Lab Challenge

[kngsnghun]

shame. thats how i always end up dying in lab challenge.

by the way, that’s a fancy looking tile/font you are using! what’s the name of it?

[baldamundo]

Has anyone found a way out other than getting lucky and hitting a sewer line/ant colony, teleporting, and just burning the whole place down?

[Caprice]

Labs have everything you need to manufacture dynamite, for one.

Assuming you don’t find any in storage.

You might be able to pickaxe your way through the ground floor walls, as well? I haven’t tried that yet.

Oh, and for the people having trouble getting past that first turret: Wait until nightfall.

[EkarusRyndren]

When I’ve finished with my start in a lab I tend to start a fire on the surface and hope I can control it long enough to burn an exit out.

[Robik]

Oh, and for the people having trouble getting past that first turret: Wait until nightfall.

This.

I find this challenge so luck based that I stopped after few tries. I cleared 1 and half floors and did not find means to escape. Non trapped teleporters are extremely rare and explosives are locked in armories - and you need lucky stairs leading into them. In other words, it is reward for luck, not so much for skill. Biggest problem I see is, that you are not guaranteed escape even if you somehow clear the entire place (except armories and prisons that are locked), so you can play for hours, not screw up and game screw you up instead.

Some tips.

0. start as Survivor, you need that pocket knife
1. if you don’t start with bedroom in your wing, commit suicide and start again.
2. smash beds and stuff (you might need lucky drop of bashing item for that)
3. level fabrication to 1(nails to hooks)
4. level survival to 1 (bindle + deconstruct)
5. level tailoring and craft + reinforce gear
6. you should have trench coat, backpack, club and more before midnight, when it is safe to sneak around the turret
7. use pen and paper to map underground in more detail than map does

Traits:
Night vision - obvious, never took it though
Cannibal - never took it, but food inside is rare, dead humans are not, penalties for eating them without trait are extremely severe
Light step - silent movement
Ninjutsu - silent attacks, works with melee weapons

You could probably make a character tuned for this challenge but after you get out, you would have worse mix of stats and traits that if you start as Evacuee. So it is not for long term character IMO.

[KA101]

We didn’t actually balance it with the intent of characters being viable after getting out. If you get out of the locked lab alive, that’s its own reward.

[Caprice]

Non trapped teleporters are extremely rare and explosives are locked in armories - and you need lucky stairs leading into them. In other words, it is reward for luck, not so much for skill. Biggest problem I see is, that you are not guaranteed escape even if you somehow clear the entire place (except armories and prisons that are locked), so you can play for hours, not screw up and game screw you up instead.

Dynamite can show up outside of armories just fine - the lab room with all the crates gets mining spawns.

And, as I’ve mentioned, you can find pretty much everything needed to manufacture dynamite in labs with only a little luck.

[Robik]

Dynamite can show up outside of armories just fine - the lab room with all the crates gets mining spawns.

Could be, I was not so lucky.

And, as I’ve mentioned, you can find pretty much everything needed to manufacture dynamite in labs with only a little luck.

Its cooking difficulty 7. You need 6 to see the recipe from chemistry book. Components looks available enough, but you probably burn lot of points on cooking skill if you want to take this route.

[EkarusRyndren]

[quote=“Robik, post:16, topic:7189”]Non trapped teleporters are extremely rare and explosives are locked in armories - and you need lucky stairs leading into them. In other words, it is reward for luck, not so much for skill. Biggest problem I see is, that you are not guaranteed escape even if you somehow clear the entire place (except armories and prisons that are locked), so you can play for hours, not screw up and game screw you up instead.

Dynamite can show up outside of armories just fine - the lab room with all the crates gets mining spawns.

And, as I’ve mentioned, you can find pretty much everything needed to manufacture dynamite in labs with only a little luck.[/quote]

Yes you can get really unlucky and not find a lighter but I’ve yet to have a lab start where I didn’t get a lighter eventually. Or some other kind of fire.

[Robik]

Hardest component to find is probably a soap… or cooking oil, but that is even more unlikely.

[Caprice]

You’re right - soap’s the hardest bit to find. Check the janitor’s closets.

As to getting the required cooking - If you take Willing Mutant, you can start at 5 cooking for an additional 2 points - which means that any of the books with the recipe gets you everything you need. (You need 3 cooking for the chemistry textbook, 5 for Advanced Physical Chemistry. Both can bring you to the 6 needed for dynamite.) Or you could start with 2 cooking - one point, or the Willing Mutant start - and get the rest of the way by manufacturing aspirin.

