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Spelunky |OT| With Fate Guiding My Every Move

Ulme

Junior Member
PSVita users: There's a patch pending on approval that'll make the game run smoothly as well as include the so-called daily challenges and some minor fixes :)

The patch is live right now (PS3 and PS Vita). Enjoy :)
 

OmegaZero

Member
Aw, I just had a very consistent and noticable framerate drop during the "I hear rushing water" jungle event. Post-patch too. :/
Subsequent playthoughs involving the event don't have the same issue though, which is weird. Other then that, everything else runs very well.
Daily Challenge on Vita is great!
 
Bragging rights? Bragging rights.

I'm overjoyed. After many grueling and soulcrushing hours, I finally did it:

spelunky_nogoldrun5aimx.png

(archived)

Hardest achievement for me to unlock, and I think it took me approximately 10 - 12+ hours on-and-off since its launch on PC to pull it off. I haven't felt this much euphoria after beating a game in a long, long time... despite all the hardships and tense moments it threw at me. Recorded it for posterity (click below the image) if anyone feels like watching it, but I don't want to go through this anymore for a good while.
Having that achievement box appear was exhilarating to say the least.
 

Borman

Member
It has taken me a long time, but I finally beat the standard game, and I did it during a daily challenge. Feeling pretty good hah, played on the Vita (no Mac version makes me sad...)
 

Daigoro

Member
wtf is with the PS3 version of the game?

720p and stereo only?! thats kind of a hell of a trade off compared to the 360 version. all it as to trade is daily challenge and the d-pad.

kind of a toss up for me to be honest...

Bragging rights? Bragging rights.

for sure. congrats on that one.





ANYBODY got any minis they want to sell/trade? i really really want caveman and a Yeti. i have some crappy ones to sell, or ill offer cash. PM me please.
 

Daigoro

Member
forgot to menttion the inexcusable saving/loading time when you die in the PS3 version. its at least 5 times longer than any other version.

PS3 version is definitely the worst of the four by far.
 
Well, after having the game since summer, I finally finished it (regular ending, i.e. Olmec) yesterday. Funny thing is, I finished it twice, once on the way to work and again on the way back :D. Olmec is SO much easier knowing there's lots of crates in the stage above him!

In any case, so satisfying. I also played today's daily challenge. I was at 6 HP and had a Jetpack before leaving the mines, even dodged the ghost when he was between me and the door, but then a dark level and general clumsiness screwed me over (losing 4 HP in total right there) and I ended up dying pitifully on 2.1 :D. Oh Spelunky, I love you so much.
 

maty

Member
aww yiss



I finally did it after 113 hours (with some idling in the middle).

My fastest time was 7:20 which I'm sure I can reduce but I was not enjoying myself doing the speedrun.

Also, fitting last achievement, for which I had to spend around 3 minutes killing myself until it popped up xD
 

mannerbot

Member
aww yiss



I finally did it after 113 hours (with some idling in the middle).

My fastest time was 7:20 which I'm sure I can reduce but I was not enjoying myself doing the speedrun.

Also, fitting last achievement, for which I had to spend around 3 minutes killing myself until it popped up xD

Congrats, and welcome to the club!

Well, after having the game since summer, I finally finished it (regular ending, i.e. Olmec) yesterday. Funny thing is, I finished it twice, once on the way to work and again on the way back :D. Olmec is SO much easier knowing there's lots of crates in the stage above him!

In any case, so satisfying. I also played today's daily challenge. I was at 6 HP and had a Jetpack before leaving the mines, even dodged the ghost when he was between me and the door, but then a dark level and general clumsiness screwed me over (losing 4 HP in total right there) and I ended up dying pitifully on 2.1 :D. Oh Spelunky, I love you so much.

Congrats, now go to hell!
 

Essay

Member
I tried playing the XBL version of Spelunky on several arcade sticks (a Round 1 MadCatz TE, a Qanba Q4RAF, and a Hitbox), and encountered a glitch where the last direction entered would be held down indefinitely. Menus wouldn't stop scrolling and the character could never stop moving.

Can anyone with an arcade stick confirm whether this glitch is present in the PS3 version as well?
 
aww yiss



I finally did it after 113 hours (with some idling in the middle).

My fastest time was 7:20 which I'm sure I can reduce but I was not enjoying myself doing the speedrun.

