CrawlWiki - User contributions [en]

User:Derrek

2020-05-27T16:26:33Z

Derrek: add all rune win

Occasional DCSS player, just want to help with wiki contents.

Some things I will work on:
* Broken links in [[Special:WantedPages| Wanted pages]].
* [[Current_projects/0.14_update_project|0.14 update project]]
* Updating articles tagged as [[0.13]] articles, and earlier versions

==Wins so far==
* 26 May 2014: [http://pastebin.com/SYuxafDv Tough Guy the Minotaur Barricade], [[Minotaur]] [[Fighter]] of [[Trog]] (3 runes) - very promising character, maybe I should've go for more runes. Anyway, it is my first win, and since I play Crawl occasionally from [[0.6]], I'm pretty damn happy with this!
* 14 May 2020: [https://gist.github.com/vkotovv/e64f754bfb443ed76220e949dcb4b54f Derrek the Gnoll Arbalest], [[Gnoll]] [[Wanderer]] of [[Okawaru]] (8 runes) - cleared Tomb and some Hell branches, but decided to finish with 8 runes.
* 27 May 2020: [https://gist.github.com/vkotovv/2814176a146b13e670119064deb7005f Derrek the Skullcrusher], [[Gnoll]] [[Wanderer]] of [[Makhleb]] (15 runes) - first "all runes" win.

G

2020-05-15T11:10:57Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

==Commands==
*Pressing the '''g''' key while standing over an item will cause you to pick it up. If there are multiple items on the tile, it will go through them one by one, asking if you'd like to pick up each, or you can access a menu of all available items instead.
*Pressing '''G''' brings up the autotravel menu. From here, you can select to go up or down a floor by the shortest means possible (press '''<''' for up and '''>''' for down), or to any branch that you've already discovered.

==Symbols==
While playing in console mode:
*'''g''' represents a [[goblin]] or [[Gnoll_(monster)|gnoll]]-type monster.
*'''G''' represents an [[List of eyeballs|eyeball]]-type monster, or an [[ophan]].

{{alphabet}}

[[Category:Commands]]
[[Category:Symbols]]

Variants

2020-05-15T11:07:13Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

Crawl has a number of variants changing aspects of gameplay, some of which are still actively developed. This page has a list of variants which are available for play on online servers, along with some interesting features of each. As well as the regular public servers, many variants are offered [http://gnollcrawl.tk:8080/ on gnollcrawl.tk].

==BcadrenCrawl==
BcadrenCrawl offers dual wielding of weapons; a silent spectre species that has a silence aura it can cast through; a goblin species with low stats, high apts, and extra invocations power; some new backgrounds (including [[Demigod]]s reworked as a background); and god reworks including a feature where [[Hepliaklqana]] ancestors differ based on your own species.

More information [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gNrFq3TNuaUoSYYwBHJG4bprF4zrJwzvipujZh6DFHI here]. Based on [[0.22]]. Available on CPO, CKO.

==bcrawl==
The author of bcrawl believes that vanilla development has stagnated, so bcrawl has a number of experimental features intended to shake the game up. The Dungeon and many [[branch]]es are shortened, many backgrounds and species are reworked (and Archaeologist and Reaver backgrounds are added along with Fairy, Sand Dwarf, Oni, Skeleton and Djinni species), some gods are reworked, and there are many balance changes especially to spells.

More information [https://github.com/b-crawl/bcrawl/ here]. Scoring [http://bcrawl.montres.org.uk here]. Includes some [[0.23]] changes. Available on CPO, CXC, CKO, CUE.

==Bloatcrawl==
Bloatcrawl focusses on adding new species and backgrounds, adding over a dozen of each, including backgrounds that start worshipping [[Jiyva]], [[Vehumet]], [[Makhleb]], [[Cheibriados]], [[Qazlal]], [[Ashenzari]], and [[Nemelex]].

More information [https://github.com/WORLD-CRAWL-ASSOCIATION/bloatcrawl here]. Based on [[0.23]]. Available on CPO.

==DCSS Circus Animals==
DCSS-CA reworks many species, and brings back some removed and experimental species such as lava orcs and djinni. It has optional new modes for getting experience, such as gaining experience levels upon reaching new floors rather than killing monsters. It restores the unfinished experimental Enchanted Forest and Dwarven Halls branches. It adds difficulty levels and a stamina system where your character can temporarily exert themselves to do more damage, have better spells, or move quickly.

More information [https://github.com/jeremygurr/dcssca here]. Based on [[0.19]]. Available on CPO, gnollcrawl.tk.

==Gnollcrawl==
You cannot gain any experience levels or skills, and every enemy is a [[Gnoll_(monster)|gnoll]]. Gnoll sergeants and shamen sometimes turn up in Zot, and the final boss is [[Grum]].

More information [https://github.com/Dracunos/gnollcrawl here]. Based on [[0.19]]. Available on CPO, gnollcrawl.tk.

===Other "all enemies are X" variants===
gnollcrawl.tk also offers [[boggart]]crawl, [[orb of fire|OOF]]crawl, and [[lich]]crawl, all of which have similar mechanics.

==Gooncrawl==
Features are added to Gooncrawl based on democratic voting amongst the readers of Something Awful, a long-running Web forum. Gooncrawl undoes many removals unpopular with those readers, such as [[High Elf|High Elves]], [[Death Knight]]s, removed spells, [[wand of hasting|wands of hasting]], and mutagenic [[chunk]]s. It also reworks some species, adds some new features such as new spells, and implements a "permabuff" system where spells such as [[Regeneration]] need not be repeatedly recast.

More information [https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=25055 here]. Scoring [http://gooncrawl.montres.org.uk here]. Based on [[0.22]]. Available on CPO, CKO, crawl.eatthepurple.com.

==Hellcrawl==
Hellcrawl aims to streamline the Crawl experience; it removes things like curses, food, and item identification which the author feels are unnecessary. There are no stairs up; you must continue to descend through the dungeon, and once you have the Orb of Zot you attempt to escape via [[Hell]]. It reworks some species and monsters, and was the first variant to implement a permabuff system (from which Gooncrawl's system is derived). Some important Hellcrawl features such as the spell library are now in vanilla Crawl.

More information [https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=21527 here]. Based on [[0.19]]. Available on CPO, CKO, LLD, gnollcrawl.tk.

==Stoat Soup==
Stoat Soup was started because of dissatisfaction with the removal of monster spawns over time in [[0.21]]; it restores these spawns. It restores the removed [[High Elf]] and [[Mountain Dwarf]] species and adds a new Faerie Dragon species intended to be a straightforward option for spellcasting. It implements an independently developed permabuff system. [[Player ghost]]s in Stoat Soup are not found in vaults, but appear to seek revenge on whatever killed them, potentially helping the current player.

More information [http://crawl.montres.org.uk/about.html here]. Scoring [http://crawl.montres.org.uk here]. Based on [[0.22]]. Available on CPO, CKO, crawl.montres.org.uk (console only).

==Yuifcrawl==
Yuif's Home for Lost and Forgotten Species re-adds some removed species and adds one new one, the Skeleton. Some mutations are reworked, and there are some other balance changes.

More information [https://github.com/yrmvgh/yiufcrawl here]. Based on [[0.20]]. Available on LLD, gnollcrawl.tk.

Item usage

2020-05-15T11:05:43Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version}}
A monster's '''item usage''' property describes which types of items it can use:

*"Open [[door]]s" means the monster can open doors but not use inventory-type items.
*"Carried items" (stored in the [[source code]] as "MONUSE_STARTING_EQUIPMENT") means the monster is sometimes generated with items that it can use. The items a monster starts with is dependent on its type; [[Gnoll_(monster)|gnoll]]s tend to start with [[polearm]]s, [[Sigmund]] always carries a magical [[scythe]] and often a [[wand]], and [[centaur]]s always have [[bow]]s and may sometimes wear [[barding]].
*"Pick up items" ("MONUSE_WEAPONS_ARMOUR") means that not only may the monster start with items, but that it may pick up and use items on the floor, but only ones you have not seen yet.

Monsters that can carry or pick up items can also open doors.

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Unique monster

2020-05-15T11:04:11Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version024}}
'''Unique monsters''' are [[monster]]s that are generated at most once per game. They are usually much more powerful than normal monsters, but provide much greater [[experience]]. As such, they can be considered the "boss monsters" of ''Crawl'' (although not every unique is guaranteed to appear in every run, and by no means are you required to slay every unique you encounter).

===Wandering Uniques===
{{monsterlink|Agnes}} '''the Wanderer''' - A zippy [[spriggan (monster)|spriggan]] fighter who wields a branded [[lajatang]].

{{monsterlink|Aizul}} '''the Neglectful Guardian''' - A disgraced [[guardian serpent]] who uses powerful poison magic and a nasty sleeping spell.

{{monsterlink|Asterion}} '''the Fallen King''' - A bloodthirsty king who was turned into a [[minotaur]] and exiled. He now seeks to carve out a new kingdom with the aid of [[Makhleb]].

{{monsterlink|Azrael}} '''the Boundless Flame''' - An [[efreet]] who commands a pack of fiery monsters while pelting you with high-power [[Fire Magic]] and [[Damnation]].

{{monsterlink|Bai Suzhen}}, '''Madam White Snake''' - Late-game draconian that casts [[Summon Hydra]]. When severely injured, she becomes a [[storm dragon]] ringed by storm clouds.

{{monsterlink|Blork the orc}} - A fat [[List of orcs|orc spellcaster]] who managed to find some rainbow suspenders somewhere.

{{monsterlink|Boris}}, '''Master of Life and Death''' - A [[lich]] who will revive himself elsewhere after you kill him.

{{monsterlink|Crazy Yiuf}} '''the Enlightened''' - An insane, cloak-wearing [[List of gnolls|gnoll]] who defends his forest hut with a [[quarterstaff]] of [[chaos]].

{{monsterlink|Donald}} '''the Adventurer''' - An adventurer much like yourself, but with a propensity for both swimming and complaining. Generally comes with a [[shield]] of [[reflection]].

{{Red|e}} [[Image:Dowan.png|32px]] {{Blue|e}} [[Image:Duvessa.png|32px]] '''[[Dowan]], Brother of Duvessa''' and '''[[Duvessa]], Sister of Dowan''' - Twin elves who are never seen apart and who complement each other's strengths. Dowan uses magic while Duvessa prefers a blade.

{{monsterlink|Edmund}} '''the Younger''' - [[Sigmund]]'s obscure and less threatening younger brother. Generally comes with a good-quality [[flail]].

{{monsterlink|The Enchantress}} - Queen of the [[list of spriggans|spriggans]], she is extremely difficult to hit and has a nasty set of hexes. She owns one of the last surviving sets of [[faerie dragon scales]].

{{monsterlink|Erica}} '''the Fiery-Tempered''' - A spellcaster who carries a [[flaming]] [[scimitar]], but prefers to use her assortment of conjurations and hexes.

{{monsterlink|Erolcha}} '''the Cunning''' - An [[ogre mage]] with a variable spell set who can potentially banish the unlucky to [[The Abyss]].

{{monsterlink|Eustachio}} '''the Magnificent''' - A mustachioed summoner who can bog his foes down in a swarm of summoned mammals and imps.

{{monsterlink|Fannar}} '''the Cold-Hearted''' - An elven [[Ice Magic|Ice Mage]] who spawns with [[Ice Magic]]-enhancing equipment. Bring cold resistance!

{{monsterlink|Frances}} '''the Duchess of Pandemonium''' - A powerful fighter who once bested a demon lord and thereby gained demonic powers.

{{monsterlink|Frederick}} '''the Flawless''' - A [[demigod]] fighter-mage who packs several extremely powerful spells.

{{monsterlink|Gastronok}} '''the Ponderous''' - An unusually intelligent [[elephant slug]] who gained his magic and his [[hat]] by eating a wizard.

{{monsterlink|Grinder}} - A [[shadow imp]] who can easily [[paralyze]] and torture low-level adventurers to death.

{{monsterlink|Grum}} '''the Hunter''' - A [[Gnoll_(monster)|gnoll]] armed with a [[polearm]] who leads a pack of [[wolves]] into combat.

{{monsterlink|Harold}} '''the Weathered''' - A bounty hunter on the verge of retirement. He specializes in techniques that make it difficult for targets to escape.

{{monsterlink|Ijyb}} '''the Twisted Goblin''' - A goblin who is only marginally stronger than her brethren, though she always carries a dangerous [[wand]].

{{monsterlink|Jessica}} '''the Apprentice Sorceress''' - An apprentice sorceress who uses low-level spells to attack those who disturb her.

{{monsterlink|Jorgrun}} '''Earthshaker''' - A dwarven [[earth elementalist]] fond of statuary (both [[Petrify|creating it]] and [[Lee's Rapid Deconstruction|blowing it up]]).

{{monsterlink|Jory}} '''the Bloodstained Count''' - A wealthy [[List of vampires|vampire]] who combines [[mesmerize|mesmerization]] with devastating magical power.

{{monsterlink|Joseph}}, '''a Mercenary''' - A mercenary who attacks with [[throwing net]]s, a [[sling]], and a quarterstaff.

{{monsterlink|Josephine}} '''the Decaying Necromancer''' - An elderly necromancer who devastates the living and supports her undead underlings by hurling [[Ghostly Fireball|ghostly fireball]]s.

{{monsterlink|Khufu}} '''the Undying Pharaoh''' - A [[greater mummy]] that combines high durability, [[smiting]], [[torment]], and an extremely dangerous mummy and demon entourage.

{{monsterlink|Kirke}}, '''Weaver of Myths''' - An enchantress who would like nothing more than for you to join her herd of [[hog]]s.

{{monsterlink|Louise}} '''the Corrupted''' - A spellcaster who wears surprisingly heavy armour and is capable of [[banish]]ing the unwary to the [[Abyss]].

{{monsterlink|Mara}}, '''Lord of Illusions''' - An exceptionally powerful [[rakshasa]], Mara's mastery of illusions allows him to bamboozle even the strongest of foes. Many adventurers find themselves battling their double.

{{monsterlink|Margery}} '''the Dragonslayer''' - A powerful [[Fire Elementalist]] with her own entourage of [[hell knight]]s.

{{monsterlink|Maurice}} '''the Thief''' - An accomplished thief who uses [[invisible|invisibility]] to rob passersby blind.

{{monsterlink|Menkaure}}, '''Prince of Dust''' - The [[list of mummies|mummified]] king of a long-forgotten realm who can [[torment]] his foes.

{{monsterlink|Mennas}}, '''the Voice of Zin''' - A powerful angel whose speed and aura of [[silence]] makes escape extremely difficult. Spellcasters beware!

{{monsterlink|Natasha}}, '''Servant of Life and Death''' - A wandering [[felid]] [[wizard]] who has gone searching for her lost master. She has three lives.

{{monsterlink|Nergalle}} '''the Soulbinder''' - An [[list of orcs|orcish necromancer]] who can summon [[spectral thing|spectral orcs]] to fight for her.

{{monsterlink|Nessos}} '''the Markscentaur''' - An armoured [[centaur]] who pelts their opponents with arrows of poisoned flame.

{{monsterlink|Nikola}} '''the Mad Inventor''' - A mad scientist who is an expert with fighting using electricity of all kinds.

{{monsterlink|Pikel}} '''the Slaver''' - A [[big kobold]] who has taken up slave trading. Carries a branded [[whip]] and travels with a band of [[slave]]s.

{{White|p}} '''[[Player ghost]]''' - The restless spirit of another adventurer who perished on their quest for the Orb. Their skills in life are carried over into undeath.

{{monsterlink|Prince Ribbit}}- A cursed prince who is stuck in the form of a [[blink frog]].

{{monsterlink|Psyche}} '''the Insane Magess''' - A maddened mage who is mostly dangerous due to her [[dagger]] of [[chaos]] or [[distortion]].

{{monsterlink|Purgy}} '''the Meek''' - An unusually skinny [[troll (monster)|troll]] that fled from his brethren into the upper levels of the dungeon.

{{monsterlink|Robin}} '''of the Strong Arm''' -- A helmeted [[hobgoblin]] who inspires their [[goblin]]oid minions before literally [[Throw Ally|flinging]] them at you.

{{monsterlink|Roxanne}}, '''Geomancer Emeritus''' - A powerful earth mage who turned herself into a [[statue]] when a spell went horribly wrong. She can't move, but her magic is as strong as ever.

{{monsterlink|Rupert}} '''the Wild''' - A [[berserker]] whose powerful roars can disable his foes long enough for him to rush in and crush them.

{{monsterlink|Saint Roka}} '''the Messiah''' - An [[orc warlord]] of [[Beogh]] who travels with a band of followers who believe they are the orcish messiah.

{{monsterlink|Sigmund}} '''the Dreaded''' - The bane of low-level adventurers, Sigmund carries a couple of dangerous spells and a wicked [[scythe]].

{{monsterlink|Snorg}} '''the Insatiable''' - An exceptionally fat [[troll (monster)|troll]] who will go berserk at the slightest provocation.

{{monsterlink|Sojobo}}, '''Queen of Tengu''' - Queen of the [[list of tengu|tengu]], Sojobo is not only a powerful warrior but a master [[Air Magic|Air Mage]].

{{monsterlink|Sonja}} '''the Graceful Assassin''' - A kobold [[assassin]] who always carries [[curare]] needles and a nastily-branded short blade.

{{monsterlink|Terence}} '''the Incautious''' - A weak fighter who appears near the very beginning of the dungeon.

{{monsterlink|Urug}} '''the Orcish Ballista''' - A one-eyed [[list of orcs|orc]] who carries a pack of javelins and a heavier weapon than usual.

{{monsterlink|Xtahua}} '''the Ancient''' - An ancient and exceptionally powerful [[fire dragon]]. They can paralyze their foes, leaving them helpless to escape the flames.

===[[Snake Pit]] Unique===
{{monsterlink|Vashnia}} '''the Elite Marksnaga''' - A [[naga sharpshooter]] who possesses far more skill with both weaponry and [[Translocations]] than her underlings.

===[[Spider's Nest]] Unique===
{{monsterlink|Arachne}} '''the Weaver''' - Half-spider, half-woman, Arachne and her pets will quickly ensnare and poison those who blunder unprepared into her lair.

===[[Swamp]] Unique===
{{monsterlink|The Lernaean hydra}} - A hydra with a mind-boggling [[27]] heads. Those who allow it into biting range are swiftly devoured.

===[[Shoals]] Uniques===
{{monsterlink|Ilsuiw}}, '''Witch of the Tides''' - A skilled [[merfolk aquamancer]] who often travels with a large band of her kin.

{{monsterlink|Polyphemus}} '''the Watchful Shepherd''' - A [[cyclops]] who has somehow managed to tame a herd of [[death yak]]s and [[catoblepas|catoblepi]] and will happily [[Throw Ally|fling]] them at trespassers.

===[[Slime Pits]] Uniques===
{{monsterlink|Dissolution}}, '''High Priest of Jiyva''' - An intelligent jelly that eats its way through rock walls in search of those who would oppose the Slime God.

{{monsterlink|The Royal Jelly}} - [[Jiyva]]'s primary worshiper and guardian of the Slimy Rune of Zot, the Royal Jelly will quickly overwhelm interlopers with a torrent of [[List of jellies|jellies]]. Should someone manage to kill it, the Slime God will also die.

===[[Hell]] Uniques===
{{monsterlink|Geryon}}, '''Gatekeeper of Hell''' - Three-headed Geryon presides over the [[Vestibule of Hell]]. Those who wish to enter the Hells proper must first defeat him and his followers.

{{monsterlink|Murray}} '''the Demonic Talking Skull''' - An exceptionally durable [[curse skull]] with a nasty bite and even nastier necromantic spells.

{{Red|D}} [[Image:Serpent of Hell (Gehenna).png]][[Image:Serpent of Hell (Cocytus).png]][[Image:Serpent of Hell (Tartarus).png]][[Image:Serpent of Hell (Dis).png]] '''[[Serpent of Hell]]''' - A three-headed demon dragon that changes depending on which branch of Hell you encounter it in.

{{monsterlink|Antaeus}}, '''Guardian of [[Cocytus]]''' - Guardian of the Icy Rune of Zot. Easily the beefiest enemy in the game, Antaeus eschews reliance on underlings and prefers to crush intruders himself using his massive body and powerful cold and electric magic.

{{monsterlink|Asmodeus}}, '''Prince of [[Gehenna]]''' - Guardian of the Obsidian Rune of Zot. Asmodeus and his followers will quickly incinerate any interlopers with insufficient fire resistance.

{{monsterlink|Dispater}}, '''Lord of the [[Iron City of Dis|Iron City]]''' - Guardian of the Iron Rune of Zot. Dispater will crush adventurers with powerful [[Earth Magic]] and legions of powerful demons.

{{monsterlink|Ereshkigal}}, '''Queen of [[Tartarus]]''' - Guardian of the Bone Rune of Zot. Those who face her and her servants risk being drained of all life.

===[[Pandemonium]] Uniques===
{{monsterlink|Ignacio}}, '''Master of Excruciating Pain''' - A mortal who was rewarded with demonhood and became an [[executioner]]. He still carries his favorite [[executioner's axe]].

{{monsterlink|Cerebov}}, '''Demon Lord of Fire and Steel''' - Guardian of the Fiery Rune of Zot, lord of a host of [[balrug]]s, and wielder of [[Sword of Cerebov|his signature sword]], which allows him to partially ignore fire resistance. Quite possibly the single most dangerous foe in the entire game.

{{monsterlink|Gloorx Vloq}}, '''Demon Lord of Darkness''' - Guardian of the Dark Rune of Zot and leader of a multitude of [[executioner]]s. He is exceptionally fast and extremely deadly to both the living and the undead.

{{monsterlink|Lom Lobon}}, '''Demon Lord of Forbidden Knowledge''' - Guardian of the Magical Rune of Zot and head of a cabal of [[wizard (monster)|wizards]]. In addition to his followers, he himself has extremely powerful ice and lightning magic.

{{monsterlink|Mnoleg}}, '''Demon Lord of Chaos''' - Guardian of the Glowing Rune of Zot and master of everything hideous, tentacled, and mutagenic. He and his minions will quickly deform even the hardiest of warriors.

===[[Realm of Zot]] Unique===
{{monsterlink|Tiamat}}, '''Avatar of the Dragonlord''' - An exceptionally powerful [[List of draconians|draconian]] whose color, breath weapon, and resistances are constantly shifting. Comes with a [[dragonskin cloak]] and a large retinue of draconian followers.

==[[Dungeon Sprint]] Uniques==
{{monsterlink|Chuck}} '''the Collector''' - A [[stone giant]] armed with a [[large rock]] of returning and an anachronistically awesome cap.

{{monsterlink|Nellie}}, '''Star of the Show''' - Standard [[hellephant]]s cannot compare with Nellie in terms of raw ferocity or adorableness.

==Retired Uniques==
{{LightGrey|@}} [[Image:Michael.png|32px]] '''[[Michael]]''' - A human spellcaster who had a very basic spell list.

{{Yellow|@}} [[Image:Duane.png|32px]] '''[[Duane]]''' - A large-eared mercenary who had rather average abilities.

{{Yellow|@}} [[Image:Francis.png|32px]] '''[[Francis]]''' - An aged wizard who had an assortment of spells.

{{Brown|@}} [[Image:Norbert.png|32px]] '''[[Norbert]]''' - A human warrior who had little in the way of distinguishing characteristics.

{{LightMagenta|p}} [[File:Terpsichore.png|32px]] '''[[Terpsichore]]''' - A phantom who would have been able to bring nearby weapons to life as her allies.

{{LightMagenta|@}} [[Image:Jozef.png|32px]] '''[[Jozef]]''' - A mercenary who would poison and slow opponents before moving into melee or pelting them with sling bullets.

{{monsterlink|Pan}}- A [[satyr]] who would have disabled wandering adventurers while his band of allies picked them off from a distance.

{{monsterlink|Lamia}}- Although stunningly beautiful, this sorcerous [[list of nagas|naga]] queen was cannibalistic and mad.

{{monsterlink|Maud}} '''the Forgotten''' - A warrior princess from a distant land who generally used rare weaponry.

{{monsterlink|Wiglaf}} '''the dwarf''' - A dwarven fighter of [[Okawaru]], Wiglaf would buff himself before rushing into combat.

{{monsterlink|Norris}} '''the Nihilist''' - A laid-back spellcaster who debilitated foes before crushing them with powerful two-handed weapons.

==Generation==
While every game will present a fair number of them, most uniques are not guaranteed to exist in a given game. The only ones who are guaranteed are:

* The Royal Jelly
* Geryon
* The Serpent of Hell
* The four unique Hell lords: Antaeus, Asmodeus, Ereshkigal, Dispater
* The four unique Pandemonium lords: Cerebov, Gloorx Vloq, Lom Lobon, and Mnoleg

==Source Code Notes==
From '''mon-flags.h''':
/// monster is a unique
M_UNIQUE = BIT(21),

==History==
*Prior to [[0.22]], Ilsuiw was guaranteed to spawn if the Shoals were generated.
*[[0.19]] removed Wiglaf, Norris, and Maud, while introducing Bai Suzhen.
*[[0.18]] changed [[Iron giant|the Iron Giant]] from a sprint-exclusive unique to a regular monster.
*[[0.16]] added Robin.
*[[0.15]] gave special titles to most uniques, inspired by [[Dungeon Crawl 4.1 Alpha|4.1]].
*[[0.14]] removed Lamia and introduced Natasha, Vashnia, and Asterion.
*[[0.13]] added Sojobo. [[Pan (monster)|Pan]] was introduced and removed during development.
*[[0.12]] added Lamia and Jorgrun.
*[[0.11]] removed Jozef.
*[[0.8]] removed Francis, Duane, and Norbert. Terpsichore was considered, but ultimately rejected during development.
*[[0.7]] added Grinder.
*[[0.6]] removed Michael and added Crazy Yiuf, Purgy, Grum, Menkaure, Pikel, Maurice, Gastronok, Kirke, Aizul, and Mara. The Lernaean hydra was also enabled.
*[[0.5]] added Nessos and Dissolution. The Lernaean hydra was included in the code, but not yet placed anywhere.
*[[0.3]] added Polyphemus.
*[[0.2]] added Tiamat.

[[Category:Crawl]]
[[Category:Unique monsters]]
[[Category:Lists of monsters]]

Majang's Caster Walk-Through

2020-05-15T11:03:22Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{Advice}}
{{version020}}

This walk-through assumes that you have downloaded and installed your first version of Crawl just a few weeks ago, have played a few games, and usually ended up dead after a few levels. Being frustrated and still fascinated by the game, you somehow found this Wiki and are now looking for advice on how to win this game. Let us begin this guide with the bold statement that indeed the game can be won, with the qualifying remark that that does not happen very often, no matter how smart you play. But there are some things that you can learn, and some choices you can make, which will make it much more likely that you take the [[Orb of Zot]] into your hands and [[ascension|ascend]] with it to the surface alive. This walk-through attempts to give you much of the information you need, and it follows one particular strategy which is assumed to be an easy way of winning. “Easy” in the sense that you will have a good chance of surviving many situations which are a lot more difficult to master if you follow a different strategy. “Easy” does not mean that you will not die when following this advice, or that you should feel bad if you loose. A lot in this game just depends on luck, and even a small mistake or a wrong key pressed at the wrong time may get you snuffed. Sometimes the game gives you a bad deal, either by throwing you into a situation from which you cannot escape, or by providing you with suboptimal equipment or stats over a long period of time. When that happens, you will die, and, hopefully, just begin another game.

Another reason to read this walk-through is when so far you have only played melee characters and now for the first time want to see how it is to kill monsters with something else than a physical weapon, playing a caster. This walk-through will not only talk about strategy and tactics, but it will also explain some of the basic game mechanics, particularly those related to casting spells. This makes this page quite wordy, and experienced players won’t need any of this. Beginners, however, will hopefully find much useful information for which they would have to dig deeply into this Wiki for many hours.

Some players object to the idea of a walk-through or [[character guides|character guide]], as it sets out with a specific plan, which is somewhat contrary to the philosophy of the game: develop your character as the situation arises and changes. This walk-through, instead, will tell you to be rather inflexible. This is in order to allow you to celebrate your first win as a caster. For a real Crawl experience you should afterwards try to look for different approaches; this will be a while, though. Even if you follow this guide, you should expect to die a few times before being ultimately successful. But once you reach the end of the game, you will have learned so many things about it that the next game will be much easier to you.

==Basic Choices==
The two first choices of the game determine your strategy, even before you make your first move: You need to pick a [[species]] and a [[background]]. These two choices together make up your [[Early_Game_Character_Building|character]]. In your games so far you will most likely have played some kind of [[melee]]-based character, that is, a heavily armored, weapon-swinging brute who slashes/bludgeons its bloody and gory path through all enemies. Well played, such a character can win a game for you, but beginners will have great difficulties keeping a melee-character alive for long.
Following this walk-through, you will make different choices: [[Gargoyle]] will be your species, and [[earth elementalist]] will be your background. This means that instead of using weapons, most of the time you will kill enemies by casting earth-related spells.

===The Gargoyle===
The gargoyle comes with such a unique list of welcome abilities that it is probably the most survivable species in the whole game. It is therefore well suited for beginners. Among its features are immunity to [[poison]], and resistance to [[electricity]] – both frequent causes of untimely death in the early game that you don’t have to worry about much as a gargoyle. Its one level of resistance to [[negative energy]] also becomes useful early on, as sources of [[draining]] may be encountered already on the first levels. Gargoyles develop permanent [[flight]] before it really matters, they don’t [[unbreathing|breathe]] and don’t [[rot]], which removes other dangers entirely that kill many characters in the mid-game. Furthermore, a gargoyle is immune to [[petrification]] and resistant to [[torment]], which are both very desirable characteristics. And finally, it comes with a huge boost to your [[AC|armor]], which makes it a lot more durable than most other caster characters.

All this comes along with quite impressive [[aptitude]]s. A gargoyle is very good at developing defensive [[skill]]s, which increase its durability. On top of that it does not have difficulties with any weapons or with most kinds of magic. The [[spellcasting]] aptitude of -1 does not appear to be that awe-inspiring, but in fact very few species do better in that respect. This comes along with an excellent [[conjurations]] and an even better [[earth Magic]] aptitude, which is important for the character that we want to develop. On top of that, a gargoyle is reasonably [[intelligence|intelligent]] and can learn to cast even the most difficult spells at a high [[spell power|power]].

Crawl gives you nothing for free – if a species has some wonderful traits, it usually pays for this in some handicaps. The gargoyle has some of those, but they are totally out of proportion to its huge advantages. The biggest drawback is probably its low resilience; having 20% less [[HP]] means that in theory you die a lot earlier than others. In practice, however, your high armor and your many resistances make it significantly more difficult for your enemies to bite off a big chunk of your HP. This is particularly true in the early and mid-game, where you can shrug off most attacks. But there is absolutely nothing you can do in the late game against the [[damnation]] that some enemies hurl against you, and low HP is then a very serious problem. Another handicap is a special vulnerability towards some earth magic spells, which only becomes relevant in the late game. A final species-related drawback is that your stony nature prevents you from using the spell [[sublimation of blood]], which some characters like to cast to restore their [[MP|mana]]-pool. You also can't cast [[Statue Form]], but that is because you already are a statue, and enjoy all the benefits of this spell, without doing anything about it, and without the speed penalty.

===Earth Elementalist===
You begin this game as an [[Earth elementalist]], which is a pure casting background. This means that instead of relying on physical weapons, you will destroy your enemies by the use of powerful [[spell]]s. This is a very different game-style to what you may have been used to so far; you will have to develop some new habits and have to watch some more stats to be successful. But if you do everything right, this is a very satisfying way of playing Crawl. [[Earth Magic]] spells are quite versatile, providing you with powerful offensive options, which throughout the game should give you what you need to survive most situations without breaking a sweat. Earth magic is a big strength of gargoyles, who can achieve high skill levels with very little investment of experience. Finally, the offensive spells of this school are very physical in nature, and cannot be resisted any better than the most powerful physical weapons can. No matter what resistances your opponents bring along (and some late-game bosses are frighteningly resistant to almost anything), none can withstand your destructive power.

==Getting Started with Skills and Spells==
You find yourself thrown into the same world as usual. All you have is a [[bread ration]], 30 [[stone]]s, a [[robe]] and your starting [[Book of Geomancy]]. Note that you have no weapon as of now. The stones are not meant for throwing, but you need them for the only spell you currently know. Before you do anything, however, you need to tweak your skills a little bit, so that you grow the most important of them, while ignoring all the others. To do that, type the m-key, and the skills menu will show up. You may not have looked at this menu before – if you don’t fiddle with this, the game will manage your skills automatically, but not necessarily in a way that is always best for you. Skills are trained whenever you kill an enemy and gain experience. This experience is then invested into your skills according to the settings of your skill screen. So you need to switch over to the manual mode, by hitting the /-key (slash). Your are now in full control of your skills training, and you should deactivate all training for all skills except spellcasting and earth magic, so that both skills receive 50% of all experience. Manual mode means that all selected skills receive the same amount of experience at all times. Highlighted skills receive the double amount (but for now you are not highlighting anything).

This is necessary because your early survival depends on having powerful spells to kill your enemies. What you have right now is just enough to kill one or two [[goblin]]s, but soon you will encounter monsters that are not impressed by you blowing some grit into their faces. You need to develop some fire-power, and that fast. Right now you only know the [[Sandblast]] spell. You can have a look at it by typing z and then *, which opens up the spell menu. You see a (currently very short) list of your available spells. It shows you that Sandblast is assigned to your a-key, that it is a level-1 spell only using the earth school, and that it currently has a failure rate of 6%. All this requires some explanation. Spells in Crawl come in nine different levels. Level 1 is for beginners just as you are right now, and level 9 is the deep end of the pool which you will only get to towards the late game. Those level-9 spells have an obscene damage output, allowing you to kill many monsters with just one cast, and clearing the whole screen with just three or four casts, if things go well. But for now you are stuck with the bread-and-butter of your measly level-1 spell.

Each particular spell is tied to at least one, at most three different spell schools, which means that training the skills of these schools will improve your [[spell success|success]] rate and your [[spell power]]. Your current failure rate of 6% means that in six out of 100 attempts your spell will not work – it is your goal to get this number as low as possible, as a spell [[miscast]] not only depletes your mana pool for no return, but also may have dangerous side effects. 6% is not bad for beginners by any means – that you start out so low is the immediate benefit of your gargoyle’s great aptitude with earth magic, which made your earth skill jump right to above 3 to begin with.

You see the spell power when you type the !-key in the spell list view – the list then displays some additional stats about your spells that you did not see before. The spell power for your sandblast shows currently as ##...., with each # showing a step of available spell power, and each dot as a step of spell power so far not available for that spell. For sandblast, the maximal spell power would be ######, which would turn your currently modest source of enemy injuries into a veritable killer for most monsters. You are not there quite yet, but again your ##-power is more than what most characters get for their starting spells, giving you a huge advantage. The most potent spells have a maximal spell power of 10#, which even for very powerful casters is almost impossible to accomplish, and usually only for short time periods. Most likely, the gargoyle will not get that far with its earth spells. The spell power of your spells depends on your skills with the spell-schools involved, on your spellcasting skill, and on your [[intelligence]]. The same is true with your success-rate. Your level-1 spells should soon have a failure-rate of 1%, if you train the right skills and invest your stat upgrades into intelligence.

The screen now also shows your hunger-cost for your spell, which currently is #...... – it is possible that a spell causes no hunger whatsoever, when you have a sufficient spellcasting skill and/or sufficient intelligence. All spells of the same level cause the same hunger to you. One # means that for the sandblast you have a very small, even negligible hunger expense. When a spell has a full-blown ####### hunger cost, a successful cast will reduce your satiation status considerably, so that you may find yourself with the need to eat something after casting a spell a few times.

The final spell stat is its range. Your sandblast shows as @-->, which means that you can hit an opponent three tiles away, but not beyond that range. Spells come with very different ranges, and sometimes the range may increase with your spell power. The range of the sandblast spell does not depend on your spell power.

All this being said, it is now clear that your main priority is to train your spell skills, currently earth magic and spellcasting. The higher your skills here, the more powerful, easier to cast and less costly your spells become. All other skills need to wait for now.

A short look at your other stats: Your [[strength]] is at 11, your [[intelligence]] at 15, and your [[dexterity]] at 10. Strength and dexterity are at satisfactory levels for our purposes. Getting more would always be nice, but what you need more than anything else is intelligence, as this has a direct impact on your ability to cast spells with high power and low hunger cost. Every three experience levels you will be asked which stat to increase, and it needs to be intelligence every time. This in itself will get you to 24 INT at experience level 27, plus a few extras, because every fourth level you will get either a STR or INT increase, decided randomly. But really, a high-end caster can only feel comfortable if INT is at least in the low 30s, and a lot of that will have to come from enchanted equipment.

Your [[AC]] starts out with 4, which is two more than for most characters, another benefit of being a gargoyle. And it will grow.

Now get going!

==Finding Vehumet==
Wherever you are in a Crawl game, you always have a few goals to pursue. Your first real quest in the game is to become religious. For the character you want to develop, it is important that you become a worshiper of [[Vehumet]], the [[god]] who provides you with tremendous benefits for your intended play style. Worshiping Vehumet means that casting destructive spells becomes a lot easier, which is just what you want. He also increases the range of your spells, and, more importantly, may increase your mana pool when you kill any opponent. His most visible blessing, however, is his gift of spells. Every once in a while he will grant you access to increasingly powerful destructive spells. Many of those won’t fit your skill set, and you will ignore them, but his final gift of three high-end spells is usually (unfortunately not always) geared towards your skills, so that you should have a deadly arsenal by the time Vehumet is done with his gifts. In spite of all these benefits, Vehumet is incredibly easy to please – just kill monsters (you are going to do this anyway), and your [[piety]] will go all the way up and stay there. There is no training of [[invocations]] with Vehumet, which means that you can invest your [[experience]] into more important skills.

So, you’ll want to find an [[altar]] of Vehumet as soon as possible, and your task is set. Well, in fact, you also want to find a weapon, any weapon, so you have something to kill an enemy with when your mana runs out, and to conserve stones. This is one of the peculiarities about sandblast: each time you cast it, you use up a stone from your inventory. When you run out of stones, you cannot cast the spell! Crawl will automatically pick up any stone you find and add it to your inventory. This will only change if you tell the software not do that (in the known-items screen, accessed by the \-key).

If you start exploring, you will soon meet your first opponent. Try to get him alone, and make him follow you into explored area. Currently, you will probably not survive more than three pursuing opponents at once. When an opponent is in range, typing z followed by a, your sandblast key, should automatically select him as a target. If there is more than one opponent, the spell will target the nearest opponent, but you can always adjust your targeting. One shot could suffice to kill a [[goblin]], but you may have a [[miscast]], or your shot misses, or is not quite damaging enough. You may need two or three shots, and sometimes even some help of your weapon to do the job; that’s why you try to avoid the attention of too many monsters at once. In the beginning you only have a mana pool of three [[MP]], and each casting reduces that by the number of levels of the spell that you cast. So with three MP you can cast three sandblasts, and then you are left with your weapon, or even your bare fists if you have not found a weapon yet. Over time, your MP will recharge on its own, but this takes a while.

Whenever you cast sandblast, a stone from your inventory gets destroyed. Fortunately, stones are lying around in abundance, but not quite enough to use sandblasts for every action against every monster you meet. A good rule of thumb in the early game is to use sandblast on tough enemies, or for the first shot, until it is badly hurt. Whenever you encounter a weak enemy instead, or when a strong enemy is already close to death, you should try to bring it down with your weapon. But whenever the situation gets out of hand, and things become dangerous for you, you should not be stingy with your stones. Use them up to get you out of a tight spot. Sandblast is currently your strongest weapon!

All this being said, in this very early phase of the game you are most vulnerable. Whenever you have killed an opponent, restore all your HP and MP, and only then continue your exploration. If you get killed, however, it is not as frustrating as getting killed much later in the game. Just start over again, and you should be able to overcome this early-game crisis soon. And gargoyle’s many perks will help you to survive stuff that are killers for anybody else, like these mean [[adder]]s that poison most budding characters to death. You just give them a mean smile before you smash their heads.

You will pick up [[potion]]s and [[scroll]]s. Don’t try them yet! If you see rings, only try them if you have lots of scrolls, as some jewelery may get you killed if you can’t get it off your fingers. If you have picked up a cursed and badly enchanted weapon, try your scrolls (most numerous scrolls first) until you read a [[scroll of remove curse]], then stop reading. If you don’t have such a scroll, then good luck. Many characters die early because they have bad equipment in their hands or on their fingers, and they don’t have the means to get rid of them. Be wary of shining and glowing items lying around – they can be the very stuff that makes you lose this game!

If you have played a melee character before, you will always have grabbed up the heaviest armor you could find, and even a shield. But leave any body armor where it is, because you can’t wear it as a caster, at least not yet. Body armor will dramatically increase your failure rate, easily up to 100%, and the same for shields. So stick to your robe for now (but have an eye open for enchanted robes, which are very desirable for casters). Gloves, helmets, boots and cloaks, however, do not affect your spellcasting, so you want to grab and wear any you can find. If you see a shield, put it into your inventory, but don’t wear it. Eventually you will want to have a shield, and they are often quite difficult to find.

Right at the beginning you should grab any weapon, as soon as you see one. Even without weapon skills, using a [[dagger]] or [[whip]] or [[spear]] will give you an edge when you have run out of MP. In the long run, you will want to use a weapon of the [[maces & flails]] category, so keep your eyes open for a good whip, mace or flail. One-handed weapons will do, but as long as you don’t use a shield, a [[dire flail]] is a great find. Enchanted weapons, of course, can be of great benefit, but do not pick up and try out any enchanted [[dagger]] or [[glaive]] you can find, as there are some dangers involved. A simply enchanted weapon (it is called “glowing” or “runed”, and comes with blue writing) may have the [[distortion]] brand, and this early in the game this means you are dead. Enchanted weapons may also be cursed and negatively enchanted, and you don’t want to be stuck for long with one of those. On the other hand, if you see a [[randart]] weapon (it comes with white writing, and more elaborate descriptions, such as “heavily runed”, “encrusted” or “steaming”), you should at least collect them and try them when you have enough scrolls of remove curse. They usually don’t have the [[distortion]] brand (that would be really bad luck), but they may come with great traits such as resistances or [[see invisible]], which may make your game much easier in some situations. As long as you have not converted to Vehumet, and you have scrolls of remove curse available, you can try out each [[amulet]] you find. There are some bad ones out there, but as long as you can remove them, they should not do real harm.

Ok, after exploring some parts of level 1, you will have killed a few enemies, and you’ll have jumped to experience level 2. This will trigger some welcome changes. Your MP is now at 5, giving you two more shots with Sandblast. In the same way your HP counter has increased to 15, making you more resilient. Being on level 2 means that you can now learn a level 2 spell, [[Passwall]]. This is an escape spell, allowing you to disappear through a thin rock-wall. Although this spell has its uses, I usually don’t learn it, and I rarely find myself using it if I learn it, except at the very end of the game.

While exploring, you will see sets of down-stairs to the next level of the dungeon. There should be three of them on your level, and you must not go down any of those until you have explored the whole level 1. There are many good reasons for taking the levels one at a time, and for not even peeking down before you are done. But once you are done with level 1, there is nothing else you can do but go down.

Most likely you are still on experience level (XL) 2 before you make it to dungeon level 2, but if you are really lucky, you will have jumped to XL 3. This allows you to learn [[Stone Arrow]]. This is a great attack spell with a fixed range of @--->, and a max spell power of ######. Unfortunately you currently only have just one #, because it is a two-school spell, depending on the [[conjurations]] skill. But you will start learning this skill now (unfocused), so that you give 33% experience to spellcasting, earth magic and conjurations. Gargoyles have a good aptitude for conjurations, and almost all the attack spells you hope to learn later will make use of conjurations, so this is a very good investment of experience.

Casting Stone Arrow in your next fight is not advisable, though. It takes three MP to cast it, out of the six you currently have, and with a failure rate of 28% it is quite likely that you just waste these three MP. Just wait a little, and Stone Arrow will become your best friend. Right now, Sandblast is more powerful anyway.

Once down on dungeon level 2, you are likely to encounter much more dangerous opponents. The worst possible for you gargoyle is the [[orc priest]], an [[orc]] with a green robe. He has a weapon against which you are not prepared, [[smiting]]. If you spend more than a few turns in his line of sight ([[LOS]]), you will probably die. If you see one, immediately retreat out of sight. If he has spotted you, he will follow you; position yourself so that he is within range of your sandblast when you see him again. If you are already low on HP, retreat to the next upstairs and heal up. You have to be very careful with these guys. Then again, they are not very durable; two good shots, at most three, and they are down, and they give you lots of experience. Unfortunately, they rarely show up alone. They may be supported by regular orcs, or by [[orc wizard]]s, purple-robed orcs who can confuse you, turn themselves invisible, and hit you from afar with fire. As much as possible, you need to separate these groups and fight them one by one. Upstairs are a good way of doing this. Sometimes you see two or even more orc priests at once. This is very bad news, and you need to act extremely cautious. Don’t take any risks here. Maybe you avoid the area for a short while to return when you are stronger.

Other fearsome enemies showing up much too early are [[Sigmund]], [[Pikel]], [[Grinder]] or, if you manage to stumble into his quite recognizable cove, [[Crazy Yiuf]]. These are so-called [[unique]]s, dangerous enemies that can only show up once per game. If you can, avoid them for now (maybe you are lucky and they don’t wake up when you see them). Give their area a wide berth, and come back for them when you are slightly stronger. When you are at XL 7 or 8, they won’t stand a chance against you (but then there are other uniques waiting for you on deeper levels).

Once you hit XL 4, you will be ready to learn [[Petrify]], but don’t bother. You would not find yourself using this spell very often. Killing an enemy fast always beats incapacitating him for a while. But at this point, a look at your spell list shows that your spells are improving nicely. Sandblast is now at ###, and hunger-free. And with your 9 MP you can now risk to cast Stone Arrow at least once per fight, as it comes with a more manageable failure rate.

From level 2 downwards, you will encounter upstairs to already explored levels. Those which lead to an area on the upper floor that you have not seen yet are marked by a star, so you should check them out, just to make sure that you really have explored that area already. Occasionally the dungeon has disconnected areas, or areas that you can only access from a lower level. Particularly altars or even the entrance to the [[Temple]] may be hidden in this way. So, before moving on to the next level, always make sure that you have seen all three upstairs on the current level. If you can only see two on the map, this means that there must be another area of this level that you can only access through an unused downstairs from the previous level. Go back and find these stairs.

Whenever you go down a set of stairs to the next level for a first time, you may be greeted with an announcement for a timed [[portal]], usually to the [[Sewer]] or to the [[Ossuary]]. These are extra levels on which you may gain more experience and find some treasure. You’ll want to find these portals before they time out, and now would be a good time to start reading your scrolls. One of them may be a [[scroll of magic mapping]], and that would show you exactly where the portal can be found. So, stay on the stairs and start reading. Quite likely one of the scrolls you read will be a [[scroll of teleportation]]. If so, then go up the stairs immediately, so that you don’t teleport into an unexplored area. Most other scrolls should be harmless or even beneficial. If you happen to read a scroll of torment (that is about the worst that can happen), just retreat upstairs again to heal up. If you also happen to find the entrance to the Temple this way, first go there to become a follower of Vehumet, and then go to the portal. You’ll want the kills you make there already count towards your piety with Vehumet. If you really read a scroll of magic mapping at the beginning of a level, you will have plenty of time to find a timed portal.

Those early portals (Sewer and Ossuary) are usually no problem, with the single exception of one Ossuary layout where you find yourself immediately surrounded by a large circle of zombies and mummies. If you see that, get out of there at once! There doesn’t seem to be a way to safely beat this level and harvest its treasures.

If reading through the scrolls gets you a [[scroll of identify]], use it on the potions of which you have the biggest stack. If you’re lucky, it will be a [[potion of heal wounds]], which you want to identify as soon as possible.

Blindly quaffing potions is an entirely different matter – it is a lot more risky than reading unidentified scrolls. You may get mutated badly, or receive some pretty bad status changes. In the best case you may waste an awesome potion, such as a [[potion of haste]] for nothing, and you won’t find many more of those later on when you need them. Therefore, try not to drink unidentified potions unless in the most dire circumstances. As said above, you’ll want to identify potions of heal wounds soon, so that they can get you out of trouble, and it is perfectly fine to spend a few scrolls of identification on that. If you are lucky, you may witness a monster healing itself by using a potion, which will identify it for you. Once you have identified potions of heal wounds, you don’t need to identify any others for quite some time, so you can just ignore them.

You may find an altar of Vehumet anywhere beginning from dungeon level 2. As soon as you see it, convert to him – there is no reason whatsoever to hold back. Your best chance to find an altar is the [[Temple]], which is always located between dungeons 4-7. But quite often the temple does not contain the altar you are looking for. At the latest, Vehumet’s altar should show up on level 9. In any case, as soon as you can, start worshiping Vehumet.

==Clearing the Upper Dungeons==
No matter at what point you become a follower of Vehumet, one task assigned to you is to clear the dungeon all the way down to the place where you find the staircase to the [[Lair]] of Beasts. This can happen as early as on dungeon level 8, and as late as on dungeon level 11. But while you are looking for it, here is some more advice on things going on during that early phase of the game.

Once you follow Vehumet, you need to change your behavior with amulets. An unidentified specimen could be an [[amulet of faith]], and you don’t want to have those. In theory, they are rather nice, of course, getting you to a high [[piety]] quite soon, but the moment you remove them (and you’ll want to soon enough), you lose a good chunk of your piety, and therefore it is just better if you never wear it. Piety with Vehumet rises pretty fast even unaided by said amulet. If he starts his spell gifts while you are not ready for them, this amulet may actually be contra-productive. From now on you need to identify each amulet before you wear it.

Around XL 6 it is about time to learn the two most difficult spells of the starting spell book: The first is Lee's Rapid Deconstruction, in short [[LRD]]. As a level-5 spell, this comes quite expensive, as you have only about 16 MP to play with. The failure rate is still high, and the hunger cost almost prohibitive, but over time you are going to love this spell, and use it all the time. It makes you look at your environment with different eyes, always studying the positioning and the material of the dungeon walls. Basically, it allows you to use any dungeon feature or even enemy made of rock, stone, metal, ice, bone or crystal to significantly weaken or even destroy it, and create a blast area around it. With increasing spell power, this spell has an amazing destructive potential, but you need to learn how to apply it for its best benefit. Obviously, it works best if you have a group of enemies inside the blast area of an appropriate dungeon feature. Of course you should not be inside that blast radius yourself. To make things complicated, some materials, like [[rock wall]]s, have a variable blast area, so you don’t always know for sure what gets hit and what doesn’t. But LRD is your first area of effect spell, capable of hurting or even killing a good number of enemies at the same time, if you use it wisely. Unfortunately, some times you will find yourself in a situation where you cannot apply it at all, and then you need to fall back to your other attack spells. LRD can also be used to punch holes into rock walls (it takes some attempts, usually), and with higher spell power even into stone and metal walls. No need to carry around a [[wand of digging]] just for this purpose.

The second spell is [[Borgnjor's Vile Clutch]] (BVC), which is a two-school spell, also benefiting from training [[necromancy]]. For this reason its success rate will be much lower than LRD, but eventually you will get it down even without training necromancy. It is quite a powerful spell, dealing direct damage to all monsters within a 3x3 grid, while fixing them in place.

While you are on XL 7, you should constantly check your spell list. When Sandblast shows up with a spell power of ####, this is a good time to branch out with your skill training. Up till now, you have only trained three skills: spellcasting, earth magic and conjurations. Now that your spell power for your attack spells has reached decent levels, it is time to do something about your defensive skills, and other critical skills you need. Go to your skills menu (m-key), and select the [[fighting]], [[maces & flails]], [[armor]], [[dodging]] and [[evocations]] skills. Now all selected skills should get 12% experience. If you have a shield or a buckler in your inventory, you may also decide to start training the [[shields]] skill, without actually wearing the shield yet. This would reduce the experience for each skill to 11%. Why these skills?

* The fighting skill is a critical skill for you. It increases the damage output of your melee weapon, but since you don’t want to use it a lot, you probably don’t care too much. But higher skills in fighting also increase your [[hit points]], and since you are a rather frail character, this matters a lot to you. As already said, later on in the game you encounter damnation, against which there is absolutely no resistance or protection. Therefore, the higher your HP, the more likely you are to kill the damnation-dealing enemy before he kills you. Consequentially, you will never switch this skill off again, until you finish the game or master the skill at level 27.

* Maces & Flails are your weapon of choice. Of course you will kill most of your enemies through magic, but this may not be the best solution at all times, and therefore you still need to become proficient with a real weapon. You have an average aptitude for maces & flails, and there are some very good one-handed weapons of this category, including the [[eveningstar]] and the [[demon whip]] – both of which are rather difficult to find, so you will mostly work with a [[flail]] or a [[morningstar]] until you find something better. Training this skill does not increase much the damage output for each hit, but it dramatically increases the frequency of hits you can land in any given time. The eveningstar has a base damage output of 15, and without any skill you can land a hit each 1.5 rounds. Each two points in weapons skill, however, give you a tenth of a round off that delay before the next hit, so that with a skill of two you can hit each 1.4 rounds and so on. With a skill of 16 you have gotten this delay down to 0.7 rounds, and that is as far as it gets for the eveningstar, meaning that in the original 1.5 rounds you can apply more than double damage than without skills training. Maces & Flails has a [[crosstrain|crosstraining]] effect with [[staves]], for which you also have an average aptitude; later in the game you may want to decide to make a staff your main weapon. If so, you will already have some significant starting skill from your maces & flails training.

* Armor skill you could probably do without, if you are confident that you will always only have a robe as body armor. But since, as a gargoyle, you have this amazing aptitude with the armor skill, it would be a waste not to use it somewhat. Just training this up to 5 or 6 allows you to wear light dragon armor, such as a [[troll leather armour]] or the [[faerie dragon armour]], which will give you excellent protection and maybe some welcome resistances. Without armor skill, wearing this kind of armor would make spellcasting significantly more difficult.

* The dodging skill, in conjunction with your rather mediocre dexterity, determines how much you can avoid damage by getting out of the way of a blow or of a projectile. As a moving rock, your aptitude for dodging is terrible, unfortunately, but it is still wise to train this skill up as high as possible. It just takes you much longer to reap its benefits.

