Has anyone ever beaten Zakum? (in Off-topic)

In the Hunter Story game on the out of BA page, I've gotten my guy to lvl 157, and still can't beat him... lowest ive ever gotten him to was 500k HP, so I know I'm close... Any of you ever beat him?

you need to be around 170 i think

I think i can do it when i level to 160, so long as i level mid-fight, so as to take advantage of the MP recharge that comes with leveling. I'm thinking it will take ~ lvl 165 to beat him without leveling mid-fight... I just got him below 150k HP when i leveled to 158 about halfway through...

:) i sorta stopped playing the game after i learned how to tamper with the file lol unlimited damage bow =x

Oh, and as for my method of defeating him, I'm starting off by using B-55 Arrows while he is mostly off screen, and switching to the B-55 S.PIKE, and using Pierce Arrows whenever there are too many creatures on my screen.

I'm soooooo close!

IMO, cheats can *sometimes* be fun in a game, but should be reserved until after you've beaten the game without them.

*grins* been there done that

You know there is a level tougher then Zakum, at least the one you get to on the regular mission list?

the bad day you get through a fortune cookie? I may have to try that one now that I've beaten Zakum :D

Breaking news, I've apparently unlocked more levels via page 17...

Turns out the levels are just rehashes of previous levels and monsters, only exposed to nuclear chemicals and therefore, faster and stronger. Even then though, all but Uranium Valley (which i just failed twice) are extremely easy after defeating Zakum...

interesting news...

After training 150 lvls of stats, a lvl 6 stat unlocks called 'Go outside' (I was expecting something like that :P) and you can only train 10 stat points into it at first. At level 160, you are allowed to train an 11th point into it, that then becomes Ascend, which "allows you to take the ascention test in the curiosity shop". This test costs 99,999,999 mesos to take, and it's an ascention ghost with massive HP that doesn't move at all from 80% repel (at least it didn't in the four and a half minutes it took me to fail) while ghostly versions of the boss from the 'Crack in the Wall' level on page 7 charge at you like regular monsters do, but only one at a time, and they've got over1.5m HP each... Even at lvl 167, i couldn't get past 10% of the Ghost's HP...

Turns out you need at least 13.7m points, AND 37 S ranks to unlock Bow of the Dead, which is wicked powerful... but then kill Ergoth, Athena, and Zakum for increasingly more powerful bows... With the new bows, I went from barely being able to touch the last 3 levels to having S ranks on em all.... Oh, and this:

Why is this game so fun and why did you show it to me...

TH. the method to unlocking Bow of Lost soul is not exactly that. I think you need an average rank of AAA on most of the missions to get it after you buy the mega ultra bow for 10mil.

I had 20S rank and 14bil score when I unlocked it and it happened when I turned a AA rank to a AAA rank. Still need to beat Zakum as I am pretty low level still.

Score matters for bow unlocking, not ranking. But since the two are correlated, an increase in ranking increases your score.

I'm at level 120 something at the moment. I can almost nearly qualify to attempt to ascend.

"Score matters for bow unlocking, not ranking. But since the two are correlated, an increase in ranking increases your score."

The bow of the dead is supposedly available at ~13.7b score... I didn't get it until 28.4b score... I'm pretty sure ranking matters. :)

"I'm at level 120 something at the moment. I can almost nearly qualify to attempt to ascend."

Ascention cannot be done until level 170, as you won't even get the skill with which to do so until then.

TH: I seriously admire your perseverance. I almost gave up trying to beat athena before I found out how to get the Bow of lost soul, then necro bow. I was at level 105 or so and my damage is no where near enough with the normal bows + I see no prospect of unlocking new skills. How much grinding did you do? :)

Gah! This is the grindiest flash game I have ever seen! It's got a similar grind factor to maple story itself! Unless I'm doing something wrong, of course.

"TH: I seriously admire your perseverance. I almost gave up trying to beat athena"

I actually did give up... at around level 137 i started the thing over, thinking i had missed out on low-level badges (since they ccame out while i was high level with only two levels left to beat and i only had like 24/80-someodd...)... Turns out I didn't miss out on anything but 137 levels... Ooops! >.<


"How much grinding did you do?"

