Repo Troll Guide, TrFi^Wu Jian

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised.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

Congrats, you got the job! You know the difference between a repo man and a repo troll? It's all about breach of peace. Your average repossession agent, they’re too concerned about jurisdiction and formalities. Trolls, on the other hand, they rarely ponder the legalities of shredding illiquid debtors with their claws.

Zot did not pay up. So you go to their house and get the Orb back. Too easy? Well. Zot is trying to be smart. Hid the Orb somewhere in their vermin-infested root cellar and locked the door with magic runes. They even hired a veritable army of goons and set a few traps. Yes. We have a plan.

The Plan

Step 1: Claws           (choose them as starting weapon)
Step 2: Shield          (included in your starting equipment)
Step 3: Wu Jian Council (convert at the first opportunity)
Step 4: Statue Form     (you will get there eventually)

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

Preamble for new recruits
The Repo Troll Guide has gotten much longer than I originally intended. I hope it helps you getting your first win. No big strategic decisions required. Just stick to the Plan. Focus on tactics. Consider posting yet another victory post (YAVP) or yet another stupid death (YASD) on r/dcss if you give this a shot. I update the guide based on feedback.

Preamble for professionals
I feel Statue Form is a bit underappreciated these days and has great synergy with trolls of Wu Jian. This is not about adjusting to every whim of the RNG and “optimal play”. It's about brute forcing a fun and very strong hybrid build.

Disclaimer
This is a dedicated Statue Form build. You might not find Statue Form. You can still win. 

Skills

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

Skill targets are set by pressing =, then the letter corresponding to the skill. You automatically stop training a skill when you hit the target. At which experience level you actually reach a certain skill level may vary, depending on whether you find some manuals or not and whether you choose to pick one or more of the options.

XL 1: Initial skill allocation
Deactivate Dodging (press d twice), focus Unarmed Combat (press b). Distribute your incoming experience and set skill targets like this:

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Fighting       |  25%  |  13.3
* Unarmed Combat |  50%  |  21.1
+ Shields        |  25%  |  13.3

Stick to this allocation until you reach XL 9. No matter what.

XL 9: Option - Learn to dodge
This is optional but recommended. If you choose to train Dodging later or not at all, your defence will be slightly weaker, but you get to learn magic sooner and your offence will grow a bit faster. Don't start training Dodging before XL 9.

Activate Dodging and set a target of 9.9. Now, your experience should be distributed like this:

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Fighting       |  20%  |  13.3
* Unarmed Combat |  40%  |  21.1
+ Dodging        |  20%  |   9.9
+ Shields        |  20%  |  13.3

Be patient
Don’t touch the skill allocation again before you reach ALL targets. This will take a while. You can’t miss it. The game will notify you by opening the skill screen and not letting you close it again until you select new skills.

XL 17: A Kind of Earth Magic
You probably meet all skill targets shortly after hitting XL 17. Without Statue Form the Plan is starting to unravel a bit. See Plan B.

Did you find Statue Form? Excellent! Now is the time to start training for it. Select new skills and set targets as follows.

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Spellcasting   |  33%  |   3.3
+ Transmutations |  33%  |  13.3
+ Earth Magic    |  33%  |  17.7

More Options
This guide isn’t supposed to be flexible. It's meant to let you win 3-4 runes without having to think about skilling. Yet, here are two options for a bit more utility. This will delay getting Statue Form castable, but not much.

• If you found the spell Blink, consider training Translocations. Set a target of 5.5. Blink can be a life-saver and cut down on your use of consumables. It’s by no means required. Memorise Apportation, too.
• To give your evocations a bit more oomph, train Evocations and set a target of 5.5.

XL 22: Final skill allocation
Before you hit XL 22 you should reach all skill targets again. Now it’s time for the final allocation. If you go for three runes, you might just master Unarmed Combat and rightfully earn the title of Heavyweight Champion before you win.

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Fighting       |  16%  |  16.6
* Unarmed Combat |  33%  |    --
+ Shields        |  16%  |  16.6
+ Transmutations |  16%  |  16.6
+ Earth Magic    |  16%  |  19.9

The build is officially complete when you hit those targets. I won't give you any more magic numbers. By now you have a feel for the character. I supply some suggestions for the extended game later. See "Beyond the Plan".

Spells

All this talk about training magic is making your head hurt? The truth is, arcane secrets don't come easy to trolls. But it'll pay off big time, trust me. You don't need many spells.

The Holy Grail
You want to find Statue Form above all else. Examine every bookshop. Put any book containing Statue Form on your shopping list by pressing Shift and the letter of the book. It will be a while until you actually learn to cast the spell. Maybe you find another book somewhere, for free. Otherwise return to the shop later (hopefully at XL 17). If you happen to read a scroll of acquirement and a book containing Statue Form is on offer, get it! No matter what. There is no guarantee you get another chance.

All other spells are optional. Don't train for them prematurely. Stick to the Plan. Memorise them and wait until it's safe to start casting them. Safe is relative. I usually wait until 20% spell success and aim for 10% or less.

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

Blink
You can't control where you blink to and it has a cooldown, but the little random translocation might just let you escape from a fight going south or give you some much needed space to move.

Lesser Beckoning
Very useful for any melee brute. Sometimes it's better to move an enemy closer to you than to reposition yourself. The range increases with spellpower.

Passwall
I use Passwall mostly for fun, but it's a great escape option when you are next to a passable rock wall and see trouble coming. It lets you take shortcuts between corridors and rooms not directly connected. More spellpower increases the distance you can travel through rock. Just keep in mind that you need to meditate for wall depth + 1 turns before merging with the rock. During this time you are completely helpless and monsters can hurt you.

You always get to act first on the other side. If you enter a room through a wall, any monster in there can't do anything until after your next move. Sometimes your next move might be to flee by passing through the wall again. I recommend you try a wall next to a door and see if you like entering rooms that way.

