Best route starting chapter 10?

[rognik]

I know that up until last update, people generally agreed that the mine path was the better route to make progress. However, I generally found that once I get into the volcano that the river route was better so I could carry more food and last longer while I talk to Amy. Now, going into Chapter 10, where you can get the equipment from the other paths, I'm finding myself a bit lost as to which path is better, especially as I find it's harder and harder to stock up on seal corpses.

[Fel]

Well, you can get an even better belt and the iron rod in chapter 10 but getting the cocowood cart requires a whole lot of food for the damage (not sure if it's upgraded or not too).

Both have pros and cons really.
The river path allows you to do more in chapter 10 most of the time but it's hard to complete the shrine without the mine path, meaning that you tend to get less health from the run.

I am currently using the river because it allows me to get more tries at the mushroom class (I am still fairly far from succeeding that so I need the extra exp in it) but you might need to swap the island order as well.

There is a big obstacle at the end of chapter 10 that will take a while to overcome anyway so you are basically picking between more health gain (but usually a shorter run as well so not quite double the gain) or more levels in farming.

[emondalexandre0]

personnaly i did have in mind that doing mine route with all the hp multipliers by killing jaguar, rejecting shield and building a magma shrine until i could get about 6 M xp ( with iron belt ) i could last about 34 minutes .

i have about 6 M hp now and my runs are getting faster and faster ( lower and lower hp gains per reincarnations ) to the point i am having 22 minutes runs when i get to the door.

I think at that point doing the river route, skipping the hp gains by fighting and getting done with the tenth chapter might be a good deal.

i tried the lower , mid and high floors on chap 10 about 10-20 times each with different pathings and i have come to that conclusion : My head hurts by trying to bash my head against that damn door; i cant even finish the damn tasks because the self harm is way too much either way and i feel i over-leveled my digging skills.

I tried doing island 7-8-6 and getting away with about 30-40 seals and at that point, i thing having more a full stacks of falcons is better and less hurtful to my brain and just be at ease at myself for not having a full stack.

[pac230]

The river is preferred owing to the cart letting you bring more foreign food into Ch 10 to trade in at the market.

However, once you get to the big door, you will gain a lot of Hourglass Instinct levels from trying to open it. These can allow you to get more Hourglass bonuses from back in Chs 6-8, but the preferred set-up for that is to have the belt for the extra health buffer. On these runs, the most useful thing you can do after funnelling is still to go to Ch 10+ and make as much progress as you can there.

As a result, while the river may be preferred, you will end up doing a bunch of mine runs that get to Ch 10 too anyway.

[JMark]

First time around I mostly went river and then on ch10 upper > main > lower. And in then switched to upper > lower > main until finishing the game.
In the end I ended up with dig as my highest skill, and not able to finish shrine for most of it.

Next time I think I'll switch it up and go mine and grind farming first on the shrooms, before going to the upper and see how the run goes.

[[LUE] TowelMan]

My thought is River upper > main > lower until you get past the vault door. Then switch to mines main > lower > upper until you can finish mushrooms without food from market. Then you go lower > main > upper with mines route.