* Many players would dispute the need for training the shields skill, as it is quite costly in experience, and there is value to having two free hands for being able to wield more powerful weapons. But shields have more benefits than just blocking projectiles and hits. Some shields come enchanted with valuable resistances, sometimes giving even stat bonuses, and if you want to wear these as a caster, you need to invest at least enough experience to get you to a shields skill of four (which you will reach very fast). This allows you to cast with a [[buckler]] without penalties to your failure rate. For a normal shield you need a skill of 15, and for a large shield it takes 25 to cast penalty-free. Quite a heavy investment, but once you have it, you have an amazing protection against all physical attacks and most projectiles. A shield won’t help you a bit against damnation, though. A normal shield and even a large shield are probably out of reach for you in this 3-rune victory.

* The [[evocations]] skill is also very important to you. The higher your skill here, the more effective you are using [[wand]]s and other evocable items. These may give you more ranged options to apply damage when your MP runs out. The evocations skill also helps you when you use a [[staff of energy]] when [[channeling]] to replenish your MP, and makes the use of a [[crystal ball of energy]] much safer. Finally, as already hinted above, you may later decide to use a magical staff as your main weapon. The staff that comes to mind is the [[staff of earth]], which has an obscene damage output dwarfing most other weapons if it is used with high earth and evocations skills. And you will want to wield that staff anyway, as it increases the spell power of your earth spells. So keep training evocations!

Many players object to the skill-training style advocated here, claiming that increasing eight or nine skills simultaneously spreads the experience too thin. But these skills (except maybe for armor and shields) you will need to develop anyway, and over the total course of the game it makes no difference whatsoever whether you train these skills sequentially or simultaneously. Psychologically it feels good to observe a single active skill gaining in large strides, but it comes at the price that your other skills don’t increase at all. The skill strategy proposed here will grow your needed skills slowly but steadily, with the result that you have all you need as the game progresses, without having to fiddle with your skills screen too much.

Other skills are deliberately not on the training list. For you there is no point training any ranged weapons, including [[throwing]]. [[Stealth]] also is almost pointless for you. The moment you unleash your first LRD on a level, all its inhabitants will have a pretty good idea of where you are, no matter how stealthy you are. Earth magic is mostly noisy and does not go well together with a sneaky approach. [[Unarmed combat]] is also something you don’t need to worry about. Of course you could study other spell schools, such as the [[transmutations]] school, to unlock the [[Statue Form]] spell. But in spite of what was said in the previous paragraph, you want to keep the number of trained skills as low as possible, so that what you train receives as much experience as possible. Once a skill receives less than 10% of the experience, it will grow very slow. Your power and your survival depend on having the right skills trained as high as possible.

Once the failure rate of your Stone Arrow goes below 5%, and your MP pool is above 20, you should make this spell your main attack option. Only when you get low on MP should you resort to Sandblasts, which will then never run out of stones.

A very short time after converting to Vehumet, after killing a bunch of enemies, your new deity will be happy enough with you to shower his blessings on you. You will get a message that Vehumet grants you access to a spell that is not part of any book you have found so far, and a star will show up in your piety counter. At maximum piety you will have six stars, but even this single star begins something that arguably is Vehumet’s greatest gift: MP restoration on killing enemies. Right now it does not look like much, because at low piety it happens only rarely. But when your piety goes up, this god-given ability will overcome the bane of all casters in Crawl: Once you have cast a number of spells, your MP goes to 0, and there may still be some enemies that need killing. Your MP of course regenerates itself over time, but quite often you can’t spare that time. At highest piety Vehumet will grant you some extra MP on killing almost all enemies. By that time you will have spells that can kill many enemies at once (such as LRD which we have already learned), so that it may be a long time before you run out of MP.

Vehumet’s gift of spells is also nothing to sneeze at. But you need to decide carefully whether you really want to learn them or not. You are basically required to decide on a spell strategy early on, and act on that. For this walk-through we assume that you will want to learn attack spells not only from the earth magic school, but also from the [[fire magic]] school. So if Vehumet offers you a spell belonging to any of these schools, grab it up. If it is a spell from a different school, ignore it, because you cannot learn an unlimited amount of spells. Your status screen (right-click your mouse on the character) and also the spell memorization menu (M-key) will tell you how many spell levels you have currently left to learn new spells. If you want to learn a level-3 spell, but you have only two levels left, you need to wait until the new levels get unlocked (through increases in XL or the spellcasting skill). Alternatively, you need to forget an already learned spell with a [[scroll of amnesia]]. It is therefore a good idea to keep training your spellcasting skill at least until Vehumet has given you his final batch of three spell gifts - that should always give you sufficient spell slots for Vehumet's more interesting gifts.

Of course you may find spells in spell books, not only from Vehumet. Here are a few spells that you should consider learning when you find them:

* [[Conjure Flame]] – a level 3 fire and conjurations spell which creates a stationary column of fire on a single tile, affectionately called “Gargoyle’s barbecue” by your enemies. Most of them will not walk into it, which makes it a nice way of keeping melee fighters out of their range in a one-tile corridor. Some animals and [[undead]] monsters happily walk into the flame to get at you, and you can watch with glee while they get burned to a crisp.
* [[Sticky Flame]] is a wonderful level 4 fire and conjurations spell that places a very damaging source of fire on an adjacent enemy. This will keep burning for a few rounds, killing the monster over time, while you are running away from it, or apply further damage by different means. If you manage to place this on an invisible enemy, it will make it visible for the time of its effect.
* [[Bolt of Magma]] – this level 5 fire, earth and conjurations spell shoots a projectile with irresistible force through whole rows of enemies. Line your opponents up in a corridor, and this spell makes short shrift of them. Much more powerful than Stone Arrow. You should be able to cast this very soon.
* [[Iron Shot]] is a level 6 earth and conjurations spell that works similar to Stone Arrow. It only hits one enemy at a time, but with deadly force. One shot is often enough to kill the worst enemies you encounter at any given time. If you get access to it, learn it at all costs. If you can’t find Magma Bolt or Iron Shot by the time you complete the Lair, it will be very difficult to survive much longer.
*[[Fireball]] is a level 5 fire and conjurations area-of-effect spell, frying a 3x3 square and all that stands on it. Not helpful against fire resistant monsters, but otherwise very potent.
*[[Bolt of Fire]] – this level 6 fire and conjurations spell shoots a powerful heat projectile through rows of enemies, with a better range than Magma Bolt, but not useful against fire-resistant monsters.
*[[Ring of Flames]] is not a weapon as such, but a level 7 fire and [[charms]] spell that creates the effect of Conjure flame on all eight tiles around you. Not only that, it greatly increases your resistance to heat and fire, and also boosts the spell power of subsequent fire spells, at the price that it dramatically reduces your resistance to [[cold]] effects. But this doesn’t matter that much, as the RoF actually keeps most cold actions away from you.
*[[Ignition]] is an extremely costly (level 8), but effective upgrade to [[Fireball]], applying its effect on all enemies in sight. When you have the power to cast it, a target-rich environment turns into a furnace, killing anything that is not fire resistant.

Most of Vehumet’s spell gifts are only available to learn until he offers you his next gift. This time window can be rather small. Therefore, if Vehumet offers you other spells than the ones mentioned above, ignore them. They will not add significantly to what you have in this arsenal, and you don’t want to get into the situation that Vehumet offers you Iron Shot, but you don’t have enough spell levels, because you wanted to try what [[Force Lance]] or [[Bolt of Cold]] do. You want to be ready for the amazing stuff. Generally, ignore all spells dealing with [[ice]], [[air]] or [[poison]]. Not that they are bad, but they don’t fit your build right now.

Once you have learned a fire-spell, start training [[fire magic]] right away. For some of the spells you want to use later you need to have very high levels here, so there is no time to lose.

When you reach XL 10 or 11, LRD has become an affordable spell for you, and you can look for opportunities to use it. It has a much further range than your other earth spells, and it can take care of those orc priests which otherwise snipe at you from positions out of range. Get them!

Vehumet’s second star does not give you any new abilities, but his third star reduces the failure rate of all your destructive spells dramatically. LRD should end up below 5% failure rate now, and you have turned into a killing machine! When Vehumet decides to grant you his fourth star, all your spells have their range increased by one more tile, allowing you to hit approaching enemies a turn earlier.

If you can’t find the Lair before hitting dungeon level 10 or 11, you may encounter a very dangerous enemy, the [[Unseen horror]]. If you don’t have a source of [[see invisible]], the first notion you’ll have of this feller is a message that you take damage from something. If you are moving around using your arrow keys, you may not even see this for quite a while until you have already taken significant damage. This enemy is extremely fast and may start and end its turn away from you, while hitting you in between. The unseen horror can whittle you down in a few turns, but you can survive and kill it if you don’t panic. Obviously, if you have a source of see invisible, maybe on an enchanted weapon or a ring, put it on, and the crisis is over. Unseen horrors quickly lose their horror once they are no longer unseen. If you can’t see invisible, move into a corridor, so that you have a better idea from which side your enemy is attacking, and then hit it blindly. LRD is a great tool to hit a larger area where it may be. If you have Sticky Flame, you can try to attach it to the Unseen Horror, and all is well. If possible, have some up-stairs within reach, so that you can heal up in a safe area. If things go badly, teleport away.

Also, before you find the Lair, your inventory may fill up, so that you cannot pick up any new items. If that happens, go to the Temple to drop some items that you won’t need anytime soon, like unidentified potions, or potions of mutation, or wands that you have twice, etc. In the Lair there will be a place where you can establish a secure cache, but maybe you need to do this earlier, and the Temple is always safe.

==The Lair==
Once you have found the access stairs to the [[Lair]], clear the level around it. You may find the entrance to the [[Orcish Mines]] on the same level, or even on an earlier level, but don’t go in there right now – for various reasons it is better to tackle the Lair first. Going down the stairs into the Lair, you will be in an environment that looks significantly different to what you have seen in the dungeon.

Don’t continue exploring the Dungeon before you have tackled the Lair – you’ll need the experience you get here to be strong enough for what faces you further down. Also the Lair provides access to some of the places you need to visit to win this game.

You will also encounter a very different set of monsters. Except for a few uniques (some of them very dangerous), all monsters in the Lair are animals. Most of them are very strong, and they can kill you easily if you don’t handle them well. The following list contains monsters you need to be particularly careful with.

* [[Komodo dragon]]s are solitary animals with a very damaging bite that easily chews through your AC. Finish them off as soon as possible, because you can’t take much of their abuse.

* [[Yak]]s – these creatures are strong and have a dangerous bite. One on its own is not dangerous, but they come in large packs, and when they manage to surround you, they get your HP down in no time at all. Try to get them into a corridor, or take them upstairs in smaller numbers. High AC helps.

* [[Hydra]]s – even a single hydra may be bad news, when encountered in a bad moment. They are fast and hit with many heads at once. Bladed weapons remove heads, but for each head lost they develop two more. As a caster with earth magic you won’t have that problem. Try to isolate them, and hit them with all you have from as far away as possible. High AC helps. Sandblast at full power is surprisingly strong against hydras.

* [[Blink frog]]s – they hit much harder than the [[bullfrog]]s you have seen earlier, they are more difficult to hit, and they come in large packs. When you see one, make him follow you and retreat. You don’t want to face all of them at once. If you have [[Sticky Flame]], use it, as it kills the hopper even a few turns after it bounced away.

* [[Elephant]]s are like yaks, but even more dangerous, and with more HP. Try to isolate individuals, and never take on the whole pack. Stairs are your friend. Unfortunately, an elephant standing right next to you may [[trample]] you, which pushes you off the ground you are standing on, and it will also push you off the stairs you had just decided to use. If you have a wall at your back, this will not happen.

* [[Death yak]]s – probably the most dangerous animal that you are guaranteed to encounter (in large groups!) somewhere in the Lair, but usually only on the lower levels. They are very hard to kill, and hit extremely hard. Don’t let them surround you, and separate individuals. Even a single death yak is a formidable opponent and should not be taken lightly.

* [[Torpor snail]]s are huge and slow snails, not very difficult to kill. But while you are in LOS, they will slow you down considerably, and that may be very bad news when you are pursued by a pack of death yaks or a hydra. Therefore prioritize torpor snails before killing any other animals. Once the snail is dead, your speed is normal again.

There are lots of other monsters that most players find very dangerous, but for a gargoyle with already well developed AC most of them are rather harmless: [[basilisk]]s and [[catoblepas]]’ can’t petrify you like they do with others, [[spiny frog]]s and [[black mamba]]s can’t poison you, and the [[electric eel]] won’t shock you too much. It’s great to be a gargoyle, and the Lair is generally a good place for you.

Fighting all these pests, don’t forget that you have Sandblast, probably at ##### or even ###### power. By now you may also have collected hundreds of stones, and against unarmored enemies, like most of what you find in the Lair, this is a very effective single target spell. Not much later after the Lair, it won’t do you much good any more, so use the spell here a lot. You won’t be able to kill enemies with level 1 spells much longer.

For a long time, Crawl players have used the second level of the Lair as a place to create a cache of items that you don't want to carry around with you all the time. The reasons for this have now disappeared, but tradition might suggest this as a good place to do so anyway. If you choose to do it here, don’t drop all items on the same spot, but lay them out according to category, like all food items in one corner, scrolls in another, etc. Good organization will help you to find stuff when you need it. Drop all but one kind of food in the cache, including all bread and meat rations. Most likely you have a big stack of fruit, and this you should carry around with you, as an emergency snack when you haven’t found a body to butcher in a while. Drop almost all wands here. Just carry with you the strong wands mentioned above. All other wands are either obsolete by now, or even if they still have a potential use, you won’t find yourself using them a lot. Drop all your books here. You’ll come here if you want to learn spells. Drop every [[scroll of amnesia]], [[scroll of enchant weapon]], [[scroll of enchant armor]]. Again, you will come here when you want to enchant your equipment. Drop all unknown potions, just carry potions of heal wounds and potions of curing with you. Later on you will identify more potions, and some of them are worth carrying around all the time, but for now they just clutter up your inventory. And you can drop some jewelry and armor and weapons that you think you won’t need in a while. From now on, whenever you are short on inventory slots, come here to lighten your load.

Talking about all your equipment, here are a few tips on what is worth wearing. In terms of amulets, your best find for now would be the [[amulet of the gourmand]], as it allows you to stuff yourself with lots of chunks from defeated enemies, which really helps when you need to cast some expensive spells. Your best [[ring]] find would be a [[ring of see invisible]]; you don’t need to wear it all the time, but it comes in handy when you are under attack by invisible monsters. You can get the same effect through some head-gear, where it would be more permanent. Otherwise you should look out for (and wear) at least one [[ring of protection from magic]], as your inherent magic protection is very low. The higher your magic protection, the better you can shrug off attempts to confuse or smite you, aside from many other hexes that monsters throw at you. Beyond that, rings of resistance against cold or fire are always good to have around, and they are quickly swapped when your circumstances change. If you happen to find a [[robe of the Archmagi]], stop all training of armor at once. You have then just found the body armor you’ll want to wear for the rest of the game. Not much physical protection, but it boosts the spell-power of your spells considerably, making you much more dangerous early on. When you can kill anything on your first shot, you can afford going easy on your defenses.

In the Lair you may find timed portals to the [[Volcano]], the [[Ice Cave]] or the [[Labyrinth]]. These places can be quite tricky, and if you don’t have some resistances against cold or fire, you probably should let them pass if you don’t know them very well. But they also come with good loot. You don’t need any resistances for the Labyrinth, and your earth magic should be enough for the opposition in there (usually just a strong [[minotaur]]), but you should bring enough food for quite a long time.

Further down the Lair you will find entrances to either the [[Swamp]] or the [[Shoals]], then again for either the [[Snake Pit]] or the [[Spider's Nest]]. You should ignore each of these for now – the opposition in any of them is quite strong. You will come back for these places somewhat later. Near the bottom of the Lair you also find the entrance to the [[Slime Pits]], which is a truly horrible place, best left alone. You won’t need to go there at all for your first victory.

Battling through the Lair, you will gain lots of experience, and before you finish the last, sixth, level of the Lair, you should reach XL 14. This is a milestone level for you gargoyle, as you now have strong enough wings to fly permanently. Start flying with the abilities key (a), and never stop unless you meet one of the following monsters: [[Gastronok]], [[wind drake]]s, [[titan]]s and [[spriggan air mage]]s have [[airstrike]], a spell which is more damaging to you when you fly. Otherwise [[flight]] gives you a huge advantage throughout the game.

While going through the Lair, have a look at your skills constantly. When your armor skill reaches 6, switch it off. You won’t need more, as long as you stick to leather armors or very light dragon armors. And you shouldn’t take anything heavier. If you have found a buckler already and trained the shields skill, switch it off at 4. As much of your experience as possible needs to be invested in your magical skills.

Also have a look at your spells once in a while. Usually, while battling the Lair, you will reach the point where your Sandblast spell power, and even the Stone Arrow spell power show up as ######. This is good news and bad news at the same time. It is good news that now these spells hit your opponents with their full potential, and that makes them quite deadly. Not so good is that there is now nothing you can do to improve these spells, and you will find that it still takes quite a lot of shots to bring down an elephant or a death yak. Not very long after this you will find much more dangerous opponents, and you’ll need something more potent to make them keel over. If you have found Magma Bolt or Iron Shot by now, add them to your inventory. If you have seen a shop with a book containing one of these spells, go and buy this book.

The final level of the Lair is significantly more difficult than the other five levels. It always contains an area with a frightening concentration of high-end monsters, such as death yaks, or [[dire elephant]]s, particularly robust species of elephants, or [[dragon]]s, or similarly challenging opponents. If you tread carefully, you should be okay. Again the secret to success is to proceed slowly and to isolate individual opponents.

==Subjugating the Orcs==
Once you are done in the Lair, proceed to your stash on Lair 2, clean up your inventory and make it to the entrance of the [[Orcish Mines]]. You may not have found it yet, which means that you will first have to clear another Dungeon level or two.

If you have never made it to the Mines so far, just like the Lair this place has its own distinctive look, very different from the dungeon. You will see an awful lot of enemies, but most of them die like flies around you. All you need to do is let a horde of orcs come to you, take them upstairs and smash them to pulp with your weapon. No need to waste any MP on these low-level orcs. Orc wizards (purple) are also no problem for you any more, except that they still like to turn invisible. But orc priests (green) continue to demand a lot of respect, and you should hit them as soon as possible. Maybe they stand near rock walls, and then LRD easily takes care of them. [[Orc warrior]]s are usually well armored, and even more so [[orc knight]]s. Hit them hard with your best magic, and you’ll be fine.

Up till now you will have marveled about how fast your experience grows in this game. All those Lair-monsters made you jump from one XL to another, so that you probably left the Lair with XL 14 or even 15. Here with the orcs now everything seems to slow down to a crawl. No matter how many monsters you kill, you just don’t seem to make any progress on your experience counter. This tells you that by now you have completely outclassed orcs and play in a different league. But this impression is deceptive, as these two levels contain foes which make dying in the Orcish Mines as easy as anywhere else.

* [[Orc warlord]] – there should be at least one of these orc bosses in the mines, usually on the second level. They are heavily armored and hit hard. If you still have nothing beyond your Stone Arrow, you will find it very difficult to make him roll over. He also has powerful ranged options.

* [[Orc high priest]]s with their blue robes are found in small numbers on the lower floor, but you may encounter them occasionally upstairs. They are a lot more dangerous than regular priests, particularly because they tend to call [[demon]]s who can harass you to death. Whenever you see them, they need to be your very first priority. LRD kills them fast, if they position themselves favorably. Killing the orc high priest also makes all of his demons disappear in a puff of smoke.

* [[Orc sorcerer]]s can ruin your day as any orc high priest can. They also call demons, and they may resurrect all those slain enemies around you, so that you have to fight them again. On top of that, they may send bolts of fire or draining your way, and both may hurt you a lot. Killing the sorcerer will not make his undead minions disappear, so be prepared for a prolonged fight afterwards.

* Various [[elf]]s. The entrance to the [[Elven Halls]] is found on Orc 2, and in case you’d miss it, the game places some inhabitants around this entrance. Some of them may be quite dangerous casters. Elfs are usually easy to kill, but if they get their chance, they can damage you badly.

* [[Sonja]] is a unique which poisons and incapacitates non-poison-resistant players with a blowgun. No problem for you, but once she gets close, she may hit you with a dagger of [[distortion]]. Don’t let that happen, as it may get you thrown into the [[Abyss]], and you are not ready for this.

* [[Ogre mage]]s also have the ability to banish you into the Abyss, so here is another monster that you need to prioritize. They should not show up on level 1.

* [[Saint Roka]] is very bad news if you encounter him already now. Best to turn around and go fight in some other places for a long time. Most likely you are not quite ready yet to kill him, and if you won’t kill him, he will kill you. Don’t even try to fight him if you don’t have at least Iron Shot at your disposal, and at least 30 MP, hopefully more. Saint Roka comes along with a large band of minor, but still rather strong, orcs. There is no hope to defeat the boss as long as all those are still hopping around. If you are lucky, you can isolate them from Roka one by one, so that in the end you only have to face him alone. No need to expect Roka before level 2.

The first level of the mines usually consist of two or three disconnected areas; the other areas you can only reach by first going to the lower level, or by some foolhardy teleporting. If you have plenty of [[wand of digging|wands of digging]], you can also shoot wastefully in all directions and see if it does not open a way to another unexplored area. This becomes a lot less wasteful by reading a scroll of magic mapping, but this is wasteful in itself. When you enter the lower level, move very carefully, exploring in circles around the upstairs. Don’t use other up-stairs before you are sure that the area you leave behind downstairs is clear; it does not do to escape a fight on level 1 to find yourself surrounded by some bullies of the level-2 crowd of the mines.

Just like in the Lair, you may have announcements about the presence of a [[Volcano]] or [[Ice Cave]] when entering a new area here. Find it and clear it – by now you should be ready. Otherwise, there might also be a timed entrance to the [[Bailey]], a level with lots of armed monsters, usually [[goblin]]s, [[Kobold_(monster)|kobold]]s, orcs or [[Gnoll_(monster)|gnoll]]s. Most of them you can defeat easily, but there will always be some high-end bosses to kill, so you might find yourself forced to retreat from the area before you have reaped the loot. This loot can be quite desirable, such as a [[potion of experience]], which is about the best shake you can quaff in this game.

Except for what your slain enemies let fall to the floor in their death rattle, there is absolutely no loot to be found in the Mines. The appeal of this place lies in the abundance of gold lying around everywhere. If you have not squandered away a good part of it already in some shop, by the end of fighting in the Mines you should have at least 2000 gold pieces, if not more. And then you’ll have four guaranteed shops on level 2 where you can spend it all, and quite often more shops on the other level. But you should also have a look at what your enemies leave behind for you. Enchanted robes or leather armors, and maybe a well-enchanted [[morningstar]] can definitely improve your equipment.

The shops on level 2 are well defended, though. Quite often all four shops are found in a vault area. High concentrations of the strongest enemies you can find in the Mines make it necessary to advance slowly, and to always retreat when you have attracted the attention of more than two or three enemies. Always know where the next stairs are, and make sure that you know what to expect up those stairs.

Once you have conquered level 2, have your eyes open for a bookshop. If you are lucky, you can buy a [[Book of Annihilations]] here, which would give you access to two of the three spells you want to learn later on: [[Lehudib's Crystal Spear]] and [[Fire Storm]]. The third spell, [[Shatter]], can be found in the [[Book of Earth]] and the [[Book of the Tempests]]. Don’t buy any of these books yet, when you see them, as you won’t be ready for these spells for quite a while. Hopefully Vehumet will grant you what you need anyway, or you may find these books lying around somewhere. But it is always good to know that you can buy the spell you need, if it eludes you otherwise.

If you find a potions shop, go in there and see what potions they sell that you don’t know. Particularly bad potions, like a [[potion of degeneration]], will be on offer for very little money – a good way of identifying these without wasting a scroll of identification.

==First Visit to the Elven Halls==
As already mentioned, the entrance to the [[Elven Halls]] is conveniently located on level 2 of the Mines. It is recommended that you visit this place somewhat later, but if you feel brave and still have a few inventory slots free, you might pop in for a visit right away. If you don't have three stars of magic resistance, it is indeed better to wait a bit longer to come here. In fact, you don't have to come here at all to win the game. The Elven Halls are a lot more challenging than the Orcish Mines, and for now you will only visit the first two of the three levels. Here there is lots of loot to be found, hopefully some books, or good jewelry. But you need to fight for almost every step of the way. Do it slowly and systematically, so that you always have a clear path to the way out of here.

Elves come in lots of varieties. Almost all use some kind of spell, at least to boost themselves. Some are very proficient with a [[bow]], others are melee fighters, but quite a few are pure casters (blue-grey robes). And a few bosses already start slinging damnation at you (red or blue robes). Kill them quickly! That is the good news about all these elves: They can’t take a lot, and since most of the layout here consists of narrow corridors and small rooms, LRD will take care of most situations for you. Killing an elf gives considerable experience, and also Vehumet restores a lot of MP for killing them.

There is a reason not to enter the Elven Halls right after clearing the Mines: Occasionally you’ll find a timed portal in the Halls, which goes down to a [[Wizard Laboratory]]. These are very challenging places, where you may find very exciting treasures after surviving insane dangers. Generally, you have a significantly better chance making it through them if you take them on with much more experience under your belt. For this walk-through, since your main goal is to win your first game, let’s assume that you are not going to try the lab, if you find it. You may have a peek, but don’t stroll too far away from the exit – or you may find your way out blocked.

Another feature that is always a part of the second level of the Halls is the [[Hall of Blades]]. You know that you are near when you see sealed doors defended by self-propelled weapons. By all means, clear the rest of the level first. Even then, only walk in if you have a better spell than your Stone Arrow, such as Magma Bolt or Iron Shot. If you do, however, you are better prepared than most, because these floating weapons are resistant against most elemental damage. Still, you need to be very careful. All these weapons are somehow branded, they are extremely fast, hard to hit, and tend to surround you. An [[executioner's axe]] of flaming will chop you to smoking pieces if you don’t kill it first. Some of the weapons may also drain all your skills out of you. On top of that, there are countless elves running around in that place, adding to the weapons’ damage. Again your tactics is to go in until you see an enemy, and then lure him back towards safer places to finish him off. The rewards of this place are the weapons you defeat – they are all yours to grab, and that may be a nice place to find an [[eveningstar]], probably the best weapon you can find in this game for your build.

Other things to look out for in the Elven Halls are [[buckler]]s. You should find at least a few, and hopefully a nicely enchanted specimen among them.

Some of the elves have the ability to banish you into the [[Abyss]]. Of course, this could happen sooner to you, but going through the Halls, there is quite some likelihood that you involuntarily find yourself in that dreadful place. The later this happens, the better your chances to come out alive. For an early-game character the Abyss usually means that the game is over, if you don’t happen to be thrown right next to a very rare exit. But by now you should be strong enough to survive for quite a while, maybe even long enough to fight your way to an exit. For this it is important not to panic. The Abyss consists of five levels, each level increasingly more horrible than the previous. So you’ll want to stay on the lowest level. If you kill enough monsters, an exit will eventually spawn. Sometimes you may need to heal up in an unseen corner, and that is okay. Most monsters will see you, and that means that you will have to fight them. LRD may be your best bet, but it has the bad side effect of attracting more monsters. Soon you will find yourself hopelessly surrounded and low on health, so it is time to teleport away. This takes longer than elsewhere in the game, so plan for that delay. Hopefully you have lots of potions of heal wounds. A [[potion of ambrosia]] would be a boon, but you are not likely to have one yet. These things can keep you alive long enough until you find an exit. If you see one, go there without delay, no matter what treasures are around you – the Abyss may teleport you away without warning. Once you have made it out, kill the monster that banished you. For a while you are immune against banishing; that should be long enough to eliminate that danger. BTW, there is a [[rune]] to be found in the Abyss, from level 3 on downwards, but right now you would not survive looking for it, and by no means you need to have it to win this game. For the rest of this walk-through we will pretend that the Abyss just does not exist. That’s better.

For now ignore level 3 of the Elven Halls. You’ll come back later for that.

==The Side-Branches of the Lair==
Having cleared the Lair, the Orcs and most of the Elves, you will not proceed any further down the dungeon for now, but return to the Lair. Clean up your inventory at your stash in level 2, and then proceed to one of the side-branches. You will have found an entry to either the [[Swamp]] or the [[Shoals]], and another entry to either the [[Spider's Nest]] or the [[Snake Pit]]. This gives two side branches for you to explore (plus the [[Slime Pits]], but you will leave those alone for the purposes of your first victory). Each of these side branches consists of four levels. On the lowest level you will find a [[Rune of Zot]], which you need to obtain to win this game. But for now you will only clear out the first three levels of each branch. The fourth level is somewhat more difficult, and you will want to come back for it slightly more experienced.

For a Gargoyle, none of these branches is particularly challenging, as you are both immune to poison, and you can fly. But if you need to tackle the Spiders in your game, you should delay that if you have not found a source of [[see invisible]] yet. In the end you’ll have to go there anyway, but it will be rather problematic.

While clearing out these branches, Vehumet will soon give you his final gift – three high-end spells, two of which are probably level-9 spells. As mentioned earlier, you really hope for [[Lehudib's Crystal Spear]] (LCS), for [[Shatter]] and for [[Fire Storm]]. If Vehumet gives you access to all three of those, that would be awesome. In theory, this final gift should be influenced by your skills, but there is no guarantee that you’ll end up with more than one of these spells.

Currently you won’t be able to learn any of these three spells. You’ll need really high skills in earth, fire and conjurations (depending on the spell), plus some spellcasting, and you don’t have those yet. But that does not matter – Vehumet will keep these spells available as long as you worship him, so there is no rush. For Firestorm or Shatter your skills need to be in the range of 18 before you can cast them confidently, and also you need much more intelligence than you currently have. LCS is somewhat easier to cast, but it is still out of reach for you for quite some time.

Anyway, since these are Vehumet's final gifts, you can ease up on your training of the spellcasting skill a bit, to use your experience for the other skills. Train spellcasting whenever you run out of spell slots from now on, or if you are not happy with your MP pool.

Here are some details about each side branch:

===Swamp===
In the [[Swamp]] you’ll find yourself in some kind of mangrove area with few dry spots, lots of [[shallow water]] and some [[deep water]]. All this does not bother you, as you fly permanently. The most dangerous enemies here are [[hydra]]s, which you already know from the Lair, and [[Swamp dragon]]s, except that these are not really dangerous to you, as you are immune to their poison. But [[giant leech]]es, [[alligator]]s and [[swamp worm]]s bite hard, and [[bog body|bog bodies]] hit you from far with bolts of cold. [[Insubstantial wisp]]s are hard to hit and tend to surround you. You may also get surrounded by [[slime creature]]s, but that would be a good thing to happen – because if they don’t surround you, they would combine into large or even titanic slime creatures, whose incredible whack would bring you to your knees in two or three turns. When you are pursued by a titanic slime creature, run away until you are surrounded by open ground or water. When the slime arrives, it will split and surround you, and they are a lot less dangerous that way, with the AC you have acquired by now. The biggest danger comes from various uniques which like to roam the Swamp, such as [[Saint Roka]] with his cool gang, [[Urug]], [[Donald]] or [[Jorgrun]], who all need to be killed as fast as possible, if you don’t even wisely avoid them for some more time.

===Shoals===
The [[Shoals]] have even more water than the Swamp, and the change of the tides shows the same spot sometimes as [[shallow water]] and sometimes as dry ground. Again, with your permanent flight you couldn’t care less. There are many dangerous enemies in the Shoals, though. All kind of [[merfolk]] hurl projectiles against you, so it may be a good idea to wear an item with the [[Repel Missiles]] brand, which might add some protection for you. [[Snapping turtle]]s, and their big brothers, the [[alligator snapping turtle]]s, have a dangerous bite, even from two tiles distance. [[Manticore]]s shoot barbs which reduce your health until you find the peace and quiet to remove them from your flesh. [[Kraken]] are out in the open water, and their many tentacles hit you senseless. Fortunately they react well to Magma Bolt or Bolt of Fire – any tentacle segment you hurt, hurts the whole Kraken, and a few shots should send it to the bottom of the ocean. If you meet a [[wind drake]], remember to immediatly switch off your permanent flight, as its [[Airstrike]] ''will'' hurt you a lot more if you're in the air. [[Polyphemus]] and [[Kirke]] are both frequently found in the Shoals, and both come supported: Polyphemus by [[death yak]]s and a [[catoblepas]], Kirke by a herd of [[hog]]s which should turn into friendly humans once you kill her, or into tasty snacks if you kill them before. Trouble is, Kirke may easily turn you into a hog and then into a snack yourself. Magic resistance is one of your growth areas, and gargoyles are usually easy prey for Kirke’s transmutations. Then again, it has a somewhat entertaining effect when you find yourself to be the first flying pig ever.

===Snake Pit===
The [[Snake Pit]] is a usually dry and very orderly place full of snakes of all kind, [[naga]]s, [[salamander]]s, and [[anaconda]]s. Anacondas and nagas will start to [[constriction|constrict]] you when you are in melee range, but your good AC gives you a lot more time to deal with it than other casters. The most dangerous regular enemies are [[naga warrior]]s (blue) and [[nagaraja]]s (red), who have lots of HP and are often well armored. Nagas are normally slow, but the guys can [[haste|hasten]] themselves and still catch you. Salamanders use ranged weapons very competently, and again [[Repel Missiles]] would be a good thing to have. [[Mana viper]]s are not dangerous as such, but they come to melee range fast with a bite that reduces your MP, so you need to prioritize them. [[Aizul]] is a unique frequently found in the Pit, and he may put you to sleep for a while. Because he is so boring. A remnant dwarf found down here is [[Jorgrun]]. He casts LRD and Shatter himself, and you are highly vulnerable to both. Kill him quick – don’t give him the few turns he needs to smash you. [[Azrael]] is a fiery [[efreet]] swinging a sword of flaming, and he comes supported by [[fire elemental]]s and a pack of [[hell hound]]s. Obviously, you will want some resistance to fire when you meet this group. A [[wand of iceblast]] is about the most efficient thing you can find to take care of this situation.

===Spider's Nest===
The [[Spider's Nest]] is also mostly dry, but a lot more chaotic in layout than the Snake Pit. Most of your enemies here are all kinds of arachnoids, which means that they are very poisonous. Although you are immune against venom, their bite still hurts badly, and some of them are very fast, surrounding you quickly. [[Demonic crawler]]s are not spiders, but very tough and very resistant creepers that would scare you to death if you did not have your powerful earth magic to subdue them. [[Orb spider]]s lob very damaging [[Orb of Destruction|orbs of destruction]] at you, and a few of those may kill you. [[Emperor scorpion]]s are a lot more hardy and destructive than their small cousins you squished earlier in the game. It takes a lot of MP to bring one down. Probably the most dangerous inhabitant of the Nest is the [[ghost moth]]. If you are lucky, you won’t see it until level 4, which you will visit later. But in fact, not seeing it has nothing to do with luck, as it is permanently invisible. The moment it sees you (it really needs to see you, so if you are invisible, it helps) it starts reducing your MP in huge chunks, leaving you without mana in at most three turns. It can also reduce some of your other stats, so you really want to kill these moths as soon as possible. [[Asterion]] has been seen in the Nest, and, even more dangerously, [[Mara]]. This unique splits itself into up to four apparitions, only one of which being real enough to be killed. It will also create a double of yourself, very really killing you. For now you are probably not in a shape to defeat Mara. Come back with [[Shatter]], and that will be the swift end of him.

==Liberating the Dungeon==
So, now you have explored three levels of each of the side branches. Return to your stash and drop what you don’t need next. This is also a good opportunity to re-evaluate your situation. You should now have enough scrolls of identification to reveal all your potions. If you feel daring, you could experiment a bit with a [[potion of mutation]] – if you are lucky, you might get two really good [[mutation]]s at the price of a bad mutation that does not bother you too much. But even so-called good mutations can ruin your day. A pair of horns won’t do you much good, but prevents you from wearing a helmet. Probably it is best, though, to leave these potions alone and keep them for emergencies, when you need to get rid of some really nasty malmutations, such as permanent reductions to your HP, MP, or spell power.

Reading through all your unknown scrolls you will hopefully also discover a [[scroll of acquirement]]. This is one of the biggest sources of joy and frustration in the game. If you are lucky, it may give you genuinely awesome stuff – just what you need. Sometimes, however, it gives you incredible junk. If you have identified the scroll already, you should collect all subsequent finds for about this time in the game. Now you know what spells Vehumet has given you, and you know the books you have found. Are you still lacking one or two of the big spells? Well, read the scroll for a book, and hopefully it will supply you with the missing Book of Earth or Book of Annihilations. If you already have all the books you need, use it for jewelry, armor or weapons. No need to ask for money or food in this game. Well, it might also give you a good staff, to enhance your spellcasting.

By now you should be in your late teens regarding your XL, and your INT without any boosters should be in the low twenties. Looking at your skills, you have made significant progress, and you may appear well-rounded except that you are still miles away from casting these high-level spells that Vehumet and hopefully some books have put into your reach. You need to address this problem now. For a while all your skills training needs to focus on your spells. Only train earth magic, fire magic and conjurations, plus, if it is much lower than these skills, some spellcasting. The only non-magic skill you train should be fighting. You can also leave fighting out for a while, if you promise yourself to not take too many risks when going into fights. This should give you 25 or 33% experience for each skill. This measure will help you to get closer to the high-level spells, about which you still need to learn a few things:

* [[Lehudib's Crystal Spear]] is the most powerful single target spell in the game. Level 8 and two spell schools (earth and conjurations) make it quite difficult to learn, but once you can cast it confidently, you need to fear nothing and no-one in this game. It is a bit low in range, but Vehumet is committed to help you with that. If you know Iron Shot, it may be possible to do without LCS, but the extra power this gives you may be the edge you need in some tough fights.

* [[Shatter]] is a level-9 spell of just the earth school (conjurations don’t help you here), with a devastating effect on almost anything in line of sight. It seems to create the effect of a brutal earthquake, and dungeon features also get badly affected by this. The only drawback is that it does not affect flying monsters very well, and of those you encounter a lot the deeper you get.

* [[Fire Storm]] is seen by many as the crown of conjurations in the game. It is a level-9 spell, and because it needs both fire and conjurations, it is somewhat harder to learn than Shatter. When you cast it, you can select any tile in LOS, and around it you create a killing field three or four tiles in radius, on which anything is fried to a crisp – even highly fire-resistant monsters can’t escape that effect fully. Because this killing field may well extend beyond your line of sight, even monsters you have never seen get roasted that way.

You’ll want those spells, and getting them online is now your most pressing need. To get there, our secondary goal at present is to clear out the Dungeon down to its lowest level 15. Most likely you won’t have to do more than four or five levels for that. You are now a lot more powerful than at the time that you first entered the Lair, and initially you will find very few worthy opponents. But on the last two or three levels of the Dungeon things will begin to become tougher again. [[Ugly thing]]s and [[very ugly thing]]s are very dangerous opponents, as they swarm you in big numbers. Find a corridor to grind them down. All kinds of [[giant]]s show up now, and their damage output is fearsome. And you will have to fight your first [[tengu]]s, who are both good at spells and melee fighting.

Two notable dungeon features you will encounter on your way down. On level 13 or down from there you will find the entrance to the [[Vaults]], a place you will visit very soon. It is guarded by some monsters you’ll have to fight there, so have a good look, and be careful around them. And finally, on level 15, there is the entrance to the [[Depths]], also well guarded. You may admire the entrance structure, but don’t go in there yet!

==Your First Two Runes==
Now that you have completed the dungeon, every next step is somewhat risky. The [[Depths]] are a brutal place, and you have a much better chance in there if you try it with a lot more experience. The [[Vaults]] are also rough, but not quite as badly as the Depths, so this should be your next quest. Trouble is, you don’t get in there without at least one [[Rune of Zot]] under your belt, and right now you don’t have one. But at the bottom of each of the two side branches of the Lair you can find a rune, and it is now time to grab them. We have delayed going into these two places, because they are considerably harder than the rest of these branches, but now there is nothing else you can do to delay it. Off you go! When you enter the final level, this is a good time to read a [[scroll of magic mapping]], of which you should have enough by now. This reveals where you’ll find the final rune vault, and therefore the stiffest resistance.

===Swamp 4===
This level looks very much like the rest of the Swamp, except for the rune vault, which is usually an enclosure surrounded by stone walls, with only one entrance. Don’t approach this entrance before you have cleared the whole level outside the enclosure. Once you have attracted the attention of some enemies within, you will have to fight off an onslaught of countless hydras, spiny frogs, alligators and swamp dragons. It will be necessary to retreat at least a couple of times and then come back. Having a stone structure to play with at least should give you a few good opportunities for casting LRD on the bad guys. The layout inside the vault can vary – sometimes you may even find some stretches of lava in there which is great for keeping hydras at bay. You can fly, they don’t. The rune is just lying around somewhere. Pick it up and feel its power! But you may have to fight the terrible [[Lernaean hydra]] first, which, having 27 heads, you shouldn’t let come within melee range. Shoot it from far with your most powerful shots.

===Shoals 4===
This is a bit different than the other branch ends. It does not come with one big vault, but at least five or six smaller vaults. All of them contain an assortment of dangerous enemies and some treasure. One of them also has the rune. Outside the vaults you will almost certainly get attacked by [[Ilsiuw]] and her gang of aquatic ruffians. She is extremely dangerous, and you need to use alternating sets of stairs to separate her from her support team, killing the minions off one by one on level 3. Only when they are gone (and they are dangerous enough), you can start taking shots at the boss. Be fast! Once Ilsiuw is down, you may encounter the odd kraken, but for the most part, the level and the rune are yours.

===Snake Pit 4===
The map will reveal a somewhat differently shaped area which clearly sticks out from the rest of the level. But careful here – some stairs to level 4 may take you right into the vault area. If so, go back up quickly and take a different set of stairs. Stay away from the vault until you have seen and cleared everything else. Once done with that, get a set of stairs behind you and then slowly approach the vault area. There are dozens of nagas and salamanders in there, and you need to avoid facing all of them at once. Lure them away from their friends and finish them off where they die as lone and unsung heroes. All this takes a while, but slowly you should conquer the vault, always taking four steps forward and three steps back. Some vaults feature a large lake of lava, which should give you an advantage, as nothing flies down here. The rune lies around somewhere in the back area of the vault.

===Spider's Nest 4===
Here again the map will identify a differently shaped area, often circular or elliptical, as the rune vault, and again it is important to clear everything around it first. Inside the vault you will find many spiders, demonic crawlers, emperor scorpions, and, worst of all, [[ghost moth]]s. If you don’t see invisible, those moths may be a good reason to delay clearing this level for some more time, as you will be almost helpless against them. You already have a rune from Swamp or Shoals, and that is all you need for now to enter the [[Vaults]] branch. But if you see invisible, do it now. Whenever a ghost moth shows up, forget everything else and hit it as hard as you can. LRD should work fine, as there should be plenty of walls here. If your MP does get drained, escape up the next stairs to recharge, and try again. Inside the vault you may find the rune in a somewhat hidden corner, plus some [[potion of ambrosia|potions of ambrosia]], some weird stuff which restores your MP and HP really quickly, but at the price of you being confused. That sounds pretty bad, but you may still consider carrying it with you always. In case you are thrown into the Abyss, this stuff may come in handy.

==The Vaults==
Now that you are done with everything you can find in the Lair (at least for the purposes of this game), and the Dungeon cleared all the way down, you have reached another milestone. You have finished what is called the mid-game, which has become manifest in the fact that you are now carrying two runes of Zot. Your character is pretty well developed by now, so that you can attack the late game branches. Unfortunately, if you look at your late-game spells, they are most likely still very difficult to cast. Don’t even consider casting Shatter or Fire Storm when the failure rate is still above 30%. If it is below 30%, but above 15%, you can consider casting it if no-one is around, just to see how it looks. The trouble with these high-end spells is that they have some terrible [[miscast effect]]s. Most likely you get damaged in some pretty bad way, but in any case you will collect [[contamination]]. The contamination of one miscast is usually not dangerous, but if you have two miscasts in a row, level-9 spells will quickly give you yellow contamination, which means that you are about to catch a very bad [[malmutate|malmutation]], if you don’t have something to prevent it. If you have it with you, a [[potion of cancellation]] will reduce your contamination to harmless levels.

If you have learned a high-end spell, and find yourself in a situation where it would be really good to use it, you can reduce your failure rate in the following ways:

* A [[ring of wizardry]] or the [[staff of wizardry]] will significantly reduce your failure rate, possibly to a point where you feel more confident. Unfortunately, these devices don’t stack well, so there is not much point to have two rings, or a staff and a ring.

* Drinking a potion of [[brilliance]] will increase your INT a lot, and that has a very beneficial effect on spell success. It also increases the spell power.

* A [[ring of intelligence]], depending on its enchantment value, will also increase your success rate. Some enchanted armor may also give you extra intelligence, particularly some head gear.

* Check if you are wearing heavy armor or a shield without the necessary skills to compensate for spell penalties. Taking off the shield and replacing the armor with something lighter might reduce the failure rate.

Therefore, if your failure rate for a spell is somewhere around 50%, drinking a potion of brilliance and using an item with the [[wizardry]] effect will usually get your failure rate far enough down that you can cast that spell at least once or twice before you have to stop because of your contamination.

Your next stop is the entrance to the [[Vaults]]. Going down there will show you how one of your runes is put to good use. You’ll find yourself once more in a very different environment. Everything here is very angular, with lots of closed rooms, corridors, mazes and plenty of open space. It may be a bit difficult to find your way in here, as the connections from one part of a level to the other are not always very obvious. No worries, you will find all places by just looking around.

This looking around, however, is made quite dangerous by the monsters you encounter here. Sometimes it is just another band of harmless orcs or ogres (still watch out for these ogre mages, who have not lost any zeal for banishing you to the Abyss). But many of your new opponents are humans with some terrible abilities. [[Vault guard]]s are just heavily armored grunts, and you can deal with them easily by now. But be careful when you see a [[vault warden]], who may block all doors and staircases in LOS, thereby blocking your escape to safer areas or levels. The probably most dangerous inhabitant is the [[vault sentinel]], easily recognizable by his blue armor. When he sees you, he may attach a [[mark]] to you, which means that you will find yourself surrounded by almost every monster on that level, which may easily include a couple of wardens blocking your escape. When that happens, teleport away as soon as possible, and pray that you find an upstairs anywhere nearby. Or this may be the great opportunity for a potion of brilliance and your first attempt at Shatter.

You will also meet more [[giant]]s, particularly [[frost giant]]s and [[fire giant]]s. Try to have some resistance against their element when you approach them. The good old trusty [[yak]] now gets upgraded to a [[yaktaur]], a warrior who excels with a [[crossbow]], and never comes alone. Try not to take on a whole pack of them in the open. Lure them around corners and see what LRD can do to unarmored enemies! The Vaults may also be the place where you find your first [[deep troll earth mage]]s, which hit you hard with LRD and Shatter. Kill them quickly, before they get you. [[Fire crab]]s hurl something like a Fire Storm at you, hurting you badly if you have no resistance.

Whenever you enter a new level of the Vaults, you may get an announcement for a timed [[bazaar]]. These are safe areas where you can shop in a number of different outlets, and usually find stuff you really want to have, if you have the money. If you don’t have much money, then don’t bother, because racing to the bazaar in a hurry can easily get you killed in the Vaults. But if you have some coin, then read a [[scroll of magic mapping]] and see if you can’t make it to the place, possibly by using a different set of stairs. Again, being able to shop somewhere is not worth getting killed for, so be cautious, and take a rest after a fight, even if the entrance to the bazaar is just round the next corner. If you find yourself surrounded in sight of the entrance, use a scroll of blinking – no monsters will follow you inside, and you will come out rested.

Even without finding a bazaar, you should find plenty of good loot in the Vaults. You may have to return to your stash on Lair 2 a couple of times to clear your inventory. The Vaults are also a place where you may find a [[Wizard Laboratory]]. If you find one now, you may courageously have a look. You should be powerful enough to survive by now, but be prepared to die anyway – Wizard Labs are full of surprises, and few of them are good for you.

The first two levels of the Vaults are made up of stone walls. The next two levels often have metal or crystal walls, which is just fine with you, as they give you the best material for LRD. On level 2 or 3 you will find the entrance to the [[Crypt]], usually guarded by some [[undead]] monsters. You will visit this place later, but for now you just leave it alone. Level 5 is very different, and you must not go down there for now, for whatever reason – not even to take a peek!

==The Depths==
If you’d thought that the Vaults were bad, now brace yourself for the real thing: your next destination will be the [[Depths]]. At first glance they don’t look much different to the dungeon, and for the most part, you won’t find many new monsters down here. But the onslaught you have to face is truly brutal. Every step you move forward you have to fight wave after wave of the toughest opponents you have met so far. The noteworthy new monsters down here are the [[gold dragon]], which has various breath attacks and a very tough skin, the [[iron dragon]], which seems to be almost indestructible, and the [[tentacled monstrosity]], which approaches you swiftly to constrict you. Your earth magic should have little difficulty in bringing these buddies down, but you almost always have to face quite a lot of them! Particularly unpleasant are [[caustic shrike]]s, which are fast and very hard to hit. They hurt you with acid while surrounding you, and because many of your earth-shots miss them, you may find yourself out of MP with still a lot of them to fight. In terms of uniques, pay particular attention to [[Sojobo]], who looks like a cute little [[tengu]], but he is merciless with his conjurations, and he comes with a strong gang of dedicated supporters. The same is true for the [[Enchantress]], a very powerful [[spriggan]] boss. Once you have killed her, check her armor – the [[faerie dragon armour]] is potentially one of the best body armors you can wear as a caster, depending on its rather random enchantment. An armor skill of five or six should be enough to wear it without bad effect on your spellcasting.

The good news about all this stiff opposition is that there is so much experience to be found down here that by the end of the five levels you will have [[Shatter]] at a reasonable success rate, and maybe even [[Fire Storm]]. Always have an eye on your spell stats and decide when it is a good time for a first blast.

If you have acquired at least two levels of resistance against fire, it may be a good idea to look for all [[scroll of immolation|scrolls of immolation]] that you have ignored so far in the dungeon. For a fire-resistant character they are a very useful weapon in a target-rich environment. They enchant all enemies in LOS so that they explode on being killed, leaving some columns of flame behind for a few turns on all nine squares around them.

From all being said so far, it becomes clear that you need to approach the Depths with extreme caution. Quite often the access stairs are all in the same location, which means that the road to safety may become very long. Don’t use auto-explore, but explore in circles around the stairs, so that you always have a clear path of retreat. Hit-and-run is the way to play this, with a great emphasis on ‘run’.

Quite often you will see huge vault-like structures in the Depths. They are full of loot, but also full of monsters, so you’ll have to be extra careful around them. Make sure that you don’t get surrounded, so it is good to have the area outside these vaults cleared before you start going in.

Other noteworthy places are entrance areas to the [[Abyss]], the [[Pandemonium]], the [[Vestibule of Hell]] and one guaranteed entrance to a [[Ziggurat]]. All these entrances you should better leave untouched. Pandemonium and Abyss don’t have any exit back to safety for some time to come, and there is a high likelihood of getting yourself killed. From the Ziggurat you can only return after fighting through a whole level, and you won’t survive the first few. You don’t want to have this happen so close to your first victory! The Vestibule of Hell, however, has a staircase that you can take back to safety right away. If you dare to go down, you will first see a friendly looking gentleman called [[Geryon]], who has been appointed to be the warden for this place. In spite of his appearance, he is mean and very tough, and calls on countless [[demon]]s and [[undead]] to protect him. If you actually manage to bring him down, and all the other opposition in this place, you have conquered yourself another safe area for your stash, and you can bring all your valuables from the Lair down to this place, which is a lot closer to the end-game action. But really, there is absolutely no need to even look into this place for your first victory, and having to do a trip up to Lair 2 once in a while won’t kill you. The folks in the Vestibule easily can, particularly if you have to face [[Murray]], an infamous bone-headed unique you may encounter in the Vestibule, and only there. Inside the Vestibule, you’ll find entry-portals to the four different hells, [[Tartarus]], [[Gehenna]], [[Dis]] and [[Cocytus]]. You really don’t want to see these places right now, and you don’t need to for this game.

Finally, on the lowest level of the Depths, you’ll find the entrance area to the [[Realm of Zot]], well defended by a number of draconians, which will be your main opponents once you get down there. Right now you can’t, as you need three Runes of Zot to access the Realm, and you only have two yet. The third rune you need is in Vaults 5. But before you go there, it is now time to deal with some unfinished business.

==Finishing off the Elves==
That’s right, there is still a level left over from the Elven Halls that you have not cleared out yet. You didn’t because it is a lot more dangerous than the other two levels. But now you have the necessary fire-power to get the job done. Go to your stash to empty your inventory as far as possible, because you’ll want some slots for the amazing loot you hope to find there. Artifact rings and amulets, new spell-books, nicely enchanted armor, magical staffs – there is nothing that these thieving elves have not accumulated over the millennia in their secret treasuries. All this will be yours, soon.

When you enter the level, first read another scroll of magic mapping, and once more the treasure vault area should stick out from the rest you can see on the map. As usual, that’s where you are going to find the most dangerous opposition, and therefore you first need to clear everything else, which is not more difficult than the previous levels of the Halls.

Approach the narrow entrance corridor to the vault with caution – on the other side you will have an incredible concentration of high-end elves all taking pot shots at you as soon as they can see you. Remember that some of them have [[damnation]] and know how to use it! So stick to your trusted hit-and-run routine. If you already have good access to [[Fire Storm]] (let’s say with less than 15% failure rate), this is a great place to use it. Just place it at the other end of the corridor, and you will be sure to roast countless elves that you have not even seen yet. [[Shatter]] also works very nicely with elves, who usually don’t fly, but it will attract every single one of them to home in on you, and it may open up new paths and new lines of sight for them to hit you. Always know the way back to the next stairs, and start going there as soon as you see your HP going down. It may go down much further before you reach there.

The big vault usually has several side vaults and various structures blocking your sight. Always assume that there are more elves in areas that you can’t see yet, and that they are ready to pounce on you from several directions once you show your nose. But after you’ve dealt with the last of them, enjoy rummaging through all these heaps of treasure!