Wereblood
No game changer, but a slaying bonus and some extra healing is nice to have. Remember to cast it from time to time. It stacks with Heavenly Storm.

Attributes

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

Almost always choose Int
For this build, choose Intelligence. It won't do anything for you at first, but it's essential for casting Statue Form later. You can afford to do this because trolls are very strong early on and gain a lot of Strength automatically. It won't be a problem.

Avoid having any attribute lower than 8, though. If you happen to find some powerful artefact that lowers your Dexterity, try to compensate. Keep in mind that the higher your XL goes, the more likely bonuses from equipment and mutations have a bigger impact than your choices when levelling up. You might find an artefact with +10 to some attribute. Chances are that even if you picked the wrong attribute on level up, equipping the right items can solve the problem. All three basic stats are useful for you.

Equipment

Physical Defence
Keep an eye out for an amulet of reflection. It has excellent synergy with your shield, since reflection applies to all of your SH. Rings of protection or evasion are also very nice to have. Switch your robe for troll leather armour or some dragon scales.

If you find a tower shield, keep it in mind for the late or extended game. Press @ before and after equipping the tower shield to see how it affects your attack delay. A kite shield is all you really need for a 3-rune win. Consider enchanting your shield when levels get noticeably harder. Wear the best hat and cloak you find.

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

Weapons
Ignore all weapons. Even if you find Wyrmbane. Leave it. This is all about your claws. Unarmed Combat is reliable and fast, easy for you to train and extremely powerful in the long run. Claws are your end game weapon. Spending experience on weapon skills would make this build weaker. Throw away scrolls of brand weapon and enchant weapon, if you need more space in your inventory. You have no use for them, except perhaps to open a treasure trove. Use the autopickup menu (press \) to configure which items you want to pick up automatically.

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

Harm is fun. It increases all damage you deal by 30%. This is massive! Harm also increases all damage you receive by 20%. It's generally worth it. You're a big troll, you can take it. More often than not, you'll take less damage overall, since the boost from harm can easily make the difference between one-shotting and two-shotting a tough monster. On the other hand, it can amplify unexpected damage spikes and kill you. Be careful and always use good tactics.

Plan B

So you're XL 17 and you didn’t find Statue Form, yet. Train more Fighting, Shields and Unarmed Combat. Focus Unarmed Combat. No skill targets.

skill              train   target
----------------------------------
+ Fighting       |  25%  |   --
* Unarmed Combat |  50%  |   --
+ Shields        |  25%  |   --

You have an easier time right now, since you immediately benefit from those skills. You miss out on some of the fun later. But you can still get back on track, if you find Statue Form until XL 21 or so. If you find it before XL 21, immediately memorise it, abort Plan B and start training like you're XL 17. Don't start training the magic before you found the spell.

Options
Feel free to train for Blink, Apportation, Passwall and Wereblood. Set a target of 3.3 for Spellcasting and 5.5 for the spell schools involved.

Trolls don't quit
If you hit XL 21, don't worry. You can always learn Statue Form later. Probably not in time for a 3-rune win, though. Right now, consider getting more defence:

• Put on some heavy dragon scales.
• Start training Armour, set a target of 9.9.
• Swap your kite shield for a tower shield.

If you want to keep casting spells, you might need to stick to lighter armour or invest some more XP into the relevant spell schools. Enchanted gold dragon scales can give you just as good AC as Statue Form. You don't hit quite as hard, but you’re still a troll fighter and your claws are still extremely effective.

You need to improvise at this point. Feel free to invest some XP in Evocations or Throwing. Keep going. I have yet to refine Plan B further than that. Take it out on Zot, it’s their fault! They must have caught wind of the Plan. They stole the book! Get the Orb.

Time, Actions and Delay

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

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

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

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

General Advice

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assess all options
Take your time to ponder dire situations and evaluate all options. Take a break. Sleep over it. If it’s especially tricky, consider dumping your character (press #) and getting some advice on r/dcss.

Basic Tactics

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

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

Attacks of opportunity
When you move away from a monster, it gains a 1/3 chance to instantly attack you, unless it’s slower than you. This was implemented in 0.29, to discourage pillar dancing, i.e. endlessly running in circles in order to regenerate health, while a same-speed monster is chasing you. Don’t be afraid of attacks of opportunity. When it’s tactically sound to reposition, do so. A 1/3 chance of being attacked is better than a 100% chance of staying in a bad position. As long as you keep a gap of at least one tile between you and the monster, you can still pillar dance, though chances are you neither need nor want to.

"Random energy" has been removed in 0.29. It boils down to: You can’t disengage from a monster anymore by just walking away, unless you are faster than them. When they are next to you, commit to the fight or use consumables to disengage.

Pick your fights
Don’t mess with monsters that might kill you in one or two hits or have high chances to hex you with a dangerous spell. When you encounter a sleeping Sigmund, Grinder or double-headed ogre, don't wake them. If they notice you, it might be best to run away. You are strong enough to maybe kill them, but early on it's a gamble. Come back later, with a few consumables, just in case. The same goes for ghost vaults. Don’t open a runed door, unless you can reliably escape from or defeat what’s in there. Press Ctrl-O for an overview of the Dungeon, including notes which unique monsters and ghosts you left alive on which floor.

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

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

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

Ambushes at the entrance
Should you get ambushed by too many monsters near the single entrance to a branch, consider teleporting instead of stairdancing. Other parts of the map are probably less densely populated, as all the monsters guard the entrance. Circle around the outer perimeter, close in on the stairs again and lure some monsters away from the mob. If the monsters are too dangerous, flee downstairs and continue exploring. You will be stronger on your way back up from the bottom.