But yeah, this is one trick that a high intelligence stat really helps with - better odds of successful crafting with low skills.

And yes, if all you wanted was free build points, you’re probably better off just going with the winter start and the basic survivor profession - that one’s not exactly hard to survive in.

[Robik]

Haha, I wanted to do it for Fey Eyes starting trait, Experiment alternative sucks point wise.

[Arek_PL]

started this challenge for first time
radiogenetic + minor radioactivy to make things easier and night vision as allways and this time psyhopath
for skills mele and survival (to get cbms)
spawned in goo pit room check fridge and got canister with bloob and few lighters
used blob to kill turret he beaten it but splited few times so i pick up few dead bloobs for food
walk downstairs and find zombie sciencist what relased manhack beaten up sciencist to death with unarmed and start throwing empty canister at it got combat knife
do not noticed teleport pad now i have fungal parasite i have little time to get royal jelly
after some time got alpha mutagen recipe leaved it because its uselles for this character
killed by zombie operator

[Bainin]

Lol i made this challange quick question i found 3 Dynamite in the lab i basically blow the turret on the exit and then exploded the Door does that count as Survive? xD
But i stayed there 4 Days so far no problem cuz i am Cannibalist and found a sandwich =) finding lots of cbms but kinda wanted a mutate lab not mutch just found 1 mutagen so far but 2 machete and enough cloth and Leather stuf to keep me nice Protected and not to mutch Encumbered i dident leave the lab so far i probably go back in and look how long i can survive before i have to get out =) i can get some screens but i making them over steam so cuz my regular screenshot does somehow not work iv i play in fullscreen =(

[StopSignal]

Nothing added to the topic, just a thought. This is basically the Dungeon mode of Cataclysm, haha. Instead of any Yendor amulet and Rodney mages you get the Last Room and that’s it i think. Never went that down. Also, another thing that is like Nethack is, well, getting out. You have to bend the game’s rules to make them work for you and get to the surface! Quite awesome indeed.

[Kuldar]

Probably going to necro, but as a new player to Cataclysm, this was something I wanted to share. After few tries I managed to breach the lab and am free to roam the countryside! Long live the mutants!

Throwing nails to gain some throwing and then throwing everything else for damage FTW.

[AllisonW]

[quote=“Kuldar, post:27, topic:7189”]Probably going to necro, but as a new player to Cataclysm, this was something I wanted to share. After few tries I managed to breach the lab and am free to roam the countryside! Long live the mutants!

Throwing nails to gain some throwing and then throwing everything else for damage FTW.

[/quote]

do you even qualify as a “mutant”

[KA101]

Nothing there’s outside the human norm, but Cannibal, Trigger Happy, and Truth Teller are the only traits that aren’t in a mutcat IIRC. Nothing preventing this char from having been experimented upon.

[AllisonW]

Nothing there’s outside the human norm, but Cannibal, Trigger Happy, and Truth Teller are the only traits that aren’t in a mutcat IIRC. Nothing preventing this char from having been experimented upon.

Fair 'nough. I suppose it makes enough sense, given that a lot of traits are, even IRL, actually mutations even when they’re entirely within the human norm (hell, everything about being human, actually).

[Kuldar]

do you even qualify as a “mutant”

Good point. From RP perspective he got initially captured for having good genes(Robust Genetics, body rejected mutation til this point, also I dont know how mutation paths work and wanted to keep all the options available). After all the experiments and all the talk about untapped potential, he got somewhat curious about mutagens(will start munching on the mutated arms, legs and fetuses after finding a renewable source of water, clearing the lab and making it his HQ).

From metagame perspective I just wanted to minmax stats with maximum available points. Took Robust Genetics to get Quick and Fleet-Footed later or something else interesting.

Really Bad Day challenge as a Tweaker would have given me 2-3 extra points, but its nearly impossible to do, unless you wanted to generate worlds and pray to the RNG gods.

E: Got lucky and found the assault rifle and some military gear. Also NPCs have tried to rob me more than 3 times in the lab(got knife speared, took a full clip of .22 into my leather jacket, got crossbowed, etc) and I am thankful for their contribution in diversifying my diet.