It wasnt that bad up until the lower-90s, where I could beat every level, except for Athena and Zakum, where I didnt even come close... It took me to level 145 or so to beat Athena, and to the transition from 158-159 mid-level to beat Zakum, both with Mega Ultimate Bow =/

And, upon asecention, I put all BP's into XP, and I'm working on my next one :P Should be a bit easier now that i know what I'm doing :)

Supposedly money is a wiser investment for the first ascent rather than XP...

I'm not nearly to level 170, like i would need to be for the ascent, but I've already gone through over half the bows... I'll probably do full XP again, this next Asscention, and then may do XP or SP's for the one after that... not sure, and ill have plenty of time to see what ill need... and to more accurately answer the "how much grind?" question:

I was level 138 when I first beat Athena.

I then at level 141 went back using pierce arrows to get AAA or S on lower levels. Got the better bows then beat Athena again to get the Ancient Amazon Bow.

After beating Athena to get that bow, I opened page 17 of missions without beating Zakum yet.

Just beat Zakum at level 142/143!!!!!

Good job ranger :).

I just beat zakum at level 135. I got athena's bow pretty early, at 120 or so, but needed spike b55 to beat him. Could've done it earlier if I didn't level judgement arrows....

Once you get to the radioactive levels, leveling is very quick.
I am already at 153 since beating Zakum.

If you buy the SP Reset from the store, what does that do?

Unlearns all your skills so you can redistribute them.

Have you manage to beat the last two levels in page 18? I am having trouble with them...

I got A on the first level on page 18, the other 2 elude me.

There is a 4th level on page 18- Permanent Silly Level.

There are mobs that go so fast and have tons of hp, I cannot kill even 1. Along with a boss with more HP then Zakum.

Strange game :p

Need to ascend a few time to beat these I assume. I come pretty close to beating mission 2 on page 18.

So I just finished level 1 (the top one from page 1) without missing a single arrow. What does the big B mean?

I was lucky and got a C on the 2nd mission on level 18.

The last 2, including the new one are impossible.

B is your rank for the mission based on scores. S, AAA, AA, A, B, C, D, E. To get a high rank, you need to not miss, have 100% repel and make your arrow stay in air longer.

Just got my Ascension. Level 174, the problem was getting enough money to try to do it.

Ahh great. got A on level 1 and S on level 2... strange...

Getting S on level 1 is annoying. I haven't bothered getting it yet(has AAA on that one). You get a badge for getting S on level 1.

D'oh! money woulda been helpful... Got the power, and the levels needed to ascend again, but only 40m mesos :P

Kill Zakum another 50 times or so :P. I'm at 80mil and counting...

and at level 160, I'm not finding it difficult to C-rank Antarctic Waste Site... I was able to S-Rank it in the upper 180's before my ascention... Permanent silly level is going to be permanently undone, and its just silly for it to be there :P

Level 161 now, still "training" on Nuclear Kargo", as i can get well over a mil mesos /win

I just kept doing Nuclear Kargo and then the Antarctic Wasteland. This time, i put all my BP's into cash so that i could get the useful bows faster, and not have to add 20-30 excess levels waiting for the cash to ascend :P

Fun Game.

I have an S on 1st level. You can just use the regular arrow (as long as it kills with one hit) but you need to get the angle just right to maximize air time. My score one level 1 is 74,130

Wow. Zakum was a JOKE! S rank on first go at level 136. I could have beaten him earlier had I known how to get the character (stupid fortune cookies).

How is it that you were able to beat him at level 136, yet it is massively harder for everyone else?

I dunno.... I'm that good?

All my passive skills are maxed, and B55 arrows maxed.

Only use the plain B55 arrows. I just put a high angle (right edge of the % symbol) and then just kept firing as fast as I could get back to 100% power. This method pushes Zakum backwards, so he is always basically off screen. Then just keep firing for the several minutes it takes to kill him.

Easy level, awesome rewards. I can't wait until I start ascending.

Does anyone have any tips for the Red Snerg Rush level on page ?. I can't get past AA and I have played it many a time!! I have every other level at S up until the 15th page (except for Somebody Else's house on page 7, but I haven't played that in a little while. Maybe I can do it now...)

