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Author Topic: Cogmind's First Super Gauntlet Run  (Read 2006 times)

Kyzrati

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Cogmind's First Super Gauntlet Run
« on: May 21, 2017, 07:01:35 AM »
So as of Beta there are a bunch of new challenge modes, and not all of them have even been attempted yet (really because everyone's still getting into the new regular content!). After winning my first 1.1 run last week, I decided it was time for something a little different: I wanted to see just how hard the hardest challenge mode really is :)

The challenge modes thread covers all the types (with some sample images), but in short, Super Gauntlet requires that you pass through garrisons to ascend each depth, and blocks off all but one garrison, meaning you have to actually find the (randomly determined) one you can ascend through! Not an easy task :P

Fortunately the gauntlet only starts once a map can actually contain a garrison, so you have a bit of an opportunity to get prepared in lower Materials, where there aren't any. I got lucky in -8, where there might be one garrison, but in my case there wasn't so I could escape all of Materials normally.

Of course, Materials isn't as tough in that regard because it's relatively small. Factory floors, on the other hand, are massive and you end up trekking forever to hit all the garrisons which are spread across the entire map. Get lucky and the first garrison you find will let you in; unlucky and you have to explore a hundred rooms and corridors before you find the right one! (It's also kinda funny that in this mode you're actually trying to hit the things that in a normal run you might want to steer clear of :P)

Strategy

I played the run a lot differently from my normal runs, partially influenced by what other players have been doing lately, wanting to try out some new tactics, and partially because this challenge is definitely in a league of its own in terms of difficulty.

First and foremost, as pretty much guaranteed long travel times are going to make the attrition extra unforgiving, I decided that tons of inventory space would be essential. You'll see I was running for 4 Lrg. Storage for much of the game (even in Materials!), something I wouldn't normally do. In terms of slots I made up for that by sticking with only two weapons, later three. (Note: To be honest a heavy flight/hacker bot could've had an easier time finding the right garrisons overall, significantly cutting down on attrition, but then it's hard to fight through garrison interior itself like that so that would be a different kind of challenge... Anyway, something for others to try.)

Despite being a combat bot I also dedicated utility slots to infowar, sometimes two or three, in fact, for things like sensors, terrain scanning, and sometimes hacking. This was also to cut down on attrition and locate garrisons more quickly. I installed botnets on every floor and indexed garrison access as a top priority.

In terms of weapons my aim was to use launchers as much as possible. I got lucky in this regard, finding an early stockpile of Grenade Launchers, and later when those were running low a huge stockpile of Lrn. Missile Launchers <3. To make sure I wouldn't too easily run into matter problems I carried lots of pods, sometimes having up to 600-700 in reserve.

Shock absorbers helped a number of times where I'd just point-blank launcher squads that had gotten too close, though I actually spent about half of my fights using three conventional guns, sometimes cannons, where it seemed more tactically appropriate.

The Run

Here's where I thought I was about to head into my first garrison, on -7/Factory, only to realize that this one's locked--that's what the darker central G implies... (yes, I'm new at this :P)


A couple thousand turns later I found the right one.


The interior wasn't too hard. Having tons of matter and opening up with launchers is quite effective in garrisons, especially since there aren't any other bots to aggro or reinforcements to be called in... This is where the reinforcements come from, haha, so just blast everything.

I didn't take any images on -6, which was a lot like -7. You know, just thousands of turns trying to find the right garrison and blowing everything up along the way!

-5/Factory is where things got really hairy. There are four garrisons access points on a Factory floor, and I had to visit every single one before finding the unlocked one.

I started out in fairly good shape.


And was growing pretty confident with all those missiles :D


The ARCs were getting pretty persistent after a while, though!

(Note: That Chainsword helped me out for thousands of turns as I did a lot of shortcutting through walls and sneak attacking Recyclers and Operators.)

Quite a few times things were looking pretty bad.

