0.16

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

0.16 is a version of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It was released on March 11th, 2015.

Highlights

• New gods: Gozag Ym Sagoz the Greedy and Ru the Awakened.
• Zot Defense has been removed.

Branches, environment

• The tides in Shoals now only shift between shallow water & land; deep water is neither created nor destroyed. The tides move 15 times faster than before.
• Ziggurats now only require two runes to enter, down from three.
• Every time a player clears a ziggurat (exits from the top floor, Zig:27), all subsequent ziggurats become significantly harder.
• A Hall of Blades area (not branch) is now guaranteed on Elf:2.
• Abyssal stairs can now appear in the Abyssal Knight starting abyss.
• Clouds of draining now require rN+++ for immunity, up from rN+.
• Clouds of miasma now apply the 'Rot' status, rather than causing rotting directly.
• New trap: "Shadow Trap", which summons a small group of hostile creatures from the local area when any non-summoned creature steps on it.
• Traps no longer care about whether the player is flying.
• The 'disarm trap' command has been removed.

Character

• Demigods now gain two stats of their choice on on every third level, in exchange for no longer getting one random stat on every second level.
• Demigods now have innate Sustain Abilities.
• All species can now choose 'unarmed' when playing backgrounds that allow a weapon choice.
• Ghouls now gain as much healing from normal chunks as they previously got from rotting flesh, and always cure a point of rot when eating a chunk.
• Vampires now bottle blood with 'c', and can do so from the first level.
• Butchering/bottling now only takes a single turn.
• Wanderers now receive a randart spellbook instead of starting with a Level 1 spell memorized.
• Wanderers can start with one elemental evoker or a box of beasts instead of a wand.
• Wanderer starting equipment is noted in the game log.
• Felids no longer have a jump-attack ability, which has been removed.
• Worshippers of Kikubaaqudgha and Nemelex Xobeh will now have titles unique to those gods displayed when their highest skill is Necromancy or Evocations (respectively).
• Gargoyles can no longer cast Statue Form.
• Removed Death Knight and Healer backgrounds.

Monsters

• The Great Lords of Pandemonium (Cerebov, et al) will reappear on later floors of Pandemonium if their rune is stolen, unless and until they are slain.
• The Serpent of Hell is considerably tougher; it now has three heads which can attack and/or breathe separately, and can also summon backup.
• Mnoleg now has more and more exciting attack types.
• Mimics now cackle and vanish (forever) when discovered.
• Curse skulls now move - fast!
• Iron devils have been upgraded to rust devils, which do less damage but corrode with their touch.
• Insubstantial wisps are now more fragile & less numerous, but have Static Discharge.
• Seraphim are now considerably stronger, and have a new spellset. They can now (very occasionally) appear on the orb run.
• New monsters:
  • Robin of the Strong Arm, appearing in the early Dungeon. An unusually strong hobgoblin, with a personal army of hobgoblins and goblins. She happily hurls the latter at her enemies.
  • Caustic shrikes, appearing in Depths. Metallic birds that travel in flocks, attacking with acid-dripping claws that sear through armour & flesh alike.
  • Shard shrikes, appearing in Cocytus. Batty monsters that come in flocks and spit deadly ice shards at their foes.
  • Elemental wellsprings, appearing in Cocytus. They fire powerful waves of water which produce hostile water elementals - but deplete their own 'health' in the process.
  • Bennu, the divine phoenix, appearing in Tomb. Attacks with draining and holy; when killed, explodes into ghostly flame and instantly returns to life (once).
  • Ushabti, funerary statues, appearing in Tomb. They exhale long lines of draining clouds, and rumble deeply to alert far-away foes.
  • Anubis guards, living fanatics appearing in Tomb. They're conditioned to be immune to torment, and breathe draining, dispel undead, and howl to alert other guards.
  • Death scarabs, swarming insects appearing in Tomb. They trail miasma and have a vampiric bite that also drains speed.
• Renamed monsters:
  • Silver statues -> obsidian statues.
  • Green rats -> river rats.
  • Orange rats -> hell rats.
  • Yellow wasps -> wasps.
  • Red wasps -> hornets.
  • Mermaids -> sirens.
  • Sirens -> merfolk avatars.
  • Meatsprint lost souls -> wretched souls.
• The Royal Jelly now leaks a large number of jellies when polymorphed.
• Ghost crabs have been moved from Crypt to Swamp.
• The "misshapen and mutated" status (from Malmutate and the new Irradiate spell) is now temporary, but more significant.
• Player ghosts & spellforged servitor can now have more than six spells.
• Player ghosts now have their weapon brands displayed.
• Hellwings can now cast Cigotuvi's Embrace, and start with it active.
• Xtahua's breath now creates a cloud of flames, like red draconians'.
• Tiamat can now be any colour of draconian, except grey.
• Fannar can now cast Condensation Shield.
• Frederick is now a demigod; his armour has been upgraded & his spellset has been tweaked.
• Sense invisibility has been simplified; monsters that had it now have see invisible + blindness immunity instead.
• Magic immunity no longer confers confusion immunity to monsters.
• Many monsters are no longer magic immune: notably, most plant enemies, eyes, mummies, and angels.
• Polymorphed monsters now return to their original shapes in death.
• Liches (and ancient liches) now choose their spells randomly from a large set of possible spells, instead of having fixed spellbooks.
• All non-permanent summoned monsters are now unable to use stairs.

