KoL - Avatar of Boris Strategies

So it's been a while since I've talked about Kingdom of Loathing, as well as the current Avatar of Boris runs, and I feel that there can be more to talk about the strategies involving skills gained in Avatar of Boris, and when they truly shine in the run. At first however, ascending as many times as you can in AoB is needed to really take advantage of having certain skills during the earlier quests in-run, and this mini-guide will help you get through AoB runs faster, hopefully.

My current experience with Avatar of Boris as of this post.

If you are just starting Avatar of Boris runs, you will want to get to know how the game feels without your previously permed skills, as well as the lack of familiars as well. There are other restrictions as well, such as no Fax Machine, the only weapon you can equip is Trusty, your 2 handed axe, and many other minor restrictions. I say this because I made the mistake of thinking I could get through a Hardcore AoB run with the Astral Belt... It was definitely rough.

Starting off, I would highly recommend grabbing the Astral Trousers first to help you with muscle stats and dealing damage. You will need this boost from the trousers until you can at least get Barrel Chested from the Feasting tree early on. Of course, +50% Muscle isn't going to help enough early on when you have low stats to begin with, so don't jump the gun and grab the belt just because you can start with Barrel Chested either. I would recommend grabbing the Astral Belt when you can start with Barrel Chested, Legendary Bravado from the Shouting tree, and maybe Cleave for back-up, in case you encounter an enemy that you can't quite hit. This way, you will be able to kill the stronger enemies while gaining the early stats faster to get you to level 5 and 6 on Day 1.

As for the Deli Lama, I always grab the Carton of Astral Energy Drinks. With there being no source of spleen adventures through familiars, nor the ability to pulverize things of wads, the energy drinks are the only option. Finally, the Zodiac sign of choice would be Mongoose for the Muscle stats, more damage, and access to the Degrassi Knoll.

Out of the few IotM that are available for AoB runs, the best ones are probably the garden items. In my case, I grow pumpkins for Pumpkin Beers on day 1 for stats, at level 2, Pumpkin Bomb for the only source of Yellow Ray effect available in AoB, and Pumpkin Pies on any other days. However, I think that the peppermints will have a greater impact on the run with access to much better booze (at the cost of 1000 meat for the Queue Du Coq cocktailcrafting kit), free run-aways with the Peppermint Parasol, and pickpocketing with Peppermint Crooks, or having Peppermint Patties to eat. If you don't have a garden in your campground yet, I would highly recommend getting one. Another IotM you may want is a Clan VIP Key. The 5 free heals per day is helpful, and the April Shower is also nice for the Double-Ice Cap on Day 2 as well. 

Finally getting to the meat of the guide, here are some basic goals to aim for.

• Reach level 5 on Day 1 without sandwiches, so you get the better club sandwiches instead of the PB&BP sandwiches. After that, aim for level 9 for the corned-beef Reubens.
• Get a meatcar to buy Clancy's crumhorn from Uncle P's Antiques for 2500 meat ASAP. Clancy will act as a volleyball type familiar that way, and will provide the much needed stat gains when in use.
• Grab Baron von Ratsworth's monocle to help with item drops. (Much easier with Cleave, unless you've eaten enough for Heroic Belch.) Preferably before the level 4 quest.
• Level up to level 7 to unlock Clancy's Lute ASAP before the Steel Lasagna quest, as well as working on the Defiled Nook. 
• Keep an eye on your Semi-Rare counter by eating fortune cookies and using the /timer # chat command to grab helpful items like Tasty Tarts, Lunchboxes, Scented Massage Oils, Cyclops Eyedrops, and Inhalers. ... Though Inhalers may not be optimal for your AoB run.

Other than that, the rest should be the usual, get quests done quickly, while gaining stats quickly to level up for the next quest. Utilization of your available songs will help with a lot of situations, especially Song of Solitude.

Now, a lot of the strategy comes from what food to eat during your AoB run, as it takes quite a lot of food to fill yourself up. However, finding the food may not be all that hard with access to the Degrassi Knoll. Buying skewers, pie tins, and taco shells will allow you to cook up enough food with the drops you will find as you progress. I tend to eat a lot of Lihc Eye Pies which has 4 fullness and gives a slight item drop buff which may be useful on some quests.

Another issue that many people have is a good place to power level at. Personally, I tend to rely on the non-combats in the Haunted Bathrooms with the Song of Solitude for muscle stats and also setting up Guy Made of Bees for the flyering quest.* Edit: With the recent update, the Gallery may be a much better place to level at now. If you know how to map the painting, it will be the best way to level up for Muscle Classes. Any point before that, there tends to be enough quests to keep you busy which may be just enough to level up in the meantime. Check to see if you have gotten your Digital Key yet, unlock locations in Spookyraven's Manor, and maybe even farm for limes in either the Hippy Camp with the hippy disguise, or perhaps Menagerie Level 1 for Fruit Golems, provided your item drop rate is high enough. Otherwise, if you can handle the +Monster Level, raising the +ML as high as you can handle should add up to some decent stats throughout the run, combined with Clancy's crumhorn. 

Finally, the level 12 quest should probably be done as a Frat Warrior, especially if you have the Guy Made of Bees ready to be flyered. I kind of question doing the side quest at Sonofa Beach however, unless you have Song of Battle, which you might not have until you have quite a few ascensions under your belt. Do note that you can get limes here though, for Boris Key Lime Pies. I have been skipping the Themthar Hills side quest, as it may take too long to complete, even with 2 Inhalers.

Here's a summary of the optional courses of action available to potentially speed up your run.

• PVP for flowers to cook in pies. 
• Farm limes from Fruit Golems in Menagerie Level 1. Only attempt if you have the Hungry Eyes skill, have completed a bounty previously to use on an Odor Extractor, and have access to pie tins and wads of dough for cooking up Boris's Key Lime Pie.
• Open up the Gallery to power level your Muscle stat. I was able to reach level 11 on Day 2 to start using Astral Energy Drinks at max potential with this.

This guide is still a work-in-progress, and if there are any topics that you would like to see covered here that isn't covered on the Wiki, leave a comment and I will give my feedback on it on this post.