Repo Troll Guide, TrFi^Wu Jian

Version 0.31: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised. Take advice as you see fit, and read at your own risk!

RepoMan's 15-rune Troll Fighter Guide

"You know the difference between a repo man and a repo troll?"

It's all about breach of peace. Your average repossession agent, they're too concerned about jurisdiction and formalities. Trolls, on the other hand, they rarely ponder the legalities of shredding illiquid debtors with their claws.

So, here's the job. Zot did not pay up. Go to their house and get the Orb back. Too easy? Well. Zot is trying to be smart. Hid the Orb somewhere in their vermin-infested root cellar, locked the door with magic runes, hired an army of goons, set a few traps … Talk about paranoid. But we have a Plan. Capital P.

The Plan

Step 1: Claws           (choose them as starting weapon)
Step 2: Shield          (included in your starting equipment)
Step 3: Wu Jian Council (convert at the first opportunity)
Step 4: Statue Form     (hope you find it soon)
Step 5: Death Form      (optional)

The good news is, you're already halfway there! That's why we hired a troll fighter.

Preamble
Transmutations got removed in 0.31, including the spell Statue Form, the heart of this build. But Statue Form remains, provided by the brand new granite talisman. Overall, 0.31 has been a buff. This new Repo Troll Guide is way simpler than the old version, and even stronger. Getting your first win has never been easier, no matter if you want 3 or 15 runes to go with it. Of course, easy is a relative term. It's still DCSS. But no big strategic decisions required. Just stick to the Plan. Focus on tactics. Consider posting yet another victory post (YAVP) or yet another stupid death (YASD) on r/dcss or the Tavern if you give this a shot. I sometimes update the guide based on feedback.

Disclaimer
This isn't about "optimal play" and adjusting to every whim of the RNG, like you would in most runs. It's brute force, it's fun. The Plan requires at least one talisman. It's unlikely, but you might never find it. You can still win.

Skills

Before you go anywhere, press m, and if you didn't already, set training to manual with /. The game will remember this. Manual training mode is your default now.

Skill targets are set by pressing =, then the letter corresponding to the skill. You automatically stop training a skill when you hit the target. If you ever meet all skill targets, the game will notify you by opening the skill screen, and won't let you close it again before you select new skills.

At which experience level you actually reach a certain skill level may vary, depending on when you find your talismans and spells, and whether you pick up any manuals.

Basic Skill Allocation
Focus Unarmed Combat (press b). Distribute your incoming experience and set skill targets like this:

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Fighting       |  20%  |  19.9
* Unarmed Combat |  40%  |    --
+ Dodging        |  20%  |   9.9
+ Shields        |  20%  |  16.6

No target for Unarmed Combat, you're going for Heavyweight Champion. Unless, of course, you decide to play the extended game and want some other title. In that case, feel free to set a target of 26.6 and max out any other skill first. See here.

Every level of Unarmed Combat increases your base damage AND decreases your attack delay. Unarmed minimum attack delay is only reached at 27. It's absolutely worth it. I'd go for 27.7 if I could. Repeating, of course.

Don't touch this skill allocation again before you find a granite talisman, a talisman of death, or any of the following spells:

• Apportation
• Blink
• Lesser Beckoning
• Vhi's Electric Charge

Shifting gears
We'll cover the details of transforming yourself later. This part is about training your skills and picking up the right talismans.

You want a granite talisman above all else. Make sure to fully explore each floor and examine every shop, until you find one. If you see it in a shop and don't have enough gold, put it on your shopping list by pressing Shift and the letter assigned to the talisman. The game will notify you when you can afford to return to the shop. Buy as soon as possible, even if it leaves you broke. Plain or artefact doesn't matter.

Don't start to train Shapeshifting before you find a granite talisman or a talisman of death.

Should you get your claws on the granite talisman very early on, say before you're about level 12 and ready to enter the Lair, you may want to stick to the basics for a bit longer. If you're already comfortable with beating up at least a lone death yak, start training Shapeshifting immediately! Disable all other skills and set a new target:

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Shapeshifting  | 100%  |  23.3

Evoking a talisman (press V) never fails, but with insufficient skill the maximum health of your transformed self gets reduced. By a lot. Check out the granite talisman in your inventory. There's a preview.

As a rule of thumb, I like to go statue at 80% health, or about 12 skill. At that point, it's absolutely worth it for the AC and those vicious stone claws. Doesn't take long to get there with 100% focus. A -1 aptitude is pretty solid. Your health will increase in no time as you keep gaining experience, up to 130% at 16 skill.

There are only two reasons to ever untransform again:

• You want to switch to Death Form later. Just evoke the talisman of death.
• You want to drop your melded armour. If you permanently stay in Statue Form, you might as well free up the inventory slot. Press a for the abilities menu.

It's not like I'm using. It's like my body's developed this massive granite deficiency.

Continue to train Shapeshifting exclusively until around 16. After that, activate your basic skills again and train everything in parallel. If you're a lucky troll:

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Fighting       |  17%  |  19.9
* Unarmed Combat |  34%  |    --
+ Dodging        |  17%  |   9.9
+ Shields        |  16%  |  16.6
+ Shapeshifting  |  16%  |  23.3

Or in the much more likely case you didn't find your granite talisman super early and reached your target for Dodging long ago:

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Fighting       |  20%  |  19.9
* Unarmed Combat |  40%  |    --
+ Shields        |  20%  |  16.6
+ Shapeshifting  |  20%  |  23.3

The build is officially complete when you hit those targets. I supply some suggestions for the extended game later.

Stone Dead, Forever
So far, so good, but there's a snag. Granite talismans are military-grade hardware, scarcely found on the black market. You might luck upon one in time for the S-branches. Or you might have to raid the Depths for it. Perhaps two talismans are available in the Dungeon. Perhaps there's not a single one to be found in all of a 15-rune game.

However, one other talisman serves as a substitute, at least for the late and extended game. The talisman of death. Yeah, that's an even more elusive gadget. But it's a very unlucky game indeed, where you don't find either granite or death. Ideally you want both, but either one does the trick.

If you only find a talisman of death, I recommend you wait until after the S-branches before you start training Shapeshifting. You want to be in a solid spot, where you can afford to spend all experience exclusively on Shapeshifting for a while. It takes longer to get to reasonable maximum health in Death Form, but I recommend the same skill target of 23.3 for Shapeshifting. See here for the explanation.

Don't train Shapeshifting and other skills simultaneously unless you are actively using a form. It's not a huge deal, but you don't benefit from Shapeshifting at all before you actually shift shape, whereas combat skills trained in advance help you survive until you're ready to transform.

Spells

You kids have it so easy, these days. No need to repeatedly beat thick books against your thick skull, the way the first repo trolls had to, until they could turn into granite just by concentrating real hard. Those old timey repomancers dug deep into arcane secrets, juggled enhancer staves mid-fight, and whatnot. You just pick up a talisman and figure out how to turn it on.

What's that, you know how to read? No kidding. Let's get some tricks up your sleeve, then. A little translocations magic isn't hard to grasp and goes a long way. See what spell books you find. Train for spells later, if you find a talisman early, and vice versa.

Get Blink and Lesser Beckoning castable as soon as possible. It's a small investment, even early on. Vhi's Electric Charge requires much more training. It's fine if you wait until after the S-branches or so. It's generally best to prioritise your basic combat skills in the beginning. Diversify later.

Use the same principle as before. Train stuff in parallel that you're actively using. Get new stuff ready to use by training for it exclusively as soon as you can spare the XP. Don't sweat it, if you have a hard time finding the spells. Shapeshifting is more important. Translocations give you an edge, so they're highly recommended, but you can win without magic just fine.

In fact, if you find yourself splatting this build with all recommended spells castable, maybe try challenging yourself to win spell-less, to really focus on basic tactics, the Kung Fu Puzzle, and making good use of consumables.

Here are the most important commands for spells:

• M opens your spell library for memorisation. After memorising a spell, the relevant magic schools will show up on your skill screen (m).
• I shows a list of the spells you have already memorised and their miscast chance. Toggle with ! to see spell power and range.
• =s to adjust the letters assigned to your spells.
• z to cast a spell.

The following skill targets are guidelines. Your equipment, and possibly mutations, can significantly affect both spell success and spell power, mostly by lowering or raising your Intelligence, or via the encumbrance of body armour. Wizardry improves spell success, Archmagi improves spellpower.

I usually wait until 20% spell success before I start to cast a spell, and aim for 10% or less, depending on how crucial avoiding a miscast is. If you find the targets insufficient, increase Translocations a bit more. For Vhi's also Air Magic. With multi-school spells, spellpower is determined by the average of the schools. Spellcasting doesn't do much for spell success and power. It mainly gives you more magic points and more spell levels.

Apportation

Skill targets: 1.1 Spellcasting, 3.3 Translocations

Apportation rarely helps in a fight, but you can snatch some items you wouldn't be able to reach otherwise. Say, there's a monster you really don't want to engage, and a scroll of blinking right next to it. Say, there's deep water or lava between you and the item. Say, you open the door of a horrible Abyss vault and the rune is lying on the other side of the room. Just yoink it.

Blink

Skill targets: 3.3 Spellcasting, 5.5 Translocations

The tile you blink onto is chosen randomly, and the spell has a cooldown, but this little translocation will often let you escape from a fight going south or give you some much needed space to move. Blink can be a life-saver and cut down on your use of consumables.

Lesser Beckoning

Skill targets: 3.3 Spellcasting, 5.5 Translocations

A great tactical tool for any melee fighter. Often, it's better to yank an enemy closer than to reposition yourself. Standing at a door or corner and yanking monsters away from their friends can be much safer than fighting the whole pack at once, especially if they have ranged attacks. Also very useful to pull monsters into clouds. The range increases with spellpower. It will be short initially but increase later, when you train for Vhi's and raise your Intelligence. Don't rush it.

Passage of Golubria

Skill targets: 3.3 Spellcasting, 9.9 Translocations.

To be honest, I rarely use this spell. But it has great utility, and you basically get if for free, when you train for Vhi's Electric Charge. Passage of Golubria is an escape option, if you have time for the setup, e.g. place the portals before opening a ghost vault or when you see trouble coming. Use it to cross lava or deep water and circumvent traps (Zot:5 comes to mind). You can even place portals on the other side of grates, and save charges of digging. Passage of Golubria can help lower your turncount, if you're going for high scores.

Vhi's Electric Charge

Skill targets: 4.4 Spellcasting, 11.1 Translocations, 4.4 Air Magic

Kind of the opposite of Lesser Beckoning. Its range is always 4, no matter how low your spell power is. You cannot charge at foes right next to you. The charge places you directly in front of the monster you target. Any monster occupying that tile is displaced. As a cherry on top, Vhi's deals some electrical damage, too.

Use Vhi's to close the distance on monsters you can't quite reach with a Lunge or Wall Jump. It's also useful to get unstuck, should you ever find yourself completely and unblinkably surrounded during a Heavenly Storm. A great spell to quickly kill summoners hiding behind their minions, or to reposition yourself. Just keep in mind that charging into unexplored areas can be risky. Often Lesser Beckoning is the safer choice.

Options

You want options, fiddle some more? Fine, here you go. Keep in mind, all of this is completely optional. Do not go for these options too early, and don't pick ALL of them, at least not before the late or extended game. However, if both talismans and translocation spells prove elusive, it won't hurt you to become a more well-rounded troll.

• Give your evocations a bit more oomph. Skill target: 5.5 Evocations.
• Make good use of a scarf of invisibility (30% failure rate) or a +Blink artefact (4% failure rate). Skill target: 9.9 Evocations.
• Learn to throw a bit faster and more accurately. Skill target: 5.5 Throwing.
• Passwall lets you take shortcuts through rock walls without digging. Can be handy on the Orb run and for getting the jump on monsters. You always get to act first on the other side of the wall. Just keep in mind that you need to meditate for wall depth + 1 turns before merging with the rock, and the whole process takes 1.5 times as long in Statue Form. Meditation provides some extra AC, but monsters can and will hurt you. Skill targets: Spellcasting 3.3, Earth Magic 5.5.

Attributes

Upon reaching XL 3, the game offers you to raise one of your main attributes. This will happen again at XL 9, 15, 21 and 27.

Dex, Int, Whatever
Trolls are very strong early on and keep gaining Strength automatically. Strength won't be a problem.

I recommend you choose as follows:

• XL 3: Dex
• XL 9: Dex
• XL 15: Int
• XL 21: Int
• XL 27: Whatever

Dexterity improves EV and SH, helping you survive early and mid game before you unlock the power of granite. However, you don't want to go full Dex. 4 Int is asking for trouble in the long run. Try to prevent any attribute from dropping below 8 in late game. If you want to equip some powerful artefact with negative Dex or Int, compensate as best you can. 8 is the bare minimum I recommend. 10 is better, especially if you go for the extended game, where unholy stat drain and demons bent on messing with your brain are a real danger. Stat zero doesn't outright kill you, but it's best avoided.

Keep in mind that the higher your XL goes, the more likely bonuses from equipment have a bigger impact than your choices on level-up. You might find an artefact with +10 to some attribute. Chances are, even if it turns out you picked the wrong attribute on level-up, equipping the right items can solve the problem. Use Ctrl-F to search for what you need.

Equipment

Talismans
As mentioned, you want granite and death. You don't get much out of the lower-tier talismans (Beast, Flux, Blade, Maw, Serpent). No need to bother with them.

Dragon-blood talisman
Dragon Form might be useful in a pinch, especially if it's your only source of rPois. Its damage output is massive (by far the highest of all forms) and it's certainly fun to use with Wu Jian. But it melds your shield, cloak, and hat, comes with bad AC and EV, vulnerablility to cold, and prevents you from throwing things. It's not part of the Plan. Experiment with it at your own risk.

Storm talisman
Storm Form is powerful, but has anti-synergy with this build and requires as much skill to use as Death Form. You don't want to suppress your claws and meld your shield, and you don't really need innate cleaving and Blinkbolt when you have Whirlwind and Vhi's Electric Charge. Storm Form dishes out more damage per turn, but Statue Form also packs quite the punch. If I'm not mistaken, stone claws slightly surpass storm fists on a per hit basis. Statue Form has superior defence and is better suited for 15 runes.

Resistances
Willpower, rElec and rPois are very useful in every part of the game. Luckily, Statue Form provides two of those. Keep jewellery with other resistances for swapping. Of course, more is better. If you manage to cover all resistances simultaneously, that's great. If not, adjust to the branch. If you are unable to meet recommendations for a branch, improvise. Sometimes it's best to change the branch order. Sometimes you have to push through with suboptimal resistances.

Armour
You are restricted to robes, troll leather armour and dragon scales. The best options early on are:

• quicksilver dragon scales or a robe of willpower
• a robe of resistance
• troll leather armour

Armour doesn't slow down your melee attacks. So, before you start casting spells, feel free to wear heavier dragon scales, if you find some and need the resistances. It might still be better to use lighter armour, to keep your EV at a reasonable level. Only train Armour if you don't find a granite talisman and have to fall back on Plan B, or if you are actively using Death Form in the extended game and found some nice medium or heavy armour.

Shields
If you find a tower shield, keep it in mind for the late or extended game. 15.5 is enough skill to start using one. Press @ before and after equipping the tower shield to see how it affects your attack delay. A kite shield is all you really need for a 3-rune win. Consider enchanting your shield, should levels get noticeably harder.

