So it finally happened! Ivory Tower hard mode is here! The tower's wards are on life support and intrepid heros are needed to beat back the tides of darkness!
Naturally, I grabbed some pledge mates and sprinted over there as quickly as I could move without falling flat on my face. There are three tiers. We fired up a tier 1 run. Figured we might as well start small. We always find ways to turn it up to eleven later anyway. You start it at the warden on 4f by the stairs. There were a few minor hiccups, but huge thanks to Mephi for showing up and making some fixes and great improvements on the fly! Also, thank you to the GMs for bringing us exciting new content like this!
I should have taken more screenshots on the way up, but we cleared the T1 fairly proficiently! Don't underestimate Demon at the end though!
Later, I ventured forth alone to reconnoiter Tier 2. Lessons learned:
When in doubt, AoE it out!
Corners are your friend!
There's also a new Pirate Island hardmode as well. You start it on 1F near the west entrance. It has a few extra curses (bonus difficulty options) you can pick at the guardian summoning npcs (before you summon) to increase your final treasure. Who doesn't love treasure? So be sure to accept some curses! What's the worst that could happen? There's a treasure room on 4f! Did I mention treasure?
Check out the guides on the Leaderboard > Ivory Tower Hardmode > Read the Guide.
Also, if you need some music to set the mood for Pirate Island, "My only friends are pirates", a line from a classic Kenny Chesney song, 'Better As a Memory' is my recommendation here.
Decided to spice things up a bit from some of the standard weeknight farming routines of the past few weeks. Did a T1 hard mode lich run and it went smoothly. After a short break to workout, I sat back down and decided, 'might as well run it back'. On 90f, as I'm nearing HM lich, I walk straight into the regular Lich standing there all by himself on a silver platter, with a side of purple. After dispatching him back to the underworld, I discovered a 91f charm. Neat!
I promptly put this new toy to work exploring. I've been up to 100f a few times (hi Vael!), but never managed to get eyes on that legendary Grim Reaper! Well, this time after running past an elemental (or was it more like 4 dozen?) I saw something not like the others!
After phoning a couple friends, we went back up together and established a tactical plan that was only marginally better than "f*** it". After some false starts, and needing a minor combat resurrection, we dispatched death himself! A first for all of us!
Side notes: We had incorrectly thought "oh he's just a slightly stronger lich". That would be unfair to Grim Reaper. While he also has a strong magic aoe, the similarities largely end there. He is considerably stronger than Lich. Perhaps next time we'll employ some improved strategy. Opportunities for improvement!
We're all addicted to the rush of enchanting right?! So in order to spice things up, I prepared a mini blow-up party to celebrate the upcoming level 74 character milestone. That blow-up party finally took place last Friday, October 9th.
The items on the chopping block?:
+5 Dark Elder Sandals
26 +5 Reinforced t-shirts (going for +8)
+2 Forbidden Robe
+2 Wizard Guarder
I took a bzel to the dark elder sandals first, purely on superstition and intuition, or "vibes" as the kids would say these days. Result: +6. No casualties. Stopped there.
Of the 26 +5 RTS an incredible 5 went +7 and 4 went +6. The expected value would be about 2.74 +7s and +6s. So very above average! The next and more exciting step was to nzel the +7s! The first +7 blew up, but the 2nd +7 passed the vibe check and went to +8 and I stopped. Sold off the remaining +6s and +7s.
Then I needed to go aura farming. So I took a bzel to the wizard guarder, sacrificing it to the karma gods. It blew up.
Finally, I took a bzel to the +2 Forbidden Robe and it went straight to +5. Huge W!
Overall a pretty solid run. Netted a nice +5 AC and +3 MR upgrade and some good value. Plus, the thrill and rush of the process: invaluable!
By Falran
There's also a new Pirate Island hardmode as well. You start it on 1F near the west entrance. It has a few extra curses (bonus difficulty options) you can pick at the guardian summoning npcs (before you summon) to increase your final treasure. Who doesn't love treasure? So be sure to accept some curses! What's the worst that could happen? There's a treasure room on 4f! Did I mention treasure? 
