~>Guide to soloing the factory<~

[WizardHawk]

It is possible to solo the factory. Pretty much anyone with full lure, full throw, full squirt and high laff points can do it (short run). I have actually completed a full, long run solo, however I generally do shorter runs. This isn't something that will help you get to your goals faster, it is something to do just for a change or for the challenge of it. Most of my friends say I'm crazy for doing it at all.

First off, it isn't as dangerous as it sounds. You are free to bail on it between any battle so if you get smacked around and have 3 straight lure misses, you can finish that group and just jump out. I have only gone sad once and I have over 50 runs under my belt. The second thing to know is that the lure bonus failure isn't random. A friend from here (Thanks Ugly Marigold Twiddlesnout, you da toon!) gave me a helpful link on exactly how the lure bonus works, it is a MUST read for everyone since it takes the mystery out of when it will work or miss (well mostly, the guide is right most of the time but not every time).
Lures with no Knockback bonus.

*update 5/04* There are more updated links on the lure bonus. These two threads combined give all of the info needed on it.

bonus points for lured cogs in the warehouse
Reinforcement cogs???????

*end of added links*

Now that you know when the knockback bonus will work, you can better pick your gags for the silo's and the rest of the run.

*Update 5/04* route changed because of changes made to factory and to help avoid the elevator shuffle.

First if you want to solo, you really need to go to the slowest district in the game. Even then, you may find it hard to get into the elevator without someone jumping in. You may have to jump to more than one district.

Second I find it easier if I go to the side entrance to get into the elevator alone. There isn't very much difference in going this way over the front except you will face a group of 6 5 4 in the first room, instead of 6 4 4 going through the front. This extra 5 will not make you use higher gags since a hose will kill a lured 5. For a short run, I use this route.

All battle information assumes you light up your current group of cogs by touching the highest cog from the group. This is not important in some battles, but makes a large difference in others. It also assumes you use lure on every group. In a solo battle, every battle is lure/attack since there are no groups of all cogs 5 and below that can just be taken out with sound.

~> Side entrance <~
Take out the first group with the lowest gags you can. You should only need one or two cream pies and a hose at most. Go through the pipe room and avoid the skele cogs.

In the warehouse, take out the 7 with a cloud and the 6 with a pie then fog the two 5's left. Head to the west silo.

~>Tip for those with maxed drop<~
When you approach the cogs on the silo, you can play around with where to light them up to allow you to face just one before the other two can join. If you can work this, you can just drop a piano on it and help save your cake and clouds

On the west silo, take out the three cogs with your cakes (unless you got one with a piano, then use two cakes). Head back down the elevator and go back toward the boiler room. If you saved a cake on top with a piano, take the 7 in this group out with your last cake, otherwise I take the other two out first and just cream pie the 7 and take a hit. Go to the hallway outside of the front entrance and restock your cakes from the barrel. Head back up to the East silo if you are not damaged or have little damage and do not want to take the time to heal.

~>Healing<~
Most of the time I solo, I have some significant damage taken due to missed lures or hits taken from 7's because I want to conserve gags. You can get 15 LP back by going to the side entrance and touching the barrel with a cone on it for 5, then go to the lava room and touch the +10 barrel. You also need to do the lava room if you are trying to do a full run because you can restock the hose here. Going all the way back to get +15 takes a lot of time but can make the difference between success and failure on top. The choice is yours. I do it when I'm heading back for my cake restock since I am close to the side room anyway.

On the east silo, you can take out the 3 cogs with 2 cakes and a cloud (leaves you one cake and one cloud if you didn't save any with drop).

Now you have to decide if you have enough lp and gags for the center silo. Most of your merits are in this room, but the most risk of going sad is here too. I tend to go anytime my lp is over 40 and at times I go with less. Even if you go sad, you still keep all of the merits you have made so far. This means the worst that can happen by taking the risk is the loss of some beans and time to heal.

In the center, hit the 11 first with your cake (after lure of course!). Take your hit from him and either use a $10 or just risk the miss and use the last cloud to kill him. What you use on the last three depends largely on what you have left for gags and how many lp you have. If you were able to save a cake with one or two piano drops, you are in great shape. I just hit the 8 with a pie and use two fogs to get out if I have a lot of lp at this point.

~>Front Entrance<~
This route works the same as with side entrance except you take out the boiler room before you go to the warehouse, not after the west silo. This is why it makes no difference which way you choose.