Auxiliary armour
Make sure to wear the best hat and cloak or scarf you find. Unfortunately, boots, gloves, gauntlets and helmets aren't available in your size.

Amulets
Regeneration is generally the best choice. But keep an eye out for an amulet of reflection, too. It has excellent synergy with your shield, since reflection applies to all of your SH. Very effective against enemies who take pot shots at you with darts, arrows, bolts, orbs of destruction, crystal spears, ...

Swapping amulets takes 10 turns, usually not an option mid-fight.

Rings
Rings of protection or evasion are very nice to have early on. Later, resistances are more important. Swapping rings only takes a single turn, allowing you to quickly adapt to different monsters. For example, put on your ring of ice before fighting an ice beast, but don't forget to remove it again afterwards, lest the next orc wizard capitalises on the fire vulnerability.

Weapons
Ignore all weapons. Even if you find Wyrmbane or Skullcrusher. Leave them. This is all about your claws. Unarmed Combat is reliable and fast, easy for you to train and extremely powerful. Claws are your end game weapon. Spending experience on weapon skills would make this build weaker. Sacrificing your shield is not an option. Throw away scrolls of brand weapon and enchant weapon, if you need more space in your inventory. You have no use for them, except perhaps to open a treasure trove. Use the autopickup menu (press \) to configure which items you want to pick up automatically.

Offence
Slaying always helps and is particularly useful early on. In the long run, Strength is more effective. Don't hesitate to use nice artefacts with negative slaying.

Even more offence
Harm increases all damage you deal by 30%. This is massive! Harm also increases all damage you receive by 20%. It's generally viable. You're a big troll, you can take it. More often than not, you'll take less damage overall, since the boost from harm can easily make the difference between one-shotting and two-shotting a tough monster.

On the other hand, it can amplify unexpected damage spikes and kill you. Be extra careful and always use good tactics. Beware, it's possible to stack two levels of harm. Don't.

Plan B

If you hit your early twenties without either granite or death, don't worry. You can always learn Shapeshifting later. Perhaps not in time for a 3-rune win, though. Right now, consider getting more defence:

• Put on some heavy dragon scales.
• Start training Armour. Set a target of 9.9. Go higher later, if you are sure you will finish the game wearing armour.
• Swap your kite shield for a tower shield. Set a target of 21.1 for Shields.

To keep casting spells, you might need to invest some more XP into the relevant spell schools. Probably not much. Troll strength helps a lot with casting low level spells in heavy armour.

Enchanted gold dragon scales can give you just as good AC as Statue Form. You don't hit quite as hard, but you're still a troll fighter and your claws are still effective.

You need to improvise at this point. Might pay off to invest some XP in Evocations or Throwing: 16.6 is a good target. Keep going. I have yet to refine Plan B further than that. Take it out on Zot, it's their fault! They must have caught wind of the Plan. They stole all the talismans! Get the Orb.

General Advice

Gameplay commands
Press ?? for an overview of commands. DCSS has tons of useful commands. The more you know, the smoother your experience is.

To o-tab or not to o-tab
Use autoexplore (press o) or walk around manually. Autoexplore can get you into trouble sometimes, and generally results in a higher turncount for fully exploring a floor, but autoexplore does stop when a monster comes into sight. It's easy to take a hasty wrong step or two while exploring manually, especially in the early Dungeon. When you explore manually, do it carefully. Press Shift and a direction key for a "long walk". Use this for example to follow a long corridor in a straight line and automatically stop at the next door.

Autofight has pros and cons, too. By pressing Tab you automatically move towards the nearest monster in sight and attack when next to it. This is rarely the best tactical move. However, once you are actually fighting a monster, you might prefer Tab to direction keys, since autofight stops whenever your health drops below 50% (the default value of autofight_stop in your rcfile). It's easy to kill yourself by direction-attacking too fast, running past an already dead enemy or failing to notice your own depleted health bar in time. On the other hand, if you have to fight multiple monsters, make sure to deal with the biggest threat first.

Also, disciples of the Wu Jian Council have much less use for tabbing and plain old regular attacks than worshippers of other divine entities.

Know your enemy
Press x. Select a suspicious monster with + or move the cursor onto it. Note what weapon they are wielding, if any. A kobold with a club is harmless. A kobold with a dagger of distortion or electrocution might end your run. Press v for details. Note how much damage the monster can do and compare that to your health and armour class (AC).

When you inspect an enemy, you also see how likely they are to evade your claws and vice versa, what spells they can cast, and how likely those spells are to affect you. Look up any monster with ?/m.

Exclusions
To make exploring the rest of the floor easier when avoiding a particular monster, place an exclusion on the map. Press X, select square, press e. Autoexplore and autotravel (press G?) avoid excluded areas. The excluded monster may wake up and start wandering about, if other monsters shout or if you make noise fighting nearby. Reduce an exclusion to a single square by pressing e again. Delete it by pressing e yet again.

Assess all options
This is the single most important piece of advice for winning DCSS. If you forget everything else, remember this: Take your time to ponder dire situations and evaluate all options. Take a break. Sleep over it. If you're in a real pickle, consider dumping your character (press #) and getting some advice on r/dcss, discord or the Tavern.

Basic Tactics

Don't let yourself get swarmed
This is especially important in the early game. Lure monsters into corridors and claw them to death one-on-one whenever possible. Retreat into previously explored areas and rest after each fight by pressing 5.

Doors and corners. That's where you get 'em.

Ranged enemies
Generally, with monsters that hurt you at range, duck around a corner and stay out of their sight before you engage them in melee. In most cases, they will come to you. If they are asleep, wake them with a dart or a shout (press tt), then take cover. Alternatively, take a step back and approach them from another direction, depending on terrain. When they notice you and there is no cover, run up to them immediately. Most of them unwield their ranged weapon and are less dangerous in melee. Use Lesser Beckoning and Vhi's Electric Charge to close the distance as fast as possible.

Attacks of opportunity and random energy
When a monster moves back into melee range, after you just moved away from it, it gains a chance to instantly attack you. It sort of lunges or rampages. This was implemented to discourage pillar dancing, i.e. endlessly running in circles in order to regenerate health while a same-speed monster is chasing you.

Don't be afraid of attacks of opportunity. When it's tactically sound to reposition, do so. A chance of being attacked is better than staying in a bad position. As long as you keep a gap and don't move into melee in the first place, you can still try to pillar dance, though chances are you neither need nor want to.

Also, a variant of "random energy" has been reintroduced in 0.31. There's a small chance monsters following you fall behind or catch up.

Confused? I'm not quite sure how all of this works in detail, either. It's not important. It all boils down to: You can't reliably disengage from monsters by just walking away. Commit to the fight or use consumables or spells to escape. That's more fun, anyway.

Pick your fights
Don't mess with monsters that might kill you in one or two hits, or have high chances to hex you with a dangerous spell. When you first encounter a sleeping Sigmund, Grinder or double-headed ogre, don't wake them. If they notice you, it's often best to run away. You are strong enough to maybe kill them, but early on it's a gamble. Come back later, with a few consumables, just in case.

The same goes for ghost vaults. Don't open a runed door, unless you can reliably escape from or defeat what's in there. Press Ctrl-O for an overview of the Dungeon, including notes which unique monsters and ghosts you left alive on which floor.

Run away
It's generally safest to retreat via a known upstairs. But don't hesitate to take a downstairs or one-way escape hatch, if that's more practical. Though overall the floors get harder the deeper you descend, the very next floor might always be less dangerous.

To postpone a fight, make sure to create a gap between you and the monster, before you take the stairs. They can't follow you unless they are adjacent to the stairs. Consider placing a single-square exclusion on a staircase you just used to flee from dangerous foes. They're likely still around when you return.

Stairdancing
When there are too many monsters to handle, but individually they're harmless enough, take a few up or down the stairs with you. Dispose of them, rest and fetch a few more. Be aware that any monster adjacent to the stairs can attack you while you use the stairs.

Sometimes it pays off to take a single dangerous monster upstairs, so you can fight it alone on a clear floor, and safely teleport if that fight doesn't go well.

Ambushes at the entrance
Should you get ambushed by too many monsters near the single entrance to a branch, consider teleporting instead of stairdancing. Other parts of the map are probably less densely populated, as most of the monsters guard the entrance. Circle around the outer perimeter, close in on the stairs again and lure some monsters away from the mob.

If that's too dangerous, flee downstairs and continue exploring. You will be stronger on your way back up after you have cleared the branch.

Heavenly Storm is a good option to deal with ambushes, too. Just make sure you don't run out of space to move, i.e. break out of the centre of the action and keep moving away from it.

Consumables

Combat in DCSS is risky. It's possible that you dispose of one orc warrior with a single swipe of your claws but you need to score four hits to kill the next orc warrior. That second warrior might miss you four times in a row or hit you four times in a row. Those hits might barely scratch you or hurt you badly. Fights can go either way. Don't gamble. Use consumables to make sure you win or escape. It's not doping. It's how this business works.

Identify your stuff
Start early to read-ID your scrolls. Whenever you have two or more scrolls of the same type, read one. There are two popular strategies:

• Read while standing on the upstairs of an unexplored floor, in case it's revelation. If it's teleport, immediately go back upstairs. If the new floor features a timed portal, it sometimes pays off to read-ID single scrolls.
• Read before going downstairs to a new floor, because if the sourceless malevolence is triggered by your descent, it's better to have stuff identified in advance.

Either way, it's important that you identify your consumables early. Once you know scrolls of identify, use them on your potions and your single scrolls little by little. Do not blind-quaff potions before you have identified potions of mutation. Unless you are in real trouble and it's your best hope of survival.

If you happen upon a shop that offers cheap bad potions or scrolls, buy them to identify them.

As of 0.31, monsters can't use potions and scrolls anymore, so you can no longer identify stuff by watching others quaff or read.

Use your stuff
Consumables are precious, but don't hoard them. It's better to potentially waste a potion or scroll rather than save them for later and die right now. Live and you'll find new consumables. Use combat buffs like might before a fight, not when you only have 10 health left.

Life insurance scrolls and refreshments

• Scroll of blinking: S-tier life insurance. If you die with one of those left, you probably could have prevented it.
• Scroll of summoning: Can potentially kill anything. Also enables you to run while your summoned allies cover you.
• Scroll of butterflies: Another great life insurance scroll. The swarm of butterflies knocks monsters back and gets in the way of many ranged attacks. Attacks of opportunity do not apply when you swap places with an ally.
• Scroll of fear: Check the willpower of your enemies before you use this. You can quiver the scroll of fear with Q*, press f, and select a monster to see the exact chance you'll affect it. Bring multiple scrolls or read vulnerability first to scare away monsters with moderately high willpower, for example hydras. Don't forget to unquiver the scroll again, lest you waste it by accidentally pressing p.
• Scroll of teleport: Potentially dangerous on partially explored floors. Takes 3-5 turns to kick in. Cancel a pending teleport by reading another scroll of teleport, should you want to.
• Potion of lignification: Can be dangerous to use, but it's extremely strong early on. Use it to safely kill hydras. The massive AC boost turns hydra bites into mostly harmless tickles and your arms transform into branches well suited for pummeling hydras. Ideally, bring a potion of cancellation, in case you need to untransform fast. You cannot blink or teleport in tree form! To hit an invisible monster when you can't walk, hold Ctrl while you press the direction key.
• Potion of haste: Both escape option and combat buff.
• Potion of invisibility: Makes monsters that can't see invisible 35% less likely to hit you. They may lose track of you if you are a few squares away. You deal extra damage, since your strikes now count as low-tier stabbing attacks. Invisibility doesn't work in water, unless you are flying.

Scrolls of butterflies and summoning are in a set, meaning they are mutually exclusive. You won't find both of them in the same game.

Evocables

Pick up evocable items and use them tactically. Even with zero Evocations skill, wands and other evocables have a lot of utility. Evoke an item by pressing V. When you target a monster with a wand, the game will show you how likely you are to affect or hit them. A scarf of invisibility and evocable randarts are activated via the abilities menu (press a).

The following devices become inert after use but recharge as you gain experience. In any given game you only find one of each. Condenser vanes and tremorstones are mutually exclusive. The same goes for box of beasts and sack of spiders.

• Phial of floods: Evoke this to temporarily prevent spellcasters from using their magic. It only works on monsters who need to breathe. Unbreathing creatures can still cast spells when waterlogged.

• Lightning rod: It has four charges and never misses. Use it to take out dangerous monsters from a distance or to soften up packs of monsters. It kills a hydra in 3-4 blasts, even with zero Evocations. Against single targets, make sure they move towards you in a straight line, so you don't have to adjust your aim. It's very loud.

• Condenser vane: It's unreliable, but can be very useful with zero Evocations. At low skill it mostly creates noxious fumes, which have a chance to confuse monsters not resistant to poison. The clouds can spawn next to or directly on the monsters. A potion of attraction or Lesser Beckoning can pull monsters into clouds.

• Tin of tremorstones: Best used on a large pack of monsters after reading a scroll of immolation. If you don't have at least 20 AC and some rFire, try not to get hit by multiple explosions simultaneously.

• Box of beasts: Even the weakest of beasts can be useful to distract monsters. Drop the box if you need more space in your inventory.

• Sack of spiders: Has a chance to immobilise monsters with webbing (like a throwing net) and even the weaker arachnids it summons are pretty effective in the early game.

• Phantom mirror: This is arguably the best evocable in the game. Use it on exceptionally tough and deadly monsters. Don't hurt them before evoking the mirror. The reflection won't last long with zero skill, but can be a powerful ally nonetheless. This works on any monster and can't be resisted.

• Figurine of a ziggurat: Only found at the very bottom of a ziggurat and in Tomb:3, this figurine opens a portal to a new ziggurat. It can be evoked as a single-use emergency escape portal.

Throwing

Throwing without skill becomes less effective the further you progress, but it really helps early on. Pick up any darts, stones, javelins, boomerangs, nets and large rocks. Save curare-tipped darts and throwing nets for dangerous encounters. Press Q to quiver a type of missile, p to throw it at the nearest monster. Use f to target manually, f again to throw. Your missile might land a few tiles behind the target if you miss. To prevent this, use f. to throw instead of ff.

Sleeping monsters are easy to hit. A large rock can potentially one-shot most creatures roaming the upper floors of the Dungeon. Take pot shots at monsters while they close the distance to you. When they are one step away from you, press . to wait a turn, so they step into you and you can hit them first. Assuming you can't lunge, yet.

Large Rocks
Do not throw large rocks at ranged enemies! Especially not at centaurs. Large rocks take a long time to throw without skill and if that centaur survives, they will pelt you with a hail of arrows while you are helplessly waiting for your next turn. Large rocks have a base attack delay of 2.0 (more on that here). It takes a lot of skill to throw them fast.

Selected Threats

Poison
Thanks to your troll health and regeneration, poison is less dangerous for you than for most. Still, it stacks and can do serious damage over time. Be wary of venomous creatures and poisoned weapons until you have identified potions of curing or found a source of rPois. There is only one rank of rPois. If you put on two rings of poison resistance, one of them is useless. You can still be poisoned, but it's less likely. When poisoned, press @ for a preview of how low your health will drop before it gets better. Quaff curing to instantly get rid of the poison.

