Combat Style
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The Hermit humbly requests that this page be rewritten or expanded.
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Welcome intrepid soul! This article is intended as a place to collect useful ways of efficiently completing combat adventures. The changes that accompanied NS13 have eroded the dominance of strategies that use permanent combat skills like Lunging Thrust-Smack for Moxie and Mysticality classes.
This page is specifically not intended for such strategies, but rather for collecting ways that individual classes are "meant" to fight, using their own class skills and strengths, and the (relatively) accessible items they find around them. MacGyver fighting. Ideally, these strategies should be attainable by a brand new character, or in a Bad Moon ascension. That said, any useful combat strategy is welcome, but this article is not aimed at the person with two dozen ascensions under their belt, because such a person most likely does not need advice. The audience of this page is the new player, or the person playing a specific class for the first time. Now then...
Basic Combat Styles
The Path of Boris -- Muscle
Muscle has four features: it determines accuracy of melee attacks, it boosts attack damage, it increases maximum HP, and it determines which melee weapons and shields you can equip. Boris teaches us that HP allows you to survive the attacks of your opponent, but defeating them quickly allows you to control that damage. True disciples of Boris should maximize their damage with powerful Melee Weapons, and enchantments giving additional Muscle and Bonus Weapon Damage. Use your HP like a gas tank, and try to make it last several fights. Rely on your shield, hat, and pants to further limit damage, and refill when necessary with the incredible healing powers of Medicinal Herb's medicinal herbs available from The Smacketeria. Ben-Gal™ Balm is available from The Market and is always good for a quick, cheap boost to your Muscle.
The highest perfection of The Path of Boris is to hit so hard that you defeat the enemy in a single blow, giving them only one opportunity to attack you. You can eliminate even this chance by boosting your Combat Initiative, which raises the chances of you hitting your enemy first. In the words of Boris, "One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest victory. Killing your opponent before he gets to attack you by maxing out your Melee Damage and Initiative is the highest victory."
Prioritize:
- Enough Muscle to hit your target reliably.
- Then high-power weapons and anything with bonus melee damage.
- Finally, defensive power or combat initiative, whichever lets you take less damage.
- Consider using a one-handed weapon with a shield for Damage Reduction.
The Way of Sneaky Pete -- Moxie
Moxie boosts both your chance to dodge attacks, and your defense against them if you are hit. It also determines accuracy with ranged weapons. Sneaky Pete values Moxie above all else because it allows both accuracy and evasiveness. Who needs balance when you can get offense and defense in one stat?
Always use a ranged weapon. In your equipment look for Moxie boosts and Bonus damage more than weapon power. You can completely neglect defense power and HP to satisfy these needs. If you need more Moxie, the Market Demon in the Market Square sells cans of hair spray, which will give you a 15% boost. This strategy may be refered to as plinking.
The ultimate goal of Sneaky Pete is perfect evasion. Using the tables in Safe Adventuring, boost your Moxie until you are "safe." You will still be hit by the occasional critical hit, but remain stalwart. Damage may not be high, but by dodging almost all attacks you can methodically wear your opponent down while they can do little to retaliate. Even bosses will fall to this method if your heart remains truly Moxious. Heed the advice of Sneaky Pete, "If you know your enemies' safe evasion limit and know your own Moxie, you will win a hundred times in a hundred battles."
Prioritize:
- Moxie! Boost Moxie to get past the limit for Safe Adventuring.
- No seriously, Moxie. At the expense of anything else. Seriously.
- A ranged weapon, and any bonus melee or elemental damage you can scrounge up.
- Elemental items or skills like Chronic Indigestion may be needed to deal with physically immune monsters.
Skill Based -- The Arcane and Mysterious Esotericism of Jarlsberg
Jarlsberg has shown us that Mysticality plays no direct role in combat. Rather, it determines MP which in turn fuels skills. Skill-based combat is the combat style preferred by Mysticality classes, as well as those who have completed a number of Ascensions. It generally consists of using skills that will always hit the Monster, such as Shieldbutt or any of the Mysticality spells. The advantage of this is that the character's stats in relation to the Monster's are largely irrelevant, allowing the player to adventure at any area he or she has access to. However, skills are expensive to acquire, and they require the expenditure of MP, which can be expensive to refill. In addition, two major bosses can block combat skills, leaving these characters at a disadvantage.
Skills not only deal direct damage, they can also be put to more subtle use. Skills like Entangling Noodles can prevent the enemy from attacking, while skills like Jalapeño Saucesphere heal damage even as you attack. The Way of Jarlsberg is to use these skills strategically to get an edge on your attacker.