Also, fitting last achievement, for which I had to spend around 3 minutes killing myself until it popped up xD

You got every single Spelunky achievement in just 113 hours? Holy crap, that's amazing! I'm sure I've spent more than 100 hours and I've finished the game just now. I can't imagine getting to Hell and doing the Speedlunky and Low Scorer achievements in so little time, kudos!
 

maty

Member
Congrats, and welcome to the club!
Nice to join you :)

You got every single Spelunky achievement in just 113 hours? Holy crap, that's amazing! I'm sure I've spent more than 100 hours and I've finished the game just now. I can't imagine getting to Hell and doing the Speedlunky and Low Scorer achievements in so little time, kudos!

Thanks, Spelunky it's my 3rd most played game on steam so it does not seem as little time :p
It was basically all I played for the last month.

I'm sure you'll get there, Hell is not as difficult as it sounds. The other 2 require more practice and a little luck always helps.

Also, I believe mannerbot did it in way less time, around 70hrs if his profile is correct. That is quite impressive.
 

Hubble

Member
Just got this game on my Vita. Some quick questions if you don't mind.

What do you do with the guy with a gun and 2 chests sometimes stuck in a wall?

Is there a way you can carry 2 items at once? For example, sometimes if I have a gun, do I have to drop it to bring the girl back?

What does the spike shoes do? I thought maybe it would prevent me getting killed from spikes or kill enemies quicker when jumping on them, but nope.

What does the camera do?

Can you aim where you teleport with the teleporter?

Much thanks!
 

mannerbot

Member
Just got this game on my Vita. Some quick questions if you don't mind.

What do you do with the guy with a gun and 2 chests sometimes stuck in a wall?

Is there a way you can carry 2 items at once? For example, sometimes if I have a gun, do I have to drop it to bring the girl back? Oh, and you might have figured this out already, but you only need to bring the damsel (alive) to the exit to get credit. Since you don't need to walk in yourself just yet, you can drop the damsel off and then go back to pick up whatever item you wanted to bring with you.

What does the spike shoes do? I thought maybe it would prevent me getting killed from spikes or kill enemies quicker when jumping on them, but nope.

What does the camera do?

Can you aim where you teleport with the teleporter?

Much thanks!

  • For now, you can just ignore the shopkeeper vaults; if you want to live the life of a criminal you can try to rob them, but I don't think that you're going to live to tell the tale at this point.
  • You can't carry two items at once, but you can juggle them. For example, drop shotgun, throw damsel ahead, pick up shotgun, repeat.
  • They do kill enemies quicker. What made you think otherwise? They also perform one other important function, but you'll find that out later.
  • It takes pictures, of course. The shopkeepers love cheesing for the camera, give it a try!
  • Yes.
 

Hubble

Member
  • For now, you can just ignore the shopkeeper vaults; if you want to live the life of a criminal you can try to rob them, but I don't think that you're going to live to tell the tale at this point.
  • You can't carry two items at once, but you can juggle them. For example, drop shotgun, throw damsel ahead, pick up shotgun, repeat.
  • They do kill enemies quicker. What made you think otherwise? They also perform one other important function, but you'll find that out later.
  • It takes pictures, of course. The shopkeepers love cheesing for the camera, give it a try!
  • Yes.

Thanks for the reply. I very much appreciate it and great style of answers.

So the guy stuck in a wall with 2 chests is a vault and not a shop? Ok, will ignore.

I could've sword I tried jumping on a large spider and other enemies with the spikes shoes and it still took multiple tries, so didn't think it did more damage, but I must be wrong.

I tried taking pictures of the girl and so forth but didn't find it anything of value. I think your being sarcastic about the taking a picture of the shopkeeper but I'll give it a try :)
 

mannerbot

Member
I could've sword I tried jumping on a large spider and other enemies with the spikes shoes and it still took multiple tries, so didn't think it did more damage, but I must be wrong.

Well, enemies still taking multiple hits to kill even with spike shoes doesn't mean that the spike shoes don't add damage. You'd have to compare the number of hits without spike shoes to determine that. Not only do they deal more damage, there are enemies later on that don't take damage at all from you jumping on them if you don't have spike shoes.
 

Hubble

Member
Well, enemies still taking multiple hits to kill even with spike shoes doesn't mean that the spike shoes don't add damage. You'd have to compare the number of hits without spike shoes to determine that. Not only do they deal more damage, there are enemies later on that don't take damage at all from you jumping on them if you don't have spike shoes.

Understandable, I thought I counted but must be wrong. Thanks for the help! I appreciate it highly.
 

Ricker

Member
What an evil,evil game...the way I see it so far,it's not possible to play this game in burst of 15 minutes or something...? I was up to 1-3 and I die,why do I start over at 1-1...? and the freakin game is hard enough already,why do they have that stupid ghost that appears after a while...let me take my time so I dont get killed by lord knows what hehe...man,I haven't played a hard game like this in a long long time...thank god I only payed 4 bucks for it,not that it's bad but I dont like the set-up with the quick restart or continue and frankly,it's too hard for me...oh well.
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
My god that is a long article. Definitely have to read that.