Liquid fire
Some monsters are able to set you on fire (e.g. bombardier beetles and a few demons). Keep moving to shake it off. Dipping into water will instantly extinguish the flames. As long as you stand in or fly above water, you won't catch fire.

Clouds
Neither you nor monsters can create clouds on tiles that already feature a cloud. Say, you are resistant to poison but lack rFire and you have to fight a fire crab. Reading a scroll of poison enables you to safely walk up to the crab. Clouds of flame cannot generate on tiles that are already occupied by your poison clouds. Even the short-lived and completely harmless clouds of sparse dust created by Serpent's Lash block other clouds. The golden clouds of Heavenly Storm also won't form on tiles with other clouds, and vice versa.

Hexes
In case you have a ring of willpower, put it on before engaging casters of hexes. Compare their chances to affect you with and without the ring (press x, target them, press v). You gain some innate willpower each XL, but not much. Additional willpower is almost always useful. Will+++ is reasonable protection, Will++++ is sufficient to reliably resist almost all hexes in the game. Most magical debuffs can be removed with the rarely found potion of cancellation.

Distortion and chaos
Try to never get hit by any monster wielding a weapon of distortion or chaos. At least until you are XL 20 or so. Besides potentially dealing serious damage, a single hit can irresistibly send you to the Abyss. It's a 5% chance for distortion, about 1% for chaos. Don't risk it unless you have to. Use everything at your disposal to kill or disarm distortion-wielding monsters from a distance. A wand of polymorph might transform weak-willed monsters and make them drop the weapon, for example.

Banishment
So you somehow got cast from the Dungeon into the Abyss. This is bad. Explore the chaotic plane and hope for an exit portal. They manifest spontaneously. You might be able to kill a weak demon or two. Gaining experience slightly increases the chance of a gateway out. The denizens of the Abyss vary greatly in difficulty. In general, run. Read teleport early when they close in on you. The Abyss delays your teleport significantly. From time to time the Abyss itself teleports you around. Every teleport in this branch can potentially suck you into deeper, even more dangerous levels.

There's not much else you can do. If you make it out, you reappear in the same spot where you were banished, probably facing the same enemy again who banished you. When you enter the Abyss the next time, you start at the same depth where you got out. There is no way back to the easier levels of the Abyss.

The sourceless malevolence
Sooner or later you will suddenly be teleported or shafted by a sourceless malevolence. It's an unavoidable trap, triggered by exploring new tiles. Shafts try to dump you somewhere out of monsters' sight, but they can drop you up to three levels deeper. Proceed to explore, try to fight your way back to where you were. Make searching for upstairs your highest priority. Pick up those items later.

Magic contamination
If you miscast a spell badly enough to start glowing with magic contamination, rest until it wears off. Grey contamination is harmless. Should you ever glow yellow or red, I recommend you quaff potions of cancellation until it's grey again. High levels of magic contamination can malmutate you.

Malmutation
Sometimes you get lucky and receive a beneficial mutation when certain monsters malmutate you. It's not likely. Assess how bad it is (press A). Really bad mutations make you teleport or go berserk against your will or prevent you from using potions or scrolls. Anything else might be bearable for a while. Use potions of mutation wisely to get rid of really bad mutations or too many bad mutations. If you are only going for 3-4 runes, you can quaff them more liberally. For an extended game, try to save most potions of mutation for Pandemonium.

Martial Arts Training Montage

Time, Actions and Delay

Before you start your training, you need to meditate on how time works. I have played for over a decade without understanding time and actions in DCSS. It's not that complicated, though. And especially important for disciples of Wu Jian. Time is measured in auts (arbitrary units of time). 10 auts = 1 decaAut = 1 turn of the game. The turn counter is labelled "Time" in the stat area on the top right of your game screen. When you take an action, the turn counter increases.

A standard action takes 10 auts, but actions can be faster or slower than that. Turns use one decimal place. The number in round brackets behind the turn counter is the time your last action took. In other words, the action delay. For example, at normal movement speed, there's a delay of 10 auts after each step, before you can take the next step. When you automatically take multiple actions in a row, e.g. by autoexploring or resting, the sum of those action delays is displayed instead.

Press @ to see your movement delay in auts and your attack delay in decaAuts. Most player characters and monsters have a movement delay of 10. When you quaff a potion of haste, this drops to 7, meaning you only need 0.7 turns (7 auts) to cover a square. When you are slowed, your movement delay is 15. You need 1.5 turns to walk a single step. No matter how slow your action is, no one can interrupt you.

Monster actions
Monsters act a bit differently than you. They don't increase the turn counter. They use the delay of your action. When you walk a step, they can use 10 auts. When you claw them with an attack delay of 0.8 decaAuts, they receive 8 auts. If their intended action takes longer than that, they do nothing, but accumulate their unused auts. Attacks of opportunity are free, they cost 0 auts.

The Wu Jian Council

One small step for you, a heavy blow or two for them.

Lunge
As the Wu Jian Council welcomes you, you instantly learn your first martial attack. From now on, whenever you step directly towards an enemy one tile away, you automatically lunge at them, hitting them for 120% damage (of a regular attack). You move and attack simultaneously, thus you hit them one turn earlier. It gets even better. You might attack multiple times with a single Lunge.

Wu Jian and attack delay
Let's assume your movement delay is 10 auts and your attack delay is 8 auts (0.8 decaAuts). When you perform a Lunge, you move and attack simultaneously. How does that work? One attack is guaranteed, because 8 < 10. After that attack, 2 auts of the movement remain. You now have a 2 / 8 = 25% chance to attack a second time.

On the other hand, if your attack delay is bigger than your movement delay, it's possible you don't attack at all. All Wu Jian martial attacks work like this. The game tells you that you "fail to attack", "attack" or "attack repeatedly".

Move like the wind.

Whirlwind
As you lunge deeper into the Dungeon, the Council soon teaches you the second martial movement. Whirlwind hits a monster with 80% damage (of a regular attack) when you move from one square adjacent to the monster to another square adjacent to the monster. Whirlwind can hit multiple enemies in a single move, and can double-hit the same way Lunges can.

On average, when you whirlwind around a single monster, you get exactly the same number of attacks as when standing still and attacking. Just with less damage. However, being able to reposition while fighting is often very useful.

You perform Lunges and Whirlwinds simultaneously. It's a bit like cleaving with your claws, as long as you keep moving. But be careful. There’s no autofight_stop for movement. It’s easy to get yourself killed by pressing buttons too fast.

Wu Jian and attacks of opportunity
All this movement around monsters makes you nervous? Fear not. Wu Jian martial attacks aren't subject to attacks of opportunity. They're safe to use without risking any extra attacks from monsters. It's tied to the movements, not the Council. When you move away from a monster without performing a martial attack, attacks of opportunity apply.

Take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.

Wall Jump
At ** piety the divine Council will reveal to you the third ancient martial technique. Wall Jump is a double-edged sword. Powerful and well worth using, with care. It's executed via the abilities menu (press a). Select a wall next to you to push off from. Trees and statues work, too. Your jump takes you two squares in the opposite direction. The square you land on has to be clear. Any monsters standing adjacent to the landing site suffer two moves worth of airborne attacks (no damage bonus).

It's two movements fused into one (20 auts, at normal speed). You cannot be interrupted or attacked in mid air. The downside is, any survivors of your onslaught enjoy just as much time to hit you back. They patiently wait for you to land. Then they receive 20 auts. This enables them to hit you twice in a row, assuming an attack delay of 1.0 = 10 auts, while you are unable to interrupt them. If you are slowed, your jump takes 30 auts instead and they can hit you three times in a row. Unless they're already dead, that is. You don't deal more damage when slowed, because your attack speed is also slower.

Thus, Wall Jump is best suited to:

• finish off injured foes
• obliterate whole packs of not terribly dangerous monsters
• overwhelm squishy monsters before they can react

Using Wall Jump is free, and it even works while you are silenced or berserking. It can be handy for repositioning. As long as there's a convenient wall and the landing site is clear, you can even jump across traps and deep water or lava. Try Wall Jump on weak monsters first. Use it more often as your confidence grows. Beware of hubris.

Time to take off the kid gloves.

Serpent's Lash
By the time you enter the Lair, the mystical sifus of the Council have probably taught you your ultimate ability – technically penultimate, but it's so powerful and fun, I consider it ultimate. It's time to move fast. Think of snakes. They are puny, yet they strike fast, thus hitting harder than an equally puny quokka. We are talking way faster.

Serpent's lash gives you two instant movement actions for a little piety up front and exhaustion afterwards. Instant means, you act, but there is no delay.

When you perform martial attacks with such incredible momentum, you hit 40% harder. Lunge does 1.2 x 1.4 = 168% damage then, compared to a regular attack. Whirlwind does 0.8 x 1.4 = 112%. Martial attacks performed with Serpent's Lash cannot miss, though they can still fail, if your attack speed is slower than your movement speed.

You don't have to execute your instant moves immediately or consecutively. You can, for example, activate Serpent's Lash, quaff a potion, lunge at one monster, evoke a wand, hit something without moving, lunge at another monster. Both Lunges are instant.

Only movement actions consume your two charges of Serpent's Lash. A single Wall Jump uses both of them, turning into a 100% safe instant Wall Jump. You can reposition between two lashed attacks with Blink or Vhi's Electric Charge.

In a pinch, Serpent's Lash is a great escape option. A single tile might be all the distance you need to get away, and the Lash can give you two. However, using stairs does not count as movement for Serpent's Lash! You always take stairs at your regular speed.

Serpent's Lash is prevented by silence, berserking, and of course, exhaustion.

Infinite power.

Heavenly Storm
Probably on the lower floors of the Lair, at ***** piety, the Wu Jian Council reveals to you the secret of Heavenly Storm. The Storm costs 20-30 piety. That's 10x as much as Serpent's Lash. But you can clear a whole floor in a single Heavenly Storm, depending on layout and population. Multiple floors, even.

As long as the Storm is active, you are surrounded by a two-tile halo and opaque golden clouds, similar to those produced by a scroll of fog. This makes fighting large groups of enemies out in the open much more viable. Ranged attackers are less of a problem now. If you can't see them, they can't see you. Once they are close enough to see, you can attack them. The halo negates invisibility, affecting both monsters and yourself.

Additionally you receive a bonus applied to evasion (EV) and slaying. Slaying improves both your accuracy and the damage you deal. The duration of the Storm is theoretically infinite. It starts with +5 EV and slaying. Every 2-3 turns the bonus decreases by 1. But it increases by 1 for every target you hit with a Wu Jian martial attack, up to a maximum of +15. Only Lunge, Whirlwind and Wall Jump prolong the Storm. It lasts until the bonus drops to zero. It's usually a bad idea to activate the Storm when you don't have enough space to move, e.g. right on the stairs of Vaults:5 or so.

Heavenly Storm is perfect for a fighting retreat. Your troll regeneration helps with that, too. Stay at the edge of the crowd. If your damage output is high enough, and I suspect it is, you can hold your ground or take the offensive.

The best thing is, Heavenly Storm leaves you tons of tactical options (unlike for example, berserk rage). Most notably, Serpent's Lash works, and you can use any item or spell while the Storm rages. Scrolls of blinking become slightly less useful, since you only blink to tiles you can see. However, there are random gaps in the fog and you can also peek out with Serpent's Lash.

The Storm is very loud, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Helps keep it going.

Getting unstuck
No space to move means no martial attacks. Try to never get completely surrounded, since Wu Jian provides no panic buttons to help you in that situation. You'll have to tough it out or resort to spells or consumables to make some room again.

Luckily, if you can cast Blink and Vhi's Electric Charge, it's pretty much impossible to overwhelm you with sheer numbers. As long as at least one tile in your line of sight is empty, you can blink. If every visible tile is occupied, you can still charge at any monster in the second row and thus get one tile closer to the edge of the crowd.

Punching power and AC considerations
Raw punching power is just one little part of the Kung Fu Puzzle. But when you fight extremely high AC monsters (they're usually made from iron), it's more important how hard you hit than how fast. So, let's rank all of your attacks by punching power per hit.

• 80% damage - Whirlwind
• 100% damage - plain old melee hit, Wall Jump
• 112% damage - Whirlwind with Serpent's Lash
• 120% damage - Lunge
• 140% damage - Wall Jump with Serpent's Lash
• 168% damage - Lunge with Serpent's Lash

In terms of damage per hit, Lunge is always the best option, no matter whether enemy AC is high or low. If you notice dark grey "You scratch the very though monster but do no damage" messages while using Whirlwind, stop it, get to a choke point, and start clawing things the old-fashioned way. Or alternate Whirlwinds and plain old hits if you've got a Heavenly Storm going.

The Kung Fu Puzzle

The key to winning Wu Jian is treating every non-trivial fight as a puzzle. It's all about careful positioning and using your martial moves to best effect. Think ahead. Where do you stand after your move? Which enemies are likely killed by your move? Which ones likely survive? What are they going to do next? Should you be on the offence or on the defence? This is even more important when you are a powerful but slow-moving statue.

Let's say, you are facing an orc to the north and four other orcs are flanking you like this:

.......
...o...
..o.o..
..o@o..
.......

You can hit them all. A Lunge and four Whirlwinds, in a single step. That's at least 120% + 4 x 80% = 440% damage, distributed among the orcs. It might be a good move. Don't get reckless, though. Every orc who survives can and will hit you back. If all of them survive, you are now surrounded by five monsters. Depending on how dangerous those orcs are to you, it might be best to take a diagonal step to the right and down, hitting just one of them, but ending up in a much safer position.

If those orcs are particularly dangerous, I recommend you use Serpent's Lash. Lunge, then choose your next move based on who is still alive. Sometimes, overwhelming offence is the best defence.

Flashy kung fu moves or not, it's still good tactics to use corridors and other bottlenecks to fight one-on-one.

...#...
..o####
..o'@..
..o####
...#...

Don't lunge. Take a step back, let one of the orcs walk into the doorway, then lunge.

Keep moving
When you do get swarmed out in the open, nibble away at the edges of the crowd. Moving to a tile where as few monsters as possible can hit you is often a good choice. As long as you perform at least one Whirlwind, you are safe from attacks of opportunity.

.......
..YY...
..Y@...
..Y....
.......

Standing next to four death yaks may seem scary. Because it is. But if you take a diagonal step to the right and up, you hit one of the beasts and only that one can hit you back. If you take a step down, you hit two death yaks and both of them can gore you. If you go right and down, you might well die from four simultaneous attacks of opportunity.

If you are lucky and your back is literally to the wall, maybe you can wall jump, but that's it:

##.....
....o..
##oooo.
.oo@oo.
.oo####

Is it safe to jump into that corridor? Yes. At least, it's much better than staying where you are. The orcs attack after your jump, so you take a maximum of three hits. Two from the orc already standing next to the landing site (if they survive), and another from the next orc, who needs to walk a square first. Assuming none of them wield polearms.

If you're feeling reckless, you may prefer to jump straight up, assaulting four of the orcs. You take up to eight hits if all of them survive and up to four hits (from their friends in the second row) if all of them die.

Use the environment
Can you deal with that elf summoner without killing the tier-2 demon first? Without using translocation spells or consumables?

.#.....
.######
.'@2..e
.######
.#.... 

Close the door and hope the elf takes another step. Then wall jump. Chances are, the puny elf dies and you don't need to worry about the demon anymore. You think this is just a contrived example? It is. I think you get the gist of it.