Prioritize:
- Seriously, you'll just have to look below in the specific class information. There are no short cuts here.
- Any method of reducing skill MP cost, or MP regeneration. Failing that, a way of making enough Meat to pay for MP Restorers.
Sustainability
The beginning and ending of all styles of combat is sustainability. That is, gaining enough Meat per adventure to (at least) cover any healing or MP recovery items you might need. While it may be worthwhile to operate at a loss temporarily in order to get certain items or complete a quest, ordinary leveling should be done where you can adventure comfortably. It is far less efficient to adventure at the hardest area you have access to, than to fight in a slightly easier area that allows you to control the damage you take. If you use all your Meat up on healing, you can't afford new class skills and equipment. Even worse, turns spent sleeping at your Campsite or Beaten Up are turns wasted. This is true even if you fall behind on your quests. If you can't beat the Goblin King right now, just move on. You can always come back in 20 adventures. Or 40.
There are a number of MP Restorers that you can equip, or take with you in the right choice of a familiar. Consider spending your adventures in a schizophrenic fashion -- adventure in areas where you can survive and are places you need to be for quests and item drops, for as long as you comfortably can, then switch. Take a MP restoring familiar (see Familiars by type such as the easy to get Howling Balloon Monkey, and put on restoring equipment such as chef's hat and pat-a-cake pendant, then spend some adventures in safe areas to restore your MP battery. Do note that under your Equipment tab, you can save outfits, so you could create an outfit with your best gear, and an outfit with your MP restoring gear, and toggle back and forth as you need.
Class-Specific
Lunging Thrust-Smack + Eye of the Stoat provides a bonus to hit, which is increased for a Seal Clubber. In addition, the Lunging Thrust-Smack provides triple damage from the main weapon. Skills such as Claws of the Walrus, Claws of the Otter, Snarl of the Timberwolf, and Rage of the Reindeer provide a melee damage bonus, which can make attacks quite lethal (Rage also boosts Muscle). Double-Fisted Skull Smashing allows two one-handed weapons to be used, which can also increase the damage. Pulverize also provides a source of Muscle and damage-boosting enchantments from wads. Altogether, the Seal Clubber provides an opportunity to max out the damage done with each melee attack.
Seal Clubbers are an offense-oriented physical damage class. As such, they are expected to dish out damage while taking some, but a ferocious thrust-smack to start off combat may end the fight before your opponent gets a chance to swing. Consider equipment and skills that boost your Combat Initiative; as a Seal Clubber, you are capable of meatsmithing a Super Magic Power Sword X, which is a great way to both get initiative and dish out damage. Once you have the drop on your foes, hit them hard. Increasing your Critical Hit Chance is a great way to end combat in one round. Also smithable by you is Spirit Precipice, which hits very hard. Since your hit chance is based on your Muscle stat, be on the look out for equipment that boosts that stat, so that you don't end up missing attacks.
Invariably, you will take damage. Seal Clubbers are... well, let's face it, dumb, and their MP pool will be too low to sustain the cost of using your thrust-smacks and self-healing skills such as Tongue of the Otter and Tongue of the Walrus. Be sure to read the section above on sustainability, as a Seal Clubber without enough oomph to lift his club is a sad thing. Also be aware that once you gain access to The Smacketeria, you can purchase Medicinal Herb's medicinal herbs to fully top off your HP.
- As a seal pup clubber: Be careful not to get too big for your mighty britches. Seal Clubbers do not earn meat very effectively, and with all the healing you'll be paying for, it's tough to avoid becoming one of those meatless bums you beat up in The Sleazy Back Alley. Try to acquire items that help you get tougher so that when monsters start fighting back, you'll have some reasonable defense against them. Good choices to look for as you smack through the early levels: asshat, clownskin belt, white whip and of course your epic weapon, Hammer of Smiting. Strongly consider hanging onto your first can of Spooky-Gro fertilizer so that you can make a Ghuol Whelp familiar, if you don't already have one.
- They're defending themselves somehow!: Right around level 7 or so, the monsters you'll be fighting will be able to hit you, and for significant amounts of damage, too. While you can take this for a little bit, the cost of restoring your HP and MP are bleeding your meat supply to the bone. Try to bounce back and forth between hard areas you need to adventure in, such as the cyrpts or Deep Fat Friar's Gate, and easier areas that have useful items or meat to pick up. This strategy can also let you handle short bursts in stat-rich areas, such as the Haunted Gallery or Barrrney's Barrr.