Spells

• New spells:
  • Singularity (L9 Translocation), which summons a singularity & sucks in all nearby enemies, severely damaging them in the process.
  • Gell's Gravitas (L5 Hexes/Translocation), which pulls nearby creatures toward the target, causing damage if they collide & occasionally confusing them.
  • Hydra Form (L6 Transmutation), a short-duration form that attacks all adjacent foes & devours slain foes for nutrition and healing.
  • Irradiate (L5 Transmutation/Conjuration), which deals heavy damage & malmutates nearby enemies, but also contaminates the caster.
  • Cigotuvi's Embrace (L5 Necromancy), which turns all corpses in LOS into armour for the player.
• Dispersal now affects a wider radius & has a chance of confusing its victims.
• Force Lance is now L4 Translocation/Conjuration, and is more accurate and better at knocking enemies back.
• Ice, Dragon, Tree and Fungus forms no longer meld octopode rings.
• Spell miscast effects have been hugely revamped.
• Monstrous Menagerie has had its summon cap reduced by one.
• Twisted Resurrection and Forceful Dismissal have been removed.

Items

• Chunks are now only separated by edibility (normal, poisonous, mutagenic...), rather than source monster type.
• Rotting chunks are gone; corpses rot directly into skeletons.
• Cleaving attacks (from axes and Hydra Form) try to hit all adjacent enemies, rather than being blocked by walls.
• Enemy-held weapons now have their brands ID'd on sight.
• Wand changes:
  • Zapping wands that don't have their charge count identified wastes several charges.
  • Wand type is auto-identified on pickup.
  • Many weak wands have had their max charge count increased.
• New items:
  • Gyre & Gimble, a pair of quickblades linked by a chain; they take two hands to use, but each attack made with them strikes twice.
  • Shadow Dragon Armour: as heavy as Storm Dragon Armour, but has Stlth++++ in place of rElec.
  • Quicksilver Dragon Armour: slightly heavier than Mottled Dragon Armour, with much better AC & MR+, but unenchantable. (Always +0.)
  • Phantom mirrors: one-use evocables that create a temporary friendly clone of targeted monsters.
  • The Iron Rod, which fires a spray of shrapnel in a wide arc. Extremely effective against agile, low-AC enemies, but ineffective against armoured enemies or at a distance.
  • The Akashic Record, a new high-level Translocations book.
  • Potions of ambrosia, which give substantial health & magic regeneration for a short period, but also confuse the user; if the confusion ends, so does regeneration.
• Regeneration has been moved from rings to amulets.
• Corrosion resistance can now occur on artefact armour.
• Artefact generation has been generally reworked.
• Scale mail now only has 10 ER, down from 11.
• Unrand changes:
  • The Ring of Vitality is now the Amulet of Vitality.
  • The captain's cutlass is now +5 (was +10) and can disarm enemies.
  • The Hat of the Alchemist is now -2 (rElec rPois rF rC rN MR rMut rCorr).
  • Maxwell's Patent Armour now gives rCorr rElec instead of rF+ rC+.
  • The arbalest Hellfire has had its explosion damage roughly doubled.
  • The dark maul has had both its base damage & enchantment increased.
• All food other than rations, chunks, and royal jellies now takes one turn to eat.
• Potions of blood no longer give nutrition for non-vampires.
• All short blades now do piercing damage.
• Weapons other than short blades & felid claws are all now equally good at stabbing.
• Light armour now has a small spellcast success penalty.
• Elemental evocables now charge & discharge on a type-by-type basis, rather than individually for each item.
• The Box of Beasts and Rod of Shadows are now considerably stronger.
• The lantern of shadows now drains MP while in use, and ceases to function once its wielder runs dry.
• Steel ammo no longer has a decreased mulch rate.
• Large rocks no longer have randomized range.
• Renamed items:
  • Cutlasses are now rapiers.
  • Bastard swords are now double swords.
  • Claymores are now triple swords.
  • Cloaks of darkness are now cloaks of invisibility.
• Removed items:
  • Boots of jumping.
  • Potions of confusion, porridge and coagulated blood.
  • Blessed Blades.
  • Rods of Striking.
  • Tomes of Destruction.
  • The book of Wizardry.
  • The Spear of the Botono.
  • The blowgun of the Assassin.

