Looked at other people’s conclusions and decided that
they’re completely right, and I was wrong. (Was sufficiently pleased with myself for figuring mages got stronger facing stronger opponents I forgot to check it worked this way for anyone else.)
Accordingly, my approach is now:
to take the path of least resistance with the Warrior for main challenge
Also, some findings I didn’t see anyone else post about:
There’s a strict higher-archy of enemies:
# 1=Gremlin
# 2=Acid Slime
# 3=Cultist
# 4=Jaw Worm
# 5=Slaver
# 6=Sentries
# 7=Gremlin Nob
# 8=Chosen
# 9=Shelled Parasite
None stray more than a level beyond their level.
There is definitely some amount of level-gaining happening here. Mages who have an enemy on floor 2 and a campfire on floor 3, then die on floor 4 only ever faced a gremlin (weakest enemy) on floor 2. Anything higher in the higher-archy, followed by a campfire, renders them strong enough to take on Jaw Worms or Slavers without issues.
The uncannily clean and consistent rates at which campfires become more common during an ascent tells me—among other things—that my hero will be the first one in a hundred-thousand-and-change who gets to pick their path instead of charging upstairs blindly.
Eventually gave up on Analysis and decided to throw XGBoost at the problem.
The machine seemed to think that, given the Hero makes it to floor 9, Warrior->Grem->Worm->Armor->Shield->Sentries->Camp->Powder had the best success rate out of the paths I thought were worth looking at.
And I think that
This route has a 100% surviving-the-journey rate, since Warriors don’t die to Sentries unless they got softened up by something strong the floor before.
Best guess for the regular challenge:
Mage: Tome, Cultist, Jaw Worm, Campfire, Sentries, Chosen, Campfire
Best guess (much less certain!) for challenging the Champion:
Warrior: Gremlin, Worm, Armor, Shield, Nob, Chosen, Nob
Looked at other people’s conclusions and decided that
they’re completely right, and I was wrong. (Was sufficiently pleased with myself for figuring mages got stronger facing stronger opponents I forgot to check it worked this way for anyone else.)
Accordingly, my approach is now:
to take the path of least resistance with the Warrior for main challenge
And for hard mode:
Warrior again: Gremlin, Slime, Campfirex3, Cloak, Powder
Hoping to have the time & energy to go at this again on Friday, but in case I don’t, my revised revised approach to Hard Mode is now:
Rogue: Slime, Cultist, Worm, Campfirex2, both trinkets.
Also, some findings I didn’t see anyone else post about:
There’s a strict higher-archy of enemies:
# 1=Gremlin
# 2=Acid Slime
# 3=Cultist
# 4=Jaw Worm
# 5=Slaver
# 6=Sentries
# 7=Gremlin Nob
# 8=Chosen
# 9=Shelled Parasite
None stray more than a level beyond their level.
There is definitely some amount of level-gaining happening here. Mages who have an enemy on floor 2 and a campfire on floor 3, then die on floor 4 only ever faced a gremlin (weakest enemy) on floor 2. Anything higher in the higher-archy, followed by a campfire, renders them strong enough to take on Jaw Worms or Slavers without issues.
The uncannily clean and consistent rates at which campfires become more common during an ascent tells me—among other things—that my hero will be the first one in a hundred-thousand-and-change who gets to pick their path instead of charging upstairs blindly.
One more finding:
Order matters, a lot. A Mage facing slime-cultist-slaver for their first three floors usually lives; one facing cultist-slime-slaver usually dies.
Eventually gave up on Analysis and decided to throw XGBoost at the problem.
The machine seemed to think that, given the Hero makes it to floor 9, Warrior->Grem->Worm->Armor->Shield->Sentries->Camp->Powder had the best success rate out of the paths I thought were worth looking at.
And I think that
This route has a 100% surviving-the-journey rate, since Warriors don’t die to Sentries unless they got softened up by something strong the floor before.
So I’m actually going with that.