- Girl, you're be a wereseal, soon: Once you pick up equipment with enough crit, combat initiative, and Muscle, you should be laying waste to combats with one or two good smacks, and you'll need to rely much less on hitting weaker areas with regen familiars/equipment. It's a good idea, once you have enough Muscle to equip all your gear, to begin focusing on building your Moxie to reduce damage you take further. By the time you get to the battlefield, you should be alright to crush hippies and frat orcs while taking a few scrapes and scratches between skull thumpings.
The Turtle Tamer's "-butt" skills provide an excellent way to both connect with the Monster and deal it significant damage. The Headbutt adds power based on your hat, with bonus power added if it's a helmet turtle-based hat. Kneebutt does something similar, except for pants. Additionally, it provides a bonus to hit (believed to be about 20 Muscle), and has about a 45% chance of stunning your opponent. Shieldbutt does something similar with your shield. It always hits, and additionally delevels your opponent. It should be noted that Tao of the Terrapin doubles the power of hats and pants, which is taken into account when using the appropriate "-butt" skill.
These three skills can also be combined into a "Combo." If playing as a Turtle Tamer, if you have more than one of the "-butt" skills, you can use two (or even three) of them at the same time by adding up their total MP costs and adding one. The highest of the combat modifiers amongst them is the one that is used (so any combo with Shieldbutt will always hit, and a Head/Knee combo will have the +20 Muscle to hit). This can provide a devastating attack wherein the Turtle Tamer attacks (always hitting), Headbutts for additional damage, Kneebutts for even more additional damage and the chance of stunning, and finally Shieldbutts for even more additional damage and some deleveling. Though this is fairly MP-intensive (13 MP per attack), it will make short work of even the highest-level Monsters, and with a little luck, stun them with the Kneebutt repeatedly, preventing them from retaliating.
Turtling
True to their name, the Turtle Tamer also excels at defense. They have three different skills (Tao of the Terrapin, Ghostly Shell, and Astral Shell) that increase their Damage Absorption. Astral Shell also increases Elemental Resistance. Skin of the Leatherback increases Damage Reduction. And Hero of the Half-Shell changes it so that Muscle is used instead of Moxie to determine how much damage is received from attacks (though it does not change the monster's chance of hitting you). Armorcraftiness allows earlier access to high-power hats, pants, and shields, that also can boost Muscle, HP, MP regeneration, or combat initiative. A combination of these skills can allow a Turtle Tamer to adventure even at high-level zones without (much) fear of dying, since the damage dealt to him/her will be so little.
Combat Familiars
The Turtle Tamer has two skills that increase the weight of their familiars: Empathy of the Newt and Amphibian Sympathy. These two skills make using a familiar for combat more of an option. A familiar with the properties of a Star Starfish is a good choice, as it restores MP to fuel "-butt" combos. A familiar with the properties of a Ghuol Whelp restores both HP and MP, which can be useful for a Turtling strategy (though Ghuols don't attack). An NPZR restores HP and MP and also attacks, stuns, and delevels. Any of the elemental Baby Gravy Fairies (Flaming Gravy Fairy, Frozen Gravy Fairy, Stinky Gravy Fairy, Spooky Gravy Fairy, Sleazy Gravy Fairy) can be used to attack and increase item drops. They also can be chosen to deal double damage against elementally weak enemies you are fighting.
Pastamancers are the more defensive spell caster class than the Sauceror is; as such they are not capable of the sheer damage output as their fellow chef-magi, but they are much sturdier. In addition to the 50% HP bonus that being a PM naturally provides, they have access to Spirit of Ravioli for 25% more, Lasagna Bandages which can heal in and out of combat, and Cannelloni Cocoon which heals all HP outside of combat. They also excel at getting combat initiative with Springy Fusilli and using that advantage to disable monsters with the powerful Entangling Noodles. From that point on, it's a matter of tearing down your foes with the array of attack spells available to these casters.
Pastamancers are less versatile in their ability to get by being a pure spell slinger than Saucerors, so you may be forced to adapt a hybrid approach to combat tactics. Notably, they are not particularly MP efficient, so without gear or familiars that helps replenish MP, you may be forced to ration out spells. Very often, entangling noodles, plus a single cast of an efficient damage spell can be followed up by a cheap barrage of Ravioli Shurikens or melee attacks. Items like War tongs or 5-ball confer damage to both spells and melee attacks, which may be a smart way to allow for the effective use of both as needed; look for initiative boosting equipment such as Chopsticks as another strategy to get the drop on foes. While they cannot do it for every fight of the day, Pastamancers benefit greatly from Summonable Pastamancer Combat Entities, which requires them to get initiative to summon.
