Bloodlust by Knobbelboy & more [AWFUL LUCK DEMON]

THUMBNAIL CREDITS TO HKB

this is such a surreal thing to finally do. i know it only took 10 days but the journey to beat it feels so much longer than that. it wasn't just 10 days to beat it, its the history that i have with this level and its predecessor.

At the end of 2021, i beat nine circlex as a new hardest and immediately went to try and beat Bloodbath as my first extreme. i was on 60hz and had zero clue what megahack was, so i threw a grand total of 23k attempts at the level before dropping it to pick up cataclysm. since then, the level has gone pretty much untouched.

after i started getting better at the game, specifically after i beat tartarus, i made it a personal goal of mine to beat bloodlust in less attempts than bloodbath. i knew i needed to pick a time that wouldn't be stressful, so i wouldn't have to waste the opportunity and pour too many useless attempts into it. last two weeks of summer i decided that i was gonna do it before school starts.

this level is SUCH a mixed bag for me holy shit. getting connecting runs in like 3 or 4 days was such an ego boost with the level that just came crashing down. august 25th was easily the most disappointed that i have ever been with myself as a player in this game. i knew i was probably gonna get at least one tmn death, but 4 in the same night was just over the top stupid. setting myself up to beat it and just choking to the absolute stupidest things to die to was so disheartening that it gave me a huge mindblock.

the day after i didn't even get to tmn a single time and the mindblock got even worse. my experience with the level degraded from a high 80/100 enjoyment to a solid 0/100. playing from 0 was so goddamn boring that i couldn't get more than 50 attempts in before going back to a start position. my colorblindness made it so i pretty much couldn't see the first ship at all due to my icon color and the way the background moved, and it took a few days to just get a consistent click pattern for it.

today was the last day of summer and i promised myself that i was going to beat it. i sat down for 4 hours straight today, and ended with only one more tmn death. definitely not the unluckiest victor, but it was never really about beating the level for me. i knew i could beat bloodlust. its my exact skillset. its the exact type of gameplay that i excel at. my hardest is nearly 50 spots above it on the list. i knew i could beat bloodlust. it was about proving that i am the type of player that i want to be, and i failed miserably.

i pride myself on my nerve control and ability to do longer levels, and this was a complete embarrassment to that notion. 6 deaths at tmn just felt like i was a complete failure as to who im supposed to be as a player. i dont know if it was nerves, or the mindblock of the level, or what it was, but playing it just felt dreadful after a while. i was fully expecting to die to 98 on this and by some miracle i gamer leaned my way into avoiding dying at the last triple.

for the level itself, i dont have to tell you that its one of the best levels on the entire mainlist rn. it looks amazing, the changes to the BB gameplay just make it even more fun to play (looking at you namtar) and the extension is genuinely one of the most fun parts of a level in this entire game. aside from the incredibly boring playing from 0 and the first 6% of the level, it is just absolutely amazing. despite my awful experience and low enjoyment, i still love this level to death. probably the most fun top 1 we've ever had.

Attempts: 15,035 (maybe more bc game crashed)
Enjoyment: 15/100
Gameplay: 95/100
Deco: 95/100
Overall: 85/100
Difficulty Opinion: fine where it is but still easier than the yandere (move that hoe up fr)