Consumables

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

Identify your stuff
Start early to read-ID your scrolls. Whenever you have two or more scrolls of the same type, read one. Preferably while standing on the upstairs of an unexplored floor, in case it's magic mapping. If it's teleport, immediately go back upstairs. Once you know scrolls of identify, use them on your potions and your single scrolls little by little. Do not blind-quaff potions before you have identified potions of mutation. Unless you are in real trouble and it's your best hope of survival.

If you happen upon a shop that offers cheap bad potions or scrolls, buy them to identify them. Seeing a monster use a potion or scroll also identifies it.

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

Life insurance scrolls and refreshments

• Scroll of blinking: S-tier life insurance. If you die with one of those left, you probably could have prevented it.
• Scroll of summoning: Can potentially kill anything. Also enables you to run while your summonend allies cover you.
• Scroll of butterflies: Another great life insurance scroll. Attacks of opportunity do not apply when you swap places with an ally. A one square gap is all you need to get away.
• Scroll of fear: Check the willpower of your enemies before you use this. Bring multiple scrolls or read vulnerability first to scare away monsters with moderately high willpower, for example hydras.
• Scroll of teleport: Potentially dangerous on partially explored floors. Takes 3-5 turns to kick in. You can cancel a pending teleport by reading another scroll of teleport, should you want to.
• Potion of lignification: You can use this as a safe method of killing hydras. The massive AC boost turns hydra bites into harmless tickles and your arms transform into branches well suited for pummeling hydras. Ideally bring a potion of cancellation, too, in case you need to transform back fast. You can safely read scrolls of torment in tree form.
• Potion of haste: Both escape option and combat buff.
• Potion of invisibility: Makes monsters that can't see invisible 35% less likely to hit you. They may lose track of you if you are a few squares away. You deal extra damage, since your strikes now count as low-tier stabbing attacks. Invisibility doesn't work in water, unless you are flying.

Evocables

Pick up evocable items and use them tactically. Even with zero skill, wands and other evocables have a lot of utility. Evoke an item by pressing V. When you target a monster with a wand, the game will show you how likely you are to affect or hit them.

• Condenser vane: This device is actually more useful with zero skill than with moderate skill, as it’s more likely to produce noxious fumes, capable of confusing any monster not resistant to poison. Use it to disable large packs of monsters or particularly dangerous individuals.

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

• Lightning rod: It has four charges and doesn't miss. It's very loud. Use it to take out weak but dangerous monsters (e.g. floating eyes) from a distance or to soften up packs of monsters lining up in a corridor.

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

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

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

Throwing

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

Sleeping monsters are easy to hit. A large rock can potentially one-shot most creatures roaming the upper floors of the Dungeon. Take pot shots at monsters while they close the distance to you. When they are one step away from you, press . to wait a turn, so they step into you and you can hit them first.

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

Selected Threats

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

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

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

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

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

The sourceless malevolence
Sooner or later you will suddenly be teleported or shafted by a sourceless malevolence. It’s an unavoidable trap, triggered by exploring new tiles. 0.29 shafts try to dump you somewhere out of monsters’ sight, but they can drop you up to three levels deeper. Proceed to explore, try to fight your way back to where you were. Make searching for upstairs your highest priority. You can pick up those items later.

Magic contamination
When you miscast and start to glow with magic contamination, rest until it wears off. Grey contamination is harmless. Should you ever glow yellow or red, I highly recommend you quaff potions of cancellation until it’s grey again. High levels of magic contamination can malmutate you.

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

The Wu Jian Council

It’s time for a martial arts training montage.

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

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

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

Move like the wind: Whirlwind
As you lunge deeper into the Dungeon, the Council soon teaches you the second martial movement. Whirlwind hits a monster with 80% damage (of a regular attack) when you move from one square adjacent to the monster to another square adjacent to the monster. If you fight only one monster, you might as well tab it. However, Whirlwind can hit multiple enemies in a single move. You perform Lunges and Whirlwinds simultaneously. It’s a bit like cleaving with your claws, as long as you keep moving.

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

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

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

Thus, Wall Jump is best suited to:

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

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

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

Serpent’s lash gives you two instant movement actions for the cost of a little piety up front and exhaustion afterwards. Instant means, you act, but there is no delay. When you perform martial attacks with such incredible momentum, you hit 40% harder. Lunge does 1.2 x 1.4 = 168% damage then, compared to a regular attack. Whirlwind does 0.8 x 1.4 = 112%. Martial attacks performed with Serpent’s Lash cannot miss, though they can still fail, if your attack speed is slower than your movement speed.

You don’t have to execute your instant moves immediately or consecutively. You can, for example, activate Serpent’s Lash, quaff a potion, lunge at one monster, evoke a wand, hit something without moving, lunge at another monster. Both Lunges are instant. Only movement actions consume your two charges of Serpent’s Lash. A single Wall Jump uses both of them, turning into a 100% safe instant Wall Jump.

In a pinch, Serpent’s Lash is a great escape option. A single square gap is all you need to disengage from monsters that aren't faster than you. However, using stairs does not count as movement for Serpent's Lash! You always take stairs at your regular speed. Serpent’s Lash is prevented by silence, berserking and of course exhaustion.

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

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

Additionally you receive a bonus applied to evasion (EV) and slaying. Slaying improves both your accuracy and the damage you deal. The duration of the Storm is theoretically infinite. It starts with +5 EV and slaying. Every 2-3 turns the bonus decreases by 1. But it increases by 1 for every target you hit with a Wu Jian martial attack, up to a maximum of +15. Only Lunge, Whirlwind and Wall Jump prolong the Storm. It lasts until the bonus drops to zero. It's usually a bad idea to activate the Storm when you are completely surrounded, e.g. when you just entered Vaults:5 or so.

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

The best thing is, Heavenly Storm leaves you tons of tactical options (unlike for example, berserk rage). Most notably, Serpent’s Lash works and you can use any item or spell while the Storm rages. Scrolls of blinking become slightly less useful, since you can only blink to tiles you can see. The Storm is very loud, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Helps keep it going.