Zakum is Cake with the Amazon Bow you get from beating Athena after getting the Necromancer's bow from Ergoth, after buying the mega ultimate bow and getting enough points for the bow of the dead, or whatever its called... he wa so massively hard because i was trying to do it with the mega ultimate bow, dealing a quarter of the damage...

I tried beating him at below level 100 to demonstrate the difference the bigger bows make, but the other monsters kept getting in the way and leveled me...

I'm level 27 or so now... beginning to get addicting :p

I have major difficulty completing boss levels. I seem to be able to do levels two pages ahead of boss levels that I can't do. I use power arrow or arrow blow on it until creeps come a long near it and then I switch to arrow bomb and keep hitting the boss until the splash kills the creep and then switch back to power arrow or arrow blow. Should I be going about this differently?

I experienced the same thing Flamey. Just go back and redo the boss levels later when you are more powerful.

I just use all passive buffs and use the double arrows or arrows which pass through...

I have all passive buffs and max Piercing/Power Arrows.
I switch back and forth, but for the most part piercing does best vs mobs.
and I'm only level 65.
I have bow's unlocked that I can't even afford yet.... *sighs

"Does anyone have any tips for the Red Snerg Rush level on page ?."

If you mean the one on page 1, use Arrow Bombs and a high arc to S it.Since they are all so clustered, the Arrow Bombs have the best effect.

A tip to getting high score on any levels. Charge up your arrow and you'll see a percentage on the top left corner indicating how much you've charged up. Put your mouse on the last 0 of the 100% and fire when a monster enters mostly into the screen. It will hit with a long hang time in the air = more score. You can get S rank this way even without 100% accuracy. Adjust for faster monsters.

I beat zakum this way with B55 spike arrows that you get at lv 120. These are basically B55 arrows cept they jump up after they hit. The longer they hang in the air, the more damage they do. I can do upward of 700k damage with one arrow if I hop it off the normal creeps for extra boost so I can off zakum in 2 mins. Farming that got my 99mil pretty quickly.

With regards to bosses in general, I am a big fan of strafe and hurricane. I find them to have the highest damage output, kills normal creep on the way and cause huge knockback on crits. I can knock athena back 1/4 of a screen with one volley of hurricane. If you want to s rank all the boss missions, use the method I described above. Bosses are pretty easy to S rank since they are so damn huge. (cept for Athena). You only need an average rank of AAA to get the Bow of Lost Soul anyways.

Does the flight time actually matter points related?


I tried your strategy Ulord but it gave me far less points than when having my cursor the way I used to do it...

All of the forums suggest that points are related to time in the air and damage done (up to the HP of the target).

There is a formula posted on the website. Yes flight time is directly correlated to score as it is in the formula. Your problem might be that if you happen to miss using that strategy, your accuracy score will suffer. As you are not chugging out a lot of arrows (1 shot 1 kill or 1 shot coupla kills with iron arrow), it'll negatively impact your score. Click here for score formula.

Finally S-ranked the Red Snerg Rush with a mix of B55 S.Pike and a bomb arrow at the end to kill more than the 25 I needed and get the extra points.

Only need to S rank 3 more levels and then I'll have S rank all the way up to Zakum! :D

Cool :)
I got S-Ranks using a similar strategy to ULord, I just line up under and between the 2 00's in my charge up and fire after the slow moving units are on the screen, I used piercers to hit multiples that come out at once. I didn't get the fire bombs. but I'll probably need them to get the Red Zergs Level.

Pshh. I'm not interested in S ranking all the missions. That sounds like work :). Speed ascension ftw!

Just had my first Ascension at level 161. Didn't quite have enough cash to do it at level 160 :(

Thanks. Also, I've got As on almost everything and then I can't beat the next levels. I just spent my time last night gaining two levels purely on the most recent boss levels. Is this the most effective way to gain XP? Cash is not an issue, I've got the most recent bow (black metus) and am pretty far from the next one.

