Challenge 6.2 sub-17?

[Lithius]

After trying a number of different strategies, I've finally managed to finish Encounters with Twilight in sub-19 using pure fire:

encounters-fire.pmv

17 seems very far away, though. Has anyone managed sub-17 or faster?

[SunWu]

Replay starting at 7:45:

https://www.twitch.tv/ultralord_t1421/video/2537338576

Edited August 18, 2025 by SunWu

[Lithius]

Activating the screaming stone to destroy all the buildings is brilliant, I never would have thought of that, thanks!

Edit: Got it :)

Edited August 22, 2025 by Lithius

[Yoreki]

I literally had 2 runs end at 17:10, then thought i'd check out the forum^^

The posted video does not load for me. What would be the general strategy in it? I attempted a similar approach to OP. I would assume an offensive approach would be faster (since you could recycle the army for the boss), but i dont feel confident in my fire T3 speedclearing capabilities.

I'm curious what kind of witchcraft gets you a sub-13 run tho xD

Edit: I got a sub-17 run defending after optimizing my strategy a bit more. Thought i'd share for people to see. As a note, i usually wait for 300 energy, then clear the tower and the 2 brutes, which then gives you roughly 280+ energy after building your monument when the door opens, which means you can immediately run for the spawner (and have 300++ when you get there). This prevents stuff annoying you prior to it. Opening the door earlier does not give you more energy and thus is not helping to clear the map faster. But this specific run i thought "ah, i'll just clear the tower first and then wait", but it kinda messed up my timing and since the Vileblood got pulled (which turned out to be lucky in this case, since it just barely fit energy-wise), it made the spawner kill insanely tight on energy. Very efficient in hindsight, but not required. To anybody who wants to reproduce this: you should be able to kill the spawner, then the Vileblood, then proceed as shown. That was the plan to begin with.

encounters_fire_sub_17.pmv

 

Edited August 29, 2025 by Yoreki
Adding Replay

[SunWu]

A few other tactics that were shown in the video:

- using giant slayers + dying breed as early as possible to get some more power early on.

- add a jugger into the mix for the twilight skycatcher later

- use the screaming stone to destroy the towers wich are impossible to reach for your giant slayers and jugger

- giant slayers, jugger + 2 skyfires (against the spirits) to efficently kill the boss.