Hardcore eggwars questions

[betty's oldies]

So I got a rank a couple days ago and tried hardcore eggwars (my 2nd game, first one months ago). Needless to say, I died early in the game and I don't know what kit is the best to pick.

Few questions:
1. What's the best kit? I have egg armor and gapples but can't decide which one. For reference, 2 gapples = 20 gold and egg armor = 80 iron.

2. Best strategy? I've tried the usual rush others strat that normally works in OP and normal but often find myself heavily damaged from both fall and sword hits. Even worse is getting nonstop fights.

What I know:
-carrots have the best food value per cost and you don't need a lot of food.
-wood sword is 32 iron, stone is 16 gold.
-1 sandstone costs 1 iron.
-pickaxe costs 10 iron
-considering rush to mid strat, but not sure what gear is good to have before heading out.

-On my 2nd game, I used the egg armor kit, had 1 gapple from buying, a wood sword, few carrots, some blocks, and a pickaxe.​

-full leather armor is equivalent to having +8 extra HP, same as what 1 gapple gives (2 temporary hearts and 5 seconds regen 2).
-I know that in UHC it is best to minimize combat.

 

[matcha]

I would usually go for the gapple kit, the armor may offer protection, but I hardly doubt someone is going to buy a stone sword early on in the game.

 

[TheBrownster]

I believe that the armor kit is much better than the gapple kit. The protection is way more with armor than just gapples.
As for strategies, I think rushing is the best strat. Buy a weapon, a pick, blocks, and a few carrots and start going. I do not recommend building too high up, just maybe 5 blocks above the ground is good, then you can drop on their egg with no fall damage. I would always target the egg first, just ignore players until their egg is gone. The damage you will receive far outweighs resetting their gear. After you take out your neighbors, go mid and get a bow. The bow does tremendous damage and it is good for weakening your opponents before dropping in.
If at any point you are really low on health and still have your egg, just go back to base, drop your inventory on the ground, and jump off. You get full health and hunger, much more effective than wasting 40-50 gold to regen all that health.