Flamey:

There will be some plateaus where your power simply doesn't get ahead very much. Boss fights are great for getting over them. You can also try the swarm levels if you can kill very quickly. I was a big fan of the multi hit skills (double shot -> strafe -> hurricane). They seems to boost my killing speed the most. Remember to get all the arrows as a second priority. You may want to get mana regen after you max your strafe. Upgrade your bow whenever you can and keep getting S or AAA on the earlier missions. That way you get your best bows faster and ascend much faster. I am on my second run and getting bows very quickly because I have bonus money from ascension. It really helps damage output and speed up levelling.

Maxing out passive buffs and Iron/Pierce Arrows and finding levels where monsters give good XP that I can A-rank or better so I get the bonus XP at the end of the fight too seems to be my fastest leveling. It's easier to tell which levels will give the best XP/Meso after the first Ascention, just go for the highest point level you can beat.

I would also avoid buying bows until they are necessary to get over the next bump, as you lose money trading up. There's also a badge for going through the bows, buying less than 15, and another for less than 8.

Zakum comes back with a vengeance in a new level 'The return of Zakum', and he's apparently sucked power from the graphics or something, because he's got over 142m HP and...

Oh... and those things give a TON of XP... I got 3 levels killing 8 of them, and i started with nearly no XP...

Man, I suck at this game. I decided to try it, and so far I can only finish the first, second, and fourth missions. The Red Snerg Rush is owning my butt.

Haha awesome. Can't wait to try that after this ascension. I'm buying every bow right now so I can get the bow lover badge.

I didn't know there was such a badge, ill have to do it on my next ascention :)

Got 45/74... is there somewhere i can find a list?

Here you go. :)

Another goal of mine accomplished! :D

From:


To:

Kudos :). Now time to kill zakum again.

How does one get the Return to Zakum level?

not sure... didn't even notice it until working on my third ascention... I had also just broken 50b points... so perhaps that was part of it... Or maybe it unlocked when I got my 50th badge (got 55 atm)... i hit a buncha milestones in between when i didnt see the level and when i did see it...

working on my fourth*

Just got S rankings on the entire first page :D

[EDIT: didn't want to make a new post; just got S rankings on second page also!]

The ? Quick Way to Beat Hunters Story

Phases of the game.

Each Phase centers on a bow and your goal to get it as fast as possible.

Forget badges. You can always go through the game again (which you have to in order to get them all) to get one you missed.

First Time Through the Game:


1) Getting the Crovy’s Lonely Bow:

Your starting goal is to make as much money as you can. Save money, skip bows, fight to gain money. Just get money as fast as possible. With that your xp will grow but that is for later.

As far as deciding on what bows to buy, just buy as few as you need since it will cost more to buy a specific bow if you buy the one before it.

Fight as high as possible to beat that level. Test all the levels you want, since you can Shift-D out of them if they are extremely hard. Find a level where you can barely win or come close. Go back a couple and fight a level or two, with that your attack will grow (it naturally does by going up levels). If you level and/or buy a new boy, then retest that level. You will find you did much better. Perhaps enough to use that level to gain xp/money. Finishing a level gives you bonus xp/money based on how good you did. S---AAA---AA---A---B---C---D---E (fail). Better grade, better rewards at the end.

Occasionally you will get an AAA and/or S on the level. Great. Don’t overplay the level to get that. Be happy with a lot of money. Money rules in this stage.

When the new level is beatable, search up higher for the next level that fits this criteria. When found, go back and level/xp until you gain a level or buy a bow. Do this until you have enough money to buy the Crovy’s Lonely Bow.

It takes a long time the first time through. Remember this path.



2) Getting Mega Ultimate Bow

You need a certain score about 12M then defeat any mission, bam, a Rain Bow (133 ATK) pops up on the end score screen under the money you earned.

Now your even tougher: Use the Rainbow as you did so far and get more money since now you need 10,650,000 mesos to get the Mega Ultimate Bow.

You should be leveling/gaining mesos on the Balrog Family Reunion or Warped Passage.

When you have the correct amount of money, buy the Mega Ultimate Bow.




