Beating The Cave

Red Wolf at The Cave BBS has a problem. People keep defeating the big lizard on this board requiring the sysop to manually reset the game again and again:

What can be done to make “The Veterans” game unbeatable? Simple, change the game conditions to be nearly impossible:

  • 2 sessions per day, 30 minutes maximum per session
  • 40 starting stats
  • NO Oracle visits possile
  • MAX 1 base per player

And then put this on the D’SHAI map with a pit directly outside the complex you cannot avoid and no pathways down to level 5. Impossible to beat, right?

Let’s start with stats. With no Oracle visits and +4 stats per level, you’re only hitting 68 stats by level 7, when low experience values lock you out of gaining experience from level 1 & 2 monsters. This site strongly recommends that your stats are 90+ by the time that you are on level 3, so with 68 stats total you will have difficulty surviving more difficult encounters and this problem becomes impossible if you press on somehow to levels 4 & 5.

Stats are boosted by Oracle visits and from the level 5 AFB with tons of crystals, and tons of crystals are only easy to obtain with a string of bases and high-level encounters, both that are being denied here. The level 5 AFB is locked from players without a code key from the prison, and a lazer key and remote control from encounters in the level 5 AFB. So let’s put together a strategy.

  • First you need stats. Dex is least important if you have good hand eye coordination, so quit and reroll your initial character to get as low dex as possible, and as high STR & HP as possible.
  • Next you need bases. You can get to level 2 fairly easily on D’Shai, and the same for level 3. Build a base on level 2 and sell off as much equipment as possible from level 2 & 3 encounters to stockpile enough crystals to build bases on for levels 2 – 5 (minimum of $125,000 X 3 additional bases) and also to obtain the best weapons and armor the complex offers to sell. Also obtain a set of the 3 color keys from Hydrites on level 2.
  • Let your character die, do not resurrect, create a new character & go to your stockpile of crystals, do NOT claim ownership of your old base, and build a new base on the next level. Repeat this again and again until you have all the bases you need. Despite the chance of burning out your telepod, the safest way to do this is to teleport from your old base to the maps where were you want to build your new base. Teleporting from level 4->5 avoids the lack of a hole down to this level.
  • After you have bases on all levels, reroll a new character again with as low dex as possible again, save up as many crystals as you possibly can, and level up to level 7 again. With the keys, a silencer, the best h2h weapon and armor from the complex, and optionally a telegrasp from a Terminator encounter, you should be able to survive a single Hydrite Soldier encounter in the prison without dying. You can fight the rad-hounds outside of the prison one at a time, fleeing and returning each time. You can also surrender to a rad-hound, get captured and put inside a cell, and with your next login break yourself out with either duroplast or a key. Then sprint to cell [I] to get the code key and use the optional telegrasp to leave, or do it the hard way.
  • Next go to the AFB level 5 with your code key and a ton of medpacks and keep fighting Axethim(R) & Shillis(L) until you get the lazer key and remote control. This will take some time and some luck, and require a lot of patience as they will run away many times. You will have to run away many times as well.
  • Finally use the chain of bases to transport a ton of captured equipment to the complex for money, and purchase stat upgrades from the AFB until you are able to easily fight on levels 4 & 5
  • From this point, you can continue to upgrade your character and beat the game in the conventional manner.