Frustrating Issue with Veganism

Drone Jam. If you've played a Killer Vegan and have any idea what "Drone Jam" means, you know my pain.

If you don't know Drone Jam, this comes about from being unable to pass through other sprites, and they're blocking access through somewhere due to random movement. Since you can't just thresh your way through enemies, you have to rely on other methods to clear drone jam, but the most clearly Vegan-Friendly (charming one to kill the rest for you), suffers from its own time-wasting issue of the other animals not fighting back against the charmed target, so they wander around and don't get hit as the target attempts to grab one specific target out of the rest.

It's especially frustrating since they tend to follow you around.

Can anyone share any other tips for getting the blasted critters to clear out of my way more efficiently?

 

Any ranged attack (bolt, bomb, spell) will kill them without debuffing you. Also, Psionics will double your monster charming fun while you're at it, just keep in mind that when charmed monsters die, you get no XP.

 

Burglary - Move in Mysterious Ways is pretty useful. As well as anything with knockback that does not hit monsters directly, I know of Monster Toss and Buffalo Technique debuffing you when Vegan.
Gray Heron Takes flight hits everything around you but does not trigger the penalties however.

 

I'd assumed ranged attacks would be accounted for. Finally a use for New Bolt and Bolt Classic.

 

I'd try to stick with Thrown Weaponry. Your melee stat is probably going to be pretty decent, and Thrown scales with that, bolts don't. Also, softballs are cheap and plentiful in the beginning.
I'm on floor 10 with a vegan build atm and going pretty strong.

 

Yeah, I'm primarily using softballs with my righteous aura to clear them out. However, any bolts that I don't foresee being useful for anything else are also up for efficient murderin'.

 

"Drone Jam" I immediately thought of Drone Riots in Alpha Centauri.

Hey, those are some of my favorite bolts. Even if I don't use them much. Combine them with a bolt eruptor...and well...everything dies.

I never played a Vegan, but it appears the best way to do so is to make sure you use softballs or bolts.

 

Honestly, Vegans kick ass. If you have enough ammo to get rid of the animals, the benefits far outweigh the cost, especially once you get Level 5 Vegan. Since there are Potions of Purity and Zodiacal Wands as well you can usually screw up and live.

 

Vegan is a fantastic skill to beat face with. My biggest problem is forgetting that the diggles are ok. I'm so used to destroying them reflexively that I frequently debuff myself down to less than half my max health. This is of course aggravated by monsters that won't get out of the way... sigh.

Drone jam is fortunately only a major problem on the first few floors, before you have enough ammo or mana to murder those adorable roadblocks at range.

I have a tendency, when short on resources, to smash their faces in until the path is clear and my rage is assuaged. I'll then use level 5 vegan to clear off my maximum stacks of vegan shame. I don't suggest doing this in mixed company as the demons and undead will take advantage of your weakened condition, but in a room full of animals this can save you a great deal of resources since the silly creatures will patiently wait for you to kill them one at a time.

Disclaimer: I don't suggest this strategy to those in possession of a soul/conscience. Staring into the loving, trusting eyes of diggles as you destroy them is not for the faint of heart. Doing this to a nest full of diggles might be akin to watching the ending to Old Yeller repeatedly..

 

I've gotten further in this latest Vegan run than I ever have before, and two questions are brought to mind:
1) What's the endgame food for Vegans anyhow?
2) Are Haematic Phylacteries OK? They're potions, but, y'know. . . blood. . . I mean, I'm a blood mage, so the damn things will see some use even if it's not OK, I have two cleanse spells available.

 

1)Endgame food for vegans is what ever you can stuff in your face. After all, you can just cleanse with level 5 anyway.
2)I believe phylacteries are fine because it's not animal blood. It's YOUR blood.

 

That reminds me, I was surprised that Tacos didn't give me a negative, and they make a great food source from 5-10ish.

Anyhow, thanks for the heads-up.

 

Endgame food for vegans is cheesy omlettes! Since you're not eating cheese in general, just grind it all, and eventually kick out 70+ cheesy omlettes. Saves lots of space, and is very effective. I prefer Deep Omlettes on most of my characters - but the vegan aversion to cheese makes endgame cheesy omlettes really good.

 

. . . Shouldn't they not be able to eat cheesy omelettes?

 

Problem with Deep Omelettes is, you don't get many Diggle Eggs on the lower floors. I still have 10 Omelettes, mostly form deep chefs now. Else I nourish from Tofu and Fruits, just as I'm supposed to!
Health Regen of 6 also helps

 

You are correct - they cannot eat them without acquiring massive debuffs. But you eat 2-3, cast your Level 5 Vegan skill which removes the debuffs, then enjoy the food regen for the next 100 turns.

 

Seems legit.

 

Perhaps unrelated, but Master of Arms is a great way to supplement a lack of food late-game; Walk it Off is a great way to ensure 1 Health/Turn pretty much any time it might matter. The various Life/Armor/Block you get passively are good for nearly any build, as well.

 

I agree, Master of Arms is a lovely skill, it wasn't enough to save the build I had it on from a strong acid trap and an army of dread collectors, though.

 

Those 2 things are the reason all my builds have to have a Healing spell/skill and a Teleport of some description these days.

I've been burned a few too many times when food and random drops weren't enough to keep me alive through damage over time (death clouds, acid traps, whatever) or when I got stuck in a corner (monsters putting the Random Teleport Trap debuff on YOU when THEY trigged the trap bug, go!) and couldn't escape before my health hit 0.