Now, look at yourself – you are probably now at XL 25 or 26, almost done with your growing! You have pretty high skills in your spell-casting schools, and can now cast the most difficult spells the game has on offer, allowing you to kill a great number of enemies at just one toss of the dice. Shatter should be well below 10% failure rate now, even without using a source of [[wizardry]], and you may also have reliable access to [[Lehudib's Crystal Spear]] and even [[Fire Storm]]. Hopefully by now you have found some items that help you to get your INT above 30. Whatever armor you wear, your AC is not likely to be below 30, which is an excellent value even for some melee fighters. Enchanted and artifact armor, and hopefully some artifact jewelry will have rounded out your set of resistances, so that you won’t have to fear anything hitting you while you are unprepared. Let’s face it, you have become a reasonably powerful guy!

There are still some growth-areas, though. Your [[fighting]] skill is probably somewhat trailing behind, as you don’t have much of an aptitude for it. This means that your max HP is still far away from 200 (and you won’t ever make it beyond during this game). If it were not for your AC and many resistances, you would be quite frail. Probably some recent exposure to earth magic or damnation will have driven that point home to you. When you focused your skill training on your magical skills, that probably left some important skills rather underdeveloped. Now that you can cast those level-9 spells, it is a good time to start retraining those skills:

* Your weapon skill needs to come up to the point that you have [[minimum delay]] for your favorite weapon. If this is a [[demon whip]], then a maces & flails skill of 12 is all you need. Train the skill that high, and then switch it off. If you are using an [[eveningstar]] instead, you’ll need to go up to 16, which takes much longer. You may have decided to make the [[staff of earth]] that you are carrying anyway your standard melee weapon, which is a pretty good idea. Your [[staves]] skill will then have to reach level 12, but the maces & flails that you have trained earlier will have given you a good head-start on that. Since you are also good at fire magic, a [[staff of fire]] will be just as effective against at least some enemies.

* From now on continue training [[evocations]], and don’t ever switch it off. If you are using a staff as melee weapon, the evocations skill will have a direct impact on your damage output. But even if you are not using a staff, a high evocations skill makes using wands and other evocables a worthwhile option, even against late game monsters. But most importantly, this skill will help you with using the [[staff of energy]], that you have hopefully found by now, for recharging your MP. If your skill is above 20, recharging even in the middle of a fight becomes an option, so that you have enough to unleash another Shatter or Fire Storm. It is better for you to not rely on the [[crystal ball of energy]]. Even with an evocations skill of 27 the risk is still too high that you find yourself without any MP when you need it most.

* By now you will hopefully have found some enchanted bucklers. Forget about large shields for this game, but there may be that amazing artifact shield in your stash that you’d really like to wear. If so, you need a shields skill of 15, so that it won’t impact your casting. That is probably still a long way to go for you at this stage. If you want to just stick to your buckler, a skill of 4 is all you need.

* [[Dodging]] is still a useful skill to have, even if you are very bad at it. Higher dodging gives you a better EV value, which stands for your ability to avoid hits, both melee and ranged. Even some spells can be avoided that way. Switch it on again for the rest of the game.

* There may be some spells that right now don’t work very well for you because you have not trained a spell school needed for it. For example, if you have learned [[Ring of Flames]], it will still have a high failure rate, as you have not trained any [[charms]] skill yet. Just learning a few levels of the missing skill will have a great effect on that. Don’t forget to switch it off as soon as you are happy with the failure rate.

==Your Final Rune==
You’ve almost made it to the Realm of Zot, but first you need to retrieve the third Rune of Zot, which is hidden somewhere on the fifth and final level of the Vaults. This is a very tricky place, with always the same basic layout. When you descend any of the three stairs (don’t do it now, you need to prepare yourself for that!), you will find yourself in the middle of a crossroads of two broad corridors, surrounded by a reception committee of 20 vault guards. But as soon as you start fighting these, the adjoining vaults will disgorge wave after wave of the worst monsters you have seen so far. You will be overwhelmed in no time at all if you don’t start it off right. Teleporting would almost certainly get you into areas that are just as bad.

So, to give it a good start, you should proceed to one of the downstairs on Vaults 4 and do the following:

* Make sure that you are engorged, by eating as much as you can. In a minute you will fire off a volley of high-end spells, which probably still have a significant hunger cost for you. It won’t do if you have to have a snack in the middle of the action. If you have an [[amulet of the gourmand]], that should not be a problem, but even then you may have to top it off with some from your permanent food stores.

* It is better that you don’t fly for this. It does not give you any advantage down there, and some monsters like to cast [[airstrike]] against you.

* Hasten yourself by drinking a [[potion of haste]]. You need to act quickly down there.

* Since haste gives you some contamination, you can’t afford any miscasts. This is best prevented by quaffing a [[potion of brilliance]]. Your spells should now all have a significantly lower failure rate (and they will be more powerful).

* Get your resistances up as high as possible, particularly against negative energy and fire. If you can, cast [[Ring of Flames]]. If you have at least two levels of fire resistance now, you should take a few scrolls of immolation down there. They will be used with the greatest effect.

* Depending on how your resistances look now, take a sip from a [[potion of resistance]]. Every bit helps.

Now, descend. The reception committee may look somewhat surprised to see you. They should all stand at least two tiles away from you, and since you are hasted, reading a scroll of immolation won’t change that. Now all these guys are quite on fire, and it is your intention to get them started – by casting Shatter on them. Do it, and see what happens. You will spend quite a lot of time just reading through the messages of vault guards popping apart. Enjoy the fireworks!

If you could play that immolation trick, then all the vault guards will be gone before you can do anything else. Your MP should now be at max, thanks to Vehumet, and hopefully you have not taken much damage yet. If you look around, you’ll see some walls, made either of metal or of crystal. Metal walls will still be mostly standing, but your Shatter will have decimated crystal walls considerably. And you will already see some of the other monsters who have been attracted by the noise. This is just the beginning, and this onslaught will go on for quite a while.

Still, take your time to read a scroll of magic mapping. Now you can see the basic outline of Vaults 5. You see that you are very much in the center of the map, between the four vaults that make up this level. The only thing that ever varies here are the walls inside those vaults. They are currently bristling with numerous enemies, guarding enormous treasures. Well, you have just announced your presence, and they will all do their best to remove the clear and present danger that you represent to them and their cause.

You need to play this very wisely now. Don’t waste a level-9 spell on just one or two enemies. Wait until enough are in range for your next shot, and hopefully Vehumet will keep your MP at high levels. But your HP will go down steadily, and you must not let it go down too far before retreating upstairs again. The trouble is that somewhere in these vaults there are some vault wardens, and they tend to block the stairs just in the very moment you need to use them. So, if you see one, hit him as hard as possible, so that you always have a clear retreat. And retreat before it is too late.

Back to Vaults 4, restore your MP and HP as fast as possible, so that you return while the baddies are still licking their wounds. Again, buff yourself up (but be mindful of contamination), and go down to kill more enemies. Go up and down as often as it takes to see the onslaught diminish. You are piling up incredible amounts of experience doing this, so that each time you go down your failure rates should be visibly reduced. Usually, during this fight, you will also reach the final XL of 27. You are now a fully grown gargoyle. That does not mean that your skill experience cannot increase – there is still a lot of room for improvement here, but you won’t have any more increases to your INT from now on, which is quite a pity, because you could certainly use some more.

After a while you will survey the killing ground around you and find that the onslaught has stopped. If the walls were made of crystal, you probably won’t see a single wall standing in your LOS, and all around you lies the debris of the battle. You have won, but you still need to be very careful, as some monsters have refused to be drawn out by the racket you have created. Start exploring carefully. For now, don’t enter any of the vaults, but begin with the corridors – take one to the edge of the level, and explore around the four vaults, always returning back to the center when you reach a new corridor leading to the crossroads. On your way you will meet groups of stragglers, and some of them will be quite dangerous.

Done with the corridors you will then approach the first vault, ideally from one of the entrances at the corners of the level, so that you won’t be surrounded by enemies coming from a neighboring vault. Explore carefully towards the crossroads. In hidden corners and behind walls you still need to expect some powerful enemies. But you also have to sift through this incredible loot. Most likely, after two or three vaults your inventory will be full, and you need to go to your stash to offload some of all these goodies. One piece of treasure is the Silver Rune of Zot, of course, and that was your main reason for coming here. Now you are entitled to enter the Realm of Zot.

==The Crypt==
But it may still be wise to delay that visit just a little bit longer. In the Vault we have so far ignored the entrance to the [[Crypt]], a place full of undead enemies. It is not really necessary to go there for winning this game, but as a gargoyle, there is not much down there that you need to fear, and it is a good idea to accumulate a little bit more experience before braving Zot.

In terms of preparation you want to trade fire resistance for negative energy resistance, as some enemies may try to drain you. Good that you already have one level as a gargoyle! Otherwise, bring a good melee weapon, because the [[silent specter]] may prevent you from spell-casting until you bring it down with brute force.

Now, explore the three levels carefully. As usual, the final level is significantly more difficult than the two upper floors, and you need to make sure that you don’t take on too many bad guys at once. Hit-and-run is once more your tactics.

In terms of new dangerous enemies, you may have encountered most of them by now. [[Lich]]es and [[ancient lich]]es are powerful casters, and need to be destroyed fast. [[Curse skull]]s are theoretically quite threatening, but with LRD you have just what it takes to bring them down. At least at one point you will encounter some new types of mummy, and these are very dangerous. A [[greater mummy]] can definitely ruin your day if encountered at the wrong moment. [[Khufu]] is a greater mummy unique which likes to haunt you in the Crypt. In any case, just a few generous applications of earth magic will help you a lot.

The Crypt is a good place for changing your diet. Up to this point, hopefully with the help of the [[amulet of the gourmand]], you will not have had much use for bread or meat rations, or other permanent food found lying around somewhere. Now, the Crypt does not have many corpses for you to butcher, and it may be time to leave your amulet of the gourmand behind for other, more useful amulets, like maybe for now an [[amulet of regeneration]]. You should have plenty of permafood now, and for the rest of this game this will easily keep you satiated, as the hunger costs of your high-level spells should be going down.

On the bottom level you will find the entrance to the [[Tomb]]. Don’t. Go. In. There. The Tomb is one of the most challenging places in the game, which rewards you with rich treasures and another Rune of Zot, if you survive it, but let’s be frank about it, you won’t. Go win this game without it! In terms of treasures, the last level of the Crypt should be enough for you in this regard. And the three runes that you have already are all you need to break into Zot right now.

==Braving Zot==
Before going into the [[Realm of Zot]], make sure that you have all you need there. It would be good to have a source of [[resist corrosion]] at hand, as many draconians in Zot are in the habit of spitting acid at you. Otherwise, have your fire resistance as high as you can get it, and ideally also at least one level of cold resistance. You will take lots of elemental abuse. Take all kinds of potions that buff you up, and your hopefully big stash of potions of mutation. Enchant all your equipment as high up as possible. Learn the spells you always wanted to learn. And have a source of see invisible, or things will become very difficult for you.

Now, proceed to the entrance of Zot and move down. Apart from the colors (each level has a different color set) the first four levels look very much like regular dungeon levels, maybe a bit more elaborate. If you still have a good stack of maps of magic mapping, use one on each level, but make sure that you still have one left for level 5. On the first four levels you will also manage without maps.

Your main opposition down here will be [[dragon]]s and [[draconian]]s. Of the dragons you have already seen a lot, but the draconians need a bit of introduction. They come in various colors, and each different color means that they are resistant to a different element, and at the same time they may hit you with this particular element. Well, you respond with earth magic, and no-one in the game is particularly resistant against that. Some of the draconians can fly and are therefore less vulnerable against Shatter. Apart from their colors, they also come with different specialties, and some of them will pester you with damnation. Kill those first. Draconians always come in fairly big groups, which makes them very dangerous. Don’t feel ashamed to run for your life when in a given moment you don’t feel like fighting. And you don’t have to risk your life to butcher up a draconian – you have changed your diet to permafood, remember? Hit and run!

But there are others, and they can make your life miserable, too. An [[orb of fire]] is very bad news, but mercifully they show up alone, at least usually. You will have to kill a few of them before you reach the [[Orb of Zot]], so when you see one, remember all this: bring up your fire resistance as high as possible, or the orb will scorch you. Lure the orb inside the range of your Iron Shot or LCS, without exposing yourself to it while it approaches you – hide behind a corner! LCS is better, obviously, if you have it. A few shots should bring it down. Don’t try to use anything but earth magic, or, if you have, a [[wand of iceblast]] in an emergency. The orb is almost completely resistant to anything else. It flies, so Shatter is also not terribly useful. If you happen to be low on MP or HP when you see an orb, try to escape to the next stairs to rest up, if necessary wasting a [[scroll of blinking]] or two. You need to be in your best shape to take on an orb. The [[curse toe]] looks somewhat droll, but is quite dangerous with its ability of [[torment]]ing you. You are somewhat resistant, but don’t take this floating body part lightly. It responds well to Fire Storm, if you have it. You can also lure it around a corner to have it within range of Iron Shot or LCS.

If you have fought through the [[Spider's Nest]], you will already know [[ghost moth]]s. They are invisible, and could appear at any moment to reduce your MP to zilch. They should be on the very top of your priority list. They may also reduce your stats. The [[moth of wrath]] you have also encountered before, but here it could make a whole bunch of draconians go [[berserk]] on you, and that can be quite dangerous.

You have already learned to deal with a [[tentacled monstrosity]]. There are lots of them in Zot. [[Death cob]]s are just there to drain your speed, but [[Killer Klown]]s are very hard to kill, because they jump around and somehow always heal up in the process.

In summary, take it easy, go slow, always have a set of up-stairs behind you, and methodically work yourself through the first four levels. Then return to your stash for the final preparation for your last push.

==The Final==
So this is it – one more level, and you will have accomplished the objective of the game: grabbing the legendary Orb of Zot. But, truth be told, many players have made it as far as you now to still die an even more infuriating death this close to the end. Don’t let that happen to you, and preparation is a good part of what it takes!

* Engorge yourself and grab a whole stack of [[bread ration]]s or [[meat ration]]s, even both. You won’t find much treasure in Orb 5, so filling up a few extra inventory slots won’t matter.

* If you have any debilitating mutations, now would be a good time to quaff a [[potion of mutation]] or two, to bring you back into an acceptable genetic state. Take the rest of these potions with you. If you only have one left, and you think you can live with your current mutations for now, it is better to keep it in case an [[orb of fire]] adds something really bad to you. You definitely should not enter Zot 5 with [[teleportitis]], as it would certainly get you into a place where you get killed within seconds. Also you should not have deductions to your INT, if possible, and not to your MP or HP. You’ll need all you can get in these areas.

* Again, make sure that your equipment is maximally enchanted. Take your best melee-weapon with you.

* Take all potions of heal wounds, curing, magic, brilliance, haste, and cancellation with you.

* Take all scrolls of blinking, teleportation, and recharging with you. And at least one scroll of magic mapping. If you have, a [[scroll of holy word]] may also come in handy.

* Bring along your staff of earth or fire, to boost your spells, and also as melee weapons. Bring along a staff of energy, for rapid recharging.

* Take a well-charged wand of digging. This is not for the fight in Zot 5, but for the [[ascension]] with the Orb.

* For the same reason, learn [[Passwall]], which may now become a very useful spell on your way up. If necessary, forget [[Stone Arrow]] to get the spell levels. You won’t need that spell anymore.

Prepared? If you have all your best equipment, and all you need for the ascension, then proceed to Zot 5. First read your map. You should find yourself in a roughly rectangular area with lots of rooms and connecting corridors, made of rock walls. Somewhere to the North or South there should be a long firewall made of stone (on some stretches it is an unnaturally hard wall), going in an east-west direction. Only a little hole in that wall should lead you into an area made up of mostly elliptical rooms, arranged symmetrically. For now, don’t go through that hole in the wall, but explore everything on your side of that wall – this is the safe area on this level.

Don’t ever teleport on this level, as this may get you into the unsafe area with the elliptical rooms. You would not survive.

Exploration of the safe part should get you into contact with draconians and the other regular inhabitants of Zot. But sometimes inhabitants of the unsafe area may trigger a teleportation trap, and then find you when you don’t quite expect them. Also, when you make too much noise they will venture out to see what is going on. If you see an [[ancient lich]] or an [[orb of fire]] – these would definitely come from the other side of the wall, and require urgent attention. A creature only found on this level is the [[orb guardian]], which is fast and hard-hitting, but restricted to melee. If you keep them at bay, you should be able to handle them.

Again, first deal with the folks in the safe area on your side of the stone wall. That can take quite a while. Don’t use Shatter near the stone wall, as it will not only attract opposition from the other side, but it would also create gaps for monsters to come at you from two sides. Generally, it is best to use your level-9 spells only when you face large concentrations of enemies here. Iron Shot or LCS should be your preferred options as long as you are close to stairs.

Now, all sets of upstairs are on the safe side of the wall, but eventually you will have to venture away from them to approach the hole in the wall. Behind it you find the chambers of the Orb. The first chamber is not elliptical, but looks more like a misshapen hourglass. In here you will mostly find orb guardians. Lure them out through the hole and eliminate them on the safe side, one by one. Whatever you do, you will make enough noise eventually to attract more monsters into that hourglass chamber, which is a good thing. It allows you to fight more of them closer to the stairs to safety. In doubt, retreat upstairs, to heal and recharge.

When the hourglass chamber is finally empty, walk in and shout a bit (type t twice). That should attract more enemies from the chambers to the east and west. When shouting does not work anymore, it is time to cast Shatter. That should create another manageable rush of the opposition towards you. Again, your goal is to lure out as many monsters as possible from the side chambers before you dare to show your fragile water-spout nose in there.

Once nothing comes out, pick one of the side-chambers and walk so far that you can cast a fire storm into the chamber (if available). That may fry some unseen opposition, and again attract more individual monsters for you to fight. After each fight, retreat a bit to heal and recharge. You’ll want to be at your very best for each individual skirmish. Clear this chamber methodically and then return to the hourglass chamber. From there repeat the operation with the side-chamber on the other side. Having cleared that, again just make some noise near the entrance to the next, an inner chamber, to lure out what is skulking there. Once you go in there, explore step for step. This chamber is much bigger than the previous chamber, and you need to make sure that you check all the corners before proceeding inwards. After a while you will be able to see the small opening to the innermost Chamber of the Orb. The Orb rests in there, but you may still want to play it safe and return through the outer chamber and the hourglass chamber to the other side, to clear that inner chamber first.

The innermost chamber is mostly defended by orb guardians. Now you know how to deal with them – let them come to you and then shoot them with Iron Shot or LCS. Eventually you will find that you are all alone, and you can walk into the chamber to admire the Orb. Don’t just snatch it up, but take a minute to consider your accomplishment! By no means are you forced to take the Orb right now – you could decide to go on and win this game with a few more runes, even all 15. By now you have seen and liberated 45 game levels, give or take one or two. But just to get the other 12 runes would send you through at least 41 more levels, and it would probably be a few more. Defeating a Ziggurat would add another 27 small levels to that list. You are by no means done with this game. If you really want to see more, please refer to [[Majang's_Disquisition_on_the_Nether_Reaches|this extended game walk-through]], which is based on the same character. But you want your first victory, and here is your chance at it. If you really wanted to move on, you’d have probably done a few things differently by now. In any case, this walk-through is almost at its end. Grab the Orb!

Now a number of things are happening simultaneously: You are surrounded by a strong aura which reduces your stealth (whatever little you have of it) to almost nothing. And you are informed that you have just made new enemies – the mighty Lords of [[Pandemonium]] are now after you!

But you won’t let them get you! Lumbered with your new toy, you will now proceed on the fastest way possible to level 1 of the dungeon and the exit. For now, just teleport away from where you are – any place on this level is closer to the stairs! From where you end up, proceed to the stairs. You will see quickly that you are not alone. A number of various demons are now in hot pursuit. Most of them are harmless, and just running away will do the trick. But there are a few that you need to deal with, and fast:

* The [[balrug]] is as bad as its namesake from Tolkien: it will throw lots of painful fire magic at you if you don’t stop it first.

* A [[hellion]] deals damnation against you.

* A [[cacodemon]] and also a [[neqoxec]] will malmutate you. Catching teleportitis now would not be a good thing.

* The [[hell sentinel]] also likes to throw damnation, and he can torment you.

* A [[Pandemonium lord]] is a fearsome creature with varying characteristics. They are all named, like uniques. Some of them are very fast, so you may not escape easily. Fight them. Others you might just run away from.

Hopefully you can shake most demons once you reach the stairs. But you never need to wait long to be pursued by a new bunch. First thing on each level is to establish the shortest route to the next set of upstairs. If you are surrounded, teleport away. Just know that it takes much longer, since you are now carrying the Orb. It is a good thing that you have wands of digging and that you have learned Passwall. Both will help you to create shortcuts and to shake pursuers. If you have, use sources of [[regeneration]] to get your HP up while you are on your way.

On some levels you may reach the next set of stairs without getting molested. Before going upstairs then, use these few valuable turns you get to heal up and recharge. When the first demon shows up, just tip your hat and move on.

When you have made it out of Zot and the Depths, things should become a little bit easier. Most of the time, there should be a set of upstairs not too far away, and the walls are better suited for Passwall or digging. Remember that [[undead]] monsters can’t follow you upstairs, even if they are hot on your heels! In this situation, running is most of the time much better than fighting.

While rushing through, remember that these have been places that you have been struggling in with great difficulty on your way down. You would have thought that getting up would be easier, and it is, as long you don’t have to dodge those high-level demons.

Reaching the Exit, just use it like an upstairs. Congratulations on your first victory!

[[Category:Character guides]]

Majang's Tengu Wizard Failure

2020-05-15T11:02:25Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{diary}}
{{version015}}
This diary is written as an attempt to provide a hopefully successful example of a high level blaster worshiping [[The Shining One]], according to the guide provided [[Majang's Fire Elementalist of TSO Guide|here]]. The only difference to the setup described there is that here I start out as a Wizard, as it will give me a slight bonus on intelligence, and a [[tengu]] has a good hand with the spells of the wizard starting spell book. I have chosen a tengu as the species for this background, because I have never played one successfully so far, but I think that it should be possible to get a tengu off the ground with some luck. There is a lot I like about a tengu, particularly its great aptitudes, but also the ability of permanent [[flight]], now granted at level 14. It comes at the price of extreme fragility, so I have to play carefully to keep my long neck out of trouble. In fact, it took me quite a few attempts to get this diary beyond the first few dungeon floors. A tengu really cannot take much abuse.

==The lowly beginning==
Finding myself as a new creature in the dungeon, I first survey my situation. My [[strength]] is at 7. Random stat increases will almost certainly add to this, so I won’t have to invest anything here. My [[dexterity]] begins at a respectable 12, which leaves me to invest every single non-random stat increase into [[intelligence]], which comes from a strong base of 18. So, at experience level 27 I will have at least 27 innate intelligence points, and hopefully some more. Add to this some artificial intelligence (jewelery and artifact armour), and I should be comfortably in the mid-thirties by the time I start throwing around level 9 spells. Getting there is the problem at hand.

Right now it looks rather unlikely: My only spell, magic dart, has an alarming [[spell success|failure rate]] of 12 %, and a measly #... [[spell power]]. If I survive this and the next few levels, this will change soon, as I have a whopping [[conjurations]] aptitude of +3, although saddled by a somewhat sobering -1 for [[spellcasting]]. I will have to keep that one focused throughout the game. Well, my conjurations skill will take care of itself, and I only have these two skills active for now, switching everything else off. Later on I will want to train fighting, which comes with an aptitude of 0. Everything else relevant for me looks green: fire magic at +1, [[air magic]] at +3 (wow again!), each melee weapon, [[dodging]], [[armour]] and [[evocations]] at +1. Shields again is only at 0, and invocations at -1, but although I plan to follow TSO later on, I will probably not train it much.

Getting started is always exciting. This very first [[hobgoblin]] that turns the corner now could very well be my undoing. He isn’t, and I take a [[club]] out of his cold, dead hands. Having a weapon, any weapon, in my hands makes me feel much less naked. I soon replace the club with a [[mace]] I find on the floor. For now it will do to protect my 10 meager hit points. I add to that an early buckler; that does not help with my spell success rate, but may protect me from some pot shots. And it will allow me to train [[shields]] as soon as I want to. For now, I only bring it up to 1 level to avoid the casting penalties. Another find is a [[ring of protection from magic]], which isn’t at all bad this early in the game. I’d also fancy a [[ring of poison resistance]], to be honest.

I hit Dungeon floor 2 (D2) without reaching experience level 3 (XL 3), which I find disappointing. But killing an [[adder]] completes the level, and I am ready to learn [[Conjure Flame]], [[Mephitic Cloud]] and [[Repel Missiles]]. This spell is now a lot more user-friendly than in the old days, where you tediously had to recast it every few turns. And I’m now studying [[fire magic]] and [[air magic]].

Other finds on D2 are an [[amulet of stasis]], and a [[ring of fire]], the latter being much more useful to me than the former. It will increase the duration of my conjured flames considerably, and that can be life-saving. I also take an [[antimagic]] dagger off a [[goblin]]. Not that I ever want to use it, but I certainly don’t want anyone else using it against me, so I take it into safekeeping.

The by far best find on this level, however, is a very early altar to [[Vehumet]]. This increases my chances drastically to survive the early game, because he will hopefully start gifting me more powerful spells before I meet more powerful monsters. In the hope of some good spell gifts, for now I hold off learning [[blink]], the last useful spell from my starting spell book. I want to have my spell levels ready when I need them.

==Vehumet’s apprentice==
I get down to D3 very far on my way to XL 5. I round this off by killing an [[orc]] and another adder, and now I have access to [[flight]] when I need it! Although, it is sometimes better not to be flying at all than to have tengu’s temporary flight, because you cannot extend this one, which is bad news when you are far away from land and read that you start losing your buoyancy. I will not use this ability to explore uncharted water-caves, for example.

A few dead orcs later Vehumet already starts gifting. His first gift is [[freeze]], which I politely decline.

Upon hitting D4 I have not encountered a single [[unique]], but my XP is rising steadily because of countless [[worm]]s and some bands of orcs and [[Gnoll_(monster)|gnoll]]s. I get into that floor almost at XL 7, which is not bad at all. [[Blork the orc]], however, greets me down at the stairs. I almost have him down when I start getting surrounded by smaller fry, and I prudently retreat up the stairs. I meet Blork again conveniently close to a large body of deep water, an irresistible situation for applying mephitic cloud, and again, it does not fail to work.

Vehumet’s next gift is [[sting]]. I don’t plan on training any [[Poison Magic]], but then again, in the early game this spell is quite useful and very low cost. I take it for now. Later on I will hopefully have lots of poison themed books that I can tear apart to forget this one. I try it out on an [[ogre]], but honestly, what really brings him down is my trusty combination of mephitic cloud and a well-placed fire-column. But the good news is that as early as D4 I have maxed out the [[spell power]] of magic dart, which means it is now time to graduate from the elementaries of magic and branch out into other areas. I now start training [[fighting]], [[maces & flails]], [[armour]], [[dodging]], [[shields]] and [[evocations]], on top of the four magic subjects I do anyway. That gives a measly 9% experience for each of the minor subjects, and only 18 for my single major spellcasting. Growth in knowledge will be slow, therefore, and I will not become a superhero anytime soon.

The entrance to the [[Temple]] is also on D4, but with my allegiance to Vehumet already settled so early, I just go down to see what’s there, which is almost every altar missing so far. The only god I have not encountered yet is [[The Shining One]], which is good news, as it means that I will later not have to go all the way down to D4 to convert to him. In the old days I would have established a small stash in the Temple, but with item weight limitations done, I don’t see the point and just leave behind this antimagic dagger. I do try out my highest quantity scroll, which is a teleportation scroll. Good to have that one identified in a safe environment. The other scrolls I will only read when it is necessary to map out an area.

Down on D5 I boldly try wearing another amulet, which is quite risky, since I don’t want to identify an amulet of faith that way, and I also don’t know whether I have a [[scroll of remove curse]] yet. But I get away with it, as it is an [[amulet of resist mutation]]. Not very useful right now, but I have lost too many games already because I did not find it at all. By now I have also identified four wands, the best of which is a [[wand of cold]], which I will probably keep active and recharged until I (hopefully) ascend with the [[Orb of Zot|Orb]].

[[Sigmund]] comes my way, but too late to be much danger to me. He succumbs to mephitic cloud and a generous application of sting. He actually manages to get out of his confusion and turn invisible, but by that time he is so toxic that he just dies unseen. As a reward for disposing of this unseemly character I find the [[Book of Flames]] lying on the floor. This is a game-changing find, as even Vehumet couldn’t have gifted me all these spells so quickly. Good that I have some levels left! For now I learn [[flame tongue]], which I much prefer to magic dart, and [[sticky flame]], which is a great way to deal with ogres and other big baddies, as long as I can outfly them. It also is a good workaround against invisibles. One more spell level, and I can learn [[fireball]], which will take me all the way to the end game.

[[Natasha]] is the first victim of my new spells, followed immediately by [[Crazy Yiuf]], who is kind enough to leave me with a marvelous +2 [[cloak]] of [[poison resistance]]. Can things become much better? Now mephitic cloud is even more useful to me, as I can apply it to foes standing right next to me. Yiuf’s [[quarterstaff]] of [[chaos]], though, I let pass, as I usually find that it is more trouble than helpful. I kill Natasha twice more to put her out of her misery, and move on to D6.

Here I take stock. I am half through XL 8, and my STR is still at 7, my INT at an awesome 22, and my DEX also glued to 12. This means that every stat increase so far went into INT, even the uncontrolled ones. Not bad! My AC, however, is still alarmingly low at 5, bolstered by 4 SH, which sounds worse than it is if you are not used playing version 0.15. My skills are mostly still rather low, with [[spellcasting]] the highest at 6, but it will soon be overtaken by both [[conjurations]] and [[air magic]]. Having poison resistance now has also agreeably extended my diet so that I will starve less often. I found another good [[wand of fireball]], and I feel generally confident that I am well prepared for what is to come.

On level 6 I finally find the altar of TSO and take note of that fact. I’m also ready to learn [[fireball]], which is still at a high failure rate of 38%. Next I have to kill [[Menkaure]], who manages to get my HP far down [[torment]]ing me. Then Vehumet tempts me by offering me [[Stone Arrow]], which is a very useful spell, already at 10 % failure rate. But I am not yet ready for earth spells, so I let it pass. A few fights later, involving a bunch of [[orc priest]]s, Vehumet awards me my third star, and fireball drops down to 9% failure rate. Now I’m blazing. If just my magic capacity were a little higher. 25 is barely enough for five fireballs.

D7 greets me with a napping [[Eustachio]]. I wake him up to a fireball, followed up with mephitic cloud. I manage to kill him before slipping back up the stairs to avoid his many reinforcements. Returning, I find myself next to [[Dowan]], who dies fast, and doesn’t seem to have [[Duvessa]] in attendance. I can just hear her screaming, that’s all. First I have to kill a hungry ghost before she shows up. She definitely is pissed, does not respond at all to my mephitic cloud and almost kills me going berserk. I have to drink a [[potion of heal wounds]] (conveniently used to that effect earlier by another monster) to survive. I need to be careful – this game is going too well to lose it to some foolhardy action. If I can survive a little bit longer, this is going to be a winner.

I take a nice +2 robe off Dowan, and then I manage to get myself in trouble anyway. I pick up this ring from the ground and put it on, a cursed [[ring of teleportation]]. I still don’t know whether I have any scrolls of remove curse, so I start reading. All sorts of stuff, like a [[scroll of recharging]] (charging my wand of cold), a [[scroll of noise]] – this can take longer, so I better go upstairs into already explored area. A [[scroll of fog]], a [[scroll of amnesia]] (which I use to forget sting again), a [[scroll of magic mapping]] (such a waste in an already explored place!), a [[scroll of holy word]], a [[scroll of fear]]. Out of scrolls. Let’s face it, this ring is still glued to my finger, and I have to live with it. But wait! I still have this amulet of stasis. Now it is useful, after all. Back to D7.

More fights get me Vehumet’s next gift, [[Iskenderun's Mystic Blast]]. Not a bad spell, but I’m hoping for better, such as [[airstrike]]. This level has a lot of stuff lying around – some wands, a [[Book of Ice]], a [[Book of Death]], a [[Book of the Dragon]]. That must have been Dowan’s library, it seems. [[Bolt of fire]] is certainly a very good find for me, and something else that Vehumet does not have to give me.

Entering D8 I’m already at XL 10. Quite nice! Now to find the entrance to the Lair. While I look around, Vehumet offers my [[Ignite Poison]], a spell I like to use in the [[Spider's Nest]] or [[Snake Pit]]. But it is also fine to do those without it, so again I save my spell levels for something better. [[Joseph]] appears and starts pelting me with his sling. My first fireball at him is a miscast, but a few more bring him down. Good that I have repel missiles!

I step into an alarm trap, and all of a sudden I have hosts of [[killer bee]]s and a [[wyvern]] on my heels. The bees’ sting slips past my poison resistance, but I get up the stairs again and sit the matter out. The next to show his ugly face is [[Grum]] with his band of wolves. But they present no problem to me. A [[cyclops]], though scary, makes it to my list of victims.

I’m now slowly getting problems with a full pack. It is time that I find the [[Lair]], or I have to unload some stuff at the temple. Instead, for now I decide to identify two potions, and they are a [[potion of poison]] and a [[potion of mutation]]. Good riddance! A transparent robe has been thrown across my path. I take it for now, but it is as likely to be really bad as it is to be awesome. And I still don’t have anything to remove curses, so I just admire it for now, without wearing it. And I’m not sure I want to wear something transparent anyway. Isn’t that like the emperor’s new clothes?

D8 does not contain the entrance to the Lair, so I dive deeper. There I find a pair of gloves (cursed, as I find out wearing it), and a [[staff of energy]]. Another very helpful item just lying around on the dungeon floor! But for now my evocations are still far too low to make it useful. At least it can eliminate the hunger cost for my highest level spells.

I can’t ignore my full pack much longer, and therefore grudgingly return to the temple, where I drop all books and a few lesser wands. Returning to D9, I notice that I have to fight a lot of Lair-themed monsters: [[yak]]s, [[hippogriff]]s, a [[basilisk]] – I hope that this means I’m getting closer to my goal. But no, I have to get even deeper to find the Lair.

D10 is a [[Vaults]]-like layout. Opening the first door gets me touchily close to two [[hill giant]]s, whose clubs I find rather intimidating. Still, they get fried in my fireballs, or slowly eaten out by my sticky flame. More exploration on this floor reveals the entrance to the [[Orcish Mines]], but still no sign of the Lair! But wait, this entrance to the mines suddenly jumps at me, and grinds me down to 15 HP before I overpower it. These [[mimic]]s often catch me off-guard. This fight brought me across the 12 XL threshold. Was I ever that high up before reaching the Lair? I can’t remember. Now I’m only two levels away from permanent flight. [[Shields]] is now above 5, so I stop training it. [[Armour]] will reach level six soon, and there I will also stop for a while.

On level 11, a fight with a [[manticore]], immediately followed by a [[water moccasin]], again demonstrates to me how frail I am. Just a blow away from a sudden stop to the game! I need to find myself some armour. And the opponents get more and more dangerous down here. A [[troll]], a [[komodo dragon]] with its fierce bite, and a [[gargoyle]], hurling [[Stone Arrow]]s at me – this is not a very comfortable phase of the game! While engaging the gargoyle, Vehumet offers me another earth spell, [[Lee's Rapid Deconstruction]]. Just the right thing to bring this stony feller down! But then I check out the failure rate – 67%. No, better not. My [[wand of disintegration]] does the trick for now. At least I now find my long expected scroll of remove curse, and can get rid of the ring of teleportation. I finally decide to use a scroll of identification on my artifact robe. It is indeed cursed, but otherwise quite useful: +2 AC, +2 STR and +4 DEX. Certainly an improvement to what I am wearing now (a plain +2 robe), but still not adding any armour to my low supplies. I put it on.

==Liberating the Lair==
On this floor, as had to be, I finally find the entrance to the Lair. On entering, I switch off the training of [[armour]], and this brings my other skills to 11% experience each (except for spellcasting, which remains at the double allotment of 22%). That feels a little bit better. My fire spells are now at 6# spell power, and that is not too shabby on entering the Lair. My spellcasting skill is above 9, with air and conjurations not far behind. My fire magic, of course, grows a bit slower, but for now that does not concern me. My fighting skill is just above 5, and that is not where I want it to be. Higher fighting means more HP, and the 68 I have of those are a matter of concern to me. Now I will meet whole flocks of [[yak]]s, and more manticores and komodos, not to speak of these terrible [[blink frog]]s. On the plus side, within the first few Lair floors I should gain permanent flight (if I live long enough), and that will add to my movement speed. I should then be able to outrun yaks to fight them in safer places.

The first few encounters go well. Mostly I attribute this to my renewed use mephitic cloud, which is still of tremendous value in the Lair. But then I read a scroll I find lying around, and it happens to be a [[scroll of torment]]. Good that just now no monster is around to exploit this! Also in some corner I find a [[slicing]]-branded +7 artifact cutlass, which provides [[see invisible]]. I’m not really into short blades, but with this enchantment it is a good weapon, and I can certainly use see invisible before I convert to TSO.

The second level of the Lair (L2) is the floor on which I will establish my stash. It is about time, because once more all my inventory slots are full. I rarely have found so much stuff before coming here. But first I need to establish my ownership of this place. My first [[hydra]], five-headed, goes down after only three fireballs, which is encouraging. Another hydra, this time eight-headed, finds its demise in exactly the same way. I may still survive this place! Next I see a heavily runed pair of [[boots]], but I need to leave it alone, since I am a tengu, and we don’t wear boots.

My first [[scroll of acquirement]] gets read, and surveying my immediate needs, I decide for armour, hoping for a nice light dragon armour. But these scrolls rarely give me what I’m hoping for. It’s just a +1 [[cloak of darkness]], and I’m not going to trade that for my +2 cloak of poison resistance, no way!

Now, after a variety of fights, nobody is left to challenge my claim to this place, and I establish my stash in a spacious and central area of the map. I need to then collect all the things that did not fit into my inventory while fighting through L2, among others a [[Book of the Warp]] and another scroll of magic mapping. Next I have to do a milk-run to the temple to fetch what I left behind there. As a final matter of housekeeping, I learn bolt of fire, which is now at 7% failure, and head off to the next floor, already at XL 13.

L3 turns out to be almost devoid of inhabitants, which makes for an easy conquest, but deprives me of what I need most: experience. My counter almost didn’t move at all towards XL 14, my coveted milestone level. L4 is not much better, but at least it has the following noteworthy things to report: [[Erica]], the entrance to the [[Shoals]], a [[staff of air]] (a very good find for me!), a [[ring of wizardry]] (not much use right now, because all my failure rates are currently very low), and an island behind a lava lake which is teeming with four [[lindwurm|lindwürmern]]. I soften them up with mephitic cloud and finish them off with bolt of fire and fireball. No problem here. I also find a +1 [[leather armour]] of [[cold resistance]], which does not increase my AC, but at least provides some [[GDR]] plus a very welcome [[ego]]. I take it and wear it. A second ring of fire brings my fire spells up to 7# spell power, at the price of leaving me one pip cold susceptible, in spite of my new armour. My experience, however, is still a long way off XL 14.

L5 has a reception committee of countless [[orange rat]]s, [[wolf]]s and a [[boring beetle]]. These all will give great experience, but please not all at once! I try another downstairs, which provides a clear coast. Much to my surprise these orange rats prove to be gratifyingly edible, at least with poison resistance. A [[scroll of brand weapon]] turns my humble +1 mace into a horrendous [[vampiric]] battle implement. Should I use it? For now I decide not to. Instead, I’m using my staff of air, which by now is a respectable melee weapon, my air magic being at 10, and my evocations at 7. I keep training maces & flails, as this also (under the new [[crosstrain]]ing system of 0.15) directly benefits my [[staves]] skill. My current 7 levels of maces & flails right now translate into 4.3 staves, which means that I use my staff with a delay of just 1.0. Not entirely bad. Later on, when I have more experience to spare, I will train the remaining levels of staves to get to minimum delay, but that is no priority right now.

Clearing out a bear cave on L6 nets me three potions of [[porridge]], plus the offer of [[ball lightning]] through Vehumet. Currently I have 8 spell levels left, and I’m hoping for [[orb of destruction]] (OOD), so I let it pass for now, although with permanent flight ball lightning will become attractive, as long as I don’t forget to carry my staff of air for the electricity resistance. In any case, my super-charged fire-magic works better than any melee weapon, killing yaks and [[elephant]]s reliably on the second shot with fireball or bolt of fire. And there are plenty of those on L6, which gets me finally across the XL 14 line – from now on I’m permanently airborne, with a nice boost to EV and speed. I can use it. Being at it, I can’t resist Vehumet’s temptation and learn ball lightning anyway. It is already at 3% failure rate, so completely ready to go. One other remark on L6: It contains the entrance to the [[Spider's Nest]], so my branches are now determined for me.

On entering L7 I learn that there is an [[Ice Cave]] in there. So far I did not get any optional branches, so I should welcome the experience. But I should change at least one ring of fire for the [[ring of protection from cold]] that I found some time ago. That still leaves me with 6#, and one level of cold resistance. I don’t even have to burn a map to find the cave. It is the Ice Cave layout where you have to jump from one area to another by entering teleporting tiles. Doing this gets me right between two [[ice statue]]s which engulf me in a big ice cloud. Now it is a chicken game. I see my health going down while I first melt one, then the other statue with fireballs. I win, but there is not much HP left when I fly out of the cloud. The very nice thing about 0.15 is that all of my potions survive this encounter. In the old days I would have left them outside the cave. Here they are a nice life insurance. There is not much loot, but interesting items: a [[crystal ball of energy]], which is always welcome, although I do not tend much to use it. Certainly not with my current evocations level. Even more tempting is the [[Robe of Folly]], which gives me +3 AC, the [[archmagi]] ego, and fully +5 INT, but at the hefty price of [[MR]]-- and recursing. I don’t even have MR+ yet, so this robe could indeed be an item of reckless folly, but its other characteristics are irresistible, and having conquered the ice cave for now, I can hopefully do with some cold vulnerability. Maybe I am a complete idiot, but I’ll do it. I end up with 29 INT, Fire spells at 8#, but on the other side C--, and absolutely no protection from magic. We’ll see. As long as enchanters and ice casters don’t get the first shot at me, they should be dead before they can hit me. Let’s hope I see [[ice dragon]]s in time to retreat and change...

Exploring further, I encounter my first pack of [[death yak]]s, which earns me my next Vehumet gift, [[force lance]]. I don’t care much for this spell and ignore it.

The last level of the Lair has the layout with the central keep full of twisted passages and rooms teeming with increasingly powerful monsters. As usual, I start clearing everything outside that keep. Doing that, I encounter the lake of dragons, and see two [[mottled dragon]]s at first glance. They are napping, and I retreat to change, because there is bound to be an ice dragon around. One mottled dragon wakes up and follows me. One shot from my wand of cold, and a swing of my staff bring him down. He leaves a corpse, but butchering it gives no hide. Too bad. I now burn a scroll of remove curse to undo my robe of folly, to replace it with my cold resistance armour. See if I can get the other dragon’s hide. Yes! He dies in exactly the same spot as his mate, and I have his hide. Turning this into a proper armour will give me something to win this game with. I just haven't found a [[scroll of enchant armour]] yet.

There is a third mottled dragon in there, and a fully grown [[fire dragon]], but no ice dragon. The rest are just lesser drakes which are easily dealt with (resulting in [[Poison Arrow]] as another offer by Vehumet that I better ignore). But just the prospect of meeting an ice dragon scared me sufficiently to now stay clear of the robe of folly and stick to my C+ armour. Eventually I will have to let go of one of my rings of fire, and then it will be time for either the mottled dragon armour, or even for the robe of folly.

The only other noteworthy thing outside the central keep is a little vault containing the entrance to the [[Slime Pits]]. It will be a while before I find my way in there. Now to the keep. On the way there I try out another scroll, which is indeed a scroll of enchant armour. Trying on my new dragon armour, it gets my AC immediately from 9 up to 12, and I can enchant it six times over. For now I stick with it.

The inside of the keep is predictably lively. Death yaks, a [[catoblepas]], more hydras and elephants, and all always on top of each other make it quite an experience to explore. But Vehumet’s MP restoration does an amazing job in this environment, and once I do run out of power, my speed gets me out of trouble. Again, only two things in the loot, but what things! A [[Book of the Sky]], and my first artifact ring! The book is priceless to me. Having [[Tornado]] already secured, it could mean that Vehumet will offer me [[Lehudib's Crystal Spear]] in his last batch of gifts, and I would quite appreciate that. And I also appreciate having access to [[Deflect Missiles]], which I will certainly learn before flying into the Shoals. The ring, however, turns out to be contaminated, and it offers only MR+, DEX +2 and Slay -2. I leave it right here.

I leave the Lair back to the Dungeon with XL 15, 25 INT, 12 DEX and 8 STR. Both my spellcasting and conjurations skills are now at 12, and air magic closely behind. Fire magic has not quite reached 10 yet, but is boosted by two rings of fire (for now). I have permanent flight, and am considerably more powerful than on entering the Lair. All my other trained skills (fighting, dodging, maces & flails and evocations) are now at 8, which also gives me much confidence. Time to find the entrance to the [[Orcish Mines]].

==Orcs' and elves' bane==
On D12 I have a close shave with a white [[ugly thing]], which hits me in one turn down to 17 HP. I blink away in panic, and just about manage to kill it before it melees me again. That’s it. One ring of fire needs to be replaced by my ring of C+. It is painful to see your spells go down from 8# to 7#, but dying a one-shot death is even more painful. I am now at F+ with no C resistance, but also no vulnerability. That should do for now.

Some unseen monster hits me, but I have brought my artifact cutlass along for this very situation. Sure enough, an [[unseen horror]] has been sneaking up on me. [[Sticky flame]] ensures a very sticky end. Round the corner I come to an area full of treasure guarded by a [[silver statue]]. What do I have to bring this down? The statue itself is surrounded by a protective layer of plants, so I can’t get at it easily. Fireballs, even with both rings of fire on, don’t do much at all. The statue starts summoning demons, and I pay my respects and flutter away. I guess I do need OOD to approach it next time. For now I will give this area a wide berth.

Otherwise, D12 is full of all kinds of orcs, and some [[hill giant]]s. I find or loot an [[amulet of warding]] and a [[staff of power]]. And there is the entrance to the Orcish Mines. I’m going in.

One of the first orcs to fall on Orc 1 drops a +1 whip of flaming. I will use that for a while and see how it does. As usual, there is not much to write home about the first three levels of the Orcish Mines. You just grind yourself through wave after wave of mostly low-level orcs and goblins, peppered with an occasional ogre or troll. After finishing the Lair, there is not much experience to be gained here, in spite of the masses of enemies who die like flies. And you barely break a sweat in all this senseless killing.

Next gift of Vehumet, while sanitizing Orc 2: [[Delayed Fireball]], which I learn and cast right away. Orc 3 does provide a little bit of a distraction by announcing a [[volcano]]. The entrance is almost in sight of where I enter the level, so again I can save a map for other purposes. Here, of course, my two rings of fire provide an advantage; the whip of flame, however, I replace again with my staff of air.

The only entrance to the main area of the volcano forces me to trigger an [[alarm trap]]. This sets hosts of [[centaur]]s, [[elf]]s and orcs on my track, which I all dispose of safely in my one-tile entrance corridor. A +3 F+ leather armour dropped by one of these guys brings me up to F+++, just the right level of protection in this place. The loot is distributed over three little vaults like you see them in the upper reaches of [[Gehenna]].

Orc 4 has a central keep, and I try to grind down an army of [[orc warrior]]s and [[orc knight]]s with fireballs and bolts of fire. I kill many, but this time Vehumet can’t keep up with my consumption of MP, while [[orc priest]]s smite me from all sides. I retreat and escape upstairs with only 18 HP. I guess I need to be more careful next time I go down.

In the following fight for the possession of the keep Vehumet comes up with his final gifts: [[Fire Storm]], [[Glaciate]] and [[Chain Lightning]]. Well, not the Crystal Spear I was hoping for, but at least Vehumet took note of the fact that I already have access to Tornado.

The four shops at the end of the keep don’t have anything worth buying. I do buy an artifact ringmail, but once more get disappointed by its mediocricy. No AC enchantment, and N+ and MR+. There is a bookshop, but the best it has is a [[Necronomicon]], which won’t do me any good when worshiping TSO, and a [[book of the Tempests]]. All the spells I want from in there I already have from other books, like the book of the sky. So I can save my funds for more worthy occasions. Well, I do buy a few scrolls which might come in handy later.

I usually follow up my conquest of the orcs with an initial visit to the first two floors of the [[Elven Halls]]. [[Elf]]s are significantly more dangerous than orcs, but they also give a lot more experience. And they often have some interesting stuff lying around (or initially on them), like enchanted bucklers. Let’s give it a try. Just my first fight down the stairs brings me up to XL 16, with another welcome random stat increase for my intelligence. Up to now all but one went into INT, and this one was bringing my STR up to 8, which I needed anyway. No reason to complain here, so far.

E1 is an example of the new layout with rectangular rooms boxed one into another, and another, and so on. It allows a controlled conquest, but sometimes results in very long ways to get from one spot to another one not more than three tiles away. This is all the more insulting, as some of the walls are transparent, and you can see stuff or monsters that you will only reach much later.

Trusty old fireball, augmented by the occasional bolt of fire, does most of the job here. Elves are actually not resistant to poison at all, so mephitic cloud is also very effective.

E2 also has a new endearing layout, with polygonal chambers connected by narrow straight or diagonal passages, with an occasional great hall in between. Whoever designed the new elven maps, I believe did a very nice job.

[[Nikola]] is standing right next to me after I turn a corner. Usually I wet myself when I meet him, but this time I am flying and resistant to electricity. Let’s see how resistant he is! I let fly, and the resulting volley of balls of lightning does him a lot more harm than me. Serves you right! But it takes another four turns to end his mad presence in this game, and the infernal noise has called in a lot of elves, while I am low on both HP and MP. I drink a [[potion of heal wounds]] and get to work with my staff of air. While examining Nikola’s belongings (junk) I only now notice that I must have picked up an artifact ring from a killed deep elf knight some time earlier. It gets identified as giving +2 AC, +2 STR, and +4 INT. Quite a nice piece of jewelery for me! Trading it for my ring of C+ will make me susceptible to cold, however. Is it time to remove my second ring of fire for a while? Indeed it gets my fire spell power down to 6# if I do this, so once more I bite the bullet of running around with one pip of C-. My C+ ring is always close at hand. I now have 15 AC, and that doesn’t sound so bad anymore for a tengu. Not anywhere close to what I have when playing a gargoyle, though. It is just now time to learn [[Deflect Missiles]], so that in conjunction with my good EV I can avoid most ranged cold attacks.

[[Agnes]] meets me next in a narrow passage. Knowing how difficult she is to hit with anything, I apply sticky flame and then use ball lightning again. It works against her, but almost as well against me. I nearly blow myself up this time.

==Attacking the Shoals==
Having cleared E2 (without finding my enchanted buckler), I make my way back to the stash in the Lair. Not much to drop here, but I need to learn deflect missiles before taking on my next project, the [[Shoals]], the inhabitants of which tend to throw pointed objects at me. I also read a [[scroll of amnesia]] to forget repel missiles, which frees up enough spell levels to learn [[airstrike]], which is most useful against [[harpy|harpies]], particularly at my 7# spell power! I also decide that my evocations and dodging skills are high enough (10) to switch them off for now. I’m now only training fighting (I won’t switch that off, ever, until the program does), maces & flails, and my four magical skills, which should give me sufficient returns to have at least Tornado ready fairly soon. It already started its slow crawl from 100% failure rate to 99%. Fire storm, by the way, too.

For a permanently flying and nimble character like me, the Shoals should be fun. But I also remember that the only time I ever got a tengu this far it perished in the Shoals. Then, again, it was an unlucky encounter with [[Boris]] or [[Saint Roka]] or some such, if I remember correctly. Let’s hope that won’t happen now.

Being airborne allows me to give the perimeter a thorough sweep at each Shoals level, and I always begin that way, so that I don’t miss anything. By the time I’m finished I’m always hungry and need to go to the unexplored center to create some chunks. This involves me in all kinds of fights until the level is cleared.

Some cataclysmic event must have happened in Shoals 1 before my arrival. It is almost devoid of population. Only when I think I have explored all, a few [[faun]]s show up, slinging stones at me. That’s it. I move on, puzzled.

On Shoals 2 I find a high-level book lying around. Unfortunately, it can’t be a [[Book of Annihilations]], as by now this one would auto-identify, given my high levels in conjurations and spellcasting. So I read a scroll of identification to see that it is a [[Grand Grimoire]]. To me this is one of the most useless books of the game, but I’m sure there must be some people who like to play with summons that require lots of micromanagement, tend to stand in the way and eat up your experience. To you I’m dedicating this book which unfortunately drops out of my hand over deep water. “You hear a splash.” Ooops.

Otherwise, Shoals 2, too, is eerily empty. Where is everybody? Does it mean that when I put my foot down in Shoals 3 (I won’t really, since I’m flying), all the world is going to attack me at once? I guess there is only one way to find out. Well, my reception is very lively indeed, with more opposition on the first screen than almost on the whole two previous levels together. I fight my way through the hordes of attackers towards an unidentified amulet. Faith is already out of the way, so I bravely try it to get pleasantly surprised by an [[amulet of the gourmand]]. This is probably my favourite non-artifact amulet in the game, the one I always want to wear. It is just that sometimes I have to wear others, sadly. Now let’s snack on all the various [[merfolk]] and harpies I just killed.

Going through the pickings of Shoals 3 I find another amulet. Since I am wearing the gourmand right now, I’m not inclined to take it off, and read a scroll of identify instead. This is just as well, because this is the cursed [[amulet of inaccuracy]]. You hear another splash.

Shoals 4 is the place where all the folks from the other levels must have gone to. I am surrounded from the beginning. A [[siren]] has me [[mesmerise]]d (so I can’t go back up the stairs I'm still standing on), and a [[water elemental]] [[engulf]]s me, so that I can’t cast. This is the thing that doesn’t happen when I play gargoyles. Someone manages to confuse me, and it takes two potions of curing to get out of it. At least now I can use my [[wand of teleportation]] to get away. While waiting for the teleport, I inefficiently try to knock this elemental with my staff, but it is not impressed. Countless fauns and merfolk and manticores and who knows what throw everything they have at me.

{{flavour|You feel strangely unstable.

Your skill with magical items lets you calculate the power of this device...

This wand has 1 charge left.

Your lungs strain for air!

