Ascension Strategy

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This guide only covers Normal speed ascension strategies. The hardcore speed guide is on the Hardcore Strategy page.

Ascending quickly is essentially a race to gain stats as quickly as possible to get to level 13, while ensuring that all stats are at 70 or more and completing all the quests so that one can access the Sorceress' Chamber. Balancing or unbalancing your stats is a personal preference; some try to balance stats as much as possible, and some try to keep one or two much higher than the other(s).

Of course, you're not going to complete a two-day ascension the first time around. Each time you ascend, you can keep a permanent skill which can whittle off a few more turns from your next run. In addition, the knowledge you gain with each mistake and success will make your future runs faster. Your first ascension may well be ten days; but don't get discouraged, because everyone starts somewhere. You'll see your speed improving with each run you make.

Stocking Hagnk's

Since you are allowed to pull only 20,000 Meat or 20 items per day out of Hagnk's, having the right items in your inventory before ascending is critical. It is a good idea to disassemble your meatcar and other untinkerable quest items because items marked "quest" disappear upon ascension.

Meat

It would also be a good idea to convert meat into the highest meat stack you can so you can take it out all at once.

Food and Drink

Make sure you stock up on high quality food and booze before you ascend, so that you don't waste time farming for ingredients. You can either do this by farming for ingredients and making your food/drink items before you ascend, or outright buying the finished items from the mall.

Expensive items to construct

You should try to avoid adventuring in areas without optimal stat gain and areas in which you cannot comfortably survive (such as The Hole in the Sky) by stocking Hagnk's with required and otherwise helpful items.

Essential items to stock Hagnk's with if you are planning on a speed ascension:

You will likely not need to withdraw all these items from Hagnk's over the course of your run, but it is a good idea to have them in Hagnk's, just in case.

Moon Phases

Look at the upcoming moon phases before you ascend. Speed ascending requires that you time the moon phases correctly so that you ascend on the day your main stat gains are boosted. For example, if the upcoming stat day is a Muscle day, you should ascend as a Muscle class.

Since Myst stat days come only one at a time, it puts you at a handicap for boosting your stat gains. The first few Myst ascensions, you may wish to time your ascension so that the stat day is on day 2 or 3, as all of the larger stat-gaining quest bonuses become available at levels 7-9, and a first time ascender will have trouble achieving these levels on day 1.

Regardless of your class, if you ascend the day before your main stat day, it is generally best to bank as many turns as possible to use on your stat day.

Food and Drink

NOTE: Level restrictions make much, if not all of the following information inapplicable to the early levels of an ascension.

On the first day, choose food and drink that will give you the biggest gains in your primary stat. This will help you level up as quickly as possible so that you can reach the areas that give you the biggest stat gains per turn.

The easiest way to maximize your stat and adventure gains is to choose chow meins or hi meins (these are optimal) and TPS drinks or SHC drinks (these are optimal). If you use chow meins, choose the three "pure" stat chow meins; shun the pr0n and tofu. If you use hi meins, be sure to choose one with maximal gains in your primary stat. On the second day you may or may not want to balance your stat gains; some use another day of primary stat meins/drinks to further boost their level, while others start eating a more balanced diet. Definitely pay attention to whether you need to balance your stats via eating/drinking on the third day, otherwise you may become very unbalanced and find it hard to get the stat requirements to ascend.

Alternatively, some people focus on Muscle food/drink (preferably cold hi mein/hot hi mein and Mon Tiki/teqiwila slammer) no matter their class, in order to have more HP, hit more often, and hit harder with their weapons. Moxie classes have an innate Moxious Maneuver ability, spending MP to use Moxie to determine Hit Chance.

Stat Bonuses

There are three main ways to increase stat gains from adventures: increasing the monster level, stat-gain-boosting familiars and buffs.

