Lab Challenge

[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.

[Coolthulhu]

[quote=“Kuldar, post:31, topic:7189”]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.[/quote]

Lab challenge survivors have a much higher potential for early-to-midgame wreckers of everything.

Toe talons are amazing with high strength and dexterity. They forbid boots and require tough feet (not to slow down moving), but early on their damage is unmatched by anything melee outside lucky drops of medieval weapon. And since this is an extra attack, it keeps being useful even after you get that medieval weapon.

[Burnt_Earth]

I’ve been working at this build for a while, I got an ultimate super-soldier-mutant-bionic build if only… I got one guy where I found two EMP grenades just smashing crates at random. ‘Cool, awesome, if I get out of the lab, I is going to rule America’ I think. I’m dodging rooms with fuckin turrets in them, most of my survivors stop surviving after opening a random door and ‘Hey, a turret!’ and it shoots 7000 rounds in a fucking singe turn. I open a door, turret/bench/UPSTAIRS!, I toss an EMP grenade, get shot quite a bit, but the turret is gone and I survive.

I go up the stairs, it’s daylight out, which I didn’t account for. No problem, my guys’ a beast, I throw the 2nd EMP and take out the turret. Sweet freedom, then, I decide to check out one of the side rooms on the surface structure, assuming more dorms because I’m barely clothed. I open a door… I’m overburdened, very tired/hungry/thirsty, riddled with turret bullets, have no weapon besides a two-by-sword, it’s a z-scientist, he drops a flask, I attitack twice, miss and I die about two turns later.

So much for my dreams of an octopus-like murder-mutant with adamantine claws and endless skull-buldging intelligence.

[Flashlight_Hoarder]

Toe Talons= Frostbite on Feet, Not worth it in my opinion.

[Coolthulhu]

Toe Talons= Frostbite on Feet, Not worth it in my opinion.

It’s like 10 speed penalty total and you can delay it indefinitely by trying to sleep on piles of clothes to warm up.
And if you manage to craft a pair of tentacle stockings (not hard, but requires hauling tons of rags from a sleeping room to craft spot), it gets much easier and in warmer days doesn’t require anything to be done.

And the damage bonus from the talons (when it triggers) is 4*str (cap at 60). Even assuming meager 10 str, that’s quite a lot this early in the game. If you don’t grind/get a lucky drop of a combat knife from manhacks, you probably won’t get anything that comes close to that until you’re easily capable of escaping.

And finally, as an additional attack it doesn’t trigger passive defenses, meaning you can actually take down bio-ops early in game (it’s still risky, because groundslam).