PEAK (the game about mountain climbing)

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Okay, yeah, I already got distracted from my gaming goals.

Let me sum up what this game is: You're a scout (or a team of scouts) whose plane crashed on a procedurally-generated mountain, and your goal is to reach the peak and light a flare to signal for rescue. A new mountain is generated every day.

Progression goes: Shore -> Roots or Tropics -> Alpine or Mesa -> Caldera -> Kiln -> Peak.

I've only put in a few hours, and I can say that if a day shows up with Roots as the second biome then I might as well not even try. Roots biome is way, way harder than Tropics from my experience - 4-5 attempts at Roots and I couldn't even get more elevation, whereas my first attempt at Tropics let me clear it (only for me to fail hard at my first attempt at Alpine).

.....and I can tell you right now, no point to me playing on Tenderfoot. I might as well do the proper difficulty scaling. If I can scale the mountain one time alone, I'll be happy - I get the feeling that even trying the harder ascents will require a group (and this game is designed around groups anyhow), and I may start looking for groups at that point.

I have gotten into the habit of taking the flare from the crashed plane every time, as while I'm told there's a crate of them at the Peak, I'm also told that's no longer true at a later Ascent.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Still can't seem to climb either the Alpine or the Roots after a number of tries, no matter what I save up.

However, after getting both Tropics and Mesa in the same run, I was able to actually reach the Kiln.

Tropics is a phenomenal place to store up items for the later areas and Mesa... well, Heat seems to be less of a problem than Cold, because Heat can be more reliably timed and avoided than the random bursts of Cold in the Alpine.

The Caldera's a fun spot. Rising and falling lava... you can actually run in the lower areas if you wait for the lava to recede fully and don't waste any time. I used this to cross the place.

The Kiln... hoo boy. You need to save up everything you've got for that spot. I didn't use my items well the one time I got there so far and reached a point I just couldn't climb any more.

The 7-item limit for solo players is really hurting me here - but I want at least one solo climb before I try getting anyone involved.

 

[Wuff-Wuff]

It's a great game Firuthi! I admire your determination to beat it alone :o

With friends it's even better tbh :3 I play it with one of my bestest Furiends from time to time. I haven't gotten in a four player game yet though.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

I MADE IT!!

I've done the solo climb!

I got a day that had both Tropics and Mesa. At some point during Shore, I got a Fortified Milk that I cooked (you can cook ANYTHING in this game, milk grants invincibility and cooking it extends the timer) and used in the Tropics to secure a beehive for four Honeycombs (that I cooked at the next campfire). And a badge for blocking all the damage from the bees with the milk.

I did wind up screwing around a bit in Tropics and Mesa to get the Toxicology and Needlepoint badges respectively, so no "climb without passing out" badge for me this time. But I did get the badge for passing the Mesa without accumulating more than 10% Heat.

Those four Honeycombs I cooked and secured? The bonus stamina from even one of those is monstrous and having four of them carried my run HARD. I wound up having only one left by the time I made it to The Kiln. Full Cure-All, Chain Launcher, Cooked Lollipop, Energy Drink (I don't cook those because of the explosion), an Anti-Rope Spool, the aforementioned Cooked Honeycomb, and a First Aid Kit. I used everything except the First Aid Kit.

And I somehow did it all without a single instance of fall damage, I'm not sure how I pulled THAT off.

Good thing the lower ascents have Flares at the Peak, because I'd forgotten to bring one this time.

This run had a HUGE amount of luck with Cure-Alls and bonus energy items. Make no mistake, though, there was a little bit of smart and patient play.


I think I'll reserve any higher Ascents for online play (incidentally, anyone who's here and is interested in playing it with me, I may be able to make weekends work), but I may come back on certain days on Tenderfoot to get some of the more unusual merit badges.