User:Hordes/Basics Guide

• not remotely done* - introduction and a lot more stuff

Tactical Resources

Once you get into strategic competency, DCSS is a game of weighing risks against resources. Deciding when to use long-term resources to gain short-term resources is a fundamental aspect of almost all strategy games.

Short Term:

• Health (HP) - When this hits 0, you die, and the game is permanently over (unless you're a Felid). If you can take enough damage to die on the next turn, even if its unlikely, then you should probably act accordingly.

• Magic (MP) - Used to cast spells and abilities. Even if you're a "pure" melee character, many god abilities require some MP to cast, so watch out!

• Positioning / Line of Sight - Where you, monsters, and/or allies are on the screen. What can hit you at any one time. Where you can move to if things go bad.

Medium Term:

• Piety - A currency to use your god's abilities. Some gods like Ashenzari or Ru do not use piety in standard ways.

• XP Evocables - "Misc" items, like condenser vanes and phantom mirrors. These items recharge when you gain enough XP, effectively meaning they have a cooldown between battles.

Long Term:

• Consumables - Potions, scrolls, and wands. For all intents and purposes, these items are finite. Some consumables are more valuable than others. The more possible situations an item can be useful in, the more valuable it is.

You want to take the most cost-effective tradeoffs that don't have a chance to unconditionally kill you.

Strategic Resources

(I may or may not actually make this section)

• XP - The goal of the skill system is to "get the most benefit from your XP as possible". Both in the short-term and medium-term.

Player Resources

Subjectivity warning or something

• Attentiveness / Time - How hard you are paying attention to the game. Manually exploring every level can be more optimal in game resources. But if this tires you out, some players might not notice other "bad" situations. This may not be an issue - some players are definitely more patient than others.

• Complexity - For all else being equal, the less things the player has to possibly worry about, the better.

For example, a scarf of harm increases damage dealt by 30%, but damage taken by 20%. If you are a Minotaur of Okawaru, you are likely have the power to steamroll the game. For this character, Harm could make many situations easier. However, it increases your "threat list", or the amount of situations that could go bad quickly. In contrast, Harm would be better for characters struggling with firepower, like weaker mages, who would have their "threat list" reduced by this ego.

Hurdle Theory

A clarification of the common theories, "training killdudes first, then defenses" and "early game is the hardest part of the game".

I'm not sure if this is worded the way i want to so don't take it at face value.

• At any moment, you probably have 1 main way of killing things - i.e. a killdudes. Killpower is an arbitrary measure of how effective <your way of killing things> is.
• You want enough killpower to handle the upcoming 'hurdle'. Enough is when you are comfortable killing the average monster for the area, without using resources.
• A 'hurdle' is a section with a difficulty spike. The main ones IMO are: Early Dungeon (each floor could be considered a 'sub-hurdle'), Lair, S-Branches, 3rd Rune, Zot.
• Once you have enough killpower to overcome a hurdle, you should start thinking about 1. training defenses / the side skills (Evocations, Throwing, Invocations), and 2. what paths you can take to overcome the next hurdle.
  • You should probably focus on #1 first; stuff like Fighting helps no matter where your character goes. When you shift from #1 to #2 depends on sense.
  • You should focus on #2 when:
    • A. You have an actually suitable <way of killing things> available for the next branch, and
    • B. If you don't start training something right now, you won't have a way to deal with the next hurdle.
  • E.g. if Freezing Cloud gets you through S-branches, and you know you need 5 floors of XP to get FCloud online, you need to train for it 5, maybe 6, maybe 7+ floors before you enter S-branches.
  • Try not to assume you'll find a given item, since RNG can always not give it to you. For example, if you rely on Earth/Conjurations, but don't have Iron Shot, don't train for Iron Shot unless you actually get it.
  • At the same time, you may want to greed *for as much as you can afford to*. If you're a mage start who has found no spells of their school, you'll want to wait as long as possible (i.e. before conditions A and B take hold) before being forced to train something else.
• Experience and/or game sense is important, as it lets you know on how much killpower is enough. (It's both complicated and somewhat arbitrary.)