The Larva Hunter 2.0

This page guides you through a Slime Tube run, with the goal of eventually getting a squirming slime larva.

The squirming slime larva is a familiar hatchling. It's untradable, so the only way to get one is via the Slime Tube boss, Mother Slime. The way the Slime Tube works is, the higher your ML, the faster the run; and the faster the run, the better the rewards. To get a larva you must do a tube run in under 230 turns, which requires an ML of at least 1340.

Back in 2009 when the Slime Tube first showed up, getting your ML that high was difficult. Even getting it high enough to get a caustic slime nodule was hard. These days there are a lot more +ML items available, some of them quite cheap, so it's much easier.

Start by going through the checklist below and setting it up for your situation. The settings are saved in a cookie so they'll still be there the next time you visit.

Roadmap

• Learn some skills. In addition to the aforementioned Amphibian Sympathy, Leash of Linguini, Empathy of the Newt, Ur-Kel's Aria of Annoyance, Pride of the Puffin, and Drescher's Annoying Noise, you will want Cannelloni Cocoon for cheap healing. You will also want some high-level attack spells for killing Mother Slime: Shrap, and at least two of the 120 MP Hobopolis spells. Preferably all five. And make sure you know CLEESH - very important!
• Get the Space Trip safety headphones. These are untradable and give -100 ML. You unlock them by beating Space Trip in the Game Grid Arcade, then buy them with 1000 Game Grid tickets.
• If you can, get the HOA regulation book too. It's also -100 ML and untradable. You get it by fighting the Dreadsylvania Zombie Homeowners' Association in hard mode - sometimes.
• Prepare three outfits:
  • slimeinitial: as much -ML gear as you can get
    • nasty rat mask (-5 ML)
    • security flashlight (-10 ML) or HOA regulation book (-100 ML)
    • water wings for babies (-15 ML)
    • red badge (-25 ML)
    • Space Trip safety headphones (-100 ML)
  • slime: all your Slime Hates It gear, and +ML or slime resistance for any extra slots
  • slimemom: -ML, slime resistance, +muscle/HP
• If you want to use fustulent seal grulch, which is untradable, you'll need at least days as a Seal Clubber to collect of them.
• Open the slime tube.
• Add one big bundle of chamoix.
• Without killing any slimes or dying, squeeze a gall bladder. By far the easiest way to do this is to force non-combats - this guarantees your next turn in the Tube will be "Engulfed". You can use gear such as the Jurassic Parka, Cincho de Mayo, or Apriling band tuba. If you don't have any of those, buy a stench jelly in the mall, they are cheap.
• If you want your clannies to do gall bladder squeezes too, tell them to do the same. Each player can do only one squeeze and the maximum total is five.
• If you want to use llama lama gongs, now is the time. It takes turns. The sequence is:
  • Approach the roach.
  • Head towards the noise.
  • Party with your fellow roaches.
  • Just keep chatting.
• Apply effects.
  • If you want to use food/booze/spleen consumables beyond the usual slimy ones, you may need to spend multiple days.
• Now you're ready to kill slimes. Do the following cycle:
  1. Lower your ML by putting on the slimeinitial outfit, shrugging Ur-Kel's, and putting the Purse Rat into the terrarium. Heal, use a chamois, adventure in the tube to get Coated in Slime, then CLEESH so the turn doesn't count against the run length. The lowered ML means you get more turns of Coated in Slime, which is good. With your setup you should get turns, which will let you fight high-ML slimes for each low-ML CLEESH.
  2. Don the slime outfit, cast Ur-Kel's, get out the Purse Rat, adventure in the tube, and kill a high-ML slime. Keep going until your HP gets too low - one to six turns, depending on how many turns of Coated in Slime you got.
  3. Heal and do another turn. You can probably do this twice.
  And repeat until Mother Slime shows up. You can semi-automate this by making three top-line menu icons that call three chat macros. There may also be a fully automated KoLmafia script - there used to be one, but I don't know if it has been updated. Tip: Don't use "Repeat Last Action"/"Adventure Again", it can mess you up.
• Kill Mother Slime:
  • don the slimemom outfit
  • turn off the MCD
  • shrug Ur-Kel's
  • optional: use SGEEAs to get rid of other +ML effects
  • put the Purse Rat back into the terrarium
  • use a chamois
  • buff muscle to get more HP
  • buff +items to get more alveoli
  • heal to max
  • have at least 600 MP
  • make sure you have a warbear whosit
  • start the fight
  • cast Shrap
  • cast one of the Hobopolis spells
  • if it did under 500 damage, cast the same one again
  • do the same with a second Hobopolis spell
  • and if necessary, a third, fourth, and fifth
• Enjoy your loot.

Notes

• The default settings use only cheap and plentiful items. With the maximum five gall bladder squeezes from you and your clannies, you can do a run in 211 Tube turns / 282 total turns, easily fast enough for a slimeling larva.
• With the default settings and only one gall bladder squeeze, you can still do a run in 216 Tube turns / 270 total turns. That means you can get a larva by yourself if you like.
• The defaults assume you already have seven pieces of Slime Hates It gear. If you don't, a run with the default settings but zero Slime Hates It gear will take 406 Tube turns, giving you a caustic slime nodule. You can use that to make a piece of the gear, which will make your next run faster. With one piece of gear you can get a nodule solo. With three pieces you can get two nodules solo. Once you have all seven pieces, you can get your larva.
• If you try clicking all the checkboxes just to see what happens, you'll get nonsensical results. This is because that much +ML is not survivable, even with the trick of switching between high ML and low ML modes. The fastest survivable run I've been able to get the page to predict is 190 turns. If I jigger the source code to assume a HOA regulation book, I can get down to 183 turns. The fastest non-cheating run reported in the Forums topic is 186 turns. Someone with the HOA book should try it!

Jef (#889940)'s pages / KoL pages / Larva Hunter 2.0