Monster Level

One Monster Level (ML) is 0.25 of a stat point; e.g., a level 6 monster will give you 2 stat points 50% of the time, and 1 the other 50%. Things that will help you here are:

  • The Super-Secret Canadian Mind-Control Device (also known as "MCD"). It lets you increase monster levels so that you can make an area more difficult -- and thereby extract more stats from it -- in a very flexible way. The MCD, limited to Mysticality moon signs, allows for +0 to +11 ML. The Annoy-o-Tron 5000 (for Moxie signs) and the detuned radio (for Muscle) function the same way and have the same effects, especially on bosses, but max out at +10 ML.
Use the MCDs on the Boss Bat and the Bonerdagon. The Boss Bat britches and the Rib of the Bonerdagon are very powerful and will help reduce your pulls from storage. Do not use mind control on the Goblin King -- you want his crown if you already have Mr. Accessories, not the King's accessories. If you do not have access to Mr. As, you have the option of using the MCD for one of his accessories. That said, it is still quite reasonable to use the MCD on the Goblin King for some setting other than cape or balls to get additional substat points from the battle while receiving the crown.
  • serpentine sword: +10 ML. This is a high power weapon that is a better choice than the hippo whip if you have enough Muscle to wield it, and cannot afford an ice sickle.

Basically, you want to equip as many of these as you possibly can. Top ascenders will typically adventure with at least +30 ML, through the whole run. (The best records on the Fastest Normal Ascension leaderboards were set by people with 2 or 3 hockey sticks, who were able to get over 100 ML.) As you gain skills to keep you safe from monsters, you can equip more of these items at a time.

However, keep in mind that raising monster level now raises the monster's HP as well. The more you raise a monster's level, the more you're going to have to hit it for. Additionally, adding ML can nullify non-combat modifiers, which can actually decrease the expected stat gains from non-combat-rich areas.

Familiars

Stat-boosting familiars are also important. Volleyball-type familiars will give you better gains at low monster levels, but Hovering Sombreros will give you better gains at high monster levels. See Sombrero vs Volleyball for details.

Equip wax lips on whatever familiar you choose for +3 stats per fight.

The best familiar strategy is hotly debated among the fastest speed ascenders. Some popular strategies are to use the "Volleychauns" (Cheshire Bat, Cymbal-Playing Monkey, Nervous Tick, and Hunchbacked Minion) to gain extra Meat, the Jill-O-Lantern or Penguin Goodfella for its attack power, the Spirit Hobo for its MP restoration, or the Pygmy Bugbear Shaman for a combination of extra items and stats at the cost of MP, among others. It's largely a matter of personal playstyle; however, almost all of the top speed ascenders use Hovering Sombreros for stat gain, often in conjunction with a fairy-type familiar in areas with required drops (such as The Goatlet). The Mr. Store familiars may be difficult for the typical player to obtain, since they require either Mr. As to purchase from Mr. Store or many millions of Meat to purchase from the mall.

Buffs and Skills

There are four skills that are crucial for speed ascending: The TT skills Amphibian Sympathy and Empathy of the Newt, the PM skill Leash of Linguini and the AT buff Aloysius' Antiphon of Aptitude. These buffs should always be on in a speed ascension, with the possible exception of Aloysius' Antiphon of Aptitude. It is also very useful to have Ur-Kel's Aria of Annoyance for certain areas. (At level 6 and up, the Aria is equal to or superior to the Antiphon (in terms of total stats gained), if you can deal with the additional monster level. Of course, having them both on is even better.)

It is often said that there are 29 essential skills required for 1-day speed runs. They are named in this thread: http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/viewtopic.php?t=68421

If you don't have the skills to cast these (or friends to cast them on you), you can contact a buffbot, such as Testudinata. A buffbot can give you many turns of each buff for (usually) a very low price. However, buffbots can only cast buffs on you (not skills, which can only affect the caster), and can only cast on you if you are already out of your Ronin period. If you are trying to ascend speedily, the Ronin period will come to cover a large majority of your turns (and will eventually encompass the entirety of your runs).

