5 Black Belts

I was recently reminded that 'the best defense is a great offense'. Nothing is more offensive then 4 naked Black Belts. Also I will have very limited playing time for the next couple of weeks so I wanted something that did not require keeping close track of progress. I chose to do 4 Black Belts. I plan to run this one using only the BB's greatest strength, eventual unrealistic strength.
The Rules:
1) No weapons or armor ever, not even enchanted weapons or armor. Nothing to juggle or keep in order.
2) Only pures, heals, tents, houses or inns to save, no save states.
3) All must have identical experience. If one dies, we start that path over again at last save.
I'm sure this has been done before. If anyone has any insight I'm interested and thanks in advance.
So far I discovered that attacking one Imp facing all 4 level 1 BB's does not always mean a dead Imp. At level 2, two BB's can often but not always beat 1 Imp. Level 3, finally can one on one Imps... usually. This made me a little over confident so we went after Garland. 4 BB's at level 3, beat Garland, all still alive, in only 14 rounds with 5, yes 5, heals to make it through. A bit more grinding to get to level 4. Now we can usually beat a wolf or a Grimp 1 on 1. Mad Ponies are scary of course. Creeps and Iquanas are still really tough. The last Iquana took 4 full rounds and 1 hit in the 5th round. This got us to level 5 so it's off to Pravoka. I'll update later. Wish me patience, luck would be great too.

Sorry, after I included myself as one of the Black Belts and posted it, I realized how dumb that looks. This is on vanilla NES and there are only 4 Black Belts.

If you yourself are a Black Belt, then I think the title is pretty awesome. Gives it a unique curiosity, like 5 BBs, how does that work? ...Ahh I see...

This should be a fairly straight-forward run once you hit level 12. I think the only troubles will be the early game until you hit that threshold, after that smooth sailing and lots of overly dead monsters. Enjoy!

Level 5 and the pirates were stupid easy of course. Sharks take two rounds and a turn on average though. Now level 6 and sharks are down to one round and a turn average. It's getting better already.

Thanks Beege_man. I'm more concerned with not having ribbons and pro rings but I guess when I get through the Ice Cave I'll be less worried.

You'll likely want to grind out some extra levels before doing Ice Cave. +4 MDef per level makes even just a few extra levels a huge benefit for preventing deaths.

beege_man posted...

You'll likely want to grind out some extra levels before doing Ice Cave. +4 MDef per level makes even just a few extra levels a huge benefit for preventing deaths.

Thanks. I always forget about that because when I have a BB they tend to be with a crew that wants to promote ASAP. I was thinking to over level anyway to give cushion on HP and because killing enemies quickly is a really good defense too.

Sounds like a fun challenge - let us know how it goes (sounds like you're making decent progress already)....

--Jay

Waited to level 10 for the extra hits to go to the marsh cave. It really wasn’t fair to the wizards or Astos. The marsh cave only cost me 5 heals and I only ran from Giests. Rub missed and Astos was done one turn into the third round. Killing quickly turns out to be a very good defense. I have a long way to go though.

Sounds like it's going well so far..

--Jay