Wu Jian and Statue Form

Statue Form should have a high enough spell success rate to start using it (about 20% or less) by the time you hit XL 21. This depends on how much Int you have and whether you picked extra options or not. You might want to put on a ring of wizardry or just keep training your magic skills for a while longer.

AC and spellpower
Statue Form melds your armour, but gives you a decent AC bonus, scaling with spellpower. Consider wearing a robe of the Archmagi. The spellpower boost is applied before the robe gets melded. A ring of wizardry does not increase spellpower. Intelligence does. You can further increase spellpower by wielding a staff of earth (or the Elemental Staff), but it’s tedious. After transforming, you need to unwield it again to use your claws. Don’t bother for every fight, but keep the staff in mind for dangerous enemies. Or create a macro. You need to recast Statue Form very often in the beginning. The duration improves with spellpower.

Macros
You may want to use a macro to wield your staff, cast Statue Form and unwield your staff. While you’re at it, why not include Wereblood, too? Let’s assume you assigned your staff and spells like this (press = to adjust):

e - staff of earth
b - Wereblood
s – Statue Form

Press Ctrl-D, hit Enter. The game now asks you for a trigger key. Think of a key you don’t need for anything else, like a number or function key. Next, enter a key sequence, for example:

weZbZsw-

Back in the game, you can now press the trigger key to execute all of those commands in a row. It takes exactly as many turns as entering them manually would. Note that the example key sequence casts Wereblood before Statue Form, because that’s half a turn faster. Casting a spell in Statue Form takes 15 auts instead of 10 auts. You may want to create macros for different situations, e.g. a fast one that only casts Statue Form, etc.

Float like a zeppelin, hit like a truck
Now it all comes together. Besides AC, Statue Form gives you +30% health and some very useful resistances and immunities. Those are not affected by spellpower. Press A to check it out. All your actions are 50% slower but your damage output is enhanced. As your claws turn into stone claws, your base damage for Unarmed Combat increases substantially. Additionally, all your melee attacks receive a 50% damage bonus.

Worried about the overall slowdown? Though you move and attack slowly, you are not necessarily a slow fighter. After all, you move and attack simultaneously. For example, you now need 15 auts (1.5 turns) to lunge at a monster. That’s exactly the same time a normal speed character with a quite fast attack delay of 0.5 needs to take a step (or let the monster take a step) and attack once. Of course, you hit way harder, potentially dealing more damage per turn.

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

Granted, running away becomes less of an option now, unless you end the transformation or quaff haste. 

The Kung Fu Puzzle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use the environment
Can you deal with that elf summoner without killing the tier-2 demon first?

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

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

Ancient Martial Combos

The Three-Point-Claw-Exploding-Hydra-Technique
This is your maximum damage combo. Don't let the name fool you. Use it against any particularly tough and dangerous monster. Including hydras. Make sure your honorable opponent is one step away. Activate Serpent’s Lash. Lunge, then follow up with a Whirlwind. Chances are, they are dead now. Not? Your moves were instant, so it’s still your turn. Use a third deft application of your claws to finish up.

As you gain experience, this approach will evolve into more of a one-point-technique, often leaving you with an unspent charge of Serpent’s Lash. What a waste. Let’s hope the next hydra brings a friend.

The Pull Back
If you lunge with incredible momentum and deal very little or no damage at all, consider using your second charge of Serpent’s Lash to take a step back again. Serpent’s Lash cannot miss, but damage rolls vary. Maybe you aren't quite ready for this fight. Maybe it was just an exceptionally bad roll. By backing off immediately, you disengage without using consumables. If the monster wasn’t impressed by your Lunge, it might not always be wise to push it. Walk away. Try again later or at least buff yourself.

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

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

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

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

You can wall jump this wizard before they have a chance to cast:

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

If the monster is a bit tougher, it might be better to just walk a bit closer and hit them with a Lunge with incredible momentum from two squares away.

Branch Order

This order is not set in stone. You might need to skip a branch sometimes and revisit it later, depending on your resistances. You can clear Zot:5 and snatch the orb as soon as you have 3 runes. I recommend you go for either 4, 10 or 15 runes. Think of it as distinct levels of difficulty.

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

Early Game

The Dungeon

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

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

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

Unlike snakes, scorpions are susceptible to poison. Poisoned darts are extremely effective on them. If you don’t have darts or keep missing, don’t sweat it. Your claws will deal with them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dealing with unseen horrors
Somewhere around D:10 you might suddenly be attacked by something invisible you didn’t see coming, and it’s harder to pin down than an orc wizard. It’s an unseen horror. A very fast, permanently invisible creature with a bat-like movement pattern. A scroll of poison will take care of it. Shallow water or a scroll of fog reveal its position. Alternatively, walk into a single square corridor and once you know on which side of you it is, claw that side. Evoking a lightning rod down the corridor is very effective. You know you killed it, when you feel more experienced. If you want to see the creature or have no other options, consider fleeing upstairs and equipping an orb of light, assuming you found one (press Ctrl-F to search). Put on your shield again after you have vanquished the horror. Any item with SInv works, too.

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

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

The Lower Dungeon (D:13-15)
After Lair and Orc, this should be relatively easy. As always, beware of hubris. Also, keep an eye out for wizards, lest they cast you into the Abyss. Deal with them quickly, if your willpower is lower than will+++. Wizards are often accompanied by ugly things that hit quite hard, dealing elemental damage you might or might not resist, depending on your gear. Try to fight them in corridors. You can use a wand of polymorph to make them change their colour, which corresponds to the type of damage they deal.

