View source for Talk:Ol' Scratch

Just some notes: defeated him this morning. He debuffs everything, though not necessarily all at once. I used about 10 divine noisemakers at 525 damage per. Maybe he scales? I was taking approximately 60 hot damage a turn. --[[User:Chickie|Chickie]] 10:14, 18 June 2008 (CDT)

It totally debuffed me on the first round, I had around 6 things! Couldn't get him with divine blowouts at 300 damage per time using Ambidextrous Funkslinging for 4 rounds. Gah. --[[User:Adite|Adite]] 13:04, 18 June 2008 (CDT)

He debuffs you only if you have more than 5 buffs active. --[[User:Mrfreeman|Mrfreeman]] 02:53, 19 June 2008 (CDT)
*A clanmate fought Ol' Scratch with 2 buffs and did not get debuffed, so it seems like this is true. [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 14:31, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

Since it appears each boss has a gimmick, I wonder if the fact that I was wearing full brimstone may have protected me more from his hot attacks than people who don't have brimstone... --[[User:Chickie|Chickie]] 14:31, 18 June 2008 (CDT)


When fighting him, one sustains 60(ish) damage each round in addition to his attacks.  He can attack, use his debuff attack, and singe all in the same round.  His debuff attack takes only so many buffs at once - if I remember correctly it's something near 10.  He also has a manacles drop, but someone's gonna need to add that page.  --[[User:TheManStark|TheManStark]] 00:12, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

I don't know how to add an image, but I got this when I defeated him, (the image is called "music"):
 You acquire an item: Elron's Explosive Etude
--[[User:Jael|Jael]] 02:30, 19 June 2008 (EST)

After fighting him for a few rounds, I got this message before his regular attack/miss message:

Ol' Scratch flips out, and you feel the temperature rise 30 degrees. Man, you could separate Kevin Bacon five times with all of this extra heat!

Before receiving the message, he never hit me, I only took damage from 'being near' him; after the message he hit me several times. 2040 or so Moxie.--[[User:Salien|Salien]] 03:25, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

Message received when he dispelled:

"How about we turn up the heat!?" shouts Ol' Scratch, as he pours gasoline on you and lights it.
--[[User:Salien|Salien]] 04:50, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

*Since there are six items, some which differentiate by class, might the drops be class-specific? (unsigned comment by MrGuy)

What buffs for you guys were removed? I have a clan buffbot run on me, tomato juice, serum or sarcasm, hairspray, Red Door Syndrome, and Flame-Retardant pants. He took most of my buffbot buffs the first round. He left all my reagent buffs and Red Door Syndrome, though. Coincidence? --[[User:Wavedash|Wavedash]] 12:33, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

Having fought and lost once, here are some observations (unfortunately I was in a hurry and didn't copy and paste exact messages).  I guess I'll sign here and then in each section, just so it's not confusing if further comments are added.  [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 12:54, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

Having fought and lost a couple of times, I kept track of the damage totals I was doing. Thus, he definitely has more than 7943 and less than 8172 hit points. [[User:Krendel|Krendel]] 23:03, 10 July 2008 (EDT)

==Fire aura==
As noted, this seems to do some Hot Damage every turn.  Hot resistance does reduce the damage. [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 12:54, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

==Gasoline==
In about 7 out of about 10 combat rounds he poured gasoline on me.  I had 68 buffs to start with and while I didn't note the exact numbers, 10 each time seems about right.  A brief survey of the buffs blasted off seemed to show that they were selected randomly.  The attack also did some hot damage (more than the fire aura, but I didn't note how much). [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 12:54, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

I fought him today with 92 buffs active at the start of combat. He debuffed me 10 random effects each of the first 4 rounds before I killed him.  I can confirm it's 10 buffs removed per round.  --[[User:Dadaca|Dadaca]] 07:08, 13 July 2008 (CDT)

==Damage cap==
I started the fight heavily buffed and had roughly 1200 muscle, 1100 myst, and 900 moxie, as a level 17 Pastamancer.  I got the jump and so was able to use a Divine Noisemaker while under the effect of Stenchform.  This ended up doing a bit over 900 stench damage.  I swapped to using Fearful Fettucini while still under Stenchform and still was only doing a bit over 900 damage.  Eventually Stenchform was removed and Fearful ended up doing somewhere over 600 spooky damage.  This indicates that there is probably some mechanism which caps the amount of damage you can do, as my first Divine item should have been doing well over 2000 damage if normal mechanics were in play. [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 12:54, 19 June 2008 (CDT)
*level 42 sauceror. stenchform. not buffed, so 1k mus/mox and 1700 mys. doing unmodified ~1k damage to hobos, so expecting at least 1.5k stench vs. ol' scratch, but only doing ~650. i'm doing it by myself, and i mostly choose option one on choice adventures. lots of flowers to the heap. hmm. complicated. --[[User:Evilkolbot|Evilkolbot]] 06:20, 29 June 2008 (CDT)
*Level 16 Pastamancer with Staff of the Kitchen Floor and Sinful Desires. I had buffed stats of 611/792/860 and using Weapon of the Pastalord I ended up doing 954 - 999 damage every round. I'm not a spade, but I kept a list of all equip and per round damage if any spades are interested. --[[User:Chili Mac|Chili Mac]] 16:36, 3 July 2008 (CDT)

