Spiral Knights - Is this a good plan?

Is this a good plan?

10 replies [Last post]

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 16:57

Darkzerefs-Alt

I have been playing on my friend's account for a couple of months, since I didn't have a laptop of my own. My friend (who has two 5* characters and who I consider to be a pro) has given me heaps of useful advice and tips on the game. Recently, I got a laptop of my own and have just created a new account and did a couple of missions. I have a plan in my head concerning the weapons and gear that I want to buy and upgrade but I don't know if it is a good one or not. Please comment below if you think that there are problems with the plan(bad weapon/gear to buy, wasting cr/ce etc.) and what you would do instead. Oh, and by the way I'm a swords user.

My Plan:
Get Calibur for free from Mission 3-2 Blades of the Fallen
Buy: Wolver Coat, Wolver Cap, Owlite Shield
Upgrade Calibur to Tempered Calibur
Upgrade Wolver Cap, Coat and Owlite Shield to Dusker Cap, Coat and Horned Owlite Shield
Get Brandish for free from Mission 4-1 Advanced Alchemy
Upgrade to Nightblade

Here's a small problem to my plan. I want at least one gun, even if I'm a swords user. Should I:
Plan A: Buy Antigua
Plan B: Buy Pulsar and upgrade to Kilowatt Pulsar
Plan C: Buy Kilowatt Pulsar
Which plan is the cheapest? (in both cr and ce?)

My Plan: (continued)
Upgrade all (Tempered Calibur, Dusker Cap, Coat, Horned Owlite Shield, Nightblade) to their respective 4* version.

The small problem (continued):
Plan A: Upgrade Antigua to Silversix
Plan B: Upgrade Kilowatt Pulsar to Gigawatt Pulsar
Which one (Antigua Series/Pulsar Series) is better?

And here's another problem. I'm interested in the Autogun Series, so should I:
Plan A: Buy Needle Shot and upgrade to Strike Needle
Plan B: Buy Autogun and upgrade to Needle Shot then Strike Needle

And that's it for now. I know I haven't got up to the 5* star bits yet, but for now my goal will be to get to Tier 3. I'll think about 5* weapons and gear after I've made it to Tier 3.

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 17:10

Bopp

one thing

Most of your plan seems good, except for the Calibur. Put off the piercing gun purchase for a while. An elemental gun is a good idea; people fight endlessly over which is better for a sworder's sidearm.

The main reason to use a Calibur (or any normal sword) is that you're using just one sword for all situations. As soon as you're using two swords, you want these to be of two non-normal damage types: piercing and elemental, elemental and shadow, or shadow and piercing. For more information, see my sword guide.

So basically I'm suggesting that you work on three weapons: piercing sword, elemental gun, shadow sword. Even if you carry just two of these at a time.

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 18:17

Halandin

You don't need to buy an

You don't need to buy an antigua or pulsar, that would cost a lot since they have to be unbound. It would be much cheaper to just do Royal Jelly and the Twins to get them with tokens. Also, you can do Snarby to get tokens for buying a snarble barb for a piercing sword, or buy a cheap flourish at the Auction House. A Bristling Buckler would be a good idea too, since then you would have a piercing shield with a sword bonus, which would be good for JK and beast/slime levels.

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 18:28

Kickthebucket

uhm, instead of the antigua

uhm, instead of the antigua get a sealed sword (just one for now to see if you like 2 hit/heavy swords) if so you can eighter upgrade it to a faust (gran faust) or a avenger (divine avenger) but would opt for the GF since i think you'll be doing a lot of royal jelly runs in the future ;) (or go for the nightblade if you like 3 hits) also get an other brandish for a ellemental (in the long run or you need to plan running romulus twins more but doubt it) so like bopp said shadow/piercing sword will get you a long way for now. not realy fond of the calibur since the brandish lines outshine it actualy (used both the brandish and levi against fiends and guess what came out on top? yes the brandish)

for the gun, like bopp also allready said there is a ongoing discusion on the best swordsman side arm. i use the polaris (kilowat) and let me say even in FSC it works fine (seeing ellemental is stong vs undead) the blast is nice to interupt gunpuppy's and knocking lumbers out of the way so you won't get hit over the head (carefull where you aim because random shots can and WILL send lumbers and other monster flying at your teammates -> same as calibur/avenger charges)

as for the needle gun... this is a personal opinion but it's useless 99% of the game, wolvers/devilites will dodge before you even pull the trigger and the only monster(s) in the whole game is vanaduke in his body stage (and trolljans but vana acts like one) so put this on the backside of your list for a long time (when you get to fighting FSC) lot's of people have a needle gun so if you want to get a shivermist instead, you can assist people during vana fights and is overall a realy handy tool to keep large groups in place (crowd controll)

so best thing to do now is farm RJP and IMF for the sealed sword and pulsar both around 5 runs to get (if you have a friend who has the misions unlocked ask them to take you there so you don't have to run the previous lvls and get the tokens faster) for easy money/energy it's all just about wise spending. and remember you can vendor stuff (even stuff that is bound) so when farming RJP for example, if you have the stuff you want from the tokens you can do 2 things ; vendor them or unbind them and sell them for energy/crown (will leave this to you as i don't realy know if there still is a market for boss token items after the easy farming) oh and don't beg (people will start to ignore you, nobody likes beggers) and ask your friends to help (and help other people who in their turn will help you)

sorry for the Wall of text :s

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 22:14

Traevelliath

Rush?

IMO, don't just get ONE armor type and ONE shield type.