I really wish they'd port this to Mac so I didn't have to keep launching Windows in Parallels to play it. So much fun.
 
Polygon published an extensive commentary today, which highlights why this is such an achievement: http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/23/5227726/anatomy-of-a-spelunky-miracle-or-how-the-internet-finally-beat. Well worth the read imho.

I usually dislike Polygon, but that article was a pretty good commentary and reading it in tandem with watching the run was a heart-pounding experience. I cannot imagine what it might have been like to experience it in real time, with the conclusion all but guaranteed, but playing through that thing? Nerves of steel doesn't even begin to describe it.

It's a well-written article, but I'm not sure who the intended audience is. Experienced players know most or all of it already, and new players shouldn't read it because it spoils the entire game.

There's a middle ground between Spelunky virgins and pros. There's a lot of stuff I didn't know about it, like all the chain-and-ball shenanigans.

Also, there's a whole lot of people who simply might not be interested in Spelunky, but may enjoy an in-depth view at its ins and outs. For example, I have no interest in playing EVE Online, but reading about it proves almost always fascinating. Finally, many people who may not even know what Spelunky is, might find themselves fascinated to the point that they pick it up.
 
I usually dislike Polygon, but that article was a pretty good commentary and reading it in tandem with watching the run was a heart-pounding experience. I cannot imagine what it might have been like to experience it in real time, with the conclusion all but guaranteed, but playing through that thing? Nerves of steel doesn't even begin to describe it.
I've been doing duo-character eggplant runs (by myself with two controllers) for funsies with some honor rules to artificially up the challenge (keep the second character alive for as long as possible, don't sacrifice him for easy Kappala's, reset if I can't meet the requirements in the Mines etc.) and it's some genuinely scary shit. I've only gotten it to Yama twice while recording it after dozens upon dozens of tries, and the first time around I even forgot to throw it at him (instead of bombs) out of sheer anxiety and mental auto-piloting:

eggplantendc7qfe.png


Did reach Hell and Olmec a couple of times prior, but there's so many ways to screw up and it's hard to juggle two controllers at once when you're in a pinch whilst attempting to hold two important items simultaneously. There was an incident where a bloody jar of Paste destroyed my eggplant after I bombed a Big Spider, and the first level of the Temple Grounds especially got me killed or made me lose the eggplant / scepter on far more than one occasion. And then there's also the matter of trying to accumilate enough gold to not piss off the shopkeepers... Don't think I'd ever be able to pull it off with a single character, given the sheer amount of RNG is involved with how Bananasaurus Rex did it.
 
I've been doing duo-character eggplant runs (by myself with two controllers) for funsies with some honor rules to artificially up the challenge (keep the second character alive for as long as possible, don't sacrifice him for easy Kappala's, reset if I can't meet the requirements in the Mines etc.) and it's some genuinely scary shit. I've only gotten it to Yama twice while recording it after dozens upon dozens of tries, and the first time around I even forgot to throw it at him (instead of bombs) out of sheer anxiety and mental auto-piloting:

eggplantendc7qfe.png


Did reach Hell and Olmec a couple of times prior, but there's so many ways to screw up and it's hard to juggle two controllers at once when you're in a pinch whilst attempting to hold two important items simultaneously. There was an incident where a bloody jar of Paste destroyed my eggplant after I bombed a Big Spider, and the first level of the Temple Grounds especially got me killed or made me lose the eggplant / scepter on far more than one occasion. And then there's also the matter of trying to accumilate enough gold to not piss off the shopkeepers... Don't think I'd ever be able to pull it off with a single character, given the sheer amount of RNG is involved with how Bananasaurus Rex did it.

That's still crazy, kudos. I'll be content to reach Hell some day. I've not even got the Ankh more than once yet. :D
 

Essay

Member
Did anyone else freak out on Rex's eggplant run, when,
at the start of the Yama fight, he clips through the jumping magma-man and the eggplant miraculously survives thanks to the Amulet? Rex had just said a few minutes before that he assumed that, even with the Amulet, contact with lava or lava-men would probably destroy the eggplant, so I nearly had a heart attack when that happened.
I'm not even sure if he realized it happened in the heat of the moment, but it seems to suggest that
the Amulet indeed protects the eggplant from lava, or at least lava-men, when held. (That's assuming that it wasn't just that the eggplant's hurtbox was held far enough forward that it avoided fiery death by a mere pixel, as the enemy passed through only his character and not the item in his hands.)
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
It's a well-written article, but I'm not sure who the intended audience is. Experienced players know most or all of it already, and new players shouldn't read it because it spoils the entire game.
The audience is people like me who have played enough of the game and suck at it and have watched enough LP's and streams of people going to Hell and the City of Gold to know every in and out of the game, including the areas I'll never get to.
 

mannerbot

Member
The audience is people like me who have played enough of the game and suck at it and have watched enough LP's and streams of people going to Hell and the City of Gold to know every in and out of the game, including the areas I'll never get to.