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

The Lair of Beasts

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

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

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

You can virtually eliminate the odds of things going wrong by buffing yourself or softening early hydras up. Wands of ice blast, acid or light work particularly well. Besides dealing damage, they have a chance to slow, corrode or blind the hydra, respectively. Cold slows many reptiles and amphibians (cold-blooded creatures without rCold). Large rocks are an option if the hydra is far away, though unreliable without throwing skill. Darts are useless, since hydras are resistant to poison.

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

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

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

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

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

Other methods of dealing with hydras
You can kite a hydra with haste and kill it with wands, though that’s an expensive approach. A phantom mirror is worth a shot. Be creative. What about using a wand of charming on a conveniently spiny and weak-willed cane toad nearby? Tell it to attack the hydra by pressing ta. You won’t be disappointed by that fight. One could imagine other, even more elaborate tactics. I won’t mention scrolls of butterflies and immolation now. No, that’s on you. I wash my hands of this.

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

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

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

The Orcish Mines

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

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

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

Timed Portals

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

You might want to skip volcanos if you lack rFire and ice caves if don’t have rCold. Swap rings and equip other items as needed. Do not underestimate simulacra, even with rCold.

Gauntlets
Gauntlets are interesting. You can enter and take a look around safely. Note potentially interesting items and inspect the monsters guarding them. Every chamber is a tactical puzzle you might or might not be able to solve with the tools at your disposal. Figure out how the rooms are connected through the portals. You cannot enter all of them. Teleport doesn’t work in a gauntlet. There is no turning back, once you enter the first portal. At the end of each gauntlet you face a minotaur, who likes to pick up some of the loot they are guarding, and use it against you. Buff yourself before this fight. The minotaur is equipped with javelins and quite deadly both at range and in melee.

Mid Game

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

Flying is very nice to have in Swamp and Shoals, though trolls of the Wu Jian Council are less at a disadvantage than most without it. Other species sometimes fumble their attacks when standing in shallow water (a 37.5% chance). You don’t. Shallow water only slows your movement. Serpent’s Lash is still instant. You might also use Wall Jump to cross a single square of deep water here or there.

They all look like hydras to me
Venturing into the S-branches, you probably feel a bit like a glass cannon. That’s because you are, at this point. Trolls are tougher than most in the early game. In mid game your inability to wear most types of armour and your bad evasion become noticeable. The monsters hit harder. You also face ranged attacks more often. Your shield helps. That why you started out as a fighter. There is no guarantee you would have found a kite shield in time.

That being said, not much changes now. It’s a bit like early Dungeon again, with less throwing. Every move counts. Which branch is easier to do first depends on your resistances. There’s nothing in the S-branches a timely Serpent’s Lash or Heavenly Storm won’t deal with.

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

Dealing with Nikola
Nikola can be found in any S-branch or later in the game. If you lack rElec, immediately quaff a potion of resistance. Kill him fast or get out of his sight. He can zap you for massive damage. Even with rElec he’s still dangerous, since Chain Lightning is only partly resistible and he doesn’t mind friendly fire.

Use a phial of floods or a scroll of silence, should you have them. A condenser vane may confuse him. Nikola is one of the more notable enemies dreaded by players trying to streak games.

The Snake Pit

Besides rPois, I recommend rElec and rFire.

• Shock serpents are terrifying without rElec. Don’t underestimate them.
• Some rFire is nice to have when you fight salamanders.
• Luckily, both shock serpents and salamanders are cold-blooded and not resistant to poison, so they can be slowed with iceblast or confused with a condenser vane.
• An amulet of reflection and a scarf of repulsion make naga sharpshooters significantly less scary. Sharpshooters use Portal Projectile to smite-target you with their arrows. Neither summoned allies nor other monsters, only walls give you cover.
• Consider digging a kill hole, if you encounter Vashnia and her gang.

The Spider’s Nest

This branch used to be easy to clear with just rPois and SInv. That changed with 0.28. Now you ideally want to have a bit of every resistance, besides having to deal with scary stuff you cannot resist.

• Sun moths set you on fire in melee, when they aren’t busy shooting irresistible beams of energy.
• Pharaoh ants drain your health and create dangerous simulacra, risky to face without rCold.
• Spark wasps shock you.
• Entropy weavers corrode you.
• Jorogumos and tarantellas irresistibly paralyse and confuse you with their bites.

That’s far from all. It’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s a tactical challenge. Unless you know this branch by heart, carefully inspect every monster. And keep the invisible ghost moths in mind. Their gaze drains your mana and attributes. Remember that Heavenly Storm reveals them, if you don’t have other options. It’s unlikely to be of practical use, but the small halo of a sun moth reveals ghost moths, too. And strangely enough, ghost moths cannot see invisible.

The Swamp

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

• Beware of death drakes. Don't stand in miasma clouds any longer than you have to. Later, Statue Form provides you with immunity to miasma, but for now avoid it. Even in tree form it's bad.
• Make sure you are not standing adjacent to trees when spriggan druids awaken them. Also, make sure eleionomae aren’t standing adjacent to a tree while you hit them, so they don’t immediately heal back up.
• Fenstrider witches are the most dangerous monsters in the Swamp. Inspect them and shudder. Immediately step out of the sludge they hurl. It’s not water. Yuck.

The Shoals

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

• Will++++ renders Sphinxes harmless.
• Some rCold helps with merfolk aquamancers and the occasional ice giant.
• Try to fight merfolk out of the water, since they are more evasive when swimming.
• Don't underestimate water nymphs. They can deal massive damage and flood staircases, temporarily blocking them. A wand of flame is very effective against them.
• If you see an elemental wellspring be on guard. Those are the big sisters of water nymphs and seriously out of depth for the Shoals. They can't see invisible. Keep in mind that invisibility doesn't work in water, unless you are flying.

The Elven Halls

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

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

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

The Vaults

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

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

Vaults:5
Do not enter Vaults:5 before you have cleared Zot:1-4. Entering will place you in the middle of the map with four broad corridors leading up, right, left and down. You're surrounded by vault guards with other monsters already lurking in the background. Don't try to stairdance. Vault wardens can seal the stairs. Tentacled monstrosities can constrict you and dragons can push you away from the stairs.