The water elemental hits you. The faun shoots a stone. You block the stone.

The siren chants a haunting song.

The faun shoots a sling bullet. The sling bullet misses you.

The sling bullet completely misses the merfolk.

You hear a splash.

The merfolk impaler completely misses you.

With effort, you pull free of the water engulfing you.

You gasp with relief as air once again reaches your lungs.

A manticore comes into view.

The merfolk hits you from afar with a trident!

You block the water elemental's attack. The satyr shoots an arrow. The arrow hits you!!

LOW HITPOINT WARNING

The faun shoots a sling bullet. The sling bullet barely misses you. The mermaid misses you.

The merfolk hits you from afar with a trident!

You die...

You could see a siren, a merfolk impaler, a satyr, 4 merfolk, a faun, 2 manticores, a water elemental and a mermaid.}}

==Epilogue==
Not a bad game at all, until I had this terrible insertion into Shoals 4. The combination of engulfing, prolonged confusion and mesmerisation was just too much for me. I wonder if there was anything I could have done to prevent this, but I don’t see what. I did not have any potions of heal wounds which would have helped me to sit out the wait for the teleport. Maybe I could have brought down that siren with my wand of cold, which was well charged. That could have saved me, but not necessarily. In the end, that is one of the things that makes this game so fascinating: No matter how well things go, you are never invincible.

Lessons learned: Tengu is a very powerful species, if it survives long enough to overcome its starting weaknesses. But a Gargoyle, though not as brilliant, has a lot more survivability, and it would have survived this fatal situation (being immune to engulfing). I don’t know how many tengus I have already brought to the midgame just to die in a situation for which it is not prepared, which is all the more frustrating when everything else looks so hopeful.

It is quite a pity that I did not make it into the late game. I would have liked to give an illustration of the benefit of the basic caster strategy of switching religions from Vehumet to TSO. Maybe some other time.

ARCHIVED Beef Jerky's Simple 3 Rune Minotaur Berserker Guide for Beginners

2020-05-15T10:59:05Z

Derrek: fix typo

{{character guide}}
{{version014}}
I just recently finished my first 3 rune clear with help of this wiki, but I also felt that there wasn't really a guide for complete noobies like me in the character guides. So this guide will basically introduce a Simple straight-foward MiBe for peope who have just started Dungeon crawl.

==Why Minotaur Berserker?==
[[Minotaur]] is probably the best race for beginners who have just started playing dungeon crawl. Other races like [[troll]]s and [[Hill orc]]s are also a good options but I think Minotaurs are much more flexible as they excel at using most weapon types except for short blades. Also, being able to eat rotten meat is awesome, but if you are just going for the three rune clear, you will probably get enough bread rations and meat rations by the time you finish [[lair]]. Even though they are crap at doing anything magic related, this won't matter to you as your class will be a [[berserker]]. So basically, minotaur has little better weapon aptitudes than hill orcs and don't have to worry about starving to death in the late game or have trouble looking for armour like trolls, making them perfect race for the beginners going for 3 rune clear.

In my opinion, [[berserker]] class is generally a better choice than [[fighter]] and other similar classes. Fighters do start with better equipments and a shield, but most times, you will manage to find something like chain mail and plate armour fast enough so starting with piece of animal skin and a weapon doesn't matter that much. In addition to that, you already begin with a god and an [[berserk]] ability that will pretty much get you through early games as long as you don't do something really stupid. Also, worshiping [[Okawaru]] is such pain in the ass when he gives you negatively enchanted gifts and berserk and Brother in arms is way better than hero and finesse. [[Makhleb]] I don't recommend because I got killed by demon I summoned. I'd still like to mention that Okawaru and Makhleb is a solid god for three rune clear because Okawaru will end up giving you piece of end game equipment at some point and gives you weaker version of berserk which you can almost spam without too umch piety risks and almost good as berserk ability later on and Makhleb gives you ranged attack, heal on kill and summon bro function (which sometimes go horribily wrong). With that being said, Trog does not require invocations training, you don't have to worry about finding altar and he definitely gives you some kind of weapon that will get you through mid game and probably will give you that end game weapon that you need for 3 rune clear. So if you get used to crawl quite a bit and got bored playing berserker all the time, feel free to start as gladiator or fighter to worship Okawaru or Makhleb.

==Useful controls and commands for beginners==
Its a frustrating job to navigate through wall of text when you press ?? on the game screen so I'm going to introduce some useful commands so you don't have to spend hours looking for basic controls

o: pressing this will make you explore till you come across an enemy or items

tab: pressing this will make you kill things that you can kill. (DO NOT USE IT AGAINST STRONG ENEMIES)

5: pressing this will make you wait, so you will heal up. (DO NOT SPAM THIS as you will still wait if there is invisible monsters nearby and it makes you hungry too)

m: this opens up skill training menu

%: shows stats and resistances you have

A: shows mutations you have

,: makes you pick up things you want to pick up

r: reads things like scrolls or books

q: I don't know what quaff means but it makes you drink potions

p: makes you pray to whatever god you worship and offers sacrifice if you are worshiping gods that accept sacrifice (so doing this on a corpse will make you get weapons faster when you are worshiping [[trog]])

c:chops up monsters so you can eat them (You cant eat poisonous meat if you don't have poison resistance though. Eat them whenever you are hungry instead of eating valuable rations or other food)

d: makes you drop things that you don't want. Pressing ctrl+d will ask you quantity of things you want to drop instead of dropping the whole thing

a: makes you use ability. pressing a? will describe abilites you have ( you will be pressing aa a lot )

z: makes you cast spells (you won't have any though)

\: you can choose items you don't want to pick up

>: makes you go down stairs

<: makes you go up stairs

This is probably all the commands you really need to know to explore dungeon fast and efficiently

==Useful things to know==
:To start with,I would like to point out that you are capable of moving diagonally. Keys for doing this is extremely confusing but you will get used to it after dying few times by moving to wrong directions. (Probably a good idea to use mouse for diagonal movements) OR looks like you can use numbpads. Use them

:Regarding to stairs, anything except for undead and player ghosts will follow you up or downstairs if they are next to you when you are going up or downstairs. This can be used to pick off enemies so you don't have fight a whole horde.

:Normally, You want to fight in a narrow hallway so you only have to grind one enemy at a time. However, since this game lets you attack diagonally, remember that there are times 2 or 3 enemies can hit you at the same time.

:Chop up monsters eat them whenever you are hungry. Especially if you have gourmand. Don't worry about contaminated meat because it doesn't do anything negative accept for giving you less nutrition. Don't eat bread ration or meat ration unless you are starving.

Oh yeah, to attack, you just gotta move towards the thing that you want to attack.

==Starting off==
1.Choose minotaur berserker

2.Choose Mace as your starting weapon

==weapon choices==
Reason I choose mace as my starting weapon is because the end game weapon you will be using is either [[demon whip]] or [[eveningstar]] and both of them don't need too much skill training. This means that you have room to change your main weapon to a good lajatang or something when you find a good artefect during mid game.

==Skill training==
You won't be training too much skills as you won't be learning any spells
You will be maxing out

:Fighting

:Armour

:Dodging

You will only put certain number of points in

:Maces and flails (12 if you are using demon whip and 16 and more later if you are using Eveningstar)

:Shields (20)

Or if your main weapon is staves

:Staves (14)

And don't be afraid to put in few points on evocations or ranged weapons later on. (I put mine in evocations when I ran out of skills because I couldn't be bothered to use ranged weapons and you always end up with plenty of attack wands during early-mid game where you actually need ranged attack)

Remember that you don't have to invest points in staves if you aren't going to use one and vice versa for mace and shields.

==Stat points==
If you desperately want to use eveningstar, put all the points in strength. Otherwise, put all the points to dexterity so your evasion increases. ( Your strength will be little but higher or equal to dex in the end)

==[[Trog]][[File:Trog altar.png]]==
This is the god you will worship for the rest of the game unless you've gone nuts and accidentally abandon him for Okawaru.
I will briefly explain what his abilities do as they are pretty straight foward.

:Burn spellbooks: Burns a spellbook and your piety rises. you can use it as landmines but most times you don't really need to.

:Berserk: Reason why you worship Trog. Turns you into Chuck norris for few turns, lasts a bit longer when you kill something. Use it when you see something dangerous or your health is under half way and you really wanna do a death match with something. DO NOT USE if you are lethally poisoned or you gotta run away from something

:Hand of Trog: Gives you some MR and heals you over time. I don't really use this as much as berserk but still pretty useful. Mainly stops Sigmund or Grinder from giving you those nasty disabled effects or saves you from dying from poison.

:Brother in arms: Summons you a berserked bro who will pretty much kill everything. Probably use this when your piety level is ***** unless you really need it. Spam it about 3 times if you are in really really big fights than go berserk yourself or just use it once when you are fighting a horde of things that could kill you in the open. NOTE that it uses big chunk of piety and you shouldn't really use it unless you are dying or you are about to fight the battle of your life. Also note that they have pretty hefty health if the summoned bro isn't iron troll or stone giant so only use them as meatshields if you are desperate.

Also trog gives you weapons when you kill and sacrifice bunch of things. He will probably give you something useless like ranged weapons that you don't really need or weapons that you aren't training but I guarantee you that he will give you your endgame weapon at some point.

==Early game phase==

So as you start the game, press m. Turn everything off except for [[Maces & Flails]]. Spam tab and o and clear out the first few floors of dungeon. Yeah, most times you will do something stupid and die to something that you shouldn't have tab spammed but you wouldn't really have anything good anyways.
Do not drink any potions till you find potion of mutation using identify scroll. Do not equip any rings or amulets before identifying them. Also, look for any type of metallic armour that happens to be lying around and put them on. Steal some [[whip]]s off [[kobold]]s and carry few of them just in case your mace gets corroded.
Look for flails and other dnagerous looking maces. If you happen to bump into [[Crazy Yiuf]]. You might get end game cloak and get quaterstaff of chaos. You can consider changing your main weapon to staves than.
Don't bother identifying enchanted armour or weapons if you happen to find one in early games. If they are really badly cursed, just press cntrl Q and restart the game unless you have whole bunch of scrolls of remove curse. NOTE that some of the branded looking weapons that normal monsters are carrying are badly cursed ones. If you happen to have more than 5 scrolls or identify or scrolls of remove curse, don't be afraid to use them. However, things like [[pikel]] and crazy yiuf will always give you non cursed branded weapons Having said that, If you happen to find something like ring of poison resistance or some good piece of equipments in the first few floors, try to be little more careful when you are spamming tab and o. At some point, your maces and flail will be around 11 so try not to put more than you need by turning on other skills you gotta train. (I generally stop at 12 because [[eveningstar]] is much more harder to find than [[demon whip]]s)

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
:Stop spamming tab key if you come across
:[[orc priest]][[File:Orc priest.png]]: These green bastards use smite, which can hurt you like hell. They can cast this on you as long as you are in their line of sight. Even worse, they hide behind bunch of orcs so you cant reach them. Best thing to do is get out of their sight, and lure them to melee but if you cant do this, use berserk and beat the hell out of his green togas but make sure your berserk dont run out before you kill all of em

:[[orc wizard]][[file:Orc wizard.png]]: Not as bad as green togas but these purple porks turn invisible and cast confusion on you, which can probably kill you if there is a priest to snipe you with those smites. If you are so annoyed by invis, narrow pass + berserk will prob easily kill them. Also, potion of curing cures confusion (took me about 50 trys till I found that out)

:[[orc warrior]][[File:Orc warrior.png]]: If you see him, don't ask. Just use berserk and kill him. If you are exhausted, run. He is pretty much a strong orc. That's pretty much it. If you are lucky, he will give you very early plate mail.

:[[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]][[File:Gnoll_(monster).png]]: For some reason, they carry lots of branded polearms and spears which hurts quite a lot in the early game. if your life is under half, consider running away if you are far away from them or just use berserk and do death match if you cant run. If you've been tab spamming and have like 5-6 life, you are probably dead even if you use berserk.

:[[jelly]][[File:Jelly.png]]: Not really something that could kill you directly, but it corrodes your equipment. And as you Tab spam, you will end up with mace with -3 attack and good things like that. Thats why I told you to carry bunch of whips and flails you loot from kobolds and gnolls. True story, my gargoyle starved to death when I tab spammed against Queen ant with negatively enchanted mace.

:[[Sigmund]][[File:Sigmund.png]]: Your worst nightmare in the early games. Basically a stronger version of orc wizard but that probably isn't enough to describe this ugly santa. He confuses you, turns invisible and hurts you like hell with his spells and scythe. you will probably die 50% times if you see him. Other times, you might be able to run away or beat the crap out of him with berserk. If you are going to kill him, use hand of trog so he cant confuse you than berserk so you can send him back to north pole even if he is invisible. After killing him, half of your early game threat is pretty much gone.

:[[Grinder]][[File:grinder.png]]: Not as bad as Sigmund but still have quite high chance of killing you. He uses paralyze and teleports so be careful when you deathmatch him using berserk. Most times, you don't even need berserk to kill him but If you meet him very early on, you probably wanna be little more careful.

:[[Prince Ribbit]][[file:Prince_Ribbit.png]]: Pretty much a blink frog. Except you have chance of seeing him pretty early. Could be really annoying cause he might blink at the same time you activated your berserk. You probably need some luck to kill him if you encounter him in early dungeons.

Other than that, things wielding good wands might kill you but normally, berserk will save your ass most of the times. Player ghosts, you probably can easily kill them with your berserk

'''Early game summary'''
:Spam Tab and O until you find something good (plate armour, Shield, good weapon, ring of poison resistance)
:Don't spam Tab on hard enemies
:Don't be afraid to use berserk any time but make sure you are not very hungry or exhausted so you CAN actually use berserk
:Check your weapons frequently so you don't have badly corroded weapon. Probably stick with branded weapon or flail at least. Whips are pretty crap (unless it has electric brand).

==Mid game Phase==
You probably tab spammed your way infront of the entrance of [[File:Lair entry.png]] [[lair]] or [[File:Orc entry.png]] [[orcish mine]]s by now. This will be around dungeon7-11. You should have at least chain mail as your armour and maybe found a shield and good branded weapon in your hands. Go straight into the lair, or you may with to finish level 1 and 2 of orcish mines hoping to find a shop that might sell an end game Armour. Inside the Lair, you can probably spam tab on most of the things but those komodo dragons give you sickness that prevents you from healing. So make sure you explore with full health at all times by spamming 5 after a good fight. You will probably find enough food in here to last you throughout the game and probably it won't be too hard clearing out the lair. You might bump into few branches like [[Spider's Nest]] and [[Swamp]], but don't enter it just yet. Go all the way down to Lair8 and you will probably find something useful. If you have good enough fire resistance or cold resistance Probably good idea to enter ice cave or volcano as they will definitely give you piece of Armour that has according resistance. (Especially Fire resistance for the end game) After clearing out Lair, Finish Orc mines. DO NOT even bother going into elven halls though.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
[[File:Lair entry.png]]

'''[[Spiny frog]]'''[[File:Spiny frog.png]]: Especially if you don't have good piece of Armour and poison resistance. They just pack helluva damage and poison hurts like hell.

'''[[Blink frog]]'''[[File:Blink frog.png]]: They always come in hordes and blink away from you as you cast Berserk. If you are wearing something like plate mail and have good weapon to kill them fast enough, they will be easy to kill. If you have poor equipments, probably summon a bro and fight ins a narrow hallway.

'''[[Death yak]]'''[[File:Death yak.png]]: Chuck Norris of all the Yaks. Find a narrow hallway (or make one with wand of digging or disintegration) berserk, and beat the crap out of them. To be honest, they are only scary when you accidentally tab spammed into horde of them or you got turned into stone by catoblepas.

'''[[Dire elephant]]'''[[File:Dire elephant.png]]: Basically a Death Yak version of an Elephant. Do the same thing you do with Death yaks but bear in mind that they can knock you back.

'''[[Electric eel]] [[File:Electric eel.png]]''': They shoot electricity at you. Hurts like hell if you don't have relec. Either move out of their sight or do deathmatch with them. Don't chicken out though because you will probably end up dying anyways if you do.

'''[[basilisk]]'''[[File:Basilisk.png]]: Turns you into stone. Very dangerous if you turn into stone while being gored by Death yaks and other things. Fight in hallway to prevent this from happening

'''[[Catoblepas]] [[file:Catoblepas.png]]''': Probably the 2nd worst thing to see in the lair. I think it only appears on L8. It shoots random dust that turns you into stone after 2 turns if you stand in it. Move out of it. However, if you are standing in a narrow passage, you are pretty much stuffed. Alternatively, use scroll of blink or teleportation before its too late. Some horrible things like this could happen. You've gone berserk to kill hydra -> you turn into stone because of dust-> Berserk runs out -> Hydra kills you.

'''[[Brain worm]] [[file:Brain worm.png]]''': Normally, wouldnt be too much of a problem for you but sometimes ther are whole bunch of them and turn you brainless. You forget to breath and die. To prevent this, potion of restore abilities or ring of sustain abilities.

'''[[Hydra]] [[file:Hydra.png]]''': If you are using mace, wouldn't be too dangerous. Still use berserk though. If you are using anything bladed(Lajatang is bladed too) without fire brand, their number of heads will grow and it will make you feel like you are fighting 10 enemies at a time. If you happen to lack a fire brand and have bladed weapon, use Summon a Bro (and hope you don't get a troll cause they increase number of heads too) and go berserk and kill him before he kills you. Probably one of the most dangerous things in the Lair.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough''' [[File:Orc entry.png]]

'''[[Orc sorcerer]] [[File:Orc sorcerer.png]]''': Summons annoying demons like [[neqoxec]]. Kill him before demons hurt you

'''[[Orc high priest]][[File:Orc high priest.png]]''': Smites you, summons demons and there are whole bunch of them in orc 4. If you have lots of health, summon bunch of bros and berserk and focus him down. If your health is low, just use blink scroll or something, run away to orc 3, heal up and fight him again.

'''[[Orc warlord]][[File:Orc warlord.png]]''': Strongest orc of all except for Roka. Just make sure you don't have too much on your plate and use berserk and summon bro to kill him.

'''[[Saint Roka]] [[File:Saint Roka.png]]''': I doubt you will see him in the orcish mines at all but if you do see him, make sure you are not fighting unending tsunami of orcs at the same time. use stair fishing to take few orcs at a time. When you clear most of the orcs, use the same way to kill orc warlord.

'''Mid game summary'''
:Still tab and o spam but when you see something that looks dangerous, right click on them and if you see they are extremely dangerous, use berserk or bro summon
:You might end up being sent to [[abyss]]. 90% of the time, its game over but if you are lucky, you might get out if you run towards one direction and find exit.
:Be really careful when exploring orc 4

==Mid game Branches==
'''Your way to first 2 runes'''
:Now that you've cleared out lair and orcish mines and explored up to D15. You probably discovered vault on the way but you can't enter it because you don't have any runes. Than, it is time for you to finish one of the branches in the lair. I wish you got something easy like spiders nest and swamp. Shoals and snakes pit is HARD.

'''[[The Swamp]] [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''
:Probably the easiest branch for you as long as you have poison resistance and relec (see invisible is good to have too). Make sure you don't fight in the water too much and summon bros when you have too much things trying to kill you. There aren't too many narrow hallways to fight monsters but generally, things in here aren't too strong to kill you except for few uniques and one helluva bastard named vapor. There are 5 levels of swamp and you will find your first (or second) rune on the 5th level which is probably full of swamp dragons and other good stuff like that.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''

'''[[Alligator]] [[File:Alligator.png]]''' They are probably faster than you most of the time and pack helluva punch. Don't fight them in water

'''[[Vapour]] [[File:Vapour.png]]''': I'm so glad they are getting rid of him in 0.15. Invisible,shoots electricity. Biggest pain in the swamps. HAVE RELEC

'''[[Thorn lotus]] [[File:Thorn lotus.png]]''': I'm not too sure what they shoot at you but it hurts like hell. + they run away from you into deep water so you can't kill them. Use a wand of fireball or something.

'''[[Thorn hunter]][[File:Thorn hunter.png]]''': Similar to their plant cousin but this one doesn't run away. Still packs a punch though.

'''[[Swamp dragon]] [[File:Swamp dragon.png]]''': Reason why you need poison resistance in the swamp. They pack a punch and can knock you back so you probably wanna use summon bros and berserk if you see more than 1 of them.

'''[[The Lernaean hydra]] [[File:The Lernaean hydra.png]]''': You unlucky bastard. Run if you hear tree breakingx27. Unless you are wearing something like crystal plate armour or something, you probably have to summon 2-3 bros and do berserk death match with him. If there are other things like swamp dragons though, forget what I said and run. You probably can't kill him unless you are 1v1 with him and have really high AC.

'''Swamp summary'''
:Fight on dry lands as much as possible
:Don't fight more than 2 hydras or swamp dragons at same time
:Use stair fishing as much as possible
:Kill vapours Kill them all
:Have poison resistance and relec

'''[[The Shoals]] [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''
:I hate this place. I hate this place so much and I died here so many times. Make sure you have high AC and MR above ++++ along with cold resistance and if you have perma fly, you probably can finish this place as your first rune branch. Pretty much everything in here is able to kill you quite easily if you cant fly and there are mermaids which mesmerizes you and drags you into the water. I'd recommend clearing out shoals after you get your first rune and clear few levels of depth or vaults. Like the Swamp, rune is located in 5th level and be really careful when you explore shoals. DO NOT TAB SPAM in here unless you are strong enough to survive vaults. Also, if you happen to have potion of invisibility, things are going to be a bit easier so don't be afraid to use it all in here.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''

'''[[Mermaid]] [[File:Mermaid.png]]''': Mesmerizes you and drag you into deep water. During all that, there will be merfolks poking you with tridents and cyclopses and manticores throwing rocks and barbs at you. Just kill her fast. You can just laugh at her if you do happen to have high MR though.

'''[[Siren]] [[File:Siren.png]]''': Pretty much does what mermaid does but also summons things. Deal her like you deal with mermaids though.

'''[[Manticore]][[File:Manticore.png]]''': Throws barbs at you. Barbs hurt you when you move. You die. I didn't know you could prevent barbs from hurting you by not moving as most of the things in shoals have reaching attack. However, being a melee, you gotta move to kill things. Hide behind the walls so he can't shoot barbs at you than melee him to death.

'''[[Alligator snapping turtle]][[file:Alligator snapping turtle.png]]''': Packs helluva damage with really bulky amount of health. Make sure you use berserk to kill him and make sure you won't have to deal with other monsters when you are killing him. He moves really slowly so you can kite him too.

'''[[Satyr]][[File:Satyr.png]]''': One of the reasons that makes me recommend shield. probably an inferior version of [[yaktaur]] and hurts you because they normally attack you from places you cant reach them. Fight him like you fight centaur.

'''[[Ilsuiw]][[File:Ilsuiw.png]]''': Sees invisible and throws icicles at you. Thats why you would need a cold resistance. Will be easier if you have High MR, Shield and Cold res. Otherwise don't go into shoals 5 because there is a very good chance of bumping into her and horde of merfolks ready to poke you to death.

'''Shoals summary'''
:Don't go in here without High AC, High MR and Cold resistance
:try to hide in some of the small rooms and fight as less number of merfolks possible
:Be extra careful
:Don't spam tab
:Don't move if you have barbs
:Use invisibility as much as you can but remember that Ilusiw can see you

'''[[Spider's Nest]][[File:Spider entry.png]]'''
:Probably as easy as Swamps but make sure you have Poison resistance and See invisible. There are only few things to watch out for and you probably won't have too much problem clearing this place out. This doesn't mean you won't die here though. Watch out for Orb spiders.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Spider entry.png]]'''

'''[[Tarantella]] [[File:Tarantella.png]]''': They confuse you. Combined with orb of destruction or ghost moth, they will probably kill you if you don't have potion of curing

'''[[Orb spider]][[File:Orb spider.png]]''':Annoying as hell spiders that shoots [[Orb of destruction]] at you. They are fast and they try to run away from you. You probably wanna tab spam them as long as there are no other spiders trying to kill you. Otherwise, use scroll of fear or invisibility so you can 1v1 them. Orb of destruction hurts like hell.

'''[[Ghost moth]][[File:Ghost moth.png]]''': They are invisible and drain mana. Draining mana isn't a problem for you at all but being invisible and packing helluva bite is a big problem for you.

'''Spiders nest summary'''
:Have Rpoison and see invis
:Watch out for orb spiders
:Have enough potion of curing to heal confusion

'''[[Snake Pit]][[File:Snake_entry.png]]'''
This place is as bad as Shoals but luckily, nagas are slow and there are many narrow hallways to fight them one by one. However, You need lots of resistances like poison, fire, magic and electricity along with AC because nagas are so strong. You will also need few blink scrolls and teleport scrolls in case they are carrying distortion arrows. Also, having scrolls of immolation will immensely help out clearing the last level.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[Snake entry.png]]'''

:Basically, fighting with any non green nagas in a open is dangerous. Treat them like you are fighting a strong melee enemy and make sure

'''[[Naga mage]][[File:Naga mage.png]]''': Teleports other things or you. If you get teleported, there is good chance of you being teleported to group of nagas in the last levels. This is why you need high MR or have blink scroll in handy

'''[[Naga sharpshooter]][[file:Naga sharpshooter.png]]''':Basically a naga that shoots arrows at you. AND arrows hurt. wouldn't be a problem if you are fighting in a hallway but in the open, ARROWS HURT LIKE HELL.

'''[[Greater naga]] [[File:Greater naga.png]]''':Treat him like orc warrior in early dungeons. EXCEPT he has constrict so he will pack a lot of damage if you dont have high AC

'''[[shock serpent]][[file:shock serpent.png]]''':Land version of electric eels. Thats why you would need rElec. Still packs a punch even with resistance. Don't fight them in open

'''Snake pit Summary'''
:Make sure you have high AC,rF,rM,rP and rElec
:Don't fight in the open
:If you are using scroll of immolation, make sure you have conservation and high fire resistance
:Carry some blink and teleport scroll in case you get teleported to unwanted places.

'''Unique monsters that will probably still kill you or get you killed even if you are careful'''

'''[[Mara]][[File:Mara.png]]''': Something that you wish you'd never see in your game. He pretty much clones everythng including you. For some reason, he always appears in akward places like Swamp or Vaults 5 for me. Don't even bother fighting him if he appears in those places. Just leave him there after getting a rune. If you must kill him, just make sure you lure him into a staircase or something and do 1v1 deathmatch even though its gonna be a helluva work with his illusions.

I was planning to add some more uniques but to be honest, most of the uniques can probably be handled with berserk and summon bro combo except for those ones that could send you to abyss. But still, you can stop that from happening by having high MR or making your bros to tank for you so they cant cast banish on you. Just make sure you don't fight them with other horde of monsters.

==[[Vaults]][[file:vaults entry.png]] Phase==
Now you have 2 runes in your hands (1 if you have crappy equipment and decided to clear first 4 levels of vault first). Go into depth till monsters are too hard to kill. Than go to vaults and clear out the first 4 levels of the vault (BUT do not go into crypts). You may also wish to go into hall of blades but I never really got anything good out of there. Than, you may wish to level up a bit more by wondering around depth or doing first 2 levels of elven halls (don't go into level 3 though) Once you feel ready, go into vault 5 and kill the welcome party and endless monsters that are after you. You will probably die here a LOT of times. My tip of advice is using scroll of immolation (considering that you do have high fire resistance and something to prevent your scrolls from burning or just drop all the scrolls beforehand). than use blink scroll to get yourself to a linear hallway and explode everything. Sounds lot easy but really hard to do. You might be lucky enough to survive and end up with golden dragon hide, which will be turned into your end game armour with enchant armour scroll. Once you've hacked through waves and waves of strong monsters, you will pick up the rune in the vaults .

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[file:vaults entry.png]]'''
:Well, to be honest, pretty much everything in here is capable of killing you because there are so many enemies. At the same time, most monsters aren't really a threat to you in small numbers because you probably have good equipments by now
Still watch out for these

'''[[Vault sentinel]][[File:Vault sentinel.png]]''': These things mark you so every single monster in the vaults come hunting for you. Kill them before they do that.

'''[[Vault warden]][[file:vault warden.png]]''': They lock the doors AND stairs, preventing you to do stair fishing and kind of forces you to fight you in the open. Could be lethal in vault 5 so kill them as fast as you can.

'''[[Flayed ghost]][[File:Flayed ghost.png]]''': You probably bumped into one of these if your health goes below half immediately.Your health will come back to normal once you kill them so kill them before other things come kill you.

Other than that, watch out for bunch of dragons and DO NOT do the stair fishing on vaults 5.

'''Vaults summary'''
:Clear out vault1-4 than get more experience before going to vault 5
:Use scroll of immolation for vault 5 and blink scrolls to get advantage of narrow hallway
:Be lucky enough to have almost all End game items by now (very important)
:This is probably the hardest bit for you. BE REALLY REALLY CAREFUL and don't tab spam

==End game Phase==
Now that you have gained 3 runes and Finished clearing out the Depth, you are ready to go into the realm of zot. However, before that, make sure you have all of this
:End game weapon
[[demon whip]][[file:demon whip.png]] of electricity OR [[lajatang]][[File:Lajatang2.png]] of speed or electricity Or equivilant version of whatever weapon you are using (It is also good to carry one of those useless looking anit magic brands along with few other branded weapon of frost or fire to deal with some draconians and spellcastors)
:Full fire resistance, some cold resistance, poison and electric resistance and over ++++ Magic resistance
:Mutation resistance
:preservation equipment to stop your scrolls and potions getting destroyed
:High AC, and Shield if you are going with one hand weapon
:Enough number of scrolls of teleport, wand of teleport, wand of healing and potions of healing
If you checked everything out of this checklist, you are ready to enter the realm of Zot. (Good sign of you not being ready for this is when you were having hard time clearing out depths. In this case, use everything to get these equipment.)
So basically realm of zot consists of lots of draconians, dragons and Disgusting orb of fire which really sucks. It will probably feel easier than vault 5 to be honest. Except for those toe zombie things and when you don't have enough escape tools. (I guarantee you will have them as long as you are really unlucky) You should be able to clear out the dungeon like stroll in a park if you have well enchanted electricity weapon or speed brand weapon as most things aren't resistant to electric dmg and speed is just so good that it kills everything that easily. Now just be careful and clear everything out till you find the orb of zot. Make sure you lure bite size enemies at a time and use your bro summon to take care with them along with your berserk.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Zot entry.png]]'''

'''[[Curse toe]][[file:Curse toe.png]]''': Cuts your health down like green togas in the early game and summons mushrooms. Summon your own bros and kill them before they can do any of this to you. Also, rN helps a lot too.

'''[[Electric golem]][[File:Electric golem.png]]''': Very fast and will be hard for electric brand bearers to kill him but as long as you have high enough AC and rElec, he wont be able to kill you either. Is probably dangerous when there are other things and when you are trying to run away though. Once again, Bro summon.

'''[[Moth of wrath]][[File:Moth of wrath.png]]''': I hate these things. Harmless by themselves but when they berserk something like dragons, you just gotta run.

'''[[Orb of fire]][[File:Orb of fire.png]]''': They pack lots of punch if you lack that +++ fire resistance and mutate you. They are tanky too. always only do 1v1 with these things. If there is something like curse toe or something nearby, do your best to separate them and kill them 1 by 1.

'''End game summary'''
:Be careful
:Be even more careful
:Have rF+++rElec and mutation resistance

==Get the hell out of here phase==
To be honest, this was the easiest bit for me. Spam that teleport scroll after grabbing the orb so you get teleported to some place near stairs. Go up the stairs as fast as you can, don't stop unless you are really badly surrounded but there aren't anything like hellions or liches to do serious damage to you. In that case, use teleport scroll or wand. If you end up getting badly wounded, use wand of healing and potion of healing to heal yourself up. Now you just gotta escape with the orb for the 3 rune victory.

==[[Abyss]] [[file:abyss entry.png]]==
Well, you will probably desperately reading this because you got sent to abyss by Crazy yiuf or something. I can only say you are pretty much dead unless you got sent to abyss after you cleared out vaults. If you still haven't even got to lair yet, just press cntrl q and quit. If you got up to more than lair and have item thats so good, try running one way till you find exit. Don't stop for anything. If you have amulet of resist mutation, put that thing on. If you are really lucky, you might find your way out but most times, you will die here.
Things that CAN send you to abyss are
:Anything carrying [[chaos]] brand weapon
:Anything carrying [[distortion]] brand weapon
:Unequiping [[distortion]] brand weapon (don't even bother wearing one in the first place because it teleports things away, which is bad thing to happen when you are on berserk)
:Someone casting [[Banishment]] on you
:Stepping on a Zot trap

==Summary==
Even if you do everything I tell you to do in this guide, I guarantee you that it will take 500 dead cows to actually finish the game with 3 runes. You need to be pretty lucky to find all that items I've mentioned and normally, you wouldn't be that lucky. Also, you will only learn your lesson from dying to random things that you've never seen before and try not to make the same mistake again in your next game. I've only listed really dangerous things that I died to too many times and I bet I got killed by something lame like Jessica or green rat because I was tab spamming. Every time you die to something, look it up in this wiki and you will probably find some useful piece of information and probably manage to kill it next time. I just wish you a good luck and hope you finish this damn addictive game.

ARCHIVED Beef Jerky's Simple 3 Rune Minotaur Berserker Guide for Beginners

2020-05-15T10:57:50Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{character guide}}
{{version014}}
I just recently finished my first 3 rune clear with help of this wiki, but I also felt that there wasn't really a guide for complete noobies like me in the character guides. So this guide will basically introduce a Simple straight-foward MiBe for peope who have just started Dungeon crawl.

==Why Minotaur Berserker?==
[[Minotaur]] is probably the best race for beginners who have just started playing dungeon crawl. Other races like [[troll]]s and [[Hill orc]]s are also a good options but I think Minotaurs are much more flexible as they excel at using most weapon types except for short blades. Also, being able to eat rotten meat is awesome, but if you are just going for the three rune clear, you will probably get enough bread rations and meat rations by the time you finish [[lair]]. Even though they are crap at doing anything magic related, this won't matter to you as your class will be a [[berserker]]. So basically, minotaur has little better weapon aptitudes than hill orcs and don't have to worry about starving to death in the late game or have trouble looking for armour like trolls, making them perfect race for the beginners going for 3 rune clear.

In my opinion, [[berserker]] class is generally a better choice than [[fighter]] and other similar classes. Fighters do start with better equipments and a shield, but most times, you will manage to find something like chain mail and plate armour fast enough so starting with piece of animal skin and a weapon doesn't matter that much. In addition to that, you already begin with a god and an [[berserk]] ability that will pretty much get you through early games as long as you don't do something really stupid. Also, worshiping [[Okawaru]] is such pain in the ass when he gives you negatively enchanted gifts and berserk and Brother in arms is way better than hero and finesse. [[Makhleb]] I don't recommend because I got killed by demon I summoned. I'd still like to mention that Okawaru and Makhleb is a solid god for three rune clear because Okawaru will end up giving you piece of end game equipment at some point and gives you weaker version of berserk which you can almost spam without too umch piety risks and almost good as berserk ability later on and Makhleb gives you ranged attack, heal on kill and summon bro function (which sometimes go horribily wrong). With that being said, Trog does not require invocations training, you don't have to worry about finding altar and he definitely gives you some kind of weapon that will get you through mid game and probably will give you that end game weapon that you need for 3 rune clear. So if you get used to crawl quite a bit and got bored playing berserker all the time, feel free to start as gladiator or fighter to worship Okawaru or Makhleb.

==Useful controls and commands for beginners==
Its a frustrating job to navigate through wall of text when you press ?? on the game screen so I'm going to introduce some useful commands so you don't have to spend hours looking for basic controls

o: pressing this will make you explore till you come across an enemy or items

tab: pressing this will make you kill things that you can kill. (DO NOT USE IT AGAINST STRONG ENEMIES)

5: pressing this will make you wait, so you will heal up. (DO NOT SPAM THIS as you will still wait if there is invisible monsters nearby and it makes you hungry too)

m: this opens up skill training menu

%: shows stats and resistances you have

A: shows mutations you have

,: makes you pick up things you want to pick up

r: reads things like scrolls or books

q: I don't know what quaff means but it makes you drink potions

p: makes you pray to whatever god you worship and offers sacrifice if you are worshiping gods that accept sacrifice (so doing this on a corpse will make you get weapons faster when you are worshiping [[trog]])

c:chops up monsters so you can eat them (You cant eat poisonous meat if you don't have poison resistance though. Eat them whenever you are hungry instead of eating valuable rations or other food)

d: makes you drop things that you don't want. Pressing ctrl+d will ask you quantity of things you want to drop instead of dropping the whole thing

a: makes you use ability. pressing a? will describe abilites you have ( you will be pressing aa a lot )

z: makes you cast spells (you won't have any though)

\: you can choose items you don't want to pick up

>: makes you go down stairs

<: makes you go up stairs

This is probably all the commands you really need to know to explore dungeon fast and efficiently

==Useful things to know==
:To start with,I would like to point out that you are capable of moving diagonally. Keys for doing this is extremely confusing but you will get used to it after dying few times by moving to wrong directions. (Probably a good idea to use mouse for diagonal movements) OR looks like you can use numbpads. Use them

:Regarding to stairs, anything except for undead and player ghosts will follow you up or downstairs if they are next to you when you are going up or downstairs. This can be used to pick off enemies so you don't have fight a whole horde.

:Normally, You want to fight in a narrow hallway so you only have to grind one enemy at a time. However, since this game lets you attack diagonally, remember that there are times 2 or 3 enemies can hit you at the same time.

:Chop up monsters eat them whenever you are hungry. Especially if you have gourmand. Don't worry about contaminated meat because it doesn't do anything negative accept for giving you less nutrition. Don't eat bread ration or meat ration unless you are starving.

Oh yeah, to attack, you just gotta move towards the thing that you want to attack.

==Starting off==
1.Choose minotaur berserker

2.Choose Mace as your starting weapon

==weapon choices==
Reason I choose mace as my starting weapon is because the end game weapon you will be using is either [[demon whip]] or [[eveningstar]] and both of them don't need too much skill training. This means that you have room to change your main weapon to a good lajatang or something when you find a good artefect during mid game.

==Skill training==
You won't be training too much skills as you won't be learning any spells
You will be maxing out

:Fighting

:Armour

:Dodging

You will only put certain number of points in

:Maces and flails (12 if you are using demon whip and 16 and more later if you are using Eveningstar)

:Shields (20)

Or if your main weapon is staves

:Staves (14)

And don't be afraid to put in few points on evocations or ranged weapons later on. (I put mine in evocations when I ran out of skills because I couldn't be bothered to use ranged weapons and you always end up with plenty of attack wands during early-mid game where you actually need ranged attack)

Remember that you don't have to invest points in staves if you aren't going to use one and vice versa for mace and shields.

==Stat points==
If you desperately want to use eveningstar, put all the points in strength. Otherwise, put all the points to dexterity so your evasion increases. ( Your strength will be little but higher or equal to dex in the end)

==[[Trog]][[File:Trog altar.png]]==
This is the god you will worship for the rest of the game unless you've gone nuts and accidentally abandon him for Okawaru.
I will briefly explain what his abilities do as they are pretty straight foward.

:Burn spellbooks: Burns a spellbook and your piety rises. you can use it as landmines but most times you don't really need to.

:Berserk: Reason why you worship Trog. Turns you into Chuck norris for few turns, lasts a bit longer when you kill something. Use it when you see something dangerous or your health is under half way and you really wanna do a death match with something. DO NOT USE if you are lethally poisoned or you gotta run away from something

:Hand of Trog: Gives you some MR and heals you over time. I don't really use this as much as berserk but still pretty useful. Mainly stops Sigmund or Grinder from giving you those nasty disabled effects or saves you from dying from poison.

:Brother in arms: Summons you a berserked bro who will pretty much kill everything. Probably use this when your piety level is ***** unless you really need it. Spam it about 3 times if you are in really really big fights than go berserk yourself or just use it once when you are fighting a horde of things that could kill you in the open. NOTE that it uses big chunk of piety and you shouldn't really use it unless you are dying or you are about to fight the battle of your life. Also note that they have pretty hefty health if the summoned bro isn't iron troll or stone giant so only use them as meatshields if you are desperate.

Also trog gives you weapons when you kill and sacrifice bunch of things. He will probably give you something useless like ranged weapons that you don't really need or weapons that you aren't training but I guarantee you that he will give you your endgame weapon at some point.

==Early game phase==

So as you start the game, press m. Turn everything off except for [[Maces & Flails]]. Spam tab and o and clear out the first few floors of dungeon. Yeah, most times you will do something stupid and die to something that you shouldn't have tab spammed but you wouldn't really have anything good anyways.
Do not drink any potions till you find potion of mutation using identify scroll. Do not equip any rings or amulets before identifying them. Also, look for any type of metallic armour that happens to be lying around and put them on. Steal some [[whip]]s off [[kobold]]s and carry few of them just in case your mace gets corroded.
Look for flails and other dnagerous looking maces. If you happen to bump into [[Crazy Yiuf]]. You might get end game cloak and get quaterstaff of chaos. You can consider changing your main weapon to staves than.
Don't bother identifying enchanted armour or weapons if you happen to find one in early games. If they are really badly cursed, just press cntrl Q and restart the game unless you have whole bunch of scrolls of remove curse. NOTE that some of the branded looking weapons that normal monsters are carrying are badly cursed ones. If you happen to have more than 5 scrolls or identify or scrolls of remove curse, don't be afraid to use them. However, things like [[pikel]] and crazy yiuf will always give you non cursed branded weapons Having said that, If you happen to find something like ring of poison resistance or some good piece of equipments in the first few floors, try to be little more careful when you are spamming tab and o. At some point, your maces and flail will be around 11 so try not to put more than you need by turning on other skills you gotta train. (I generally stop at 12 because [[eveningstar]] is much more harder to find than [[demon whip]]s)

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
:Stop spamming tab key if you come across
:[[orc priest]][[File:Orc priest.png]]: These green bastards use smite, which can hurt you like hell. They can cast this on you as long as you are in their line of sight. Even worse, they hide behind bunch of orcs so you cant reach them. Best thing to do is get out of their sight, and lure them to melee but if you cant do this, use berserk and beat the hell out of his green togas but make sure your berserk dont run out before you kill all of em

:[[orc wizard]][[file:Orc wizard.png]]: Not as bad as green togas but these purple porks turn invisible and cast confusion on you, which can probably kill you if there is a priest to snipe you with those smites. If you are so annoyed by invis, narrow pass + berserk will prob easily kill them. Also, potion of curing cures confusion (took me about 50 trys till I found that out)

:[[orc warrior]][[File:Orc warrior.png]]: If you see him, don't ask. Just use berserk and kill him. If you are exhausted, run. He is pretty much a strong orc. That's pretty much it. If you are lucky, he will give you very early plate mail.

:[[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]][[File:Gnoll_(monster).png]]: For some reason, they carry lots of branded polearms and spears which hurts quite a lot in the early game. if your life is under half, consider running away if you are far away from them or just use berserk and do death match if you cant run. If you've been tab spamming and have like 5-6 life, you are probably dead even if you use berserk.

:[[jelly]][[File:Jelly.png]]: Not really something that could kill you directly, but it corrodes your equipment. And as you Tab spam, you will end up with mace with -3 attack and good things like that. Thats why I told you to carry bunch of whips and flails you loot from kobolds and gnolls. True story, my gargoyle starved to death when I tab spammed against Queen ant with negatively enchanted mace.

:[[Sigmund]][[File:Sigmund.png]]: Your worst nightmare in the early games. Basically a stronger version of orc wizard but that probably isn't enough to describe this ugly santa. He confuses you, turns invisible and hurts you like hell with his spells and scythe. you will probably die 50% times if you see him. Other times, you might be able to run away or beat the crap out of him with berserk. If you are going to kill him, use hand of trog so he cant confuse you than berserk so you can send him back to north pole even if he is invisible. After killing him, half of your early game threat is pretty much gone.

:[[Grinder]][[File:grinder.png]]: Not as bad as Sigmund but still have quite high chance of killing you. He uses paralyze and teleports so be careful when you deathmatch him using berserk. Most times, you don't even need berserk to kill him but If you meet him very early on, you probably wanna be little more careful.

:[[Prince Ribbit]][[file:Prince_Ribbit.png]]: Pretty much a blink frog. Except you have chance of seeing him pretty early. Could be really annoying cause he might blink at the same time you activated your berserk. You probably need some luck to kill him if you encounter him in early dungeons.

Other than that, things wielding good wands might kill you but normally, berserk will save your ass most of the times. Player ghosts, you probably can easily kill them with your berserk

'''Early game summary'''
:Spam Tab and O until you find something good (plate armour, Shield, good weapon, ring of poison resistance)
:Don't spam Tab on hard enemies
:Don't be afraid to use berserk any time but make sure you are not very hungry or exhausted so you CAN actually use berserk
:Check your weapons frequently so you don't have badly corroded weapon. Probably stick with branded weapon or flail at least. Whips are pretty crap (unless it has electric brand).

==Mid game Phase==
You probably tab spammed your way infront of the entrance of [[File:Lair entry.png]] [[lair]] or [[File:Orc entry.png]] [[orcish mine]]s by now. This will be around dungeon7-11. You should have at least chain mail as your armour and maybe found a shield and good branded weapon in your hands. Go straight into the lair, or you may with to finish level 1 and 2 of orcish mines hoping to find a shop that might sell an end game Armour. Inside the Lair, you can probably spam tab on most of the things but those komodo dragons give you sickness that prevents you from healing. So make sure you explore with full health at all times by spamming 5 after a good fight. You will probably find enough food in here to last you throughout the game and probably it won't be too hard clearing out the lair. You might bump into few branches like [[Spider's Nest]] and [[Swamp]], but don't enter it just yet. Go all the way down to Lair8 and you will probably find something useful. If you have good enough fire resistance or cold resistance Probably good idea to enter ice cave or volcano as they will definitely give you piece of Armour that has according resistance. (Especially Fire resistance for the end game) After clearing out Lair, Finish Orc mines. DO NOT even bother going into elven halls though.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
[[File:Lair entry.png]]

'''[[Spiny frog]]'''[[File:Spiny frog.png]]: Especially if you don't have good piece of Armour and poison resistance. They just pack helluva damage and poison hurts like hell.

'''[[Blink frog]]'''[[File:Blink frog.png]]: They always come in hordes and blink away from you as you cast Berserk. If you are wearing something like plate mail and have good weapon to kill them fast enough, they will be easy to kill. If you have poor equipments, probably summon a bro and fight ins a narrow hallway.

'''[[Death yak]]'''[[File:Death yak.png]]: Chuck Norris of all the Yaks. Find a narrow hallway (or make one with wand of digging or disintegration) berserk, and beat the crap out of them. To be honest, they are only scary when you accidentally tab spammed into horde of them or you got turned into stone by catoblepas.

'''[[Dire elephant]]'''[[File:Dire elephant.png]]: Basically a Death Yak version of an Elephant. Do the same thing you do with Death yaks but bear in mind that they can knock you back.

'''[[Electric eel]] [[File:Electric eel.png]]''': They shoot electricity at you. Hurts like hell if you don't have relec. Either move out of their sight or do deathmatch with them. Don't chicken out though because you will probably end up dying anyways if you do.

'''[[basilisk]]'''[[File:Basilisk.png]]: Turns you into stone. Very dangerous if you turn into stone while being gored by Death yaks and other things. Fight in hallway to prevent this from happening

'''[[Catoblepas]] [[file:Catoblepas.png]]''': Probably the 2nd worst thing to see in the lair. I think it only appears on L8. It shoots random dust that turns you into stone after 2 turns if you stand in it. Move out of it. However, if you are standing in a narrow passage, you are pretty much stuffed. Alternatively, use scroll of blink or teleportation before its too late. Some horrible things like this could happen. You've gone berserk to kill hydra -> you turn into stone because of dust-> Berserk runs out -> Hydra kills you.

'''[[Brain worm]] [[file:Brain worm.png]]''': Normally, wouldnt be too much of a problem for you but sometimes ther are whole bunch of them and turn you brainless. You forget to breath and die. To prevent this, potion of restore abilities or ring of sustain abilities.

'''[[Hydra]] [[file:Hydra.png]]''': If you are using mace, wouldn't be too dangerous. Still use berserk though. If you are using anything bladed(Lajatang is bladed too) without fire brand, their number of heads will grow and it will make you feel like you are fighting 10 enemies at a time. If you happen to lack a fire brand and have bladed weapon, use Summon a Bro (and hope you don't get a troll cause they increase number of heads too) and go berserk and kill him before he kills you. Probably one of the most dangerous things in the Lair.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough''' [[File:Orc entry.png]]

'''[[Orc sorcerer]] [[File:Orc sorcerer.png]]''': Summons annoying demons like [[neqoxec]]. Kill him before demons hurt you

'''[[Orc high priest]][[File:Orc high priest.png]]''': Smites you, summons demons and there are whole bunch of them in orc 4. If you have lots of health, summon bunch of bros and berserk and focus him down. If your health is low, just use blink scroll or something, run away to orc 3, heal up and fight him again.

'''[[Orc warlord]][[File:Orc warlord.png]]''': Strongest orc of all except for Roka. Just make sure you don't have too much on your plate and use berserk and summon bro to kill him.

'''[[Saint Roka]] [[File:Saint Roka.png]]''': I doubt you will see him in the orcish mines at all but if you do see him, make sure you are not fighting unending tsunami of orcs at the same time. use stair fishing to take few orcs at a time. When you clear most of the orcs, use the same way to kill orc warlord.

'''Mid game summary'''
:Still tab and o spam but when you see something that looks dangerous, right click on them and if you see they are extremely dangerous, use berserk or bro summon
:You might end up being sent to [[abyss]]. 90% of the time, its game over but if you are lucky, you might get out if you run towards one direction and find exit.
:Be really careful when exploring orc 4

==Mid game Branches==
'''Your way to first 2 runes'''
:Now that you've cleared out lair and orcish mines and explored up to D15. You probably discovered vault on the way but you can't enter it because you don't have any runes. Than, it is time for you to finish one of the branches in the lair. I wish you got something easy like spiders nest and swamp. Shoals and snakes pit is HARD.

'''[[The Swamp]] [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''
:Probably the easiest branch for you as long as you have poison resistance and relec (see invisible is good to have too). Make sure you don't fight in the water too much and summon bros when you have too much things trying to kill you. There aren't too many narrow hallways to fight monsters but generally, things in here aren't too strong to kill you except for few uniques and one helluva bastard named vapor. There are 5 levels of swamp and you will find your first (or second) rune on the 5th level which is probably full of swamp dragons and other good stuff like that.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''

'''[[Alligator]] [[File:Alligator.png]]''' They are probably faster than you most of the time and pack helluva punch. Don't fight them in water

'''[[Vapour]] [[File:Vapour.png]]''': I'm so glad they are getting rid of him in 0.15. Invisible,shoots electricity. Biggest pain in the swamps. HAVE RELEC

'''[[Thorn lotus]] [[File:Thorn lotus.png]]''': I'm not too sure what they shoot at you but it hurts like hell. + they run away from you into deep water so you can't kill them. Use a wand of fireball or something.

'''[[Thorn hunter]][[File:Thorn hunter.png]]''': Similar to their plant cousin but this one doesn't run away. Still packs a punch though.

'''[[Swamp dragon]] [[File:Swamp dragon.png]]''': Reason why you need poison resistance in the swamp. They pack a punch and can knock you back so you probably wanna use summon bros and berserk if you see more than 1 of them.

'''[[The Lernaean hydra]] [[File:The Lernaean hydra.png]]''': You unlucky bastard. Run if you hear tree breakingx27. Unless you are wearing something like crystal plate armour or something, you probably have to summon 2-3 bros and do berserk death match with him. If there are other things like swamp dragons though, forget what I said and run. You probably can't kill him unless you are 1v1 with him and have really high AC.

'''Swamp summary'''
:Fight on dry lands as much as possible
:Don't fight more than 2 hydras or swamp dragons at same time
:Use stair fishing as much as possible
:Kill vapours Kill them all
:Have poison resistance and relec

'''[[The Shoals]] [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''
:I hate this place. I hate this place so much and I died here so many times. Make sure you have high AC and MR above ++++ along with cold resistance and if you have perma fly, you probably can finish this place as your first rune branch. Pretty much everything in here is able to kill you quite easily if you cant fly and there are mermaids which mesmerizes you and drags you into the water. I'd recommend clearing out shoals after you get your first rune and clear few levels of depth or vaults. Like the Swamp, rune is located in 5th level and be really careful when you explore shoals. DO NOT TAB SPAM in here unless you are strong enough to survive vaults. Also, if you happen to have potion of invisibility, things are going to be a bit easier so don't be afraid to use it all in here.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''

'''[[Mermaid]] [[File:Mermaid.png]]''': Mesmerizes you and drag you into deep water. During all that, there will be merfolks poking you with tridents and cyclopses and manticores throwing rocks and barbs at you. Just kill her fast. You can just laugh at her if you do happen to have high MR though.

'''[[Siren]] [[File:Siren.png]]''': Pretty much does what mermaid does but also summons things. Deal her like you deal with mermaids though.

'''[[Manticore]][[File:Manticore.png]]''': Throws barbs at you. Barbs hurt you when you move. You die. I didn't know you could prevent barbs from hurting you by not moving as most of the things in shoals have reaching attack. However, being a melee, you gotta move to kill things. Hide behind the walls so he can't shoot barbs at you than melee him to death.

'''[[Alligator snapping turtle]][[file:Alligator snapping turtle.png]]''': Packs helluva damage with really bulky amount of health. Make sure you use berserk to kill him and make sure you won't have to deal with other monsters when you are killing him. He moves really slowly so you can kite him too.

'''[[Satyr]][[File:Satyr.png]]''': One of the reasons that makes me recommend shield. probably an inferior version of [[yaktaur]] and hurts you because they normally attack you from places you cant reach them. Fight him like you fight centaur.

'''[[Ilsuiw]][[File:Ilsuiw.png]]''': Sees invisible and throws icicles at you. Thats why you would need a cold resistance. Will be easier if you have High MR, Shield and Cold res. Otherwise don't go into shoals 5 because there is a very good chance of bumping into her and horde of merfolks ready to poke you to death.

