/scrolls, if you spawn at floor 20 or floor 25 with lots of nasty enemies, consider using all your potions and scrolls to identify them, then suicide. This will guarantee your boss potion strat and also identify and save a free chaos/teleport scroll.
Best of luck to all runners.
I will detail how to get a time near mine.
Main goal: Canes and scrolls. levels 1-9 have the highest % chance of dropping chaos scrolls + anti magic canes. you need almost guaranteed 3-4 chaos scrolls for level 25-30. incase you cannot reach staircase fast enough remember this. level 17-24 is a MUST to have anti magics on hand. being chaosed will not only result in a time waste, almost a guaranteed game over if you cannot chaos them back. And pick up every ring you can early game, this is debatable, in Any% glitched you need a power ring + second ring, in Glitchless you NEED a heal ring. Heal ring can be found anywhere but usually shows up level 6+.
Power: There is a glitch I abuse heavily in any% called the ring glitch. When you have a ring of any stat modifier + a second ring that is not a copy of the first, you can equip the ring that modifies stats such as a power ring or armor ring (dont use armor ring, double bow grants 99 armor from 0 in 1 second flat). Wear said power ring, drop any second ring and re-equip the power ring. it will stack an additional 3 power. pick up dropped ring and REPEAT. u can max power this way. power DOES scale to hit% accuracy on axes. level 1-9 needs about 30 power to hit about 80% with handaxe/battle axe. after level 10 axes become useless as swords are much stronger(glitchless only as the drop glitch makes axes as good as swords).
avoid levels: trust me on this, besides level 1-10. skip every level. its that simple. memorize every map. know every location when you get to 15+ so u dont get stuck and can immediately open secret walls to the quickest route to the stairs. this is a simple scale to how you should level. 1-9 attain battleman. level 10, chaos and kill all green bats + red amoebas, you may find yourself underleveled, if this happens, when you can kill green worms, green ninja, medusa or pink bats between level 11-20. level 21+ avoid everything if you can. if running glitchless i recomend ALWAYS using a lance/trident. level 1-4 you can use a hand axe, its faster only on those 4 floors. but switch to lance by 5. until you find a shinobi sword or stronger you must use trident from level 10+ to kill.
suiciding may be viable, i do not tend to use it. 1 death costs 30 seconds or so. you can identify potions/scrolls/canes by rarity and how many you have of each. after playing the game alot ull realize most potions u pick up level 1-9 are power up/health or the 3 cursed potions that occur there. if you pick up a potion 11+ assume its a poison potion. if you pick up a potion 20+ assume its recovery or haste.
SCROLLS: lately i have been noticing you can find identify scrolls early, but MOST of the time if u find 5-6 scrolls of the same on floor 1-9 they will be chaos. ASSUME this and on level 10. test. if you dont have 5-6 chaos, u might be dead come late 20s, doesnt mean to reset. ive had runs where i didnt need chaos period. late game scrolls tend to be teleport > majority. and teleporting is very helpful lategame.
CANES: canes should theoretically always be grabbed. i dont care the situation unless it risks death or more items than its worth. slow canes can slow down shinobi/hell fish late game as they run at same speed as you, kamikaze and sleep canes can stop any or multiple enemies late game to run from them. and anti-magic are your best friend 17-24. assume majority of same color canes found 1-9 ARE antimagic. test once you need to escape a green/scarlet bar, or chaos mage. the BEST tip i can give you, is to change the direction you are facing, HOLD B and press the direction. this even works while chaosed. you will spin infinitely without spending a turn until you face the direction you want to shoot the cane. this is invaluable.
my 21 minute does not have this, but theoretically a cursed weapon would have saved time on the boss and possibly throughout the game. searching for such a combination is a waste of time. its possible you wont even have weapon power up scrolls in your game. if you intend on finding a cursed weapon, i found that by floor 17 a blood sword has a good chance to appear, and floor 21 a skull lance. i recommend using skull lance.
your objective should be to reach roughly 170+hp and grab the goblet. this can cause issues as you might not have dragons on level 30. if that happens, you need to calculate the final boss fight accordingly. elemental rings/poison potion/elemental canes tend to hit high when your level is high. but your fastest way to kill the dragon will always be melee in any case. best weapon you have equip and drop immediately in glitched, if glitchless and underleveled, knowing what you have in terms of healing and damage has been the difference between me killing the boss and dying. after grabbing the goblet you can check scrolls if you really think you need to. using an unidentified sleep scroll on the final boss will almost guarantee death.
