Before anyone gets the wrong idea — I didn’t do this boss solo. I could have, but… I needed the achievement. I was just getting ready to mine copper, a process that requires killing the local bears and trolls first, when I got the message that the Elder was awake.
I was ready. I’d planned to try it solo, maybe this very night. I’d made the best food I could, crafted two stacks of fire arrows, built up my axe skills and block skills, so when the call came, I ran back to my portal back to my base, took the portal I’d set up to their base to that place, and took their portal to the Elder spawn, and started plinking away. It was dead in seconds. I got my swamp key and an Elder head of my very own.
But. I didn’t get any screenshots. So they triggered the boss again, and I plinked away and also hit the F12 key, many times.
They were also going to do Bonemass (boss #3, swamp boss) and Moder (boss #4, mountain boss). I was invited to come along, but I am not ready for that. I’m still restricting myself to only items I have gathered myself. Well, to be exact — once I have gathered them, I am not above going to the guys’ base and pilfering more of the same. But, I do not have iron or silver gear.
What I do have is a Bronze Mace. Because with the Elder down, I need to start exploring the swamp, and preparing to take on Bonemass, who is weak to mace damage. If I’m to be spending all this time in a swamp, I need it to be a swamp that isn’t already explored by the guys, because I really want to feel that danger and that thrill before my gear gets good and it becomes boring again.
But unfortunately, I am no good with the Bronze Mace. My skills are bad. And my skills at blocking attacks with the Bronze Buckler, even worse.
But, I had a solution for this: I built a dojo.
While exploring skeleton caves, I fought a ghost and looted its ectoplasm — yes, I was slimed. This dropped a training dummy — T.W.I.G. — into my blueprints. So I set one up, using that ectoplasm, outside my base, hoping that it would attack random dwarves that would come by. It didn’t; it didn’t do anything at all. It seemed like the only thing that it really hated was — me.
Since I couldn’t have it attacking me all the time, I built a little building off apart from my main base and planted it inside. The weird thing hates me so much. I realized it had to be there to let me train up my skills in a safe environment. And so I started whacking it with my mace, and blocking its attacks with my shield. I did this for a long while. Now my mace skill is around 40, and my block skill is around 30. I want these skills to be at least 50 (out of a maximum 100) before I worry about Bonemass.
Before that happens, I have to find a swamp to call my own. So I have to build a bigger boat. I had a raft that I was using to circumnavigate the starting island, but that was too slow and boring and I abandoned it somewhere and just ran home. My base is also, uncomfortably, not anywhere near the sea, which probably wasn’t my most forward-thinking move, but it is what it is, and that’s why Thor invented portals.
