Fax machine strategy

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A Fax Machine

The fax machine, located in the Clan VIP Lounge, allows players to summon photocopies of monsters, potentially including any monster copied by users connected to their clan's fax network. This page lists some of the most effective fax targets ("faxes") in the game for pathless ascensions. Special challenge path runs may benefit from different strategies, or may block access to the fax machine altogether; see the appropriate path strategy page for details. See copying strategy for targets that would need to be faxed multiple times.

The player-sponsored faustbot and Easyfax accounts retain copies of most of the interesting fax targets, and can deliver them on demand to your clan's fax machine. Faustbot or Easyfax must be whitelisted into your clan for this to work.

Fax-like mechanics

Over time, other fax-like sources of on-demand monster summoning have entered the game. Keep in mind that in Standard-restricted runs, the fax machine is not available; as of 2019 the genie bottle is the only fax-like mechanic in Standard.

• The painting in Chateau Mantegna allows you to summon the last monster you've painted with an Alpine watercolor set. Because the painting persists through ascension, much of the fax strategy below applies.
• Using a Time-Spinner to Travel to a Recent Fight operates like a fax, but with the limitation that it only summons monsters you've naturally encountered during the current ascension. As such, its function is more similar to copying.
• Using a genie bottle to wish for a fight allows you to summon almost any copyable monster at will.
• In the Heavy Rains challenge path, the skill Rain Man allows you to make a copy of any copyable monster you have encountered in any Heavy Rains run, in addition to any copyable monsters you have at least casually researched (at least 1 factoid) if you have a Monster Manuel installed.

Turn Efficiency

These faxes directly reduce the number of turns required to complete quests, and the benefit gained from faxing them can't be gained in any other way. Monsters are listed in roughly the order you'd fax them.

Monster	Availability	Purpose	Needs Copying?	Other Requirements?	Notes
sleepy mariachi	/w faustbot sleepy_mariachi	Item drops, Moxie stats	No	Yellow ray	Saves several powerleveling turns for Moxie classes; makes the best Fairies in the game
ghost	/w faustbot ghost	digital key	Yes	150% items	Saves ~15+ turns in the 8-Bit Realm when copied if you can't access Fear Man's Level
ninja snowman assassin	/w faustbot ninja_assassin	Level 8 quest	Yes	Survival	Saves ~12 turns (or 3 pulls) when copied twice
Orcish Frat Boy Spy	/w faustbot frat_spy	Level 12 quest	No	234% items	Saves a yellow ray
lobsterfrogman	/w faustbot lobsterfrogman	Sonofa Beach quest	No	None	Saves ~4 turns (and lots of RNG swing) over finding each one manually (per copy, up to a total of ~20 turns for 5 copies)

Niche / Quality of Life

These faxes can be helpful, even if they're not strictly optimal.

Monster	FaxBot Message	Purpose	Needs Copying?	Other Requirements?	Notes
1000 ML butt	/w faustbot bigbutt	Substats	No	Survival	For players who want lots of substats on turn 1
Bailey's Beetle	/w faustbot baileys	(see Notes)	No	Yellow ray	A multi-purpose quality of life fax; provides some substats, the full War Hippy Fatigues, and a powerful shield
sleepy mariachi	/w faustbot sleepy_mariachi	Item drops	No	Yellow ray	For non-Moxie classes, a spangle-fam is still fantastic for item drops and Potato blocking
Blooper	/w faustbot blooper	digital key	No	Olfaction 67% items	To kick off Olfaction; hugely inferior to Fear Man's Level or the ghost fax, but does not require any extra IotMs
Semi-Rare Monsters	/w faustbot kge /w faustbot miner /w faustbot baabaaburan	Knob Goblin Elite Guard Uniform Mining Gear stone wool	Varies	None 234% items Up to 400% items	In case you weren't able to structure your SRs around them, or if your path blocks fortune cookies
mountain man	/w faustbot mountain_man	Drops ore	Yes	150% items for one of each ore, YR for two of each	Alternative to mining or clovering ores
modern zmobie	/w faustbot modern_zmobie	The Defiled Alcove	Yes	None	Saves several turns in the Alcove over encountering them directly
remains of a jilted mistress	/w faustbot jilted	antique hand mirror	No	150% items	Saves several turns hunting for One Nightstand (Wooden) for Myst classes, if powerleveling in the Haunted Bathroom is desired.
Bad ASCII Art, rampaging adding machine	/w faustbot ascii /w faustbot adding_machine	A Quest, LOL	Varies	None	For players who want the Meat from this quest or want to copy the ASCII art for 31337 scrolls
Witchess monsters	/w cheesefax witchess bishop /w cheesefax witchess knight	Substats, item drops	Possibly	Survival	Free fights that give epic-quality consumables Sacramento wine or Jumping horseradish with +item or +meat bonuses

Notes

• You can only use one photocopied monster per day.
• You can use photocopied monsters while falling-down drunk.

History

• The smut orc pervert used to be the best turn-saving fax target until it become uncopyable on August 14, 2013.
• The writing desk and dirty thieving brigand also provided turn-saving shortcuts until they were made uncopyable at the start of 2019.

See Also

• Copying

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