[New Hardest] The Golden 100%
This level started out really fun but ended up being one of my worst and hardest grinds. It only took me a week to get 63 and 35-100 and then I thought I was almost done, because the ending isn't that bad and most people only die past 72 a handful of times. But then I hit a brick wall and kept dying to 63 over and over, and took 10k attempts and almost another week just to pass it once, dying to 73, the second click of the ending. It was then that I realized this level was way harder than I initially thought, and that I would be spending a lot more time on it. After a few more days I got to the ending again, and to my surprise I got all the way to the last ship, 87. I was a little over 2 weeks in at this point, and I started to have the same experience every single day, where I would just grind 36% attempts hoping to get far, and get maybe 1 or 2 ending attempts a day. That continued for another 2 weeks straight of just playing The Golden, until I finally got that lucky attempt and beat it.
The balancing of this level truly baffles me. It somehow manages to be 100% carried by the last 2 thirds, while still being first half heavy.
Parts in order of easiest to hardest:
0-14: The beginning was kinda awkward and inconsistent when I first played from 0, but after I got to the drop like 5 times it became actually auto. If I focused on the level I could almost guarantee a 14% attempt.
14-28: I actually really struggled with the predrop ship at first, and for the first week or so I thought it was one of the hardest parts. But same with the beginning, it eventually became easy, though I did die to it a good amount.
72-86: The first part of the ending was really weird for me. It never felt that hard, but for some reason I was inconsistent at it some days and I got super unlucky at it from 0. Also I could not do the first 2 UFO clicks consistently at first but then I never died to them from 0.
39-50: The second wave is infinitely easier than the first. It's still hard as balls but it was the most consistent part of the level by far. I was dying to the triple click at 45 almost half my attempts there, because my finger would get really tired from playing this level and I couldn't click fast enough, but close to the time I beat it I realized I was trying to click way faster than I needed to and there was a much easier way to do it.
61-72: The dual wave is one of the most deceiving parts in difficulty of a level I've played. It took about 20 attempts to learn and then I could easily do it in runs from 59 and 50, and I thought it was for sure the easiest part. But for some reason, this part and this part only was buffed by 1000% when playing from before 50. I had 21 deaths just to 63 which isn't even a hard click, out of 56 times I got to it, which is more than a third of the time to ONE CLICK. Still have no clue why to this day. The ball was pretty easy though.
50-61: This ship part was kinda inconsistent at first, and even though I got better at it, it was always hard. It was probably the most steadily difficult part of the level. I was never good at it, but almost never bad at it either, and it wasn't any different from 0.
86-100: Probably the hardest ship I've done in a level. You may have heard The Golden has 2 hard parts, and I can confirm this is true. Basically my entire experience with this level was due to the last ship being impossible. One death here would cost me 10-15 attempts past 50 and 2 hours of grinding. I'm really glad I didn't die past the ship though, because 94 and 96 are both pretty hard timings.
28-39: Literally a wave challenge 30 seconds in to an extreme demon. I had to play in speedhacks and noclip and go up by 0.05 speed each time just to learn this wave. Passing it once is about as hard as beating an insane demon, which might not sound that bad, but what really makes it hard is consistently passing it after basically staring at the screen for 30 seconds for the predrop.
Level Rating: B tier
Enjoyment: 3/10
Total Attempts: 51014
Worst Death: 93%x2
Hardest Parts: 28-36, 87-93
List Placement: 39
Difficulty Opinion: Way harder than Critical Heat
Recommended: Yes but don't expect it to be easy if you make fast progress
My Top 10 Demons:
1. The Golden
2. Critical Heat: • [4TH VICTOR FLUKE FROM 76] Critical Heat 1...
3. shimmer: • shimmer 100%
4. RUST: • [TOP 50] RUST 100% NEW HARDEST
5. Cognition: • [50th Extreme] Cognition 100%
6. Kappa: • Kappa 100%
7. ATOMIC CANNON: • [TOP 80] ATOMIC CANNON 100%
8. Ouroboros: • Ouroboros 100%
9. Frozen Cave: • Frozen Cave 100%
10. Eternal Moment: • Eternal Moment 100%
death list at teh bottom cuz its frickin huge
Past 1st Wave: 332
36x19
38x8
39x7
40x18
41x19
42x7
43x9
44x17
45x29
46x36
47x11
48x16
49x10
List %: 126
50x2
51x11
52x2
53x2
54x13
55x10
56x11
57x2
58x6
59x5
61x6
63x21
64x4
65x4
67x4
68
71
Ending: 21
73x3
75x3
82x2
83x3
84x2
87x2
89x2
90
91
93x2
runs:
13-66
27-100x3
35-100x7
50-100x17
59-100x11