Strangers Dream- 10 Idols

[Asteroid]

Wow, this thing was intense. I just beat it after spending like three days trying to beat it. Ended up using a Mortar and Pike. Got all the way to the last boss, the Ura with the pike, the poison dart Ura, and the anklegator with just a few health tonics left. I was riding on pure adrenaline, and it took some effort, but I managed to beat it. All skill, no trainers, no cheats. Felt awesome.

Anyone else have Strangers Dream- 10 Idols stories?

[quetz]

easy

[Pielord]

It wasn't too hard for me with a spear and cannon maxed. Were you using leechade?

[Asteroid]

yeah. that ♥♥♥♥ was still hard. there were like 30 levels, and with all 10 idols it made all the enemies super tough.

[Yossarian]

For anyone in 2022 or later who may be looking for some recent advice on how to clear this madness I'm going to leave my notes here.

1. It's worth adjusting your mindset for these idol challenges. The difficulty spikes are enormous. If clearing the entire game and NG+ (which unintuitively is kind of an easier victory lap) without idols is a 2 in terms of difficulty, then doing the kid/singer's dreams at 10 idols is a 5, the survivors's dream is a 7, and the stranger's dream is an 11. I'm going to refer to them as "these challenges" but you can basically read "Stranger's Dream" in your head because that's what you're building for...whatever you use to clear that, will definitely clear the others.

2. None of the 10-idol dream achievements are even plausible until you're at Level 10 in NG+.

3. Most weapons aren't even usable for these challenges. I've seen a lot of builds described on the forums, but basically you're going to need some combination of these at (obviously) max level:

S-Tier:
Mortar (w/ fast reload, fast aim, no self damage)
Fire Bellows (whatever gimmick works best for healing w/Leechade )
Spear (All left column)


Possible Tier (Based on Playstyle):
Army Carbine
Hammer
Calamity Cannon

GARBAGE:
Everything else.

4. Speaking of garbo, 90% of SPECIAL SKILLS are HOT GARBAGE for these challenges, but the ones that do work are exponentially helpful, specifically: SQUIRT LURE.
Squirt Lure squirts are so laughably strong in these 10-idol challenges that it's worth having Black Rye just to ensure 2 additional calls. The purpose of squirt lure is to distract the Ura (which realistically are one of the only serious/broken threats throughout these challenges) What makes these challenges so (artificially) difficult is you basically sleepwalk through a dozen non-threatening waves only to be 2-shotted by Ura scoring steroid hits during any wave they pop up in...I failed these challenges many-a-time and don't think I've actually died to anything other than Ura staff blades or poison...except maybe an anklegater when I was trying not to get shot by (you guessed it) the Ura. You can also use Decoy but that is higher risk/reward because they are one-shotted quickly and you need to get your crit in. Portal Turrets are also viable, but nothing beats Squirt Lure for ability to not fizzle out in 3 seconds.


5. There is some wiggle room on dranks, but not as much as you'd think. Here's the build I cleared with and the reasoning:

Squirt Cider (Balance Doom Shine)
Bastion Bourbon (Balance to Leechade)
Hearty Punch (Insurance/to Balance Champagne)
Black Rye (As Discussed Above)
Bull Brandy (Mandatory)
Stabsynthe (*Can* help double trigger Lifewine and just general survival in combo with Leechade)
Lifewine (Insurance)
Cham-Pagne (Mandatory)
Doom Shine (Crits are Critical)
Leechade (Ultra Uber Beyond Mandatory Nobody Clears These Challenges Without This, No, Not Even The Devs)

6. RNG - You legit need a little bit of luck, but recognize those dice rolls and lean into them. Particularly: pillars saving your arse from projectiles, good enemy spawns allowing you to pick off an Ura or Ura Distrctions quickly with a crit before they can swarm (be aggressive when rounds start), enemies charging you and getting rung-out when they miss.

7. Ignore the old man's babbling fanfic stories except to take note of where the trouble rounds are: those are the rounds you'll want to bust out squirt lure in advance and be extra mortar-roll-mortar-roll (combo of champions) aggressive.

Good luck, time traveler. It's doable.