(Don't read this if you don't have all things in the diary of the game)

[Zack]

Which path is more great? i think volcana (because vlad cape is so great for cosmic ocean) and tide pool (because chance of getting eggplant and also clone gun) i don't go to jungle because i don't get the enough money to buy all things and the hedjet (yeah you can rob but it's always annoying having a shoopkeeper and also if you go to a cosmic ocean run the jetpack you get in black market probably will explode that's why i choose vlads cape) and i don't go to temple because the crush blocks and the curse cats actually all enemies in that path are dangerous so is a bit painfully go trought there and also you don't have a chance to do an ankh skip (i know you can do quilin skip but it's always a bit risky) but now that they buffed elixir i think it's more worth it) what do you guys think?

[JonathanR]

I think it's generally agreed upon that volcana + tide pool is optimal for the reasons you described. The opportunity to pick up some gear at black market could be nice, but a guaranteed vlad's cape with minimal cost (basically just your udjat eye) is better, especially since vlad's cape is more valuable than the combined total of every passive item in the game other than the ankh. And getting clone gun over to wadler for a guaranteed 96 bombs/ropes from sun challenge is *usually* more valuable than the alien compass (which you have to go to Volcana for anyway). The elixir is nice I suppose, but with the extra opportunities for curse you have to take on to get it, it's still nowhere near worth taking over the clone gun. Honestly it wouldn't even be worth taking over clone gun even if it just gave you permanent 99 health until you got poisoned/cursed. I die to instant death stuff way more often than hitting zero health.

At this point if I get climbing gloves, I'm going for qilin skip every time. If I can get myself to really get the bubble skip down pat I won't even care about that requirement. I don't even entertain the idea of going temple during dailies unless I have a jetpack or climbing gloves and at least 50 bombs and a dozen ropes by the time I finish Olmec and bothering with Duat is out of the question.

I do vastly prefer the hedjet to the crown though. By the time you get the crown, money usually isn't an issue unless you are going for speed over everything. Of course both are worthless for Cosmic Ocean anyway.

[Zack]

Originally posted by Jonathan R:

I think it's generally agreed upon that volcana + tide pool is optimal for the reasons you described. The opportunity to pick up some gear at black market could be nice, but a guaranteed vlad's cape with minimal cost (basically just your udjat eye) is better, especially since vlad's cape is more valuable than the combined total of every passive item in the game other than the ankh. And getting clone gun over to wadler for a guaranteed 96 bombs/ropes from sun challenge is *usually* more valuable than the alien compass (which you have to go to Volcana for anyway). The elixir is nice I suppose, but with the extra opportunities for curse you have to take on to get it, it's still nowhere near worth taking over the clone gun. Honestly it wouldn't even be worth taking over clone gun even if it just gave you permanent 99 health until you got poisoned/cursed. I die to instant death stuff way more often than hitting zero health.

At this point if I get climbing gloves, I'm going for qilin skip every time. If I can get myself to really get the bubble skip down pat I won't even care about that requirement. I don't even entertain the idea of going temple during dailies unless I have a jetpack or climbing gloves and at least 50 bombs and a dozen ropes by the time I finish Olmec and bothering with Duat is out of the question.

I do vastly prefer the hedjet to the crown though. By the time you get the crown, money usually isn't an issue unless you are going for speed over everything. Of course both are worthless for Cosmic Ocean anyway.

i think is more usefull going to tide poll if u are doing a run with 2 people usually is difficult to get one hired hand to grab the clone gun and kept him alive (i'm saying this because you have to grab sword and the clone gun so you require a hired hand and also is more great going tide pool doing a run with 2 people because you can clone kapala, vlads cape, the bag of the sun challengue, etc) anyways if u go to do the skip you will keep clone gun but you have to train the skip but if u go to the temple you can get the elixir with it's nice but problem is you can't skip ankh unless you can do the quilin skip so well i mean if u got vlads you don't need so much ropes in comic ocean so i think 24 are fine and you don't need bombs because you got plasma canon (but problem is you require a hired hand to get plasma canon and the bow)

[Stafford's Bees]

My path is volcana into temple, grabbing the compass and elixir. If I find a jetpack I use that, otherwise I grab the wings and hope for gloves. If I still haven't found gloves by the city of gold I go for duat instead.

When I'm using wings and gloves, I also stop to get the plasma cannon in the ice caves, and use it to blast out a bunch of the spark traps to make the bottom part of the qilin skip a little easier.
I also use it to kill tiamat and then dig out enough the ground beneath her that bubbles will rise up through the centre up to the laser traps. Not that I know how to bubble skip. The idea is that if you screw up your skip you will probably eventually get pushed back to the gap in the centre, and you don't take fall damage if you happen to land on a bubble. You might also land in one of the gaps made when you blew up spark traps. If you are loaded up with hp because of vampire or mummy farming you can get a lot of retries at it.
The plasma cannon also makes getting through neo babylon simpler.