~>Long Run<~
If you are brave enough to try and take out every cog in the factory you are advanced enough to figure out exactly how to do it without a guide . You will probably need to restock gags in both the paint room, as well as the lava room and use your hose to take out lured 5's and possibly use your fogs to blow past the 5's in both groups of the side room. A full run only adds one more 7 (either drop it if you can get it alone, or take your damage from it) and the rest of the cog groups come down to how well you manage your gags and how lucky you are with lure. I have only completed the entire factory twice and had to cut it short because of damage or not enough lure on many runs.

Again, do this for fun and/or the challenge of it. It is not something that will power level your parts/gags. It takes a lot longer then going in with others but it makes you think and can be fun if you like a good challenge.

Have fun! If any of you beat a solo run, post your results here and let others know anything else you did different from my method.

[Loosy Goosy]

Yea it's not hard at all, but why is a guide necessary? Anyone
interested in soloing already knows enough about the game. It's
no more necessary than a guide to soloing buildings hehe!

Well written though

[WizardHawk]

I hear ya loosy, however I wrote this because of the reactions I have had from my friends. Every single sf that I have talked to is surprised that I would even try it and they think I am crazy for doing it. These are 100+ toons who are mostly maxed on all gags and they don't think of this so I figured that there must be others out there that are unaware of how easy it is to do this. Just wanted to open some eyes and lay if out for those who do not want to figure it out on their own. I am sure there are other ways to complete a solo run and mine may not be the greatest way to do it, but it works.

As to comparing it to a guide for a building, I would disagree (shocker eh loosy lol). The buildings are laid out in front of you with few choices on how to complete it. The factory is more free form in that you can go where you want at any time. Two of my friends wanted to know how I was able to do this so I put it in here. Do you have any idea how hard it is to type this out in game? lol and instead of a PM with the instructions I thought maybe some of the others in here might be interested in the info. There are new 100+ toons coming to the hq all the time and maybe this can help some of them.

Don't be afraid people to give it a try! You really do not have much to loose since you can bail out at any time.

[Brer Rabbit]

Glad to hear Brer Rabbit is not the only crazy toon solo'ing the factory. Brer Rabbit solo's the factory whenever he has a completed task so he can get the toon-up when he turns it in. Brer Rabbit has about a 50% success rate, and win or lose he will usually need a complete toon-up afterward. Brer Rabbit runs straight though and does't do all that running back and forth though. He uses big magnets, level 5 throw/squirt, and fog horns on the main lobby and warehouse cogs. If all goes well he will only take one hit from the level 7 cog in the warehouse. In the silos Brer Rabbit tries to get the level 9 cogs to line up first and get a quick piano drop off before the other two cogs line up. Then using goggles, birthday cake and pies or a rain cloud to finish off the level 8 and 7 cogs. If all goes well, they'll be 1 piano, 1 cake, 1 rain cloud, and 1 goggles left for the center silo. Getting the foreman to line up and a piano dropped before the others line up is tricky but doable with practice. If the piano or goggles miss, Brer Rabbit can get low on laff or sad really quick. Once, when everything hit, Brer Rabbit came out with over 70 laff left. The challenge and risk makes it fun, and Brer Rabbit does't care about losing the jellybeans/gags or going sad.

[Apple Crumble]

I wish you had posted this the other day, just before I got left in the factory by myself! I wasn't sure whether to solo it or not and decided not to. Wish I'd tried now!

[WizardHawk]

Good advice brer rabbit. I have about a 75% success rate. I can handle missing at least one lure if not two and still be fine. Most of the times I have had to bail is when lure missed in the silo and then goggles misses in the center too.

To heal up, I just go fish since I need to keep working on that to get to 104 anyway or just server hop in DL and pick up those zzz's.

Also, you only need to use one cake on the warehouse, and the two on the silo's if everything works right. Then when you restock you have all 3 of both cake/cloud for the east silo and center. This lets you take out the 11 and the 8 without getting hit. It seems to be rare that you don't have missed lure somewhere so you may not get that chance.

[Sheriff Skip]

I had been thinking about ways to solo the factory and your advice will be very helpful! I will enjoy the challenge. The factory is becoming routine and boring ... Thanks for sharing this info!