As their MP catches up to their HP, meleeing won't be an option for Pastamancers, as their puny caster muscles won't make it any easier to hit tougher foes. Fortunately, you'll have access to Chefstaves and can really power up your noodle based arsenal.
- In the Beginning: In the beginning was the word, and the word... wait, nevermind. In the beginning, a Pastamancer will not be very strong. You may be reduced to melee combat as your most effective way of defeating enemies. Entangling Noodles can be of some use defensively, and you'll most likely be using it a lot later on. Buy it if you have 800 Meat. Cast it any time you get the drop on an enemy you can't kill in one hit, and it will prevent them from attacking you for at least two turns. If/when you decide you want to try spells, the shiny butcherknife can be gained fairly easily, and is one of the best early spell boosters. You'll also want a spellbook, but it's a choice between the kickback cookbook and Codex of Capsaicin Conjuration. The cookbook will be generally more powerful. The Codex will be somewhat weaker, and positively useless during Level 6, but it can dominate Levels 7 & 8. The cookbook is probably your best bet early on. If you get the chance to pick up a free spellbook in The Haunted Library, the Cookbook of the Damned is probably the best option.
- Springy Fusilli + Entangling Noodles: This combo is the Pastamancer's prime method of defense. You may as well learn to love it. Buy Springy Fusilli when you can, and keep it up full-time, and use Entangling Noodles on the first turn of every combat. With this combo you can reliably avoid the first two attacks of your opponent. Gear your spells to kill in this timeframe and save a fortune on healing. It is especially useful from the Giants' Castle onward. In particular, casting Entangling Noodles and then Cannelloni Cannon twice costs less than one casting of Stuffed Mortar Shell, while usually doing more damage. This will squeeze more life out of your lower-end spells, saving you Meat and MP.
- An Elementalist is You! Unlike the Sauceror, the Pastamancer's spells automatically avoid using the element an elemental monster resists. Your spell will be of one of the five remaining types (physical is considered a type for Pasta spells). This gives you a 3:5 chance of hitting for normal damage, and a 2:5 chance of hitting hitting for double damage. It's your choice as to whether this is enough, or if you want to go for the elemental spellbooks. Hot damage is the most generally useful as there are lots of Spooky monsters in the game, and only one place has any real number of monsters who would resist. You'll probably want a Gazpacho's Glacial Grimoire later on for the Level 12 Quest and possibly for The Hole in the Sky.
- Early On: Before you get many skills, the Sauceror is basically a weak Muscle class. Even if you have some of the weaker spells, without Bonus Spell Damage you may find that melee attacks actually do more damage. Saucy Salve can help out a lot here. It heals 10-15 HP in combat, and the first time it's used, your opponent doesn't get a chance to act that turn. It's a great way to increase your longevity, and get some use out of your MP early on when you're forced to trade blows. Try to keep your HP topped off. You'll more than make back the 800 Meat cost in not buying as many healing items. Repeated use in a single combat is not advised as subsequent attempts have less of a chance of blocking your opponent's turn. You'll still be weak during this part. Be patient and methodical, little duckling, and eventually you will blossom into a beautiful swan. Or whatever. If you really want to make a stab at using spells, the shiny butcherknife can be of help.
- Melee Saucecrafting: Advanced Saucecrafting is unquestionably the best skill the Sauceror has at its disposal. Get it as quickly as possible once you reach Level 5. Make some tomato juice of powerful power and philter of phorce and you can fight as well as or better than Muscle classes. For a reliable source of ingredients, unlock The Hippy Store. Just use your 17-alarm Saucepan if you made it, and maybe the Crown of the Goblin King and you can melee almost anything. This method can handle everything up to the The Bonerdagon -- possibly beyond, but eventually your low base Muscle will make it difficult to keep up-to-date on weapons. You can also boost Moxie and go with a ranged weapon if that's your thing. Once you can make potions, you should almost always have at least one up.
