Golgotha Help

[『 Barcode 』]

I have never succeeded in finishing the Golgotha questline to recover a damaged waydroid. My most successful attempts were with multi-limbed characters with a focus on quickness, however my current character is almost purely Ego driven. Light manipulation on offense, clarivoyance/teleportation for defense.

Is Level 8 high enough for a Golgotha run, or is there somewhere better to go and level? Also any tips on surviving the chaos that is Golgatha would be appreciated, I have an innate fear of conveyor belts now!

[Ashex [Fenris]]

I usually go in at 15 or above, and if I've gotten decent levels in my mental mutations I just Clarvoyance/Teleport myself to victory. But if you didn't know, going on different belt entrances gives you different challenges to face on your path down.

But as far as leveling goes I usually hit up a ruin or two to get myself some decent experience and gear before heading in. As of a few patches ago I never have to worry about having enough to trade for, or simply find Fulrite Plate amongst other decent Ego Boosting gear/weapons.
If you're looking for an in-depth guide to Golgotha, I'd suggest the wiki page for further information:
http://cavesofqud.wikia.com/wiki/Golgotha

Edit: Forgot to mention I usually go in as a pure esper, stat dumping into Ego for more rapid levels in my mutations.

[Kaaven]

Level 8 might be a bit too low - I usually go around 15 and still face formidable resistance. So yeah, better level up a bit first. My suggestion is to clear the Waterlogged Tunnel, between the Red Rock and Joppa if you haven't already (there is a guaranteed Sphere of Negative Weight somewhere down there too!) and to travel zone by zone in the overworld, rather than using the map - you will encounter a lot of easier enemies and an occasional legendary as well. Plus, there is always chance to meet some Dromad Traders.

As to what is best for clearing Golgotha: Grenades! Lots of Grenades! Also, regardless of what build you use, try to get a Carabine, Chain Pistol or some other multi-shot ranged weapon - those really help with crowd control, mowing down weaker creatures with ease.

Also, remember you don't have to fight the boss down there - don't get greedy, grab the droid and recall back up if you don't feel like facing him yet ;) And if you do, my tactic is - Freeze Grenades! Lots of Freeze Grenades!

[『 Barcode 』]

Thanks for the replies, both really helpful - and told me where I was going wrong. Cheers!

[Mehukannu]

Uuh freeze grenades. <3 The most useful grenade of all. It can also let you take out dromad merchants with ease.

[wehttam449]

I've found thermal grenades and dual-wielded chainpistols to be an exceedingly unfair way to go about beating golgotha. A pair of borderlads revolvers will also do the trick if you've got the right skills. I prefer thermal grenades to freeze because lighting yourself on fire is usually easier to manage than freezing yourself.

[ringhloth]

Light manipulation isn't a great mental mutation; at least, not good enough to be the only mutation you use. It's damaging enough to be useful in the Joppa dungeons, but further out, you should be looking at sunder mind or pyrokinesis (though I do like buying it as a starting skill, both for the very early damage potential, and for the early ability to duel wield). I don't know exactly what your stats are, but you should be looking to have a really high ego score (after the rust wells, looking at +4-6) so that you can spend a lot of mutations points on new mutations. The more mutations you have, the less you have to worry about your other abilities to fill their gap, and the more "oh ♥♥♥♥" abilities you have.

[Aquillion]

The most important things about Golgotha are:

1. Avoid the vents on the conveyor belt. They do massive damage that ignores all defenses. Most deaths to Golgotha are probably a result of getting hit by them.

2. Carry lots of healing injectors and use them as soon as you take serious damage. Golgotha is dangerous, and it's entirely worth burning all your injectors to get through it.

3. Go as quickly as possible. Golgotha is full of really dangerous stuff, so you want to spend as little time there as possible.

4. Avoid the boss. He's really really nasty.

5. Don't walk on the ooze if you can possibly avoid it; it slows you down, and monsters will pop out of it and attack you.

Teleport + Clairvoyance is a good combo for it. I would suggest Force Wall as well, but that should work. Just be careful about your teleportation's cooldown -- use Clairvoyance to find safe spots and teleport to them as you make your way down. With this build you can mostly avoid the conveyor belt (usually you're forced to dash down it while avoiding the vents.)

