Spiral Knights - Kurapika's Guide To Success. From Start to Finish!

Kurapika's Guide To Success. From Start to Finish!

4 replies [Last post]

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 18:11

Kurapika

Hello to all you new recruits out there! As you may know, Spiral Knights is a fun and varied game! I noticed that getting started on the path to five star equipment is quite diverse, and many people just throw themselves at it and regret their choices later. This guide is here to help those who are new and also to help with their early gear choices! It will show you techniques and give you an overall knowledge on how to make crowns faster.

First off, this guide is for people who favor using swords, and the gear choices listed should not be implemented if you are going full bomber or gunner.

Once you arrive at Haven in your Proto Gear you should enter a gate and start earning crowns (Snarbolax runs in tier 1 are the most profitable, plus you can earn tokens by defeating Snarby which can be traded in for gear). Mist Energy (or ME) recharges a full 100 in 22 hours. You will earn about 1kcr from running Snarbolax, so that is 1k per day for an estimated 70-80 energy for a full run.

After each run you should stroll on down to the Auction House and check best buyout prices for the materials you have earned (there is a button in the top right once you enter the AH business screen that allows you to select the mode that shows you the best bid price/buyout price/ by number etc). Note that certain materials do not sell well at all and should just be held onto and not sold on the Auction House. Examples include: Ecto Drop, Gel Drop, Light Shards, Gel Cores, Brute Cores, Nightshade and plenty others. Many materials such as Monster Bones, Drake Scales, Unstable Cores, Green Shards, and Force Dynamos are harder to obtain in runs but sell for a good profit. Once you have a good idea of what your materials are worth, price them for about 5 crowns lower than the best buyout and watch as they are bought up!

On to your first gear choices!

Once you have saved up about 2k crowns, get a Calibur. Caliburs have a very powerful charge attack that can hit multiple times on a single enemy. They deal normal damage, but have a decent damage output, thus making these swords an ideal and economical choice for newer players. They also go all the way up to five star quite cheap because you can acquire the recipes from Kozma in the Bazaar. The alchemy path for this weapon can be found here. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Calibur

For your second weapon you should choose a either a Freezing Vaporizer (Two star ice bomb), or an Autogun. For those who do not like standing still penalty for firing and Autogun they should go with the bomb.

Pros of the Freezing Vaporizer include: Long freeze time, five star alchemy path, a way to freeze enemies and attack from behind, and a bomb that becomes WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD at its five star version.

Cons include: harder to use when starting out, very small radius as a two star and three star bomb, it is not a bomb that deals out alot of damage (but it can if you use it properly combined with sword attack), it takes a good player to make a good Shivermister (a Shivermister is a person in Tier3 who wields the five star version of Freezing Vaporizer in boss levels like Vanaduke).

The alchemy path can be found here. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Freezing_Vaporizer

On to the Autogun!

Pros include high damage,

(Note: I will finish this guide in about two days time when the wiki comes back online. Please check back later!)

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 18:58

Trying

The wiki is online

Fri, 12/16/2011 - 04:47

Kurapika

o_o

Well, with that said Try, I will finish the guide when the wiki bounces back from its maintenance downtime.

Fri, 12/16/2011 - 11:44

Kreuz-Drache

Nah, it still works. The

Nah, it still works.

The link button thingy doesn't have the complete link to it. You have to add the slash(/) to it.

wiki.spiralknights.com/

^Try that.

EDIT: This works too.

http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Main_Page

EDIT 2:

Meh, I wouldn't recommend Autogun lines. That standing still can really put a dent when trying to kite. I personally would recommend getting an elemental gun, like the Alchemers. Not saying the Autogun is bad, but I wouldn't recommend it as a players' first gun.

I would recommend looking to the brandish lines too. Being able to have access to your choice of elemental damage or shadow damage(Depends on what you craft to.) is pretty bombin, especially considering the elemental brandishes can give out status conditions and the shadow damage from the Nightblade can go very nicely for Royal Jelly runs(Since Jellies are weak to Shadow damage. )

Fri, 12/16/2011 - 12:12

Mohandar

/me waves to Kurapika

Gunning is an under-appreciated part of SK. The main issue is early on, there are no armors supporting gunners (unlike wolver gear). Secondary is the fact that the alchemers don't become really good until 4*, when there are actually enough ricochets to do some serious damage. The alchemers (Storm, Nova, Umbra), along with the Biohazard and Callahan will be the mainstays of a gunner build. (Blitz Needle and Polaris are special gear for dealing with turrets or Trojans/Vanaduke). Lastly, there are no gunner shields, and the gunner armor give low damage boosts and few useful resists (no freeze, shock, fire). A last point of contention is that as the party size increases and monster HP scales up, it gets harder and harder to dispatch monsters, particularly in confined spaces where previously you would have been able to clear out a few mobs to make some space. Put it all together, and gunners are at a large disadvantage, both starting out and endgame.

That said, this is a very fun build that I call Recon style, after the Lockdown class:
Ash of Agni, Umbra, Storm drivers (4th slot for additional gun, or backup sword like Leviathan)
Very High or better bomb CTR, gun ASI, Medium or better gun damage. (Use Swiftstrike, Nameless/Justifier, weapon modules and UVs if you have any)
In solo mode, when monster HP is low, you can light them up with Ash, let them burn for a second or two and they will go down with one or two hits from the appropriate gun. On fire-themed floors, you can sub Shivermist or Voltaic Tempest. In a team, monsters will be too tough to eliminate in this fashion, but by weakening them with status and constant gunfire, you become a powerful supporting force (the swordsmen in your party will be able to cut down the softened monsters with ease)

For the starting player, I would recommend the lower star versions of said gear. Bring a bomb and a the appropriate gun, more if you have a weapon slot, but at this point it is doubtful you will. It'll take longer because of lower damage and ASI/CTR bonuses, but it will play almost exactly the same. The style is very much about keeping in constant motion, plunking bombs or shooting while on the run.

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Kurapika's Guide To Success. From Start to Finish!