DRG 6x2ι EDD: "Titanic Prize" - no pheromones (true solo scout)
Channel: ojb
Date: 2023-08-04

No bosco, three(!) iron will revives, one horrible misspelling of "forward". Featuring thermal exhaust feedback drak + double barrel boomstick + IFGs in Hollow Bough.

Because I'm filled with ego and narcissism, I decided a dive run without pheromones should be one with bubble holds, and this one had two of em. This choice cost about 50 minutes of extra sweat, but overall I feel accomplished and have "proven" myself at the altar of those who disparage pheromones. 

Important note: this is 95% jest/banter btw, but I figure I need some context here :) There is a decent sect of 6x2 players who feel modded pheromone runs aren't respectable enough compared to using any of the more difficult grenades, and consider runs with phero's to be "lesser" in some sense. In a way, it's true. Pheromone-less salvage/escort/black boxes are much more difficult to pull off, and often rely more heavily on luck. Outside those 3 distinct encounters, I honestly don't think there is a legitimate distinction in difficulty, and the whole debate is silly given it's a casual game and people can play whatever the hell they find fun. I only bring this up because I'm a pheromone enjoyer and it amuses me to see people poo on pheromone use, as if slow kiting enemies into an IFG'd choke is any greater distinction of skill. I will admit I sometimes have similar feelings towards three select overclocks, so really I'm just a flaming hypocrite anyway.

Anyway, the reason I tend to use pheromones is because they honestly aren't just free win buttons but because on average they make maps quicker to complete. Sure they're strong, but you only get 4 and you have to be at least semi strategic with their use and can't just spam them willy nilly without burning nitra. Contrary to popular opinion (and I say this as someone who, at least going by pure youtube uploads, has probably completed the most 6x2 true solo escort/salvage scout runs), pheromones actually don't make those map types free. You can experience (and I have video evidence of this) some extremely difficult runs even with pheromones, just due to the nature of how much difficulty can swing based on which enemies spawn and in which combinations. But when they hit well, they're obscene.

I imagine there can now be a distinction between iota runs of 6x2 being "lesser" than pure 6x2, purely since you get to save more energy due to less constant pressure, and thus don't need to display greater feats of endurance. But if you've followed my dev testing of iota at all, I'm really thinking it isn't all that much easier, just more condensed and quicker to get to the spicy stuff :)

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Long and boring rant aside, this dive was mostly blind. I failed the first stage 3 times prior, with all 6 deaths due to stingtails lol. None of those deaths were during the black box as I got much luckier in elites and bug types during those bubbles than the one successful run you see here. The stingtail deaths were during eggs, and almost entirely due to me getting greedy in an attempt to skip eggs and extract with saved nitra. Everything beyond stage 1 was layout blind and my first time going through those caves. I did look at the modifiers beforehand, so I loosely knew what to expect.

Stage 1's black box had elites, so there's a fair bit of RNG in there over which elites you get and how you can adapt. But it's mostly countered by volatile guts letting you pretty comfortably wipe waves of enemies before they get to you, especially when clumped into IFGs, letting you instead focus on the elites that do spawn. I've said before that outside elite (normal) mactera, I don't particularly respect the elite modifier all that much, and there are more difficult red modifiers out there. Honestly, every map has innate elite threat since s04, and that's because stingtails exist now and those are literally worse than elites.

Stage 2 I screwed up my egg pulls and overstayed my welcome, trapping me off before I could get out clean. Definitely easily avoidable with some minor thought, but I wasn't playing that well. I probably could have attempted to push forward, but even with no pressure later I got lost in the weird tunnel gen lol. Rest of the stage was pretty dirt simple, especially on iota.

Stage 3 had dread primary, which on modded is a bit of joke. Dreads aren't boosted by 6x2 like anything else, so it's just "can I clear this room" followed by "did i get lucky enough to dodge arby's BS shotgun attack". The black box was rough and went poorly (more in comments below).

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Loadout:
32112 Thermal Exhaust Feedback
12233 Double Barrel
IFG

Perks: 
Dash / Iron Will
Resupplier / Deep Pockets / Born Ready

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Highlights:

0:00 Build
0:52 Stage 1
5:54 Black box
26:42 Stage 2
44:32 Stage 3
1:02:54 Black Box attempt 1
1:20:18 BB2
1:25:37 BB3
1:31:00 Final stats page