Spelunky 2 - Daily Challenge 2023-11-06 - Cosmic Ocean 7-99 (Volcana-Tide Pool/Abzu route)

Annoying audio issues in levels 7-45 to 7-65.
2:49:56 this run was very different from this point onwards.
That could be more interesting to you. Or more boring. Depends on what kind of gameplay you're looking for.
3:18:49 Constellation shaped like the number 7 for my 7th Cosmic Ocean win was a pretty cool coincidence.
Before I realized it. It was one of my least favorites by far.
My 7th Cosmic Ocean 7-99.
And 3rd in a Daily Challenge.
By the end of the day one more player got to 7-99, which moved me to #3 spot on the Cross-Play leaderboard.
The fact that this turned out to be another win after a thing that happened in a certain level...
Once again I accepted my defeat thinking there's absolutely no way I'll make it to 99 anymore.
For variety's sake I still want to do other routes.
But on this run I went to Volcana mainly because of money.
And choice between Temple and Tide Pool was really tough because of the 0 ropes situation.
If I go to Temple I would leave Vlad's Cape at Waddler. So I thought I could miss the Alien Compass or get stuck somewhere.
Tide Pool seemed the lesser evil because in the worst case I just wouldn't be able to do the Ankh skip.
I'm also doing this route exclusively when trying Eggplant Crown 7-99. So that's another reason why I want some variety for the Daily Challenges.
This was my 114th visit to Cosmic Ocean. By this point I had played Spelunky 2 for about 477h.
I switched the character to the next one every day I played.
So I didn't really choose which characters won. I tried my best with all of them.
The 7-99 winners are:
1 Pilot
2 Valerie Crump
3 Demi Von Diamonds
4 Princess Airyn
5 Dirk Yamaoka
6 Ana Spelunky
7 Alto Singh (this run)
8 Nekka the Eagle
9 Margaret Tunnel
Stats so far:
Win # / Cosmic Ocean visits / Deaths / Total Playtime
1 / 82 / 411 / 386h
2 / 100 / 463 / 438h
3 / 102 / 469 / 445h
4 / 103 / 470 / 449h
5 / 104 / 470 / 453h
6 / 107 / 480 / 462h
7 / 114 / 498 / 477h
8 / 116 / 501 / 483h (Eggplant)
9 / 129 / 522 / 515h
-death count is XBOX version only so it's only good for seeing the difference between wins. But the total playtime includes all versions I've played.
My other 7-99 runs and much more:
• Spelunky 2
My best runs so far:
VOLCANA - TIDE POOL
7-99 (normal)
7-99 (daily 2023-10-30)
7-99 (daily 2023-11-02)
7-99 (daily 2023-11-06)
7-98 (normal)
7-91 (normal)
7-83 (normal)
7-81 (normal)
7-71 (normal)
7-70 (normal) x3
7-66 (daily)
7-65 (normal) x2
7-61 (normal)
7-59 (normal) x2
JUNGLE - TEMPLE
7-99 (normal)
7-85 (normal)
7-74 (normal)
7-69 (normal)
7-60 (daily)
7-58 (normal)
7-53 (daily)
7-43 (daily)
7-36 (normal)
7-30 (normal)
JUNGLE - TIDE POOL
7-99 (normal)
7-66 (normal)
VOLCANA - TEMPLE
7-99 (normal)
I can record 1 hour max at once. So this run had 5 separate recordings combined.
I took a few minute break and switched the recording to a new one at the beginning of 7-10, 7-45, 7-61 and 7-92.
For this video I cut those breaks into seconds.
0:00 Previous constellation/Menus
0:23 1-1 Dwelling
10:12 2-1 Volcana
14:32 Vlad's Castle
19:17 3-1 Olmec's Lair
23:05 4-1 Tide Pool
31:38 4-4 Abzu
33:31 5-1 Ice Caves
36:02 6-1 Neo Babylon
39:19 6-4 Tiamat's Throne
40:22 7-1 Sunken City
46:57 7-4 Hundun's Hideaway
48:59 7-5 Cosmic Ocean
54:47 7-10 Cosmic Ocean
1:08:08 7-20 Cosmic Ocean
1:22:08 7-30 Cosmic Ocean
1:39:46 7-40 Cosmic Ocean
1:56:24 7-50 Cosmic Ocean
2:13:03 7-60 Cosmic Ocean
2:30:55 7-70 Cosmic Ocean
2:48:19 7-80 Cosmic Ocean
2:49:56 the "hard ocean" begins
3:05:36 7-90 Cosmic Ocean
3:17:48 7-98 Cosmic Ocean(last level)
3:18:36 7-99 Cosmic Ocean Ends(constellation)
3:19:12 End Credits
3:24:08 Leaderboards (XBOX)
3:24:13 Leaderboards (All)
3:24:30 Player Profile
3:24:50 Constellation view from hub
Daily challenge for Monday 2023-11-06.
Played and recorded on Xbox Series X.