Ancient Martial Combos

The Three-Point-Claw-Exploding-Hydra-Technique
Don't let the name fool you. Use this technique against any particularly tough and dangerous monster. Including hydras. Make sure your honourable opponent is one step away. Activate Serpent's Lash. Lunge, then follow up with a Whirlwind. Chances are, they are dead now. They're not? Your moves were instant, so it's still your turn. Deftly apply your claws a third time to finish up - either a plain old hit for 100% damage or another whirlwind, for 80% damage with a chance to double-hit.

As your Unarmed Combat skill improves, this approach will evolve into more of a one-point-technique, often leaving you with an unspent charge of Serpent's Lash. What a waste. Let's hope the next hydra brings a friend.

The Shredder
Like the Three-Point-Technique, but instead of following up the Lunge and Whirlwind with a single attack, you follow up with a Wall Jump. Best don't use this against hydras.

....#
..o.#
....#
..@.#

....#
..o.#
..@.#
....#

....#
..o@#
....#
....#

....#
.@o.#
....#
....#

That's 4 turns worth of movement, and I believe 4-7 attacks in total before that orc can finally react, assuming you have an attack delay of, say 0.8 decaAuts.

The Pull Back
If you lunge with incredible momentum and deal very little damage or none at all, consider using your second charge of Serpent's Lash to take a step back again. Serpent's Lash cannot miss, but damage rolls vary. Maybe you aren't quite ready for this fight. Maybe it was just an exceptionally bad roll. If the monster wasn't impressed by your Lunge, it might not always be wise to push it.

The Double Lunge
What if you have to fight some notable threat in a narrow corridor? There's no space for a Whirlwind. Use your first charge of Serpent's Lash to lunge. Step back, then lunge again. Only the first Lunge is boosted by the Lash. The second Lunge is still much better than a regular attack, though it might miss and it's the monster's turn now.

Trading damage for range
Sometimes there's a physically weak monster with dangerous abilities a few squares away and you want to attack them right now. Use Serpent's Lash, just to walk and get closer. Then lunge or wall jump them. They can't act until after your attack.

You can kill this shining eye right now, with two instant steps and a regular Lunge:

...G...
.......
.......
.......
...@...

You can wall jump this occultist before they have a chance to banish you:

..p...#
......#
......#
......#
.....@#

If the monster is tough, it might be better to just walk a bit closer and hit them with a Lunge with incredible momentum from two squares away. Or use your translocation spells.

Statue Form

Be granite, my friend
Okay, you have mastered the basics. Now your advanced, granite-augmented training begins.

Statue Form has two main drawbacks for you:

• All your actions are slowed by 50%. Movement, attacks, spells, everything.
• Body armour is melded.

You also become vulnerable to Lee's Rapid Deconstruction and Shatter, though fortunately, enemy casters with those spells are far and between. Deep elf elementalists, deep troll earth mages, and Jorgrun can cast LRD, but they usually don't spam it excessively. As far as I know, in 0.31, only player ghosts might have knowledge of Shatter. Examine high level ghosts carefully, before you open their vault.

Also keep in mind, that monsters such as torpor snails and death scarabs can slow you even further. Your movement delay will be 22 (10 x 1.5 x 1.5). It'll take you 2.2 turns to lunge or walk a single tile.

Sounds scary? It really isn't, because you gain a ton of bonuses, resistances and immunities:

• 130% HP
• Up to +38 AC (+1 AC per 0.81 skill)
• Increased unarmed base damage that stacks with your claws
• 150% melee damage
• Poison immunity
• rElec
• rN+
• 50% torment resistance
• Immunity to sleep, petrification, flaying, and miasma
• Unbreathing
• No blood, so skysharks and vampires can't get a taste

Thanks to high health, high AC, unencumbered EV and the ability to use a shield, Statue Form is the most durable form in the game. Also, your regeneration doesn't slow down. You heal faster on a per action basis, and you're a quickly healing troll to begin with.

Float like a zeppelin, hit like a truck.
Still worried about the overall slowdown? Though you move and attack slowly, you're not necessarily a slow fighter. After all, the Wu Jian Council taught you to move and attack simultaneously. For example, you now need 15 auts (1.5 turns) to lunge at a monster. That's exactly the same time a normal speed character with a quite fast attack delay of 0.5 needs to take a step (or let the monster take a step) and attack once. Of course, you hit way harder, potentially dealing more damage per turn. You'll often one-shot monsters. Less need to rest.

Force equals mass times acceleration
Even better, Serpent's Lash still grants you instant movement, no matter how slow you are. When you perform martial attacks with incredible momentum, Statue Form is free extra damage with no downside at all. A Statue Form Lunge with Serpent's Lash does 1.5 x 1.4 x 1.2 = 252% damage. With higher base damage, perfect accuracy and a chance to attack twice. Beautiful, isn't it?

Be granite, my friend. Shapeshift your mind. Be sleepless, bloodless, like granite. You drop a block of granite onto a cup, it smashes the cup.

Granted, running away becomes less of an option now, unless you quaff haste. A wrong step in Statue Form is potentially more dangerous than with a normal-speed character. Entering Statue Form takes 5 turns, untransforming 7.5 turns. Not a real option mid-fight. And that's the only way to end it. Shapeshifting cannot be dispelled, cancellation has no effect on it. Get used to your new movement speed. Don't get careless. Use your translocation spells wisely.

Death Form

Torment be gone
Death Form also comes with drawbacks:

• You cannot drink potions.
• You are vulnerable to holy damage and Dispel Undead
• You suffer stat drain, instead of malmutations

And a lot of interesting benefits:

• Torment immunity
• Poison immunity
• Mutation immunity, but most mutations you already have don't get suppressed
• polymorph immunity
• Immunity to sleep, flaying, and miasma
• Unbreathing
• No blood, so skysharks and vampires can't get a taste
• rN+++
• rC+
• will+
• Increased unarmed base damage that stacks with your claws
• Your melee attacks drain, slow and weaken most monsters
• Siphon Essence ability
• None of your equipment gets melded

Statue Form's torment resistance is only partial. Death Form is 100% immune. So, despite inferior physical defence, Death Form is much more reliable in areas abundant with torment, most notably the Tomb.

Siphon Essence
Costs 20 MP and has a cooldown. This ability torments enemies within 2 tiles, and heals you for the damage dealt. The max amount healed scales with Shapeshifting skill, but is capped at 50 HP.

The formula is:

(19 + 3 * Shapeshifting) / 2

23 Shapeshifting = max 44 HP healed.
25 Shapeshifting = max 47 HP healed.
27 Shapeshifting = max 50 HP healed.

I'm not sure if it's worth it to go beyond 23 Shapeshifting, if you use Death Form exclusively. Only Siphon Essence scales with skill. All other benefits are fixed.

Having mastered both Statue Form and Death Form you can choose the best talisman for each branch. Choose wisely and mind Death Form's inability to drink.

Fight Dirty

You have meditated on the nature of time. You have trained the basic and advanced martial techniques. You are a shapeshifting beast, augmented by granite and death. Is there anything left to learn, any way you could become even more powerful? Always.

Fight dirty. You're capable of overwhelming most enemies in more or less honourable combat. Even most unique monsters in mid or late game. But now and then you'll face true monsters, such as the Lords of Pandemonium and Hell. Bad guys so big, their sprites won't fit in a single tile. Don't just charge at them and hope for the best. Get every advantage you can.

Attacks against unaware or helpless enemies are called stabs and deal extra damage. Even without a weapon designed for stabbing, you can and should take advantage of stabs. Your stab damage multiplier isn't big (unless you're wearing the hood of the Assassin), but it stacks with all the other damage multipliers you already use, and it's your massive stone claws that keep getting multiplied, not a flimsy little dagger.

Assuming 27 Unarmed Combat and zero Stealth:

• The best stabs (high-tier) roughly double your damage, guaranteed. The monster needs to be asleep, paralysed or petrified.
• Low-tier stabs provide about 27% extra damage. It's a 25-30% chance you pull one of those off, depending on your Dexterity. The monster has to be unable to see you (blindness or invisibilty), trapped in a net or web, distracted, or fleeing.

Jump 'em
So, should you literally jump sleeping monsters? Absolutely. You're not particularly stealthy, but monsters sleep soundly enough, sometimes. You can also use Serpent's Lash to get into position and strike before they have any chance to wake up. And there are ways to set up high-tier stabs:

• Wand of paralysis, if necessary boosted by a Scroll of vulnerability.
• If you have the time and a secure changing room, swapping your shield for an orb of guile also boosts the wand, massively. But be very careful, and swap back to your shield immediately after the assassination. It takes 10 turns to swap, 15 in Statue Form.
• In Lair, monsters aren't afraid to walk into clouds of calcifying dust, provided by a catoblepas. Nice when it happens.

Sucker punch 'em
Low-tier stabs don't sound impressive? Maybe, but those are easier to set up, and keep in mind that using your martial techniques, you can attack a monster multiple times in a row, and also multiple monsters at the same time. Every single hit has a chance to stab. Also, the conditions that enable low-tier stabs typically last for multiple turns. Get creative, go for their weaknesses. Use Serpent's Lash to maximum effect.

• Having trouble with Ilsuiw's gang or a huge pack of draconians in Zot? Quaff invisibility. Most likely, by the time the potion wears off, there won't be any survivors left.
• Nets and a wand of light are particularly useful against single targets, especially in the extended game. Very few monsters are immune to them. Big, clumsy oafs like Cerebov are the perfect target.
• Blind or net highly evasive monsters by applying a wand of roots or Borgnjor's Vile Clutch first. Constriction doesn't enable stabs, but it drastically lowers evasion.
• When allies attack a monster, there's a chance they distract it. In tiles, a little question mark will appear, just like when monsters are awake, but didn't notice you yet. A phantom mirror works great to create distractions.
• You might even use fear (scroll or the spell) offensively sometimes, let monsters run one step away and lunge-stab them in the back.

It ain't over till the heavyweight troll wins
If a fight doesn't go your way, reset and try again. Even if they are stronger than you, you still win. Maybe only one time out of three, but that's just two scrolls of teleport and then they're dead. It's just business, nothing personal.

The Wall Jump Getaway
Image this. Stupid mistakes were made. Luck ran out. You're in a real pickle, exhausted, back against the wall. Health bar has so much red, the last bit of green is hard to see. There's a hell sentinel right beside you. You read teleport, hoping against hope that you might get away just one more time. And the sentinel's iron shot misses you. But a couple of hellions appear at the edge of the screen. You're so dead. Quaffing heal wounds won't be enough. There's no chance you'll outheal the fireworks next turn, before the teleport kicks in. You could have avoided this, but it's too late now. Or is it?

A scroll of teleport takes 3-5 turns to kick in, time for reading the scroll included. A Wall Jump in Statue Form takes 3 turns, or 4.4 turns, if you are affected by the slow status. So, jump right after reading the scroll, and there's a 66.6% chance you'll be teleported instantly after the jump. 100% chance if you're slow and a statue!

No one can prevent your escape in any way:

• You read teleport.
• You jump and attack, damaging monsters as usual.
• Your teleport kicks in.
• It's the monsters' turn now, but you are already gone.

This is less useful in Death Form and no guaranteed escape, even in Statue Form. The teleport randomly drops you anywhere on the map, possibly even back onto the very tile you read the scroll on, or close to it. But chances are, it'll save your life more often than not.

Don't forget that the Abyss, the Realm of Zot, and carrying the Orb of Zot significantly delay your teleport (8-19 turns, in the Abyss).

Branch Order

This branch order isn't set in stone. You might want to skip a branch sometimes and revisit it later, depending on your resistances.

• Dungeon 1-12
• Lair
• Orc
• Dungeon 13-15
• Both S-branches
• Elf
• Vaults 1-4
• Crypt
• Depths
• Slime
• Zot 1-4
• Vaults 5
• Ziggurat 1-7
• Tomb (maybe)
• Pandemonium
• Abyss
• Tomb (maybe)
• Vestibule of Hell
• Dis
• Tartarus
• Cocytus
• Gehenna
• Tomb (maybe)
• Zot 5

If you use Death Form, I encourage you to try Tomb before Hell (11th rune) or even before Pandemonium (5th rune). Tomb doesn't require elemental resistances and contains big treasure chambers filled with gold, artefacts and an extremely useful figurine of a ziggurat. If you do Tomb last, you won't need those things anymore. It's not overly risky. With Statue Form it's a bit more challenging, but still manageable. This build does well in Tomb. Though, if you have never visited Tomb before, best go there last.

For a quick win, clear Zot:5 and snatch the Orb as soon as you have 3 runes. I recommend you go for either 4, 10 or 15 runes. If you can beat the base game, you can beat the extended game. You just need to get familiar with it.

Early Game

The Dungeon

The early Dungeon can be rough. Especially for puny goblins who try to tackle a troll fighter. Beware of hubris, though. Never let your guard down. You start the game with limited options. You are not supposed to be able to deal with everything the first time you encounter it. Threat assessment is key to surviving the early Dungeon.

The Ecumenical Temple
Unless you found an early altar and already converted to the Wu Jian Council, check out the Ecumenical Temple. If there is no altar of Wu Jian, delve deeper into the Dungeon. The altar is guaranteed somewhere between D:3 and D:10. Do not choose any god other than the Wu Jian Council. Do not enter the Lair before you are a disciple of Wu Jian. Follow the path.

Dealing with bats
They're not a threat, but can be evasive. Take a step back instead of walking towards them and they'll usually end their turn next to you, where you can claw them.

Dealing with snakes
Try to avoid adders at XL 1. They are too fast to run from, unless safety is very close by. They cannot open doors. You might be able to lock them in a room. Press C to close a door. Place an exclusion on the door and explore the rest of the floor in peace. Adders are less scary when you are XL 2 or XL 3. Still, they might get lucky and evade your claws more often than you like. Water moccasins are bigger, stronger adders. Ball pythons are harmless, but kill them first, so other monsters don't take advantage of the constriction.

Dealing with orcs wizards
Orc wizards aren't too dangerous by themselves, but sometimes they confuse you. Just stumble around and try to claw them until the confusion wears off. If they bring some of their harmless orc friends, never mind. Means you're more likely to hit someone. However, if orc priests or warriors are around, you might want to quaff a potion of curing to get rid of the confusion instantly. When an orc wizard turns invisible, just walk up to the tile where you last saw them and claw the empty space. Sometimes you see a disturbance in the air where you think they are. You will hit them just fine and soon feel more experienced, indicating that you killed them.

Dealing with orc priests
Orc priests heal their fellow orcs, but most notably they smite you for significant damage. A smite is a ranged attack that does not miss and hits you even if other monsters are standing between you and the priest. They need to see you in order to smite you. Closing a door, reading a scroll of fog or stepping around a corner are all good tactics to avoid being smitten. A scroll of silence renders orc priests (and most other priests and non-demonic spellcasters) harmless.

Dealing with arachnids and insects
Unlike snakes, most arachnids and insects are susceptible to poison. Poisoned darts are extremely effective on scorpions and bombardier beetles (remember, move to shake off the fire). If you don't have darts or keep missing, don't sweat it. Your claws will do. Be careful with early boulder beetles. They're tough and hit hard, but fortunately they have very bad EV and are easily hit with darts.

