Community Event Ideal Identifier Challenge #3 - Cactus

Hello everybody

The time has come for the Ideal Identifier Challenge to take on its final form. This challenge will now officially happen once a month and will run for the entire month, ending as the next challenge begins.


THE CHALLENGE

In this challenge you will compete to attain as much of a specific gear identification as possible within a limited period of time starting from a brand new class. A nice combination of game knowledge and luck IMO.

In the second iteration of this challenge you will be trying to attain as much THORNS as possible in 1 hour. Learn how to be a cactus.

This challenge will last for 1 month, running from now until June 1st at 6pm EST/3pm PST

Comment on this thread with your entry submission(with video proof) and IGN, you may submit as many entries as you desire, but only your best run will be counted.

RULES

MAX LEVEL 25
-If you hit level 25 you must make sure you never hit 26, if you finish with a level above 25 the run is invalid(Guild xp 100 will turn off xp gain if you are in a guild)
-You must create a new class
-You must /skiptutorial
-1 hour timer begins as soon as you complete King's Recruit
-You must follow ironman restrictions(no trading, no picking up other's items, no using the market, no using the bank) actually using the gamemode itself is optional but recommended
-No housing
-No using mob totems(even if another player places it)
-No using bombs(even other player's bombs), if somebody throws one on your world during your attempt please switch worlds to keep it fair
-No using the discord link double xp
-No assistance in combat from others
-No using any bugs or exploits
-No using pets
-Professions are allowed
-Any food/scroll/potion buffs must be crafted and used by you, no assistance from others
-VIDEO PROOF REQUIRED in the form of a video/livestream on YouTube with NO CUTS or edits during the 1 hour time(the video does not need to be high quality as long as we can still see everything)
-Hunted mode is permitted


PRIZES

What kind of challenge would this be if there weren't prizes? The prizes this time around are the same as last time.

1st place: 64 LE

2nd place: 40 LE

3rd place: 24 LE

4th+5th place: 10LE

6th-10th place: 5LE

All other entrants will receive 2 LE for their time

All prizes(including the participation prize) will be awarded after the challenge is over.

I will be making a video 1-2 weeks after the challenge is finished showing off the best runs and linking to all entry submissions.

​

 

eyyyyy it runs for the whole month this time

also, interesting that this one's an hour long
probably will lead to more diverse strategies which is cool

 

The only reason the last one was 30 minutes was because it would have been fairly easy to get 12 royal cake slices and 42 forest webs in that time. I wanted you to have to get really lucky and try multiple times, or maybe plan a very slightly different strategy that reduces the amount of forest webs needed(which penguin did) to give you more time to farm cake slices.

 

Hey y'all! I just read the new challenge and immediately started working on some early routing and my plans for my first couple of runs. I honestly found the last challenge to be extremely fun when it came to coming up with ideas, and I'm sure others felt the same way, so I'll be putting all my thoughts inside the spoiler which hopefully works to not ruin the fun for those people like me. I'm just hoping to start the discussion and hopefully let some people have a rough idea to start out with before optimizing their own runs more as the month goes by.

Spoiler: Day 1 Ideas and Routing

NOTE: AS OF WRITING THIS, I HAVE NOT DONE ANY ACTUAL ATTEMPTS. I also apologize for any typos I may have in advance. I also am still noob-ish in my knowledge on lifeskills, so if there are any errors, I hope for it to be me believing its harder to do something than it actually is, and not the other way around in which I downplay any difficulties.

Class/Weapon
To start this off, using Wynndata and sorting by Thorns for weapons show that WARRIOR is the class that immediately sticks out due to the Clash Hook having a max id for thorns of 44%, which is honestly just ridiculous, and even if by chance it is difficult to have a chest route for finding it, the next best weapon is another spear, the Blade of Instinct, which can be bought at Bremminglar for 12 Ocelot Tails. The tails might be annoying to collect, but I honestly believe that in this challenge, Level 20 sounds achievable due to the lack of needing to farm any low-level mob for specific drops (Ex. Spiders in Nivla Forest), and just the fact that I believe that Level 20 is your main target in this challenge more than anything else.