There was as good chance I was going to lose, or at least not be able to recover, from that battle, being completely surrounded, but I went all out with launchers--starting with the east (which caused a chain reaction and took out the southern Swarmer, too), then gunned down the north and west bots. I did, however aggro that (locked) garrison to the west and had to deal with a couple more Sentries, which I totally wasn't equipped to deal with by that point... so I retreated east, towards the last garrison on the floor (I'd indexed them earlier and was visiting them one by one).

The sentries followed, picking up another couple friends along the way, and I thought this was going to be the end (184 core!).

The plan was to overload that Fabricator and zap them all, but that plan was ruined the very next turn when a Hunter shot right through me and took it out :P. So I instead used the corridors and three projectile weapons to gun them all down. The cycler and integrity analyzer did an excellent job! I killed them all with 140 integrity to spare.

And still had to make it... all the way over there to escape.

I'd just picked up a stash of thrusters, so I figured the only way to make it was to get there as fast as possible. I packed away some of the storage, which was no longer essential since I'd used up so many spares, and picked up speed to try to reach the garrison before more assaults were dispatched.

And wow I actually made it both into and through the garrison! With only 140 core! Hehe.

I destroyed every single robot in that place, in the process managing to run out of matter just as I took out the last squad. (Launchers did most of the work, though I resorted to guns and sometimes my Axe when I could as I noticed matter getting dangerously low.)

Here I am having come out the other side :)

No matter and Programmers on the way!

I axed them to death and took both their matter and that of the Recycler which then came by to clean up. Back in business! (Who said wheels are terrible? Okay, me, but I have no choice here :P)


But considering the alert was perpetually high, and I was getting assaults immediately on entry, I had zero expectations of making it out of -4 alive.

Pretty quickly found some better propulsion, at least:


I searched around a good bit and found two locked garrisons in my corner of the map, which happened to be pretty isolated so by the time I'd finally confirmed that and made my way towards the center of the map, it was really hard to avoid fights every 25 steps. At least I escaped from a Behemoth that was alerted by a passing Grunt... This main corridor got messy, and it became more difficult to handle open fights without explosives, so for example here I chopped my way back into the room at the east and took out pursuers with melee instead.


Then I did a lot of room hopping to the south and west, with engineers in tow, to try to cover ground quickly without exposing myself. Without armor I was starting to take a lot of core damage, though, and kept getting pincered by assaults.


I did find an armor cache shortly after that, but it was too little too late--by then I had squads coming from all directions and a horribly indefensible position...


And that's where I went down! It was a really great run, though, considering the odds!

Spoiler: Score: 36,618 (click to show/hide)

Addendum

I almost had what may have been an opportunity to make it to a -4 garrison (or at least increase the chances) when I came across a huge stash of awesome flight units, but even though I stuck to non-explosives for that fight, someone else's stray shot took out a nearby reactor that trashed them all :/

And although most of my tactical decisions worked out okay, getting myself out of serious trouble again and again, one critical error lost me a lot of parts on -5: To take out a Swarmer squad I chose to hit the power conduits they were filtering through with a missile at point blank range, but I forgot to equip my own EX resistance right before doing that, so I was basically at the epicenter of like 5-6 explosions all at once xD. Yes they were all dead, but man did that hurt!
« Last Edit: May 21, 2017, 07:44:29 AM by Kyzrati »
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zxc

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Re: Cogmind's First Super Gauntlet Run
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2017, 07:32:02 AM »
That was quite the chunky run. You held on for a looooooong time. Great writeup.
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Kyzrati

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Re: Cogmind's First Super Gauntlet Run
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2017, 07:36:52 AM »
Thanks. And it felt great to be doing something completely different for a change, which is what challenges are certainly good for!

I'm actually kinda interested in honing the tactics and trying that again, though I'm thinking it's also possible that run happened to have its share of beginner's luck and I'll totally get crushed next time xD
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