Preliminary Ramblings
This is something that I have thought about doing for a while. Basically, I'd like to look at how this season's lineup of unearthly items affects the way you'd go about doing a speed(y) reset run. I'd imagine as a side-effect it might provoke some discussion about resetting strategy in general, which is something I have also thought about starting a thread to discuss sometime.
I figure only four or five people will actually read this, but if it's good enough for the unearthly item buying guide, maybe it's good enough for this. This is aimed at folks who have all, or almost all, of the unearthly items and are trying to go reasonably quickly. The advice may not apply if you are pursuing a conduct or are setting yourself up for some spading, etc. If I keep doing this, I'll probably want to hammer out some kind of standard format, so suggestions about what might be a useful way to organize this are welcome.
Season 18 Unearthly Items
New item: anniversary pocket mirror
Other recent items: Book of Common Dreams, designer vines, dancing hut figure, holosight rifle
Legacy items: wolfskin belt, festive knit hat
Strategy Implications
This is a good season to go ranged …
There is a nice bit of synergy with the festive knit hat and the holosight rifle, since the +3 Etheric Defense from the hat means that the rifle gives +4 Ranged Power right out of the gate. This will go up to +5 if you get Focused Mind. If you learn some Precise Shot, you can start making long chains very early to take advantage of the Unopposed bonus from the wolfskin belt. Often, you wouldn't want to do this because it'd mean missing out on the big bonus Explosive Shot gets as a closer, but if you use the holosight rifle instead, Holographic Shot makes pretty good chain 6 filler.
… but don't count out melee if you are so inclined
The big Strength bonus from the designer vines helps you get Crushing Punch much earlier than normal, and also helps make sure you can make use of all of the Melee Power you have by keeping your Strength high. The wolfskin belt provides more Strength, and if you can make long chains its +2 Unopposed bonus comes into play. Picking up a few instances of Stomping Dance will help you make long chains early.
In general, this is a good season to kill stuff
This season it is very easy to buff up for tough fights like Saber and the two writhing masses to get Experimental Chemistry. Winter Spirits from the festive knit hat gives +3 Morale. If you aren't Etheric or don't mind using werewolf attacks, the +2 Unopposed bonus from the wolfskin belt is a further help. Finally, if you don't need the stat bonuses from an unearthly coin, you can very likely get additional attack power for whatever kind of techniques you are using from the anniversary pocket mirror.
Take the Low Road
This is a very good season to pick the Low Road, since there are a really staggering amount of +stats bonuses available.
- +3 Will from the festive knit hat, with a further +2 from the dancing hut figure
- If you have the Dancing Hut effect active, buffing your Will will also set your Reflexes to equal your buffed will, so you can concentrate your efforts on three stats instead of 4.
- The designer vines give a whopping +4 Strength, and if you can do without the dancing hut figure, you can get +2 more from the wolfskin belt.
- To top it all off, the anniversary pocket mirror can give you +6 to all stats if you don't have a weapon equipped. That will probably mean running away from Flying Eyes you meet while looking for the Low Road, but you will almost certainly have the Reflexes to get away successfully.
Hel's Suspicions
The designer vines help get rid of the Dripping With Gore effect that you will likely wind up getting a lot of in the post-Omega Buried Lab if you go with Hel's quest.
Conduct Alert! This is a good season to go for Etheric Master
If you careful, the wolfskin belt lets you use Etheric techniques almost right off the bat, drastically shortening the period you have to play as a pacifist before you can start fighting. Even better, the werewolf techniques do not cost energy of Etheric, so you will have a lot more Body to play around with than you usually would in going for this conduct.