Avatar of West of Loathing/Strategy

This page describes some (long overdue) tips for the Avatar of West of Loathing challenge path.

Classes

• As completing a run as each of the 3 classes only gives you points in their own category only, alternating lets you choose the best skills to carry forward on all ascensions.
• Consider starting off with Snake Oiler, as Extract Oil + Patent Medicine gives you access to ever-important Combat Frequency manipulation, as well as other useful potions. These two skills are strong enough to be the first picks, even ahead of Long Con.
• It is wise to follow up with Beanslinger, who can give +5 stomach for making daycount, as well as Beancannon banishes and Walk: Prideful Strut for faster leveling.
• Third, go with Cow Puncher to get Walk: Cautious Prowl, Unleash Cowrruption, and Hard Drinker to get +item%, a Yellow Ray, and round out your liver.
• Loop back into Snake Oiler for Long Con and Tolerant Constitution, before going Beanslinger and then Cow Puncher for their third Advanced skills. Keep alternating while picking up the strongest skills.

Items of the Month

• A Winter Garden rewarded 3-day ascensions with versatile frost flowers, in addition to the normal snow boards, ice sculptures, and maybe even ice houses
• The Deck of Every Card letting you jump to level 5 is something no other Avatar has been able to experience -- alongside its regular utility, getting to jumpstart the run with 5 skills instead of 1 gives you a lot more flexibility.
• The food and booze that Puck Man can get is extremely valuable, as few other options existed at the time. the Mayo Clinic also bolstered the lemon by giving you back the awesome-tier enticing mayolus, turning 10 Puck Man combats into 15+ adventures.
• The Machine Elf lets you refill MP, and drops helpful abstractions for 50 turns of faster leveling, +10 pounds, or even another +100% item drops.
• The X-32-F Combat Training Snowman grants a daily 10 free fights, capable of giving you as many as 600 substats for no turn cost when paired with the barrel lid, Greek fire, and Prideful Strut.
• Your cowboy boots from the LT&T Office had the bonus of giving 3 buffalo dimes at the start of every run, useful for a slightly stronger sixgun, or at high-level play, essentially a free can of beans to use for Beancannon.
• The Witchess Set gives valuable +item% from Sacramento wine, while meat becomes less scarce thanks to jumping horseradishes. Greek fire is like having a second round of Prideful Strut for even more substats.
• The Clan Floundry provides daily equipment with heavy -combat% to cap the amount given by Patent Invisibility, with the bass clarinet reducing time spent in the 8-Bit Realm and the fish hatchet giving Familiar Weight and bridge parts.

Other

• Astral pet sweater lets you turn weak, 1-pound familiars into better, 11-pound familiars. Especially relevant as Avatarhood-ness-itis-osity bars you from skills like Amphibian Sympathy or Empathy of the Newt.
• Runs are often decided by how many wandering snakes you get relative to cows or clowns. Because the first wanderer is guaranteed to be your type, this makes it important for Snake Oilers to hit level 5 in order to get snake oil-dropping prince snakes instead of aggressive grass snakes. This is less tight for Beanslingers and Cow Punchers, although Beanslingers will also want to hit level 5 as soon as possible to get extra can banishes.
• The limited uses of patent invisibility tonic demands even more grouping together of zones than before. It is even more necessary to string together the Spooky Forest with the Copse of the Deep Fat Friars zones, although invisibility tonics require eldritch oil from the Cyrpt.

Ascension Strategy
Rankings:	HC Skills - HC Familiars - HC IotMs
General:	Class selection - Familiar usage - Lucky adventures
Paths:	BHY - Fist - AoB - BI - ZS - AoJ - BIG! - KOLHS - CA2 - AoSP - SS - HR - Picky - Ed - Random - AoWoL - Source - NA - GN - LtA - L.A.R. - PF - G-Lover - DD
Additional Paths:	DG - 2CRS - KoE - PotP - LKS - GG - Y,Robot - QT - WF - GY - JM - FotD
IotMs:	Tomes - Faxing - Copying - YR - Garden - Correspondent - Workshed - Tea party - Florist