'''Shoals summary'''
:Don't go in here without High AC, High MR and Cold resistance
:try to hide in some of the small rooms and fight as less number of merfolks possible
:Be extra careful
:Don't spam tab
:Don't move if you have barbs
:Use invisibility as much as you can but remember that Ilusiw can see you

'''[[Spider's Nest]][[File:Spider entry.png]]'''
:Probably as easy as Swamps but make sure you have Poison resistance and See invisible. There are only few things to watch out for and you probably won't have too much problem clearing this place out. This doesn't mean you won't die here though. Watch out for Orb spiders.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Spider entry.png]]'''

'''[[Tarantella]] [[File:Tarantella.png]]''': They confuse you. Combined with orb of destruction or ghost moth, they will probably kill you if you don't have potion of curing

'''[[Orb spider]][[File:Orb spider.png]]''':Annoying as hell spiders that shoots [[Orb of destruction]] at you. They are fast and they try to run away from you. You probably wanna tab spam them as long as there are no other spiders trying to kill you. Otherwise, use scroll of fear or invisibility so you can 1v1 them. Orb of destruction hurts like hell.

'''[[Ghost moth]][[File:Ghost moth.png]]''': They are invisible and drain mana. Draining mana isn't a problem for you at all but being invisible and packing helluva bite is a big problem for you.

'''Spiders nest summary'''
:Have Rpoison and see invis
:Watch out for orb spiders
:Have enough potion of curing to heal confusion

'''[[Snake Pit]][[File:Snake entry.png]]'''
This place is as bad as Shoals but luckily, nagas are slow and there are many narrow hallways to fight them one by one. However, You need lots of resistances like poison, fire, magic and electricity along with AC because nagas are so strong. You will also need few blink scrolls and teleport scrolls in case they are carrying distortion arrows. Also, having scrolls of immolation will immensely help out clearing the last level.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[Snake entry.png]]'''

:Basically, fighting with any non green nagas in a open is dangerous. Treat them like you are fighting a strong melee enemy and make sure

'''[[Naga mage]][[File:Naga mage.png]]''': Teleports other things or you. If you get teleported, there is good chance of you being teleported to group of nagas in the last levels. This is why you need high MR or have blink scroll in handy

'''[[Naga sharpshooter]][[file:Naga sharpshooter.png]]''':Basically a naga that shoots arrows at you. AND arrows hurt. wouldn't be a problem if you are fighting in a hallway but in the open, ARROWS HURT LIKE HELL.

'''[[Greater naga]] [[File:Greater naga.png]]''':Treat him like orc warrior in early dungeons. EXCEPT he has constrict so he will pack a lot of damage if you dont have high AC

'''[[shock serpent]][[file:shock serpent.png]]''':Land version of electric eels. Thats why you would need rElec. Still packs a punch even with resistance. Don't fight them in open

'''Snake pit Summary'''
:Make sure you have high AC,rF,rM,rP and rElec
:Don't fight in the open
:If you are using scroll of immolation, make sure you have conservation and high fire resistance
:Carry some blink and teleport scroll in case you get teleported to unwanted places.

'''Unique monsters that will probably still kill you or get you killed even if you are careful'''

'''[[Mara]][[File:Mara.png]]''': Something that you wish you'd never see in your game. He pretty much clones everythng including you. For some reason, he always appears in akward places like Swamp or Vaults 5 for me. Don't even bother fighting him if he appears in those places. Just leave him there after getting a rune. If you must kill him, just make sure you lure him into a staircase or something and do 1v1 deathmatch even though its gonna be a helluva work with his illusions.

I was planning to add some more uniques but to be honest, most of the uniques can probably be handled with berserk and summon bro combo except for those ones that could send you to abyss. But still, you can stop that from happening by having high MR or making your bros to tank for you so they cant cast banish on you. Just make sure you don't fight them with other horde of monsters.

==[[Vaults]][[file:vaults entry.png]] Phase==
Now you have 2 runes in your hands (1 if you have crappy equipment and decided to clear first 4 levels of vault first). Go into depth till monsters are too hard to kill. Than go to vaults and clear out the first 4 levels of the vault (BUT do not go into crypts). You may also wish to go into hall of blades but I never really got anything good out of there. Than, you may wish to level up a bit more by wondering around depth or doing first 2 levels of elven halls (don't go into level 3 though) Once you feel ready, go into vault 5 and kill the welcome party and endless monsters that are after you. You will probably die here a LOT of times. My tip of advice is using scroll of immolation (considering that you do have high fire resistance and something to prevent your scrolls from burning or just drop all the scrolls beforehand). than use blink scroll to get yourself to a linear hallway and explode everything. Sounds lot easy but really hard to do. You might be lucky enough to survive and end up with golden dragon hide, which will be turned into your end game armour with enchant armour scroll. Once you've hacked through waves and waves of strong monsters, you will pick up the rune in the vaults .

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[file:vaults entry.png]]'''
:Well, to be honest, pretty much everything in here is capable of killing you because there are so many enemies. At the same time, most monsters aren't really a threat to you in small numbers because you probably have good equipments by now
Still watch out for these

'''[[Vault sentinel]][[File:Vault sentinel.png]]''': These things mark you so every single monster in the vaults come hunting for you. Kill them before they do that.

'''[[Vault warden]][[file:vault warden.png]]''': They lock the doors AND stairs, preventing you to do stair fishing and kind of forces you to fight you in the open. Could be lethal in vault 5 so kill them as fast as you can.

'''[[Flayed ghost]][[File:Flayed ghost.png]]''': You probably bumped into one of these if your health goes below half immediately.Your health will come back to normal once you kill them so kill them before other things come kill you.

Other than that, watch out for bunch of dragons and DO NOT do the stair fishing on vaults 5.

'''Vaults summary'''
:Clear out vault1-4 than get more experience before going to vault 5
:Use scroll of immolation for vault 5 and blink scrolls to get advantage of narrow hallway
:Be lucky enough to have almost all End game items by now (very important)
:This is probably the hardest bit for you. BE REALLY REALLY CAREFUL and don't tab spam

==End game Phase==
Now that you have gained 3 runes and Finished clearing out the Depth, you are ready to go into the realm of zot. However, before that, make sure you have all of this
:End game weapon
[[demon whip]][[file:demon whip.png]] of electricity OR [[lajatang]][[File:Lajatang2.png]] of speed or electricity Or equivilant version of whatever weapon you are using (It is also good to carry one of those useless looking anit magic brands along with few other branded weapon of frost or fire to deal with some draconians and spellcastors)
:Full fire resistance, some cold resistance, poison and electric resistance and over ++++ Magic resistance
:Mutation resistance
:preservation equipment to stop your scrolls and potions getting destroyed
:High AC, and Shield if you are going with one hand weapon
:Enough number of scrolls of teleport, wand of teleport, wand of healing and potions of healing
If you checked everything out of this checklist, you are ready to enter the realm of Zot. (Good sign of you not being ready for this is when you were having hard time clearing out depths. In this case, use everything to get these equipment.)
So basically realm of zot consists of lots of draconians, dragons and Disgusting orb of fire which really sucks. It will probably feel easier than vault 5 to be honest. Except for those toe zombie things and when you don't have enough escape tools. (I guarantee you will have them as long as you are really unlucky) You should be able to clear out the dungeon like stroll in a park if you have well enchanted electricity weapon or speed brand weapon as most things aren't resistant to electric dmg and speed is just so good that it kills everything that easily. Now just be careful and clear everything out till you find the orb of zot. Make sure you lure bite size enemies at a time and use your bro summon to take care with them along with your berserk.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Zot entry.png]]'''

'''[[Curse toe]][[file:Curse toe.png]]''': Cuts your health down like green togas in the early game and summons mushrooms. Summon your own bros and kill them before they can do any of this to you. Also, rN helps a lot too.

'''[[Electric golem]][[File:Electric golem.png]]''': Very fast and will be hard for electric brand bearers to kill him but as long as you have high enough AC and rElec, he wont be able to kill you either. Is probably dangerous when there are other things and when you are trying to run away though. Once again, Bro summon.

'''[[Moth of wrath]][[File:Moth of wrath.png]]''': I hate these things. Harmless by themselves but when they berserk something like dragons, you just gotta run.

'''[[Orb of fire]][[File:Orb of fire.png]]''': They pack lots of punch if you lack that +++ fire resistance and mutate you. They are tanky too. always only do 1v1 with these things. If there is something like curse toe or something nearby, do your best to separate them and kill them 1 by 1.

'''End game summary'''
:Be careful
:Be even more careful
:Have rF+++rElec and mutation resistance

==Get the hell out of here phase==
To be honest, this was the easiest bit for me. Spam that teleport scroll after grabbing the orb so you get teleported to some place near stairs. Go up the stairs as fast as you can, don't stop unless you are really badly surrounded but there aren't anything like hellions or liches to do serious damage to you. In that case, use teleport scroll or wand. If you end up getting badly wounded, use wand of healing and potion of healing to heal yourself up. Now you just gotta escape with the orb for the 3 rune victory.

==[[Abyss]] [[file:abyss entry.png]]==
Well, you will probably desperately reading this because you got sent to abyss by Crazy yiuf or something. I can only say you are pretty much dead unless you got sent to abyss after you cleared out vaults. If you still haven't even got to lair yet, just press cntrl q and quit. If you got up to more than lair and have item thats so good, try running one way till you find exit. Don't stop for anything. If you have amulet of resist mutation, put that thing on. If you are really lucky, you might find your way out but most times, you will die here.
Things that CAN send you to abyss are
:Anything carrying [[chaos]] brand weapon
:Anything carrying [[distortion]] brand weapon
:Unequiping [[distortion]] brand weapon (don't even bother wearing one in the first place because it teleports things away, which is bad thing to happen when you are on berserk)
:Someone casting [[Banishment]] on you
:Stepping on a Zot trap

==Summary==
Even if you do everything I tell you to do in this guide, I guarantee you that it will take 500 dead cows to actually finish the game with 3 runes. You need to be pretty lucky to find all that items I've mentioned and normally, you wouldn't be that lucky. Also, you will only learn your lesson from dying to random things that you've never seen before and try not to make the same mistake again in your next game. I've only listed really dangerous things that I died to too many times and I bet I got killed by something lame like Jessica or green rat because I was tab spamming. Every time you die to something, look it up in this wiki and you will probably find some useful piece of information and probably manage to kill it next time. I just wish you a good luck and hope you finish this damn addictive game.

ARCHIVED Beef Jerky's Simple 3 Rune Minotaur Berserker Guide for Beginners

2020-05-15T10:57:08Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{character guide}}
{{version014}}
I just recently finished my first 3 rune clear with help of this wiki, but I also felt that there wasn't really a guide for complete noobies like me in the character guides. So this guide will basically introduce a Simple straight-foward MiBe for peope who have just started Dungeon crawl.

==Why Minotaur Berserker?==
[[Minotaur]] is probably the best race for beginners who have just started playing dungeon crawl. Other races like [[troll]]s and [[Hill orc]]s are also a good options but I think Minotaurs are much more flexible as they excel at using most weapon types except for short blades. Also, being able to eat rotten meat is awesome, but if you are just going for the three rune clear, you will probably get enough bread rations and meat rations by the time you finish [[lair]]. Even though they are crap at doing anything magic related, this won't matter to you as your class will be a [[berserker]]. So basically, minotaur has little better weapon aptitudes than hill orcs and don't have to worry about starving to death in the late game or have trouble looking for armour like trolls, making them perfect race for the beginners going for 3 rune clear.

In my opinion, [[berserker]] class is generally a better choice than [[fighter]] and other similar classes. Fighters do start with better equipments and a shield, but most times, you will manage to find something like chain mail and plate armour fast enough so starting with piece of animal skin and a weapon doesn't matter that much. In addition to that, you already begin with a god and an [[berserk]] ability that will pretty much get you through early games as long as you don't do something really stupid. Also, worshiping [[Okawaru]] is such pain in the ass when he gives you negatively enchanted gifts and berserk and Brother in arms is way better than hero and finesse. [[Makhleb]] I don't recommend because I got killed by demon I summoned. I'd still like to mention that Okawaru and Makhleb is a solid god for three rune clear because Okawaru will end up giving you piece of end game equipment at some point and gives you weaker version of berserk which you can almost spam without too umch piety risks and almost good as berserk ability later on and Makhleb gives you ranged attack, heal on kill and summon bro function (which sometimes go horribily wrong). With that being said, Trog does not require invocations training, you don't have to worry about finding altar and he definitely gives you some kind of weapon that will get you through mid game and probably will give you that end game weapon that you need for 3 rune clear. So if you get used to crawl quite a bit and got bored playing berserker all the time, feel free to start as gladiator or fighter to worship Okawaru or Makhleb.

==Useful controls and commands for beginners==
Its a frustrating job to navigate through wall of text when you press ?? on the game screen so I'm going to introduce some useful commands so you don't have to spend hours looking for basic controls

o: pressing this will make you explore till you come across an enemy or items

tab: pressing this will make you kill things that you can kill. (DO NOT USE IT AGAINST STRONG ENEMIES)

5: pressing this will make you wait, so you will heal up. (DO NOT SPAM THIS as you will still wait if there is invisible monsters nearby and it makes you hungry too)

m: this opens up skill training menu

%: shows stats and resistances you have

A: shows mutations you have

,: makes you pick up things you want to pick up

r: reads things like scrolls or books

q: I don't know what quaff means but it makes you drink potions

p: makes you pray to whatever god you worship and offers sacrifice if you are worshiping gods that accept sacrifice (so doing this on a corpse will make you get weapons faster when you are worshiping [[trog]])

c:chops up monsters so you can eat them (You cant eat poisonous meat if you don't have poison resistance though. Eat them whenever you are hungry instead of eating valuable rations or other food)

d: makes you drop things that you don't want. Pressing ctrl+d will ask you quantity of things you want to drop instead of dropping the whole thing

a: makes you use ability. pressing a? will describe abilites you have ( you will be pressing aa a lot )

z: makes you cast spells (you won't have any though)

\: you can choose items you don't want to pick up

>: makes you go down stairs

<: makes you go up stairs

This is probably all the commands you really need to know to explore dungeon fast and efficiently

==Useful things to know==
:To start with,I would like to point out that you are capable of moving diagonally. Keys for doing this is extremely confusing but you will get used to it after dying few times by moving to wrong directions. (Probably a good idea to use mouse for diagonal movements) OR looks like you can use numbpads. Use them

:Regarding to stairs, anything except for undead and player ghosts will follow you up or downstairs if they are next to you when you are going up or downstairs. This can be used to pick off enemies so you don't have fight a whole horde.

:Normally, You want to fight in a narrow hallway so you only have to grind one enemy at a time. However, since this game lets you attack diagonally, remember that there are times 2 or 3 enemies can hit you at the same time.

:Chop up monsters eat them whenever you are hungry. Especially if you have gourmand. Don't worry about contaminated meat because it doesn't do anything negative accept for giving you less nutrition. Don't eat bread ration or meat ration unless you are starving.

Oh yeah, to attack, you just gotta move towards the thing that you want to attack.

==Starting off==
1.Choose minotaur berserker

2.Choose Mace as your starting weapon

==weapon choices==
Reason I choose mace as my starting weapon is because the end game weapon you will be using is either [[demon whip]] or [[eveningstar]] and both of them don't need too much skill training. This means that you have room to change your main weapon to a good lajatang or something when you find a good artefect during mid game.

==Skill training==
You won't be training too much skills as you won't be learning any spells
You will be maxing out

:Fighting

:Armour

:Dodging

You will only put certain number of points in

:Maces and flails (12 if you are using demon whip and 16 and more later if you are using Eveningstar)

:Shields (20)

Or if your main weapon is staves

:Staves (14)

And don't be afraid to put in few points on evocations or ranged weapons later on. (I put mine in evocations when I ran out of skills because I couldn't be bothered to use ranged weapons and you always end up with plenty of attack wands during early-mid game where you actually need ranged attack)

Remember that you don't have to invest points in staves if you aren't going to use one and vice versa for mace and shields.

==Stat points==
If you desperately want to use eveningstar, put all the points in strength. Otherwise, put all the points to dexterity so your evasion increases. ( Your strength will be little but higher or equal to dex in the end)

==[[Trog]][[File:Trog altar.png]]==
This is the god you will worship for the rest of the game unless you've gone nuts and accidentally abandon him for Okawaru.
I will briefly explain what his abilities do as they are pretty straight foward.

:Burn spellbooks: Burns a spellbook and your piety rises. you can use it as landmines but most times you don't really need to.

:Berserk: Reason why you worship Trog. Turns you into Chuck norris for few turns, lasts a bit longer when you kill something. Use it when you see something dangerous or your health is under half way and you really wanna do a death match with something. DO NOT USE if you are lethally poisoned or you gotta run away from something

:Hand of Trog: Gives you some MR and heals you over time. I don't really use this as much as berserk but still pretty useful. Mainly stops Sigmund or Grinder from giving you those nasty disabled effects or saves you from dying from poison.

:Brother in arms: Summons you a berserked bro who will pretty much kill everything. Probably use this when your piety level is ***** unless you really need it. Spam it about 3 times if you are in really really big fights than go berserk yourself or just use it once when you are fighting a horde of things that could kill you in the open. NOTE that it uses big chunk of piety and you shouldn't really use it unless you are dying or you are about to fight the battle of your life. Also note that they have pretty hefty health if the summoned bro isn't iron troll or stone giant so only use them as meatshields if you are desperate.

Also trog gives you weapons when you kill and sacrifice bunch of things. He will probably give you something useless like ranged weapons that you don't really need or weapons that you aren't training but I guarantee you that he will give you your endgame weapon at some point.

==Early game phase==

So as you start the game, press m. Turn everything off except for [[Maces & Flails]]. Spam tab and o and clear out the first few floors of dungeon. Yeah, most times you will do something stupid and die to something that you shouldn't have tab spammed but you wouldn't really have anything good anyways.
Do not drink any potions till you find potion of mutation using identify scroll. Do not equip any rings or amulets before identifying them. Also, look for any type of metallic armour that happens to be lying around and put them on. Steal some [[whip]]s off [[kobold]]s and carry few of them just in case your mace gets corroded.
Look for flails and other dnagerous looking maces. If you happen to bump into [[Crazy Yiuf]]. You might get end game cloak and get quaterstaff of chaos. You can consider changing your main weapon to staves than.
Don't bother identifying enchanted armour or weapons if you happen to find one in early games. If they are really badly cursed, just press cntrl Q and restart the game unless you have whole bunch of scrolls of remove curse. NOTE that some of the branded looking weapons that normal monsters are carrying are badly cursed ones. If you happen to have more than 5 scrolls or identify or scrolls of remove curse, don't be afraid to use them. However, things like [[pikel]] and crazy yiuf will always give you non cursed branded weapons Having said that, If you happen to find something like ring of poison resistance or some good piece of equipments in the first few floors, try to be little more careful when you are spamming tab and o. At some point, your maces and flail will be around 11 so try not to put more than you need by turning on other skills you gotta train. (I generally stop at 12 because [[eveningstar]] is much more harder to find than [[demon whip]]s)

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
:Stop spamming tab key if you come across
:[[orc priest]][[File:Orc priest.png]]: These green bastards use smite, which can hurt you like hell. They can cast this on you as long as you are in their line of sight. Even worse, they hide behind bunch of orcs so you cant reach them. Best thing to do is get out of their sight, and lure them to melee but if you cant do this, use berserk and beat the hell out of his green togas but make sure your berserk dont run out before you kill all of em

:[[orc wizard]][[file:Orc wizard.png]]: Not as bad as green togas but these purple porks turn invisible and cast confusion on you, which can probably kill you if there is a priest to snipe you with those smites. If you are so annoyed by invis, narrow pass + berserk will prob easily kill them. Also, potion of curing cures confusion (took me about 50 trys till I found that out)

:[[orc warrior]][[File:Orc warrior.png]]: If you see him, don't ask. Just use berserk and kill him. If you are exhausted, run. He is pretty much a strong orc. That's pretty much it. If you are lucky, he will give you very early plate mail.

:[[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]][[File:Gnoll.png]]: For some reason, they carry lots of branded polearms and spears which hurts quite a lot in the early game. if your life is under half, consider running away if you are far away from them or just use berserk and do death match if you cant run. If you've been tab spamming and have like 5-6 life, you are probably dead even if you use berserk.

:[[jelly]][[File:Jelly.png]]: Not really something that could kill you directly, but it corrodes your equipment. And as you Tab spam, you will end up with mace with -3 attack and good things like that. Thats why I told you to carry bunch of whips and flails you loot from kobolds and gnolls. True story, my gargoyle starved to death when I tab spammed against Queen ant with negatively enchanted mace.

:[[Sigmund]][[File:Sigmund.png]]: Your worst nightmare in the early games. Basically a stronger version of orc wizard but that probably isn't enough to describe this ugly santa. He confuses you, turns invisible and hurts you like hell with his spells and scythe. you will probably die 50% times if you see him. Other times, you might be able to run away or beat the crap out of him with berserk. If you are going to kill him, use hand of trog so he cant confuse you than berserk so you can send him back to north pole even if he is invisible. After killing him, half of your early game threat is pretty much gone.

:[[Grinder]][[File:grinder.png]]: Not as bad as Sigmund but still have quite high chance of killing you. He uses paralyze and teleports so be careful when you deathmatch him using berserk. Most times, you don't even need berserk to kill him but If you meet him very early on, you probably wanna be little more careful.

:[[Prince Ribbit]][[file:Prince_Ribbit.png]]: Pretty much a blink frog. Except you have chance of seeing him pretty early. Could be really annoying cause he might blink at the same time you activated your berserk. You probably need some luck to kill him if you encounter him in early dungeons.

Other than that, things wielding good wands might kill you but normally, berserk will save your ass most of the times. Player ghosts, you probably can easily kill them with your berserk

'''Early game summary'''
:Spam Tab and O until you find something good (plate armour, Shield, good weapon, ring of poison resistance)
:Don't spam Tab on hard enemies
:Don't be afraid to use berserk any time but make sure you are not very hungry or exhausted so you CAN actually use berserk
:Check your weapons frequently so you don't have badly corroded weapon. Probably stick with branded weapon or flail at least. Whips are pretty crap (unless it has electric brand).

==Mid game Phase==
You probably tab spammed your way infront of the entrance of [[File:Lair entry.png]] [[lair]] or [[File:Orc entry.png]] [[orcish mine]]s by now. This will be around dungeon7-11. You should have at least chain mail as your armour and maybe found a shield and good branded weapon in your hands. Go straight into the lair, or you may with to finish level 1 and 2 of orcish mines hoping to find a shop that might sell an end game Armour. Inside the Lair, you can probably spam tab on most of the things but those komodo dragons give you sickness that prevents you from healing. So make sure you explore with full health at all times by spamming 5 after a good fight. You will probably find enough food in here to last you throughout the game and probably it won't be too hard clearing out the lair. You might bump into few branches like [[Spider's Nest]] and [[Swamp]], but don't enter it just yet. Go all the way down to Lair8 and you will probably find something useful. If you have good enough fire resistance or cold resistance Probably good idea to enter ice cave or volcano as they will definitely give you piece of Armour that has according resistance. (Especially Fire resistance for the end game) After clearing out Lair, Finish Orc mines. DO NOT even bother going into elven halls though.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
[[File:Lair entry.png]]

'''[[Spiny frog]]'''[[File:Spiny frog.png]]: Especially if you don't have good piece of Armour and poison resistance. They just pack helluva damage and poison hurts like hell.

'''[[Blink frog]]'''[[File:Blink frog.png]]: They always come in hordes and blink away from you as you cast Berserk. If you are wearing something like plate mail and have good weapon to kill them fast enough, they will be easy to kill. If you have poor equipments, probably summon a bro and fight ins a narrow hallway.

'''[[Death yak]]'''[[File:Death yak.png]]: Chuck Norris of all the Yaks. Find a narrow hallway (or make one with wand of digging or disintegration) berserk, and beat the crap out of them. To be honest, they are only scary when you accidentally tab spammed into horde of them or you got turned into stone by catoblepas.

'''[[Dire elephant]]'''[[File:Dire elephant.png]]: Basically a Death Yak version of an Elephant. Do the same thing you do with Death yaks but bear in mind that they can knock you back.

'''[[Electric eel]] [[File:Electric eel.png]]''': They shoot electricity at you. Hurts like hell if you don't have relec. Either move out of their sight or do deathmatch with them. Don't chicken out though because you will probably end up dying anyways if you do.

'''[[basilisk]]'''[[File:Basilisk.png]]: Turns you into stone. Very dangerous if you turn into stone while being gored by Death yaks and other things. Fight in hallway to prevent this from happening

'''[[Catoblepas]] [[file:Catoblepas.png]]''': Probably the 2nd worst thing to see in the lair. I think it only appears on L8. It shoots random dust that turns you into stone after 2 turns if you stand in it. Move out of it. However, if you are standing in a narrow passage, you are pretty much stuffed. Alternatively, use scroll of blink or teleportation before its too late. Some horrible things like this could happen. You've gone berserk to kill hydra -> you turn into stone because of dust-> Berserk runs out -> Hydra kills you.

'''[[Brain worm]] [[file:Brain worm.png]]''': Normally, wouldnt be too much of a problem for you but sometimes ther are whole bunch of them and turn you brainless. You forget to breath and die. To prevent this, potion of restore abilities or ring of sustain abilities.

'''[[Hydra]] [[file:Hydra.png]]''': If you are using mace, wouldn't be too dangerous. Still use berserk though. If you are using anything bladed(Lajatang is bladed too) without fire brand, their number of heads will grow and it will make you feel like you are fighting 10 enemies at a time. If you happen to lack a fire brand and have bladed weapon, use Summon a Bro (and hope you don't get a troll cause they increase number of heads too) and go berserk and kill him before he kills you. Probably one of the most dangerous things in the Lair.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough''' [[File:Orc entry.png]]

'''[[Orc sorcerer]] [[File:Orc sorcerer.png]]''': Summons annoying demons like [[neqoxec]]. Kill him before demons hurt you

'''[[Orc high priest]][[File:Orc high priest.png]]''': Smites you, summons demons and there are whole bunch of them in orc 4. If you have lots of health, summon bunch of bros and berserk and focus him down. If your health is low, just use blink scroll or something, run away to orc 3, heal up and fight him again.

'''[[Orc warlord]][[File:Orc warlord.png]]''': Strongest orc of all except for Roka. Just make sure you don't have too much on your plate and use berserk and summon bro to kill him.

'''[[Saint Roka]] [[File:Saint Roka.png]]''': I doubt you will see him in the orcish mines at all but if you do see him, make sure you are not fighting unending tsunami of orcs at the same time. use stair fishing to take few orcs at a time. When you clear most of the orcs, use the same way to kill orc warlord.

'''Mid game summary'''
:Still tab and o spam but when you see something that looks dangerous, right click on them and if you see they are extremely dangerous, use berserk or bro summon
:You might end up being sent to [[abyss]]. 90% of the time, its game over but if you are lucky, you might get out if you run towards one direction and find exit.
:Be really careful when exploring orc 4

==Mid game Branches==
'''Your way to first 2 runes'''
:Now that you've cleared out lair and orcish mines and explored up to D15. You probably discovered vault on the way but you can't enter it because you don't have any runes. Than, it is time for you to finish one of the branches in the lair. I wish you got something easy like spiders nest and swamp. Shoals and snakes pit is HARD.

'''[[The Swamp]] [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''
:Probably the easiest branch for you as long as you have poison resistance and relec (see invisible is good to have too). Make sure you don't fight in the water too much and summon bros when you have too much things trying to kill you. There aren't too many narrow hallways to fight monsters but generally, things in here aren't too strong to kill you except for few uniques and one helluva bastard named vapor. There are 5 levels of swamp and you will find your first (or second) rune on the 5th level which is probably full of swamp dragons and other good stuff like that.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''

'''[[Alligator]] [[File:Alligator.png]]''' They are probably faster than you most of the time and pack helluva punch. Don't fight them in water

'''[[Vapour]] [[File:Vapour.png]]''': I'm so glad they are getting rid of him in 0.15. Invisible,shoots electricity. Biggest pain in the swamps. HAVE RELEC

'''[[Thorn lotus]] [[File:Thorn lotus.png]]''': I'm not too sure what they shoot at you but it hurts like hell. + they run away from you into deep water so you can't kill them. Use a wand of fireball or something.

'''[[Thorn hunter]][[File:Thorn hunter.png]]''': Similar to their plant cousin but this one doesn't run away. Still packs a punch though.

'''[[Swamp dragon]] [[File:Swamp dragon.png]]''': Reason why you need poison resistance in the swamp. They pack a punch and can knock you back so you probably wanna use summon bros and berserk if you see more than 1 of them.

'''[[The Lernaean hydra]] [[File:The Lernaean hydra.png]]''': You unlucky bastard. Run if you hear tree breakingx27. Unless you are wearing something like crystal plate armour or something, you probably have to summon 2-3 bros and do berserk death match with him. If there are other things like swamp dragons though, forget what I said and run. You probably can't kill him unless you are 1v1 with him and have really high AC.

'''Swamp summary'''
:Fight on dry lands as much as possible
:Don't fight more than 2 hydras or swamp dragons at same time
:Use stair fishing as much as possible
:Kill vapours Kill them all
:Have poison resistance and relec

'''[[The Shoals]] [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''
:I hate this place. I hate this place so much and I died here so many times. Make sure you have high AC and MR above ++++ along with cold resistance and if you have perma fly, you probably can finish this place as your first rune branch. Pretty much everything in here is able to kill you quite easily if you cant fly and there are mermaids which mesmerizes you and drags you into the water. I'd recommend clearing out shoals after you get your first rune and clear few levels of depth or vaults. Like the Swamp, rune is located in 5th level and be really careful when you explore shoals. DO NOT TAB SPAM in here unless you are strong enough to survive vaults. Also, if you happen to have potion of invisibility, things are going to be a bit easier so don't be afraid to use it all in here.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''

'''[[Mermaid]] [[File:Mermaid.png]]''': Mesmerizes you and drag you into deep water. During all that, there will be merfolks poking you with tridents and cyclopses and manticores throwing rocks and barbs at you. Just kill her fast. You can just laugh at her if you do happen to have high MR though.

'''[[Siren]] [[File:Siren.png]]''': Pretty much does what mermaid does but also summons things. Deal her like you deal with mermaids though.

'''[[Manticore]][[File:Manticore.png]]''': Throws barbs at you. Barbs hurt you when you move. You die. I didn't know you could prevent barbs from hurting you by not moving as most of the things in shoals have reaching attack. However, being a melee, you gotta move to kill things. Hide behind the walls so he can't shoot barbs at you than melee him to death.

'''[[Alligator snapping turtle]][[file:Alligator snapping turtle.png]]''': Packs helluva damage with really bulky amount of health. Make sure you use berserk to kill him and make sure you won't have to deal with other monsters when you are killing him. He moves really slowly so you can kite him too.

'''[[Satyr]][[File:Satyr.png]]''': One of the reasons that makes me recommend shield. probably an inferior version of [[yaktaur]] and hurts you because they normally attack you from places you cant reach them. Fight him like you fight centaur.

'''[[Ilsuiw]][[File:Ilsuiw.png]]''': Sees invisible and throws icicles at you. Thats why you would need a cold resistance. Will be easier if you have High MR, Shield and Cold res. Otherwise don't go into shoals 5 because there is a very good chance of bumping into her and horde of merfolks ready to poke you to death.

'''Shoals summary'''
:Don't go in here without High AC, High MR and Cold resistance
:try to hide in some of the small rooms and fight as less number of merfolks possible
:Be extra careful
:Don't spam tab
:Don't move if you have barbs
:Use invisibility as much as you can but remember that Ilusiw can see you

'''[[Spider's Nest]][[File:Spider entry.png]]'''
:Probably as easy as Swamps but make sure you have Poison resistance and See invisible. There are only few things to watch out for and you probably won't have too much problem clearing this place out. This doesn't mean you won't die here though. Watch out for Orb spiders.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Spider entry.png]]'''

'''[[Tarantella]] [[File:Tarantella.png]]''': They confuse you. Combined with orb of destruction or ghost moth, they will probably kill you if you don't have potion of curing

'''[[Orb spider]][[File:Orb spider.png]]''':Annoying as hell spiders that shoots [[Orb of destruction]] at you. They are fast and they try to run away from you. You probably wanna tab spam them as long as there are no other spiders trying to kill you. Otherwise, use scroll of fear or invisibility so you can 1v1 them. Orb of destruction hurts like hell.

'''[[Ghost moth]][[File:Ghost moth.png]]''': They are invisible and drain mana. Draining mana isn't a problem for you at all but being invisible and packing helluva bite is a big problem for you.

'''Spiders nest summary'''
:Have Rpoison and see invis
:Watch out for orb spiders
:Have enough potion of curing to heal confusion

'''[[Snake Pit]][[File:Snake entry.png]]'''
This place is as bad as Shoals but luckily, nagas are slow and there are many narrow hallways to fight them one by one. However, You need lots of resistances like poison, fire, magic and electricity along with AC because nagas are so strong. You will also need few blink scrolls and teleport scrolls in case they are carrying distortion arrows. Also, having scrolls of immolation will immensely help out clearing the last level.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[Snake entry.png]]'''

:Basically, fighting with any non green nagas in a open is dangerous. Treat them like you are fighting a strong melee enemy and make sure

'''[[Naga mage]][[File:Naga mage.png]]''': Teleports other things or you. If you get teleported, there is good chance of you being teleported to group of nagas in the last levels. This is why you need high MR or have blink scroll in handy

'''[[Naga sharpshooter]][[file:Naga sharpshooter.png]]''':Basically a naga that shoots arrows at you. AND arrows hurt. wouldn't be a problem if you are fighting in a hallway but in the open, ARROWS HURT LIKE HELL.

'''[[Greater naga]] [[File:Greater naga.png]]''':Treat him like orc warrior in early dungeons. EXCEPT he has constrict so he will pack a lot of damage if you dont have high AC

'''[[shock serpent]][[file:shock serpent.png]]''':Land version of electric eels. Thats why you would need rElec. Still packs a punch even with resistance. Don't fight them in open

'''Snake pit Summary'''
:Make sure you have high AC,rF,rM,rP and rElec
:Don't fight in the open
:If you are using scroll of immolation, make sure you have conservation and high fire resistance
:Carry some blink and teleport scroll in case you get teleported to unwanted places.

'''Unique monsters that will probably still kill you or get you killed even if you are careful'''

'''[[Mara]][[File:Mara.png]]''': Something that you wish you'd never see in your game. He pretty much clones everythng including you. For some reason, he always appears in akward places like Swamp or Vaults 5 for me. Don't even bother fighting him if he appears in those places. Just leave him there after getting a rune. If you must kill him, just make sure you lure him into a staircase or something and do 1v1 deathmatch even though its gonna be a helluva work with his illusions.

I was planning to add some more uniques but to be honest, most of the uniques can probably be handled with berserk and summon bro combo except for those ones that could send you to abyss. But still, you can stop that from happening by having high MR or making your bros to tank for you so they cant cast banish on you. Just make sure you don't fight them with other horde of monsters.

==[[Vaults]][[file:vaults entry.png]] Phase==
Now you have 2 runes in your hands (1 if you have crappy equipment and decided to clear first 4 levels of vault first). Go into depth till monsters are too hard to kill. Than go to vaults and clear out the first 4 levels of the vault (BUT do not go into crypts). You may also wish to go into hall of blades but I never really got anything good out of there. Than, you may wish to level up a bit more by wondering around depth or doing first 2 levels of elven halls (don't go into level 3 though) Once you feel ready, go into vault 5 and kill the welcome party and endless monsters that are after you. You will probably die here a LOT of times. My tip of advice is using scroll of immolation (considering that you do have high fire resistance and something to prevent your scrolls from burning or just drop all the scrolls beforehand). than use blink scroll to get yourself to a linear hallway and explode everything. Sounds lot easy but really hard to do. You might be lucky enough to survive and end up with golden dragon hide, which will be turned into your end game armour with enchant armour scroll. Once you've hacked through waves and waves of strong monsters, you will pick up the rune in the vaults .

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[file:vaults entry.png]]'''
:Well, to be honest, pretty much everything in here is capable of killing you because there are so many enemies. At the same time, most monsters aren't really a threat to you in small numbers because you probably have good equipments by now
Still watch out for these

'''[[Vault sentinel]][[File:Vault sentinel.png]]''': These things mark you so every single monster in the vaults come hunting for you. Kill them before they do that.

'''[[Vault warden]][[file:vault warden.png]]''': They lock the doors AND stairs, preventing you to do stair fishing and kind of forces you to fight you in the open. Could be lethal in vault 5 so kill them as fast as you can.

'''[[Flayed ghost]][[File:Flayed ghost.png]]''': You probably bumped into one of these if your health goes below half immediately.Your health will come back to normal once you kill them so kill them before other things come kill you.

Other than that, watch out for bunch of dragons and DO NOT do the stair fishing on vaults 5.

'''Vaults summary'''
:Clear out vault1-4 than get more experience before going to vault 5
:Use scroll of immolation for vault 5 and blink scrolls to get advantage of narrow hallway
:Be lucky enough to have almost all End game items by now (very important)
:This is probably the hardest bit for you. BE REALLY REALLY CAREFUL and don't tab spam

==End game Phase==
Now that you have gained 3 runes and Finished clearing out the Depth, you are ready to go into the realm of zot. However, before that, make sure you have all of this
:End game weapon
[[demon whip]][[file:demon whip.png]] of electricity OR [[lajatang]][[File:Lajatang2.png]] of speed or electricity Or equivilant version of whatever weapon you are using (It is also good to carry one of those useless looking anit magic brands along with few other branded weapon of frost or fire to deal with some draconians and spellcastors)
:Full fire resistance, some cold resistance, poison and electric resistance and over ++++ Magic resistance
:Mutation resistance
:preservation equipment to stop your scrolls and potions getting destroyed
:High AC, and Shield if you are going with one hand weapon
:Enough number of scrolls of teleport, wand of teleport, wand of healing and potions of healing
If you checked everything out of this checklist, you are ready to enter the realm of Zot. (Good sign of you not being ready for this is when you were having hard time clearing out depths. In this case, use everything to get these equipment.)
So basically realm of zot consists of lots of draconians, dragons and Disgusting orb of fire which really sucks. It will probably feel easier than vault 5 to be honest. Except for those toe zombie things and when you don't have enough escape tools. (I guarantee you will have them as long as you are really unlucky) You should be able to clear out the dungeon like stroll in a park if you have well enchanted electricity weapon or speed brand weapon as most things aren't resistant to electric dmg and speed is just so good that it kills everything that easily. Now just be careful and clear everything out till you find the orb of zot. Make sure you lure bite size enemies at a time and use your bro summon to take care with them along with your berserk.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Zot entry.png]]'''

'''[[Curse toe]][[file:Curse toe.png]]''': Cuts your health down like green togas in the early game and summons mushrooms. Summon your own bros and kill them before they can do any of this to you. Also, rN helps a lot too.

'''[[Electric golem]][[File:Electric golem.png]]''': Very fast and will be hard for electric brand bearers to kill him but as long as you have high enough AC and rElec, he wont be able to kill you either. Is probably dangerous when there are other things and when you are trying to run away though. Once again, Bro summon.

'''[[Moth of wrath]][[File:Moth of wrath.png]]''': I hate these things. Harmless by themselves but when they berserk something like dragons, you just gotta run.

'''[[Orb of fire]][[File:Orb of fire.png]]''': They pack lots of punch if you lack that +++ fire resistance and mutate you. They are tanky too. always only do 1v1 with these things. If there is something like curse toe or something nearby, do your best to separate them and kill them 1 by 1.

'''End game summary'''
:Be careful
:Be even more careful
:Have rF+++rElec and mutation resistance

==Get the hell out of here phase==
To be honest, this was the easiest bit for me. Spam that teleport scroll after grabbing the orb so you get teleported to some place near stairs. Go up the stairs as fast as you can, don't stop unless you are really badly surrounded but there aren't anything like hellions or liches to do serious damage to you. In that case, use teleport scroll or wand. If you end up getting badly wounded, use wand of healing and potion of healing to heal yourself up. Now you just gotta escape with the orb for the 3 rune victory.

==[[Abyss]] [[file:abyss entry.png]]==
Well, you will probably desperately reading this because you got sent to abyss by Crazy yiuf or something. I can only say you are pretty much dead unless you got sent to abyss after you cleared out vaults. If you still haven't even got to lair yet, just press cntrl q and quit. If you got up to more than lair and have item thats so good, try running one way till you find exit. Don't stop for anything. If you have amulet of resist mutation, put that thing on. If you are really lucky, you might find your way out but most times, you will die here.
Things that CAN send you to abyss are
:Anything carrying [[chaos]] brand weapon
:Anything carrying [[distortion]] brand weapon
:Unequiping [[distortion]] brand weapon (don't even bother wearing one in the first place because it teleports things away, which is bad thing to happen when you are on berserk)
:Someone casting [[Banishment]] on you
:Stepping on a Zot trap

==Summary==
Even if you do everything I tell you to do in this guide, I guarantee you that it will take 500 dead cows to actually finish the game with 3 runes. You need to be pretty lucky to find all that items I've mentioned and normally, you wouldn't be that lucky. Also, you will only learn your lesson from dying to random things that you've never seen before and try not to make the same mistake again in your next game. I've only listed really dangerous things that I died to too many times and I bet I got killed by something lame like Jessica or green rat because I was tab spamming. Every time you die to something, look it up in this wiki and you will probably find some useful piece of information and probably manage to kill it next time. I just wish you a good luck and hope you finish this damn addictive game.

Throwing net

2020-05-15T10:51:19Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version024}}
{{missile
|name = Throwing net
|cost = 30
|weight = 3.0
|launcher = throwing
|damage = 0
}}

{{flavour|A mesh of ropes knotted together with weights around the edge. Originally used by hunters to entangle and entrap prey, it soon found obvious application in battle and gladiatorial arenas. Struggling victims can eventually destroy the net and break free, if they live long enough.

----

"The look of a scared thing Sitting in a net!"

-Edna St. Vincent Millay, "When the Year Grows Old". 1917.}}

'''Throwing nets''' are [[Throwing]] weapons which deal no damage directly, but which can be used to temporarily disable foes and render them susceptible to powerful [[stabbing]] attacks. Anything that fails to [[ev]]ade a throwing net becomes entangled and loses the ability to move or make most attacks (spellcasting is unaffected, but all other attacks automatically fail). Because stabbing attacks can deal phenomenal amounts of damage, throwing nets can be useful for quickly subduing even powerful [[unique]]s in a few turns. This is usually done from fairly close range, giving you time to reach the enemy in melee and finish them off before they escape. Alternatively, you can net an opponent at the edge of your [[line of sight]] that you don't want to deal with, then walk away. This allows you to escape from fast opponents that could normally catch up to you. Be aware that throwing nets are ineffective against [[list of jellies|jellies]], monsters that are giant-[[size]] or larger, and against [[insubstantial]] monsters.

A throwing net's effect lasts until the victim manages to destroy the net. Each time the victim is prevented from acting due to the net, it attempts to escape. When the entangled monster escapes or dies, there is a chance that the throwing net will [[mulch]].

[[Gladiator]]s begin play with a stack of throwing nets, and they can be found as random loot throughout the Dungeon. Also, enemy [[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]]s and [[list of merfolk|merfolk]] occasionally generate with throwing nets, though they usually use them as soon as you enter their [[line of sight]], giving you plenty of time to escape.

{| class="prettytable" style="border:none; margin:auto; padding:0; text-align: center"
! Throwing net
|-
| [[File:Throwing net.png]]
|}

==History==
*Prior to [[0.19]], the mechanics of escaping nets were more complicated. A creature caught in a net could escape it by either ripping the net or slipping out of it. Being [[Size#Small|small]], [[EV|evasive]] and [[dexterity|dexterous]] (player only) made slipping out of nets more likely. On the other hand, [[Size#Big|big]], [[Strength|strong]], and [[berserk]]ing creatures were more likely to rip the net. Nearby creatures were adding tension, which sped up both escaping and destroying nets for the player. Cutting weapons, especially [[flaming]] and [[vorpal]] ones, as well as [[claws]], were good for shredding nets. Also, confused creatures, including the player, had a chance to struggle in a net without any result.
*Prior to [[0.15]], any flying creature had an additional 66.6% chance to avoid any nets thrown at it, separate from the normal miss chance.
*Prior to [[0.14]], flying opponents were completely immune to throwing nets, and instead of simply mulching, throwing nets would go through an elaborate deterioration process before finally falling apart entirely. Also, only medium or larger characters were able to use them.

{{weapons}}

[[Category:Throwing]]

Example Vaults

2020-05-15T10:50:40Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{Version}}

The game contains many '''[[vault]]s''', most of which are fixed in their layout and design, and often follow a theme. A few of them have been described below.

=="Special Room"==
''Main article: [[Special room]]''

A re-occuring rectangular room without doors which contains a group of monsters with a theme:
*Kobold lair (D:7-14, Orc:1-3): [[kobold]]s and [[big kobold]]s.
*Orc lair (D:9-, Orc:1-3, Elf, Vaults): [[orc]]s, [[orc warrior]]s, [[orc priest]]s, and beyond.
*Beehive (D:9-16, Lair, Orc:1-3, Spider): Many [[killer bee]]s and a [[queen bee]].
*Morgue (D:16-, Crypt, Dis, Tar, Coc, Geh): Many types of undead monsters.
*Jelly pit (D:18-, Lair:8, Slime): [[jellies]], [[ooze]]s, [[brown ooze]]s, [[death ooze]]s, [[azure jellies]] and [[acid blob]]s.
*Mythical zoo (D:14-, Lair:4-, Elf): [[fire drake]], [[basilisk]], [[hippogriff]], [[wyvern]], [[hell hound]], [[griffon]], [[hydra]], [[manticore]]. In Depths or Elf, [[harpy]], [[dragon]], [[sphinx]].

=="The Cross"==
This vault is in the shape of a cross outlined with translucent walls. An [[angel]] or [[daeva]] resides inside, guarding either an [[altar]] to [[the Shining One]], [[Zin]] or [[Elyvilon]] or a portal to a [[ziggurat]]. The angel will not harm you, so long as you don't dig the vault open. The angel may sneer at you, however, if you are a low piety worshipper of the Shining One, [[Zin]], or Elyvilon, or salute you if you are a high level worshipper. Occassionally there will be two angels in the vault, fighting each other to the death. If you are a [[priest]] of [[Beogh]], you can grab some good [[experience]] by smiting the loser.

=="The Bear's Den"==
A low-level vault sometimes generated in the early [[Dungeon]]. It usually contains a [[black bear]], with some [[ration]]s stashed in the small room.

=="The Insect Den"==
This circular shaped vault has a radius of about 6-7 tiles. The vault may be filled with such low level creatures as [[rat]]s and [[worm]]s, although a pack of [[giant ant]]s can easily overwhelm a low level character. Occassionally, a [[moth of wrath]] will be enclosed in a translucent-walled box in the center of the vault. While the Moth of Wrath is unable to attack you, it can [[berserk]] the other enemies with deadly results.

=="Simulacrum Room"==
This vault is square in shape, usually 3x3. Upon opening the door you will find it filled with 8-9 various mammalian [[simulacrum|simulacra]], varying from [[rat]]s and [[jackal]]s to [[yak]]s and [[bear]]s. These give good and easy experience (and [[piety]] for worshippers of [[The Shining One]]) as long as you have some degree of cold resistance.

=="The Farm"==
This amusing vault is a large square or rectangular open room, usually with a tunnel leading into it of about 1 or 2 tiles thick. Inside, there are [[human]]s, [[sheep]], [[hound]]s, and sometimes [[yak]]s. Think of it as a farmer and his sheepdog rounding up the livestock.

==Hall of Rats==
This vault is a looping tunnel with many doors along the inside. Behind each door is a 1-tile room with a rat inside it. One, however, has a different enemy behind the door, standing on a pile of gold.

==God Vaults==
Each [[god]] has their own set of unique vaults that may or may not be used in the random generation of their altars. Especially early on, several different altars can appear in small rooms or islands, behind moats of lava or deep water.

===[[Trog]]===
Trog's altars are commonly found lying in relatively small squareish rooms, although they can also be found in the open. Most of the time one can find an uncursed, +0,+0 [[knife]] and an uncursed +0 [[animal skin]] on the altar, presumably the sacrifice of some beast. Trog altar vaults are also sometimes led up to by a long narrow corridor, with a [[spellbook]] at the end. Upon getting close (or entering LOS), the book bursts into a dangerous flame cloud. A dangerous example is a single moth of wrath locked in transparent walls, surrounded by weak monsters which berserk as you approach.

Another vault for Trog's altar lies in a room made of stone walls, with the altar near the entrance and a 3-by-3 "jail cell" made of stone walls and an iron grate lies further in, with a frightened wizard inside it. Upon nearing the altar, Trog ignites the frightened wizard from the inside, killing him. Trog then roars with satisfaction.

===[[Fedhas]]===
Fedhas' altars are often found tucked behind a barrier of various plants. These may need to be cleared to reach the altar, but there may be a path, similar to [[Crazy Yiuf]]'s hut.
The larger versions of Fedhas's "garden" usually have fruit scattered around, but often have an Oklob plant or two in the corner.
Fedhas altars may just be out in the open, with four plants on the diagonal corners.
Yet another, far more dangerous variation is a large desert of sand with the altar in the middle. However, with each turn after the player enters LOS, [[plant]]s will begin to grow, some of which may become [[Oklob sapling]]s, and even [[Oklob plant]]s.

===[[Xom]]===
Xom altar vaults are undeniably the most noticeable. They consist of a large rectangular room filled with random wall tiles, water, etc., blocking easy access. Any ground that is exposed is a random color and likely trapped. Littered throughout the vault are many items and monsters, usually [[rat]]s or packs of [[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]]s. What makes these vaults dangerous is that the gnoll packs are often overwhelming to young adventurers, and may spawn with [[chaos]] branded [[spear]]s and [[club]]s.

===[[Elyvilon]]===
Elyvilon's altars are often found in the Cross Vaults (see above). They may also appear out in the open, guarded by butterflies and friendly fish, decorated with symmetrical plants and lakes.

===[[The Shining One]]===
The Shining One's vaults are usually found in the Cross Vaults (see above) or in square stone rooms guarded by a walled in angel.

===[[Zin]]===
Zin's altar generation patterns are mostly nondescript, although sometimes they generate in a tiny, closed, metal-walled room with an angel locked behind a glass wall.

===[[Vehumet]]===

Vehumet's altars are often located out in the open, but often have various [[cloud]]s (usually flaming or freezing) bursting around them. Reaching these can be suicidal for the unprepared. Vehumet's altars may also spawn beside a statue in a rectangular room of green crystal.

===[[Sif Muna]]===
Sif Muna's altars vaults resemble temples, with a long rectangular room with blue floor and granite statues lining it at appropriate intervals. At the end of the long room is a closed door, behind which is a 1-tile room with the altar.

===[[Jiyva]]===
Jiyva rarely has major vaults, but its dungeon altars are frequently guarded by four [[Jelly|jellies]].

===[[Yredelemnul]]===
Yredelemnul's vault consists of an altar inside a room made up of translucent rocks. This room has no entrances, however. Nearby is a "house" made of stone and a door, with a neutral human living inside. Killing the human makes Yredelemnul happy, as well as removes one of the translucent rock tiles, allowing you access to the altar.
[[Category:Dungeon Features]]

Gnoll sergeant

2020-05-15T10:49:48Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version016}}

{{monster
|name=gnoll sergeant
|glyph={{Cyan|g}}
|tile=[[File:Gnoll sergeant.png]]
|flags={{Fighter flag}} {{Speaks flag}} {{Warm blood flag}}
|resistances=None
|vulnerabilities=None
|max_chunks=4
|meat={{Clean corpse}}
|xp=86
|holiness={{Natural}}
|magic_resistance=20
|hp_range=16-36
|avg_hp=26
|armour_class=2
|evasion=9
|habitat=Land
|speed= 10
|size={{Medium}}
|item_use={{Weapons armour}} {{Starting equipment}} {{Open doors}}
|attack1=11 ({{Hit type}}: {{Plain flavour}})
|attack2=
|attack3=
|attack4=
|hit_dice=4
|base_hp=4
|extra_hp=5
|fixed_hp=0
|intelligence={{Normal intelligence}}
|genus=gnoll
|species=gnoll
}}
{{Flavour|A commander of a pack of gnolls. Scars on its stout body give evidence of how it earned its rank.}}

{{list of | gnolls}}

==Useful Info==
'''Gnoll sergeant'''s are deadlier than the [[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]]s they lead into combat, armed with better equipment ([[polearms]], medium armour, and often a [[shields|shield]]), more [[HP]], and often a [[potion of curing]]. Along with gnoll support, they are also often accompanied by [[hound]]s, [[war dog]]s, or [[gnoll shaman]]s. They can be found in the Dungeon on gnoll-themed floors or occasionally leading a pack elsewhere.

==Tips & Tricks==
Much like [[orc warrior]]s, they are only as dangerous as the equipment they wield. As they usually appear with groups of minions, any spells or wands which target multiple tiles are useful.

Gnoll shaman

2020-05-15T10:49:12Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version018}}
{{monster info}}
{{list of | gnolls}}

==Useful Info==
'''Gnoll shamans''' are support casters often found with packs of standard [[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]]s. Only as powerful physically as a standard gnoll, they aren't much of a threat alone, but they can be dangerous if they manage to haste an ally with a powerful weapon.

{{monster spells}}

==Tips & Tricks==
*Their Corona spell doesn't make a big difference for characters in heavy armour, but can make combat significantly riskier for [[ev]]asion-based characters.
*Try to separate them from their allies: hasted gnolls are not fun to fight. If this is not possible, at least target them in preference to normal gnolls.

==History==
Prior to [[0.14]], gnoll shamans knew [[Petrify]].

Crazy Yiuf

2020-05-15T10:48:24Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version|024}}
{{monster info}}

==Useful Info==
'''Crazy Yiuf the Enlightened''' is a deranged [[unique]] [[Gnoll (monster)|gnoll]] who shouts gibberish while murdering trespassers. He always generates wearing a [[cloak]] and wielding a [[chaos]]-[[brand]]ed [[quarterstaff]] which has the potential to be extremely dangerous; he may occasionally generate with a powerful [[wand]] as well. His vault is very distinct and recognizable: a stone chamber accessed through a characteristic uneven path, usually through [[tree]]s and occasionally blocked off by [[fungus|fungi]]. His hut is guaranteed to contain at least one [[mace]], and sometimes several more are strewn about near the entrance.