Dealing with venomous flying insects
When you see a killer bee, immediately run into the next corridor. There's always a swarm. Possibly a big one, including a queen bee. Killer bees are susceptible to poison, but not easily hit with darts. If a few of them line up one after the other, throw at the most distant one. The dart may hit any bee in the line of fire. Claw them one-on-one or use evocables. Hornets are a bit easier to hit (not much) but have a nasty venom that slows you. Luckily, they are more solitary. Scrolls of poison are very effective against them.

Dealing with electric eels
Electric eels live in water and shoot electrical bolts at you. This can be dangerous because rElec is hard to come by in the early Dungeon. Luckily, electric eels are easy to avoid and easily killed with wands or poisoned darts. Just stay at the edge of their range and take cover as needed. Wands of flame work best. They create steam clouds above the water, both scalding the eel and blocking line of sight. Confusion caused by atropa-tipped darts or other means can make them jump out of the water and suffocate.

Dealing with sleepcaps
Try to fight sleepcaps one-on-one. Their melee attacks have a chance to put you to sleep, turning the next attack against you into a stab. This is especially dangerous if hard-hitting monsters like iguanas, orc warriors or ogres are nearby.

Dealing with ogres
Ogres are a bit like you. They hit hard and have bad evasion. Your claws are far superior to their giant clubs, but unless you are certain you can take a few hits from them, try to kill ogres from a distance. Or at least severely injure them before engaging. Curare-tipped darts work great to slow them down. Follow up with a couple of poison darts. Throwing nets also work great.

Dealing with two-headed ogres
The dual-wielding two-headed ogres are much worse than the one-headed kind. Think twice and check the numbers before giving a two-headed ogre any chance to pound you into the ground. A single turn might be all it takes, if you meet them early.

Dealing with unseen horrors
Somewhere around D:10 you might suddenly be attacked by something invisible you didn't see coming, and it's harder to pin down than an orc wizard. It's an unseen horror. A very fast, permanently invisible creature with a bat-like movement pattern. A scroll of poison will take care of it. Shallow water or a scroll of fog reveal its position. Attack the disturbance. Alternatively, walk into a corridor and once you know on which side of you it is, claw that side. Evoking a lightning rod down the corridor is very effective. You know you killed it when you feel more experienced.

If you want to see the creature or have no other options, consider fleeing upstairs and equipping an orb of light, assuming you found one (press Ctrl-F to search). Put on your shield again after you have vanquished the horror. Any item with SInv works, too.

Dealing with Erolcha
Erolcha doesn't stand a chance in melee, but she can cast you into the Abyss. Unless you found some items of willpower already. A good way to deal with her is a scroll of summoning. Likely, she banishes just one of your allies before being overwhelmed by the rest. Fog or butterflies can also help you cover your retreat or get closer to her. Minimise the time she has a free line of fire on you. When in doubt, check by targeting her with something. If you have a scroll of silence or a phial of floods, this is the fight you were saving them for.

Taking a break from the Dungeon: Early branches
For starters, don't go deeper into the Dungeon than D:11 or at most D:12. Be careful. If you meet Rupert on D:12, or any other serious problem, retreat upstairs and don't come back before you have completed the Lair and the Orcish Mines. If the Lair gives you trouble, try doing the Orcish Mines first.

The Lower Dungeon (D:13-15)
After Lair and Orc, this should be relatively easy. As always, beware of hubris.

Dealing with wizards
Wizards come in two flavours. Keep an eye out for occultists, lest they cast you into the Abyss. Deal with them quickly, especially if your willpower is lower than will+++. Arcanists like to vitrify you, which temporarily increases all damage you take by 50%. Both types of wizard pack nasty elemental conjurations, cannot see invisible and are harmless when silenced.

Dealing with ugly things
Ugly things can hit quite hard, dealing elemental damage you might or might not resist, depending on your gear. Fight a pack of them in corridors. You can use a wand of polymorph to make them change their colour, which corresponds to the type of damage they deal.

Dealing with slime creatures
There are exceptions to everything and slime creatures are one of them. Don't fight them in a corridor. Try to get surrounded by them in the open. That way, they are less likely to merge into a single enormous or even titanic slime creature. A titanic slime creature hits for 110 damage and can have more HP than a juggernaut. Spread slime creatures out as much as you can, e.g. if three of them are in a row kill the middle one first. Only creatures adjacent to each other merge.

The Dungeon was only the beginning
The entrance to the Depths on D:15 is probably guarded by some kind of giant or dragon. Nothing you can't handle. Return to the Lair and choose your first S-branch.

The Lair of Beasts

If you have rPois, great. Otherwise, rely on potions of curing and be a bit more wary of venomous creatures. Most beasts in the Lair are easily ripped apart. Carefully inspect every monster you don't know. Scrolls of fear and scrolls of poison generally work well in the Lair.

This branch typically has some big caverns. Move along the walls first, explore big open spaces last. It's okay to fight out in the open, as long as you kill everything fast and don't lose most of your health in every fight. You should be able to clear the whole branch, top to bottom in one go. Do not yet enter any other branches you find in the Lair, except timed portals.

Preparing for hydras
All of the following advice assumes that you aren't using a granite talisman, yet. When you're in Statue Form, hydras are no longer an issue.

Ideally, don't mess with your first hydra before you are at least XL 11. Make sure you are at full health. Disposal of hydras in melee can be unreliable, especially if you just entered Lair:1, depending on your gear and the hydra's stats (maximum health varies). Your increasing Unarmed Combat skill solves this problem in the long run. For now, get some life insurance (see "Consumables"). Don't engage hydras without an escape plan.

You can virtually eliminate the odds of things going wrong by buffing yourself or softening the hydra up. Wands of ice blast, acid or light work particularly well. Besides dealing damage, they have a chance to slow, corrode or blind the hydra, respectively. Cold slows many reptiles and amphibians (cold-blooded creatures without rCold).

Large rocks are an option if the hydra is far away, though unreliable without Throwing skill. Darts are useless, since hydras are resistant to poison. Throwing nets work great. In 0.31, giant monsters are no longe immune to nets.

Hydras and water
Beware of water in the Lair. Hydras swim very fast. They only need 6 auts (0.6 turns) to cover a square of water. Haste isn't fast enough to flee from a swimming hydra. On land they have a movement speed of 10. Invisibility doesn't work in water, unless you are flying.

A wand of flame can do serious damage to a swimming hydra, scalding it in clouds of steam. A few puffs of flame shot into a big lake can kill a hydra, even at zero Evocations. A smaller body of water might still be useful for softening it up.

Killing hydras fast
It is common and generally good advice for trolls not to engage hydras in unarmed combat. Your claws are perfectly capable of ripping off heads and hydras tend to spontaneously grow two new heads for each one they lose, regaining some health in the process. That's bad. Unless … what if you rip those heads off like, really hard? Serpent's Lash makes the difference. Lunge, Whirlwind, follow up with 2-3 regular attacks as long as your health is no less than about 80%.

Escaping from excessively lucky hydras
Don't push your luck. If the hydra doesn't die from a total of 3-5 hits it's no use. Lunge, Whirlwind and up to three plain old hits. No more than that. Less if your health drops noticeably. Use your life insurance. Who knows how many felids this hydra has devoured? Maybe it has extra lives by now. Unlike you.

Killing hydras slowly
You might be tempted to use a flaming-branded edged weapon. I don't recommend it. Without weapon skill, your health drops faster than the hydra's head count. If you don't mind the tedium you can of course carefully chop one or two heads off, disengage (using consumables or Serpent's Lash), rest and repeat. But don't spend experience on weapon skills.

Other methods of dealing with hydras
A safe way to kill a hydra is to quaff a potion of lignification. This is a good last resort if all else fails. Alternatively, you can kite a hydra with haste and kill it with wands, though that's an expensive approach. 3-4 blasts from a lightning rod should obliterate a hydra, even with zero Evocations. Make sure the beast is coming at you in a straight line, so you don't need to shift your aim. A phantom mirror is also worth a shot.

Be creative. What about using a wand of charming on weak-willed monsters nearby? Tell them to attack the hydra by pressing ta. One could imagine other, even more elaborate tactics. I won't mention scrolls of butterflies and immolation now. No, that's on you. I wash my hands of this.

How not to deal with hydras
Don't use Wall Jump on hydras. You perform multiple attacks during the jump, each strike creating new heads. If the hydra lives, it will double-hit you with its new total number of heads before you can act again.

Dealing with skysharks
Skysharks can be just as bad as hydras. They're too fast to run from and they get increasingly dangerous the longer you fight them. If you aren't prepared to deal with a skyshark, read teleport when you see one. Kill them fast. In fact, treat them just like hydras. However, they have two weaknesses hydras don't have. They can be poisoned and slowed with curare, and their willpower is low. Lignification is a great, albeit expensive, way to deal with skysharks. It turns you into a bloodless tree. If you quaff it early enough, the shark can't taste blood and won't go berserk.

Dealing with Rupert
Rupert is often found in the Lair. He's a dangerous guy who likes to paralyse and confuse you by yelling, before going berserk and pounding you with his branded two-handed weapon. Maybe it's best to avoid him for a while yet.

Luckily, if you want to or have to fight Rupert, he has weaknesses you can exploit. Curare slows him down, he can get tangled in a throwing net, he cannot see invisible and he can't swim. A scroll of summoning helps a lot. Use your phantom mirror on him. A scroll of silence shuts him up, but he will still go berserk. If you use silence, consider quaffing a potion of berserk rage, too.

The Orcish Mines

After clearing the Lair, the Orcish Mines shouldn't be much of a challenge. Most orcs are fairly squishy. Willpower becomes more important, though. Watch out for orc sorcerers and ogre mages. They cast paralyse. Try to keep other monsters between you and them. Check by aiming something at them. Kill them fast, unless your willpower is high enough to resist. Check by inspecting them. By now, ogres and two-headed ogres aren't much of a threat to you anymore. Still, try not to fight too many of them at the same time.

Use Serpent's Lash against tough opponents like unique monsters, orc warlords and stone giants. Beware of ettins. They are the new two-headed ogres. Nessos and Sonja can be hexed with a wand of paralysis or polymorph. Read vulnerability to save on wand charges. Saint Roka cannot see invisible.

Don't hesitate to use Heavenly Storm in Orc:2 if you find yourself facing tons of crossbow-wielding orc warriors and orc high priests or teams of cyclopes throwing large rocks at you. Orc:2 contains a number of shops that, with a bit of luck, might have a granite talisman on sale. After the Mines it's time to head into the lower Dungeon.

Timed Portals

At some point you will hear the rusting of a drain, the hiss of flowing sand or other sounds, with the game urging you to hurry and find the portal. Those are optional mini-branches. I recommend you try them, carefully. You are strong enough for most portals found in the Dungeon, unless you just got shafted two or three floors. A scroll of revelation can help you reach the portal in time.

Volcanos
You might want to skip volcanos if you lack fire resistance. Swap rings and other equipment as needed before entering.

Ice caves
I frequently venture into ice caves without cold resistance. More often than not, some items with rC+ can be found near the entrance. Simulacra have very low willpower. They can easily be charmed or paralysed. Or kill them with a wand of flame. They are dangerous, though. Do not underestimate simulacra, even with cold resistance. Examine them and check the numbers.

Do not use Statue Form in an ice cave without rCold. You'll get double-hit by fast simulacra and die. High AC won't save you. When in doubt, leave the cave. Late ice caves are called glacial chasms, and can feature extremely out of depth monsters. If you see a reaper or ice fiend and are unsure about how to deal with them, flee.

Gauntlets
Gauntlets are interesting. You can enter and take a look around safely. Note potentially interesting items and inspect the monsters guarding them. Press Crtl-F and search for . for a list of all the items you have discovered on the current floor.

Every chamber is a tactical puzzle you might or might not be able to solve with the tools at your disposal. Figure out how the rooms are connected through the portals. You cannot enter all of them. Teleport doesn't work in a gauntlet. There is no turning back once you enter the first portal.

At the end of each gauntlet you face a minotaur who likes to pick up some of the loot they are guarding, and use it against you. Buff yourself before this fight. The minotaur is equipped with javelins and quite deadly both at range and in melee.

Mid Game

Poison and Water: The S-branches
In any game you get either Snake or Spider plus either Swamp or Shoals. One poison-themed branch and one branch prominently featuring shallow and deep water. Don't enter the Snake Pit or Spider's Nest without rPois, lest you quickly run out of potions of curing. Picking up a staff of poison or some weapon with rPois is not an option. If your game spawned Swamp, try to find a swamp dragon and slay it for the scales.

Flying is very nice to have in Swamp and Shoals, though trolls of the Wu Jian Council are less at a disadvantage than most without it. Other species sometimes fumble their attacks when standing in shallow water (37.5% chance). You don't. Shallow water doesn't even slow down your movement any more, because you are large. You can use Wall Jump to cross a single tile of deep water here and there.

They all look like hydras to me
Venturing into the S-branches, you probably feel a bit fragile. That's because you are, at this point. Unless, of course, you are already using Statue Form. That'll help a lot. Still, don't get reckless.

Trolls are tougher than most in the early game. In mid game, your inability to wear most types of armour and your bad evasion become noticeable. The monsters hit harder. You also face ranged attacks more often. That's why you chose Dex earlier, to improve both your EV and SH, and why you started out as fighter instead of shapeshifter. There's no guarantee you would have found a kite shield in time.

That being said, not much changes now. It's a bit like early Dungeon again, with less throwing. Every move counts. Which branch is easier to do first depends on your resistances. There's nothing in the S-branches a timely Serpent's Lash or Heavenly Storm won't deal with. Still, all of those branches are a tactical challenge. Unless you know a branch by heart, carefully inspect every monster.

You might want to clear the upper three floors of both S-branches first, then the final floors containing the runes. There's nothing wrong with completing one branch after the other, though. Just expect a lot of opposition on the fourth floor and always have an escape plan. If one of the S-branches is giving you trouble, consider doing Elf:1-2 or Vaults:1-4 first. I don't recommend Elf:3 before you have collected two runes.

Dealing with Nikola
Nikola can be found in any S-branch or later in the game. He is one of the more notable enemies dreaded by players trying to streak games. If you lack rElec, immediately quaff a potion of resistance. Kill him fast, silence him, get out of his sight, or he'll zap you for massive damage. Even with rElec he's still dangerous, since Chain Lightning is only partly resistible and he doesn't mind friendly fire. Getting other monsters between him and you won't save you. Best don't phantom mirror him.

The Snake Pit

Besides rPois, I recommend rElec and at least rF+.

• Nagas and anacondas can constrict you. Fight them in corridors. Try to not get surrounded while constricted.
• Watch out for guardian serpents. They are easy to kill, but they will blink nearby enemies next to you, instantly surrounding you.
• Shock serpents are terrifying without rElec. They're like faster, higher voltage electric eels that don't need water, and shock you when you claw them. Don't underestimate them. Fortunately, they don't resist poison, don't see invisible, are cold-booded, and have low willpower.
• Some rFire is nice to have when you fight salamanders. All salamanders can swim through lava. Like shock serpents, they are cold-blooded and not resistant to poison, so you can slow them down with both curare and iceblast.
• Salamander tyrants make lava erupt from the ground next to you. Step away from that lava immediately. Don't stand adjacent to lava with a tyrant in sight.
• An amulet of reflection and a scarf of repulsion make naga sharpshooters significantly less scary. Sharpshooters use magic to teleport their arrows. Neither summoned allies nor other monsters, only walls give you cover.
• Consider digging a kill hole, if you encounter Vashnia and her gang.
• Nagarajas can cast Dimension Anchor, a spell that prevents you from blinking and teleporting.
• On Snake:4 there may be quicksilver dragons. Two of them. They are pretty tough and too fast to run from. Their dispelling breath hits hard and strips you of most buffs, including a pending teleport. Luckily, as of 0.31, Statue Form cannot be dispelled anymore. Phantom mirror and a scroll of summoning are good options.

