Preparing For Golgotha

[barberza]

So I've been able to get as far as Golgotha, and then I get stuck (aka die horribly at the hands of some poisonous monstrosity). Usually I can get a level or two down, but quickly realize I'm out of my depth. This last time it happened to me I was at level 12. Is there a smarter strategy than just diving down the shutes? Or should I just level up some more?

[NeonTerminus]

Personally when I eventually complete Golgotha this is my plan since I want the first time I explore to be the time I explore literally everything. So far I haven't fully explored it yet so there may be better strategies out there.

1. Get to at least level 20. 30 is a better plan if you want to be really safe.

2. Clairvoyance fully upgraded and Teleportation are ridiculously useful. Usually in Golgotha there are several zones locked off that can serve as points to catch your breath from the hordes of crabs that will inevitably fight you. There are other abilities like Force Wall that will also help a great deal.

3. Bring yuckwheat and honey. Some enemies have a poisonous toxin that when in your mouth rots your tongue making it impossible to speak to other characters. There is a cure but lets just say its pretty difficult to complete. The aforementioned items will prevent it from developing which usually takes a week.

4. Bring laser ranged weapons and at least relatively strong melee weapons. Tier III grenades will also help.

5. Be careful of red jets that can easily 1-2 shot you if you aren't careful. Also the robot crabs are best ran away from as they will keep respawning no matter how many you kill.

[dis astranagant]

Get a flamethrower or a lot of thermal grenades and you can quickly destroy large areas of slime.

[Laughing Fool]

I generally try to do Golgotha before lvl 12 for the hologram bracelet and masterwork carbine. It's quite easy as long as you don't go sightseeing, just get in, grab the waydroid and recoiler out.

[Kaaven]

Level up a bit, before going in. Maybe not lvl 30, but don't go there lvl 8 or something like that either.

I found that a couple of freeze grenades can take you a long way - freeze and shoot, freeze and shoot is how to beat the wayward droid-level boss without loosing health or the risk of Tonguerot.

Bring some good dakka too, don't go there with a bow.

[Luke]

I only sightsee if my charachter is overpowered or has some good adaptations.

Otherwise, you can always come back if you feel like you really need to pickup that extra scrap or kill the giant slug thing.

Aim for the low levels, get the good quest reward. Don't be afraid to recoil out if you are out of other options. You can always return and take a different route.

Sometimes there is no Yukwheat or Honey to be had, so research that cure and have the ingredients on hand if possible. Sucks to lose your tongue: no trading or questing.

[barberza]

So:

I messed around for a little bit, got up to level 13, had some good pistols/tonics, and read up as much as I could on Golgotha. Feeling as ready as I could be, I jumped down a chute. I sprinted through the first couple of levels, made it down to the level I wanted without being chased and started looking for the waydroid. Except, by being stupid, I accidentally took the platform back to the surface before I found the droid. Cursing myself, I went down again.

This second time through was worse. Much worse. I was being overwhelmed by jells and a whole host of other poisonous monsters by the time I made it to the droid's level. At one point, I was down to 14/74 HP. But I got the droid and made my way back to the room with the platform to the surface... and that's when I remembered I had already sent the platform up. Either I couldn't call the platform back down, or my poor character was too overwhelmed by jell to figure out the switch, because I couldn't get the platform to come back down. I tried my Grit Gate Recoiler, but, of course, you can't recoil with hostiles nearby. I used a force wall to lock myself in that room and I killed everything that was in there with me. And recoiled the heck out of there.

I made it back to the Grit Gate short on tonic, with several hundred drams lost to rusted items, but alive now level 14. And I decided, wisely I thought, to level up before taking on the machinists. I went out near Red Rock to do some hunting. The salthoppers and fire ants had given up fighting me. My reputation with the snapjaws was -2000. Everything was going well. And then, while I stood in the river, an unseen snapjaw threw a grenade at me. I was boiled alive before I even knew what hit me.

And that's the story of how I survived Golgatha for my first (two!) time(s), only to be mamed by a lowly snapjaw scavenger.