==Location==
*[[The Dungeon]]:2-7

==Tips & Tricks==
*His quarterstaff may heal you, or it may electrocute you for enough damage to one-shot some characters. Definitely try to soften him up at range with whatever you have available.
*Killing him early is usually worthwhile, as he is guaranteed to produce his (occasionally enchanted or branded) cloak, chaos quarterstaff, and at least one better than average [[mace]] in his cottage. If you intend to fight with [[staves]] in the long run, his quarterstaff can be very powerful early on (though it will almost certainly betray you eventually).
*If you are a follower of [[Xom]] or you've inflicted [[confusion]] on Yiuf, his dialogue will become... interesting.

==History==
* Prior to [[0.23]], the door to Crazy Yiuf's hut was opaque.
* In [[0.17]], hammers in the hut were replaced by maces.
* In [[0.13]], hammers were removed from other parts of the game, but not from Yiuf's hut.

User:Derrek

2020-05-15T10:23:37Z

Derrek:

User:Derrek

2020-05-15T10:23:18Z

Derrek:

Occasional DCSS player, just want to help with wiki contents.

Some things I will work on:
* Broken links in [[Special:WantedPages| Wanted pages]].
* [[Current_projects/0.14_update_project|0.14 update project]]
* Updating articles tagged as [[0.13]] articles, and earlier versions

==Wins so far==
* 26 May 2014: [http://pastebin.com/SYuxafDv Tough Guy the Minotaur Barricade], [[Minotaur]] [[Fighter]] of [[Trog]] (3 runes) - very promising character, maybe I should've go for more runes. Anyway, it is my first win, and since I play Crawl occasionally from [[0.6]], I'm pretty damn happy with this!
* 14 May 2020: [https://gist.github.com/vkotovv/e64f754bfb443ed76220e949dcb4b54f Derrek the Gnoll Arbalest], [[Gnoll]] [[Wanderer]] of [[Okawaru]] (8 runes) - cleared Zot and some Hell branches, but decided to finish with 8 runes.

The Royal Jelly

2020-05-12T17:35:39Z

Derrek: fix typo

{{version024}}
{{list of | jellies}}''For the obsolete item, see [[royal jelly (item)]].''
{{monster info|the Royal Jelly}}

==Useful Info==
'''The Royal Jelly''' ('''"TRJ"''' for short) is the [[list of jellies|jelly]] boss of [[the Slime Pits]]. Located in the center of Slime:5, it will not emerge until you've entered the stone structure it resides in (or you make enough [[noise]] nearby to awaken it), giving you plenty of time to clear the rest of the floor first.

It has an impressive amount of [[HP]], powerful [[acid]]ic melee attacks, exceptional speed, and an unusual defense mechanism: whenever it's damaged, it spawns various powerful jelly-type monsters to attack you ([[azure jellies]], [[death ooze]]s, and [[acid blob]]s). Fortunately, it cannot pursue you up [[stairs]], allowing you to abort attempts at killing it that you don't feel confident you can complete.

Killing the Royal Jelly causes two things to happen:

*The translucent walls of the four central [[vault]]s that the Royal Jelly guarded will come crumbling down, allowing you access to the [[rune of Zot|slimy rune of Zot]] and the piles of treasure.
*[[Jiyva]], the god of slimes, immediately ceases to exist once its only sentient worshiper dies. You can prevent this deicide by worshiping Jiyva yourself before killing TRJ, but killing such a high-ranking jelly will result in penance.

==Tips & Tricks==
===How To Kill It===
*Melee fighters should ''not'' simply charge in and bash the thing. Even with corrosion resistance and heavy armour, having eight corrosive opponents attacking you repeatedly will quickly send your offensive capabilities and your AC plummeting, leaving you weak and very vulnerable. Always soften it up before engaging it in melee, and buff heavily: Potions of haste, might, and/or brilliance can help you deal lethal damage to TRJ before its reinforcements make life unbearable. [[Berserk]]ing also works, but it greatly limits your other options and might run out and leave you helpless while surrounded by angry jellies.
*[[Stealth]]y [[stab]]bers may be tempted to try to kill it in a single blow, followed by a timely teleport to safety. This is entirely possible, but TRJ has enough HP to survive all but the most highly-skilled assassination attempts. Furthermore, several enemies guard the corridors leading to its chamber; should any of them wake up, the noise you make while fighting them might be enough to also wake TRJ. Try it at your own risk: equip a [[dagger]] for maximum stabbing damage, and be prepared to change strategies should it suddenly wake up.
*Fighting TRJ in one of the central corridors restricts how many monsters can reach you. Just be prepared for the angry jelly mob once you're done.
*TRJ retreats behind its spawned jellies periodically, forcing you to fight through them. Attack wands, [[bolt spells]], weapons of [[penetration]], and [[smite]]-targeted attacks will all help to pierce through the surrounding jellies. Or, summon your own allies while adjacent to TRJ and box it in before attacking (works best in the corridors).
*Ranged weapon fighters can just pelt the Royal Jelly with projectiles. Kiting it will still be difficult, as it's almost as fast as a [[centaur]] and you'll likely have to deal with the ranged attacks of the acid blobs it spawns.
*[[Banish]]ing TRJ via [[Lugonu]]'s [[ability]] doesn't unlock the vault, meaning you'll need some way to bypass [[stone wall]]s. Corrupting the floor will open the vaults easily, though [[Shatter]] can also do so without unleashing an abyssal horde. Failing all else, a trip to the [[Abyss]] to kill TRJ will be necessary.
*TRJ is a natural creature, and thus vulnerable to [[torment]]. Reading two or three [[scrolls of torment]] will drop it to near death, and a few [[bolt spells]] or [[smite]]-targeted attacks will kill it despite the surrounding army. Just be aware that this strategy will also leave your own HP dangerously low (rN+++, [[Statue Form]], or being [[undead]] are highly recommended).
*If you decide to use summoning magic, you can't do better than [[Dragon's Call]]. Interspersing this with other high-level summons can create a wall of units capable of matching TRJ's allies. You'll need to plan ahead, of course: 18 or 19 Summonings skill, high intelligence, a ring of [[wizardry]], and [[Recall]] are the bare minimum, with a method of [[channeling]] or spare [[potions of magic]] being highly recommended.
*Worshipers of [[Trog]] can also benefit from summons; a small pack of berserk [[iron troll]]s or [[stone giant]]s should survive long enough to deal tremendous damage to TRJ before being dissolved.
*Attack TRJ 1-2 times so it spawns jellies/oozes, read a [[scroll of immolation]], then kill any of the spawns to set off a chain reaction. This strategy risks self-immolation, so ensure that you can kill one of the spawns at a distance immediately after reading the scroll ([[orb of destruction]] or a cloud spell work well). Being [[haste]]d helps, giving TRJ less time to respond to your appearance and move out of explosion range. Having rF+++ or a [[potion of resistance]] is useful as a failsafe in case you get caught in the blast.
*Spawned jellies are unaffected by several combat [[Necromancy]] spells like [[Borgnjor's Vile Clutch]], [[Infestation]], or [[Death Channel]], and nothing in the Slime Pits can be [[Animate Dead|zombified]] or turned into [[Simulacrum|simulacra]]. Characters relying on Necromancy should consider avoiding TRJ until other means of fighting it are acquired (though [[Agony]] will chew through its HP if you can manage to get past its magic resistance).
*TRJ can be [[wand of polymorph|polymorphed]] if your [[Evocations]] is fairly high and you reduce its MR with a [[scroll of vulnerability]] or two, but this is generally inadvisable. Succeeding will immediately create a very large number of jellies, and due to TRJ's high [[HD]], whatever it turns into will also be dangerous; expect [[titan]]s, high-end [[dragon]]s, or [[list of birds|shrikes]]. If you ''do'' manage to polymorph TRJ, it will no longer spit out extra jellies every time it's hit and killing it will still unlock the rune vaults; after dealing with the army of jellies, taking a polymorphed TRJ down will be fairly simple by comparison.

===How To Escape It===
*TRJ will not follow you [[stairs|upstairs]], but its generated slimes will. If you plan on running back upstairs mid-fight, expect some of its spawns to follow you.
*If you need to escape the floor without pursuing jellies following you up, Haste will also allow you to make a fairly safe escape; TRJ will keep up with you, but nothing else will. If you wish to actually outrun TRJ, you'll likely need both Haste ''and'' [[boots]] of [[running]] or a timely casting of [[Swiftness]].
*If you've accidentally created an army of jellies and need to abort, heal up and then stair dance so you can clear out the reinforcements without dealing with too many of them at a time. Entering the floor from different staircases will let you avoid being immediately surrounded.
*[[Shatter]], while ineffective against everything you'll find in the Slime Pits, can be used to break open the loot vaults and skip the fight entirely. It is, however, very difficult to cast as well as very loud and will likely attract the attention of every slime on the entire floor.
*Of course, if you wish to avoid this entire mess, you can simply worship Jiyva and waltz in when your piety is high enough. Most of the treasure will inevitably get eaten, but you'll at least be able to make off with the rune and whatever [[artefact]]s were present.

==History==
*Prior to [[0.23]], exploding the Royal Jelly with [[Uskayaw]]'s Grand Finale didn't generate any jellies.
*Prior to [[0.19]], the Royal Jelly could eat items and could heal itself when shot with anything other than stones.
*Prior to [[0.16]], the Royal Jelly did not immediately spit out a large number of jellies when polymorphed, making it a viable combat strategy.
*Prior to [[0.15]], hitting the Royal Jelly could generate [[brown ooze]]s as well.
*Prior to [[0.11]], the Royal Jelly was not able to regenerate naturally. This made the fight much easier to complete over several small assaults.

Khufu

2020-05-04T19:05:51Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version024}}
{{monster info}}

==Useful Info==
'''Khufu the Undying Pharaoh''' is a [[unique]] [[greater mummy]] who couples tremendous durability with the ability to [[smite]] or [[torment]] you at will. Also, when near death he can temporarily escape the conflict by sealing himself in rock walls, rendering him untouchable unless you have the right tools. He is accompanied by an entourage of [[Mummy_(monster)|mummies]] and [[greater mummies]].

==Location==
*[[The Crypt]]
*[[The Tomb]]

{{monster spells}}

==Tips & Tricks==
*Unless you manage to lure away individual mummies very carefully, you'll be facing an army of extremely dangerous monsters that can injure you no matter what you do. Bring as much torment resistance as you can get to avoid being decimated in the first few rounds. [[Aura of Abjuration]] will help clear out summoned monsters quickly so you don't have to waste turns smashing them the hard way. A [[scroll of blinking]] will help you get out of their [[line of sight]] quickly should everything start to fall apart.
*[[Silence]] stops up his spellcasting capabilities very effectively, assuming you can get close enough to him.
*Khufu possesses the most powerful defensive spell in the game, the [[Tomb of Doroklohe]]. This spell seals the caster up in a ring of rock walls long enough for him to partially recover, so you'll want a [[wand of digging]] or [[Shatter]] in order to prevent him from hiding away until fully healed. Alternatively, he'll eventually come out on his own, but that's nowhere near as ideal. Of course, if you're well prepared for him, you can kill him before he even casts it.

[[Category:Mummy]]

Death drake

2020-04-19T18:36:38Z

Derrek: The Swamp now has 4 levels

{{version023}}
{{list of|dragons}}
{{monster info}}

==Useful info==
'''Death drakes''' are small, extremely unpleasant members of dragonkind. Although not very threatening physically, their [[miasma]] breath attack creates clouds of [[poison]]ous [[rot]]- and [[slow]]-inducing corruption that can semi-permanently weaken your character, if not kill them outright. They can be found naturally in [[Tartarus]] and the [[the Abyss]] as well as in some [[vault]]s, most notably the 'undead' [[Swamp]]:4 ending. However, by far the most common place to see death drakes is in [[the Realm of Zot]], where [[draconian stormcaller]]s will summon hordes of them.

{{monster spells}}

==Tips & Tricks==
*Read the article on [[miasma]].
*If you have [[rot]] resistance ([[undead]] or [[Necromutation]], [[Gargoyle]], [[Vine Stalker]], [[Demonspawn]] with [[Foul Stench]], [[Statue Form]], or [[Zin]]'s Vitalisation; [[Dithmenos]]'s [[Shadow Form]] also works, but is more suitable for escape than combat), then death drakes are nothing more than a smelly and unusually durable [[wyvern]]. If you don't have rot resistance, then make killing or avoiding death drakes a priority.
*In their "real" form, these monsters are quite rare, only appearing naturally in [[Tartarus]] and the [[Abyss]]. If you see one outside these areas, it is either a [[vault]] monster, a [[shapeshifter]], or [[summon]]ed. In the latter two cases, the best option is often to simply escape the area and wait for the drake to unsummon/shift, since it is not worth acquiring rotted HP for a threat that simply could have been avoided. Even "real" death drakes are often best avoided unless they are blocking an area you need to get to. However, since drakes are fast, avoiding them is not always trivial.
*Despite their name and breath weapon, they are not [[undead]] or even considered unholy or evil. This means [[holy wrath]] weapons are not especially effective against them, but it also means they have no resistances other than poison and rotting.
*Unfortunately, killing them quickly may be easier said than done: they have good EV, non-trivial AC, and almost twice as much HP as most HD 9 monsters. If the drake came from a [[draconian stormcaller]], it is usually better to run away, wait for the drakes to unsummon, and try to catch the caller in melee before he fills the area with allies. If it is a real death drake, use your best weapons and/or spells to dispatch them quickly.
**[[Airstrike]] is as effective against death drakes as any other flying monster, with the added advantage of being able to hit them at any time, though they have enough HP to take a couple hits before succumbing.
**Note that their low [[MR]] means [[Hexes]] can often disable them if you have them at a decent power. Be aware that a [[confuse]]d death drake may still breath clouds of miasma everywhere.
**Their low MR and [[HD]] also make them a good candidate for a [[wand of polymorph]].
**In an emergency, you can partially protect yourself from the miasma by reading a [[scroll of fog]]. You'll still take impact miasma damage and may be slowed and poisoned, but at least the fog will prevent any miasma clouds from forming for as long as it lasts.

Gauntlet

2020-03-25T10:20:34Z

Derrek: fix link to minotaur monster page

{{version023}}
{{flavour|An elaborate complex designed to lure foolhardy adventurers seeking riches and glory. Those who enter must choose a path through several combat arenas, each of which contains treasure guarded by dangerous and sometimes exotic creatures. At the end awaits a fearsome minotaur guarding a large hoard of loot taken from the bodies of foolish adventurers.

Beware that powerful magic prevents long-range teleports in Gauntlets. What's worse, some of these complexes offer only one exit...in the minotaur's lair.}}

[[File:Gauntlet portal.png]] The '''Gauntlet''' is a [[portal]] [[branch]] consisting of a series of small arenas with monsters and various loot items linked by [[transporter]]s, where the player has a choice of some sort in which path through the arenas they would like to take. This path culminates in a fight with the [[Minotaur_(monster)|minotaur]] that guards the exit.

==Layout==
There are several different gauntlets which each have a similar layout, consisting of a series of 7x7 or 9x9 arenas which are each surrounded by transparent stone and only accessible through transporters. Each arena has a very specific set of a few monsters (usually of just one to three types) and a few items of loot, ranging from consumables to generic weapons to [[artefact]]s. Arenas come in two difficulties, with the last arena in a series often being of the more difficult type, and offering better loot. There is always some choice involved in which path through the arenas you wish to take — this choice may be made before taking on the first arena in some vaults, or after each arena in others.

All paths through the arenas eventually lead to a final area with a [[Minotaur_(monster)|minotaur]] guarding the escape hatch out of the gauntlet and another pile of loot. In addition to this exit guarded by the minotaur, there is also an exit that can be found in the starting area before taking any transporters.

===Teleport suppression===
All forms of teleportation, including [[rings of teleportation]], the [[teleportitis]] mutation, [[scroll of teleportation|scrolls of teleportation]], and the [[Teleport Other]] and [[Passage of Golubria]] spells, are suppressed in gauntlets. This is to prevent you from reaching arenas that are not on your chosen path and getting their loot, as well as to prevent you from leaving via the exit in the initial starting area after having completed one or more of the arenas. All forms of blinking, including the [[scroll of blinking|scroll]] and both the [[Blink]] and [[Controlled Blink]] spells function as normal. In addition to this, some arenas may contain [[dispersal trap]]s.

==Walkthrough==
*After entering the portal to the gauntlet, you are placed in a large outside area from which you can see all of the arenas you can choose from and make your choice as to which path you wish to take. This large outside area also contains an escape hatch out of the gauntlet, which you can take if you decide that all paths through the gauntlet will be too difficult for you.
*Assuming you decide to press on through the gauntlet, you will now enter a transporter to take you to your first arena. At this point, there is no way out until you fight the [[Minotaur_(monster)|minotaur]].
*After having competed your first arena, you will take another transporter to an intermediary area, in which you may or may not be presented with a choice as to which arena you take next.
*This may continue up to a total of between 2 and 4 arenas, after which you will take a transporter to a final area with the minotaur.
*You must then fight the minotaur, or otherwise avoid him, in order to reach the escape hatch up (where you will find another pile of loot as well).

==History==
*Added in 0.23, replacing the [[Labyrinth]].

[[Category:Portals]]

0.9.0

2020-03-25T06:38:23Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{Oldversion|0.9.0}}
0.9.0 was released 12th Aug 2011.

== Misc notes==
Changes that didn't make it into the changelogs:
* There is only one demonic rune, treated like the Abyssal rune.

==Changelog==
===Stone Soup 0.9 (20110812)===
Disclaimer: These are merely the highlights, not an exhaustive list of changes.
Save compatibility with the 0.8 release is retained, although once a game is loaded in 0.9, you can not go back to 0.8.

===0.9 Highlights===
* New skill training system. Experience pool and [[victory dance|victory dancing]] are gone.
* [[Ashenzari]]: Remove passive XP boost, add a skill boost depending on level of boundedness and which equipment is bound.
* Rename Crusader to [[Skald]], change starting book and skill levels.
* New spells: [[Inner Flame]], [[Shroud of Golubria]].
* Removed spells: [[Teleport Self]], [[Berserker Rage]], [[Resist Poison]].
* New monsters: [[Ignacio]] (unique executioner), [[catoblepas]], [[basilisk]].
* New subgame: [[Zot Defence]]. Consider it of experimental quality, though.

===Skills===
* Skill training: skills are trained immediately when XP is gained. The skills trained are the ones that have been used recently (auto) or the ones which have been selected (manual).
* Skill costs: the XP to skill point ratio no longer depends on skill level.
* Magic school skills early game discount removed.

===Gods===
* [[Cheibriados]] gives full stat boost for fully ponderous, regardless of species.
* [[Jiyva]] is a little less likely to remove mutations.
* Improve [[Jiyva]]'s stat shuffling, take skills and armour into account.
* [[Makhleb]] has a new flavour description.
* Nerf [[TSO]]'s and [[Makhleb]]'s HP and MP on kills.
* [[Trog]] specialises in antimagic weapon gifts, gives fewer artefacts.
* [[Trog]] dislikes it when you train magic skills.
* [[Yred]] takes statue kills and forbids Statue Form.
* [[Zin]]'s Vitalisation is cheaper and cures petrification, stat boost stackable.
* Don't allow avoiding good god wrath by swapping via another good god.
* [[Ashenzari]]: Remove passive XP boost, add a skill boost depending on level of boundedness and which equipment is bound.
* [[Ashenzari]]: reduce reskilling XP penalty and some ability piety costs.
* [[Ashenzari]] wrath: reduce all skills for the duration of wrath.

===Character===
* +3 base HP for all characters.
* Racial HP/MP gain is now displayed on a -3 to +3 scale (see ?%).
* Fighting gives less HP boost.
* All characters carry a bootknife to dissect corpses.
* [[Hill Orc]] [[Priest]]s always take on [[Beogh]].
* Berserkitis mutation triggers less often.
* Tweak starting skills for a few backgrounds (Fi, Gl, Wr, CK).
* Give [[Warper]]s a few more darts of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]].
* Let [[Gladiator]]s start with a cap if they can't wear helmets.
* Start all [[Hunter]]s with the same melee weapon.
* Start [[Artificer]]s with quarterstaves, instead of letting [[Monk]]s choose them.
* Rename Crusader to [[Skald]], change starting book and skill levels.
* [[Conjurer]]s don't need to choose a book (they always get an Air/Ice book).
* [[Felid]]s: lose a level on death, gain at most nine lives, improved aptitudes.
* [[Draconian]]s are more dextrous.
* Berserk speed-up reduced to that of haste (1.5 instead of 2).
* All species take the same amount of time to use stairs.

===Interface===
* New command: 'D'rop last. Drops the item(s) last picked up.
* Auto-switch: bumping while wielding launcher switches to weapon in slots a/b.
* Auto-switch: firing while wielding melee weapon switches to launcher in a/b.
* Auto-explore tries to look at unreachable places.
* Search: allows searching for portals, and for waypoints (Ctrl-F 1, Ctrl-F *).
* Search: "branded" synonymous with "ego". Better help (Ctrl-F ?).
* Search: only show items in a stash matching the search.
* Search: allow searching for armour by equipment slot.
* New help for skills screen (m??).
* Change inventory colours for some potions.
* Auto-pickup chunks after [[Animate Skeleton]].
* Allow toggling hit prediction with ':' in new targetting modes.
* Cloud glyph in 7-bit ASCII is '0', not '#' anymore.
* Prompt before leaving [[Ziggurat]].
* Better butchering messages, less spam.
* Abort spellcasting in many cases where spells are guaranteed to fail.
* Display -cTele on the status line where controlled teleports are blocked.
* Allow redefining [[mimic]] glyphs, once identified.
* Show percentage progress to the next level, instead of number of XP points.
* Show 'chaotic' in monster status only when aiming silver ammo at them.
* Show 'mindless' in monster status only when using [[Elyvilon|Ely]]'s healing abilities.

===Spells===
* New spell: [[Shroud of Golubria]] (comes in Skald and Warper starting books). Prevents some melee damage, but likely to break against more damaging attacks.
* New spell: [[Inner Flame]] (comes in starting book of Fire Elementalists). Causes targeted enemy to explode in a fireball when killed.
* Removed spells: [[Teleport Self]], [[Berserker Rage]], [[Resist Poison]].
* [[Tornado]]: radius starts low, increases over time, add cooldown, adjust damage.
* [[Tornado]] moves monsters within its radius around.
* [[Blink]]ing with [[Tornado]] active reduces its duration, [[teleport]]ing cancels it.
* Make [[Fire Storm]], [[Ice Storm]], [[Bolt of Magma]] and [[Throw Icicle]] more resistible.
* Increase [[Bolt of Magma]] damage.
* Give [[Summon Dragon]] a longer duration, summon two dragons at high power.
* [[Shock]] and [[lightning bolt|Lightning]] will hit a creature at most twice; damage increased.
* Make [[LRD]] and [[Sandblast]] more strongly affected by monster AC again.
* Ranges of [[Throw Frost]]/[[Throw Flame|Flame]] and of [[Bolt of Cold]]/[[Bolt of Fire|Fire]] swapped.
* Increase [[Flame Tongue]]'s accuracy and range a little.
* [[Sublimation of Blood]] takes spellpower into account.
* [[Apportation]] takes spellpower into account for all items.
* [[Statue Form|Statue]] and [[Dragon Form]] balance: give both some [[GDR]], reduce unarmed damage.
* [[Statue Form]]: boost all melee damage, give 50% torment resistance.
* Increase [[Ozocubu's Refrigeration]] to level 6.
* Reduce [[Summon Ice Beast]] to level 4, [[Static Discharge]] to level 3.
* [[Maxwell's Silver Hammer]] works also on all [[weapons]] with bludgeoning damage.
* [[Poison Weapon]] works also on blunt [[weapons]].
* [[Condensation Shield]] duration increased.
* [[Simulacrum|Simulacra]] from the spell are no longer abjurable.
* Renamed books: Chemistry -> [[Book of Alchemy|Alchemy]], Zoology -> [[Book of Beasts|Beasts]].

===Monsters===
* [[Catoblepas]]: a new hard-hitting yak-genus monster with petrifying breath.
* Replace "gila monster" with "[[basilisk]]", complete with petrification.
* [[Ignacio]], a unique executioner of Makhleb, spawns in Pandemonium.
* AI: monsters improve even signature weapons (e.g. [[Sigmund]] will use [[List of unrands|Finisher]]).
* AI: confused high intelligence monsters don't move if next to a deadly cell.
* Allow polymorphing demons into other similar-tier demons.
* [[Snapping turtle]]s and [[Geryon]] reach diagonally.
* Give [[Shadow fiend]]s and [[Tormentor]]s a pain-branded melee attack.
* Boost [[ghost moth]] damage, don't spawn them in [[Spider's Nest]]s.
* Fix random [[pan lord]]s not getting [[Symbol of Torment]] in their spell sets.
* [[Bat Form|Vampire bat]]s are undead.
* Monsters with mutagenic chunks leaves corpses less often.
* Reaching over a hostile monster may hit the monster between you and target.
* [[Kenku]] monsters come with gear, may spawn in the [[Abyss]].
* Rename "beast" to "[[hell beast]]".
* Rename "megabat" to "[[bat]]".
* [[Kobold]]s can (rarely) get crossbows.
* [[Pikel]]: fixed bugs with freed monsters.
* Adjust xp values for some monsters.
* Disable feature [[mimic]]s.

===Levels===
* New branch endings: multiple [[Elven Halls|Elf:5]] maps, [[Realm of Zot|Zot]] entry vaults on D:27.
* Many other new [[vault]]s, including serial vaults, traps, Abyss vaults.
* [[Blink]] in the [[Abyss]] only blinks; does not teleport anymore.
* [[Bailey]]s are more sane in loot and threat.
* [[Trove]]s: fix some bugs, and additional quests.
* [[Vestibule of Hell]] has its own monster set.
* Don't place kobold/orc/jelly/bee special rooms in the [[Hell]]s.

===Orb run===
* Double the orb's weight.
* Disable controlled teleports once the orb is picked up.
* Orb run spawns are more likely to spawn near the player.
* [[Teleportation]] may need longer to kick in.

===Items===
* Price reform: scrolls, potions, rings. Bad items cost more than 1 gold now.
* Cards: the Orb (new card), destruction cards buffed.
* Experience card gives less experience at low power.
* [[Scroll of identify]] shows top card when used on deck of cards.
* Picked up [[rune]]s are no longer part of the inventory. They are listed in \.
* Randarts with the *Rage property trigger berserk less often.
* Modified spellbooks: [[Book of Conjurations|Conjurations]], [[Book of Unlife|Unlife]], many elemental books.
* [[Buckler]]s provide less [[SH]].
* [[Large rock]]s can (rarely) be generated on the dungeon floor.
* Ammo of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]] only disperses if it does damage.
* [[Silver]]-branded ammo only does bonus damage to chaotic creatures.
* Reduce [[silver]] and [[steel]] damage bonus.
* Reflected missiles get their full range on the way back.
* Randart heavy armours tend to come with better enchantment.
* [[Wand]]s and [[rod]]s rely more strongly on [[Evocations]] skill.
* Long blades: nerf [[double sword]]s, buff [[demon blade]]s, remove [[katana]]s.
* Reduce [[demon whip]] and [[demon trident]] damage.
* Remove [[knife|knives]]. Change [[List of unrands|Spriggan's Knife]] from knife to dagger.
* Make the [[List of unrands|Sword of Zonguldrok]] a double sword with the reaping [[brand]].
* Give [[List of unrands|Undeadhunter]] a disruption effect against undead instead of holy wrath.
* Make [[List of unrands|Wyrmbane]]'s enchantment increase whenever it kills a dragon.
* Give [[List of unrands|Scythe of Curses]] draining brand, inflict necro miscasts on its targets.
* [[List of unrands|Mace of Brilliance]] comes with a halo.
* [[List of unrands|Singing Sword]] does sonic damage at high tension.
* Bad unrandarts (Misfortune, Folly, Lear's) get a random appearance.
* Make [[potion of berserk rage|potions of berserk rage]] more common.

===Tiles===
* Display halo radius, fix information disparity between tiles and console.
* Don't allow casting spells in -CAST equipment by clicking on spell icons.
* Only flying [[pan lord]]s have tiles with wings.
* Many new or improved monster, dungeon and interface tiles.

===Options===
* Allow hiding the -cTele indicator with show_no_ctele.
* Allow automatically assigning specific spells to letters with spell_slot.

[[Category:Crawl Versions]]

Boomerang

2020-03-25T06:37:04Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{version024}}
{{ThrowingMissile
|name = Boomerang
|weight = 3.0
|launcher = Throwing
|damage = 6
|basedelay = 13 (130%)
|mindelay = 7 at skill 12
}}
{{flavour|A curved, flat, throwing baton designed to return to its user.
----
“The weapon, thrown at 20 or 30 yards distance, twirled round in the air with astonishing velocity, and alighting on the right arm of one of his opponents, actually rebounded to a distance not less than 70 or 80 yards, leaving a horrible contusion behind, and exciting universal admiration.” 
-The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 23 December 1804}}

'''Boomerangs''' are a type of [[Throwing]] weapon. More damaging than [[stone]]s, but less so than [[javelin]]s, they are capable of inflicting respectable damage in the hands of a skilled user. Boomerangs are the largest throwing weapon that [[small]] races can use.

Boomerangs' design grants them the innate [[returning]] property. They may also have the following brands:
*[[Silver]]
*[[Dispersal_(brand)|Dispersal]]

Boomerangs have a 5% chance of [[mulch]]ing (breaking) when thrown; boomerangs of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]], however, will ''always'' mulch when thrown.

==Strategy==
Boomerangs are useful finds early in the game when characters can use them to soften up dangerous enemies like [[adder]]s, [[ogre (monster)|ogres]], or [[jelly|jellies]]. They also have the advantage of always returning to your inventory when thrown (unless they mulch), meaning you won't ever have to worry about picking up spent ammunition mid-battle or losing ammunition behind impassable terrain. [[Silver]] boomerangs boast improved damage (especially against [[:Category:Silver vulnerability|monsters weak to silver]]), while boomerangs of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]] can be a godsend when fleeing powerful melee threats.

Unless you plan to specialize in throwing weapons later, you'll probably want to drop boomerangs eventually in favor of a more effective ranged attack, as they only become truly lethal when you've got several ranks in [[Throwing]]. Additionally, boomerangs of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]] only activate if they deal damage in the first place, which may be difficult for unskilled users to achieve against high-[[AC]] opponents.

{| class="prettytable" style="border:none; margin:auto; padding:0; text-align: center"
! Mundane || Magical || Silver
|-
| [[File:Boomerang 1.png]] || [[File:Boomerang 2.png]] || [[File:Boomerang silver.png]]
|}

==History==
*Boomerangs were introduced in [[0.24]], where they replaced [[tomahawk]]s.

{{weapons}}

[[Category:Throwing]]

Boomerang

2020-03-25T06:35:04Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{version024}}
{{ThrowingMissile
|name = Boomerang
|weight = 3.0
|launcher = Throwing
|damage = 6
|basedelay = 13 (130%)
|mindelay = 7 at skill 12
}}
{{flavour|A curved, flat, throwing baton designed to return to its user.
----
“The weapon, thrown at 20 or 30 yards distance, twirled round in the air with astonishing velocity, and alighting on the right arm of one of his opponents, actually rebounded to a distance not less than 70 or 80 yards, leaving a horrible contusion behind, and exciting universal admiration.” 
-The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 23 December 1804}}

'''Boomerangs''' are a type of [[Throwing]] weapon. More damaging than [[stone]]s, but less so than [[javelin]]s, they are capable of inflicting respectable damage in the hands of a skilled user. Boomerangs are the largest throwing weapon that [[small]] races can use.

Boomerangs' design grants them the innate [[returning]] property. They may also have the following brands:
*[[Silver]]
*[[Dispersal_(brand)|Dispersal]]

Boomerangs have a 5% chance of [[mulch]]ing (breaking) when thrown; boomerangs of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]], however, will ''always'' mulch when thrown.

==Strategy==
Boomerangs are useful finds early in the game when characters can use them to soften up dangerous enemies like [[adder]]s, [[ogre (monster)|ogres]], or [[jelly|jellies]]. They also have the advantage of always returning to your inventory when thrown (unless they mulch), meaning you won't ever have to worry about picking up spent ammunition mid-battle or losing ammunition behind impassable terrain. [[Silver]] boomerangs boast improved damage (especially against [[:Category:Silver vulnerability|monsters weak to silver]]), while boomerangs of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]] can be a godsend when fleeing powerful melee threats.

Unless you plan to specialize in throwing weapons later, you'll probably want to drop boomerangs eventually in favor of a more effective ranged attack, as they only become truly lethal when you've got several ranks in [[Throwing]]. Additionally, boomerangs of [[dispersal]] only activate if they deal damage in the first place, which may be difficult for unskilled users to achieve against high-[[AC]] opponents.

{| class="prettytable" style="border:none; margin:auto; padding:0; text-align: center"
! Mundane || Magical || Silver
|-
| [[File:Boomerang 1.png]] || [[File:Boomerang 2.png]] || [[File:Boomerang silver.png]]
|}

==History==
*Boomerangs were introduced in [[0.24]], where they replaced [[tomahawk]]s.

{{weapons}}

[[Category:Throwing]]

Crossbow (item)

2020-03-25T06:33:48Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{obsolete}}
{{weapon
|name = Crossbow
|cost = ?
|weight = 15.0
|skill = Crossbows
|damage = 5
|accuracy = +4
|basedelay = 15 (150%)
|mindelay = 7, [[Ranged_combat#Costs|skill req. varies]]
|hands = 2H
|size = Medium
|ranged = Yes
|acquirement = 10
}}

{{flavour|A piece of machinery used for firing bolts, which takes some time to load and fire. It does very good damage in combat.}}

{{crawlquote|This weapon falls into the '[[Crossbows]]' category. It uses [[bolt]]s as ammunition. Note that while the base damage is 5, the base damage of a bolt is added to give an overall base damage of 14.}}

'''Crossbows''' are powerful ranged weapons, capable of launching [[bolt]]s for high damage and with excellent accuracy. However, the complexity of their design gives them a significantly lower rate of fire than [[bow]]s, but sufficient skill, [[strength]], and [[dexterity]] will nearly make up for this. Be aware that crossbows and bolts are fairly uncommon early on, making ammo conservation a legitimate issue. They become common in [[the Vaults]] and the later portions of [[the Dungeon]] once [[yaktaur]]s start appearing. Note that using [[shield]]s will considerably slow your attack speed.

Crossbow users benefit more from a high strength score than bow-users, but benefit less from high skill levels. Because of this, while crossbows are more powerful than longbows in the early game, they become less effective in the late. However, crossbow-users have access to bolts of [[penetration]], which are significantly more powerful than the bow-user's unique [[arrow]] of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]].

{| class="prettytable" style="border:none; margin:auto; padding:0; text-align: center"
! || Image
|-
| '''Mundane''' || [[File:Crossbow 1.png]]
|-
| '''Magical''' || [[File:Crossbow 2.png]]
|-
| '''Artifact''' || [[File:Crossbow 3.png]]
|}

{| class="prettytable" style="border:none; margin:auto; padding:0; text-align: center"
! || [[Unrandart]] crossbows
|-
| '''[[Hellfire (unrand)|Hellfire]]''' || [[File:Crossbow hellfire.png]]
|-
| '''[[Sniper]]''' || [[File:Crossbow sniper.png]]
|}

{{weapons}}

==History==
Crossbows were retired in [[0.15]], replaced with [[hand crossbow]]s, [[arbalest]]s, and [[triple crossbow]]s.

In [[0.14]] [[Hellfire (unrand)|Hellfire]] was revamped to fire bolts that actually explode in [[hellfire]].

[[Category:Crossbows]]

Ranged weapon

2020-03-25T06:31:54Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{version019}}

'''Ranged weapons''' include all [[weapon]]s capable of attacking any target within your [[line of sight]]. All of these require ammo to function, and most of them require you to wield a launcher. The ability to attack distant foes is very helpful, particularly for characters with fast [[movement]] speed (see [[kiting]]). However, ranged weapons are not without their drawbacks. Running out of ammo renders a ranged weapon nearly useless, and [[melee weapon]]s tend to have better overall stats.

==Weapon attributes==
The following is a table of all ranged weapons in ''Crawl''. Below is a short explanation of each field:

{| class="wikitable"
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Name
| The name of the item as it appears in Crawl.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Damage
| The base amount of damage the weapon does, before various bonuses and adjustments.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Hit
| To hit modifier for the weapon, before any other adjustments.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | [[Weapon Speed|Speed]]
| This is actually the attack delay, which is multiplied by 10 to get the "percentages" you see in-game. (That is, attack delay 10 shows as 100%.) Every 2 levels of weapon skill lowers the delay by 1 unit. A weapon's minimum delay is half of its base delay (rounded down) or 7 (5 for [[cutlass]], 10 for [[hand crossbow]]s, [[arbalest]]s and [[triple crossbow]]s), whichever is lower. Speed brand and haste cut delay by one third (round randomly up or down). These effects stack, ''after'' the base cap, but there's an absolute cap of 2 for attack delay.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Skill
| Which skill is required to effectively use this weapon.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | [[Handedness|One-handed min. size]]
| Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with one hand. The order is little, small, medium, large, big.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | [[Handedness|Two-handed min. size]]
| Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with two hands. When the player's size is equal or greater than 'Two-handed min. size', but less than 'One-handed min. size', the weapon cannot be used with a [[shield]].
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;" | Missile
| The sort of ammo needed to use this weapon
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;" | Dam Type
| What category of damage does the weapon deal?
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Prob
| A larger number indicates higher probability of acquiring through scrolls of [[acquirement]].
|}

==Throwing==
[[Throwing]] weapons can be further divided into two categories: thrown weapons and blowguns.

Thrown weapons are unique among ranged weapons in that they do not require you to wield anything to use them; you simply hurl them without needing a free hand (Don't ask). This means you don't have to waste time in combat swapping weapons, saving turns and reducing frustration, you can wear [[shield]]s, and you can save many [[scrolls of enchant weapon]].
*[[Stone]]
*[[Tomahawk]]
*[[Javelin]]
*[[Throwing net]]
*[[Large rock]] ([[troll]]s and [[ogre]]s only)

Blowguns are very unusual ranged weapons. In spite of the fact that they are affected by your Throwing skill, they require you to wield a blowgun and fire [[needle]]s at the enemy. These deal no damage, but inflict devastating [[status effect]]s.

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Blowgun]] || 0 || +2 || 10 || Throwing || Little || Little || [[Needle]] || None || 0 || Deals no damage, but inflicts [[status effects]]
|}

==Slings==
[[Slings]] are ranged weapons which hurl [[sling bullet]]s (or [[stone]]s in a pinch) with great force. They are one-handed weapons for all but the [[spriggan|tiniest characters]] and require much less skill than most other weapons to reach min delay, but they are significantly less powerful than their slower, more cumbersome alternatives.

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Hunting sling]] || 5 || +2 || 12 || Slings || Little || Little || [[Stone]] / [[Sling bullet]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Fustibalus]] || 8 || -1 || 14 || Slings || Small || Little || [[Stone]] / [[Sling bullet]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|}

==Bows==
[[Bows]] are a moderate player's choice of ranged weapon, firing [[arrow]]s at your opponents to deadly effect. They are universally more powerful than slings, and require only a reasonable skill investment to fire quickly. However, both kinds of bow require two hands to wield.

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Shortbow]] || 9 || +2 || 13 || Bows || - || Little || [[Arrow]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Longbow]] || 15 || 0 || 17 || Bows || - || Medium || [[Arrow]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|}

==Crossbows==
If you want a ranged weapon that tears into foes with the strength of a melee weapon, consider getting into [[crossbows]]. These contraptions are the largest, slowest ranged weapons available, but they launch their [[bolt]]s with unparalleled force. Unfortunately, they require the most skill of all ranged weapons to attack quickly, particularly in the case of the super-heavy [[triple crossbow]]. With the exception of the tiny [[hand crossbow]], crossbows are two-handed weapons and benefit much more from high [[strength]] than from [[dexterity]].

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Hand crossbow]] || 12 || +5 || 15 || Crossbows || Little || Little || [[Bolt]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Arbalest]] || 18 || +2 || 19 || Crossbows || - || Little || [[Bolt]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Triple crossbow]] || 22 || 0 || 23 || Crossbows || - || Small || [[Bolt]] || Non-melee || 2 ||
|}

==Brands==
Ranged weapons and their associated ammunition are capable of carrying a wide variety of [[brand]]s which can greatly increase your lethality when used correctly:

===Ranged Weapon Brands===
*[[Electrocution]] - Deals additional [[electricity]] damage
*[[Flame]] - Converts all damage to [[fire]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Frost]] - Converts all damage to [[cold]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Penetration]] - Projectiles can pierce through enemies, hitting everything along its trajectory
*[[Speed (brand)|Speed]] - Attacks take 66.6% normal time
*[[Venom]] - Poisons target
*[[Vorpal]] - Increases damage by 0-40%

===Ammunition Brands===
*[[Needle|Confusion]] - [[Confuse]]s target
*[[Curare]] - [[Poison]]s, [[slow]]s, and [[asphyxiate]]s target
*[[Dispersal_(brand)|Dispersal]] - Forces target to [[blink]] randomly
*[[Exploding]] - Hits target and all adjacent tiles with a small unavoidable explosion
*[[Flame]] - Converts all damage to [[fire]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Frenzy]] - [[Berserk]]s target and temporarily turns it hostile to everything
*[[Frost]] - Converts all damage to [[cold]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Needle|Paralysis]] - [[Paralyse]]s target
*[[Penetration]] - Projectiles can pierce through enemies, hitting everything along its trajectory
*[[Poisoned]] - [[Poison]]s target
*[[Returning]] - Ammo may return to the attacker, with chance based on player skill or monster [[HD]]
*[[Silver]] - Deals massive damage to [[chaotic]] targets
*[[Needle|Sleep]] - Puts target back to sleep
*[[Needle|Slowing]] - [[Slow]]s target
*[[Steel]] - Increases damage by 30%, [[mulch]]es much less often

If both your launcher and your ammo have brands, the brand of the missile usually overrides that of the launcher. Exceptions include the vorpal and speed brands, which stack with any ammo, and the fire/cold damage brands, which cancel out each other when paired together.

==Retired Weapons==
Over the years, several weapons have been removed from the ''Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup'' arsenal.
*[[Bow]]
*[[Crossbow]]
*[[Dart]]
*[[Sling]]

==See also==
*[[Ranged Combat]]

==History==
*Prior to [[0.18]], each weapon had a strength weight percentage that determined how the weapon would benefit from your strength and dexterity.
*Prior to [[0.15]], ranged combat was significantly more complicated. Min delay was heavily influenced by your [[stats]], and there was a much smaller variety of weapons available.
*Prior to [[0.14]], [[dagger]]s, [[spear]]s, [[hand axe]]s, and [[club]]s could be thrown.

Silver

2020-03-25T06:30:00Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{version023}}
{{flavour|It deals substantially increased damage to chaotic and magically transformed beings. It also inflicts extra damage against mutated beings, according to how mutated they are.}}

'''Silver''' is an ammo [[brand]] that causes ammo to do up to 175% damage against [[shapeshifter|shapeshifting]], [[mutation|mutated]], and [[chaotic]] monsters (and characters!). It is very desirable against vulnerable targets, but rare outside of [[god]] gifts and certain high-level monsters. It can be found on [[tomahawk]]s, [[javelin]]s, and the [[unrandart]] [[lajatang of Order]].

Note that since silver (and [[steel]]) are implemented as brands in ''Crawl'', this precludes a silver item from having any other brand; thus, you will never see [[poisoned]] silver javelins or silver tomahawks of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]].

If you are struck by a silver projectile and suffer this extra silver damage, you will see the message:

{{crawlquote|The silver sears you!}}

==Silver Damage Calculation==
===Chaotic monsters and shapeshifted characters===
If the target is chaotic or shapeshifted, the damage is:
(normal_damage * 7) / 4 [rounded down]
which equates to roughly 175%. Although the player can never be chaotic, they do count as shapeshifted when in any of the following forms: [[Beastly Appendage]], [[Spider Form]], [[Ice Form]], [[Statue Form]], [[Hydra Form]], [[Dragon Form]], [[Bat Form]], [[Tree Form]], [[Fungus Form]], [[Wisp Form]], or [[Pig Form]].

===Mutated characters===
For non-shapeshifted characters who have mutations, the damage varies by how much you are mutated (Note we say ''characters'', not monsters, because all mutated monsters are by definition chaotic, and therefore the first calculation applies). For [[demonspawn]] characters, your inherent mutations count; for other species with inherent mutations (eg, octopode), they do not. Your total mutations (up to 15) are counted; any above 15 are ignored. The damage is:
normal_damage * ( 5*mutations + 100 ) / 100 [rounded down]
The damage thus varies from 105% to 175%, for 1 to 15+ mutations.

==See Also==
[[:Category:Silver vulnerability|List of silver vulnerable monsters]]

==History==
*In [[0.24]], silver will gain the [[steel]] brand's extra damage against enemies not vulnerable to silver.
*Prior to [[0.18]], [[sling bullet]]s and [[bolt]]s could have brands, one of which was silver.
*Prior to [[0.15]], you could find silver [[dart]]s. Additionally, silver ammunition weighed twice as much as regular ammunition.
*The [[lajatang of Order]] was introduced in [[0.14]].
*Prior to [[0.9]], this brand also improved damage vs. corporeal undead monsters.

{{brands}}

[[Category:Brands]]
[[Category:Crystal Ball Articles]]

0.9.0

2020-03-25T06:29:24Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{Oldversion|0.9.0}}
0.9.0 was released 12th Aug 2011.

== Misc notes==
Changes that didn't make it into the changelogs:
* There is only one demonic rune, treated like the Abyssal rune.

==Changelog==
===Stone Soup 0.9 (20110812)===
Disclaimer: These are merely the highlights, not an exhaustive list of changes.
Save compatibility with the 0.8 release is retained, although once a game is loaded in 0.9, you can not go back to 0.8.

===0.9 Highlights===
* New skill training system. Experience pool and [[victory dance|victory dancing]] are gone.
* [[Ashenzari]]: Remove passive XP boost, add a skill boost depending on level of boundedness and which equipment is bound.
* Rename Crusader to [[Skald]], change starting book and skill levels.
* New spells: [[Inner Flame]], [[Shroud of Golubria]].
* Removed spells: [[Teleport Self]], [[Berserker Rage]], [[Resist Poison]].
* New monsters: [[Ignacio]] (unique executioner), [[catoblepas]], [[basilisk]].
* New subgame: [[Zot Defence]]. Consider it of experimental quality, though.

===Skills===
* Skill training: skills are trained immediately when XP is gained. The skills trained are the ones that have been used recently (auto) or the ones which have been selected (manual).
* Skill costs: the XP to skill point ratio no longer depends on skill level.
* Magic school skills early game discount removed.

===Gods===
* [[Cheibriados]] gives full stat boost for fully ponderous, regardless of species.
* [[Jiyva]] is a little less likely to remove mutations.
* Improve [[Jiyva]]'s stat shuffling, take skills and armour into account.
* [[Makhleb]] has a new flavour description.
* Nerf [[TSO]]'s and [[Makhleb]]'s HP and MP on kills.
* [[Trog]] specialises in antimagic weapon gifts, gives fewer artefacts.
* [[Trog]] dislikes it when you train magic skills.
* [[Yred]] takes statue kills and forbids Statue Form.
* [[Zin]]'s Vitalisation is cheaper and cures petrification, stat boost stackable.
* Don't allow avoiding good god wrath by swapping via another good god.
* [[Ashenzari]]: Remove passive XP boost, add a skill boost depending on level of boundedness and which equipment is bound.
* [[Ashenzari]]: reduce reskilling XP penalty and some ability piety costs.
* [[Ashenzari]] wrath: reduce all skills for the duration of wrath.

===Character===
* +3 base HP for all characters.
* Racial HP/MP gain is now displayed on a -3 to +3 scale (see ?%).
* Fighting gives less HP boost.
* All characters carry a bootknife to dissect corpses.
* [[Hill Orc]] [[Priest]]s always take on [[Beogh]].
* Berserkitis mutation triggers less often.
* Tweak starting skills for a few backgrounds (Fi, Gl, Wr, CK).
* Give [[Warper]]s a few more darts of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]].
* Let [[Gladiator]]s start with a cap if they can't wear helmets.
* Start all [[Hunter]]s with the same melee weapon.
* Start [[Artificer]]s with quarterstaves, instead of letting [[Monk]]s choose them.
* Rename Crusader to [[Skald]], change starting book and skill levels.
* [[Conjurer]]s don't need to choose a book (they always get an Air/Ice book).
* [[Felid]]s: lose a level on death, gain at most nine lives, improved aptitudes.
* [[Draconian]]s are more dextrous.
* Berserk speed-up reduced to that of haste (1.5 instead of 2).
* All species take the same amount of time to use stairs.

===Interface===
* New command: 'D'rop last. Drops the item(s) last picked up.
* Auto-switch: bumping while wielding launcher switches to weapon in slots a/b.
* Auto-switch: firing while wielding melee weapon switches to launcher in a/b.
* Auto-explore tries to look at unreachable places.
* Search: allows searching for portals, and for waypoints (Ctrl-F 1, Ctrl-F *).
* Search: "branded" synonymous with "ego". Better help (Ctrl-F ?).
* Search: only show items in a stash matching the search.
* Search: allow searching for armour by equipment slot.
* New help for skills screen (m??).
* Change inventory colours for some potions.
* Auto-pickup chunks after [[Animate Skeleton]].
* Allow toggling hit prediction with ':' in new targetting modes.
* Cloud glyph in 7-bit ASCII is '0', not '#' anymore.
* Prompt before leaving [[Ziggurat]].
* Better butchering messages, less spam.
* Abort spellcasting in many cases where spells are guaranteed to fail.
* Display -cTele on the status line where controlled teleports are blocked.
* Allow redefining [[mimic]] glyphs, once identified.
* Show percentage progress to the next level, instead of number of XP points.
* Show 'chaotic' in monster status only when aiming silver ammo at them.
* Show 'mindless' in monster status only when using [[Elyvilon|Ely]]'s healing abilities.

===Spells===
* New spell: [[Shroud of Golubria]] (comes in Skald and Warper starting books). Prevents some melee damage, but likely to break against more damaging attacks.
* New spell: [[Inner Flame]] (comes in starting book of Fire Elementalists). Causes targeted enemy to explode in a fireball when killed.
* Removed spells: [[Teleport Self]], [[Berserker Rage]], [[Resist Poison]].
* [[Tornado]]: radius starts low, increases over time, add cooldown, adjust damage.
* [[Tornado]] moves monsters within its radius around.
* [[Blink]]ing with [[Tornado]] active reduces its duration, [[teleport]]ing cancels it.
* Make [[Fire Storm]], [[Ice Storm]], [[Bolt of Magma]] and [[Throw Icicle]] more resistible.
* Increase [[Bolt of Magma]] damage.
* Give [[Summon Dragon]] a longer duration, summon two dragons at high power.
* [[Shock]] and [[lightning bolt|Lightning]] will hit a creature at most twice; damage increased.
* Make [[LRD]] and [[Sandblast]] more strongly affected by monster AC again.
* Ranges of [[Throw Frost]]/[[Throw Flame|Flame]] and of [[Bolt of Cold]]/[[Bolt of Fire|Fire]] swapped.
* Increase [[Flame Tongue]]'s accuracy and range a little.
* [[Sublimation of Blood]] takes spellpower into account.
* [[Apportation]] takes spellpower into account for all items.
* [[Statue Form|Statue]] and [[Dragon Form]] balance: give both some [[GDR]], reduce unarmed damage.
* [[Statue Form]]: boost all melee damage, give 50% torment resistance.
* Increase [[Ozocubu's Refrigeration]] to level 6.
* Reduce [[Summon Ice Beast]] to level 4, [[Static Discharge]] to level 3.
* [[Maxwell's Silver Hammer]] works also on all [[weapons]] with bludgeoning damage.
* [[Poison Weapon]] works also on blunt [[weapons]].
* [[Condensation Shield]] duration increased.
* [[Simulacrum|Simulacra]] from the spell are no longer abjurable.
* Renamed books: Chemistry -> [[Book of Alchemy|Alchemy]], Zoology -> [[Book of Beasts|Beasts]].

===Monsters===
* [[Catoblepas]]: a new hard-hitting yak-genus monster with petrifying breath.
* Replace "gila monster" with "[[basilisk]]", complete with petrification.
* [[Ignacio]], a unique executioner of Makhleb, spawns in Pandemonium.
* AI: monsters improve even signature weapons (e.g. [[Sigmund]] will use [[List of unrands|Finisher]]).
* AI: confused high intelligence monsters don't move if next to a deadly cell.
* Allow polymorphing demons into other similar-tier demons.
* [[Snapping turtle]]s and [[Geryon]] reach diagonally.
* Give [[Shadow fiend]]s and [[Tormentor]]s a pain-branded melee attack.
* Boost [[ghost moth]] damage, don't spawn them in [[Spider's Nest]]s.
* Fix random [[pan lord]]s not getting [[Symbol of Torment]] in their spell sets.
* [[Bat Form|Vampire bat]]s are undead.
* Monsters with mutagenic chunks leaves corpses less often.
* Reaching over a hostile monster may hit the monster between you and target.
* [[Kenku]] monsters come with gear, may spawn in the [[Abyss]].
* Rename "beast" to "[[hell beast]]".
* Rename "megabat" to "[[bat]]".
* [[Kobold]]s can (rarely) get crossbows.
* [[Pikel]]: fixed bugs with freed monsters.
* Adjust xp values for some monsters.
* Disable feature [[mimic]]s.

===Levels===
* New branch endings: multiple [[Elven Halls|Elf:5]] maps, [[Realm of Zot|Zot]] entry vaults on D:27.
* Many other new [[vault]]s, including serial vaults, traps, Abyss vaults.
* [[Blink]] in the [[Abyss]] only blinks; does not teleport anymore.
* [[Bailey]]s are more sane in loot and threat.
* [[Trove]]s: fix some bugs, and additional quests.
* [[Vestibule of Hell]] has its own monster set.
* Don't place kobold/orc/jelly/bee special rooms in the [[Hell]]s.

===Orb run===
* Double the orb's weight.
* Disable controlled teleports once the orb is picked up.
* Orb run spawns are more likely to spawn near the player.
* [[Teleportation]] may need longer to kick in.

