Struggling extremely hard to clear danger 5 with saver

[slugmyballs]

Strats I've tried:

- slingshots. never once got a lucky run, dozens upon dozens of wave 3 restarts due to zero ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ slingshots showing up in shop, even though starting with spear to boost odds. most runs end at wave 11 elite. 2 tiny hits and I'm dead. Have to spend all my money on weapons that cost 50% more and all stats on offence just to keep up with enemies. any time I get to final boss its the same ♥♥♥♥, too many abilities going on and if I get hit 2 times its over.

- spears. easily the most consistent as for whatever reason all I ever ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ see are spears on saver, even if I don't start with one. doesn't take much investment to clear screens but single target dps is awful. most of my runs end at final boss, getting hit 2 times and dying even with 100hp+.

- harvest/piggy bank abuse. weakest strat by far. tons of money but zero ability to clear enemies.

I feel like I'm just waiting to get that "lucky run" where I get every item I need and the run becomes a joke. Any advice would be appreciated.

[GeminiEclipse]

I usually go pistol into rolling for smgs and then just having 6 white smgs.

[HealthBar]

I suggest keep playing Spears. If you manage to get to Wave 20 with Spears consistently, I assume you know the basics for overall gameplay.

When I play Saver I only buy Spears and the cheapest commons until Wave 9 ends, because the increased item costs keep me from buying any stat boosts. Weapon upgrades are the only damage boost with reasonable price tag, so I prioritize duplicate weapons first.

Wave 9 is where I get a big income, and from there I save some of the materials to profit off from Piggy Bank. There's no definite rules for saving, but I try to keep 100 Materials after Wave 9 Shop, and save 100 additional materials after each subsequent Wave.
I build up Harvesting in the early Waves for this to truly matter, because Inflation will try to catch up with the interest Piggy Bank generates.

And because most items are ludicrously expensive, you want to have Luck so you can 'luck out' by getting some of the best Red Items in the Shop. In the below screenshot I managed to get Silver Bullet, Vigilante Ring, Anvil, and Red Cape around Wave 9-12. Since Saver can't purchase everything, you can only afford 1 or 2 high-impact items every shop.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3133667656

[HealthBar]

If you are still having trouble, pivoting from Spears to Sticks can also be a good idea. You still keep the 15 HP bonus from Primitive while getting big damage bonus from just collecting Sticks.

[slugmyballs]

I took a break from Saver and did D5 on a few other potatoes. I got a lot better at the game and managed to finally beat D5 with Saver after a couple attempts. Had a good run with slingshots. After that just incrementally saving more and more while finding a balance between saving and spending. Ended up winning with 3 elite fights too which I'm proud of as they are so much harder than hordes.

[Terrigood]

Ghost Flint also works, it ramps up the attack speed while his ability ramps up the Dmg%, so all you need damage-wise is Melee. Try to set milestones per wave - aim to end wave 9 with 1000 materials.