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

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

Late Game

The Crypt

Willpower and rNeg are most important here. Will+++ is reasonable protection, will++++ is better. The partial torment resistance of Statue Form helps, too. Common monsters should drop like popcorn. You have some AC now and hit like a truck. Get used to your new movement speed. Beware of hubris. If the Crypt gives you trouble, try the Depths first.

• Statue Form makes you immune to flaying, rendering flayed ghosts utterly harmless.
• Use Serpent’s Lash to deal with dread liches or curse skulls. Destroy them before they start summoning reinforcements. All summons instantly disappear, when the summoner is dealt with.

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

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

The Depths

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

• Beware of Sphinxes, if your willpower is low.
• You might encounter the occasional floating eye. They irresistibly smite-paralyse you, but they need to charge up first and are easy to kill (e.g. with a lightning rod or wands). If you can't kill them immediately, get out of their sight. Read teleport if need be.
• Juggernauts might be the only monsters in the Depths who can stand up to you in melee one-on-one. They move quickly and hit hard, but rest for about two turns between blows. Slow them with curare. Don’t stand anywhere near them when your health is low.

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

The Slime Pits

This is a fast and fun way to get your third rune and a huge pile of loot. You absolutely need rCorr. Press Ctrl-F and search for ‘rCorr’, if you don’t have it. I also recommend will+++ and some rCold. Optionally some rFire, to safely use a scroll of immolation.

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

There’s no need to clear all of Slime:1-4. These floors only contain acidic walls and monsters, no items. Take the next best downstairs, after killing any monsters close to it. Teleporting on Slime:1-4 can be dangerous, as the layout is typically composed of disconnected chambers, some without upstairs.

Dealing with the Royal Jelly
Slime:5 is a big circular cavern. It’s a tried and tested method to circle along the outer walls first. Kill the monsters you see, preferably without making too much noise. Ensure that all three stairs are safe, then spiral in on the inner sanctum. Fight the Royal Jelly in a corridor, so you don’t get overwhelmed by the jellies it spawns upon being hit. Teleport and flee upstairs if you get corroded too much. A scroll of immolation is very effective to get rid of a large pack of jellies.

The Royal Jelly might notice you too early. It’s fast, but unlike other monsters it does not follow you upstairs. Escape and use another staircase to go back down, or kill it right there, out in the open. Expect to be instantly surrounded by jellies, as you blow up the Royal Jelly with Serpent’s Lash. Consider teleporting and approaching the inner sanctum from the other side, when there’s a big crowd on one side.

As an alternative to carefully clearing the outer sanctum first, you may prefer to just buff yourself, barge in and use Heavenly Storm. In all likelihood you'll get malmutated less. I recommend you hit the Royal Jelly with a Whirlwind at a time, whittle away the reinforcements and repeat.

The Realm of Zot

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

• Quicksilver dragons and purple draconians will probably annoy you the most. These disgusting creatures spit bolts of dispelling energy at you, cancelling your buffs and Statue Form. Luckily, they cannot affect Heavenly Storm. Recast Statue Form and keep pounding them.
• Draconians cannot see invisible and are slowed by cold, unless they have white scales or use some item with rCold.
• Ghost moths live in this realm, too, as always eager to drain your stats and MP. You may have to kill some monsters in your weaker, fleshy form. Unless you quaff a potion of magic to recast Statue Form.
• Death Cobs irresistibly slow you down with their melee attack. This stacks with the slowness of Statue Form, increasing your movement delay to 22 auts. You can counter this with a potion of haste, though in most cases you can simply let it wear off. Death Cobs cannot see invisible.
• Moths of wrath make other creatures around them go berserk, including yourself. Don’t underestimate even lone berserking draconians, dragons, tentacled monstrosities or orb guardians.
• Orbs of fire deal massive fire damage and malmutate you. Don’t stay within their line of effect any longer than you have to. Unfortunately, they are also the toughest monsters in Zot. Use Serpent’s Lash. Go all out on them. I’m not saying you should attempt to kill multiple orbs of fire in a single Wall Jump with incredible momentum, but it can be done.

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

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

As an alternative to storming the lungs, you can trigger an alarm trap in the anteroom and make your stand there. 

The Orb Run

Everything in Zot:5 should be dead before you attempt this. Only pick up the Orb if you want to finish the game. End Statue Form. Speed is of the essence. Grab the Orb. Step into a convenient teleport trap. Hope to materialise closer to the stairs. Or just walk. If anyone tries to stop you, cast Statue Form again or keep running. Pandemonium Lords can be nasty. They vary greatly in difficulty. Inspect them carefully. Avoid all monsters, unless it’s faster or safer to kill them. They just want to rob you of your paycheck.

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

Maybe you prefer to autotravel to D:0 instead, and react as needed. That’s fine, too. What happens when you walk up the final set of stairs leading out of the Dungeon? What’s so special about the Orb? Did Zot get away? Did you shred them without recognizing them? Who cares. The job is done.

Beyond the Plan

So you didn’t pick up the Orb, yet. You figured out how to earn a little commission, right? They say, magic runes are in high demand on the black market. You are well suited for the extended game. Here are a few suggestions how to hone your skills beyond the Plan.

When you want to get a certain spell castable, it's best to either train the required magic skills exclusively or to put it off until your physical skills are where you want them to be. Train magic schools if you want more spellpower and better spell success. Spellcasting helps a bit, too, but it mainly increases your magic points and spell levels.

The Way of the Brute
Just get better at what you are already doing. Max out Fighting, Shields and Dodging. Increase the spellpower of Statue Form by training your magic skills some more. You don't like options. You're just the biggest troll in the room. You can win 15 runes with this approach, but you need solid tactics to pull it off. The other approaches are more versatile, especially when things go wrong.