Cards

• All characters can now evoke decks from the inventory.
• If one's god would disapprove of a card's effects, they will block the blasphemous effects in question as it is drawn.
• New cards.
  • Elements, which summons three beasts of the four elements.
  • Rangers, which summons two or three ranged-missile users.
  • Placid Magic, which removes all status effects and applies heavy antimagic to all creatures in sight, including the user.
  • Water, which creates temporary pools of shallow water & summoned elemental allies.
• Revamped destruction cards:
  • Storm has replaced rain and swiftness with summoning air elementals, or thunder clouds alongside a wind blast.
  • Pain has lost Torment and can now summon a flayed ghost to instantly apply its flaying effect to living targets.
  • Venom has lost Sting for earlier Venom Bolts and Poison Arrows, but at low power will briefly make the user vulnerable to poison.
  • Degeneration now applies a temporary malmutated effect to targets, along with polymorphing them to creatures with lower HD. Undead are dazed.
  • Vitriol now can provide Corrosive Bolts at higher power.
  • Orb bursts will now attempt to home on monsters they might reasonably hit.
• Revamped battle cards:
  • Potion has strictly-negative effects taken out, and will also apply its effects to allies if possible.
  • Blade now solely gives a cleaving status (which does not stack with the reaching of polearms or the original cleaving of axes, but will otherwise apply to all forms of weapon / unarmed attack.)
  • Helm can apply Stoneskin or Shroud of Golubria effects to allies at high power.
  • Elixir gives a small amount of temporary vitality to your allies, alongside its restorative effects to the user.
  • Shadow gives the darkness status (reduced LOS) instead of invisibility.
  • Dowsing is now significantly stronger in duration and range.
• Revamped summoning cards:
  • Pentagram now summons a more constrained set of demons (stronger at lower power and weaker at high power), and an additional accompanying hell hound, rakshasa, or pandemonium lord.
  • Dance has replaced its short swords with quarterstaves and its dire flails with executioner's axes. It also has a chance of summoning a randart.
  • Foxfire has lost butterflies and gained ravens.
  • Repulsiveness can now summon both an ugly thing and a very ugly thing, and always summons at least one friendly ugly thing if any hostiles are made.
• Revamped emergency cards:
  • Cloud surrounds all hostile monsters with varying types of clouds, instead of randomly scattering clouds in all valid places in sight.
  • Shaft now randomly places shafts under other monsters as well.
  • Tomb can now raise rock walls on stone stairs and deep water.
  • Velocity will always apply an overall-positive effect (with allies present).
  • Banshee now drains victims, in addition to causing fear.
  • Solitude can now cause Disjunction at high power.
• Wild Magic now affects enemies instead of the player, and restores magic for each enemy so affected. It has moved from the Deck of Punishment to the Deck of Wonders.
• Dowsing is no longer in the deck of battle.
• Decks of war have lost their set of destruction cards.
• The Cloud card has moved from decks of destruction to decks of emergency.
• Removed cards: Metamorphosis, Herd, Bones.

Gods

• New god: Gozag the Greedy. Gozag is a temple god, with an altar either in Temple or on D:2-9.
  • Charges a service fee for joining, dependent on the amount of gold that has been generated in the game.
  • Does not have piety.
  • Defeated enemies turn to gold; these gold piles distract nearby creatures, causing them to sometimes not act.
  • Potion Petition: purchase one set of potion effects. The first use is free.
  • Call Merchant: fund a merchant to set up shop somewhere near to areas of the dungeon you have explored.
  • Bribe Branch: send money to the inhabitants of a branch to turn them temporarily neutral or incite them to join you.
• New god: Ru the Awakened. Ru is a temple god, with an altar either in Temple or on D:2-9.
  • Periodically offers the player a choice of three permanent sacrifices in exchange for piety; all abilities scale with piety; piety never decreases.
  • Leaving Ru leaves all your sacrifices in place, but incurs no wrath.
  • 1*: Enemies may fail to attack you or even attack each other instead.
  • 2*: Enemies that hurt you may be punished with status effects.
  • 3*: Draw Out Power: restore health and mana to yourself, break free of webs and constriction, and cure confusion and petrification. Inflicts minor self-drain and short exhaustion.
  • 4*: Power Leap: Blinks you three tiles and deals high AOE damage at your destination. Inflicts medium exhaustion.
  • 5*: Apocalypse: Deals very high damage to all monsters in LOS and inflicts statuses. Inflicts heavy drain and exhaustion.
• All gods now treat followers' kills the same as the player's, for purposes of piety gain.
• Makhleb and Okawaru no longer support corpse sacrifice.
• Dithmenos now specifically hates fire; Corona and related effects are now permitted to Dithmenos's worshippers.
• Nemelex Xobeh:
  • Draw One and Peek at Two are no more.
  • Cards have been changed thoroughly over once more.
  • Nemelex now grants destruction decks again.
• While following TSO, enemies will no longer be distracted by your allies.
• TSO's Divine Shield no longer benefits from Shields skill.
• Zin:
  • Hell effect protection halved; now capping out at 50%, down from 100%.
  • Recite now more effective at very low Invocations.
• Elyvilon:
  • Followers can no longer pacify monsters by zapping wands of Heal Wounds.
  • Piety gain is now solely from exploration.
  • Abilities have been reworked:
  • 1*: Lesser Self-Healing (now called 'Lesser Healing')
  • 2*: Greater Heal Other (now called 'Heal Other')
  • 3*: Purification
  • 4*: Greater Self-Healing (now called 'Greater Healing')
  • 5*: Divine Vigour
• Gods that hated eating various types of creature (Beogh and the good gods) now hate butchering those types of creatures. Penalties for violating these conducts have been raised significantly.