3) Getting the Bow of Lost Souls:

Some of you may be extremely lucky and have enough AAA and S to get this bow on your first win after betting the Mega Ultimate Bow. You have to as you need an AAA or S on at least 45 levels (perhaps a bit more) and 13,700,000,000 score to get it. Go back and use single arrow skills to get as high a grade you can. There is a great post on the details of score but I use these 3 principles to get a higher one.

a) You need a 100% accuracy: I use pierce arrow and iron arrow. Less of a chance to miss then with hurricane or strafe as if any of the multiples arrow miss, you do not get a 100% accuracy. Also, it lets me get mobs off the far edge, without missing as I get the lead mob.
b) Arrow Time in Air: I fire as high as possible to maximize score since arrow time is the 2nd component of score.
c) 100% repel: This is the last of the factors. You obviously need to have 100% repel to maximize score.
It is possible to get a S, certainly an AAA if you do not have 100% repel/accuracy but unless I know I can fight the mobs back or missed 1 shot at most, I Shift-D and start again if I think I am strong enough to do it.
After you fight and get enough AAA/S’s and the score need. The Bow of Lost Souls will appear at fights end. For me it was when I got an AA to an AAA. Now your cooking as this step will NEVER need to be repeated unless you restart the entire character.
On your 2nd time through, you will notice that on the next fight after you get the Mega Ultimate Bow you will automatically get the Bow of Lost Souls. You will never have to do this again, unless you want to go back for Badges on future ascensions through the game.



4) Getting the BloodThirsty Bow
This is the top bow you can get. So powerful its base attack is not known to mere mortals. The Ubershot Deluxe 5000. With this bow mere mobs tremble at your feet. Bosses crap their pants. Radioactive mobs just come to their inevitable death.
Getting it is cake. This step should not take you more then 10-15 minutes of playing time every time through.

With the Bow of Lost Souls in your possession, fight Ergoth. Should be an easy fight by now, using Hurricaine (which should be by this time maxed as well as all passive skills). After beating that level (which should be easy), you get the Necro Bow. A powerful bow in its own right with no known number for its attack, but the next 2 are just as easy to get.

Take the Necro Bow and beat Athena. Should be quite easy by now. You get the Ancient Amazon Bow. Another powerful bow but still not the best. And we want the best.

Take the Ancient Amazon Bow and beat Zakum. Should not be a problem. The Ancient Amazon Bow is incredibly powerful. Beat Zakum and page 17 opens up and you get the BloodThirsty Bow.

Now you are free to level until you get to at least level 160 and get 99,999,999 mesos to ascend. There are plenty posts on that you can look up. But generally by the time you get to accumulate 99,999,999 meso, your fairly tough and ascension is fairly easy.

Now you get to choose your ascension points to distribute. Do not be a fool like me and put them in xp. For a while, put all into mesos.

Now it will be easier with all the extra money, to do the above. The 3rd step is forever gone, so you can concentrate on going as fast, or as slow, as you want your future times through.

Other notes:

The Return of Zakum level appears after you beat the game 3 times, in my limited experience.

After future times getting the BloodThirsty Bow, I go directly to the Return of Zakum level and beat as many of the “Salesmen” I can at 170k xp per. I normally get a couple levels doing this.

Then go and try the Permanent Silly Level and see if I can kill any Red Kentaurus (you get a badge for your first kill). If I can I level there for a bit. If not I go back to Return to Zakum and level till I am tough enough. I almost always use Hurricaine. And maximize all passive skills..

For money beat The Call of Zakum, you will have more money then you need.


For my skills I use the following pattern:

I always spend points on the highest tab possible. I will start a new passive skill on a higher tab then finish an active skill on a lower tab.

I noticed you have to spend your skill points to a certain level then the next tab pops up. It is not possible to save all your skill points to use them at a higher tab. So spend all of the slowly to get the next tab up. Higher tab=much more powerful skills.

I have noticed that each time through the level requirements decrease by 1.

1st tab (level 0) Maximize all passives and learn Double Shot. I do double shot last as the passives are so much better given your low MP regeneration and your low MP.

2nd tab: (level 15) Maximize passives and learn double shot as high as possible till tab 3 pops up. If you have points over, learn Iron Arrow.