The Spider's Nest

rPois is crucial, and ideally, you want to have a bit of every resistance for this branch. Also SInv.

• Meliai are the new orc priests, just faster, flying, venomous, and always roaming in packs. They smite you and heal others. They are extremely squishy, vulnerable to poison, and have very low willpower. A wand of charming is worth a shot. Meliai are very effective at killing meliai.
• Moths of wrath make other creatures around them go berserk, including yourself. This often is to their own detriment rather then yours. A raging troll is no joke. But it can be inconvenient. And too many raging spiders are no joke either. Kill those moths quickly, and separate them from other monsters if you can.
• Sun moths set you on fire in melee, when they aren't busy shooting irresistible beams of energy. They have no real weak point.
• Pharaoh ants are undead and drain your health. When you kill them, they afflict all other monsters in sight with Bind Souls. When slain, the bound monsters will rise again as simulacra. Facing simulacra without rCold is very risky, especially in Statue Form.
• Spark wasps are just as bad as shock serpents. Quaff resistance immediately, if you lack rElec and face a pack of them. They are susceptible to poison and their willpower is low.
• Entropy weavers should not be a big deal. Swap in a ring of rCorr, if you have one. You can quaff cancellation if they corrode you too much, but more often than not, that won't be necessary.
• Radroaches irradiate you with magical contamination. Kill them from a distance or kill them fast. Soften them up, before you engage them. They can be slowed with curare.
• Jorogumos can ensnare you in webs and paralyse you with their bites. Definitely worth a Serpent's Lash.
• Tarantellas irresistibly confuse you with their touch. Otherwise, they are squishy and rather harmless. You might need to quaff curing to get rid of the confusion. A Wall Jump will usually kill tarantellas.
• Broodmothers are tough and summon other spiders. Kill the mother and the brood will vanish. They are good targets for a phantom mirror.
• The invisible ghost moths can be dangerous if you lack SInv. Their gaze drains your magic and their bite drains your attributes. A scroll of fog will make them close in on you and give away their position. Remember that Heavenly Storm reveals invisible. If the current floor has a wide open layout, it may be worth a Storm anyway. Unlikely to be of practical use, but the small halo of a sun moth reveals ghost moths, too. You may be able to charm a sun moth if you read a scroll of vulnerability beforehand. Strangely enough, ghost moths cannot see invisible.

The Swamp

More Hydras. Lots of hard-hitting flora and fauna. Every resistance is useful in the Swamp, but most of all rPois.

• Swamp worms yank you next to them with their harpoon shot. Step around a corner and let them come to you. Their willpower is very low.
• Beware of death drakes. Don't stand in miasma clouds any longer than you have to. Statue Form provides you with immunity to miasma, if you can already use it.
• Make sure you aren't adjacent to trees when spriggan druids awaken them.
• Also, make sure eleionomae aren't standing adjacent to a tree while you hit them, so they don't immediately heal back up.
• Fenstrider witches are arguably the most dangerous monsters in the Swamp. Inspect them and shudder. Immediately step out of the sludge they hurl. It's not water. Yuck.
• Definitely use a phantom mirror on the Lernaean hydra. It's worth a try. Other than that, it's safest to quaff haste and kill or at least soften Lerny from a distance. You know the drill. Though Lerny doesn't hit harder than a regular hydra, 27 heads add up. Lerny can literally knock down trees, moving through them without even slowing down. Some Swamp endings have a zombie or skeleton version of Lerny. Those are significantly weaker.

The Shoals

Reflection and a scarf of repulsion are highly recommended. Also, rElec and as much willpower as you can get, especially for Shoals:4.

• Some rCold helps with merfolk aquamancers and the occasional frost giant.
• Try to fight merfolk out of the water, since they are more evasive when swimming.
• Javelineers and impalers are much more dangerous than regular merfolk.
• If you get mesmerised or feared in an inconvenient moment, try to break line of sight to end the spell, e.g. step around a corner, read a scroll of fog, or create steam clouds with a wand of flame.
• Don't underestimate water nymphs. They deal massive damage at range and flood staircases, temporarily blocking them. A wand of flame is very effective against them.
• If you see an elemental wellspring, tread very carefully. Those are the big sisters of water nymphs and they are seriously out of depth for the Shoals. They can't see invisible. Keep in mind that invisibility doesn't work in water, unless you are flying.
• Will++++ renders Sphinxes harmless.

The Elven Halls

If you have rElec, at least rFire+ and will+++ you should be fine. Reflection, repulsion, rCold and SInv are nice to have. Most elves are easily mangled, but beware of their magic.

The Hall of Blades
Elf:2 contains the Hall of Blades, an area separated from the rest of the level by runed doors, and mainly populated by dancing weapons. Take it or leave it. Many characters go in there to find a specific weapon. For you it's just XP. Beware of distortion-branded dancing weapons. Deep elf blademasters are a bit tougher than most elves. When you teleport on Elf:2 there's a high chance you materialise in the Hall of Blades.

Elf:3
This is where it gets interesting. Be very careful if you have less than will+++, lest you get banished by a deep elf demonologist. Clear the rock-walled parts of the map first. Save the stone-walled chamber for last. I like to lure them out and around corners little by little. Make some noise by shouting (press tt). The elves answer your call if they can hear you. Don't hesitate to dig a kill hole, although deep elf elementalists will probably break it open at some point. There are a lot of elves in there. Beware of deep elf master archers. Try to never be far from cover. Enter the chamber when you are sure no more elves are coming out. There will still be a few stragglers, guarding the loot.

Alternatively, you can try clearing the elven stronghold in a Heavenly Storm. It works better with some layouts than others. Your Storm may run out while you try to transition from fighting at the outer end of a long narrow corridor to the inner end. Also, facing too many powerful spellcasters at the same time can be dangerous, even in the eye of the storm. Your next stop are the Vaults.

The Vaults

Vaults:1-4
For a veteran of the Elven Halls, this should be no problem. Hopefully, you have a good mix of resistances by now. Most important are willpower, rElec and some rCold. All in all, this should feel easier than the S-Branches. Very much so, if you already use Statue Form. Beware of hubris.

• Don't stand next to walls where an ironbound frostheart can see you.
• Kill or interrupt ironbound convokers before they finish reciting their Word of Recall. The phial of floods or a wand of quicksilver work great.
• When you are afflicted with Sentinel's Mark, retreat upstairs or into previously cleared areas. More often than not, nothing much will happen.
• Teleport when things get hairy.
• Beware of sphinxes if your willpower is low. Unless you encounter them solo. They're only dangerous when other monsters are around too.

Vaults:5
Do not enter Vaults:5 before you have cleared Zot:1-4. Entering will place you in the middle of the map with four broad corridors leading up, right, left and down. You're surrounded by an army of vault guards and nastier monsters are already lurking in the background. You won't be able to stairdance reliably.

• Vault wardens will seal the stairs.
• Tentacled monstrosities constrict you.
• Dragons push you away from the stairs.

I recommend that you use a potion of haste, Serpent's Lash or a scroll of blinking to get into the mouth of the nearest corridor as fast as possible. Feel free to use a scroll of immolation and any means of starting the chain reaction (tremorstones, ice blast, roots) on the tightly packed crowd of guards chasing you. Activate Heavenly Storm and start a slow fighting retreat. You should be able to hold your ground roughly in the middle of the corridor and kill wave after wave of monsters there. When they stop coming, you can fight your way along the outer walls, circling the whole level once. Or move back into the centre and try to keep the Storm going for a while longer. Finally explore and loot the four big quadratic treasure chambers. The rune is hidden in one of them.

Alternatively, read teleport before descending the stairs or use a one-way escape hatch to enter Vaults:5. This is risky and can sometimes put you in a bad spot, potentially making you waste additional scrolls of teleport and blinking.

Late Game

The Crypt

Willpower and rNeg are most important here. Will+++ is reasonable protection, will++++ is better. Death Form is perfect for the Crypt, but Statue Form does great, too. I really hope you are using one of those talismans by now. If so, crypt should be easy. Common monsters should drop like popcorn. Beware of hubris. If the Crypt gives you trouble, try the Depths first.

• This is probably the first branch where you have to deal with torment from curse toes and curse skulls. The partial torment resistance of Statue Form helps, but you'll still lose big chunks of health, should those cursed spare parts spam torment repeatedly. Just teleport, rest and try again.
• Use Serpent's Lash to deal with dread liches or curse skulls. Destroy them before they start summoning reinforcements. All summons instantly disappear when the summoner is dealt with.
• Both Statue Form and Death Form make you immune to flaying, rendering flayed ghosts utterly harmless.
• Watch out for revenants if you use Death Form. Their ranged Dispel Undead smarts.

Dealing with Grunn
Did you encounter Grum the Hunter back in the Dungeon or Lair? Good. Then you won't have to face Grunn the Punished, his alternate timeline version. No such luck? Okay, here's what you can do. Grunn himself is no push-over, but manageable. His doom hounds might well be the most dangerous pack of monsters you encounter in a non-extended run. They can appear in the Crypt, the Depths or the Realm of Zot.

• Doom hounds inflict you with the howl status, which calls forth nasty monsters straight from Tartarus. Luckily, since 0.30 it's resistible. If you don't resist, you can and should remove the howl with a potion of cancellation. Preferably after killing the hounds. Keep in mind that this will also remove any buffs you have, except your Shapeshifting form.
• Silence does NOT prevent the howling.
• The weak spot of doom hounds is their low willpower. They can easily be scared away with a scroll of fear or hexed with wands. Grunn's willpower is high.
• Try to kill the pack fast. Engage them on your own terms. Buff yourself. Overwhelm them with everything you have. Maybe read a scroll of summoning or two.
• Stairdance to separate Grunn from his hounds or divide the pack.
• Consider digging a kill hole.

The Depths

You will face a lot of elemental attacks. rFire, rCold and rElec are important here. Not much should survive long enough to threaten you, though. By now, you should be one-shotting giants and dragons left and right with your stone claws.

• Beware of sphinxes, if your willpower is low.
• You might encounter glass eyes. Try to spend as little time as possible in their sight. They don't need a line of fire. Other monsters don't block their gaze. Remember, you can remove the Fragile status with a potion of cancellation, if absolutely necessary.
• Juggernauts might be the only monsters in the Depths who can stand up to you in melee one-on-one. They move quickly and hit hard, but rest for about two turns between blows. Slow them with curare. Don't stand anywhere near them when your health is low.

After you cleared the Crypt and the Depths, dive into the Slime Pits. If you don't like Slime, go for any other rune you prefer.

The Slime Pits

This is a fast and fun way to get your third rune and a huge pile of loot. You absolutely need rCorr. Press Ctrl-F and search for "rCorr", if you don't have it. I also recommend will+++ and some rCold. Optionally some rFire, to safely use a scroll of immolation. Death Form comes with mutation immunity, will+, rC+, and the slimes are susceptible to draining and Siphon Essence. It's perfect for this branch. Statue Form can take some corrosion and still have good AC. It's just likely you'll get malmutated a bit. Not the end of the world.

The walls of the Sime Pits temporarily corrode you. More walls, more corrosion. They're safe to walk along, as long as no monsters are around. When you step away from the walls, the corrosion caused by them goes away instantly.

• Golden eyes have very little health and are easily killed with a wand of iceblast or a tin of tremorstones. Their confusing gaze checks willpower.
• Glass eyes are sometimes found here, too.
• Take care if you fight Dissolution. It summons all kinds of nasty eyeballs.
• Acid blobs are dangerous. It's only a matter of time until they corrode you with their relentless spitting, despite your rCorr. Don't let the corrosion stack too much. Retreat upstairs, wait for it to wear off.
• Most of all, watch out for shining eyes. Kill them as fast as possible. Break their line of effect if you can't reach them fast. Blind them with a wand of light, read fog, block them with summons or keep other monsters between you and them (check by targeting them with something). Even if you're in Death Form you don't want to let them gaze at you too much, because of the stat drain.

There's no need to clear all of Slime:1-4. These floors only contain acidic walls and monsters, no items. Dive down, only kill monsters close to the stairs. Teleporting on Slime:1-4 can be dangerous, as the layout is typically composed of disconnected chambers, some without upstairs.

Dealing with the Royal Jelly
Slime:5 Used to always be a big circular cavern, perfect for Heavenly Storm. As of 0.31, there are different layouts. Read a scroll of revelation and plan accordingly. If the map has wide open spaces, and you are using Statue Form, I recommend you just barge in with Heavenly Storm and start to systematically clear the map. In all likelihood you won't get malmutated much. Sooner or later, the Royal Jelly will enter the fray. I recommend you hit it with a Whirlwind at a time, whittle away the reinforcements and repeat.

An alternative approach is to sneakily circle along the outer walls first. Kill the monsters you see, avoid making too much noise. Ensure that all three stairs are safe, then spiral in on the inner sanctum. Fight the Royal Jelly in a bottleneck, so you don't get overwhelmed by the jellies it spawns upon being hit. Teleport and flee upstairs if you get corroded too much.

You can blow up the Royal Jelly with Serpent's Lash, if you don't mind getting instantly surrounded by jellies. A scroll of immolation is very effective to get rid of such large packs of jellies. Or teleport and let them disperse.

If the layout is cramped, hold back with Heavenly Storm until you have found the Royal Jelly, if you use it at all. Make sure your escape route to a known upstairs remains clear. The Royal Jelly is fast, but unlike other monsters it does not follow you upstairs.

The Realm of Zot

Time to wrap things up. Try to bring at least one pip of every resistance and also SInv. Most important are willpower, rElec and rFire. I recommend at least rFire++. Make do with what you have. Some believe that winning characters tend to find crappy equipment. They still win.

• Quicksilver dragons and purple draconians can be annoying. They spit bolts of dispelling energy at you, cancelling your buffs, including a pending teleport. Luckily, they cannot dispel your Shapeshifting forms or Heavenly Storm.
• Draconians cannot see invisible and are slowed by cold, unless they have white scales or use some item with rCold.
• Ghost moths live in this realm, too, as always eager to drain your stats and magic.
• Death cobs irresistibly slow you down with their melee attack. This stacks with the slowness of Statue Form, increasing your movement delay to 22 auts. You can counter this with a potion of haste, though in most cases you can simply let it wear off. Death Cobs cannot see invisible.
• Keep an eye out for moths of wrath. If you're in Death Form, they can't berserk you. But don't underestimate even lone berserking draconians, dragons, tentacled monstrosities or orb guardians.
• Orbs of fire deal massive fire damage and malmutate you. Or drain your stats, if you're in Death Form. Don't stay within their line of effect longer than you have to. Unfortunately, they are also the toughest monsters in Zot. Absolutely worth a Serpent's Lash. Go all out on them. I'm not saying you should attempt to kill multiple orbs of fire in a single, granite-augmented Wall Jump with incredible momentum, but it can be done.