===Items===
* Price reform: scrolls, potions, rings. Bad items cost more than 1 gold now.
* Cards: the Orb (new card), destruction cards buffed.
* Experience card gives less experience at low power.
* [[Scroll of identify]] shows top card when used on deck of cards.
* Picked up [[rune]]s are no longer part of the inventory. They are listed in \.
* Randarts with the *Rage property trigger berserk less often.
* Modified spellbooks: [[Book of Conjurations|Conjurations]], [[Book of Unlife|Unlife]], many elemental books.
* [[Buckler]]s provide less [[SH]].
* [[Large rock]]s can (rarely) be generated on the dungeon floor.
* Ammo of [[dispersal]] only disperses if it does damage.
* [[Silver]]-branded ammo only does bonus damage to chaotic creatures.
* Reduce [[silver]] and [[steel]] damage bonus.
* Reflected missiles get their full range on the way back.
* Randart heavy armours tend to come with better enchantment.
* [[Wand]]s and [[rod]]s rely more strongly on [[Evocations]] skill.
* Long blades: nerf [[double sword]]s, buff [[demon blade]]s, remove [[katana]]s.
* Reduce [[demon whip]] and [[demon trident]] damage.
* Remove [[knife|knives]]. Change [[List of unrands|Spriggan's Knife]] from knife to dagger.
* Make the [[List of unrands|Sword of Zonguldrok]] a double sword with the reaping [[brand]].
* Give [[List of unrands|Undeadhunter]] a disruption effect against undead instead of holy wrath.
* Make [[List of unrands|Wyrmbane]]'s enchantment increase whenever it kills a dragon.
* Give [[List of unrands|Scythe of Curses]] draining brand, inflict necro miscasts on its targets.
* [[List of unrands|Mace of Brilliance]] comes with a halo.
* [[List of unrands|Singing Sword]] does sonic damage at high tension.
* Bad unrandarts (Misfortune, Folly, Lear's) get a random appearance.
* Make [[potion of berserk rage|potions of berserk rage]] more common.

===Tiles===
* Display halo radius, fix information disparity between tiles and console.
* Don't allow casting spells in -CAST equipment by clicking on spell icons.
* Only flying [[pan lord]]s have tiles with wings.
* Many new or improved monster, dungeon and interface tiles.

===Options===
* Allow hiding the -cTele indicator with show_no_ctele.
* Allow automatically assigning specific spells to letters with spell_slot.

[[Category:Crawl Versions]]

Mulch

2020-03-25T06:28:05Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{version016}}
'''Mulch''' is a term for ammo destruction in Crawl. Every time you fire or throw a unit of ammo, there is a chance that that unit will be mulched. The odds of this happening depends on the particular item used. Only ammo can mulch: other items, even weapons such as [[hand axe]]s and [[club]]s which are considered throwable, never break.
*[[Stone]]s, [[Sling bullet]]s, [[Arrow]]s, [[Bolt]]s: 12.5%
*[[Needle]]s: 8.33%
*[[Javelin]]s, [[Tomahawk]]s: 5%
*[[Large rock]]s: 4%
*[[Throwing net]]s: N/A. Nets corrode when creatures struggle out of them and are eventually destroyed.
*Some brands also affect mulch rates:
**[[Chaos]], [[Dispersal_(brand)|Dispersal]], [[Exploding]]: Always mulches.
**[[Curare]], [[Flame]], [[Frost]]: 200% normal.
Note that launcher brands don't affect mulch rates.

==History==
Prior to [[0.16]], steel ammo had a decreased mulch rate. Large rock mulch rate was increased in this version.

In [[0.11]], enchantment bonus was removed.

Prior to [[0.5]], enchantment bonus did not increase a unit of ammo's odds of survival.

[[Category:Game_mechanics]]

Dispersal (brand)

2020-03-25T06:25:47Z

Derrek: add note about the spell

{{version015}}
:''This page describes the Dispersal [[brand]]. For the spell, see [[Dispersal]].''
{{flavour|Any target it hits will blink, with a tendency towards blinking further away from the one who fired it.}}

The '''dispersal''' [[brand]] causes ammunition to force enemies that it damages to [[blink]] semi-randomly (usually away from the shooter). They are very useful for chasing off dangerous melee opponents who manage to get too close. The effect does not check [[magic resistance]], but does fail if used against a monster with -TELE (e.g. all [[statue]]s and rooted enemies, such as [[oklob plant]]s).

If the attack hits a valid target but fails to inflict damage, the target will not blink.

This brand can be found on the following ammo types:
*[[Arrow]]s
*[[Tomahawk]]s

==Tips & Tricks==
*You don't need to keep dispersal missiles quivered to have easy access to them, and probably don't want to be using them for most fights anyway; just hit '''F''' and select them from your inventory to fire.
*Missiles with this brand are one use only, mulching after firing.
*You cannot target yourself with this effect.
*The fact that you need to damage your target to cause it to blink means that that stack of dispersal tomahawks you're carrying around is unlikely to help much against anything armoured unless you've put some serious points into [[Throwing]]. Dispersal arrows are much more reliable, assuming you have a good [[longbow]].

==History==
Prior to [[0.15]], dispersal [[dart]]s also existed.

{{brands}}
[[Category:Brands]]

Boomerang

2020-03-25T06:20:33Z

Derrek: Dispersal: link to the brand instead of the spell

{{version024}}
{{ThrowingMissile
|name = Boomerang
|weight = 3.0
|launcher = Throwing
|damage = 6
|basedelay = 13 (130%)
|mindelay = 7 at skill 12
}}
{{flavour|A curved, flat, throwing baton designed to return to its user.
----
“The weapon, thrown at 20 or 30 yards distance, twirled round in the air with astonishing velocity, and alighting on the right arm of one of his opponents, actually rebounded to a distance not less than 70 or 80 yards, leaving a horrible contusion behind, and exciting universal admiration.” 
-The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 23 December 1804}}

'''Boomerangs''' are a type of [[Throwing]] weapon. More damaging than [[stone]]s, but less so than [[javelin]]s, they are capable of inflicting respectable damage in the hands of a skilled user. Boomerangs are the largest throwing weapon that [[small]] races can use.

Boomerangs' design grants them the innate [[returning]] property. They may also have the following brands:
*[[Silver]]
*[[Dispersal_(brand)|Dispersal]]

Boomerangs have a 5% chance of [[mulch]]ing (breaking) when thrown; boomerangs of [[dispersal]], however, will ''always'' mulch when thrown.

==Strategy==
Boomerangs are useful finds early in the game when characters can use them to soften up dangerous enemies like [[adder]]s, [[ogre (monster)|ogres]], or [[jelly|jellies]]. They also have the advantage of always returning to your inventory when thrown (unless they mulch), meaning you won't ever have to worry about picking up spent ammunition mid-battle or losing ammunition behind impassable terrain. [[Silver]] boomerangs boast improved damage (especially against [[:Category:Silver vulnerability|monsters weak to silver]]), while boomerangs of [[Dispersal_(brand)|dispersal]] can be a godsend when fleeing powerful melee threats.

Unless you plan to specialize in throwing weapons later, you'll probably want to drop boomerangs eventually in favor of a more effective ranged attack, as they only become truly lethal when you've got several ranks in [[Throwing]]. Additionally, boomerangs of [[dispersal]] only activate if they deal damage in the first place, which may be difficult for unskilled users to achieve against high-[[AC]] opponents.

{| class="prettytable" style="border:none; margin:auto; padding:0; text-align: center"
! Mundane || Magical || Silver
|-
| [[File:Boomerang 1.png]] || [[File:Boomerang 2.png]] || [[File:Boomerang silver.png]]
|}

==History==
*Boomerangs were introduced in [[0.24]], where they replaced [[tomahawk]]s.

{{weapons}}

[[Category:Throwing]]

Mummy (monster)

2020-02-15T15:46:55Z

Derrek: + link to death curse

{{version024}}
''This page is about the various mummy [[monster]]s. For the player race, see [[mummy]]. For other monstrous mummies, see [[list of mummies]].''
{{monster info|mummy}}

==Useful Info==
'''Mummies''' are the preserved corpses of the dead, raised by [[Necromancy]] for various reasons. They have a decent attack which low-level characters should watch out for, but they move slowly and have meager durability. They can be found in the [[Ossuary]], [[the Tomb]], and certain undead-themed vaults.

==Tips & Tricks==
*Mummies are vulnerable to [[fire]] and [[holy wrath]] weapons.
*Mummies are slow enough that you can walk them upstairs and outrun them, leaving them on a cleared level.

===Variant Mummy===
Occasionally, you will find an [[Ossuary]] with a '''bog mummy'''. This monster is capable of casting [[Throw Frost]] (3d15) and [[Slow]], but otherwise is similar to regular mummies.

{{flavour|An undead figure preserved by the brackish waters of a bog. It has begun to decay heavily, and looks fragile.}}

==History==
*Prior to [[0.17]], basic mummies had a [[death curse]] that could randomly curse one item in the player's inventory when killed.
*Prior to [[0.15]], allowing allied or enslaved creatures to kill mummies would spare you from the death curse.

[[Category:Mummy]]

The Dungeon

2020-02-01T12:55:22Z

Derrek: add link to Hatch article

{{version014}}
{{flavour|It is still a mystery how this bizarre place was created. Some claim that it is the playground of bored gods, whereas others maintain that it was shaped by all kinds of species who fled the overworld and shunned the light. No matter what its origin, this deep cavern is filled with riches unheard of as well as with ample dangers to any intruder. Few have escaped alive, and even fewer have kept some sliver of sanity sufficient to tell the tale.

The dungeon is 15 levels deep, but, honestly, this is only the beginning.}}
[[File:Dungeon exit.png]]'''The Dungeon''' is the main setting of ''Dungeon Crawl''. The first area you arrive in upon creating a new character, it is 15 floors deep, not counting its many [[branches]]. The final floor contains an entrance to [[the Depths]], where [[portal]]s to more dangerous branches are found, including [[the Realm of Zot]].

==Layout==
The Dungeon consists of 15 randomly generated floors filled with rooms, corridors, [[door]]s, and [[vault]]s. Most [[wall]]s are made of rock, but sometimes from other materials such as stone, metal, or green crystal. You can travel between floors using [[stairs]] and (not always intentionally) [[shaft]]s.

Each floor has three stairs leading up and three stairs leading down; sometimes you'll also encounter [[Escape_hatch|hatches]], which are one-way staircases. Save those for emergencies, and never use them to enter a new floor if you can take the stairs, as you will be unable to flee back up them if you encounter trouble right away.

Going upstairs on Dungeon:1 will return you to the overworld and end the game, whether you have the [[Orb of Zot]] or not. Although your character did not die, they have retired all the same and you will have to create another.

Unlike certain other roguelikes, floors in ''Crawl'' are permanent, once generated. They do not change if you leave, then return.

==Recommendations==
The Dungeon's difficulty increases the deeper you delve into it. The first few levels are populated by nothing more deadly than [[rat]]s and [[goblin]]s, but as you descend the difficulty will gradually rise. Try to gauge the difficulty of each floor's monsters as you progress. If they suddenly seem too difficult, you should retreat and go explore one of the many [[Dungeon branch]]es instead. Exploring the branches is ultimately necessary in any case, as neither the Dungeon nor the Depths contain any of the [[runes of Zot]] you need to enter the Realm of Zot.

==History==
Prior to [[0.14]], the Dungeon was 27 floors deep, with the Realm of Zot located on D:27. The Depths were introduced to help better control the amount of [[experience]] a player acquires throughout the game, and to help force the player to explore side-branches earlier in the game.

[[Category:Dungeon_Branches]]

Ossuary

2020-02-01T10:32:10Z

Derrek: fix link to monster page

{{version021}}
{{flavour|The ossuary is a small tomb containing the remains and grave goods of some distant relatives of the pharaohs, along with the corpses of their retainers and household animals. It is undoubtedly riddled with many traps, and its undead denizens are unlikely to take kindly to looting.}}

{{Flavour|You can make out a staircase leading downwards into a small tomb. Sand surrounds the staircase and is continuously pouring onto it. Before long the staircase will be gone. They say that some distant relatives of the pharaohs were entombed here.}}

==Useful Info==
[[File:Ossuary portal.png]]The [[Ossuary]] is an optional mini-branch, accessible through a timed portal and occasionally found in the early dungeon around the same floors that [[the Sewers]] are generated on. Although its layout varies greatly, you can always expect to find [[undead]] monsters (including [[mummy (monster)|mummies]]), numerous [[trap]]s, and a pile of treasure at the end. An exit should be located right by the entrance, but leaving will seal off the floor forever.

==Layout==
The Ossuary's layout is unpredictable. Although it's always a fairly small floor, it ranges from a wide open crypt with little cover, to a series of interconnected rooms, all separated by doors.

==Monsters==
Most ossuary layouts house the usual undead:
{| class="prettytable" style="border:none; margin:0; padding:0;"
|-
| {{Brown|Z}} [[File:Small_zombie.png]] '''[[Zombie]]''' || {{LightGrey|Z}} [[File:Skeleton_medium_humanoid.png]] '''[[Skeleton]]''' || {{LightGrey|M}} [[File:Mummy_(monster).png]] '''[[Mummy_(monster)|Mummy]]'''
|}

Other monsters only appear in specific layouts and are usually more dangerous:

{{monsterlink|Wight}} - Have normal speed, enchanted weapons and are capable of draining you.

{{monsterlink|Wraith}} - Strong and capable of [[slow]]ing you down with their attacks.

{{Blue|Z}}[[File:Simulacrum small humanoid.png]]'''[[Simulacrum (monster)|Simulacrum]]''' - Fragile icy constructs that deal extra cold damage.

{{Green|Z}}[[File:Spectral small humanoid.png]]'''[[Spectral thing]]''' - Slow and weak but intelligent spirits that can regenerate and have draining attacks

{{monsterlink|Scorpion}} - The only living monster encountered in ossuaries. Can inflict [[poison]]ing.

{{monsterlink|Menkaure}} - A unique mummy, capable of [[torment]]. Fragile, but extremely dangerous.

{{monsterlink|Flying skull}} - Fast and dangerous at this point of the dungeon. Will wake up everything with their shrieking.

{{Green|n}} [[File:Bog_body.png]] '''Decayed [[bog body]]''' - Weaker than their [[swamp]]-dwelling brethren, they have [[Throw Frost]] instead of [[Bolt of Cold]]. Can be found in a partially submerged ossuary level.

For the various [[derived undead]] you'll encounter, the base types will be monsters that tend to be seen in the upper dungeon, ranging from [[goblin]]s and [[kobold]]s through [[elf|elves]] and [[human (monster)|humans]] up to around [[water moccasin]]s.

==Tips & Tricks==
*The Ossuary is often found very early in the game. [[Ice elementalist]]s, [[Venom mage]]s and [[Necromancer]]s without [[Dispel Undead]] may want to skip it if they have no means of dealing with undead enemies.
*The mummies you encounter are slow, but hit hard. Fire [[damage]] or weapons of [[holy wrath]] will make short work of them.
*[[Poison resistance]] and/or exploring while at full [[HP]] are helpful for dealing with traps.
**Depending on the ossuary layout, you may encounter a number of [[net trap]]s. These may provide you with a net apiece, if you can set them off without getting caught.
*Fast species such as [[spriggan]]s or [[centaur]]s can outrun most of the inhabitants in the ossuary and grab the loot without committing to a fight. Even average-speed species can generally disengage if things begin going sour.

==History==
*Ossuary was added in [[0.5.0]] and was first called "Minitomb".

[[Category:Portals]] [[Category:Mummy]]

Gauntlet

2020-01-06T13:08:20Z

Derrek: fix link to minotaur monster page

{{version023}}
{{flavour|An elaborate complex designed to lure foolhardy adventurers seeking riches and glory. Those who enter must choose a path through several combat arenas, each of which contains treasure guarded by dangerous and sometimes exotic creatures. At the end awaits a fearsome minotaur guarding a large hoard of loot taken from the bodies of foolish adventurers.

Beware that powerful magic prevents long-range teleports in Gauntlets. What's worse, some of these complexes offer only one exit...in the minotaur's lair.}}

[[File:Gauntlet portal.png]] The '''Gauntlet''' is a [[portal]] [[branch]] consisting of a series of small arenas with monsters and various loot items linked by [[transporter]]s, where the player has a choice of some sort in which path through the arenas they would like to take. This path culminates in a fight with the [[minotaur]] that guards the exit.

==Layout==
There are several different gauntlets which each have a similar layout, consisting of a series of 7x7 or 9x9 arenas which are each surrounded by transparent stone and only accessible through transporters. Each arena has a very specific set of a few monsters (usually of just one to three types) and a few items of loot, ranging from consumables to generic weapons to [[artefact]]s. Arenas come in two difficulties, with the last arena in a series often being of the more difficult type, and offering better loot. There is always some choice involved in which path through the arenas you wish to take — this choice may be made before taking on the first arena in some vaults, or after each arena in others.

All paths through the arenas eventually lead to a final area with a [[minotaur]] guarding the escape hatch out of the gauntlet and another pile of loot. In addition to this exit guarded by the minotaur, there is also an exit that can be found in the starting area before taking any transporters.

===Teleport suppression===
All forms of teleportation, including [[rings of teleportation]], the [[teleportitis]] mutation, [[scroll of teleportation|scrolls of teleportation]], and the [[Teleport Other]] and [[Passage of Golubria]] spells, are suppressed in gauntlets. This is to prevent you from reaching arenas that are not on your chosen path and getting their loot, as well as to prevent you from leaving via the exit in the initial starting area after having completed one or more of the arenas. All forms of blinking, including the [[scroll of blinking|scroll]] and both the [[Blink]] and [[Controlled Blink]] spells function as normal. In addition to this, some arenas may contain [[dispersal trap]]s.

==Walkthrough==
*After entering the portal to the gauntlet, you are placed in a large outside area from which you can see all of the arenas you can choose from and make your choice as to which path you wish to take. This large outside area also contains an escape hatch out of the gauntlet, which you can take if you decide that all paths through the gauntlet will be too difficult for you.
*Assuming you decide to press on through the gauntlet, you will now enter a transporter to take you to your first arena. At this point, there is no way out until you fight the [[Minotaur_(monster)|minotaur]].
*After having competed your first arena, you will take another transporter to an intermediary area, in which you may or may not be presented with a choice as to which arena you take next.
*This may continue up to a total of between 2 and 4 arenas, after which you will take a transporter to a final area with the minotaur.
*You must then fight the minotaur, or otherwise avoid him, in order to reach the escape hatch up (where you will find another pile of loot as well).

==History==
*Added in 0.23, replacing the [[Labyrinth]].

[[Category:Portals]]

Frostbite

2020-01-06T11:05:37Z

Derrek: fix link to freezing vapour

{{version|023}}
{{flavour|A massive axe that looks like it was carved from a glacier, or possibly calved from one. It leaves ice crystals in its wake as it swings through the air, and grants its wielder immunity to freezing vapours.}}
[[File:Frostbite.png]] '''''the +8 frozen axe "Frostbite"''''' 

+8 [[executioner's axe]]

[[Freezing]] brand 
May leave [[Cloud#Freezing_vapour|freezing clouds]] on foes 
Grants immunity to freezing clouds 
May make [[noise]] when swung 
Allows [[flight]] 
rC+

==Desirability==
Using '''Frostbite''' can be somewhat risky, as the noises it makes while fighting will attract attention from beyond your [[LOS]]. On the other hand, it's a highly enchanted freezing-branded executioner's axe, one of the weapons best suited for cutting through hordes of foes. It also provides one level of [[cold]] resistance, the ability to fly, and occasionally drops [[freezing cloud]]s on your targets without any spell hunger costs, which can increase your damage output on particularly durable enemies. The clouds may also come in handy in covering your escape should the noise attract too much attention. The added immunity to freezing clouds is a further bonus, allowing you to walk through the clouds cast by your weapon as well as from any other source (such as the [[Freezing Cloud|spell]]).

In addition, the brand may help out against [[cold-blooded]] creatures such as [[List of reptiles and amphibians|reptiles]] and [[List of draconians|draconians]]. However, its use would be inadvisable against [[hydra]]s, for the usual reasons.

==History==
*Prior to [[0.19]], Frostbite did not grant immunity to freezing clouds.
*Frostbite was added in [[0.18]].

[[Category:Unrands]]
[[Category:Axes]]

Frostbite

2017-01-10T12:19:22Z

Derrek: fixed broken link

{{version|019}}
{{stub}}
{{flavour|A massive axe that looks like it was carved from a glacier, or possibly calved from one. It leaves ice crystals in its wake as it swings through the air, and grants its wielder immunity to freezing vapours.}}
[[File:Frostbite.png]] '''''the +8 frozen axe "Frostbite"''''' 

+8 [[executioner's axe]]

[[Freezing]] brand 
[[Freezing cloud]] 
Immunity to [[Freezing_cloud|Freezing clouds]] 
<nowiki>*</nowiki>[[Noise]] 
+[[Fly]] 
rC+

==Desirability==
Using the '''Frostbite''' can be more than a little irritating,as it's noisy while fighting and constantly stirs up more foes. On the other hand, it provides one level of [[Cold]] resistance, [[fly]]ing ability and occasionally [[freezing cloud]]s without any spell hunger costs, which may come in handy in escaping the enemies the *[[Noise]] inevitably brings. In addition, the [[Freezing]] brand may help out in [[cold-blooded]] creatures such as [[hydra|hydras]], [[List of nagas|nagas]], [[List of dragons|dragons]], and [[List of draconians|draconians]]
==History==
Prior to [[0.19]], Frostbite did not grant immunity to its freezing clouds.

Frostbite was added in [[0.18]].

[[Category:Unrands]]
[[Category:Axes]]

The Iron City of Dis

2017-01-10T12:17:22Z

Derrek: fixed broken link

{{version018}}
{{flavour|The Iron City of Dis. Who will stand the test of iron?

Dis is seven levels deep and contains the iron rune. It can be accessed via the
Vestibule of Hell.}}

{{flavour|A gateway to the Iron City of Dis. Who will stand the test of iron?}}

[[File:Dis entry.png]] '''The Iron City of Dis''' is the iron branch of [[Hell]], accessible from [[the Vestibule of Hell]].

==Contents==
The Iron City of Dis is 7 levels deep and, true to its name, is both cosmopolitan with its demonic / undead residents and focused on iron themed. [[Iron imp]]s and [[rust devil]]s are common, as are standard hellspawn of [[zombie]]s, [[skeleton]]s, [[reaper]]s, and [[tormentor]]s. Various stair-containing vaults have [[iron troll]]s, [[iron dragon]]s, and [[quicksilver dragon]]s- on the last level, these are are joined by [[war gargoyle]]s, [[hell sentinel]]s, and in most ends mirrored paired guests of [[brimstone fiend]]s and [[ice fiend]]s. The imposing [[iron giant]], accompanied by dual [[ancient champion]]s, is also essentially unique to the branch. As with all Hell branches, a mystical force will rain down varied miscast effects and monster spawns periodically, none of the floors besides the last contain any floor items or vault loot, and [[Serpent of Hell (Dis)|the Serpent of Hell]] can appear on the last floor as is guaranteed for one of the four Hells per game.

Dis contains several layouts, all of which are built out of [[Wall#Metal|metal walls]]. It shares the grid-based ''layout_city'', the messy ''layout_chaotic_city'', and the tangled gates of ''layout_gridville'' with other branches, but has three unique layouts:
*'''layout_subdivisions''', which sets down a sprawling box-packed grid maze of connected open rectangular rooms
*'''layout_overlapping_boxes''', similiar to the sub_divisions but with the occasional corner-accommodating box
*'''layout_jigsaw''', which mixes together misshapen rooms on a regular spaced-out 4x4 grid on the pointed between a connected 5x5x grid

The last level contains the iron [[rune of Zot]], guarded by {{monsterlink|Dispater}}. Layouts include a large and straight gate standing before a castle, a densely packed city, an iron fortress with arched gates and a broad column-filled interim field, and a trio of very large arched barriers pockmarked by small asymmetrical boxes.

===Hell effects===
*[[Miscast_effect#Necromancy|Necromancy]] miscast: 16.66%
*[[Miscast_effect#Summoning|Summoning]] miscast: 8.33%
*[[Miscast_effect#Conjurations|Conjurations]] miscast: 4.16%
*[[Miscast_effect#Charms|Charms]] miscast: 2.08%
*[[Miscast_effect#Hexes|Hexes]] miscast: 2.08%
*[[Miscast_effect#Earth_magic|Earth magic]] miscast: 22.22%
*[[Demon#Tier-1_Demons|Tier-1]] or [[Demon#Tier-2_Demons|Tier-2]] demon: 14.15%
*Summon 1-5 Dis monsters: 9.88%
*Nothing happens: 19.75%

==Assessment==
The Iron City of Dis has ascended over years of development from one of the easiest branches of Hell to one of the hardest. The guaranteed hell sentinels may lack the capability to cast Torment like [[Demon#Tier-1_Demons|the first-tier demons]] of the other hell branches, but make up for it between their capability to hurl [[damnation]] and their longevity granted by high defenses and heavy resists. Iron giants follow the same conceit, replacing their resistances with even higher health, heavy melee damage, and monster repositioning. While few other residents are particularly dangerous for their depth aside from regular tormentors and fiends for their [[torment]] capabilities, end vaults can vary heavily in openness while packing high monster density and roundabout, winding passages. The Hell effects are perhaps less bad than the other hells, though, using tier-1 and tier-2 demons instead of branch-themed tier-1 demons, while the specific [[Earth Magic]] miscasts do little besides non-elemental damage and a slim chance of petrification.

As with the other Hells, it is recommended to leave Dis to the end of extended endgame runs- for most characters, the only other levels of equal or further difficulty are the [[Tomb]] and [[Ziggurat]]s. All hell effect sets can drain stats and rot the player, which can be avoided with [[potions of curing]] and [[potions of restore abilities]].

==Trivia==
In Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dis_(Divine_Comedy) Dis] is the City of the Dead, and is located in the Fifth Circle of Hell. Punished within Dis are those whose lives were marked by active (rather than passive) sins, such as heretics, murderers, suicides, thieves, and traitors. In Roman mythology, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispater Dispater] was a god of the underworld, later subsumed by Pluto or Hades. Originally a chthonic god of riches, fertile agricultural land, and underground mineral wealth, he was later commonly equated with the Roman deities Pluto and Orcus, becoming an underworld deity.

==History==
The Iron City of Dis has had several notable changes to its themed monsters guaranteed in the vault ends. [[0.11]] replaced [[pit fiend]]s with [[hell sentinel]]s, [[0.12]] upgraded [[metal gargoyle]]s to [[war gargoyle]]s, and [[0.16]] shifted [[iron devil]]s to [[rust devil]]s. [[Iron giant]]s joined the branch population in [[0.18]].

End vaults were also upgraded in [[0.11]], introducing pit fiends / hell sentinels and quicksilver dragons, setting a divider wall between the entrance stairs and the castle in older layouts, and bringing in the famously monster-heavy box-based layout of ''dis_st'' that served as a design influence for future Dis end vaults.

Until [[teleport control]] was removed in [[0.17]], it was blocked on the last level of Dis until one picked up the rune.

[[Category:Dungeon Branches]] [[Category:Hells]]

ARCHIVED Nabalzbhf's Merfolk Ice Elementalist Guide

2015-02-19T19:50:37Z

Derrek: fix typo

{{Character guide}}
{{version015}}

If you choose a [[Merfolk]] [[Ice Elementalist]], you get to play with a lot of different options. You're already an excellent melee fighter with your [[Polearms]]/[[Dodging]] aptitudes, but you also have [[Ozocubu's Armour|great]] [[Condensation Shield|buffs]] for defense, a [[Summon Ice Beast|summon]] for backup, and some [[Throw Frost|Conjuration]] [[Throw Icicle|spells]] for dealing with enemies at a distance!

If you haven't already, read the [[walkthrough]] and [[strategy guides]]. This guide assumes at least some familiarity with Crawl, and therefore doesn't cover extremely general aspects of the game.

This guide is partially based on [[Vigrid's Hill Orc Fighter Guide]], so if you're looking for something with less spellcasting and more smashing stuff with shiny weapons, definitely check that out. If anyone wants to edit ''this guide'', I only ask that you do two things: Replace incorrect information rather than outright removing it, and keep things general so that players can adapt it to suit their needs.

==Skills==
These are the skills you should be considering, and some information as to why. Visit the [[skill]] page for information on any I didn't cover.

===Major Skills===
*'''[[Polearms]]:''' Focus this immediately! Once you reach [[minimum delay]] with your current weapon, you can begin to focus on other skills.
*'''[[Fighting]]:''' This increases your accuracy, and your [[HP]]. Good if you don't want to die from one hit.
*'''[[Dodging]]:''' Your most important defensive skill. Keep it high, and stay away from heavy armour.
*'''[[Charms]]:''' Used by everything from [[Ozocubu's Armour]] to [[Haste]]. Definitely keep an eye on this.
*'''[[Ice Magic]]:''' Obviously you should raise this, all of your starting spells use it.

===Minor Skills===
*'''[[Shields]]:''' Extra protection at the cost of decreased damage. Read the "armour" section below for more information.
*'''[[Armour]]:''' You'll put XP into this eventually, especially if you end up wearing [[fire dragon armour]]. Just don't start off too fast.
*'''[[Spellcasting]]:''' This mainly gives you extra spell slots, level this if you need more spells.
*'''[[Conjurations]]:''' This can help get spells like [[Throw Icicle]] castable, but it's not too important.
*'''[[Summoning]]:''' A few levels for [[Summon Ice Beast]] is fine, but don't invest in this much.

===Other===
*'''[[Evocations]]:''' An early [[ring of invisibility]] or [[amulet of rage]] is very useful. Level this as needed.
*'''[[Invocations]]:''' You'll want at least enough to bring your god abilities' failure rates into the single digits, possibly more depending on the god.
*'''[[Stealth]]:''' Being able to run away before a fight even begins is always good. Invest a few levels in this.

==Stats==
You'll want [[Dexterity]] for increased [[evasion]] most of the time, but if you move on to heavier armours, [[Strength]] can help offset the spellcasting and evasion penalties. For instance, you'll want '''at least''' 11 strength if you're wearing [[fire dragon armour]]. Your starting [[Intelligence]] is more than enough, just don't assume you'll ever be casting [[Glaciate]].

==Spells==
If you never use spells, your character will almost certainly die, it's as simple as that. If you don't want to cast, go play a Berserker. By the end of your game you'll want a wide selection, but it's best to start off slow, getting your most important spells castable. Then you can branch out.

===Starting Spells===
'''[[Freeze]]''' will be your primary form of attack until you've raised your pole-arm skill. It ignores AC/EV, and slows cold-blooded enemies like [[adder]]s, but the damage caps out fairly quick.

'''[[Ozocubu's Armour]]''' should be the second or third spell you learn. It offers AC, helping to offset your poor armour aptitude, and could last you well into the late game!

'''[[Throw Frost]]''' is good for taking out stuff at a range. Grab it when you get the chance, either before or after Ozo's.

At this point, you have a few options. Pick up '''[[Condensation Shield]]''' for more defense, '''[[Throw Icicle]]''' for increased ranged damage, or '''[[Summon Ice Beast]]''' for allies that can help you fight and [[pillar dancing|escape]]! All of these are good, so pick up whichever you want, whenever you need it.

===Later Spells===
Further ice spells you can learn include [[Bolt of Cold]], [[Freezing Cloud]] and [[Ozocubu's Refrigeration]]. All of these are very effective against groups of enemies, but none of them are necessary, so I would advise being choosy about which ones you memorize.

Meanwhile, charms are definitely recommended. [[Repel Missiles]], [[Regeneration]], [[Shroud of Golubria]], [[Spectral Weapon]], [[Control Teleport]], [[Deflect Missiles]], and [[Haste]] are all excellent spells.

Some cheap but useful spells from other schools include [[Animate Skeleton]], [[Apportation]], [[Blink]], [[Cure Poison]], and [[Summon Butterflies]].

==Equipment==
Equipment is very important for any class, but it's especially so for a melee heavy one like MfIE. Thankfully, [[polearms]] are abundant in the dungeon, and decent armour isn't rare by any means.

===Weapons===
When you start, you'll have to use whatever polearms are available. This means even if you plan on using a shield later, it's fine to use a good two-handed weapon early on. Just swing your weapon a few times to check its current [[weapon speed|delay]], and be very cautious if it's anything above 1.0. Never bother with scythes, unless they're an especially good artefact.

For quick weapons like [[spear]]s and [[trident]]s, flat brands like [[draining]], [[electrocution]], and [[venom]] are good. Venom is especially good for kiting! For two-handed weapons like [[halberd]]s and [[glaive]]s, scaling brands like [[frost]], [[flame]], and [[vorpal]] are also good. If your two-handed weapon doesn't have a [[flame]] brand, make sure to keep a spear or trident for hydras.

In all cases, if you find a good weapon with a [[holy wrath]], [[Speed (brand)|speed]], or [[vampiric]] brand, hold onto it! [[Protection]] weapons can also be good, since your armour's AC value will be low throughout the early-mid game.

Eventually you'll want a [[demon trident]] if you're using shields, and a [[bardiche]] if you aren't. While you can't use a [[demon trident]] while worshipping a [[good god]], [[The Shining One]] will transform one into the even better [[trishula]].

===Armour===
You'll want to stick to robes, leather, or troll leather armour at first, since [[Ozocubu's Armour]] requires armour with an [[encumbrance rating]] of 4 or lower. If you absolutely need a particular [[resistance]] (such as [[poison resistance]] for [[Swamp]]), it might be worth wearing ring mail to get it, if you have no other option (such as a ring).

Eventually you might move on to a heavier armour. [[Dragon armour]] is popular in the late game, especially [[fire dragon armour]] for [[Zot]]. Anything heavier than that is not recommended, as it will heavily impede your [[evasion]].

Shields are popular for their extra defense, at the cost of a lower damage output. Playing with and without a shield is acceptable, so often it's best to decide based on what spawns in your game. If you run across a "[[shield]] of [[Resistance (ego)|resistance]]" early on, definitely use shields. If you run across a [[vampiric]] [[bardiche]], use that instead!

==Gods==
*'''[[Okawaru]]:''' The invocations Heroism and Finesse are both simple yet powerful additions to your toolbox, and he will give you weapons and armour of variable usefulness as you progress through the dungeon. While you can easily complete the game with Oka, if you want to collect all 15 [[Rune of Zot|Runes of Zot]], swapping to another god is recommended ([[The Shining One]] is a popular choice).

*'''[[Makhleb]]:''' Health on kills, piety-powered destructive blasts and the ability to summon demons. His summons are much more powerful than ice-beasts, and HP is always useful, so Makhleb is a good choice. The one catch is you absolutely have to level Invocations, or risk summoning hostile demons.

*'''[[Yredelemnul]]:''' Perhaps the absolute best god if all you want to do is win. He allows you to raise the dead to fight by your side, and gifts undead allies, all of which become more powerful once you can [[haste]]n them. In addition to that, Pain Mirror is a great panic button, Drain Life can heal you when you need it most, and Enslave Soul allows to make any unique in the game your permanent servant.

*'''[[The Shining One]]:''' A poor choice for the early game due to his restrictions, but one of the absolute strongest gods for the extended game. He has so many useful abilities, I'm not even going to try and list them all here. If you want to swap to TSO later, make sure to save [[Crypt]] until you've swapped.

==General Tips==
*''Remember your buffs''. Casting Ozocubu's Armour and Condensation Shield before a tough fight can be the difference between life and death.
*''Use your ranged attacks''. Trolls, giants, and any other highly-competent melee combatant should get some ice to the face before they get too close. Never engage them in straight melee.
*''Know thy enemy''. Examine every foe you encounter. If they look dangerous, they probably are, and you shouldn't wade into an entire horde of them.
*''Merfolks love water''. It makes you faster, better at dodging, and deep water can keep away plenty of enemies.
*''Better them than you''. If you have allies, such as [[ice beast]]s, generally you want them to take hits for you, or at the very least, distract the weaker enemies while you mop up the rest. The game will continue if they're dead. It'll stop if you're dead. Besides, you have a reaching weapon perfectly suited for combat from the back row.
*''Items, Items, Items''. If you have less than 5 varieties of scroll, wand, ring, amulet and potion on your person, chances are you're woefully under-prepared for the challenges ahead. When you believe a situation has a decent chance of getting you killed, don't make the mistake of being too conservative - use those consumables!

[[Category:Character guides]]

ARCHIVED Beef Jerky's Simple 3 Rune Minotaur Berserker Guide for Beginners

2015-02-19T19:44:56Z

Derrek: fixed broken link

{{character guide}}
{{version014}}
I just recently finished my first 3 rune clear with help of this wiki, but I also felt that there wasn't really a guide for complete noobies like me in the character guides. So this guide will basically introduce a Simple straight-foward MiBe for peope who have just started Dungeon crawl.

==Why Minotaur Berserker?==
[[Minotaur]] is probably the best race for beginners who have just started playing dungeon crawl. Other races like [[troll]]s and [[Hill orc]]s are also a good options but I think Minotaurs are much more flexible as they excel at using most weapon types except for short blades. Also, being able to eat rotten meat is awesome, but if you are just going for the three rune clear, you will probably get enough bread rations and meat rations by the time you finish [[lair]]. Even though they are crap at doing anything magic related, this won't matter to you as your class will be a [[berserker]]. So basically, minotaur has little better weapon aptitudes than hill orcs and don't have to worry about starving to death in the late game or have trouble looking for armour like trolls, making them perfect race for the beginners going for 3 rune clear.

In my opinion, [[berserker]] class is generally a better choice than [[fighter]] and other similar classes. Fighters do start with better equipments and a shield, but most times, you will manage to find something like chain mail and plate armour fast enough so starting with piece of animal skin and a weapon doesn't matter that much. In addition to that, you already begin with a god and an [[berserk]] ability that will pretty much get you through early games as long as you don't do something really stupid. Also, worshiping [[Okawaru]] is such pain in the ass when he gives you negatively enchanted gifts and berserk and Brother in arms is way better than hero and finesse. [[Makhleb]] I don't recommend because I got killed by demon I summoned. I'd still like to mention that Okawaru and Makhleb is a solid god for three rune clear because Okawaru will end up giving you piece of end game equipment at some point and gives you weaker version of berserk which you can almost spam without too umch piety risks and almost good as berserk ability later on and Makhleb gives you ranged attack, heal on kill and summon bro function (which sometimes go horribily wrong). With that being said, Trog does not require invocations training, you don't have to worry about finding altar and he definitely gives you some kind of weapon that will get you through mid game and probably will give you that end game weapon that you need for 3 rune clear. So if you get used to crawl quite a bit and got bored playing berserker all the time, feel free to start as gladiator or fighter to worship Okawaru or Makhleb.

==Useful controls and commands for beginners==
Its a frustrating job to navigate through wall of text when you press ?? on the game screen so I'm going to introduce some useful commands so you don't have to spend hours looking for basic controls

o: pressing this will make you explore till you come across an enemy or items

tab: pressing this will make you kill things that you can kill. (DO NOT USE IT AGAINST STRONG ENEMIES)

5: pressing this will make you wait, so you will heal up. (DO NOT SPAM THIS as you will still wait if there is invisible monsters nearby and it makes you hungry too)

m: this opens up skill training menu

%: shows stats and resistances you have

A: shows mutations you have

,: makes you pick up things you want to pick up

r: reads things like scrolls or books

q: I don't know what quaff means but it makes you drink potions

p: makes you pray to whatever god you worship and offers sacrifice if you are worshiping gods that accept sacrifice (so doing this on a corpse will make you get weapons faster when you are worshiping [[trog]])

c:chops up monsters so you can eat them (You cant eat poisonous meat if you don't have poison resistance though. Eat them whenever you are hungry instead of eating valuable rations or other food)

d: makes you drop things that you don't want. Pressing ctrl+d will ask you quantity of things you want to drop instead of dropping the whole thing

a: makes you use ability. pressing a? will describe abilites you have ( you will be pressing aa a lot )

z: makes you cast spells (you won't have any though)

\: you can choose items you don't want to pick up

>: makes you go down stairs

<: makes you go up stairs

This is probably all the commands you really need to know to explore dungeon fast and efficiently

==Useful things to know==
:To start with,I would like to point out that you are capable of moving diagonally. Keys for doing this is extremely confusing but you will get used to it after dying few times by moving to wrong directions. (Probably a good idea to use mouse for diagonal movements) OR looks like you can use numbpads. Use them

:Regarding to stairs, anything except for undead and player ghosts will follow you up or downstairs if they are next to you when you are going up or downstairs. This can be used to pick off enemies so you don't have fight a whole horde.

:Normally, You want to fight in a narrow hallway so you only have to grind one enemy at a time. However, since this game lets you attack diagonally, remember that there are times 2 or 3 enemies can hit you at the same time.

:Chop up monsters eat them whenever you are hungry. Especially if you have gourmand. Don't worry about contaminated meat because it doesn't do anything negative accept for giving you less nutrition. Don't eat bread ration or meat ration unless you are starving.

Oh yeah, to attack, you just gotta move towards the thing that you want to attack.

==Starting off==
1.Choose minotaur berserker

2.Choose Mace as your starting weapon

==weapon choices==
Reason I choose mace as my starting weapon is because the end game weapon you will be using is either [[demon whip]] or [[eveningstar]] and both of them don't need too much skill training. This means that you have room to change your main weapon to a good lajatang or something when you find a good artefect during mid game.

==Skill training==
You won't be training too much skills as you won't be learning any spells
You will be maxing out

:Fighting

:Armour

:Dodging

You will only put certain number of points in

:Maces and flails (12 if you are using demon whip and 16 and more later if you are using Eveningstar)

:Shields (20)

Or if your main weapon is staves

:Staves (14)

And don't be afraid to put in few points on evocations or ranged weapons later on. (I put mine in evocations when I ran out of skills because I couldn't be bothered to use ranged weapons and you always end up with plenty of attack wands during early-mid game where you actually need ranged attack)

Remember that you don't have to invest points in staves if you aren't going to use one and vice versa for mace and shields.

==Stat points==
If you desperately want to use eveningstar, put all the points in strength. Otherwise, put all the points to dexterity so your evasion increases. ( Your strength will be little but higher or equal to dex in the end)

==[[Trog]][[File:Trog altar.png]]==
This is the god you will worship for the rest of the game unless you've gone nuts and accidentally abandon him for Okawaru.
I will briefly explain what his abilities do as they are pretty straight foward.

:Burn spellbooks: Burns a spellbook and your piety rises. you can use it as landmines but most times you don't really need to.

:Berserk: Reason why you worship Trog. Turns you into Chuck norris for few turns, lasts a bit longer when you kill something. Use it when you see something dangerous or your health is under half way and you really wanna do a death match with something. DO NOT USE if you are lethally poisoned or you gotta run away from something

:Hand of Trog: Gives you some MR and heals you over time. I don't really use this as much as berserk but still pretty useful. Mainly stops Sigmund or Grinder from giving you those nasty disabled effects or saves you from dying from poison.

:Brother in arms: Summons you a berserked bro who will pretty much kill everything. Probably use this when your piety level is ***** unless you really need it. Spam it about 3 times if you are in really really big fights than go berserk yourself or just use it once when you are fighting a horde of things that could kill you in the open. NOTE that it uses big chunk of piety and you shouldn't really use it unless you are dying or you are about to fight the battle of your life. Also note that they have pretty hefty health if the summoned bro isn't iron troll or stone giant so only use them as meatshields if you are desperate.

Also trog gives you weapons when you kill and sacrifice bunch of things. He will probably give you something useless like ranged weapons that you don't really need or weapons that you aren't training but I guarantee you that he will give you your endgame weapon at some point.

==Early game phase==

So as you start the game, press m. Turn everything off except for [[Maces & Flails]]. Spam tab and o and clear out the first few floors of dungeon. Yeah, most times you will do something stupid and die to something that you shouldn't have tab spammed but you wouldn't really have anything good anyways.
Do not drink any potions till you find potion of mutation using identify scroll. Do not equip any rings or amulets before identifying them. Also, look for any type of metallic armour that happens to be lying around and put them on. Steal some [[whip]]s off [[kobold]]s and carry few of them just in case your mace gets corroded.
Look for flails and other dnagerous looking maces. If you happen to bump into [[Crazy Yiuf]]. You might get end game cloak and get quaterstaff of chaos. You can consider changing your main weapon to staves than.
Don't bother identifying enchanted armour or weapons if you happen to find one in early games. If they are really badly cursed, just press cntrl Q and restart the game unless you have whole bunch of scrolls of remove curse. NOTE that some of the branded looking weapons that normal monsters are carrying are badly cursed ones. If you happen to have more than 5 scrolls or identify or scrolls of remove curse, don't be afraid to use them. However, things like [[pikel]] and crazy yiuf will always give you non cursed branded weapons Having said that, If you happen to find something like ring of poison resistance or some good piece of equipments in the first few floors, try to be little more careful when you are spamming tab and o. At some point, your maces and flail will be around 11 so try not to put more than you need by turning on other skills you gotta train. (I generally stop at 12 because [[eveningstar]] is much more harder to find than [[demon whip]]s)

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
:Stop spamming tab key if you come across
:[[orc priest]][[File:Orc priest.png]]: These green bastards use smite, which can hurt you like hell. They can cast this on you as long as you are in their line of sight. Even worse, they hide behind bunch of orcs so you cant reach them. Best thing to do is get out of their sight, and lure them to melee but if you cant do this, use berserk and beat the hell out of his green togas but make sure your berserk dont run out before you kill all of em

:[[orc wizard]][[file:Orc wizard.png]]: Not as bad as green togas but these purple porks turn invisible and cast confusion on you, which can probably kill you if there is a priest to snipe you with those smites. If you are so annoyed by invis, narrow pass + berserk will prob easily kill them. Also, potion of curing cures confusion (took me about 50 trys till I found that out)

:[[orc warrior]][[File:Orc warrior.png]]: If you see him, don't ask. Just use berserk and kill him. If you are exhausted, run. He is pretty much a strong orc. That's pretty much it. If you are lucky, he will give you very early plate mail.

:[[gnoll]][[File:Gnoll.png]]: For some reason, they carry lots of branded polearms and spears which hurts quite a lot in the early game. if your life is under half, consider running away if you are far away from them or just use berserk and do death match if you cant run. If you've been tab spamming and have like 5-6 life, you are probably dead even if you use berserk.

:[[jelly]][[File:Jelly.png]]: Not really something that could kill you directly, but it corrodes your equipment. And as you Tab spam, you will end up with mace with -3 attack and good things like that. Thats why I told you to carry bunch of whips and flails you loot from kobolds and gnolls. True story, my gargoyle starved to death when I tab spammed against Queen ant with negatively enchanted mace.

:[[Sigmund]][[File:Sigmund.png]]: Your worst nightmare in the early games. Basically a stronger version of orc wizard but that probably isn't enough to describe this ugly santa. He confuses you, turns invisible and hurts you like hell with his spells and scythe. you will probably die 50% times if you see him. Other times, you might be able to run away or beat the crap out of him with berserk. If you are going to kill him, use hand of trog so he cant confuse you than berserk so you can send him back to north pole even if he is invisible. After killing him, half of your early game threat is pretty much gone.

:[[Grinder]][[File:grinder.png]]: Not as bad as Sigmund but still have quite high chance of killing you. He uses paralyze and teleports so be careful when you deathmatch him using berserk. Most times, you don't even need berserk to kill him but If you meet him very early on, you probably wanna be little more careful.

:[[Prince Ribbit]][[file:Prince_Ribbit.png]]: Pretty much a blink frog. Except you have chance of seeing him pretty early. Could be really annoying cause he might blink at the same time you activated your berserk. You probably need some luck to kill him if you encounter him in early dungeons.

Other than that, things wielding good wands might kill you but normally, berserk will save your ass most of the times. Player ghosts, you probably can easily kill them with your berserk

'''Early game summary'''
:Spam Tab and O until you find something good (plate armour, Shield, good weapon, ring of poison resistance)
:Don't spam Tab on hard enemies
:Don't be afraid to use berserk any time but make sure you are not very hungry or exhausted so you CAN actually use berserk
:Check your weapons frequently so you don't have badly corroded weapon. Probably stick with branded weapon or flail at least. Whips are pretty crap (unless it has electric brand).

==Mid game Phase==
You probably tab spammed your way infront of the entrance of [[File:Lair entry.png]] [[lair]] or [[File:Orc entry.png]] [[orcish mine]]s by now. This will be around dungeon7-11. You should have at least chain mail as your armour and maybe found a shield and good branded weapon in your hands. Go straight into the lair, or you may with to finish level 1 and 2 of orcish mines hoping to find a shop that might sell an end game Armour. Inside the Lair, you can probably spam tab on most of the things but those komodo dragons give you sickness that prevents you from healing. So make sure you explore with full health at all times by spamming 5 after a good fight. You will probably find enough food in here to last you throughout the game and probably it won't be too hard clearing out the lair. You might bump into few branches like [[Spider's Nest]] and [[Swamp]], but don't enter it just yet. Go all the way down to Lair8 and you will probably find something useful. If you have good enough fire resistance or cold resistance Probably good idea to enter ice cave or volcano as they will definitely give you piece of Armour that has according resistance. (Especially Fire resistance for the end game) After clearing out Lair, Finish Orc mines. DO NOT even bother going into elven halls though.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough'''
[[File:Lair entry.png]]

'''[[Spiny frog]]'''[[File:Spiny frog.png]]: Especially if you don't have good piece of Armour and poison resistance. They just pack helluva damage and poison hurts like hell.

'''[[Blink frog]]'''[[File:Blink frog.png]]: They always come in hordes and blink away from you as you cast Berserk. If you are wearing something like plate mail and have good weapon to kill them fast enough, they will be easy to kill. If you have poor equipments, probably summon a bro and fight ins a narrow hallway.

'''[[Death yak]]'''[[File:Death yak.png]]: Chuck Norris of all the Yaks. Find a narrow hallway (or make one with wand of digging or disintegration) berserk, and beat the crap out of them. To be honest, they are only scary when you accidentally tab spammed into horde of them or you got turned into stone by catoblepas.

'''[[Dire elephant]]'''[[File:Dire elephant.png]]: Basically a Death Yak version of an Elephant. Do the same thing you do with Death yaks but bear in mind that they can knock you back.

'''[[Electric eel]] [[File:Electric eel.png]]''': They shoot electricity at you. Hurts like hell if you don't have relec. Either move out of their sight or do deathmatch with them. Don't chicken out though because you will probably end up dying anyways if you do.

'''[[basilisk]]'''[[File:Basilisk.png]]: Turns you into stone. Very dangerous if you turn into stone while being gored by Death yaks and other things. Fight in hallway to prevent this from happening

'''[[Catoblepas]] [[file:Catoblepas.png]]''': Probably the 2nd worst thing to see in the lair. I think it only appears on L8. It shoots random dust that turns you into stone after 2 turns if you stand in it. Move out of it. However, if you are standing in a narrow passage, you are pretty much stuffed. Alternatively, use scroll of blink or teleportation before its too late. Some horrible things like this could happen. You've gone berserk to kill hydra -> you turn into stone because of dust-> Berserk runs out -> Hydra kills you.

'''[[Brain worm]] [[file:Brain worm.png]]''': Normally, wouldnt be too much of a problem for you but sometimes ther are whole bunch of them and turn you brainless. You forget to breath and die. To prevent this, potion of restore abilities or ring of sustain abilities.

'''[[Hydra]] [[file:Hydra.png]]''': If you are using mace, wouldn't be too dangerous. Still use berserk though. If you are using anything bladed(Lajatang is bladed too) without fire brand, their number of heads will grow and it will make you feel like you are fighting 10 enemies at a time. If you happen to lack a fire brand and have bladed weapon, use Summon a Bro (and hope you don't get a troll cause they increase number of heads too) and go berserk and kill him before he kills you. Probably one of the most dangerous things in the Lair.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough''' [[File:Orc entry.png]]

'''[[Orc sorcerer]] [[File:Orc sorcerer.png]]''': Summons annoying demons like [[neqoxec]]. Kill him before demons hurt you

'''[[Orc high priest]][[File:Orc high priest.png]]''': Smites you, summons demons and there are whole bunch of them in orc 4. If you have lots of health, summon bunch of bros and berserk and focus him down. If your health is low, just use blink scroll or something, run away to orc 3, heal up and fight him again.

'''[[Orc warlord]][[File:Orc warlord.png]]''': Strongest orc of all except for Roka. Just make sure you don't have too much on your plate and use berserk and summon bro to kill him.

'''[[Saint Roka]] [[File:Saint Roka.png]]''': I doubt you will see him in the orcish mines at all but if you do see him, make sure you are not fighting unending tsunami of orcs at the same time. use stair fishing to take few orcs at a time. When you clear most of the orcs, use the same way to kill orc warlord.

'''Mid game summary'''
:Still tab and o spam but when you see something that looks dangerous, right click on them and if you see they are extremely dangerous, use berserk or bro summon
:You might end up being sent to [[abyss]]. 90% of the time, its game over but if you are lucky, you might get out if you run towards one direction and find exit.
:Be really careful when exploring orc 4

==Mid game Branches==
'''Your way to first 2 runes'''
:Now that you've cleared out lair and orcish mines and explored up to D15. You probably discovered vault on the way but you can't enter it because you don't have any runes. Than, it is time for you to finish one of the branches in the lair. I wish you got something easy like spiders nest and swamp. Shoals and snakes pit is HARD.

'''[[The Swamp]] [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''
:Probably the easiest branch for you as long as you have poison resistance and relec (see invisible is good to have too). Make sure you don't fight in the water too much and summon bros when you have too much things trying to kill you. There aren't too many narrow hallways to fight monsters but generally, things in here aren't too strong to kill you except for few uniques and one helluva bastard named vapor. There are 5 levels of swamp and you will find your first (or second) rune on the 5th level which is probably full of swamp dragons and other good stuff like that.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Swamp entry.png]]'''

'''[[Alligator]] [[File:Alligator.png]]''' They are probably faster than you most of the time and pack helluva punch. Don't fight them in water

'''[[Vapour]] [[File:Vapour.png]]''': I'm so glad they are getting rid of him in 0.15. Invisible,shoots electricity. Biggest pain in the swamps. HAVE RELEC

'''[[Thorn lotus]] [[File:Thorn lotus.png]]''': I'm not too sure what they shoot at you but it hurts like hell. + they run away from you into deep water so you can't kill them. Use a wand of fireball or something.

'''[[Thorn hunter]][[File:Thorn hunter.png]]''': Similar to their plant cousin but this one doesn't run away. Still packs a punch though.

'''[[Swamp dragon]] [[File:Swamp dragon.png]]''': Reason why you need poison resistance in the swamp. They pack a punch and can knock you back so you probably wanna use summon bros and berserk if you see more than 1 of them.