Items

There are a few items that can help you gain extra stats, too:

  • ice baby: Another form of the iceberglet, the ice baby is an off-hand item that gives you +3 stat points per combat.
  • orange snowcone: Received from the Tome of Snowcone Summoning, the January 2006 item-of-the-month, this flavor of snowcone gives 20 turns of Orange Tongue: +3 stat points per combat.
  • green snowcone: Also from the tome, this flavor of snowcone gives you 20 turns of Green Tongue: +5 pounds of familiar weight. If you are using a stat-boosting familiar, you should see extra stat points as a result.
  • black snowcone: Also from the tome, this flavor of snowcone gives you 20 turns of Black Tongue. This gives both the orange and green tongue effects (as well as the other non-stat-affecting tongue effects).
  • Knob Goblin learning pill: +2 stat points per combat, but you'll get less dropped Meat. This effect is handy enough that you might consider pulling all the pieces of the Knob Goblin Elite Guard Uniform so you can purchase as many of these (and the pet buffing spray) as you can afford.
  • Knob Goblin pet-buffing spray: +5 to familiar level, but your stats will drop 10%.
  • orange-frosted astral cupcake: Per combat battle, you receive an additional +3 substats, lasting 20 adventures.
  • pilgrim shield: +3 stats per combat when equipped, as well as a host of other useful benefits.
  • white candy heart: +1 stat per combat, as well as +3 to all attributes to help you survive higher level areas, and +1 familiar experience to help raise it quickly you if you choose to switch from a volleyball-type to a sombrero familiar.

Recharging MP

In order to use your skills in and out of combat, especially for maintaining buffs, use the Meat taken from Hagnk's in terms of expensive autosold items (like the facsimile dictionary) and buy MMJ if you can access it, or other restoratives if not. The Star Starfish Trick for restoring MP also works, but it reduces the benefits of one turn each time you use it. In a speed ascension, each turn is highly valuable.

An alternative to using consumables is equipping items that restore MP. The most popular of these is the jewel-eyed wizard hat for its skill cost reduction alongside the restoration. Other MP-restoring items are listed at MP Restorers.

Some players use their familiars to aid in MP-restoration. Some popular MP-restoring familiars are the Spirit Hobo, the Gluttonous Green Ghost, and the Dandy Lion. The Ghuol Whelp is a cheaper alternative to the Mr. familiars.

Regaining HP

If you don't have healing skills available (such as Tongue of the Walrus or Cannelloni Cocoon), you may be buying a lot of healing potions from Doc Galaktik if you're not a Muscle class (if you are, medicinal herbs rock!). Buy only the Ointment for healing between fights, assuming Doc Galaktik's Quest for Herbs hasn't yet been completed. A cost analysis can be found at Cost Analysis of Restoring HP and MP. Another option is to use scrolls of drastic healing. Depending on the average mall price (almost always 214 Meat) and your HP, these can very often give a much better Meat per HP healed ratio than ointment, especially since they can sometimes be reused. You may still want to purchase several Elixirs to keep on hand for use in combat, and to withdraw three or four big healing items for the fight with your Shadow.

If you do have healing skills available, figure out which one is most efficient for the amount of MP it costs to the amount of HP you need. Again, the math is done at Cost Analysis of Restoring HP and MP.

If you are powering your spells with soda water, and are tight on Meat, it may even be worthwhile for you to figure out how much Meat it costs you to replenish the MP used, and see if Doc Galaktik's various balms will be more cost-effective.

Finally, if you have access to both MMJs and Medicinal Herbs, the Herbs are more cost-effective than a Cannelloni Cocoon until level 10 (that's 100 Meat for the Herbs vs. 100 Meat for 1 MMJ, which does not give 20 MP until level 10). Of course, the Herbs are also subject to the limitations of your Spleen, which you might want to otherwise save for wads.