==Stun resistance==
I used Entangling Noodles after having gotten the jump and in the same round my Navel Ring fired it's dodge mechanism.  The next round he shrugged the Noodles.  I tried using one of Richard's grenades.  The message was something to the effect of "A grenade was used but did not work on the boss."  I used a chloroform rag and Ol' Scratch shrugged the stun on the same combat round.  This indicates that Ol' Scratch is either highly resistant to stuns or else effectively immune to them (as the Navel Ring most likely prevented him from immedately escaping the Noodles). [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 12:54, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

...no, I beat Ol' Scratch by Funkslinging divine blowouts and super amplified boom boxen; he never hit me, aside from the tipical "aura" of fire. --[[User:Wavedash|Wavedash]] 21:35, 19 June 2008 (CDT)
* I can confirm that this works ''great''. He debuffed me on the first round since he got the jump, but each subsequent round he only singed me. --[[User:Id the Mildly Confused|Id]] 13:48, 17 July 2008 (CDT)

That being the case, it strikes me that the "stuns" I was using have a duration, whereas boom boxes apparently only stun for one round.  So it might be that attacks which have a per-turn resistance check will tend to fail, whereas something that only stuns one round (and is therefore entirely useless outside of such times that a player has funkslinging) will still work. Perhaps the game has two mechanics?  Call them "stun" and "entangle" and he resists "entangles"? [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 20:59, 20 June 2008 (CDT)

I guess if noodles fails, that supports it. Try the floorboard cruft and gas balloon (I think, not sure). Oh, and just owned Ol' Scratch again, definitely does NOT resist stuns. --[[User:Wavedash|Wavedash]] 14:33, 23 June 2008 (CDT)

When I initially fought and then wrote about this boss, I assumed that the other Hobopolis bosses would probably share the characteristic of stun resistance.  I still suspect this is the case, but I've had limited boss fighting experience since due to being in a small, but active, clan.  I also never recorded Richard's Grenade message, but it definitely was something unique which needs to be recorded on the wiki, and I suspect it will apply to all bosses.  If it can be confirmed that all other Hobopolis bosses are "entangle" resistant it should be added to all bosses and Ol' Scratch's Note should be vagueified.  [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 00:20, 15 July 2008 (CDT)

A little clarification on the stunning- One-turn stuns are just great against the guy if you can do more than just the stun in that round. Multi-turn ones, yeah, he shrugs them off after missing a single turn. Kneebutt for the win. --[[User:Chompie|Chompie]] 19:34, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
*A much simpler and 100% reliable method is to boost your initiative and funksling gobs of wet hair and divine items at him.  The wet hair stuns him for a round, and divines annihilate him.  He'll never even get to debuff you, no matter how many buffs you have, as long as you get the jump on him and use a gob every round.  --[[User:Flargen|Flargen]] 19:44, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I just defeated Ol' Scratch today with my frumious bandersnatch, and when I used LTS, the two round stun (smust) was effective against him, so I think this is either a special bandersnatch effect or its a bug... --[[User:Vesiv|Vesiv]] 23:29, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

==Strategies==
Without understanding if any of the noncombats or other factors effect the strength of hobo bosses, Ol' Scratch seems to pose the following problems.  He will always do some amount of damage each round, but it is guaranteed to be Hot.  If you do not outmoxie him he will also do more damage.  The hit that killed me was plain physical damage.  I had 160 Moxie at the time and he hit for 290, which implies that he has an attack level of 450 or so.  He will also strip around 10 buffs fairly often, which does more  Hot damage.

What might work:
1) For classes with low moxie or characters that are under leveled, stacking as many buffs as possible may allow you to do enough damage to kill him.  The buffs will increase all of your stats dramatically and using cheap, weak buffs will act as chaff to keep the better buffs on.
2) A character that is sufficiently leveled might not have to worry about anything except the fire aura.  If they can get over 450 moxie without using any buffs at all it's possible he won't use the gasoline attack, which will also reduce damage dealt.

What probably won't work:
1) Strategies involving stuns.  Funkslinging a stun and a damage item or trying to get as much damage done under stuns simply won't work if it turns out that he's effectively immune to them.

