finally beat the game from the start without shortcuts. now i'm going to go for some hell runs and try to beat it that way. any beginner advice for that?
It's basically the same thing, except you MUST get to the blackmarket to pick up the ankh. And it costs 50k gold.
So either you use up precious ropes and bombs ghosting the mines or ...
You learn to kill shopkeeps. Shops usually will spawn on 1-2, so you can get your first kill that way. Murder him and take his shotgun, kill everything standing in your way.
The best setup to have is to have 2~3 bombs with milk and 1 rope going into the black market (to get rid of shopkeeps in the first level). Murder everyone level by level, take the ankh by force, and try not to die until the moai head.
Reminder that you can't bring a weapon through the moai head unless you are cursed with the ball and chain, which requires you to destroy 2 kali altars, and almost always require you to have a cape or a jetpack in order to not die. An alternative is to keep a helper or an unlockable character alive, give him the weapon, then put him someplace he can't get out of (pretty hard to do).
Further reminder that if you want to get the kris knife, you must go into the worm at 3-1, then into the mother ship at 4-4, then die at the moai head after the mothership. This means you go into the temple with no weapon, unless you ball and chain (or keep a helper alive).
If you forgo the kris knife (usually because you don't have the kapala), you can die at the moai head level at 3-2 or 3-3, then go through the mothership and bring the plasma cannon to the temple.
No matter which route you take, you must kill anubis at 4-1, and bring the scepter with you into 4-2. The scepter will be used to unlock the door to the temple of gold. One way to keep a weapon is to kill most enemies, then kill the shopkeep using the scepter (always a risk) or a bomb, then use the scepter to unlock the door and bring in the shotgun.
Or you keep a helper alive and let him hold plasma cannon. huehuehue
