I'd like to keep it to just the Ash of Agni, as I'm not sure about other bombs' DPS in comparison to it. I was thinking of allowing the Voltaic Tempest as well, as the shock would pulse less, but possibly for more damage against the constructs. But I'm sure one would dominate if a DPS difference was found in entry times, and people who submitted the other (particularly if it was the Ash of Agni) would feel shammed. And the entire reason I started killing bosses using only an Ash of Agni was because of the love I developed for the bomb as I was crafting it, and I wanted to prove its effectiveness and test its limits. So to keep things simple, I'm going to limit the contest to just that particular bomb.

Though I'm not sure on allowing, say, a four-star Fiery Atomizer as well. The four- and five- star versions both cause minor fire, so the DPS shouldn't be too much different, but then I feel like I should offer some kind of bonus prize to someone doing it with a sizeable disadvantage. Which then complicates which entries I deliver the prize to. Just ones that make it into the top three? The top four-star bomb user in general? Would that encourage people to use a four-star bomb to try to win a prize that would have less competitors? What would that prize be, anyway? It complicates things, so I cut it out, but if there are a good number of people wanting to use lesser fire bombs, I might retool prizes to include them as well, we'll see.

I think what I'll do for four-star bomb people is make third place worth 100k instead, and give the crest to the person with the top time using a 2-4* bomb in addition to any prizes they'd get normally. So if you were using a Fiery Atomizer and won third place, you'd get 100k, but also the crest for doing so with a four-star bomb. And even if you didn't place, if you were the fastest time with such a bomb, you'd still get the crest for your efforts. I'll edit that into the edit section in the main post.

That should also help people who don't want to spend a week and a half getting an Ash of Agni just for this contest. The deadline's not for another four weeks, so there should be plenty of time to craft a bomb and get a few practice runs in. I just worry about people who first get wind of this a week before it's due, but there's nothing I can do to prevent that from happening no matter what, so. I do want to keep bombs to just the AoA line to keep DPS and playstyles consistent though. Methods, skill, and experience are more what this contest's about, though I will let people tinker with their CTR and resistances with their gear. I don't see damage bonus stats being a big influence, since I don't think it's possible to hit the heads with the main blast of the AoA, but we'll see.

TLDR: Yes. No.

Sorry I've been absent, I've been having computer issues.

The second link isn't working for me. And yeah, I thought I was so special, doing something my friends simply laughed at and waved away... I'm glad I'm not the only one doing so though. And you could post your original video if you want, I think you did only use an Ash of Agni for it and I don't have any date restrictions. I'd alert other people who've made a video for it in the past, but I can't find any other than you, heh. And I haven't even launched Spiral Knights for months, but feel free to add me on Steam if you want. And I honestly found the Snarbolax much easier, there's a spot you can stand on the map that avoids everything but the random spike spread, targeted tunneling, and targeted chomping, and you can shield/dodge/run from those pretty easily. I ran it deathless my first attempt and didn't think it was worth a video upload, so I just took a screenshot at http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=74492393

AND AND AND... that's it. :P

EDIT: After watching your Snarbolax video, it looks like you did everything right. And you also didn't use any pills, whereas I used two, that might be why I don't remember it being very hard. Though I also got lazy and used my elevator pass to spam Snarbolax runs for money for a while, to the point where I knew what he'd do before he did, so that probably helped as well.

I meant make an official entry form thing with your Roarmulus video, though the only information I don't have at this point is the raw time, which I could just get myself, really. And yeah, that's the entire reason I made this as well, but for Vanaduke, hm. I suppose if I still have leftover prizes from this, we could collaborate and put some kind of contest together to fish out people who really could try to run it faster. Though something like Vanaduke involves much more time, effort, and monetary cost than just the Roarmulus Twins, so I think the objective there would be to guarantee prizes for people who are actually crazy enough to submit something, and offer something smaller for best times. I could see it working though, with all the rich people wandering around with nothing left to do, so hm.

I'm honestly considering extending it another month or so. I knew I wouldn't get many entries, but only having one from someone who did it beforehand that I contacted myself about entering seems a bit ridiculous. I asked my friends to advertise, but I don't have that many friends, it seems... I assume the people who showed interest are terrible procrastinators and waiting until the deadline to submit anything, but if I don't get two more entries by the 15th, I'll extend the deadline it until Christmas.

I used to use WeGame to record things a year or two ago, though I think you need to be a premium user now or something to record at better resolutions. Dxtory coupled with the Lagarith Lossless codec I can't recommend enough, though the free version leaves a giant watermark and it costs 3600 yen to remove it (about $45 looking it up).

I was kind of joking about a Shiver-only Vana fight, but if you want to try it, definitely be sure to get a video, it'd be amazing to watch. Maybe use a Tempest against mask phases?

Welp, you'll have time to grab a fire haze bomb now, I'm extending the deadline to Christmas. Hopefully there'll be enough breaks in school and work schedules between now and then for people to devote more time to personal projects now.

Sorry, I'm only allowing fire haze bombs for this contest. If you really want to make an entry, but don't have one and don't want to put any effort into getting a nice one, you can pick up a two-star Fiery Vaporizer for less than 2k crowns; it has the same chance to cause the same strength of fire as the Ash of Agni, but with a much smaller range and less ability to kill scuttlebots with the blast. Of course I'd recommend something better than that, but it's still doable, and considering the lack of entries thus far, it's fairly likely you'll win SOMEthing just for posting a successful run at this point. We'll see how the next month pans out.

Upon reviewing the footage, Mysteryzx used a vial to hit a swith, but I'm not a jerk, so it's still a valid entry and he wins the first prize of a million crowns. Congratulations!

Amuses me, all the people who took interest but never submitted anything... Oh well, it made judging easy and I can keep my shinies now. Thank you to all who saw this and took interest, thank you to all who at least put in the effort to try, thank you to all who helped spread the word, thank you everyone, and good luck to you in your future endeavors.