There sadly doesn't seem to be any other class weapon that can match the Clash Hook for Warriors. Even when taking into account Lifeskilling, 36% Thorns is max ID that a weapon made of entirely Depreciating Flesh* (Will be talked about more) can be, which could be fine until someone is lucky to the extent that Penguin was in the previous challenge.

Armor
The reason why I mentioned Level 20 in the previous section as the main target of this challenge is because of the god piece, The Scarecrow's Vest, which is a chestpiece that has a max Thorns ID of 78%! I honestly believe that this one piece will be the dealbreaker in this challenge between a good and bad run by itself. The upside to this piece as well is that it is a boss altar drop, meaning that in no way is it affected by chest timers. The only challenge might be the boss itself, which I'm sure there are good enough players to get through it just fine. Getting to a reasonable level and gear to fight the boss as Warrior could be an issue and might make someone attempt the challenge on other classes, which would definitely diversify the first couple weeks until players got better in learning the minimal gear and level to fight the boss.

When it comes to the rest of the pieces, I feel that there's a good chance that crafted pieces will play a major part early on to the point that the entire meta might shift to something similar to the previous challenge, where it was just grinding mobs and lifeskilling materials, and then crafting either at the middle or end of the run. The biggest ingredient that kinda sticks out is the Rose, which might be interesting to those who also looked on Wynndata and saw the Depreciating Flesh. Some might immediately recognize why I decided to point out the Rose. It has 2 pros compared to the Flesh, and the cost of a con:

• Pro 1 - Can be used for crafted leggings and boots
• Pro 2 - Is easily more accessible due to having a set location where you can infinitely harvest it
• Con - Less max ID potential than Depreciating flesh for the helmet/chest slots

It's definitely interesting, and I'll be honest in saying that simply due to not attempting any runs so far, I'm still unsure if there will be a clear winner for either material, as it might become entirely Roses for the crafted gear, or a mix of both to maximize stats if time allows for it.

The only gear that can stand up to the crafted gear would in my eyes be the Waist Apron simply because of its accessibility and the benefits it provides. While it might cost a few minutes to complete all the quests necessary to earn it, early runs rely on pieces that aren't RNG reliant and allow for less stressful gameplay. Also, the fact that it gives XP bonus is extremely useful to getting to Level 20.

To end off this section, I'm aware that I might be heavily overestimating the allotted time of 1 hour as being long enough to craft all the gear, get to level 20, and complete the boss altar, but the idea of someone being able to do all those things within an hour piques my interest and I'd just love to see a run of it. If I get humbled by the time, I'll just cope in sadness.

Accessories
This section will be pretty short. If time allows for the looting of tier 3/4 chests by Ragni, they will be used. Early runs might prioritize these more heavily and not focus so much on completing the boss altar. Here is a quick list of accessories that give thorns, in order of Max ID potential:

• Rings: Jag > Reflex
• Bracelet: The Meddler > Therck's Irritation
• Necklace: None :(

Food/Scrolls/Potions
In the chance that these buffs would have priority over any of the other potential providers of Thorns, few options exist.

Food only has Boar Meat from Time Valley and give very little thorns for the time investment of going there unless somehow grinding to 20 would happen from some weird pathing by going into the Pigmen Ravines and even then, it'd be strange.

Scrolls has the Shredded Bones drop, which can also be used for potions, and due to the level and max ID potential for thorns of the drop, I find it to be the most likely to see usage, with the major problem being a high enough Scribing/Alchemism level to create them.

Potions exclusively have the Bug Parts ingredient, but the same still applies with the Boar Meat. I just don't see it having much usage other than in some very niche case or a very specific route.

Route Planning
Only having spent at most 20 minutes to take a look around the map and thinking general area, it seems to me that there will likely be 2 routes taken until one route is just seemingly miles ahead of the other.