'''[[The Lernaean hydra]] [[File:The Lernaean hydra.png]]''': You unlucky bastard. Run if you hear tree breakingx27. Unless you are wearing something like crystal plate armour or something, you probably have to summon 2-3 bros and do berserk death match with him. If there are other things like swamp dragons though, forget what I said and run. You probably can't kill him unless you are 1v1 with him and have really high AC.

'''Swamp summary'''
:Fight on dry lands as much as possible
:Don't fight more than 2 hydras or swamp dragons at same time
:Use stair fishing as much as possible
:Kill vapours Kill them all
:Have poison resistance and relec

'''[[The Shoals]] [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''
:I hate this place. I hate this place so much and I died here so many times. Make sure you have high AC and MR above ++++ along with cold resistance and if you have perma fly, you probably can finish this place as your first rune branch. Pretty much everything in here is able to kill you quite easily if you cant fly and there are mermaids which mesmerizes you and drags you into the water. I'd recommend clearing out shoals after you get your first rune and clear few levels of depth or vaults. Like the Swamp, rune is located in 5th level and be really careful when you explore shoals. DO NOT TAB SPAM in here unless you are strong enough to survive vaults. Also, if you happen to have potion of invisibility, things are going to be a bit easier so don't be afraid to use it all in here.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Shoals entry.png]]'''

'''[[Mermaid]] [[File:Mermaid.png]]''': Mesmerizes you and drag you into deep water. During all that, there will be merfolks poking you with tridents and cyclopses and manticores throwing rocks and barbs at you. Just kill her fast. You can just laugh at her if you do happen to have high MR though.

'''[[Siren]] [[File:Siren.png]]''': Pretty much does what mermaid does but also summons things. Deal her like you deal with mermaids though.

'''[[Manticore]][[File:Manticore.png]]''': Throws barbs at you. Barbs hurt you when you move. You die. I didn't know you could prevent barbs from hurting you by not moving as most of the things in shoals have reaching attack. However, being a melee, you gotta move to kill things. Hide behind the walls so he can't shoot barbs at you than melee him to death.

'''[[Alligator snapping turtle]][[file:Alligator snapping turtle.png]]''': Packs helluva damage with really bulky amount of health. Make sure you use berserk to kill him and make sure you won't have to deal with other monsters when you are killing him. He moves really slowly so you can kite him too.

'''[[Satyr]][[File:Satyr.png]]''': One of the reasons that makes me recommend shield. probably an inferior version of [[yaktaur]] and hurts you because they normally attack you from places you cant reach them. Fight him like you fight centaur.

'''[[Ilsuiw]][[File:Ilsuiw.png]]''': Sees invisible and throws icicles at you. Thats why you would need a cold resistance. Will be easier if you have High MR, Shield and Cold res. Otherwise don't go into shoals 5 because there is a very good chance of bumping into her and horde of merfolks ready to poke you to death.

'''Shoals summary'''
:Don't go in here without High AC, High MR and Cold resistance
:try to hide in some of the small rooms and fight as less number of merfolks possible
:Be extra careful
:Don't spam tab
:Don't move if you have barbs
:Use invisibility as much as you can but remember that Ilusiw can see you

'''[[Spider's Nest]][[File:Spider entry.png]]'''
:Probably as easy as Swamps but make sure you have Poison resistance and See invisible. There are only few things to watch out for and you probably won't have too much problem clearing this place out. This doesn't mean you won't die here though. Watch out for Orb spiders.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Spider entry.png]]'''

'''[[Tarantella]] [[File:Tarantella.png]]''': They confuse you. Combined with orb of destruction or ghost moth, they will probably kill you if you don't have potion of curing

'''[[Orb spider]][[File:Orb spider.png]]''':Annoying as hell spiders that shoots [[Orb of destruction]] at you. They are fast and they try to run away from you. You probably wanna tab spam them as long as there are no other spiders trying to kill you. Otherwise, use scroll of fear or invisibility so you can 1v1 them. Orb of destruction hurts like hell.

'''[[Ghost moth]][[File:Ghost moth.png]]''': They are invisible and drain mana. Draining mana isn't a problem for you at all but being invisible and packing helluva bite is a big problem for you.

'''Spiders nest summary'''
:Have Rpoison and see invis
:Watch out for orb spiders
:Have enough potion of curing to heal confusion

'''[[Snake Pit]][[File:Snake entry.png]]'''
This place is as bad as Shoals but luckily, nagas are slow and there are many narrow hallways to fight them one by one. However, You need lots of resistances like poison, fire, magic and electricity along with AC because nagas are so strong. You will also need few blink scrolls and teleport scrolls in case they are carrying distortion arrows. Also, having scrolls of immolation will immensely help out clearing the last level.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[Snake entry.png]]'''

:Basically, fighting with any non green nagas in a open is dangerous. Treat them like you are fighting a strong melee enemy and make sure

'''[[Naga mage]][[File:Naga mage.png]]''': Teleports other things or you. If you get teleported, there is good chance of you being teleported to group of nagas in the last levels. This is why you need high MR or have blink scroll in handy

'''[[Naga sharpshooter]][[file:Naga sharpshooter.png]]''':Basically a naga that shoots arrows at you. AND arrows hurt. wouldn't be a problem if you are fighting in a hallway but in the open, ARROWS HURT LIKE HELL.

'''[[Greater naga]] [[File:Greater naga.png]]''':Treat him like orc warrior in early dungeons. EXCEPT he has constrict so he will pack a lot of damage if you dont have high AC

'''[[shock serpent]][[file:shock serpent.png]]''':Land version of electric eels. Thats why you would need rElec. Still packs a punch even with resistance. Don't fight them in open

'''Snake pit Summary'''
:Make sure you have high AC,rF,rM,rP and rElec
:Don't fight in the open
:If you are using scroll of immolation, make sure you have conservation and high fire resistance
:Carry some blink and teleport scroll in case you get teleported to unwanted places.

'''Unique monsters that will probably still kill you or get you killed even if you are careful'''

'''[[Mara]][[File:Mara.png]]''': Something that you wish you'd never see in your game. He pretty much clones everythng including you. For some reason, he always appears in akward places like Swamp or Vaults 5 for me. Don't even bother fighting him if he appears in those places. Just leave him there after getting a rune. If you must kill him, just make sure you lure him into a staircase or something and do 1v1 deathmatch even though its gonna be a helluva work with his illusions.

I was planning to add some more uniques but to be honest, most of the uniques can probably be handled with berserk and summon bro combo except for those ones that could send you to abyss. But still, you can stop that from happening by having high MR or making your bros to tank for you so they cant cast banish on you. Just make sure you don't fight them with other horde of monsters.

==[[Vaults]][[file:vaults entry.png]] Phase==
Now you have 2 runes in your hands (1 if you have crappy equipment and decided to clear first 4 levels of vault first). Go into depth till monsters are too hard to kill. Than go to vaults and clear out the first 4 levels of the vault (BUT do not go into crypts). You may also wish to go into hall of blades but I never really got anything good out of there. Than, you may wish to level up a bit more by wondering around depth or doing first 2 levels of elven halls (don't go into level 3 though) Once you feel ready, go into vault 5 and kill the welcome party and endless monsters that are after you. You will probably die here a LOT of times. My tip of advice is using scroll of immolation (considering that you do have high fire resistance and something to prevent your scrolls from burning or just drop all the scrolls beforehand). than use blink scroll to get yourself to a linear hallway and explode everything. Sounds lot easy but really hard to do. You might be lucky enough to survive and end up with golden dragon hide, which will be turned into your end game armour with enchant armour scroll. Once you've hacked through waves and waves of strong monsters, you will pick up the rune in the vaults .

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[file:vaults entry.png]]'''
:Well, to be honest, pretty much everything in here is capable of killing you because there are so many enemies. At the same time, most monsters aren't really a threat to you in small numbers because you probably have good equipments by now
Still watch out for these

'''[[Vault sentinel]][[File:Vault sentinel.png]]''': These things mark you so every single monster in the vaults come hunting for you. Kill them before they do that.

'''[[Vault warden]][[file:vault warden.png]]''': They lock the doors AND stairs, preventing you to do stair fishing and kind of forces you to fight you in the open. Could be lethal in vault 5 so kill them as fast as you can.

'''[[Flayed ghost]][[File:Flayed ghost.png]]''': You probably bumped into one of these if your health goes below half immediately.Your health will come back to normal once you kill them so kill them before other things come kill you.

Other than that, watch out for bunch of dragons and DO NOT do the stair fishing on vaults 5.

'''Vaults summary'''
:Clear out vault1-4 than get more experience before going to vault 5
:Use scroll of immolation for vault 5 and blink scrolls to get advantage of narrow hallway
:Be lucky enough to have almost all End game items by now (very important)
:This is probably the hardest bit for you. BE REALLY REALLY CAREFUL and don't tab spam

==End game Phase==
Now that you have gained 3 runes and Finished clearing out the Depth, you are ready to go into the realm of zot. However, before that, make sure you have all of this
:End game weapon
[[demon whip]][[file:demon whip.png]] of electricity OR [[lajatang]][[File:Lajatang2.png]] of speed or electricity Or equivilant version of whatever weapon you are using (It is also good to carry one of those useless looking anit magic brands along with few other branded weapon of frost or fire to deal with some draconians and spellcastors)
:Full fire resistance, some cold resistance, poison and electric resistance and over ++++ Magic resistance
:Mutation resistance
:preservation equipment to stop your scrolls and potions getting destroyed
:High AC, and Shield if you are going with one hand weapon
:Enough number of scrolls of teleport, wand of teleport, wand of healing and potions of healing
If you checked everything out of this checklist, you are ready to enter the realm of Zot. (Good sign of you not being ready for this is when you were having hard time clearing out depths. In this case, use everything to get these equipment.)
So basically realm of zot consists of lots of draconians, dragons and Disgusting orb of fire which really sucks. It will probably feel easier than vault 5 to be honest. Except for those toe zombie things and when you don't have enough escape tools. (I guarantee you will have them as long as you are really unlucky) You should be able to clear out the dungeon like stroll in a park if you have well enchanted electricity weapon or speed brand weapon as most things aren't resistant to electric dmg and speed is just so good that it kills everything that easily. Now just be careful and clear everything out till you find the orb of zot. Make sure you lure bite size enemies at a time and use your bro summon to take care with them along with your berserk.

'''Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough [[File:Zot entry.png]]'''

'''[[Curse toe]][[file:Curse toe.png]]''': Cuts your health down like green togas in the early game and summons mushrooms. Summon your own bros and kill them before they can do any of this to you. Also, rN helps a lot too.

'''[[Electric golem]][[File:Electric golem.png]]''': Very fast and will be hard for electric brand bearers to kill him but as long as you have high enough AC and rElec, he wont be able to kill you either. Is probably dangerous when there are other things and when you are trying to run away though. Once again, Bro summon.

'''[[Moth of wrath]][[File:Moth of wrath.png]]''': I hate these things. Harmless by themselves but when they berserk something like dragons, you just gotta run.

'''[[Orb of fire]][[File:Orb of fire.png]]''': They pack lots of punch if you lack that +++ fire resistance and mutate you. They are tanky too. always only do 1v1 with these things. If there is something like curse toe or something nearby, do your best to separate them and kill them 1 by 1.

'''End game summary'''
:Be careful
:Be even more careful
:Have rF+++rElec and mutation resistance

==Get the hell out of here phase==
To be honest, this was the easiest bit for me. Spam that teleport scroll after grabbing the orb so you get teleported to some place near stairs. Go up the stairs as fast as you can, don't stop unless you are really badly surrounded but there aren't anything like hellions or liches to do serious damage to you. In that case, use teleport scroll or wand. If you end up getting badly wounded, use wand of healing and potion of healing to heal yourself up. Now you just gotta escape with the orb for the 3 rune victory.

==[[Abyss]] [[file:abyss entry.png]]==
Well, you will probably desperately reading this because you got sent to abyss by Crazy yiuf or something. I can only say you are pretty much dead unless you got sent to abyss after you cleared out vaults. If you still haven't even got to lair yet, just press cntrl q and quit. If you got up to more than lair and have item thats so good, try running one way till you find exit. Don't stop for anything. If you have amulet of resist mutation, put that thing on. If you are really lucky, you might find your way out but most times, you will die here.
Things that CAN send you to abyss are
:Anything carrying [[chaos]] brand weapon
:Anything carrying [[distortion]] brand weapon
:Unequiping [[distortion]] brand weapon (don't even bother wearing one in the first place because it teleports things away, which is bad thing to happen when you are on berserk)
:Someone casting [[Banishment]] on you
:Stepping on a Zot trap

==Summary==
Even if you do everything I tell you to do in this guide, I guarantee you that it will take 500 dead cows to actually finish the game with 3 runes. You need to be pretty lucky to find all that items I've mentioned and normally, you wouldn't be that lucky. Also, you will only learn your lesson from dying to random things that you've never seen before and try not to make the same mistake again in your next game. I've only listed really dangerous things that I died to too many times and I bet I got killed by something lame like Jessica or green rat because I was tab spamming. Every time you die to something, look it up in this wiki and you will probably find some useful piece of information and probably manage to kill it next time. I just wish you a good luck and hope you finish this damn addictive game.

Arena of Blood

2015-02-19T19:41:26Z

Derrek: fix typo

{{version014}}

{{flavour|The Arena Of Blood

You descend into the pit of gibs and meat, 
The sunken abyss of the depraved 
The mill of turgid gutspawn. 
The writhen instruments serve in adoration, 
Immured beneath a rotten throne.

Before you lies the servitor of chaos, 
The cleaver, 
The blasphemer, 
The destroyer, 
The Axe of Woe.}}

The '''Arena of Blood''' (a.k.a. '''meatsprint''') is the eighth module for [[Dungeon Sprint]]. Unlike most Dungeon Sprints, this allows only one playstyle: you must worship [[Makhleb]], and you must wield the [[Axe of Woe]]. No other course of action stands a chance of victory, and only through prudent positioning, [[cleaving]] attacks, and abuse of Makhleb's healing on kills will you survive.

[[File:urand_axe_of_woe.png]]

'''''The Axe of Woe'''''

{{flavour|As you hold this axe your mind does not feel fully your own. Your body begins to exhibit strength far beyond its capabilities, and your movements become guided by Makhleb.}}

+∞, +∞ [[executioner's axe]] (or [[broad axe]] for small and little species)

With infinite accuracy and damage, plus cleaving, you are guaranteed to kill every enemy adjacent to you with every attack (except for anything in the tile directly behind you). Training [[Axes]] is still vital, if only to reduce its attack speed to something bearable.

==Preliminaries==
Before starting, understand that your species choice should be based upon a very small number of issues. Due to the absurd amount of experience earned here, the absence of any armour or important jewellery, and the fact that most enemy attacks are completely unavoidable, your species' skill aptitudes and equipment slots make almost no difference; all that matters here is how quickly you can move around and how massive your [[HP]] pool is. As such, [[troll]]s, [[ogre]]s, and [[centaur]]s have a distinct advantage in terms of sheer survivability. Due to the eventual presence of [[fire]], [[cold]], [[negative energy]], [[torment]], and [[poison]] attacks, [[ghoul]]s and occasionally [[demonspawn]] serve well here as well. [[Mummies]] are not advisable, as the amount of fire damage they'll be exposed to would take them out in short order, while [[vampire]]s simply can't hunger fast enough to get access to their useful resistances. [[Deep Dwarf]] are also a good choice as they have damage reduction, and their lack of natural healing is no longer a disadvantage.

Because they cannot wield axes at all, [[felid]]s get an extremely different game than all other species. Instead of wielding the Axe of Woe, they are given a +27,000, +27,000 [[ring of slaying]], which is still quite capable of destroying any foe in a single hit. This means that they lose all cleaving opportunities, but their [[jump attack]]s and extra lives make for an interesting alternative.

[[Formicid]] have the ability to burrow, which will allow you the opportunity to hide from ranged attacks. By burrowing in an alternating diagonal path you can create a hole that allows only one enemy to see you at one time. This works great until you run into a monster with dig.

Your background choice is even more straightforward. Your [[stats]] generally don't matter; your infinite damage weapon and non-existent [[inventory]] means [[strength]] is pointless, and you won't have time to memorize any of the higher level spells in your starting [[spell book]]s, so [[intelligence]] is also out. [[Dexterity]] will increase you [[ev]]asion, which provides a chance of dodging a very small percentage of the attacks you'll face, so that is the only stat which matters, and even that is almost negligible. Meanwhile, almost all of the starter spellbooks you can receive contain nothing that will help you here, and you'll be training your way from near-incompetence with an axe to mastery in moments. As such, almost all backgrounds are identical, with the following exceptions:
*[[Fighter]] - This is a terrible option unlesss you choose [[Formicid]]. You'll waste precious early turns removing your shield.
*[[Warper]] - One of the only backgrounds with a distinct advantage, as Warpers begin with two [[scrolls of blinking]] (extremely useful, especially if you can keep one intact for the Arena of Blood's finale), and if you can find the time to memorize them, [[Blink]] and [[Passage of Golubria]] can both be helpful.
*[[Enchanter]] - [[Invisibility]] is a useful spell, although very difficult to memorize. Maybe 1 in 5 games, with the help of the blink scroll, you will be able to memorize this spell before everyone surrounds you. The magical contamination, however, makes it inadvisable to cast this multiple times.

==Useful Info==
You begin in the center of a large, circular arena. At your feet is the Axe of Woe, which you will need to pick up immediately. Once you have the axe in your possession, you'll notice that there are four altars to Makhleb nearby, which you should pray at as quickly as possible. A flood of opponents will begin swarming you almost immediately, gradually becoming deadlier and deadlier as you progress. Before you engage them, enter your skill training menu and begin training Axes and nothing else.

Your initial placement is not an ideal one; apart from four short walls that partially box you in, there is no cover to speak of, and plenty of enemies with powerful [[smite]]-targeted attacks will eventually arrive at the edges of your [[line of sight]]. Unfortunately, there aren't any better areas to get to, and you won't have time to explore much anyway.

Take your time luring opponents into melee range and defeating them without allowing them the chance to attack you. As the enemies become progressively more difficult, make sure to e[[x]]amine them and find out what they're capable of, and act accordingly. You'll quickly master Axes; once that happens, master Fighting (HP is king here), then Dodging, then Stealth, then Armour. As with all Dungeon Sprint modules, you start with several useful consumable items; use them where they're needed to survive (the [[potion of speed]] in particular is extremely powerful, and a well-timed [[potion of resistance]] can be a huge help).

Eventually, the boss of the Arena of Blood will arrive: the Meatlord.

==Monsters==
[[file:Orc.png]] '''Bag of meat''': The first foes you'll encounter, these are simply melee opponents. They wear [[rings of slaying]] that make them deadly to fresh characters and somewhat threatening to seasoned fighters, but in general they are simply free experience and healing.

{{flavour|One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. It is a horrendous imitation of the human form, consisting of an unrecognisable mass of meat stitched together with limbs sewn on seemingly at random. Its skin hangs off loosely in some places and bulges repulsively in others. Each one bears a large symbol carved into its flesh, a mark of pride from its twisted creator.}}

[[file:Ogre (monster).png]] '''Meat berserker''': These units also appear in the first waves, hitting harder than bags of meat and being innately berserk. This means that they'll move into melee with you much faster. Move cautiously so as to avoid letting them enter melee with you and hit you before you get a chance to act.

{{flavour|One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Its form is large and muscular. It moves swiftly and with impetuous fury, the sole thought within its being to rend you apart with great fervour. As it rages, it creates a cacophonous din.}}

[[file:Vampire knight.png]] '''Destroyer''': These opponents hit much, much harder than anything you've faced so far, and can cast [[Blink Close]] to get into melee range with you surprisingly quickly. Pay attention to them turn by turn, and don't let them land a single hit.

{{flavour|The destroyers begin to descend upon you. They come in numbers and with wrath, maws gaping like abaddon, bottomless and abyssal. They bring your doom and will feast on your remains.}}

[[file:Hill giant.png]] '''Large bag of meat''': Fairly powerful opponents with an innate [[Inner Flame]] enchantment. While one normally tries to avoid killing Inner Flamed opponents in melee, you don't have much choice in the matter here, and frankly they're much more dangerous alive. Hack 'em up and enjoy the fireworks! Just try to get out of the flame [[cloud]]s quickly if you have any [[scroll]]s on hand.

{{flavour|One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Its bloated hulk pulsates and throbs constantly with accursed fires. It looks as if it could explode into a torrent of viscera at any moment.}}

[[file:Skeletal warrior.png]] '''Sculptor of flesh''': Occasionally irritating, these pests can cast [[Twisted Resurrection]], turning all those [[corpse]]s you've generated so far into an army of abominations. They also hit hard in melee, but fortunately both them and their creations are unlikely to last long enough in melee range for that to matter.

{{flavour|An artisan of unlife, the sculptor appears as a grim skeletal form. It has six long arms ending in mangled hands with broken fingers, upon which it crawls like a spider. Its skull is abnormally large and full of holes. Its bones are reddened and fractured, inscribed with the unholy spells it weaves to assemble its puppets.}}

[[file:Greater mummy.png]] '''Accursed''': These opponents aren't too deadly directly; they aren't very impressive in melee, and their only spell is [[Smiting]], which is annoying but not terribly deadly. Unfortunately, they give [[greater mummy]]-style [[death curse]]s. If you're lucky, this will only [[torment]] you or reduce some of your meaningless stats. If you're unlucky, this will [[slow]] you, likely with lethal results.

{{flavour|The accursed are the ones who came before. They have come to ensure you share their fate.}}

[[file:Phantom.png]] '''Lost soul''': To the living, these naturally [[invisible]] pests aren't much of a threat. They'll occasionally hit you with [[Bolt of Draining]], which won't inflict [[draining]] for more than a single kill before your massive experience gains replace the loss. To the [[undead]], however, they can be extremely deadly, as they cast [[Dispel Undead]]. If you notice yourself suddenly torn to pieces by thin air, it's likely the work of one of these.

{{flavour|A spectre, struggling to leave the mortal world it is incarcerated in. It drains life and unlife from all those it comes into contact with.}}

[[file:Lich.png]] '''Tyrant''': These powerful spellcasters can hit you for heavy damage with their [[Airstrike]] spell or bog down the battlefield with worthless summoned foes through [[Summon Horrible Things]], and do so much more effectively after [[Haste|hasting]] themselves. If you have a choice in the matter, kill them off quickly.

{{flavour|A colossal mass of bones and skulls, a walking tomb. You hear shrieks and screams as it approaches, shattering off bones with each crushing step, reassembling itself in eternal unrest.}}

[[file:Hell beast.png]] '''Meat beast''': Permanently hasted, heavy-hitting opponents whose attacks shove you around the battle field. Although far from harmless, they're one of the less deadly opponents you'll face in the later rounds of the Arena.

{{flavour|One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Ablaze with demonic frenzy, it gores and tramples with ferocity unmatched. Its skin is flayed, exposing the glistening tendons and sinew underneath, and the teeth inside its cavernous maw are stained with blood.}}

[[file:Wraith.png]] '''Dread''': One of the worst opponents you can encounter, dreads tend to linger at the edge of your line of sight, pelting you with [[Symbol of Torment]] and [[Hellfire Burst]]. On top of that, their melee attacks can [[slow]] you, which is a death sentence here. Kill them quickly.

{{flavour|An affront to existence, a void in which there is only torment and hellfire. Its unearthly form is torn and twisted, black and hollow. It is bereft of rational thought, knowing only hatred and the desire to desecrate your soul.}}

[[file:Hydra.png]] '''Meat hydra''': Normally, [[hydra]]s are only threats in melee, and should never be attacked with chopping weapons like axes if you have a choice in the matter. These freakish beasts, however, know [[Symbol of Torment]], and should be slaughtered in melee as quickly as possible. No amount of mythical regeneration can save them from the Axe of Woe!

{{flavour|One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Each of its eight necks is distended and elongated, connected to a colossal body crumpled and dripping with ichor. Its many heads spew blood while writhing and convulsing in agony, as it brings torment to itself and anything else that beholds its foul visage.}}

[[file:Sea snake.png]] '''Scourge''': If you're playing a species with [[poison]] resistance, scourges are next to harmless. For anyone else, their access to [[Poison Arrow]], [[Poisonous Cloud]], and to a lesser extent [[Venom Bolt]] can be devastating. If possible, don't give them a clear line of effect to you until they enter melee range.

{{flavour|A vast serpentine form with raw and diseased skin, seeping bile and pus, spouting venom and blight.}}

[[file:Great orb of eyes.png]] '''Observer''': Another invisible threat, these beings simply pelt you with [[Bolt of Fire]], [[Fireball]], and [[Smiting]] until they happen to get close enough to you to get chopped to pieces. If you can determine where they're at and have a free turn to move, feel free to position yourself so they don't have a clear line of fire against you.

{{flavour|You see the unseen, you stare and they stare back. They whisper and laugh, they grin and cry, they leer at you with contempt and gaze at you in adoration. They are the observers, they are the judge of your worth and will decide your end.}}

[[file:Hell knight.png]] '''Fleshlord''': One of the deadliest opponents you'll face, fleshlords deal monstrous amounts of damage in melee due to their +400 slaying bonuses to damage, and their tendency to haste themselves and slow you make them surprisingly capable of landing those massive blows.

{{flavour|One of the greatest servants of the Meatlord. It is muscular, agile and full of malevolence.}}

[[file:Molten gargoyle.png]] '''Vile''': Has some nasty spells for you [[Confuse]] and [[Dig]] included.

{{flavour|An emaciated figure brimming with hellfire and plague. Its appearance signifies the end of days.}}

===Uniques===
[[file:Sigmund.png]] '''The Captor''': Uses Ensnare and Sentinels Mark against you. Note that he does not spawn with a [[reaching]] weapon.

{{flavour|Those who enter will not escape.}}

[[file:Harold.png]] '''The Servant''': A moderately powerful melee attacker armed with a [[reaching]] weapon. Don't give him time to make use of it.

{{flavour|His glaive is alight with the flames of hell.}}

[[file:Edmund.png]] '''The Defiler''': Although little threat in melee, he's capable of hitting you with [[Fireball]] and [[Poisonous Cloud]]. Overall, he's less threatening than many of the other foes here.

{{flavour|His shield is emblazoned with images of infernal flames.}}

[[file:Dispater.png]] '''The Meatlord''': Upon killing this Enemy the Orb of Zot will be placed at your feet. To win the game, you will have to pick it up and leave the Arena by the stairs on which you entered it. They are located in the middle of the Arena between the altars of Makhleb.

{{flavour|You behold the embodiment of filth, corruption and depravity, the Meatlord. His foul body is bloated to the extreme, leaking viscous fluid and the stench of death. His head is that of a boar with bulging eyes and tusks split in two, his snout flares and oozes as he snorts and squeals at the sight of you, his mouth is a toothless rift which drools pools of blood and vomits forth disgusting remains. His neck is stretched and lops forward, its skin sagging downward. His immense gut writhes and distorts as the larvae within await their repugnant release. His legs are unrecognisable masses of flesh, covered in protrusions and throbbing boils. Your mind reels at the sight of this hideous form and your senses begin to shut down in an attempt to preserve your sanity as you choke on the oppressive stench.}}

[[File:Unspeakable.png]] '''The Unspeakable''': ?

{{flavour|You hear the echoes of planets behind the deafening roar of stars as it approaches. It is the jaws of the abyss. It brings forth crawling chaos from within. It is the last sight you will ever see.}}

==Tips & Tricks==
*Don't bother picking up any of the many [[rings of slaying]] your opponents will drop, as you already have infinite accuracy and damage from your axe of Woe.
*Attacking is the way you survive, with Makhleb healing you on kills. The only time you usually can do anything else is if there are no enemies directly next to you. Move in such a way that you don't give enemies free hits, and that you don't open yourself up to line of effect abilities from distant enemies.
*If you have a spare turn, you can summon some greater servants to serve as distractions. They are unlikely to survive long enough to turn against you, and if they arrive hostile, you should be able to handle them as easily as you handle everything else here.
*Remember that cleaving does not affect the space directly opposite your attacked tile. Feel free to attack empty spaces if necessary to make sure you ''don't'' leave an enemy's tile unaffected (attempt to move while holding down '''CTRL''').
*Also Remember that cleaving attacks stop at walls. This means standing beetween two walls is rather deadly here. The enemies will come from both sides, while you can only attack one side per attack.
*There are 2 Rings of see invisible and 2 Rings of fire resistance in the arena. [[See invisible]] is placed at the northern and southern edge of the arena. [[Fire resistance]] is placed west and east. If you are a [[Warper]] your [[Apportation]] will allow you to get them that much faster. Note that even then, you usually won`t have the time to pick up more than 2 rings. (Thus playing an Octopode is not that much of a benefit.)
*Enemies will sometimes be spawned in your [[LOS]], stop and check the list of visible monsters after every step.

==Layout==
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[[Category:Crawl variants]]

High Elf

2015-02-19T19:39:16Z

Derrek: fixed broken link

{{version015}}
{{flavour|This is a tall and powerful Elven species who advance in levels slowly, requiring half again as much experience as Humans. They have good intelligence and dexterity, but suffer in strength. Compared with Humans, they have fewer HP but more magic. Among all Elves, they are best with blades and bows. They are not very good with necromancy or with earth or poison magic, but are highly skilled with most other forms of magic.}}

==Innate Abilities==
High Elves have a base [[Strength]] of 7, [[Intelligence]] of 11 and [[Dexterity]] of 10 (before Background modifiers).

==Preferred Backgrounds==
*'''Warriors:''' [[Hunter]]
*'''Warrior-mages:''' [[Skald]]
*'''Mages:''' [[Wizard]], [[Conjurer]], [[Fire Elementalist]], [[Ice Elementalist]], [[Air Elementalist]]

==Level Bonuses==
*+1 [[intelligence]] or [[dexterity]] (equal chance) every 3rd level.
*10% less [[HP]] than average.
*20% more [[MP]] than average.
*+4 [[magic resistance]] per level.

==Difficulty of Play==

{{Moderate}}

High Elves are a rather easy species to play, because of good overall aptitudes and a large mana pool; however, they have slightly lower HP (-10%) than normal and level somewhat slowly.

{{species_aptitudes|High Elf}}

==History==
*Prior to [[0.14]], racial equipment existed. High elves were able to use [[Racial_equipment#Elven|elven]] equipment more effectively than standard gear.

[[Category:Species]]

Ranged weapon

2015-02-19T19:36:01Z

Derrek: fix typo

{{version015}}

'''Ranged weapons''' include all [[weapon]]s capable of attacking any target within your [[line of sight]]. All of these require ammo to function, and most of them require you to wield a launcher. The ability to attack distant foes is very helpful, particularly for characters with fast [[movement]] speed (see [[kiting]]). However, ranged weapons are not without their drawbacks. Running out of ammo renders a ranged weapon nearly useless, and [[melee weapon]]s tend to have better overall stats.

==Weapon attributes==
The following is a table of all melee weapons in ''Crawl''. Below is a short explanation of each field:

{| class="wikitable"
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Name
| The name of the item as it appears in Crawl.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Damage
| The base amount of damage the weapon does, before various bonuses and adjustments.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Hit
| To hit modifier for the weapon, before any other adjustments.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | [[Weapon Speed|Speed]]
| This is actually the attack delay, which is multiplied by 10 to get the "percentages" you see in-game. (That is, attack delay 10 shows as 100%.) Every 2 levels of weapon skill lowers the delay by 1 unit. A weapon's minimum delay is half of its base delay (rounded down) or 7 (5 for [[cutlass]], 10 for [[hand crossbow]]s, [[arbalest]]s and [[triple crossbow]]s), whichever is lower. Speed brand and haste cut delay by one third (round randomly up or down). These effects stack, ''after'' the base cap, but there's an absolute cap of 2 for attack delay.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Mass
| How heavy a weapon is. Note that this is used for game calculations and is '''not''' the same as the weight as it appears in your inventory.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;" | Str weight
| A bigger [[strength weight|strength weighting]] is better for strong characters, while a low strength weighting is better for dexterous characters.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Skill
| Which skill is required to effectively use this weapon.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | [[Handedness|One-handed min. size]]
| Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with one hand. The order is little, small, medium, large, big.
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | [[Handedness|Two-handed min. size]]
| Minimum size required to be able to use the weapon with two hands. When the player's size is equal or greater than 'Two-handed min. size', but less than 'One-handed min. size', the weapon cannot be used with a [[shield]].
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;" | Missile
| The sort of ammo needed to use this weapon
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left; white-space: nowrap;" | Dam Type
| What category of damage does the weapon deal?
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
!style="text-align: left;" | Prob
| A larger number indicates higher probability of acquiring through scrolls of [[acquirement]].
|}

==Throwing==
[[Throwing]] weapons can be further divided into two categories: thrown weapons and blowguns.

Thrown weapons are unique among ranged weapons in that they do not require you to wield anything to use them; you simply hurl them without needing a free hand (Don't ask). This means you don't have to waste time in combat swapping weapons, saving turns and reducing frustration, you can wear [[shield]]s, and you can save many [[scrolls of enchant weapon]]. Thrown weapons need 27 skill levels to reach minimum delay, but despite this the average damage per turn of tomahawks, javelins, and large rocks is better than any other ranged weapon at the same skill level.
*[[Stone]]
*[[Tomahawk]]
*[[Javelin]]
*[[Throwing net]]
*[[Large rock]] ([[troll]]s and [[ogre]]s only)

Blowguns are very unusual ranged weapons. In spite of the fact that they are affected by your Throwing skill, they require you to wield a blowgun and fire [[needle]]s at the enemy. These deal no damage, but inflict devastating [[status effect]]s.

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Mass || Str weight || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Blowgun]] || 0 || +2 || 10 || 20 || 0% || Throwing || Little || Little || [[Needle]] || None || 0 || Deals no damage, but inflicts [[status effects]]
|}

==Slings==
[[Slings]] are ranged weapons which hurl [[sling bullet]]s (or [[stone]]s in a pinch) with great force. They are one-handed weapons for all but the [[spriggan|tiniest characters]] and require much less skill than most other weapons to reach min delay, but they are significantly less powerful than their slower, more cumbersome alternatives.

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Mass || Str weight || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Hunting sling]] || 5 || +2 || 12 || 20 || 10% || Slings || Little || Little || [[Stone]] / [[Sling bullet]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Greatsling]] || 8 || -1 || 14 || 30 || 10% || Slings || Small || Little || [[Stone]] / [[Sling bullet]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|}

==Bows==
[[Bows]] are a moderate player's choice of ranged weapon, firing [[arrow]]s at your opponents to deadly effect. They are universally more powerful than slings, and require only a reasonable skill investment to fire quickly. However, both kinds of bow require two hands to wield.

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Mass || Str weight || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Shortbow]] || 9 || +2 || 13 || 90 || 20% || Bows || - || Little || [[Arrow]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Longbow]] || 15 || 0 || 17 || 120 || 30% || Bows || - || Medium || [[Arrow]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|}

==Crossbows==
If you want a ranged weapon that tears into foes with the strength of a melee weapon, consider getting into [[crossbows]]. These contraptions are the largest, slowest ranged weapons available, but they launch their [[bolt]]s with unparalleled force. Unfortunately, they require the most skill of all ranged weapons to attack quickly, particularly in the case of the super-heavy [[triple crossbow]]. With the exception of the tiny [[hand crossbow]], crossbows are two-handed weapons and benefit much more from high [[strength]] than from [[dexterity]].

{| class="wikitable"
! Name || Dam || Hit || Speed || Mass || Str weight || Skill || One-handed min. size || Two-handed min. size || Missile || Dam Type || Prob || Notes
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Hand crossbow]] || 12 || +5 || 15 || 50 || 50% || Crossbows || Little || Little || [[Bolt]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Arbalest]] || 18 || +2 || 19 || 150 || 80% || Crossbows || - || Little || [[Bolt]] || Non-melee || 10 ||
|-style="vertical-align: top;"
| [[Triple crossbow]] || 22 || 0 || 23 || 250 || 90% || Crossbows || - || Small || [[Bolt]] || Non-melee || 2 ||
|}

==Brands==
Ranged weapons and their associated ammunition are capable of carrying a wide variety of [[brand]]s which can greatly increase your lethality when used correctly:

===Ranged Weapon Brands===
*[[Electrocution]] - Deals additional [[electricity]] damage
*[[Evasion (brand)|Evasion]] - Increases [[EV]]
*[[Flame]] - Converts all damage to [[fire]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Frost]] - Converts all damage to [[cold]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Penetration]] - Projectiles can pierce through enemies, hitting everything along its trajectory
*[[Speed (brand)|Speed]] - Attacks take 66.6% normal time
*[[Venom]] - Poisons target
*[[Vorpal]] - Increases damage by 0-40%

===Ammunition Brands===
*[[Needle|Confusion]] - [[Confuse]]s target
*[[Curare]] - [[Poison]]s, [[slow]]s, and [[asphyxiate]]s target
*[[Dispersal]] - Forces target to [[blink]] randomly
*[[Exploding]] - Hits target and all adjacent tiles with a small unavoidable explosion
*[[Flame]] - Converts all damage to [[fire]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Frenzy]] - [[Berserk]]s target and temporarily turns it hostile to everything
*[[Frost]] - Converts all damage to [[cold]], increases damage by 0-40%
*[[Needle|Paralysis]] - [[Paralyse]]s target
*[[Penetration]] - Projectiles can pierce through enemies, hitting everything along its trajectory
*[[Poisoned]] - [[Poison]]s target
*[[Returning]] - Ammo may return to the attacker, with chance based on player skill or monster [[HD]]
*[[Silver]] - Deals massive damage to [[chaotic]] targets
*[[Needle|Sleep]] - Puts target back to sleep
*[[Needle|Slowing]] - [[Slow]]s target
*[[Steel]] - Increases damage by 30%, [[mulch]]es much less often

If both your launcher and your ammo have brands, the brand of the missile usually overrides that of the launcher. Exceptions include the vorpal and speed brands, which stack with any ammo, and the fire/cold damage brands, which cancel out each other when paired together.

==Retired Weapons==
Over the years, several weapons have been removed from the ''Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup'' arsenal.
*[[Bow]]
*[[Crossbow]]
*[[Dart]]
*[[Sling]]

==See also==
*[[Ranged Combat]]

==History==
Prior to [[0.15]], ranged combat was significantly more complicated. Min delay was heavily influenced by your [[stats]], and there was a much smaller variety of weapons available.

Prior to [[0.14]], [[dagger]]s, [[spear]]s, [[hand axe]]s, and [[club]]s could be thrown.

Current projects

2014-06-12T08:08:49Z

Derrek: wording

{{Community}}

CrawlWiki is growing in size with more than [[Special:Statistics|100 registered users]]. To track what we are doing, we have created this list of current projects.

== Current Projects ==

{|class="prettytable"
! Project !! Goal !! Contributor(s) !! Status
|-
| '''0.14 Update Project'''
| See [[Current_projects/0.14_update_project]]
|
|Active
|-
| ''Weigh in''
| Go to [[:Category:Under Review]] and give us your thoughts on what should be done. Any input is appreciated!
| Anyone
| Done for the moment if the lack of pages is any indication
|-
| ''Unstub-a-dub-dub''
| Add anything you can to any of the pages in [[:Category:Stubs]]. If you add a lot of stuff, remove <nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki>.
| Anyone
| Ongoing
|-

| ''Missing pages''
| [[Special:WantedPages]], [[Special:WantedTemplates]], [[Special:WantedFiles]], [[Special:WantedCategories]]. Usually these require some simple redirects or imports from the old wiki.
| [[User:DC_Malleus|DC_Malleus]]
| Wanted Pages are under control for the moment - There's a bunch of templates, categories, pages, etc. that I've nominated for deletion - I think most of them are holdovers from the old wiki import. As much as it burns me to say it, there are also a few usual suspects that should be kept for demonstration purposes (unless anyone is more zealous than I am about keeping the Wanted Page clean :D). Turning my baleful eye to the other categories now.
|-
| Game Mechanics Pages
| Creating a more comprehensible and comprehensive collection of pages on fundamental game concepts. Started with [[Movement]], now progressing to [[Actions]]. Ideally, this project will lead to a series of macro-level pages that provide a portal to more detailed pages (e.g. [[Spellcasting]] should introduce all the topics, but link to [[Spells]], [[Spell schools]], [[spell power]], [[Spell hunger]], [[Spell success]], [[Damage type]], etc.)
| Jk, more contributors appreciated.
| In progress
|-
| ''Renames''
| Change the link of everything that has been renamed: for instance [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Dragon armour]] and [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Potion of healing]] -- the pages listed there should have their links changed to [[Fire dragon armour]] and [[Potion of curing]]. This is optional, as there are redirects from the old terms, but it would be nice if the wiki used up-to-date terminology on all pages.
| [[User:spudwalt]]
| Finished potions of curing; will take care of dragon armor soon
|-
| ''Updating''
| Go through http://git.develz.org/?p=crawl.git;a=log (2/14/2012 and earlier) to see what parts of the code have changed and update the wiki accordingly. This can be done even without code-reading skills as the summaries are plain English; make a list of clearly important changes and leave it to code readers to figure out and fill in the specifics.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Habitat-tat''
| Rewrite [[habitat]] to properly describe the habitats LAND, WATER, AMPHIBIOUS, LAVA, and "fake amphibious".
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Splitsville''
| Split all items on the [[evocable items]] page onto their own pages, leave behind overviews and links to the individual pages.
| [[User:MoogleDan]], though help is welcome
| Started
|-
| ''Practical magic resistance''
| Add a chart of what the bell curve for random2(100) + random2(101) is to the [[MR]] page. The scale would be spell power minus MR, with the low bound being -100 (0% success); midpoint -1 (I think?) (50% success); and high bound 100 (100% success). Could just be a table of values in increments of 10, not a graph, though the latter would be fancy.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Update/expand portal and vault pages''
| Go through the [http://git.develz.org/?p=crawl.git;a=tree;f=crawl-ref/source/dat/des/portals;h=9e10d9a155f11176301498aa37de2847b493ef75;hb=HEAD portal] and [http://git.develz.org/?p=crawl.git;a=tree;f=crawl-ref/source/dat/des/variable;h=11076c55fdb8ab29193aee32649733cbc27b55f1;hb=HEAD vault] source pages to update/expand our coverage of said dungeon features.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Merge portal pages''
| [[Portal]] and [[Dungeon_branches#Miscellaneous_Portals]] overlap heavily; merge any useful info from the branches page into the specialized portal page.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Add spell info''
| Peruse the [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhvL_CFCw7ajdEZ5Q3JoOS1tdUxta1NaWTZ1MVNqbXc#gid=6 DCSS spell lab] -- click on the "Spells" tab -- to add basic stats about spells to our spell pages. Especially damage figures.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''[[Resistances]]''
| Edit the [[resistances]] page to broaden it to mention monster resistances. Currently it is totally player-centric.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Import info''
| Go through [http://crawl.akrasiac.org/learndb.html Henzell's learndb] and copy any useful info to appropriate pages (or create new ones).
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Resistible enchantments''
| Create a list of things (spells, wands, scrolls, etc.) that are resisted by monster [[magic resistance]]. Give the formula for how effective a given amount of resistance is vs. each thing so you know when to give up on using that wand of confusion & suchlike.
| vacant; may need some [[Source code|source diving]] skills
| not started
|-
| ''A template in every pot''
| Make sure all [[:Category:Spells]] are using [[Template:Spell]], all [[:Category:Items]] are using [[Template:Item]].
| vacant
| Checked the spells, didn't get to the items
|-
| ''Establish new version update procedures''
| We need some sort of routine in place -- at the very least, a checklist -- to follow when a new version is released, so we can keep the wiki up-to-date. This should include rerunning our autogeneration scripts and uploading the results. Potentially tricky, since the scripts may need updating from version to version and people don't hang around for years. So we need a plan of succession for our script maintainers/guru(s).
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Update spell table pages''
| [[List of spells/parse-spl-data]] was used to generate the following pages:
* [[List of spells]]
* [[List of spells by level]]
* [[List of spells by school]]
* [[List of spells by flag]]
* [[List of spells by book]]
We could try extending it to update all our spell-related pages, including individual spells and spell books.
| [[User:CommanderC]]
| not started
|-
| ''Outdated spell table pages''
| [[List of attack spells and beams by maximum damage]] and [[Table of attack spells and beams by maximum range]] need updating. Maybe Neil's script can be extended to redo them.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Fill in spell damages''
| Someone needs to do some source diving to fill in what the damage, duration, etc. are for several different spells: [[Tornado]], [[Ice Storm]], [[Fire Storm]], [[Freezing Cloud]], etc. We could potentially grab some of this from [[List of attack spells and beams by maximum damage]], provided the figures haven't changed too radically.
| vacant
| not started
|-
| ''Fix some redundancies''
| Consolidate redundant/out-of-date tables & info in [[stats]], species attributes, and [[player]]. Current stats can be found in http://git.develz.org/?p=crawl.git;a=blob;f=crawl-ref/source/ng-setup.cc -- bearing in mind that you must add 2 to all those figures. Also note that that page is from [[trunk]]; MD has been removed and Op is in.
| Vacant!
| Not started
|}

== Past Projects ==
{|class="prettytable"
! Project !! Goal !! Status
|-
| ''Merge community, community portal pages''
| [[Community]] and [[CrawlWiki:Community portal]] pages have overlapping purpose. Merge community to community portal and update the [[CrawlWiki|main page]] to reflect the updated community page and its content.
| Done
|-
| ''Review categories''
| Rename any obtuse or long names, merge duplicates
| DONE! There is still some stuff to do with the categories (i.e. placing categories into appropriate parent categories, but that will be for another time)
|-
| ''Merge candidates''
| Consolidate [[Multizap]] and The Multizapper's Handbook (''now a dead link''). Unnecessary to have two pages on the same basic subject, even if one is more technical and the other more strategic.
| probably done?
|-
| ''Half staff''
| Add [[Template:Item]], [[Template:Flavour]] to the [[:Category:Magical staves]] pages. Some [[:Category:Wand]] pages are lacking flavour too.
| Done - most of this was already done, I only had to flavour up a few wands
|-
| ''Racial & background attributes''
| Add racial [[stats]] to each [[species]] page and stat modifiers to each [[background]] page. Note that the tables on the stats and class attribute modifiers pages are badly out of date and should be updated first. (Cragspyder - "I checked the stats against the in-game values and they seem to be correct to me, I even checked Vine Stalker and Formicid myself and added them to the list."
| I'm pretty sure this is now done.
|-
| ''A template in every book''
| Create a [[Template:Spellbook]] and convert all [[:Category:book|spellbook pages]] to use it, for ease of maintenance and consistency of styling.
| {{Done}}
|-
| 0.11 Update Project
| See [[Current_projects/0.11_update_project]]
| {{Done}}
|-
| ''Update info on monster pages''
| The monster stats were extracted from the source and uploaded in bulk a couple of years ago. Update the extracting script ([[User:Wideshanks/monsterparse.rb]]) to handle changes to the source; expand its functionality as much as possible to include stuff like what spells monsters have (and how much damage they do) and to reflect resistances not in mon-data.h (like negative energy, torment, confusion, etc.). Also figure out way to automate upload of new data to the wiki.

The source code of the program we are currently using can be found [https://gitorious.org/crawl-wiki-monster-bot/crawl-wiki-monster-bot here]. Based on the same program used by the IRC bots.
| {{Done}}
|-
| Monster Group Pages
| Create separate pages for a monster, the group of monsters, and if needed, the player race. For example, see [[Spriggan (monster)]], [[List of spriggans]], and [[Spriggan]]. In the list page, make sure to add the [[:Category:Lists of monsters]] at the bottom. We should also add reference links to the list page to every monster on that list. For example, [[Spriggan (monster)]] has a link to [[List of spriggans]], we should do it for [[Spriggan druid]] etc... Other pages that need to be done included [[Merfolk]], [[Gnoll]], [[Deep elf]].
| {{Done}}
|-
| ''What was that?''
| Update [[spell noise]] with the info on Talk:spell noise (''page no longer accessible''). Optional: add detailed spell noise info to individual spell pages (via an expanded [[Template:Spell]]?).
| {{Done}}
|-
| 0.10 Update Project
| See [[Current_projects/0.10_update_project]]
| {{Done}}
|-
| ''Expand attack flavour''
| [[Attack flavour]] needs filling in.
| Done.
|-
| ''Attack types''
| Do some source diving to figure out what all the different [[attack type]]s do (sting, butt, shoot, etc.). See http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?title=Special%3AWhatLinksHere&target=Attack+type&namespace=10 for a list of the wiki's attack type templates.
| Done.
|-
| ''Armour time-to-wear''
| All body armour takes AC+1 turns to wear or remove; see [[Armour#Wear_and_remove_times]]. Add the weartime parameter to all armour templates.
| Done.
|-
| ''Monster zapper''
| Add the formula for what spell power monsters get when they use wands to the [[wand]] page. Old formula was "30 + 2d([[hit dice]]). The part over 40 is halved (a power of 80 thus becomes a power of 60). Final power is capped at 70." Is it still correct?
| Done; current formula seems to be 30+[[hit dice]], although it's not clear what value is used for most enchantments.
|-
| ''0.9.2''
| Add info about the [[0.9.2]] release to the wiki. See [http://git.develz.org/?p=crawl.git;a=blob;f=crawl-ref/docs/changelog.txt;h=b3cef7b43014f705443ce9d636bfadd6302a3b78;hb=33895e9a0446bc438a5dec2b39a335824ce23bf6].
| Done.
|-
| ''Merge [[megabat]] and [[bat]]''
| [[Template:Monster]] is a complication here; the uploader of all our current tiles changed it to ignore the "tile" parameter and instead automatically use pagename. The monster page updates, below, should clear the way for fixing the tile parameter.
| Done.
|-
| '' Fix size templates ''
| Move the templates in [[:Category:Size]] to [[:Category:Size templates]]. Also edit these templates so that they add the category "Foo monsters" instead of just "Foo" to the page. For example, Template:big will categorize monster pages with this flag to "Big monsters" instead of just "Big". Finally, verify the old category (i.e. Category:Big) to see if there are any monsters that were not using the template and fix them.
| Done!
|-
| ''Add flavour to pages''
| See Category:Articles_Without_Flavour (''category no longer exists'')
| Done.
|-
| ''Crawl graphics''
| Upload Dungeon Crawl's graphical tiles and place them in the relevant articles.
| Done.
|-
| ''Style guide''
| Create a style guide.
| Done.
|-
| ''Redirect messages''
| Redirect all in-game messages to appropriate articles.
| Not completed / Do we want to do this?
|-
| ''Crawl documents''
| Create pages for all Dungeon Crawl documents.
| Finished for Stone Soup, original Crawl versions are needed.
|-
| ''Source code''
| Upload wikified source code for all major versions.
| Hell no, that's what the git repository is for.
|-
| ''Items''
| Represent every Dungeon Crawl item with its own article, including an infobox.
| Done.
|-
| ''0.7.0''
| Create articles on 0.7.0's new features.
| Done.
|-
| ''Categories''
| Separate categories and articles.
| Done.
|-
| ''Crawl versions''
| Create an article for every version of Crawl.
| Finished for Stone Soup, original Crawl versions are needed.
|}

[[Category:Community]]
[[Category:Maintenance]]

Rakshasa Summon

2014-06-01T10:22:17Z

Derrek: wording

{{Obsolete}}
'''Rakshasa Summon''' is a monster-only spell which summons illusory [[rakshasa]]s. These duplicates have 1 [[HP]], 1 [[AC]], 30 [[EV]], 1 [[HD]], and do 0 damage per attack. [[Magic Dart]], [[Fireball]], or any other highly accurate spell makes short work of them.

While their attacks deal no damage themselves, the illusions are given cloned versions of the rakshasa's weapon, with which they ''can'' deal damage. However, given that they have only one HD, they very rarely hit. The attack mostly serves to make it more difficult to distinguish the clones from the real monster.

==History==
In [[0.14]] Rakshasa Summon was removed and replaced by more dangerous [[Phantom Mirror]] in the [[rakshasa]]'s spell set.

[[Category:Monster spells]]

Rakshasa Summon

2014-06-01T10:21:55Z

Derrek: rewrote history section

Phantom Mirror

2014-06-01T10:20:07Z

Derrek: fixed description

{{version014}}
{{stub}}
'''Phantom Mirror''' is a monster-only spell which summons copy of any monster in the caster's line of sight. These duplicates have 50% of HP, but otherwise almost indistinguishable from the original. The spell sometimes swaps positions of duplicates and the original to disguise them. All decoys will disappear when the original is slain.

The following monsters can cast Phantom Mirror:
*{{monsterlink|Rakshasa}}

==History==
Phantom Mirror was added in [[0.14]].

[[Category:Monster spells]]

Rakshasa Summon

2014-06-01T10:05:01Z

Derrek: tag as obsolete

{{Obsolete}}
'''Rakshasa Summon''' is a monster-only spell which summons illusory [[rakshasa]]s. These duplicates have 1 [[HP]], 1 [[AC]], 30 [[EV]], 1 [[HD]], and do 0 damage per attack. [[Magic Dart]], [[Fireball]], or any other highly accurate spell makes short work of them.

While their attacks deal no damage themselves, the illusions are given cloned versions of the rakshasa's weapon, with which they ''can'' deal damage. However, given that they have only one HD, they very rarely hit. The attack mostly serves to make it more difficult to distinguish the clones from the real monster.

==History==
Rakshasa Summon was replaced by more dangerous [[Phantom Mirror]] in [[0.14]].

[[Category:Monster spells]]

Phantom Mirror

2014-06-01T10:01:47Z

Derrek: add some 0.14 content

{{version014}}
{{stub}}
'''Phantom Mirror''' is a monster-only spell which summons illusory [[rakshasa]]s. These duplicates have 50% of HP, but otherwise almost indistinguishable from the original. The spell sometimes swaps positions of duplicates and the original to disguise them.

The following monsters can cast Phantom Mirror:
*{{monsterlink|Rakshasa}}

==History==
Phantom Mirror replaced [[Rakshasa Summon]] in 0.14.

[[Category:Monster spells]]

Sap Magic

2014-06-01T09:44:44Z

Derrek: 0.14 version

{{version014}}
{{stub}}
'''Sap Magic''' is a monsters-only spell which taints the victim's ability to cast spells; casting a spell while afflicted with this condition causes them to lose control over their magic, progressively hindering their chances of success as more spells are cast.

The following monsters can cast Sap Magic:
*{{monsterlink|Warmonger}}

[[Category:Monster spells]]