AutoDuel: Delivery boy

Dead again, and now revived in New York but without my ride, all isn't lost. My mechanic skills are great, and I know I can make some good money salvaging. But for now, I can focus on my quest without a car; I've still got about $3000 post clone replacement, which can buy me some bus rides. Which are perfectly safe, oddly enough.

Unfortunately, with my last death, the quest line begun by my previous incarnation is stale. The Scranton weapon shop has nothing to say to me now, I wasted $200, and I've got to start over again. Back to the New York Arena with me. Thankfully, I've kept a good chunk of my experience, and though I'm not a newbie, the manager sees that I'm too broke to buy my own vehicle and lets me come in and slaughter waves of fresh autoduelists in a rented go-kart.

I climb my way up the divisions as before, only this time my in-game and real life experience makes it that much easier. Once I have enough for another armored truck, which I make sure to armor even more heavily than before, I take and complete another courier job, which is enough to reset the quest line.

This time, I go to Scranton by bus.

 

I'm shuttled around the mid-Atlantic to hit up Dover and Syracuse, picking up another password in each, and finally Harrisburg, where the complete password "SAN ANTONIO ROSE" entitles me to a secret job delivering decoy trophies, but I'll need to fetch a vehicle first.

Good time for an upgrade, I think. After selling scrap, spare weapons, and my old car, I have nearly $40,000 for a new one. For half that much, I can pretty much go all-out in every regard except weapons, and I do.

Think I have enough machine guns?

The job is a run to Manchester, which is quite a drive, requiring no fewer than five stops, but if I take a route of Scranton-New York-Albany-Boston-Manchester, there will be a mechanic in four stops, and a weapon shop in all five. I think I'll be okay.

The Mass Pike never has traffic this light. And the drivers are often more aggressive.

And I am. There's a higher amount of bandit activity on Route 64 between Scranton-NYC, but frankly I am hilariously overprepared for this trip.

Manchester, NH

My delivery complete, I soon learn from the locals that they're looking for me in Washington. Quickest way to get there is by bus, so I leave my truck here.

Map scan by MOCAGH

 

Washington sends me on another bus tour, to Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, to learn the password "GREAT WHITE WHALE" and that New York's Gold Cross has a heart transplant they need delivered.

Back to New York by bus. I just buy myself another truck here, pick up the heart, and transport it to Boston without much difficulty.

 

This loop continues for at least two more missions without much variation or difficulty escalation. The feds in Watertown, NY have a case against the Philadelphia mafia and need evidence delivered to the D.A. - it's either cute that they think a little thing like "evidence" can totally bring down the mob in post-apocarlypse America, or horrifying if they are correct. This one is a long haul since the pickup point in Watertown lacks a vehicle assembly, so I have to drive my own there from Boston where I left it. After that, feds in Washington want me to bring proof of fixed races to New York. Same formula, same series of bus trips to get the password first.

The combat is not, at any point, challenging, nor are the bandits ever all that numerous. The machine gun shreds through most of them, and when it doesn't, I can tank a few hits as I destroy them with sustained close-range fire.

There comes a point where driving past them is easier.

When I arrive at the FBI headquarters in New York, they immediately have an important assignment. No east coast runaround this time.

I think I might be near the end!

AutoDuel: Two kinds of bandits

I'm not yet sure what my ultimate goal is in AutoDuel, but I'm sure there's more to it than fighting battle royales in New York - unfortunately, in the months I've spent accumulating victories, cash prizes, and mechanic lessons, the regional brigand problem has gotten worse. So I figured it's time to try my luck on the roads; I have a backup clone, and enough spare cash for a better car.

One last duel in CHUD, division 10 this time, yields a particularly good haul, and after selling I have about $20,000 to spend on an interstate vehicle, and construct a high powered, decent capacity pickup dubbed RUM TUGGER with reinforced front armor and three types of guns, plus a rear-mounted machinegun. I figure that on the highways there won't be much room for fancy maneuvering.

The courier has a few jobs available. The best-paying of them available to me is a roulette table to be delivered to Atlantic City, NJ. All the others are out of my way, so I take it, and only it.

Next stop, Philadelphia, and then Atlantic City.

Turns out, the rocket launcher sucks, and the recoilless rifle isn't much better. Too slow, too little punch. The stock machine gun is just all around better, and way cheaper to reload.

The Atlantic City Expressway is a bit of a maze, and I get lost in a confusing detour of farmland, but eventually find it before my batteries or deadline expire.

 

The payoff from the delivery is not enough to cover the cost of repairs, and there isn't even a weapon shop for me to rearm, but the truck stop does give me a possibly important clue - that I should visit the weapons shop in Scranton. Which is three bandit-infested roads away.

I also visit the casino, which offers blackjack and poker. Blackjack is a sucker's game; a blackjack pays 3:1, but you lose on a tie, which, if you aren't familiar with standard rules and odds, massively shifts the odds in the house's favor. Do not play this game, not in AutoDuel or in real life.

Poker is fairer, but strange. Rules are draw poker with no other players, you wager before the draw, break even on a pair, collect at odds on anything better, and lose otherwise. You can in theory collect some fantastic ratios on fantastic hands, but it's probably best to completely forget about straights, and only go for flushes when you have four in a suit and no pairs. Napkin math estimates a huge player advantage; losing should be decidedly less common than winning, but my experience is mixed. Initially I bet modestly, found I was winning more often than losing, and then started getting bolder with my bets and continued to rake in cash, but eventually hit a losing streak and ultimately left the casino poorer than I went into it.

At the very least, the ride back to New York is easy, and the salvage collected from the kills I made in both directions earns me a handsome $19,400 - plenty for a new anti-tank gun, laser, and a third machinegun.

Surprise - the AT gun is also utter garbage! It's just a slower recoilless rifle. The laser, on the other hand, is pretty good, instant and highly damaging, but the fact that it draws from your engine power instead of ammo makes me worried about its viability on long trips.

Failure to guard my flank got me killed by a well-armed bandit in a wilderness between New York and Scranton. At least I have my clone.