NOTE: Both routes assume the Warrior Class (w/ Clash Hook) when calculating max Thorns Potential for each route. DOES NOT INCLUDE FOOD/SCROLLS/POTIONS. The names of gear have been said in previous sections and will not be repeated here in this section.

Route 1: A rush into grinding Level 20, going to Nivla Forest -> Around Detlas -> Around Nemract -> Durum Isles Boss Altar, and only then after crafting gear. Hoping to finish the quests Cook's Assistant and Infested Plants for the Waist Apron leggings and ability to equip them. I believe this to be the ideal route as runs become more luck based and become higher quality.

• Thorns Max Potential in this route: Weapon (44%) + Helm (36%) + Chest (78%) + Legs (30%) + Boots (30%) = 218%
• Legs is 30% as in a max potential, you get enough time and materials to craft better leggings than Waist Apron. Even with max potential Waist Apron, the Total is 198%.

Route 2: A lifeskill orientated run where players do not attempt to go for The Scarecrow's Vest, and instead attempt to maximize thorns on the crafted pieces and does a Rarity loot run (Route that Rene popularized for getting Rarity rings, on YT) in hopes of getting the thorns accessories. I believe that this early on will be the go-to route simply due to less variance, and overall simpler route that is not affected by RNG of any kind other than general mob drops.

• Thorns Max Potential in this route: Weapon (44%) + Helm (36%) + Chest (36%) + Legs (30%) + Boots (30%) + Ring (5%) + Ring (5%) + Bracelet (8%) = 194%

Final Thoughts
I feel like there's a high chance I will look like a fool if the meta doesn't develop into what I've talked about, being the Warrior Class rushing Level 20 in order to obtain the Clash Hook and The Scarecrow's Vest, and then spending the extra time to crafting Boots and Helm with Roses/Depreciating Flesh and maybe Legs. I believe that my other route that I talked about only really in the Route Planning section will be a strong contender and might actually be the better strategy simply due to location for maybe the use of Food/Scrolls/Potions. I just hope that at least some amount of what I've said does play a part in the winning run. Overall, it took me like an hour or two to get my words straight and write this, and it was engaging the entire time. It just shows how much potential there is for these really fun challenges. If anyone has gotten this far, I wish you the best of luck in your runs, because getting through this entire page of text proves that you are determined enough to win it all.

 

Would twitch work instead of youtube if I wanted to make a submission?

Also time to practice what is essentially speedrunning pogchamp

 

Twitch has an export to YouTube feature, but I have accepted a livestream highlight previously. Just please don't submit a livestream, and instead submit a highlight of the run, as past broadcasts don't last forever and it is a lot easier for me if the video of the specific run is separate from the full stream.

 

is using /class to make something respawn faster allowed? or is this included in the "-No using any bugs or exploits" ?

 

That is not a bug/exploit and is allowed. That is a mechanic of the server's spawning system where if nothing is nearby it despawns, thus /class despawns everything in the area. Once you come back in it loads it all in fresh and will spawn things as if you weren't just there.

 

I’ve run this a few times and best I’ve gotten is 133% (mediocre scarecrow vest, no clash hook / the meddler)
My route rn gets to durum isles at about 51 minutes so the getting 1 - 2 scarecrows vests (2 - 4 rolls) should not be too unlikely since you can run it about 3 times at about 40% loot bonus.
Since the scarecrows vest is relatively consistent, clash hook (and to a lesser significance, the meddler) seem to be the main rng factors that will determine which runs get the most thorns.

 

192% thorns (very lucky run)

74% Scarecrow's Vest
33% Clash hook
30% Crafted Depreciating Flesh Helmet
20% Crafted Rose Boots
16% Crafted Rose Leggings
8% Crafted Boar Meat Food
6% The Meddler
5% Jag

 

how many runs did it take?
also the big takeaway i have from this video is that you can do /toggle pouchpickup what the frick