Progressing to Tier 3: All About the Salt Star?

[Zat]

Tier 3 appears to be controlled by a tight series of prerequisites that, correct me here, seems to point to the following. A direct-ish path to T3, might be probably:

Finish Sandbox including chest - Farm Ladybird Larva for tough gunk - Build Salt Star - Farm Termite Soldiers - Build T3 Axe - Farm Pupa - Farm Black Ox - Build T3 Hammer - Farm Rust - Farm Tiger Mosquitoes - Build Tiger Mosquito sword - Complete Coaltana Event - Build Coaltana

The details being limited by the reality of obtaining the components...

Let's assume you can figure out how to get the pinch whacker and a black ant shield. You can farm the Ladybird larva with those and some practice. The antlion sword is even fine for the tiger mosquitoes. You've got some ant lion armor upgraded. You're moving up the wall and maybe got some ziplines in place.

The mint mace would seem the reasonably available weapon to start with. You'll need 10 Tough Gunk so farm a bunch of ladybird larvae. Problem is the mint mace isn't really a great weapon? and might be a waste of time? So is it more effective to spend those first hard-earned 10 tough gunk on the Salt Star instead?

Way I'm seeing it, our ultimate goal is obviously the coaltana, right? But the coaltana event is kinda useless with the mint mace I'm reading. I'm playing on medium and it's a bit of a battle. Another post mentioned that the Tiger Mosquito sword would definitely do the trick?

So getting the tiger mosquito sword to kill those event larvae would be nice for the life stealing. That requires the tigers, killable with say the antlion sword, no worries. But first you need rust which needs the Tier 3 hammer to collect.

So getting the tier 3 hammer requires killing a good number of the black ox beetle, but first you need to farm some pupa leather.

So to get Pupa hide you need the tier 3 axe, but to make that first you need to get some termite chompers.

So to get the chompers you need to kill Termite Soldiers which, without any tier 3 gear this is not trivial. Salty and Stabbing is what you need to kill those and since you don't have access to a decent stabber, you go for salt morning star. Reasonable?

[Jaggid Edje]

I did the Coaltana event before even the T3 Hammer using a Mint Stinger Spear. You have it way too high in the progression list. Having your mind locked on 'must have Mosquito sword" is on you, not really the game's fault.

You also can get the Rusty Spear before you ever get to Tiger Mosquitos, so even if you feel you 'need' a tier 3 thrusting weapon, it doesn't have to be the Tiger Mosquito sword.

Termites are also fine with just the Salt Morning Star, you don't need to also have stabbing along with the Salty. The morning star is "just salty" so it exploits one of their weaknesses without also being something they are resistant too. Sure, not as effective as both salty and stabbing, but it gets the job done.

I do agree with you, though, that the salt morning star is a definite game changer going into Tier 3. But I also don't get what you're saying in regards to that? Getting the Salt Morning Star is doable in nothing but Tier 2 gear and it would be some wacky progression on your part if you skipped the sandbox and just went up to the Wood Pile and beyond first.

[Zat]

Great feedback. I'm not locked into any particular path just wanting to progress to T3 and finding a bit of a wall. I'll add more question marks to my original post to clarify I am speculating and asking for opinions. Trying to be logical as I dig into all the materials necessary to complete the items. Happy to hear your proposals to advance, thanks!

[Jaggid Edje]

The only thing about what I did which I would say is "questionable" is that I wasted the sturdy whetstones to make my Stinger Spear 'fresh'. I made that decision after facing those dam ladybird larva over and over again just trying to get charcoal. I researched a little bit how far into tier 3 before I got another thrusting weapon and decided it was totally worth doing.

The Coaltana is awesome, btw. I used it a TON after I first got it. And I don't normally even use 2 handed weapons. It, and the Club of the Mother Demon, are the only two exceptions in my golf bag of weapons.

[RequiemsRose]

I'm working towards tier 3 myself so Im by no means an expert, but since i've encountered a similar "what do i need next?" wall and came to a different solution I figured it's worth sharing ideas. I've noticed this game does have more and "most" efficient ways to do things, but there's a lot of ways to progress and it gives you a surprising amount of freedom to do a lot of it in whatever order suits you (including needlessly stupid/reckless ways apparently, whoops). Obviously not fully, since you do need to escalate through the tiers to acquire better resources for better stuff, but you can get away with a lot. I only just got around to the black anthill today in my game, but I already had some of the starter materials for tier 3 like the charcoal, tough gunk, roly poly parts, ox beetle parts, and an abundance of gear upgrade materials. The way I ended up playing my progression, I just need to visit the woodpile to get termite chompers so i can make the termite axe which will then let me obtain the pupa i need to make the ox hammer, I already got everything else leading up to those items so far). After that it seems like tier 3 and it's various materials are open to me to collect in whatever order works best for me. I barely even touched sand box yet, other than some antlion parts, some hidden goodies like molars and elemental candies, and the burg.l chip but Im still using tier 2 gear during all this. Tier 2 that's been upgraded to level 5 in all cases, but still tier 2.