[WizardHawk]

No problem, didn't I just play with you and one of pickles toons? could have been silly raven or pickles? anyway, guess it isn't so obvious loosy! lol

[Olorin]

Could you update this? I could really rely on this. Unfortunately, you can't use the shortcut anymore. Thanks!

[WizardHawk]

no 'update' is needed. Just take the ideas and make your own way through. I don't take the same path every time, too boring. If you want an easy, short run then start at the side entrance, take out the first group and go straight to the warehouse. Take out the group there and go take out one of the silos, then go back down and take out the cogs in the boiler room and go restock the cakes (you use the cakes to take out warehouse and first silo, save your clouds if you can) then go take out the other silo and center. Go to the lava room if you need more lp's. As to a long run, your route may depend on the success of your lure and other gags early on. Just keep the following in mind:

You can restock fire hose in lava room, so try and use it more than the cream pie if you can.

You can use a piano on a single lured cog if you are fast. Don't wait for the whole group of cogs to all come up, just attack as soon as the first one is lit up! this helps conserve gags.

Use the fog horn on any group with 5's and lower left to help conserve pies. Just take out the 6's and 7's with whatever you have and fog the rest. This really makes the side room go quicker.

I never go to the paint room since it is out of the way and would really slow me down too much, but you may prefer to restock the cream pies there if you wish. Just remember that there are no lp boosts there.

Make up your own path and use the skills you have learned throuhout the rest of the game. If you can solo a 4st in DL, then this should be easy enough for any maxed toon. Lately, my average has slipped in the factory because it seems lure is missing much more often at this time. I will generally try and finish even if I only have a few lp's left. I don't really care if I go sad. I have beans I'll never use anyway and I only solo the factory for merits, I'm not out anything if I go sad. I do it for the fun of it and the freedom of not having to worry about what any other toon needs/wants.

Just have fun and invent a solo run YOUR way!
(yes I know you don't have the piano or fog at this time, my advice is for everyone!)

[Hey this is the bomb]

I have wanted to try a solo run but I don't like factory too much so I usually want it go faster.Soon I will have to try it though

[Lilo_Crazyhead]

I'm glad I'm not the only on running thru the factory alone. It's kinda liberating actually (until you run out of gags or laff).

Thanks for the ideas!

[WizardHawk]

Ok, I have had way too many PM's about how to solo the factory, and how the knockback bonus works in the factory. I have updated the first post in this thread with current information and provided links to how to use the knockback bonus.

This is everything that I care to say on the subject. Please, no more PM's about this. Just go find your own way to do it and have fun with it.

Too many people in TT are in such a hurry that they forget that the journey is as important as the end goal. Take time to smell the roses. There are more rewards in figuring out the details for yourself then to simply do what others do.

[Olorin]

Originally Posted by WizardHawk

Ok, I have had way too many PM's about how to solo the factory, and how the knockback bonus works in the factory. I have updated the first post in this thread with current information and provided links to how to use the knockback bonus.

This is everything that I care to say on the subject. Please, no more PM's about this. Just go find your own way to do it and have fun with it.

Too many people in TT are in such a hurry that they forget that the journey is as important as the end goal. Take time to smell the roses. There are more rewards in figuring out the details for yourself then to simply do what others do.

Well said. Unfortunately, I've tried several times to solo the factory, and I've ended up dying every time, save once when I came out with 2 laff. Thanks for the info, but I'm not going to solo the factory again until I get better gags, and hope that I come out with a reasonable amount of laff.

[WizardHawk]

Originally Posted by Olorin

Well said. Unfortunately, I've tried several times to solo the factory, and I've ended up dying every time, save once when I came out with 2 laff. Thanks for the info, but I'm not going to solo the factory again until I get better gags, and hope that I come out with a reasonable amount of laff.

You do need full throw, full squirt, full lure and probably some other gags as well to solo with a high success rate but even then, lure does miss and you will not get to the end every time. This does not mean you will 'lose'. I have only died once or twice and then I didn't care if I did. You are free to jump out at any time between battles. You can use the solo for parts, but I generally only use it for merits which means it doesn't matter if you get the center silo or not. I do the center because it has a ton of merits and for the challenge but just leave if you are low on laff. It isn't unusual for me to be under 30lp when I complete a short run because I let them hit me in some areas. If I make it with a long run I am under 30 for sure lol.

Don't solo for the merits, do it for the challenge and because it can be done. Do whatever is fun for you in the game.