Tower of Moo Manchu in an Hour

 

Old Scratch has some significant spell power buffs.  We decided to see how quickly we could finish the Tower of Moo Manchu with these powers.  Short answer: how do you feel about one hour?

We’ve included a video of our run using this approach and below it we discuss suggestions for:

1. Gear
2. Powers
3. Companions
4. Strategy

Many thanks to Eric for the original idea and Serena for some great thoughts to help refine the approach.

 

Old Scratch’s New Mojo Flow

If you’re not familiar, Old Scratch now has three spell power boosts.  Based on our testing, the boosts will affect:

• Any pirate or companion next to Old Scratch
• Any pirate with (a) a Staff-only weapon or (b) a Staffy combo weapon and Will is their highest stat (since in both cases the weapon is boosted by Will)
• Any companions with Will as their highest stat (typically Witchdoctors and Privateers)

 

 

The Video

Eric recorded our initial run using many of the strategies listed in this article.  We also learned a few along the way…

 

A. Gear Suggestions

Here are our suggestions in order of priority.  Note that specific items don’t matter much — using full bazaar gear seems to work just fine:

1. Make sure to have at least two Mojo Storms.  There is a totem (Death Spore Talisman), charm (Oland’s Strand) and ring (Master Li’s Ring) in the bazaar with it.  Three can be better but we found two usually works just fine
2. Captain Blood’s Jacket: the flames can do a ton of damage with the buffs so use it if you got it.  But wait, there’s more!  It even buffs will too!
3. Imperial Boots of Moo Manchu: if you have them they can make the last two floors faster
4. Bazaar staffs with a range of 5 work well (e.g., Level 60+ Chimeric Wand if you can find it, Level 5+ Fanged Wand, etc.).  You can use Phule’s wand or the original Moo Manchu wand if you have them since they have a range of 6.  You can use a Staffy combo weapon if Will is your highest stat but we don’t recommend them since they only have a range of 3.
5. Spell power buff gear from the Dutchman, Shrimp or Aztecosaur can be helpful if you’ve got them.  Just remember to keep at least two Mojo Storms!
6. Gear (or a pet) with will-boosting powers (Rallying Call and Steadying Speech) can be helpful
7. The Witchdoctor attacks with infinite range (e.g., Mournsong, Soulreaver and Ghostwail) sometimes are useful when an enemy is out of range, so you can choose gear with it if you don’t have better options
8. Otherwise, try to maximize your Will.  You can use a bazaar hat (Veneficus’ Kukla has +5 Will and you will have fun trying to pronounce it without showing your teeth), outfit (Malefactor’s Lorica has +5 Will) and boots (Trimorph’s Wraps and many other options with +4 Will)

 

B. Power Suggestions

 

C. Companion Suggestions

1. Use Old Scratch as your first mate so his buff will affect your other companion
2. For Witchdoctors, we like Mormo with his Mojo Storm (and other powers based on spell power).  A secondary choice could be the shark with his Will buff, although his Readied Spell can slow things down.
3. If you have Doctor Noh he may be a good choice with his powers based on spell power
4. For everyone else we suggest using Gracie Conrad.  Her mine is based on spell power and can do a lot of damage
5. For Privateers, you can use the Marchioness for her Will buff, although we don’t like the animation time if someone comes near her and sets off a chain of attacks

 

D. Strategy Suggestions

 

For all Floors

 

In round one:

1. Cast Scratch’s 100% spell power buff
2. Cast blood flames or bombs if they come up
3. Boost Will if it comes up
4. Have Gracie cast her mine, ideally two spaces in front of an enemy that should move forward (but next to others enemies so the blast may hit a few)
5. Otherwise move forward a little to ensure all enemies are in range (especially for Mormo)

 

In later rounds:

1. Cast Mojo Storms or, if some enemies in not in range, other powers based on spell power
2. Scratch can use Jobu’s Breath or, if he’s not in range of an enemy, use his 50% spell power boost
3. Gracie can use her Epic strike to finish an enemy.  Don’t use it if you don’t need it in order to save animation time

 

Note that we hit max gold both times we tried this approach, only using a few Treasure Bath doubloons and not going to the 2-person doubloon chests.  It seems like we get more 4-person and 2-person doubloon chests in the battles with this strategy but don’t quote me on that!

 

Floor 3

We suggest hitting the side statues round one.  Otherwise some enemies move beside them and are hard to hit without breaking the statue.  And if you break a statue late… and the pets don’t see the darn dog and decide to hit the other statues… we’ll lets just say it can slow things down a bit.

 

Nefarious 5

We all used Old Scratch and cast a few doubloon summons on the first turn.  Seemed to work just fine.

 

Floors 9 and 10

We suggest having anyone with the Imperial Boots of Moo Manchu put them on and move Frozen Tide to the first power spot.

If Frozen Tide comes up:

1. Cast it and prioritize moving Pirates and Mormo forward
2. If you can, try to move your Pirate above the top-right statue or below the bottom-right statue so that you can hit Moo with a Mojo Storm next turn
3. Note that they will Levy but it doesn’t reduce your spell power damage

Otherwise, you can have Gracie summon her robot minion to block some of Terra Cotta Warriors with it’s Hold the Line.

 

We had several fun ideas for the title that weren’t used.  If you’ve got another one, share it in the comments!

• I’m Mojolicious for ya…
• The mojocapalypse is upon us! (credits to whoever said this great term on central first)
• Nooooooo oneeeeee finishes Moo Manchuuuuu in an hour
• Scratch: how you be likin’ me now, captain my captain?
• How Old Scratch got his Mojo back
• Go go gadget mojo flow

If you come up with anything that works faster,
please let us know in the comments.

 

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