The only thing that truly seemed to roadblock me was my reluctance to just get the black anthill lab over with since that apparently is required to reach tier 3 by every indication I found. Other than that you can get away with doing a whole lot of stuff out of order along the way, you just might have to leverage other mechanics to your advantage in order to pull it off (perfect block is delightful, and combining that with ladybug set and it's bonuses makes for a rather tanky mid-late level build to push into tier 3 with, especially if you already unlocked all 5 mutation slots to further help yourself out).

[Three-Headed-Monkey]

if coaltana is your goal, you could just use a t2 rapier +5 or higher with some buff food :P
personally i did it with the t3 variant, but that was way overkill since they didnt even managed to scratch the sword.

[blackphoenixx]

The easiest tier 3 gear to get is the broodmother club and mask of the mother demon. Because the broodmother is tuned for t2 so you shouldn't have too much trouble killing her in t2 gear (she's pathetic in t3 gear).

Since the sleek mask is pretty much best-in-slot against anything not a spider - and incredibly helpful in the termite den - and the club smashes through roly polies, ladybirds and black ox beetles even without a weakness you'll be pretty well set up to tackle the upper yard after her.

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

The only thing about what I did which I would say is "questionable" is that I wasted the sturdy whetstones to make my Stinger Spear 'fresh'. I made that decision after facing those dam ladybird larva over and over again just trying to get charcoal. I researched a little bit how far into tier 3 before I got another thrusting weapon and decided it was totally worth doing.

It IS totally worth doing. Sturdy whetstones aren't so rare that you can't spend 5 of them to make getting to tier 3 a lot easier.

In fact not using the ones you find on your t2 gear is the waste, because once you seriously get into tier 3 weapons you'll be able to make sturdy whetstones anyway.

[DocEnglish]

Antlion armour, crow crossbow and mint mace are all I used to clear the termite mound.

Attract the termites one by one so you don't get swarmed, then either run backwards and fire the crossbow or run up and go to town with the mint mace. You can practice outside on the wandering termites.

It's worth clearing the whole mound as it'll give you lots of termite parts for repair glue.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by blackphoenixx:

It IS totally worth doing. Sturdy whetstones aren't so rare that you can't spend 5 of them to make getting to tier 3 a lot easier.

You've offered me some of the best advice on gearing that I've received for the game in these forums, so I'll take that as real validation of the decision I made. :)

Also have to really stress how great the Mask of the Mother Demon is, which you mentioned in the (unquoted) part of your reply,. I hit the Broodmother up while still in T2 after you said that in another thread, and it really was such a big help in the termite den....the sandbox....and everywhere else that I have been since getting it.

[Zat]

Originally posted by blackphoenixx:

The easiest tier 3 gear to get is the broodmother club and mask of the mother demon. Because the broodmother is tuned for t2 so you shouldn't have too much trouble killing her in t2 gear (she's pathetic in t3 gear).

Since the sleek mask is pretty much best-in-slot against anything not a spider - and incredibly helpful in the termite den - and the club smashes through roly polies, ladybirds and black ox beetles even without a weakness you'll be pretty well set up to tackle the upper yard after her.

Okay, this is good motivation to complete her. I made the baits a couple sessions ago, and had kinda pushed it off. Looks a bit deathy in there but the rewards are pretty great.

I did end up crafting the Salt Star in my last sesh and got the termite chompers (one soldier kill) and more gunk, made the T3 axe, collected some pupa, sniped a couple oxen. It goes pretty fast, mostly just farming the ladybird larva. I think my original post is actually a pretty straight path to getting the axe/hammer. Salt Star is very nice.

[MRV1N]

as long as u dont play on whoa mode it doesnt matter at all..
u can take any weapon to kill other insects,no need to study their weakness.
also i dont get why everyone is talking about the katana its only good against spiders,there are way cooler and better weapons.

[blackphoenixx]

Originally posted by Zat:

Okay, this is good motivation to complete her. I made the baits a couple sessions ago, and had kinda pushed it off. Looks a bit deathy in there but the rewards are pretty great.

I did end up crafting the Salt Star in my last sesh and got the termite chompers (one soldier kill) and more gunk, made the T3 axe, collected some pupa, sniped a couple oxen. It goes pretty fast, mostly just farming the ladybird larva. I think my original post is actually a pretty straight path to getting the axe/hammer. Salt Star is very nice.

If you've got a spicy anything the broodmother is a joke now. The coaltana pretty much melts through her hp. At t2 you have to work for it a little but the rewards are worth the effort.

And yeah, salt morning star is great. It can't take advantage of double weaknesses but the good base weapon and getting salty & mighty make up for it. First weapon i upgraded to level 9.