The Way of the Wallbreaker
Did you find Shatter? Focus on Earth Magic and after that focus on Spellcasting until you can reliably cast it. You don't need Shatter to deal damage in general. But it's great for creating some free space whenever you get completely surrounded by monsters. It's absolutely worth learning just for that reason. You can break walls with it, too.

The Way of the Lich
If you train enough Necromancy and Transmutations to get Necromutation castable, you will have an easier time in some parts of Hell and in Tomb. Statue Form's torment resistance is only partial. When you get tormented a lot, your health will drop fast. Necromution, also known as lich form, grants you complete immunity not only to torment but to malmutation as well. You suffer stat drain instead of mutations. Having mastered both Statue Form and Necromutation you can choose the best tool for the situation. Choose wisely and mind Necromutation's lower AC and inability to drink.

The Way of the Warper
Train Translocations until you cast Manifold Assault with 1% spell failure. Now you can melee at range. This is best used tactically, due to the high magic cost. Train Translocations even more to get Disjunction castable. Disjunction is a great alternative to Shatter for getting unstuck when things get too crowded during a Heavenly Storm. Enjoy a few turns of respite, quaff some potions as needed, then resume the fight. If you chose this path, ambrosia becomes viable to use mid fight. Just keep a potion of curing at hand in case the confusion lasts a bit too long.

Other ways
Maxing out Evocations or Throwing might be fun. Other high level spells might be worth training for. The four ways above are tried and tested but only suggestions. Experiment and deviate from them. None of it is essential for winning. You can win 15 runes even as a Plan B troll, without spells or merely with some low level spells.

More Spells

Here are a few more great spells to consider. For spells that use multiple schools, spellpower is determined by the average of the schools. Thus, increasing whatever skill is lower is generally the fastest way to improve spellpower.

Irradiate
Irradiate deals massive irresistible damage to everything adjacent to you, even at mediocre spellpower. It also lowers the hit dice of the affected monsters, decreasing their AC, accuracy, willpower and spellpower. Irradiate really shines (ba dum tss) when it's getting a bit too crowded in the eye of your Heavenly Storm. On the downside, it causes high magical contamination. It's usually save to cast 2-3 times in a row. Any more will make you glow yellow or even red. When that happens, either quaff cancellation or stay in lich form until the glow dissipates. Don't hesitate to train Conjurations a bit, just for this spell.

Yara's Violent Unravelling
Yara's is absolutely worth investing some XP into Hexes. Instantly get rid of nasty summoned monsters by smite-exploding them. Turn the buffs of your enemies into a lower hit dice and irresistible damage, similar to Irradiate but at range! Just don't get caught in the blast yourself. It's unhealthy.

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch
The zombie hands constrict monsters, dealing significant damage at range. Constriction also lowers the victim's evasion, all but guaranteeing your claws to hit. It doesn't work on insubstantial creatures, e.g. orbs of fire.

Death Channel
If you already invested into Necromancy, this spell can supply you with an army of spectres potentially large and powerful enough to kill Pandemonium Lords without your help. It works on demons but not with the undead.

Extended Game

Ziggurats

Ziggurats are completely optional but they contain tons of loot. It's often worth clearing the upper floors of a Ziggurat before diving into Pandemonium or Hell if you are still missing some important stuff. Say, items with specific resistances or potions of mutation. You might also find a potion of experience or two and some extra scrolls of blinking. Be very careful. I recommend you don't go deeper than level 7 or at most 10. Completing Ziggurats is a thing for overpowered baster casters or death-cheating felids, wishing to lower their score after already beating the game. That's not what you get paid for.

Pandemonium

Pandemonium is way easier than Hell and less of a pain than the Abyss, so that's where you go to get your 5th rune. Pan floors are populated by many different demons, probably requiring you to swap resistances often. Bring a bit of everything. The game tells you when a rune is available on the current floor. You don't need to fully explore Pan floors without runes. Unless you like the floor and want to farm some extra experience, just take the first portal you find. Don't enter the Abyss unless you have already collected all five Pan runes.

If you leave the realm of a unique Pan Lord without collecting the rune, it's lost forever. You cannot revisit the floor. You can steal a rune without killing the Pan Lord. This is risky, though. They keep chasing you wherever you go, until you kill them. The order of the realms is random. Also your position on the map when you enter a new realm is random. Sometimes you start in a safe spot, sometimes you materialise in sight of the rune, right next to the Pan Lord guarding it.

I recommend you clear the rest of the floor before engaging a Pan Lord. If the fight doesn't go well, teleport, heal up and try again. Every Pan Lord is a good target for your phantom mirror.

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

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

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

The glowing rune, guarded by Mnoleg
This is the reason why you saved all those potions of mutation for Pan. Mnoleg malmutates you and their realm is crawling with demons who malmutate you. Neqoxecs also like to drain your Intelligence, potentially rendering you brainless, i.e. unable to cast spells and read scrolls. Try to spend as little time in their line of sight as possible. Mnoleg can summon floating eyes. Prioritise getting rid of those before they irresistibly smite-paralyse you. A lightning rod or Borgnjor's Vile Clutch work well.

The dark rune, guarded by Gloorx Vloq
The most dangerous thing about Gloorx Vloq is their ability to torment you. Don't push it. If you loose too much health, teleport, rest and try again. Miasma is harmless when you're in Statue Form.

The Abyss

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

• Wretched stars temporarily malmutate you. Keep killing monsters (gain experience) to get rid of those transient mutations.
• Starcursed masses like to split and clump together. Five or more of them shrieking together irresistibly paralyse you. Kill them before that happens.
• Teleport early when things are starting to get out of hand. The Abyss delays your teleport.
• Potions of ambrosia and a bit of extra Regen+ are very useful in the Abyss. The endlessly spawning monsters generally don't let you rest long between fights.