- Rudimentary Sauce-Slinging: The damage of sauce spells tend to be unimpressive until you acquire some items with Bonus Spell Damage. If, however, you can get hold of the 17-alarm Saucepan and a Codex of Capsaicin Conjuration, the combo will let you get down to the business of antagonist annihilation. Hot spells won't do you much good during the Level 6 Deep Fat Friars' Gate Quest, so you'll have to find another way. But they'll positively devastate the Spooky monsters of the Level 7 Undefile the Cyrpt Quest. Stream of Sauce will let you two-hit most everything there, and Saucestorm will clean house. Or at least clean Cyrpt. Hot spells can dominate again at the Lair of the Ninja Snowmen and the Icy Peak in Level 8, and against various Spooky monsters found thereafter. There is little compelling reason to change your spells over to Cold until Level 12, unless you feel you are doing too much damage. Boosting your Moxie with serum of sarcasm and tomato juice of powerful power can provide particularly good defenses, allowing you to two-hit or three-hit monsters with impunity. Your weaker spells can last you a long time this way, and they're more MP-efficient than the higher-level spells. Saucestorm can probably last you until Level 10.
- Jalapeño Saucesphere: Jalapeño Saucesphere returns the MP you spend back as HP. Once you get to Level 10, and begin using spells like Wave of Sauce regularly, you should keep this up constantly. It's cheap to cast, and it can counteract, or even completely negate, any damage the enemy can do to you, eliminating almost all need of conventional healing. This can be particularly helpful in places like the Giants' Castle where no monsters have elemental weaknesses and you just have to slog your way through.
- Wave of Sauce + Wave of Sauce/Saucegeyser: When you exceed +25 Bonus Spell Damage while casting Wave of Sauce, you will gain the effect Burning Soul or Soul Freeze depending on whether the spell was hot or cold. This effect returns 1/3 of the damaged done by the next spell of that element as MP (capped at 40). Follow this up by another Wave of Sauce or a Saucegeyser to gain back as much MP as possible. Using a spellbook to always cast the same elemental type, and Jalapeño Saucesphere to regain HP, you can cast this combination nearly free of cost, while effectively taking little or no damage. If you also use Jabañero Saucesphere and a chefstaff such as the Staff of the Greasefire, it is possible to make back more MP you spend per adventure. This strategy can be so effective that you may intentionally not use the element an opponent is weak to, in order to not kill it in the first turn.
- You may find baconstone pendants, blackberry slippers, enchanted toothpicks, 17-alarm Saucepans, chefstaves, and Intrinsic Spiciness useful in exceeding the cap. Bonus to spell % will not trigger the overflow effect.
The advantages that the Disco Bandit has for Moxie-style play are Ambidextrous Funkslinging, which allows the use of two combat items per combat round, and the Disco Dance moves (Disco Eye-Poke, Disco Dance of Doom, Disco Dance II: Electric Boogaloo, Disco Face Stab, and Tango of Terror), which each automatically hit, deal some damage, and delevel the enemy. Any of these can be used to delevel the opponent quickly at the beginning of a fight, and then Combat Items or ranged weapons can finish the opponent off. Also, the Disco Banjo and Shagadelic Disco Banjo increase the damage Disco Bandit combat skills do. In addition, Disco Combos can allow for beneficial damaging effects to speed the combat process along, and Disco Fever turns ranged weapons into a force with which to be reckoned.
Disco Bandits excel at staying out of monster attacks while softening their defenses and plinking them down. They are not a damage-dealing powerhouse, but are among the safest adventurers. Boost your Moxie as high as possible to raise your defense, and if needed, equip a shield so that when attacks do land, they do minimal damage. The biggest challenge young bandits have is overconfidence; after a steady boogie against monsters who cannot touch your funky self, you may find yourself cavorting against tougher monsters due to thinking you can handle them. Finding the balance between "Can't touch this" and being tossed into a mosh pit is tricky but doable. Pay close attention to Safe Adventuring and adjust Monster Level as you can to stay on the edge and cut footloose.
When you're right on the bleeding edge, use disco attacks and equipment to delevel your enemy. You might also find curdflinger to be of exceptional use. Disco bandits spend more time gazing in the mirror than looking over dull and dusty books, so your lack of MP is a problem; see Sustainability above for some strategies. Specifically to a disco bandit, a grass whistle is a particularly choice way to deal ranged damage while restoring your MP. If your Moxie is high enough, you can also unleash a Moxious Maneuver with any non-ranged weapon for an improved chance of hitting, though this gets costly; consider using it with 7-Foot Dwarven mattock or Drowsy Sword to hamstring a particularly aggressive slam dancer.
