Devilites, promotions, and maximizing returns.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 14:51
So, devilites are one of the few truly transforming creatures in the game.
- Pit bosses can transform baseline devilites of any status-type into either their frenzied version or nonelemental yes-men (the only kind)
- Killing a pit-boss near a yes-man turns the yes-man into a non-typed frenzied devilite
- killing a pit-boss near a frenzied devilite turns the frenzied devilite into a pit boss (this may work for non-frenzied as well)
Obviously, frenzied devilites (of any variety) are noticeably harder to kill and deal with than normal devilites, and yes-men and pit-bosses are trivial to deal with as long as you kill the yes-men first. The real question is... if you mostly care about the loot, and you have enough skill/gear/resources that the difficulty changes aren't an issue, and you can herd them and pick your kills without undue danger, what should you be arranging in order to get the best stuff? kill them while they're frenzied? Try to kill every single one of them as a pit boss? (doable, if a bit tricky at times) Something else?
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 15:36
#2
Elemental enemies have
Elemental enemies have elemental loot. Non-elemental enemies... don't. Kill the elemental ones first!
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 17:13
#3
I -always- make sure to take
I -always- make sure to take the time to have Pit-Boss transform every single Devilite grunt, because this maximizes the amount of loot you get.
As the Pit-Boss demands their employees work overtime, without pay, I kill off the transformed baddies so I won't be in a room filled with tons of them all at once. This is easy to do since Devilites -fear- Pit-Boss, are distracted by him, and will -run away from him-, so while the Devilites that haven't been promoted are occupied by the Boss, start picking off the ''Elemental'' Devilites.
When all Elemental Devilites are killed, and only Yes-men and Pit-Boss remain, kill the Pit-Boss to gain large amounts of loot from the transforming Yes-men, and then kill them to gain even more.
Yes-men that transform through rage drop a much larger amount of loot during the transformation than they would have ever dropped normally. They also tend to drop a fair amount of Hearts during this, plus they're open to attack while having just transformed since they're still being ''awakened'', I guess, so strike as soon as they transform to prevent any unnecessary injuries.
Also, I must take the time now to say: I -love- Devilites, they are by far my favorite monster in the game because of their comedic behavior, plus the fact that they interact with each other, also in comedic ways. They have suspiciously good aim though.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 17:34
#4
Interesting point about the
Interesting point about the yes-men loot-on-conversion, I'll definitely bear that in mind. Anyone have any thoughts on whether it's worth making the overtimers turn into pit bosses? It might almost be a useful *tactical* trick (since transforming them into pit bosses defangs them) except that pit bosses take so long to kill, and deliberately standing close to a significant number of overtimers while attacking someone else is... well, it's not entirely safe.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 17:47
#5
...
Peter principle.
Kill PB, nearest Dev(elem or not elem) will become a PB. Chaining forced promotions is fun.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 18:49
#6
I tend to target the Yes-Men
I tend to target the Yes-Men and Pit Bosses first. Not for the loot. But for the fact that a pack of Overtimers seems to lay waste to my party every single time.
Didn't know that a transforming Yes-Man dropped loot though. So that's neat.
And I just want to add, the Devilites, both in aesthetic and game mechanics, are my favorite enemy.
Possibly in any game ever.
The first time I saw one quote Office Space, I almos died because I was laughing too hard to fight.
If there are any Yes-men around, killing a pit boss makes the yes-men turn into overtimers. However, when they transform, they also drop loot as if they were killed. And they drop loot again when you kill them as overtimers.