3rd tab: (level 30) Maximize passives (MP regeneration is your most important skill in the game, max it ASAP) and learn Strafe. If I have points left over, boost Iron Arrow, then any other skill.

4th tab: (level 70) Maximize passives and learn Hurricane. Points left over go to Pierce Arrow. Then anything since you will never use it.

5th tab: (level 120) Maximize passives (Judgment Arrows first) and learn anything since you will be using Hurricane most of the time.

6th tab (level 150) Learn Go Outside as you want but make sure you have it at 10 before level 160 if you want to ascend the quickest. Skip Arrow can be fun on the last 2 levels on page 18.

Ascension: Level 160. This is fixed no matter how many times you go through the game. You need to put 1 more point into Go Outside to be able to ascend.

Terrific Guide Ranger!

One thing I do differently is as soon as I hit level 120, I do not max judgment arrow first. I max b55 spike first. With b55 spike maxed, I can down call of zakum in around 1 minute without judgment arrow, greatly speeding up the money collection process and provides excellent exp at that level. It helps me ascend the quickest.

Wow, Ranger, awesome! Truly!

Ranger wrote that? It looks like a C&P. Kudos if you did though.

Yes, I wrote it. Did it on Word and C/P it to the forums.

I have no idea if it is good enough to actually post on the site itself, that was part of the reason I posted it here first.

You can join their forums and post it there to see what the nuts think ;)

Just did about 30 min ago.

anyone know how to reset the game? and dont say shift+1 cuz that doesnt work for me

AOD,

I think Hatch knows as he did it once before.

CM him.

Erm...only thing I can use so far is bronze arrows and the Bow Mastery, due to the fact that I don't know how to activate 'active' skills...is there a button you press or something?

Under options, click on one of the letters and then you will be able to use active skills

What do you mean reset the game? Delete your current character record? There is a file called keylog something that stores all of your information. Search on their forum to help you locate it. If you delete that file, your save will be reset.

The save file is called "keylog1337.sol" Delete that file and it resets the game.

*frowns* The game won't load. I think it hates my dialup.

Any alternative sites I could go to to play this game?

The game is 1.7mb so it'll take a little while for dial up. I haven't had dial up for 7 years so I have no idea how slow :)

It's been 'downloading' since 11:30 server time....my dialup is slow, yes, but faster than that.

to lazy to look on the forum, is it a cookie file?

It's a .sol file. Go search in your documentation and setting folder and you'll find it.

NO,

Hatch knows a set of keys you type in to reset the game.

yup that did the trick, deleted the sol file, to bad i had an s-rank

A user claims to have converted Hunter Story into an executable file; I'm thinking downloading this would be the best way for me to play.

However, the filesize is 2.1Mb, so I wonder if there's a Trojan or something of that sort attached.

Hunter Story Exe is the link if anyone wants to have a looksee....I haven't got any antivirus software on my PC right now, so I'm not willing to give it a test. ;'D

I'll test it when I get home oob. Don't want the IT department on my ass at work :)

Found an alternative site:

Hunter Story Alternate Site

But unsure if this is the latest version. Fun!

1.18 is the latest

1.18 is buggy.
1.17 is the version I am playing.

bummer site is down :(

OB, I don't think that's anywhere near the latest version as the missions only go up to page 8 and on the latest you can see up to page 16.

Is anyone able to play?

it is down for me as well.

You don't have to defeat Zakum for page 17 to open up. I'm only level 125 and I'm close to beating Zakum, and leveling up on page 17 for more judgment arrows.

All Clear and I beat Zakum at level 128.

The .exe looks safe to me, OB :)

Does anyone know when it will be playable again?

I'm playing v 1.18 and have been all morning.

Down for me at the moment.

on what site and do you ever put your pc out?

Can anyone give me a URl that works?

Here is the new link:

http://www.flowsion.net/hunterstory/

Thanks Ranger, that worked.

Best to go here first so you can see how to get your old saved game to the new folder:

http://lecrovax.googlepages.com/hunterstory

Then click on the link to the new site.

It is quite easy to transfer the file you need from the old folder to the new one.

Took me all of 2 minutes to figure it out.

