Solo 5 perks strategy for high rounds: is it worth it

[aegisknight]

I have been playing around on Ascension lately, and I began to think: monkeys cannot take your perks if they cannot get to them. So with this in mind, I came up with a strategy I think works pretty well. But I dont know its long-term application, so I would like feedback from players more experienced than myself.

So here goes:

round 1 and 2 knife and use up pistol, round 3 open up the upstairs, buy mp5k or m14. Round 4/5 open up power and turn it on.

Now buy Quick Revive, and down yourself. Repeat until the machine is gone.

Save up 2k, buy PhD Flopper. This will be your last perk purchase. Now save up 8k and hit the box until it disappears, hopefully scoring a Thundergun and some Gersch Devices. If not, see where it goes.

If it spawns near pack-a-punch, by Flopper, at the Spawn, or mule kick room, repeat until you get thundergun and gersch, perhaps ray gun if you are not offline (more on this in a minute). If it goes anywhere else, your only box options are now through Fire Sales.

From here, simply run at the flopper lander, one of the easiest spots in the game. When monkeys come, you only have to defend this one perk, and you will slowly collect the rest. In my experience, Juggernog has always been the first or second perk I have been given, so its not very challenging to wait until it is dropped.

The process will be a bit faster if you are offline, since Mule Kick will not spawn. In theory you could simply leave Mule Kick locked off as well, but in practice it means that the fire trap (and to a lesser extent, box location) between the Flopper train and Pack a Punch is inaccessible, which means you basically have to take out all of your zombies with the limited Thundergun and Gersch ammo with MP5k, which I believe is unrealistic in the high rounds. If you are online, you pretty much just have to sacrifice Mule Kick every time it is given, which slows down the perk acquisition rate.

The problems with this strategy are obvious; you cannot pack a punch or explore most of the map, but the strong point is formidable: a very skilled zombie player will get significantly higher margin of error at the highest rounds. The reason for this is because the dropping of perks at every monkey round includes dropping of Quick Revive. Flopper is easy to guard, first by just flopping down the stairs, and at higher rounds with choice thundergunning (and more flopping).

The drawback is that it can require up to 5 rounds of nogg-less play. I have not tested this strategy out past round 35 to tell how much of a problem this would be later in the game, but I am sure some of the other strategists can enlighten me how much of a problem this would be.

But I have already worked up some work-arounds. At a certain point it may be feasible to open Juggernog as well, and instead foresake Flopper, using the thundergun to fight off the monkeys. The advantage of this would be again building up a full set of perks, but with the same drawback as playing line with Mule Kick; if you get flopper for free, you then have to go nearly 10 rounds waiting for your next opportunity for QR.

Is it worth it

[Superhands]

It's a very good strategy that's similar to what I'd use when going for the 'all perks from the monkeys' challenge', but to be honest most perks are not necessary enough to go to such drastic lengths to defend them - only Jugg, PhD and QR are essential for me. Especially since the PaP is pretty essential for getting to the high rounds, and I also like to have my M&S for horde-killing and from 10-20 (or a little further if I don't get the Thundergun during my round 19 box whoring session).

I always keep the bottom Jugg door closed so I can run the nice spawn strategy, safe and fast. I have the top door open and the door above that to the power closed, so the monkeys can only go one way to Jugg, so I can sit in the doorway next to the MP5k and defend both the Jugg and PhD machines without even moving.

I also stack a bunch of Claymores around the QR machine so I can hear any monkeys trying to get to it to buy some time, and turn on the auto-turret and trap nearest Staminup to provide even more protection. So I normally only end up having to defend the QR machine from one monkey, if any.

Any other perks are just a bonus drop from the monkeys, if those machines are attacked I'll only go defend them if I'm certain that it's safe to leave the main machines unguarded.

I also don't like getting 5 perks, for the simple reason that in a couple of games, I've lost Jugg and still had 4 perks left so I've had to play without Juggs until the next monkey round. I've survived both occasions actually, but it's not something I'd like to risk for the sake of an extra perk that I don't really need.

[aegisknight]

I don't see the m&s as vital on this map since there are fire trap in not-horrible spots. Especially at higher rounds, the traps are far more useful than any weapon, getting the thundergun has more than sufficed to round 30. Past that I generally start using traps anyway.

The main strength I see in this method is that it facilitates multiple acquesitions of quick revive: it can still be obtained once the machine is gone. Since you don't need m&s, and therefore don't need flopper, the worst case zscenario is the backup I mentioned where you just guard jugg with the thundergun until you get more bottle drops

[Superhands]

But am I right in thinking that you can't get a 4th QR from the monkeys? I'm about 90% sure that's been confirmed.

The thing with my strategy is that I treat Ascension like a speed run. Round 10, I start running in the spawn, gathering up groups and taking them out with the M&S. Round 19 I leave a crawler and hit the box, to get the Thundergun and start using that at 20+. This strategy is not only easy but will get you to round 50 in about 2 hours. I pretty much just speed through the groups with the Thundergun, and at the high rounds when I need to recycle I just finish the round out with the traps, letting one zombie through the trap each time so I can safely hit the box at the end of the round.

[aegisknight]

I have not confirmed that yet, its my biggest question with all this. Right now I'm playing Call of the Dead solo going for a personal record, but I'm on my last "purchased" quick revive. I am hoping to survive well enough (but just poorly enough) to have the machine disappear but kill him until I have full perks again so I can confirm this or reject it.

If you indeed cannot get QR beyond the 4th in solo, then this theory would not be especially helpful. It isn't too much of a challenge to build up the zombies behind you to safely purchase your preferred perks on Ascension.

[aegisknight]

Okay, so I tested it out, and you indeed cannot get another Quick Revive after the machine disappears through the perk bottle drop.

I do know that you can get quick revive from the bottle BEFORE the machine disappears, but I do not know if you can get 4+ drops if you just never touch the machine.

[scottyboy8341]

I usually buy QR first and leave Jugg closed. Most of the time I get Jugg first or second from the monkeys. If not then I open the bottom door to Jugg ( if I didnt get Flopper because I never buy it) and i can guard QR and jugg at the same time and with the turret on upstairs you usually end up only having to kill a couple of monkeys. I leave the rest of the map closed. No Pap, and no good guns just MP5K. I noticed if you only hit the box once a round it won't move as quick.

[Tom852]

It is imho not worth it.

By my experience... It is so much not worth it. I catch myself running around with no more then Jug+QR, cause I cannot decide what perks I need. I think perks, that are not blue in solo or red, are actually overrated.

Therefore, I do not give a sh, when monkeys take some of my perks, cause you can just rebuy em. And 4 perks is way enough for me on Ascension, so I rather have Box and Pap and everything available, and I rather will not invest a lot of time to work with claymores and stuff.

But for challenges, it's very fun to have all perks the whole game!

[Tankeo Dempsaki]

Good strategy, and I mean no offence by this, but now I shall rant.

OH COME. ON! I JUST CAME UP WITH THIS TWO FREAKING DAYS AGO! I WAS GONNA POST IT BUT I WAS BUSY WITH HOMEWORK!!!!!

Sorry about that.

Good strategy.