Interface

• Some effects (Shatter, banishment, etc.) now display animations.
• Monster AC, EV, and MR are now displayed as bars in their descriptions.
• Monster spell descriptions can now be examined through their descriptions, in the same way as books & rods.
• Odds of hex success is now displayed when targeting monsters, or when examining their spells.
• The screen now flashes on attempting to autoexplore with monsters in view, indicating where the relevant monsters are.
• Stealth is now displayed as a bar in the % screen. (The old 'stealth words') are still visible with @.)
• A third page has been added to the god description (^) screen, listing causes and effects of divine wrath.
• Xom now has a 'mood' meter, in the same place other gods have piety meters.
• Control-direction no longer tries to open or close doors.
• Derived undead (zombies, skeletons, &c) now have their full names displayed.
• Corrosion now visibly (temporarily) reduces weapons' enhancement bonuses.
• Monsters no longer appear on the minimap.
• The weapon, species, and background options allow these aspects to be specified in the init file, causing one to be randomly selected; a new combo option allows entire sets of the above to be specified, again with one being randomly selected.
• Added explore mode, which is a limited version of wizard mode, where the only benefit gained is the inability to die. No extra information is displayed (like in wizard mode), and no extra commands are available. As with wizard mode, explore mode games are not scored. Enter explore mode using '+'.
•  ?/ has been generally improved, and a new ?/c(L)oud lookup has been added.

0.16.1

First point release for 0.16. It was released on March 22th, 2015.

• Major bugfix release. Because of the first two bugfixes listed below, it's strongly recommended that all 0.16.0 users upgrade to this version.
• Fix a bug where all player melee damage was effectively doubled. This only affected player melee damage, not player ranged or spells, or monster damage at all.
• Fix a bug in sprint where controlled blink was blocked as if from the stasis effect.
• Artefacts with the Contam property are no longer marked as chaotic and hence hated by Zin, since Zin wouldn't give penance for using e.g. weapons with this property anyhow. There's now a warning under Zin when Contam items are removed, since this does incur penance.
• Monsters no longer avoid walking on shadow traps.
• Fix the build for the Android port of DCSS.
• Other minor bugfixes.

0.16.2

Second point release for 0.16. It was released on August 11th, 2015.

• Give FeEE players stones at game start.
• Display base attributes in the '@' display.
• No longer revoke Zin's sanctuary when a confused ally attacks you, and allow confused allies in your sanctuary to get away with attacking hostiles.
• Ranged and confused player attacks as well as the Tornado, Static Discharge, and Singularity spells now all break sanctuary.
• Fix a bug where players who lose the big wings mutation while flying with no other source of flight would continue to fly. They now stop flying and get an emergency flight evocation if wearing a ring of flight.
• Fix a bug where a player with the confused status could cancel accidental attacks when wielding a weapon inscribed with "!a".
• Fix a bug where monsters with phase shift got 8 more EV than intended.
• Fix a bug where players could take a shaft and land in inescapable areas.
• Have Dithmenos' spell-shadowing attack use the same targeting as the player attack that triggered it to avoid it doing things like hitting allies.
• Fix a mouse bug in the Tiles version where Ctrl and Alt modifiers would be set when clicking despite those keys not being pressed.
• Fix the Tiles version failing to run on OS X.
• In the Objstat debug mode for counting items and monsters, the output format has been streamlined to generate one file per table with data from all levels in each table.
• Fix a bug in Objstat where items in shops weren't counted.
• Other minor bugfixes, and cleanups to in-game descriptions and help text.