JtRH: Last Minute Subject Change
Comments(2) No progress on the JtRH L7:1E Challenge. I noticed that Steam’s description of the “kill the Slayer” Achievement is “(JtRH) Kill 39th Slayer in any room except L7:1E, L22:3N2W or L25:2W”, specifically excluding the room I’m stuck on, as well as the room on the final floor where the Slayer is supposed to die. I figure this could mean that completing the L7:1E Challenge requires killing the Slayer after all. Or it could mean that doing things the normal way and getting the invisibility potion makes killing the slayer way too easy to count as a Challenge. Regardless, I spent some time trying to kill the Slayer, but had no success.
At this point, I’m ready to openly ask for help. I’ve tried looking online already, but the old Caravel forums where the Challenges were first mooted don’t explain how to do them, and the new Steam forums are pretty thoroughly useless for anything other than tech support, and the game is obscure enough that just googling for help doesn’t yield much of anything other than the Caravel and Steam forums. In fact, the top hit for “drod L7:1E” is my own previous blog post on the subject, which is oddly embarrassing.
The Caravel forums turn out have some good general advice on killing the Slayer, though. The first time I managed to do it in a room where you’re not supposed to, I managed it by making the Slayer walk onto a force arrow. Getting within killing range of the Slayer makes him counter your every move in ways that are often symmetrical about a pivot: you tilt your sword this way and he tilts his the opposite way, you move south and he moves north, more like you’re dancing than fighting. The force arrow broke this symmetry, allowing me to get close to him without him being able to do his usual counter. But it turns out that special-terrain tricks like this aren’t really necessary. All you really need is walls in the right configuration — an interior corner with a single block jutting out will do. Alas, L7:1E has no such thing.
…Is what I was in the middle of writing when I suddenly found some threads on the Caravel forums about more advanced Slayer-killing techniques. It turns out that there are Slayercidal dances that require only a straight wall and enough empty space. It took some finagling to get Beethro and the Slayer into the starting positions for such a dance, but it was quite possible within the constraints of L7:1E. So now I get to continue! Yay!
Coincidentally, I’ve been trying to pick up achievements *without* replaying the whole game. This is pretty straightforward for most challenges because the Steam achievements have coordinates, but challenges in secret rooms are hidden achievements with the coordinates removed. So zeroing in on the rooms (and the correct game) is difficult. Luckily, this thread has locations of the achievements that were changed: http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=41489
I bring this up because a later note in the same thread briefly talks about how and why the achievement for JTRH:L7:1E was changed: http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=41489&page=0#409192
OK, that note on the forum is an interesting note. Short as it is, it tells me the following:
1. It is possible to do that Challenge without killing the Slayer. Now I’m less satisfied with my Slayer-killing solution.
2. The folks at Caravel agree with me that the original Challenge was too hard. That’s comforting.
3. Letting the player complete the challenge by killing the Slayer was a way to make it easier. So doing something once thought to be impossible, in a room without any special features to facilitate it, is the easier option. That’s daunting.
I think I’ll take another look at it, but not spend too much time on it. I’ve passed the Challenge legitimately.