[@pdxbla]

2:49:56 this run was very different from this point onwards.
That could be more interesting to you. Or more boring. Depends on what kind of gameplay you're looking for.
0:23 run starts
0:40 you shouldn't restart just because you lose health in the first level.
this is daily so I would have kept going anyway.
But some of my best runs have had early damage and just bad play in the early levels in general.
4:27 apparently that present had a Jetpack in it. Would have helped a lot with the early lack of ropes. I don't look up anything for Daily Challenges before I do them, because I want the end result to feel earned.
6:58 Pointless tradition #1:
Six throws for win number... seven?
I actually forgot the next one was going to be 7th win. Every run between wins 6 and 7 I threw the damn thing 6 times instead of 7.
11:24 at this point I was still thinking I was going to Temple and get the Alien Compass. That's why I went out of my way to get to Van Horsing.
13:58 the irony here is I wanted/needed those ropes, but with 0 ropes I couldn't take the chance by going to the other side.
If there was no way to climb up, I would have been stuck.
14:20 the fact that I didn't look up before jumping to the other side shows how little faith I had in this run at the moment.
15:29 Pointless tradition #2:
I must return the arrow to Van Horsing.
This I know many others do as well.
19:19 I was little confused with how I handle Olmec Stage. Because I was really struggling whether to go to Temple or Tide Pool with 0 ropes. Kept thinking about pros and cons of each.
Tide Pool won mainly because I would leave Vlad's Cape at Waddler when I go to Temple. Which makes the 0 rope situation even worse.
But... when the run ends in 7-99 there are no regrets. All these choices lead to victory.
22:10 Derek placed those perfectly.
26:09 I needed 3 ropes for the Ankh skip and the game gave me 3 ropes.
That's just the kind of game this is.
31:16 oh yeah... I only had the 3 ropes. I got really lucky with the location of the Abzu entrance. And the fact that I had Spring Shoes.
38:34 that lava stuff looks kind of cool.
39:19 Pointless tradition #3:
This I sometimes skip, because it's not worth losing your run for.
I try find something to throw at Tiamat's face.
39:49 Pointless tradition #4:
After I'm done with farming blood from Qilin. I send it back and watch it go.
40:43 no reason to save ropes when I'm about to have 99 of them.
52:27 didn't realize the off screen explosions broke the first orb. Luckily an easy exit.
55:57 always great to see that.
56:29 should not happen anymore. But the game was kind again.
59:37 close one. Wouldn't want to lose Vlad's Cape when losing the Ankh...
1:06:59 aka whoopsie.
1:16:45 when this happened I wasn't sure why it happened. now after seeing the footage... Still no idea.
Maybe the spikes cause them to explode immediately. Luckily I didn't die.
1:17:20 I had a feeling I saw poison flying. Not the most usual sight.
1:27:50 there was a crush block at my exit.
1:35:45 Skeleton Key. Finally! At this moment I felt like there's hope for 7-99.
1:45:53 close to be poisoned again. With the Ankh and health situation it wouldn't have been too bad.
2:12:22 when this happened I wondered how did I not get stunned.
It's because the projectile didn't hit me. It hit the corner I was holding on and spawned an enemy which died immediately.
2:33:03 little scary. Luckily there was an easy way out.
2:49:56 this run was very different from this point onwards. I saw the elevator earlier. These kind of deaths are quite heart attacks. All hope crushed in a second.
2:50:14 after getting crushed that clean there was 0 chance for the Cape to survive. But I still had to check just in case.
2:50:50 still getting used to the fact that I don't have Vlad's Cape anymore.
2:57:13 interaction I haven't seen before.
2:59:39 small chain reaction.
3:02:03 kept changing my mind if I should go for that. Glad I didn't.
3:04:30 I saw those bones before the rope hit them, but for some reason my brain didn't tell me to get out of the way. Wouldn't have been too bad, because I still didn't believe in 7-99.
3:07:07 what a lovely start to a Temple level.
3:18:20 at last level. Couldn't ask for much better situation.
3:18:49 the fact that this Constellation looks like the number 7 is pretty cool considering this is my 7th win. Otherwise it's probably my least favorite by far.