Clear Zot:1-4. If you want to go for more than three runes, leave Zot:5 for later. Typically, there are more orbs of fire down there, potentially adding more bad mutations to your collection.

Zot:5
Read a scroll of revelation. You can now see the orb chamber flanked by the two "lungs", made of unnaturally hard walls. Clear the part of the map where the stairs are first. Try to lure some monsters out of the lungs. Both entrances to the lungs might be blocked with traps. Choose the lesser of two evils here or circumvent the traps with translocation spells. Once you are inside a lung, Heavenly Storm comes to mind. The lungs are full of traps and monsters to trigger them. When monsters step onto a trap, you suffer. But traps you can't see do not affect you.

As an alternative to storming the lungs, you can trigger an alarm trap in the anteroom and make your stand there. In my experience storming the lungs is usually safer, though.

The Orb Run

It's safest if everything in Zot:5 is dead before you attempt this. Only pick up the Orb if you want to finish the game.

Grab the Orb. Step into a convenient teleport trap. Hope to materialise closer to the stairs. If you have lots of teleport scrolls, read one before stepping into the trap. Cancel the teleport (by reading another scroll of teleport) if you like where you materialise. Otherwise wait for the pending teleport to kick in or step into another teleport trap. Or just walk.

When anyone tries to stop you, only fight if they block your way to the next upstairs or if ignoring them would be dangerous. Pandemonium lords can be nasty. They vary greatly in difficulty. Inspect them carefully. Avoid all monsters, unless it's faster or safer to kill them. They just want to rob you of your paycheck.

Carrying the Orb delays your scrolls of teleport, so read them early. If you still have lots of consumables, don't hold them back anymore. Quaff haste just to run faster. Evoke digging to take shortcuts. Read blinking just to save a few turns, if you still have a dozen. Save 2-3 scrolls for emergencies. You don't get paid any better for leftover scrolls and potions.

Maybe you prefer to autotravel to D:0 instead, and react as needed. That's fine, too.

What happens when you walk up the final set of stairs leading out of the Dungeon? What's so special about the Orb? Did Zot get away? Who cares. The job is done.

Beyond the Plan

So you stuck to the Plan and collected four runes, but you didn't pick up the Orb, yet. You figured out how to earn a little commission, right? They say, magic runes are in high demand on the black market. Unless the almighty RNG cursed you with a metric ton of bad mutations you can't get rid of or an extreme lack of resistances, you are well suited for the extended game.

This is the part where I brainstorm a few ideas on how to hone your skills beyond the Plan. I suggest some spells that might or might not be worth the investment in the extended game. It really depends on your playstyle. Pick and choose as you like. None of this is essential for winning. You already have all the tools you need.

High level spells probably aren't worth training for. The old repo trolls had to heavily invest into magic in order to unlock Statue Form, so it was natural to train some more, and level 8 or 9 spells still didn't come easily. With forms being exclusively Shapeshifting, there just isn't enough experience even in a 15-rune game, unless you start scumming Pandemonium or the Abyss, or clear a ziggurat.

Remember, it's best to either train the required magic schools exclusively or to put it off until your physical skills are where you want them to be. Train magic schools for more spellpower and better spell success. With spells that use multiple schools, spellpower is determined by the average of the schools. Thus, increasing whatever magic school is lower is generally the fastest and cheapest way to improve spellpower. Other than getting more Int or some spell power enhancer. Train Spellcasting mainly for more magic points. The single digit skill levels are cheap in the extended game, tough, even with that -5 aptitude.

I don't recommend conjurations. Unless you found a crazy amount of extra Intelligence, you lack the spellpower to become an efficient blaster caster.

The Way of the Brute

You're the biggest troll in the room. You don't need more spells.

• More Fighting further increases both your HP and your melee damage. Bring it up to 27.
• Switch to a tower shield. Set a target of at least 21.1 for Shields.
• Train Armour if you use Death Form and found some nice medium or heavy dragon scales. It will raise your AC and make casting spells in armour easier.
• Hit the Shapeshifting cap for Statue Form: 25 skill gives you +2 AC compared to 23.3 skill. It's +1 AC per 0.81 skill.
• Hit the Shapeshifting cap for Death Form: With 27 instead of 23.3 skill, Siphon Essence can heal you for about 6 HP more, if the torment causes at least 50 damage, that is.
• Throwing is extremely effective at higher skill levels. Javelins are a reliable and powerful ranged attack unaffected by silence and penetrate through multiple monsters in a line. Set a target of at least 16.6 or so. Large rocks hit harder than most two-handed weapons. They reach min delay at 26 skill. Statue Form throws slowly and its damage bonus is melee only, so Death Form is better suited for Throwing.
• Evocations provide a lot of utility for a single skill. Worth a target of at least 16.6, even if all you use is your phantom mirror.

The Way of the Warper

Manifold Assault
Train Translocations until you cast Manifold Assault with 1% spell failure. Now you can melee at range. It will rapidly deplete your magic and hits a maximum of two targets per cast with Unarmed Combat (it's up to four targets for soft-handed weapon-users, to make up for their weakness). Thus, Manifold Assault won't destroy whole armies, but it's still a good tactical option. Say, to quickly dispatch a tormentor, hellion or neqoxec at the edge of you line of sight. It's smite-targeted, enabling you to attack monsters behind grates.

Dispersal
This spell attempts to teleport all monsters adjacent to you, and failing to do so, blinks away even monsters with infinite willpower. Sometimes it just gets too crowded on staircases, right?

The Way of the Lich

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch
The zombie hands constrict monsters in a line, lowering their evasion, and all but guaranteeing your claws to hit. Use it on highly evasive monsters or even to kill weak monsters from a distance. It combos well with Throwing. Borgnjor's Vile Clutch doesn't work on insubstantial creatures, e.g. orbs of fire.

Death Channel
Death Channel supplies you with a short-lived army of spectres potentially large and powerful enough to kill Pandemonium Lords. It combos well with Heavenly Storm. You can switch places with your spectral allies even with the incredible momentum of Serpent's Lash. Death Channel works on demons but not with the undead.

The Way of the Alchemist

Irradiate
Irradiate deals massive irresistible damage to everything adjacent to you, even at mediocre spellpower. It also has a chance to lower the hit dice of affected monsters, decreasing their AC, accuracy, willpower and spellpower. Irradiate shines (ba dum tss) when it's getting crowded in the eye of your Heavenly Storm.

On the downside, it causes high magical contamination. It's usually safe to cast 2-3 times in a row. Any more will make you glow yellow or even red. When that happens, either quaff cancellation or stay in Death Form until the glow dissipates. Don't hesitate to train Conjurations a bit, to get the most out of this spell.

Yara's Violent Unravelling
Yara's Violent Unravelling instantly gets rid of nasty summoned monsters by smite-exploding them. It also turns the buffs of your enemies into a lower hit dice and irresistible damage, similar to Irradiate but at range! Just don't get caught in the blast yourself. It's unhealthy.

The Way of the Librarian

Silence
Add some Hexes to the Air Magic you already have and Silence is quite affordable. I don't use this spell often, because I like to read scrolls and I love Serpent's Lash. All those demons in the extended game aren't susceptible to silence anyway. But it can be handy to shush some unique monsters and the undead. In an emergency, a potion of cancellation will remove the silence (only if you radiate it, not monsters).

Enfeeble
This is what we're really after. Quite the investment, but single-school. Now, finally, you can shut up those insufferable demons, always talking in the reading room. You won't reliably daze and blind them, but it's nice when it happens, and while antimagic doesn't prevent casting altogether, it's highly effective against dangerous magic users.

Extended Game

Ziggurats

Ziggurats are completely optional, but they contain tons of loot. It's often worth clearing the upper floors of a ziggurat before diving into Pandemonium or Hell if you feel you are still missing some important stuff. Say, items with specific resistances or potions of mutation. You might also find a potion of experience or two and some extra scrolls of blinking.

Be very careful. I recommend you don't go deeper than level 7 or at most 10. Completing ziggurats is a thing for overpowered blaster casters or death-cheating felids, wishing to lower their score after already beating the game. That's not what you get paid for.

Pandemonium

Pandemonium is way easier than Hell and less of a pain than the Abyss, so that's where you go to get your 5th rune. Pan floors are populated by many different demons, probably requiring you to swap resistances often. Bring a bit of everything.

The game tells you when a rune is available on the current floor. You don't need to fully explore Pan floors without runes. Unless you like the floor and want to farm some extra experience, just take the first portal you find. Don't enter the Abyss unless you have already collected all five Pan runes. If you leave the realm of a unique Pan Lord without collecting the rune, it's lost forever. You cannot revisit the floor. You can steal a rune without killing the Pan Lord. This is risky, though. They keep chasing you wherever you go, until you kill them.

The order of the realms is random. Also, your position on the map when you enter a new realm is random. Sometimes you start in a safe spot, sometimes you materialise in sight of the rune, right next to the Pan Lord guarding it. I recommend you clear the rest of the floor before engaging a Pan Lord. If the fight doesn't go well, teleport, heal up and try again. Every Pan Lord is a good target for your phantom mirror.

The demonic rune
Guarded by a random Pan Lord who might be easily disposed of or the deadliest foe you ever met. Be wary and improvise. Inspect them to learn their abilities.

The fiery rune, guarded by Cerebov
rFire+++ is recommended. Unless you use Heavenly Storm, try to fight Cerebov in a narrow corridor or small room, where their Fire Storm is less effective. Getting hit by Cerebov will cause one level of fire vulnerability. This is unavoidable and can't be remedied with a potion of resistance. Your first priority is killing any summoned fiends before they torment you. Cerebov has low evasion but can take quite a few hits.

The magical rune, guarded by Lom Lobon
rCold+++ and rElec+ is recommended. Lom Lobon is fragile for a Pan Lord but likes to blink around. Their Tornado is less effective in confined spaces.

The glowing rune, guarded by Mnoleg
This is the reason why you saved all those potions of mutation for Pan. Mnoleg malmutates you and their realm is crawling with demons who malmutate you. Neqoxecs roam in packs here, draining your Intelligence and potentially rendering you brainless, i.e. unable to cast spells and read scrolls. Try to spend as little time in their line of sight as possible. Mnoleg summons eyeballs and horrible things. A few scrolls of immolation help with crowd control.

The dark rune, guarded by Gloorx Vloq
The most dangerous thing about Gloorx Vloq is their ability to cast both Symbol of Torment and Dispel Undead Range. Either way, don't push it. If you loose too much health, teleport, rest and try again. I advise against lignification. You want to move for your martial attacks, and tree form doesn't fare well against Poison Arrow and Miasma Breath.

The Abyss

Some people dive into the Abyss for their 5th, 4th or even 3rd rune. I don't like the Abyss that much. A good thing about it is that you can use it to exit Pandemonium. So, if you grab the abyssal rune on your way back from Pan, that's early enough. Some abyssal rune vaults can still be dangerous. I recommend you go down to Abyss:3 or Abyss:4, endlessly walk into one direction until you sense the rune, snatch it and take the next exit portal. It shouldn't be hard for a veteran of Pandemonium, so beware of hubris.

• Wretched stars temporarily malmutate you. Keep killing monsters (gain experience) to get rid of those transient mutations.
• Starcursed masses like to split and clump together. Five or more of them shrieking together irresistibly paralyse you. Kill them before that happens.
• Teleport early when things are starting to get out of hand. The Abyss delays your teleport.
• Potions of ambrosia and a bit of extra Regen+ are very useful in the Abyss. The endlessly spawning monsters generally don't let you rest long between fights.
• Remember that clouds block other clouds and read a scroll of poison or fog when you have to fight an apocalypse crab. Chaos clouds are mostly harmless, beneficial even, until they suddenly paralyse and kill you.

Hell

The Vestibule of Hell shouldn't give you much trouble. Every resistance is useful. I recommend you use Heavenly Storm to handle the crowd. Kill everything on this floor.

Stairway to Hell
The different branches of Hell are seven levels deep. The upper six floors are smaller than usual and feature only one downstairs. Descending the stairs inflicts draining and other bad effects on you. You don't need to kill every monster, but if you're drained it might be a good idea to work it off, lest the next descent drains you even further.

Make sure the stairs are clear. Try to not use stairs while surrounded and in Statue Form. Any upstairs takes you directly back to the Vestibule. The final, seventh floor is a bit like Pandemonium. Each rune is guarded by a unique Hell Lord.

• You may be able to clear multiple floors in a single Heavenly Storm. Once you have activated it, try to keep it up all the way down.
• Many hell floors have rock walls you can use to dig a kill hole.

The four branches of Hell require specific resistances and have unavoidable hell effects that make your life miserable for as long as you stay there. The biggest dangers in all hells are torment and damnation.

• Try to stay out of sight of tormentors and hellions or kill them fast. They're really squishy.
• Both tormentors and hellions cannot see invisible. If you go invisible, it makes them less likely to cast, though it won't stop them.
• Hell sentinels, unfortunately, are much tougher and can see invisible.

Dealing with damnation
Some monsters hurl damnation. Hurling requires a clear line of sight. Others call down damnation. Calling down is smite-targeted. When in doubt, examine the denizens of hell closely. Regardless, they tend to avoid friendly fire. If you stand next to monsters not immune to damnation, hell sentinels or hellions often hold back.

The Iron City of Dis

Hell effect: Corrosion (-8 AC & slaying)

No hell branch is easy, but Dis is manageable for you. At least you can use all your consumables here. AC, SH, rCorr+ and high damage output are most important in the Iron City, but bring at least rFire+ and rCold+, too. Equipping harm or some extra Strength may help. Many monsters in Dis are heavily armoured. Luckily, hitting like a truck is the best way to deal with such foes. I prefer Statue Form for this branch.

• Beware of caustic shrikes. You don't want more corrosion on top of the hell effect. Caustic shrikes are worth using Serpent's Lash on. Also, they don't resist poison and can't see invisible.
• Iron giants like to throw other monsters at you. Take care it doesn't get too crowded. If possible lure them around corners, pull them with Lesser Beckoning. Now their friends have to walk.
• Dispater has tons of AC and shoots crystal spears at you. Disengage before your health is low. Reflection is nice to have for this fight. Dispater makes a prime target for your Phantom mirror.

Tartarus

Hell effect: Your willpower is halved.

Willpower is capped at will+++++ BEFORE the halving is applied. Thus, you cannot have more then will++ in Tartarus. Get as much rNeg as you can, plus some rCold. SInv is very useful, too.

• Ancient liches are mainly dangerous because of Lehudib's Crystal Spear. Luckily, Statue Form provides immunity to petrification.
• Beware of dread liches. Don't plan on resisting paralysis. Manage line of sight very carefully.
• Areas shrouded in silence mean there's a silent spectre nearby. Lure liches into the silenced area if you can. Throwing javelins works great to get rid of silent spectres at a distance.
• Try to kill doom hounds before they howl, lest you get surrounded by torment-spamming Tzitzimimeh. A potion of cancellation removes the howl status.
• Tzitzimimeh are equally dangerous whether you use Statue Form or Death Form. They cast both Symbol of Torment and Dispel Undead Range.
• Ereshkigal can be tricky, due to her pack of Tzitzimimeh friends. Try to isolate her and fight her one-on-one. She is evasive but fragile. Haste and might yourself with potions, if you're in Statue Form. You may be able to one-shot her with Serpent's Lash. Let's hope you do, because she can torment, silence and paralyse you, as well as heal herself. If you already disposed of her Tzitzimimeh, Death Form is a good choice. Summoned allies can keep fighting while you are paralysed or help by getting paralysed instead of you.

