Orcish Mines

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

The Orcish Mines are filled with the cave orcs native to the Dungeon, their humanoid labourers, and piles of freshly mined gold. Enterprising merchants have set up trading posts to help relieve the orcs of the latter. The entrance to this branch can be found between levels 9 and 12 of the Dungeon. This branch is 2 levels deep. This branch contains the entrance to the Elven Halls.

The Orcish Mines are an early branch full of orcs, gold, and the entrance to the Elven Halls. Although the Mines lack a rune, the bottom floor contains a guaranteed collection of shops, and the gold found along the way makes it easy to afford any particularly useful treasures they may sell.

Layout

The Orcish Mines are two floors deep and found between Dungeon:9-12. The entrance stairs are usually decorated with orcish idols and occasionally even altars to Beogh, and they are often guarded by a large group of orcs.

Orc:1 consists of very open, cavernous areas. Sometimes, these sections can be disconnected - you can access them by using the upstairs on Orc:2. The Mines are made almost entirely out of digging rock, so a wand of digging can make shortcuts or chokepoints. Expect almost no hallways aside from those you dig yourself.

Orc:2

Orc:2 features an end vault, often with organized buildings. These layouts can vary greatly (as can their difficulty), ranging from a handful of scattered rooms, to one huge room dominating much of the level, to an entire fortified compound housing Saint Roka and a throng of followers.

Orc:2's end vault guarantees 4 shops (give or take mimics). Additional shops may spawn through random level generation.

Useful Info

It's easy to get surrounded in the Mines. You'll often encounter at least a few orcs upon entry, who will shout to alert nearby enemies. Use stair dancing to separate groups of orcs; even a crowd of orc warriors and priests can be a handful.

Monster difficulty is variable. Most denizens are plain orcs, warriors, priests, and wizards. You'll also encounter kobold blastminers, orc sorcerers, orc high priests, orc knights, and usually one or two orc warlords. A few other monsters, such as ogres and stone giants, can spawn. Since almost everything is armed, pay attention to weapon brands. There's a good chance to encounter orcs with electrocution, distortion, etc.

The mines typically contain 1000-3000 gold, and a host of shops on Orc:2. You'll also find plenty of equipment from the orcs themselves, so there's a good chance to find branded gear. Melee orcs carry plate armour and heavy weaponry, while you'll find plenty of robes from the mages.

Strategy

While plain orcs and orc warriors shouldn't be a big threat for those encountering the Orcish Mines, it's still a moderately difficult branch. The Lair is widely considered to be easier. After all, Orc can rarely contain serious out of depth threats like ettins and stone giants, while swarms of orcs can be hard to deal with due to the layout's splitting apart each stair.

The Orcish Mines are worth clearing eventually - usually after Lair. While it isn't mandatory, the gold, guaranteed shops, XP, and access to Elven Halls make it worth it. The shops aren't guaranteed to be useful, but there's a good chance that you'll find something nice to buy.

Some characters, namely Alchemists (as Orc has less poison-resistant monsters than Lair), may want to dip into Orc "early", though they will need something beyond their starting book to deal with obsidian bats.

Useful Traits

No resistance is mandatory for clearing Orc, but there are a few that are useful:

• Good willpower - this is to avoid orc sorcerer's paralysis, which is always a very dangerous status.
• Fire resistance / Negative energy resistance - To resist orc sorcerer attack spells.

Monsters

o Orc	o Orc wizard	o Orc priest	o Orc warrior
o Orc knight	o Orc sorcerer	o Orc high priest	o Orc warlord
h Warg	b Obsidian bat	K Kobold blastminer
T Troll (monster)	T Deep troll	T Iron troll
O Ogre (monster)	O Two-headed ogre	O Ogre mage
C Cyclops	C Stone giant	C Ettin

One of the Orc:2 final vaults, pf_orc_diabolical, features several demonspawn and common demons guarding a portal to the Pandemonium:

4 chaos spawn	4 hellwing	4 ice devil	4 orange demon
4 red devil	4 rust devil	3 neqoxec	3 sixfirhy
3 smoke demon	3 soul eater	3 sun demon	3 ynoxinul
6 demonspawn (monster)

Uniques

6 Amaemon	R Azrael	@ Donald	x Erica
O Erolcha	e Fannar	w Gastronok	@ Harold
g Jorgrun	@ Josephine	f Maurice	o Nergalle
c Nessos	@ Rupert	o Saint Roka	T Snorg
K Sonja	o Urug

History

• Prior to 0.32, the Orcish Mines didn't have obsidian bats.
• Prior to 0.31, the Orcish Mines had rare random gnolls outside of its end vaults and didn't have kobold blastminers.
• Prior to 0.18, the Orcish Mines were four levels deep.
• Prior to 0.14, the Orcish Mines' entrance was located on D:6-11.
• Earlier versions of Crawl had sections of the Orcish Mines that were completely disconnected from all other areas. Using shafts, escape hatches, or teleports carelessly could maroon your character in an unescapable area, unless you had a source of digging or teleportation.