Intelligent Adventuring

Be seen in the right places. Adventure at the toughest places you can for your stats. If you can equip 3 Mr. As or other stat-boosting items, this makes a huge difference since you can adventure at the harder areas sooner. Kittiwake's Moxie Survival Guide gives detailed monster stats by location and has some good safe-adventuring recommendations. Be sure to check out the Safe Adventuring Guide in this wiki as well.

Use the Combat Frequency modifier items and skills to your benefit whenever possible. When completing the Penultimate Fantasy Airship, for example, it's best to get more non-combat adventures, to receive the Immateria and the S.O.C.K. as quickly as possible. Conversely, it's generally better to have more combat adventures in, for example, the location where your class's Gourd item drops, to get the item as a monster drop instead of receiving useless non-combat adventures.

Miscellaneous

  • You may want to choose the Marmot as the sign for two reasons: to get the Canadian Mind Control Device, and to get the occasional ten-leaf clovers. This is useful in places like the sewer where you can convert a clover into your pick of three items so as to be able to get a worthless trinket quickly. Also, the stone mariachis will accept a stone banjo, meaning that an extra clover can save you from having to pull an acoustic guitarrr from storage. Excess clovers can be converted into stat gains in the appropriate areas of Spookyraven Manor.
  • The Opossum also has much to recommend it, especially when used with the Stomach of Steel, since this gives extra adventures from food. Most of the top speed ascenders only use Opossum anymore.
  • If you ascend on the day before a stat day, you can maximize your use of the stat day. Ascend the day before, eat and drink everything you can, then do as many quests as you can until you're at your rollover adventure amount. Your rollover adventure amount is 200 minus the amount of adventures you'll get from your last booze, minus the amount of adventures you'll get at rollover. Then, on day two, eat and drink as you did before, so that you have the maximum number of adventures to use on your stat day.
  • Stat boosts are often important to get past harder battles. (This becomes less true as you collect more and more skills, though.) Helpful items here are hair spray from the market, the Moxious Madrigal buff and goofballs when fighting the topiary golems. If you have Advanced Saucecrafting, the hippy store/produce stand can become an important source of items for stat boosting reagents. See Dressing For Success to maximize your various stats.
  • Fighting Baron Von Ratsworth will grant you his monocle (or other items depending on your Mind Control Device setting), but you will never find him until after you find the faucet, so you may be better off turning it off without beating him, to save adventures.
  • Using Goofballs is a great strategy to get through the tower, however only do it if you know you're going to get through the tower that day. Withdrawal is a Bad Thing™. The Naughty Sorceress used to remove Withdrawal along with your other buffs, but she no longer does this, so be warned. If you end up with withdrawal at the tower, use all-purpose cleaner to remove it, and then a soft green echo eyedrop antidote to remove the resulting Soul-Crushing Headache.
  • The green snowcone is also a very nice way to cut down (or completely avoid) training familiars for the Sorceress' Lair. With Leash of Linguini, Empathy, and Amphibian Sympathy, you have +15lb of familiar, and have to either train up 5 pounds (generally 5-6 adventures per familiar) or spend a pull to get the appropriate familiar equipment for a total of +20). With Green Tongue, no training or pulling is necessary. For those without the snowcone skill, you can get a similar effect with Knob Goblin pet-buffing spray. Other options include the green candy heart (from the skill Summon Candy Hearts) and the half-orchid (obtained from using a Mayflower bouquet as your familiar equipment).
  • If you don't get a green snowcone (or don't have one to pull), you can pull a lead necklace, and then spend only one adventure (or two, if you're unlucky) at the arena for each of your two familiars. The lead weight will also be useful for the familiar you fight the Sorceress with (unless you use an Inflatable Dodecapede, of course). This would save you a pull or two over getting distinct familiar equipment for two or three familiars, at the cost of a couple of turns. If you can get one, a plastic pumpkin bucket or a Mayflower bouquet not only serves as good familiar equipment throughout the run, but will work as familiar equipment at the tower. If you own a plexiglass pith helmet, you can pull that as well.
  • A spreadsheet tool has been put together to help players decide which locations give the best stat gains.
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
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