[[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 12:54, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

A clanmate of mine just beat Ol' Scratch.  He was a level 15 AT using Elixir of Audacity, Sleaze Form, Elemental Saucesphere, and SPF 451.  He had roughly 700 buffed moxie and used Divine Blowouts to defeat the boss.  He says the damage he was doing was around 600 per item.  Perhaps your buffed moxie is the limit on the damage you can do to Ol' Scratch?  He was taking around 15-20 hot damage from the aura and about the same when Ol' Scratch would occasionally connect with attacks.  It seems a strategy of buffing (your class's/gear configurations useful stat) but being very selective about your buffs is a workable strategy. [[User:Bakapyrite|Bakapyrite]] 15:17, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

IMO the strategy of using <5 carefully-chosen buffs is probably the easiest way to win this fight.  Something like temporary gr8ness, the +200% potions for mox/musc, SPF 451 & sleazeform/stenchform make the combat pretty easy, esp if you have equipment/passive sources of hot resistance... you'll have lots of HP, won't get hit w/gasoline attack & can prob win by throwing 10-15 divine items.  My L20 PM substituted +200% mys for mox & spirit of bacon grease for sleazeform and had a cakewalk casting weapon of pastalord each round. (By contrast, my first approach was to stack 60 random buffs in the hopes that he wouldn't take out important ones; this failed) --[[User:Dipsy|Dipsy]] 10:28, 21 June 2008 (CDT)

Just don't replicate my awesome mistake of running in with 5 buffs and triggering Disco Concentration. Pop, zap, no buffs for me! I'd guess this is true for other buffs as well - going over 5 even if you've already started combat zaps them all away. --[[User:Denarius|Denarius]] 08:49, 23 June 2008 (CDT)

Level 17 Sauceror, 179/285/173 beat Ol' Scratch. I boosted initiative and Hot resistance. Elemental Saucesphere/SPF 451 and some equips. Then I buffed Mus/Mox to Myst with Oil of Expertise, then used a Philter of Phorce. I also had Stench Form on. Funkslung Superamplified Boom Boxen and Divine Noisemakers for the kill. The SABBen hit for ~180, Noisemakers ~590. My peak damage was exactly 800. Also to be noted is that I have Staff of the Deepest Freeze (smacked a Stove Door last run.) Good luck! --[[User:Wolfin|Wolfin]] 18:58, 29 July 2008 (CDT)

You don't really need a specific class, or IOTMs, or even incredible gear to absolutely trample this dude. If you're willing to splurge a little on potions, he's toast. Was wearing the [[Nurse's hat]], [[square sponge pants]], [[shark jumper]], a couple fire-resistant accessories... but really the only things that I felt made a big difference were my [[Mer-kin hookspear]] and [[Zombo's shield]]. If you need convincing on the awesomeness of not using phials or divine items or that stuff, here: [[http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3656/supacoolhobobossbeaterkj9.png]]
Pressurized Potions are like cheating. --[[User:Chompie|Chompie]] 19:34, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

==Loot?==
Does there seem to be any pattern to how many items he drops, such as clan size or the number of players who have visited an instance? Offing him and getting only his Stovepipe Hat was a bit of a drag - I was hoping to be able to rely on having multiple items so everyone who helped clear a zone could depend on getting something. The clan has 16 active members with only 3 who have been in the dungeon instance(2 participated in the Burnbarrel Blvd area), which is why I wondered if loot was random or might have a clan size/dungeon visitor angle.--[[User:Noskilz|Noskilz]] 21:34, 29 June 2008 (CDT)
*it seems at the moment that it's random. the forum thread that has some one-handed dungeoneering shows that you can get up to three items but one's the most likely. i got a couple of twos, which was nice. hopefully hodgman will spit out all eleven. ;) --[[User:Evilkolbot|Evilkolbot]] 06:36, 30 June 2008 (CDT)
*Jick has indicated on the radio show that the hobopolis bosses have several mechanics governing their drops.  He offered little else in the way of insight into these, other than that some of them are affected by +items and others are not.  In my (effectively) 2 person clan's first run through, we got 2 loot drops 3 times and 1 loot drop the other 3 times.  If our experience is any indicator, you always get a piece of the boss' outfit, plus one of their non-AT-skill non-loot drops (and for those that can drop several of a single item, I've no idea how it determines how many you get and if +items helps); the rest are governed by who knows what.  --[[User:Flargen|Flargen]] 14:33, 30 June 2008 (CDT)
*I am soloing it through, and I got the stove door and the britches. --[[User:Duckyguy|Duckyguy]] 10:41, 10 July 2008 (PST)
*With three clannies of mine also having been somewhere in the dungeon, and one of those having killed hoboes in the Blvd., and only me having fought Ol' Scratch, I also got the stove door and the britches. --[[User:Id the Mildly Confused|Id]] 13:48, 17 July 2008 (CDT)
*In a run of over 20 people, I got 4 loot drops from Scratch: an outfit piece and all 3 non-outfit pieces. I was debuffed at the start of battle (I accidentally overbuffed by one). My only +item was a monocle and a 45lb fairy. --[[User:Xenosis|Xenosis]] 05:33, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

==AT Skill==

I don't have a large data set, but is the drop dependant on class? Both times i fought scratch as a sauceror, the class Scratch's gear is tuned for, i got the skill to drop. I've had no skills drop from either chester or oscus when i fought them, with considerably more items+--[[User:Fireyflame|Fireyflame]] 04:41, 27 August 2008 (CDT)

I think it's just random numbers being deceptive. I fought him as a Turtle Tamer with very little +items and got the Explosive Etude. *shrugs* --[[User:Chompie|Chompie]] 19:34, 19 February 2009 (UTC)