It's better to be able to deal with the next challenge, than to get to said challenge a few days earlier. If you rush into new areas without adequate gear, you'll find yourself encountering a lot problems that could of been easily avoided.

I would at least add a Bristling Buckler in there. While going through missions, spend 90 energy to do the Snarbolax mission three times for the Fumious Fang tokens. Each run nets you about 1500 crowns too, while the 90 energy is on mist. The three times should be enough for the Bristling Buckler (Each run gets you 3 tokens, and the first time you finish the mission you get an additional token as a reward). Keep farming Snarbolax when you, inevitably, hit the speed-bump that is buying CE for 3* gear.

Unless you are paying real money to buy CE. If you are, I normally suggest one of these two things:
If I want to be greedy: Feel free to casually sell that CE into crowns
If I want to be helpful: Save that CE! Resist all temptation to sell it for crowns. Late-game crafting costs are MASSIVE and require all the CE you can spare

The problem with the Bristling Buckler is that it's a boss item, and by extension, the recipes are expensive in the AH. Feel free to do some Arcade Runs and recipe runs for extra crowns. Find the recipes that upgrade boss items, and sell them at the AH for about 40% profit.

The Bristling Buckler will really help you hack-and-slash around the Royal Jelly Palace. Upgrading from 3* to 4* takes a LOT of crowns, so you will have time to farm both the Royal Jelly Palace and the Ironclaw Munitions Factory. Do a few IMF runs so you can get a Pulsar, in addition to RJP runs for the Antigua. The Jellies give more crowns per run though, so that should be your main focus (unless you are weird, like me, and prefer the IMF over the RJP). Try them both out a bit, and see which style you like better. Remember that the Antigua wont be doing a lot of damage against Jellies and Constructs, which are found in the RJP and IMF (respectively), so you may want to do a few missions with them to see how you like them.

As a general rule of thumb, the Pulsar line is big flashy, and has massive knockback. Its perfect for choke points and keeping large swarms away. However, it lacks significant damage and is INCREDIBLY annoying for allied Swordsmen who are aiming for the same target(s). The Antigua has tons of shots before reloading, low damage per shot and fast projectiles. You are quite mobile while using the Antigua, and you spend less time reloading. The Antigua works best when used in concert with a sword, firing off a few shots every now and then.

I love the Antigua -> Argent Peacemaker more than my Pulsar -> Kilowatt Pulsar -> Polaris. I use it all the time in FSC, mainly to stop zombies from using their breath attack, but also while trying to lure Zombies away from totems and getting Slag Guard's aggro, so they do not interrupt the Shiver/Blitzers.

I do suggest buying the Needle Gun and upgrading it to Strike Needle before your first FSC run. It helped me so much, and you will actually be useful to your team in the Vanaduke boss fight. The Autogun line is so popular, that several people make Needle Guns to sell at a higher profit, driving the overall price of Needle Guns down to just about, if not slightly less than crafting them.

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 22:18

Darkzerefs-Alt

So, are these changes good enough?

So, instead of the Calibur Series I'll be going for the Flourish Series. For a shield, which is better: Owlite Series or Bristling Buckler? I've also decided to ignore the Autogun Series for now, but the rest of my plan will still be the same. Is this good enough?

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 22:23

Darkzerefs-Alt

RE: Traevelliath

Ok, so now I've decided to get BOTH the Owlite and Bristling Buckler Series, but I still can't make up my mind about getting the Autogun Series. Should I go for it?

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 22:27

Traevelliath

Both?

Owlite or Bristling Buckler?

That's like asking "What's more useful, a screw driver or a hammer?" They are used for completely different things. Get both, because you will use both A LOT.

And yeah, you can ignore the Autogun series for a while. Firestorm Citadel is a long ways away. It isn't required for FSC too, it's just that people will wuve u moar if you have a Strike Needle at least.

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 05:34

Bopp

both are great

Grey Owlite Shield is probably the most popular elemental shield. Barbarous Thorn Shield is the most popular piercing shield for sworders. In both cases, the popularity is deserved. I agree that you'll want to get both. Maybe get Grey Owlite Shield first, so that you can take a little more damage from fields of gun puppies, Firestorm Citadel traps, etc. Or, if you plan on running RJP a lot, and you currently have trouble surviving RJP, then get Barbarous Thorn Shield first.

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 06:53

Derpules

@Bopp

"Grey Owlite Shield is probably the most popular elemental shield."

Probably, huh? Sure is a close fight between it and the Heater Shield. ;) I think I may actually have seen a Darkfang Shield in Haven more often than I've seen a Heater.

@Traevelliath: "IMO, don't just get ONE armor type and ONE shield type."

Well, right now the OP is T1. S/he can use anything there. Then it'll be off to T2, where the end goal is really JK, and there's no pure damage in that tier anyway.

In this situation, s/he really could (and should) just go Dusker --> Ash Tail. S/he can worry about getting ele and shadow defence later. I really don't think specialised def is necessary until T3.

@Rothenwar: Just one note on Wolver: if you have friends who're willing to lend you the crowns, just go straight for Dusker. Buy it pre-made on the AH; it's actually cheaper, when all costs are factored in, than buying (or crafting) Wolver and then crafting it up to Dusker.

Thu, 04/12/2012 - 00:19

#10

Darkzerefs-Alt

This is Rothenwar/Molten-Knight's friend on his account

Thank you! :) (for saying that you consider me to be a pro)
And also why don't you just ask me for advice, now that I have to use your computer? (By some sheer coincidence my computer broke right after Rothenwar/Molten-Knight got his new laptop :()

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Is this a good plan?