Okay, so I just had a supremely satisfying run to end my gaming session. (City Skylines is going just ridiculously well. So fun!)
I gave it another couple tries after my previous post upthread, but nothing special: 13 minutes then 11, IIRC. Each of these 13ish minute runs typically nets me 2 or 3 hundred coins, so upgrades have been a bit of a grind.
So I went back to city skylines for the rest of the night and then finished with a single vampire run. A single, glorious run.
Generally speaking I’m a melee guy, not ranged, and certainly not aimed. So I hate knife. Upthread I mentioned my ideal theoretical loadout (garlic, whip, bible, axe, wings, duplicator) and mused about trying the whip guy to maximize my upgrades. Boy were my instincts good, at least for my playstyle.
Started with whip guy, first upgrade lucked out with garlic, then like 18 of my next 20 upgrades were one of those six abilities. One of 5, actually; I didn’t get my first wings until the 20-minute mark.
With maxed garlic and Bible, the combined knockback affect is almost comical. The Bible knockback alone is crazy good; I could sprint full speed through tough mobs who didn’t die but would get bounced right out of my way, parting like the red sea wherever I wanted to go.
From minute 20 to around 25 I was frantically running away from swarms of bats and ghosts for fear of their waves pushing stronger mobs onto me. Turns out the Bible kickback is stronger than the swarm wave; I started waiting for Bible then running toward the waves.
Anyway, end result was an easy first 30 minute completion, a hair over 3000 coins, and I managed to evolve… Garlic! WOOHOO!!! The only thing better would have been Bible.
ETA: Steam says I’m 5.6 hours in.