Advanced Combo Strategies
Bonus Damage Method: Boost your Moxie up to the highest you can, then equip a ranged weapon. Try to wear equipment that gives Bonus Weapon Damage or Bonus Ranged Damage (ranged weapons with these bonuses, such as happiness, are good choices), then prioritize Moxie boosting or Combat Initiative. Elemental damage is also quite useful; The Ring and its counterparts deal 40 damage each. Get Disco Fever too, as this boosts the damage done by ranged weapons. If you can't hit your opponent at first, use a develing skill such as Disco Face Stab and try again. Repeat the process until you can hit the monster. If you are doing low damage in comparison with the monster's HP, it may be a good idea to use deleveling skills, items, and familiars as this will allow you to do more damage.
Starfish + Disco Nap + Cleesh + GHD Method: This is useful for players level 10 and not on their first run. Get a Star Starfish as your familiar. Train Disco Nap and/or Disco Power Nap. Complete Going Postal to get a Gnomitronic Hyperspatial Demodulizer. Finish the Strange Leaflet Quest to get CLEESH. Use ranged weapons, like a fire poi or star crossbow. Now every 5 turns, use CLEESH then GHD to boost Moxie. The starfish will keep your MP near max so when needed use Disco Nap or Disco Power Nap to keep your HP up. If you are Boozetafarian or under The Blender, use a Spanish fly trap and a one-handed ranged weapon like a beer bong, and you're ready for the Around the World Quest. Get Liver of Steel and consume more booze! This setup can sustain adventures indefinitely in dangerous areas without incurring either cost or use of items for healing.
- Discordian Moxie Evasion Method: Using the tables in Safe Adventuring, boost your Moxie until you are "safe." Buy Moxious Madrigal from your guild as soon as you have 200 Meat. It will boost your evasion, accuracy, and defense. Keep it up constantly. Always use a ranged weapon. In your equipment look for Moxie boosts and added damage more than weapon power. You can completely neglect defense power and HP increasers to satisfy these needs. If you need more Moxie, the Market Demon in the Market Square sells cans of hair spray, which will boost your Moxie by 15%. Later on, the Stevedave's Shanty of Superiority can further boost your Moxie (and other stats) by 10%. With this strategy you may kill slowly, but you will kill without taking much damage. This method is so useful, you should have few/no problems until you reach the Naughty Sorceress who will cancel your buffs, making her considerably harder. Level up and focus on equipment to get Moxie near to, or above, 207.
- Useful and Cheap Equipment: Sneaky Pete's breath spray, tap shoes, chintzy accordion pin.
- Squeezebox of the Ages: The Squeezebox of the Ages, the Accordion Thief's Legendary Epic Weapon, boosts Moxie and has great bonus damage. You can get it around Level 4, and there is no reason not to use it, unless you are looking for a challenge. It can easily last you until the Level 12 quest, during which you can find a few more powerful ranged weapons. Even then, its top-of-the-line Moxie boost prevents it from ever being truly obsolete.
- Sneak into the Stores: At Level 9 Accordion Thieves gain access to the guild stores of the Chef-magi and the Brotherhood of the Smackdown, giving them access to cheap healing from medicinal herbs, and cheap MP recovery from magical mystery juice. These items are superior to almost all other options, unless you have access to the Mall.
- There are Accordion Buffs aside from Moxious Madrigal?: Ordinarily, only three songs can be active at a time. Jackasses' Symphony of Destruction can increase your damage, Brawnee's Anthem of Absorption reduces damage taken, Fat Leon's Phat Loot Lyric increases item drops, and Polka of Plenty increases Meat drops. Use these skills to cover your weaknesses and fine-tune your combats. Later on, Aloysius' Antiphon of Aptitude can be used to increase stat gains, and get you those last few levels you need to challenge the Sorceress. Be careful though -- it can get expensive.
What to do after you "win"
So you've managed to defeat the Naughty Sorceress and free the king, and all you got was this lousy T-shirt. Oh wait, you didn't get a T-shirt, and even if you did, you can't wear shirts because... well, you probably didn't know there were shirts or torsos to be aware of. Surprise! KoL, like many RPGs, encourages you to play the game again with a different experience. However, unlike your typical experience, you don't leave your current character at max level while starting an alt... you ascend your current character and start over as one of the other classes.
There are Ascension Rewards to earn for coming back as a new character, and you can take one of your skills with you, making it a permanent skill. So you could be a Seal Clubber with a Disco Bandit dance move, or a Turtle Tamer with a talent for cooking with noodles. Consider the kinds of abilities you wish you had on your first run, and take a look at Hardcore Skill Analysis (by type) to figure out what you want to become next.