Cocytus

Hell effect: You can't quaff potions.

rCold+++ and flying are highly recommended. Regen+ is even more valuable than usual, because it's your only way to heal. Cocytus features a lot of deep water. Other than that it's pretty straightforward. Death Form is a good choice here, since it provides rC+ and you can't drink potions anyway.

• Watch out for ice fiends if you use Statue Form.
• Shard shrikes aren't as bad as the caustic shrikes of Dis, but a flock of them is dangerous. Reflection helps. You can charm them if you read a scroll of vulnerability beforehand or have high Evocations skill.
• Don't underestimate elemental wellsprings. They deal significant damage and flood staircases.
• Always keep in mind that you cannot quaff healing. At the first sign of trouble, dig a kill hole to minimise your loss of HP.
• Antaeus isn't resistant to poison. Apply curare darts to slow him down. rElec is a must when you fight him.

Gehenna

Hell effect: You can't read scrolls.

rFire+++ is highly recommended. Gehenna is arguably the most dangerous hell branch. Until now, scrolls have been your primary life insurance. Gehenna floors are relatively easy, but once in a while you get a very nasty ambush floor. That's why Gehenna is the last Hell in my branch order and I'm usually happy if I get shafted here. Don't panic.

• If you suddenly find yourself in the Gehenna version of Vaults:5, activate Heavenly Storm immediately, quaff haste, try not to get stuck. Or get unstuck using your spells. Kill the tormentors first, if you're in Statue Form.
• Asmodeus is no match for a repo troll. But beware of the brimstone fiends he likes to hang out with.

The Tomb of the Ancients

The Tomb is designed to be a death trap. All stairs here are one-way. Bring 2-3 scrolls of revelation and as much rNeg and Regen+ as you can. Will++++ is also recommended, at least for Tomb:1. If you only have one scroll of revelation, save it for Tomb:3. Scrolls of fog are nice to have.

The biggest dangers in Tomb are:

• torment
• smiting
• dispersal traps preventing you from escaping upstairs
• getting swarmed (by summons)

Fear not. You can reliably deal with all of that.

Surviving Tomb
Fighting a few mummy priests and royal mummies in Tomb:1 isn't so bad. But in Tomb:2 and Tomb:3 you will face whole armies of them. Death Form plus Heavenly Storm makes those big battles almost easy. It's manageable in Statue Form, too, but more dangerous. You can't avoid eating a lot of death curses, so your health will drop fast, despite the partial torment resistance. Keep calm. Remember that torment deals less damage the lower your health already is. Unfortunately, that's when the smiting becomes dangerous, even with golden storm clouds dramatically limiting the number of mummies who can see you.

• In Statue Form, quaff haste to counter the slowness caused by death scarabs and mummy death curses.
• Death Form inflicts slow on undead monsters, including scarabs and mummies. Give them a taste of their own medicine!
• Use your translocation spells or a scroll of immolation to regain some space when you get swarmed. Most monsters in Tomb don't resist fire at all.
• Unless you have some extra Regen+ you might have to escape upstairs at some point or quaff potions of healing liberally.
• Unlike demons, mummies can be silenced. I recommend this at most for fighting a few of them at a time in Tomb:1, not for the big battles, because silence prevents Serpent's Lash. In Death Form there's no need for silence tormentors anyway.
• If you use Death Form, prioritise killing bennu and ushabtiu. The former have a holy-branded melee attack. The latter cast Dispel Undead Range. They don't have much spell power, but it's unavoidable damage and can add up, if they spam it.

Tomb:1
Don't read teleport on this floor. If you read a scroll of revelation, you will find that the thick stone walls enclosing the central chamber are in fact disconnected hallways featuring two more one-way stairs down. The horseshoe is teeming with royal mummies.

Circle along the outer walls of the map. There's a huge swarm of sphinxes guarding the way to the inner courtyard. Those are the only monsters in Tomb you need willpower for. Open the gate to the inner chamber. Carefully lure some mummies out, before clearing the inside. This is dangerous, but just a warm-up. There should be no need to use Heavenly Storm, yet. You will find only one accessible one-way staircase down.

Tomb:2
Immediately read revelation. The second floor consists of a central open space and an outer ring of little chambers. A disconnected section of the outer ring features two stairs down to Tomb:3.

You appear somewhere in the centre. You have several options now:

• The upstairs in the central area leads back to the part of Tomb:1 you already cleared.
• Somewhere in the outer chambers are the upstairs leading into the unexplored section of Tomb:1.

Fight your way through the horseshoe, then descend again, this time into the other part of Tomb:2. Take the stairs down to Tomb:3. Or teleport and hope to materialise in the section with access to Tomb:3 without revisiting Tomb:1.

Tomb:3
This is the final battle. If you survive this floor, you have all but won 15 runes. Unless of course, you came here before going through Hell. Buff yourself before descending into Tomb:3. If you use Death Form, untransform, quaff haste, then evoke the talisman again.

Down in Tomb:3, you always start at the end of a broad hallway, in line of sight of two doors. Read revelation. Note the oval treasure chambers to your left and right. Get inside one of them as fast as possible. Preferably pick the one with no dispersal traps near the upstairs. Don't start fighting in the hallway. Use blinking, haste, Serpent's Lash, whatever you need to get inside.

Activate Heavenly Storm. It will take a while until the steady trickle of mummies into the chamber ebbs away.

• If the battle isn't going your way and you can't escape upstairs, teleport and hope for a break long enough to heal up a bit or to reach the other stairs.
• It's only a matter of time before you get marked by some monster stepping onto an alarm trap. Don't bother to remove the status.
• Keep your eyes peeled for a figurine of a ziggurat. It's guaranteed to lie in one of the treasure chambers and can be evoked to create a single-use escape portal to the relative safety of Zig:1. Make sure there are no dispersal traps in sight when you use it.

The Golden Rune
The golden rune is usually located in the obvious spot at the top centre of the map, though there is at least one layout where it's hidden inside any of a number of little stone pillars. You might be tempted to steal it without the big battle. I recommend you eliminate at least a good part of the opposition. The fewer mummies are left, the easier it is to leave Tomb:3 again. Unless you have entirely too many scrolls of blinking.

Anyway, it's about time you stop fooling around and start getting the job done. Remember Zot and the Orb?

High Scores

This guide, including the part about the extended game, is intended for beginners. But at this point, if you've read the whole guide and won, you're no longer a beginner. Much less of a beginner, at least. Just in case you're wondering how to take it a couple of steps further. We're leaving rookie territory now. You have won 15 runes. What's next?

Here's some advice on going for high scores with a repo troll. Same old Plan, 15 runes again, but less turns. Trolls, Statue Form, and Wu Jian are really good for low turncount runs. The lower your turncount, the higher your score.

Forget everything you have learned
Actually, don't. But in order to score big, you'll have to bend and break the rules of safety here and there. And I didn't tell you the whole truth about time and turncount earlier.

Time vs turncount
DCSS has two different turn counters. There's the one labelled "Time" in the stat area. And there's a hidden counter used for scoring. Press E to see it.

The difference is simple. Time uses fractions of turns and measures how fast you and the monsters act. The scoring turncount counts your actions, regardless of how fast or slow they are. A few examples:

• You hit something with an attack delay of 0.7 decaAuts: Time increases by 0.7, turncount increases by 1.
• You hit something with an attack delay of 1.2 decaAuts: Time increases by 1.2, turncount increases by 1.
• You take a step with normal movement delay: Time increases by 1.0, turncount increases by 1.
• You take a step in Statue Form: Time increases by 1.5, turncount increases by 1.
• You perform a Wall Jump in Statue Form: Time increases by 3.0, turncount increases by 1.
• You activate Serpent's Lash and perform two Lunges or Whirlwinds: Time increases by 0, turncount increases by 0.

Awesome, right? For the scoring turncount, walking around in Statue Form is just as fast as walking around untransformed. But you regenerate 1.5 turns worth of health per step. Wall Jump is even better. It moves you two tiles, potentially kills multiple foes, and regenerates 3 turns worth of health, all in just a single scoring turn. Serpent's Lash is truly instantaneous. It doesn't cost you turns at all.

Low Turncount

There are some things you can do to improve your turncount that aren't dangerous, as long as you play carefully. In no particular order:

• Explore manually. Autoexplore is inefficient.
• Avoid backtracking. Don't travel through already explored areas again, if you can help it. Don't return to the Dungeon after S-branches just to kill some ghosts for loot or experience you don't really need, try to carry everything you need with you at all times, instead of building stashes here and there, etc.
• Prefer Statue Form over Death Form. Except in Tomb, where Statue Form might have to rest more due to the torment spam.
• Fight efficiently. Don't tab popcorn monsters. Kung fu puzzle-solve them, kill them faster, get hurt less, spend less time resting.
• At high Unarmed Combat skill, against low AC monsters, Whirlwind deals more damage per turn than plain old attacks. It's less damage per aut, but 80% of a lot is still a lot. So use Whirlwind against single monsters more often, unless it would take you in the opposite direction of where you want to go.
• Don't stockpile unused piety. Serpent's Lash isn't for emergencies only. Use it as a power boost, to win tough fights faster.
• Use Wall Jump often. Even to travel, if you don't mind the tedium.
• Use Passage of Golubria to spend less turns walking, especially when backtracking and using Death Form, if you don't mind the tedium.

You can improve your score quite a bit by doing all of that. However, for a real low turncount run you need to take risks:

• Don't rest after every fight, try to heal while exploring and fighting weak monsters.
• Don't fully explore every floor.
• Jump between floors while exploring. Using stairs usually reveals more new tiles than walking.
• Focus on big, open areas. Avoid narrow corridors on the edge of the map. More tiles revealed per step.
• Change the branch order to minimise backtracking.
• Skip optional (runeless) branches altogether.

I haven't yet figured out an optimal low turncount branch order, if there is such a thing. But for example, you can do the S-branches before completing the lower Dungeon, or venture into Pandemonium before entering Zot.

For quality of life, you might still want to use autoexplore here and there. By default, autoexplore rests before resuming exploration. You can change this behaviour in your rcfile:

explore_auto_rest = false

Less turns, less options
Not resting after every fight is obviously dangerous, but your troll regeneration and Statue Form keep it fairly manageable. There's a bigger challenge. The less you explore, the less items you find. Less consumables. Less equipment with resistances. Less gold to spend in shops. You might even miss a granite talisman hidden in that little corner on D:2 you didn't explore.

You also earn less experience, but that's not as drastic. Look up the XP for some monsters here on the wiki. A single death yak is worth the exact same amout of XP as 872 goblins. Almost four times as much XP as Sigmund, that is. Clearing the Early Dungeon yields very little XP.

Should you feel underlevelled, Lair:5 is a good place to stock up on XP in preparation for the S-Branches. It's densely populated and holds up well, even compared to the extended game. 10 yaks equal one brimstone fiend, one death yak is about half a balrug, and a black mamba is worth more than a tormentor or hellion.

In general, spend the most time on floors where you need to find something. Most notably:

• The Ecumenical Temple is located between D:4 and D:7.
• Branch endings hold more monsters (XP), loot, gems, and runes.

I recommend that you explore a bit more thoroughly until you find a granite talisman. Once you're able to use Statue Form, dive down more agressively. On the other hand, branch endings are the floors most likely to provide a granite talisman.

Getting Started, and Luck vs Skill
If you take low turncount to the extreme, luck becomes the dominant factor. You won't be setting a new world record by skill alone. But you can get a solid high score, even if the RNG doesn't place everything you need directly on your path.

There's no need to go all out on your first attempts at low turncount. I sure didn't. You could start with not resting after fights but still explore everything. Or explore only half of each floor, but still rest after fights. Build up to it gradually. Slow down when you're struggling. Put the pedal to the metal when the hubris kicks in. It's all about calculated risk. Low turncount runs don't have to compromise your win rate, unless you want to force a new (personal) record at all cost. You can always stop, backtrack to get more XP and items, get a plain old 15-rune win, and try again another day.

You can also go for a 3-rune low turncount, win in as few turns as possible, instead of maximising your score. Or get into the gem collection business.

Gems

0.31 introduced gems. You receive 100,000 extra score points per gem, if you pick them up in time, and win that game. I recommend you grab those gems. It's no additional effort when you're diving branches anyway.

However, skipping the Elven Halls might still result in a higher score overall. It's the only gem branch you don't have to visit for a 15 rune win. Searching for and extracting the gem might cost you more turns than it's worth. On the other hand, Elf is well worth raiding for the loot alone, if you haven't found a granite talisman, yet. The gem's a nice compensation. There's also a chance Roxanne is hanging out somewhere in Elf.

There are 11 gems per game. Press }! for an overview.

Gem info is optional. Add those two lines to your rcfile to enable it:

always_show_gems = true
more_gem_info = true

Each gem branch has its own timer that runs only while you're inside the branch. Exit the branch to pause the timer. The timer keeps running even after you collect the gem. When it reaches zero, the gem shatters. Don't worry about that. You still get the score bonus. But of course, not shattering any gems will result in a pretty low turncount overall, and there's a tourney banner for retrieving all gems intact.

Be quick or get the Orb first
There's one major difference between low turncount and gem collection. Statue Form isn't ideal for gems. The gem timers use time, not scoring turns. A step in Statue Form costs you 1.5 turns on the gem timer. It doesn't show decimal places, but walking two tiles with a movement delay of 1.5 decaAuts reduces the gem timer by 3.

There's still enough time to reach all gems in Statue Form, and this is preferable if your main goal is a high score. You don't get additional points for picking up gems with time to spare, and shattered gems are worth exactly 100,000 score points, just like intact gems. If, however, you want that perfect gem collection, consider diving the gem branches untransformed or in Death Form.

The Slime Pits are on a particularly short gem timer. If you're struggling with it, maybe save that branch for last. For the Orb Run, even.

Picking up the Orb of Zot stops all gem timers, permanently. Gems you already collected won't shatter any more. Uncollected gems remain available, patiently waiting to be picked up on a little detour complicating your Orb Run. Nothing you can't handle, if you have already vanquished the unique lords of Pandemonium and Hell.

Afterword

So, you have mastered this build. You've done it all. 3 runes, 15 runes. High scores and gems. What's left to achieve? A lot.

You could get a streak going, try some DCSS cosplay, or get competitive in any of the many different categories of the biannual DCSS tournaments. Troll fighter is an easy combo. The Wu Jian Council is just one of many interesting gods.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of builds waiting to be played. Most of them harder than this one. With the notable exception of the invincible felid summoner, of course. Pray at the fluffy altar of Onei. Walk the velvet-pawed path and you'll see this game with new eyes.

There's much left to learn about DCSS, always, as the dev team keeps changing things and adding new features with every version. Discover your very own build and write a wiki guide about it. I'll be sure to read it.

Good luck and happy crawling.

Credentials

Troll Fighter Win Rate
77% (17/22) (DCSS stats)

Troll and Fighter Tournament High Scores

• 0.30 Tournament: 31,913,153 (scoreboard)
• 0.31 Tournament: 44,309,516 (scoreboard)