If you have any, bringing poison resistance and elemental resistances will help against the vents and some of the special attacks, but it isn't strictly necessary.

Also, once you're in the bottom level and have the broken waydroid, your goal is in the top middle. You should head there first as soon as you reach the bottom, since you might find the waydroid on the way and it gives you a relatively safe spot to move out of. (Just don't use the elevator until you have the waydroid -- it's one-way.)

Originally posted by ringhloth:

Light manipulation isn't a great mental mutation; at least, not good enough to be the only mutation you use.

You want other mutations in the late game for things with very very high AV or HP, but otherwise, Light Manipulation is pretty good. It's 100% accurate, and its high PV later on will let it do very heavy damage to poorly-armored opponents, while its large number of shots makes it easy to use it to take out anything that isn't ridiculously tough and which doesn't have to be killed instantly. That lets you save the really big guns like Sunder Mind for more dangerous opponents.

And the other ones have their own disadvantages. Sunder Mind doesn't work on mindless things (a category that includes, incidentally, the boss of Golgotha. I'm not 100% sure why he's immune, but he is.) It also doesn't tend to work on late-game enemy espers, since they have mental mirror. Pyrokinesis and Cryokinesis tend to destroy loot. And all three of those have somewhat longer cooldowns, so if you rely exclusively on them you might get stuck without an option. Light Manipulation doesn't hit as hard, but it's much more reliable.

(Light Manipulation also works well with Menacing Stare and Intimidate, which can buy you time to unload multiple hits on even more dangerous enemies.)

Incidentally, I feel the best ranged mutations in the game are the flaming / freezing hands ones, but of course they're not mental mutations. Very short cooldown, very high damage, hits every enemy in a line to your target while bypassing most defenses. But obviously those are for different types of characters.

[『 Barcode 』]

Thanks for the in-depth post Aquillion, lots of good thoughts in there. So, which of the four vents should I enter? The wiki suggests the fire vent (my other times down I didn't know they were different, so I always went with some acid/poision conveyor belt) - which vent is the fire one?

Actually, while I'm being a pest, do recoilers still have to be recharged with cells or has that changed recently?

[Mehukannu]

The vents are randomized each game, so it really doesn't matter which one you go down in that sense. Though if you have some sphinx salt injectors, you could use them to check few of the vents to see what they have in store. It is not like you are ever going to use them for anything else so might as well use them for that if you happen to have any.

Recoilers still need to be charged with an energy cell for them to work.

[Aquillion]

Sphinx Salt Injectors do different things for mutants and non-mutants. For mutants, they make your mental mutations cool down faster. You could always check the vents using a recoiler, though.

(Having solar cells is nice. A fully-charged solar cell can power one recoiler use. Alternatively, if you have basic tinkering, you can recharge your cells yourself... or you can pay a bit of water to have a merchant do it.)

[Mehukannu]

Oh yeah, so they do. I knew I forgot something. :P
Recoiler can be a bit problematic to use since it is hard to find places with no enemies around in the vents. Worse still if you happen to go down one with the crabs. It still might be the best decision to spring down all the way than to stay there.

[Laughing Fool]

Watch out for the chute crabs, they are known to follow you through the levels, then stack all on one tile then okho you with hundreds of crabby pincers tearing your flesh apart.

[Wildfire]

Originally posted by Kaaven:

(there is a guaranteed Sphere of Negative Weight somewhere down there too!)

I searched every nook and cranny of the whole Tunnel, and there was no Sphere. I've never found one in there.

[Mehukannu]

Originally posted by Wildfire:

Originally posted by Kaaven:

(there is a guaranteed Sphere of Negative Weight somewhere down there too!)

I searched every nook and cranny of the whole Tunnel, and there was no Sphere. I've never found one in there.

That is some really bad luck. It might have been eaten by one of those beetles or some creature threw a grenade near the pile it is found on. It shouldn't be that hard to find either, since the stack always contains a mining helmet that illuminates the surrouding area.

[Aquillion]

Originally posted by Laughing Fool:

Watch out for the chute crabs, they are known to follow you through the levels, then stack all on one tile then okho you with hundreds of crabby pincers tearing your flesh apart.

Oh, yes. This is another reason why it's very important to go through Golgotha as fast as possible.