Hell

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

Stairway to Hell
The different branches of Hell are seven levels deep. The upper six floors are smaller than usual and feature only one downstairs. Descending the stairs inflicts draining and other bad effects on you. You don't need to kill every monster. But make sure the stairs are clear. Don't use them while surrounded and in Statue Form. Any upstairs takes you directly back to the Vestibule. The final, seventh floor is a bit like Pandemonium. Each rune is guarded by a unique Hell Lord.

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

The four branches of Hell require very specific resistances and have unavoidable hell effects that make your life miserable for as long as you stay there.

The Iron City of Dis

Hell effect: Corrosion (-8 AC & slaying)

No hell branch is easy, but Dis is manageable. AC, SH, rCorr+ and high damage output are most important here, but bring at least rFire+ and rCold+, too. Equipping Harm or some extra Strength helps. Many monsters in Dis are heavily armored.

• Beware of caustic shrikes. You don't want more corrosion on top of the hell effect. Caustic shrikes are worth using Serpent's Lash on. Also, they don't resist poison and can't see invisible.
• Quicksilver elementals are annoying but fragile. Recast Statue Form when they are dead.
• Dispater has tons of AC and shoots crystal spears at you. Disengage before your health is low. Reflection is nice to have for this fight.

Tartarus

Hell effect: Your willpower is halved.

Get as much willpower and rNeg as you can, plus some rCold. SInv is useful, too.

• Areas shrouded in silence mean there's a silent spectre nearby. Recast Statue Form before entering, then search for the spectre.
• Try to kill doom hounds before they howl, lest you get surrounded by torment-spamming Tzitzimimeh. A potion of cancellation can remove the howl status. Recasting Statue Form afterwards is a small price.
• Tzitzimimeh are equally dangerous whether you use Statue Form or Necromutation. They cast both torment and dispel undead.
• Ereshkigal can be tricky, due to her Tzitzimimeh friends. Try to fight her alone. She is evasive but fragile. You may be able to one-shot her with Serpent's Lash.
• If you chose the way of the Warper, you can deal with packs of Tzitzimimeh (and possibly Ershkigal) by quaffing lignification and brilliance and spamming Manifold Assault.

Cocytus

Hell effect: You can't quaff potions.

rCold+++ and flying are highly recommended.

• Watch out for ice fiends.
• Don't underestimate elemental wellsprings. They deal significant damage and flood staircases.
• Antaeus isn't resistant to poison. Apply curare darts to slow him down.

Gehenna

Hell effect: You can't read scrolls.

rFire+++ is highly recommended. Gehenna is the most dangerous hell branch for you. Until now, scrolls have been your life insurance. Gehenna floors are relatively easy, but once in a while you get a nasty ambush floor.

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

The Tomb of the Ancients

This branch is designed to be a death trap. All stairs in Tomb are one-way. Bring 2-3 scrolls of magic mapping and as much rNeg and Regen+ as you can. Will++++ is also recommended. If you only have one scroll of magic mapping, save it for Tomb:3. Scrolls of fog are nice to have.

The biggest dangers in Tomb are:

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

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

• Quaff haste to counter the slowness caused by death scarabs and death curses.
• Cast Shatter or Disjunction to regain some space when you get swarmed.
• Unless you have some extra Regen+ you might have to escape upstairs at some point or quaff potions of healing liberally.
• Unlike demons, mummies can be silenced. I recommend this for fighting a few of them at a time without Heavenly Storm, not for the big battles, because silence prevents Serpent's Lash.

Alternatively, if you chose the Way of the Warper and have a generous stockpile of potions, find a nice defensible spot to put down roots. Preferably without Zot traps in sight. Quaff lignification and brilliance, spam Manifold Assault. Quaff potions of magic to reload. It's highly effective, as long as you don't run out of potions. In tree form you are unaffected by dispersal traps and Manifold Assault keeps working even when you are trapped in a net.

Tomb:1
Don't read teleport on this floor. Circle along the outer walls of the map. Then open the gate to the inner chamber. Carefully lure some mummies out, before clearing the inside. This is dangerous, but just a warm-up. There should be no need to use Heavenly Storm, yet. You will find a single one-way staircase down. If you can't cast Shatter, take that staircase.

If you have Shatter, read magic mapping. You will find that the thick stone walls enclosing the central chamber are in fact disconnected hallways featuring two more one-way stairs down. You have the option to cast Shatter, break the walls and try one of those stairs. It's a 50% chance to skip the big battle of Tomb:2. Be prepared to fight a number of royal mummies pouring out from the shattered walls.

Tomb:2
Immediately read magic mapping. The second floor consists of a central open space and an outer ring of little chambers. A disconnected section of the outer ring features two stairs down to Tomb:3. If you shattered the walls in Tomb:1 and picked the correct staircase, you land there.

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

• Try to reach one of the upstairs quickly and climb back up to Tomb:1. If you are now in the other part of Tomb:1, fight your way through the hallways, then descend again, this time into the other part of Tomb:2. Take the stairs down to Tomb:3.
• Teleport and hope to materialise in the section with access to Tomb:3.
• Kill everything, then go upstairs or teleport. Or use Shatter to reach the downstairs.

Tomb:3
This is the final battle. If you survive this floor, you have all but won 15 runes. Buff yourself before going down. You always start at the end of a broad corridor, in line of sight of two doors. Read magic mapping. Note the oval treasure chambers to your left and right. Get inside one of them as fast as possible. Preferably pick the one with no dispersal traps near the upstairs. Don't start fighting in the corridor. Use blinking, haste, Serpent's Lash, whatever you need to get inside. Then activate Heavenly Storm or pick a spot to quaff lignification. It will take a while until the steady trickle of mummies into the chamber ebbs away.

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

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

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