Here are some more info on when to get Bow of Lost Souls:

I got 31 AAA and 21 S but I still haven't got in. Does anyone know the exact formula to get it?

nope, but I've beaten return of Zakum with a B rank with 66 badges now :D

and it says you only need 13.7b points to get it... i didnt get mine until over 28b points... had to get either 37 or 42 Ss to do it (not sure which, but i remember it was one of those numbers, i think...)...

I just got the Bow of Lost Souls when I got a AAA rank, I now got 32 AAA and 22 S.

After my latest ascent, I sit with 67 badges, and the following bonuses:

Just got my Bow of Lost Souls at Level 106 or so, and I'm all up for wasting Ergoth and getting the next one, but I have no Ergoth, is he in the 'placeholder' thing betwixt the Balrogs and hermits? if so how do I get that mission to appear? Thanks ;p

Ergoth is on page 15.

Oops. Was looking forwards, not back to stuff I already killed. I'll just sit over here in the corner with the big pointy paper cone hat on while I grind away until I can beat the little Amazon. Thanks

/me is addicted


Just started two days ago and about to ascend...should I put all points into mesos or 4 into them and one into something else?

get meso bonus first. You'll need to see if you can earn the 100mil required by level 160. If you can't, keep pumping mesos. If you can, pump exp some. Repeat this process. Your ascensions will be faster and faster.

For my first ascent I went 3 meso, 2 exp, 1 skill. What a mistake. I'm struggling to make enough cash. Go all mesos for the first one.

Okay...pump meso until I reach 100 million at level 160. Then pump exp. When do I pump other items?

You honestly don't need to pump other things. Because you get one point in everything by default whenever you ascend, ascending more = more points in everything. Maximize your ascension speed is the way to go. I can now ascend in one to two hours.

just ascended!!!!

I'm now level 35 with the gold hinkel bow (75). What is the best way to proceed for my second run through the game?

Start skipping a bow or two so you can get Crovy's lonely bow a bit cheaper. Once you have Crovy's Lonely bow, you will get the Rain Bow when you have enough points, and the Mega Ultimate Bow is available to buy for 10.6m mesos. Try to keep all your ranks on levels high, as you will need a lot of S and AAA ranks to get Bow of the Dead once you've gotten the Mega Ultimate Bow. Once you get Bow of the dead, the game is pretty easy. Kill Ergoth, and your damage is insane because you get the Necromancer's Bow. Kill Athena for an even stronger one, and Zakum for the most powerful. After this, train on the nuclear levels that you don't currently have, until you get 99,999,999 mesos, and ascend yourself.

For your first ascention, put all your BP into cash when you rebirth. For your second, wither do straight money, or half money half starting DX. pump meso and starting DX for a few ascentions, and then move onto pumping XP.

I've already ascended once.

"For your first ascension, put all your BP into cash when you rebirth. For your second, wither do straight money, or half money half starting DX. pump meso and starting DX for a few ascensions, and then move onto pumping XP."

what does DX do?

I have also asked the exact same question? What does Dex do?

I believe Dex increases your base damage. I don't know the exact formula. It may be a fixed bonus to your damage or a percentage boost. More damage means you can hit harder missions = better rewards. Although I prefer getting more points to spend myself so i can get the critical skills like hurricane and the passives faster.

After my latest ascension.

Nice one. Time to find a new game? :)

Hmm, I seem to have a bug with Zakum. If I play any other level everything appears fine, but after not beating him the first time through, I tried again and when he had 250k left my bow suddenly stopped firing arrows. My MP goes down when I "fire" and climbs again as if I had, but no arrows come out.
This happens every time I go to zakum now. I get one shot and that's it. Any ideas ?

I would suggest watching his health while you are fighting him and when you get him to like 300k or something try firing 3 B55 Spike arrows. Hopefully that way you will be able to kill him because you will have fired the arrows before he goes to to 250k which is were you can't fire. Hopefully that would be enough damage for you to be able to kill him.

It's okay. Other stuff started messing up soon afterwards. Turns out it was Flash going off in the proverbial handbasket. A browser restart fixed it.
Now for the long march from lvl 122 to 160.