If you're a regular stream watcher, surely you already knew everything in the article? And I don't see any reason for you to think that you won't ever be able to beat hell. Spelunky is, first and foremost, a game of knowledge; if you really know the ins and outs of the game then it's totally doable. Go to hell!
 
I feel like I've overdosed on Spelunky today. On different runs I got to Hell for the second time and beat Yama, went to the Haunted Castle and got the Knight's shield and went to the the Spaceship and got the plasma cannon.

Have a Spelunky Christmas, GAF.
 

dLMN8R

Member
If you're a regular stream watcher, surely you already knew everything in the article? And I don't see any reason for you to think that you won't ever be able to beat hell. Spelunky is, first and foremost, a game of knowledge; if you really know the ins and outs of the game then it's totally doable. Go to hell!

I didn't look at this thread before posting my own, but you're being awfully presumptuous about what fans of Spelunky may know and understand.

I've followed the game for years and years - back since the freeware version, playing the trial of HD on Xbox, spending 15 hours with the PC version, watching a bunch of speedruns, learning about a lot of the secret rooms like the City of Gold and Hell, and more - and the vast majority of the stuff in the article I'd never heard about before. Especially the strategies and glitches used to accomplish the run.


The feature is really damn good.
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
If you're a regular stream watcher, surely you already knew everything in the article? And I don't see any reason for you to think that you won't ever be able to beat hell. Spelunky is, first and foremost, a game of knowledge; if you really know the ins and outs of the game then it's totally doable. Go to hell!
It's also a really hard game. And the generation algorithm could screw you over at any moment. So it's really about luck rather than knowledge. Sure I know how to go to Hell. But it doesn't make me have the skill to get there. Just because I've never been out of the Jungle, doesn't mean I don't watch many many streams and LP's of the game. I pretty much know the ins and outs of the game, and I've never personally gotten to 90% of it.

I have been to the Worm once or twice. But never out of it. And even if I start in the Jungle, I still never make it passed world 3's castle. This game is hard. So hard that it'd be a shame for me to not want to look up all the cool stuff I'm missing.

Not that everyone is playing the same way. It's a hard game. But it's so full of stuff. So much stuff many people will never see.

Maybe one day. One day I might get to hell. Or the city of gold. Or even Olmec.
 

mannerbot

Member
It's also a really hard game. And the generation algorithm could screw you over at any moment. So it's really about luck rather than knowledge. Sure I know how to go to Hell. But it doesn't make me have the skill to get there. Just because I've never been out of the Jungle, doesn't mean I don't watch many many streams and LP's of the game. I pretty much know the ins and outs of the game, and I've never personally gotten to 90% of it.

I have been to the Worm once or twice. But never out of it. And even if I start in the Jungle, I still never make it passed world 3's castle. This game is hard. So hard that it'd be a shame for me to not want to look up all the cool stuff I'm missing.

Not that everyone is playing the same way. It's a hard game. But it's so full of stuff. So much stuff many people will never see.

Maybe one day. One day I might get to hell. Or the city of gold. Or even Olmec.

It is most definitely not about luck, and it wouldn't be worth a damn if it was as luck-based as you're making it sound in this post. I'm nowhere near as good as Bananasaurus Rex, and might not be even if I put in the 10,000+ hours he has, but even after not playing for a month I had an amazing run that ended in Yet Another Stupid Death on 4-3 (definitely should've been a Hell win), an Olmec win, and a Hell win all in the span of about an hour and a half on stream. If he wanted, Bananasaurus Rex could beat Hell 9/10 runs, assuming he wasn't doing anything crazy. The defeatist attitude isn't doing you any favors. You can do it, and the real shame is that you're content with just looking up all of the cool stuff and resigning yourself to never personally seeing it.

I didn't look at this thread before posting my own, but you're being awfully presumptuous about what fans of Spelunky may know and understand.

