Drinking Strategies
| Cocktailcrafting |
|---|
| Drink Categories | Drinking Mechanics | Drinking Strategies | Best Booze | Drinks By Ingredient | Drink Matrix |
A drinking strategy is a list of drinks to consume in a single day to maximize the stat gains or adventures you get.
The optimum strategy for you depends upon a variety of factors (such as ingredients you have, skills you've acquired, effects you have, etc.). There is no single strategy that applies to all desired results for all players in all cases.
The optimum drinking strategies listed have been designed using the drink quality measurements to give you the maximum benefit (in terms of stat gains and adventures) per unit of drunkenness without making you too drunk to adventure.
These strategies assume a softcore ascension for a player that is no longer in Ronin. There are too many variables that exist in hardcore ascensions to come up with a simple generalized drinking strategy, and some ascension paths do not even allow drinking. However, the rest of this guide should give you enough advice to make the proper drinking choices during a hardcore ascension.
The data for these strategies was obtained from the KoL Item Effects website run by Ohayou.
Tiny Plastic Sword, Advanced and Superhuman Cocktailcrafting
Drinks made with the tiny plastic sword (TPS) are the best quality drinks for adventures. However, the tiny plastic sword is a rare item that does not drop in the game. If you are serious about maximizing your adventures, you need to get one from The Mall of Loathing.
All you need is one TPS ever, regardless of how many drinks you make with it. When you mix a TPS drink, the sword disappears from your inventory. You get the sword back in your inventory when you consume the drink. You can borrow a TPS from a friend, then return it to the friend when you're done drinking for the day.
If you cannot afford a tiny plastic sword, your next best alternative is to ascend as a Disco Bandit and acquire the Advanced Cocktailcrafting skill. It will let you make quality drinks that do not involve a tiny plastic sword. The Advanced Cocktailcrafting skill is an excellent choice to pick up during an early hardcore ascension as it will give you a big adventure/stat boost for subsequent hardcore runs.
Superhuman Cocktailcrafting will let you make the best drinks that do not require a tiny plastic sword. However, the Superhuman Cocktailcrafting drinks require improved spirits and mixers. Nash Crosby's Still in The Department of Shadowy Arts and Crafts allows you to improve basic spirits and mixers in order to make Superhuman Cocktailcrafting drinks. Without access to Nash Crosby's Still, the improved spirits and mixers can be found in The Mall of Loathing.
If you have neither a tiny plastic sword nor the Advanced Cocktailcrafting or Superhuman Cocktailcrafting skills and are not interested in getting either, then you can find the Advanced and Superhuman Cocktailcrafting drinks in The Mall of Loathing.
If you're still not able to get the best drinks described so far, then there are many combinations of drinks that provide you with the next best number of adventures or stats per day, far too many to list here. Hopefully the information in this guide will make it possible for you to find the optimum solution.
Optimum Strategy with Liver of Steel
The following drinking strategies apply only if you have the Liver of Steel.
Drinking for Adventures
The following table shows the combination of drinks that will maximize the number of adventures you gain per day.
| Optimum Daily Drinking Strategy for Adventures WITH Liver of Steel | |||
| Primary Stat |  With tiny plastic sword |
   69 Adventures, 184 Primary Stat |
89 Adventures, 214 Primary Stat |
| Muscle Seal Clubber Turtle Tamer |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring:
|
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring:
|
| Mysticality Pastamancer Sauceror |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring:
|
| Moxie Accordion Thief Disco Bandit |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring:
|
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Drinking for Stat Gains
Best stat-gain drinking strategy
| Optimum Daily Drinking Strategy for Stat Gains WITH Liver of Steel | ||
| Primary Stat | With Advanced Cocktailcrafting |
With Superhuman Cocktailcrafting |
| Muscle Seal Clubber Turtle Tamer |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring:
Results: |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring:
Results: |
| Mysticality Pastamancer Sauceror |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: Results: |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring:
Results: |
| Moxie Accordion Thief Disco Bandit |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring:
Results: |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring:
Results: |
Optimum Strategy without Liver of Steel
If you don't have the Liver of Steel skill, you can only drink up to 14 drunkenness without becoming too drunk to adventure.
Drinking for Adventures
Best adventure drinking strategy
| Optimum Daily Drinking Strategy WITHOUT Liver of Steel | |||
| Primary Stat | With tiny plastic sword |
52 Adventures, 148 Primary Stat |
68 Adventures, 172 Primary Stat |
| Muscle Seal Clubber Turtle Tamer |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring:
|
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring:
|
| Mysticality Pastamancer Sauceror |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring:
|
| Moxie Accordion Thief Disco Bandit |
Before Adventuring:
After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Before Adventuring: After Adventuring: |
Drinking for Stat Gains
This section is not complete. However, if you're going for stat gains, it's more effective to drink for adventures, then use those adventures to gain stats.
The notable exceptions are the especially salty dog and the bottle of single-barrel whiskey, which both give a total of 100 to 150 substat gains.