I've followed the game for years and years - back since the freeware version, playing the trial of HD on Xbox, spending 15 hours with the PC version, watching a bunch of speedruns, learning about a lot of the secret rooms like the City of Gold and Hell, and more - and the vast majority of the stuff in the article I'd never heard about before. Especially the strategies and glitches used to accomplish the run.


The feature is really damn good.

I agree that the article is well-sourced and exhaustively researched, but I still stand by my earlier statements. I totally understand the appeal of watching high-level play, and the in-depth breakdown is great, but it's awful that you don't get to discover anything for yourself now because literally every secret is spoiled.
 

Nuklear

Banned
Yeah, it's not luck and it's more about developing the skills to accomplish what you want in the game. I can get to Olmec and beat him no problems now but it took my 40 year old person about 40 hours to do it. I will get to Hell and beat it one day.

My key tip is when to recognize when something is too dangerous to try and just bomb your way out of it. By either bombing a hole to get to the floor below or blowing up whatever obstacle is in your way. This is my strategy in the Jungle at least and not so much the mines.
 
Have a Spelunky Christmas, GAF.
Spelunky Christmas gypped me out of unlocking the entrance to Hell during the daily challenge because of a bug involving the Ankh. I collected over 700k gold by the time I encountered Olmec, and might've been able to surpass the 1 million mark after Yama. I mad.

It's also a really hard game. And the generation algorithm could screw you over at any moment. So it's really about luck rather than knowledge. Sure I know how to go to Hell. But it doesn't make me have the skill to get there. Just because I've never been out of the Jungle, doesn't mean I don't watch many many streams and LP's of the game. I pretty much know the ins and outs of the game, and I've never personally gotten to 90% of it.
Spelunky is rarely a game where luck is a deciding factor (death or otherwise), despite the randomized structure it steadily employs for numerous elements. I say this as a player with a ton of close calls under his belt, both good or bad.

Knowledge / experience comes into play first, reflexes / muscle memory / consistency comes in second (arguably almost equally as important as the former) and luck unquestionable comes in as a very distant third.
 

dLMN8R

Member
I agree that the article is well-sourced and exhaustively researched, but I still stand by my earlier statements. I totally understand the appeal of watching high-level play, and the in-depth breakdown is great, but it's awful that you don't get to discover anything for yourself now because literally every secret is spoiled.

I literally would have never discovered any of that on my own. I'm pretty much done with the game. It's great, but I have other games to play, and the secrets are so insanely obscure that even if I had actually known about them I wouldn't have known how to discover them.

It's not "awful". I couldn't care less about these things being "spoiled" for me.
 
And on the 25th, Spelunky's Christmas Spirit gave me...

5-3cockblockweu89.png


Both my characters naturally got smacked by the Spiked Ball (which was rotating counter-clockwise) after the placement of that Tiki Trap mentally guardbroke me. Even the game sensed losing the eggplant in such a way was bullshit, so the following run resulted in:

tagteamingyamalkf5t.gif


Two jetpacks, 66 bombs at Olmec with 6 health (a fitting coincidence) on the Pink Eskimo who held all my items and surprisingly easy descents (with relatively open layouts) to the exits once inside Hell, regardless of angry shopkeepers.

Apologies for the large .gif though; been messing around with GIMP after reading through a GAF thread and in my ignorance I couldn't get the file size down without jacking up the framerate.
 
And on the 25th, Spelunky's Christmas Spirit gave me...

Both my characters naturally got smacked by the Spiked Ball (which was rotating counter-clockwise) after the placement of that Tiki Trap mentally guardbroke me. Even the game sensed losing the eggplant in such a way was bullshit, so the following run resulted in:

Two jetpacks, 66 bombs at Olmec with 6 health (a fitting coincidence) on the Pink Eskimo who held all my items and surprisingly easy descents (with relatively open layouts) to the exits once inside Hell, regardless of angry shopkeepers.

That's amazing! Congratulations on such an incredible achievement. :)

Apologies for the large .gif though; been messing around with GIMP after reading through a GAF thread and in my ignorance I couldn't get the file size down without jacking up the framerate.

Meh, it's only 7Mb. That's nothing in this day and age, don't sweat it.
 
You know the best part about the January 1st daily challenge?

Almost everyone I've asked (and everyone I've seen on random streams) ran into that arrow trap on 1-1. Schadenfreude!

First run on Spelunky PC was a success. Wanted to start with a win so I didn't head to Hell with only 2 health and 2 bombs.
Well done!
 
After beating the game once on 360 back when it came out (well... Olmec-beat) I have this on Steam now and I'm back to playing it every day. What little skills I had have atrophied big time though, I suck again :(
 
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