Teleportation

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Teleportation is the act of moving from one place to another instantaneously. Teleports differ from blinks in two main ways: teleports have no range limit while blinks are limited to visible destinations; and, blinks are instantaneous while teleports generally take some time to kick in.

There are several ways to teleport in Crawl:

• Reading a scroll of teleportation.
• Stepping on a Teleport trap.
• Being randomly teleported by the Teleportitis mutation.
• Being hit by a distortion branded weapon, Teleport Other, or by the Dispersal spell.
• You occasionally teleport while wandering in the Abyss.

Most teleports have a delay of 3-5 turns between starting the teleport and the teleport taking effect. Because of this, teleportation cannot be completely relied upon to get the player out of trouble. In the Abyss, the delay is 8-19 turns. If you are in the Realm of Zot or have the Orb of Zot, this delay is 8-14 turns.

Teleportation as a result of a trap takes place immediately, as do some teleports caused by weapons of distortion. To avoid teleport delays, step onto a Teleport trap.

Once a teleport takes effect, the player is instantly teleported to the destination. Like blinks, teleports leave a cloud of translocational energy behind, though this has no game effect (other than stopping other clouds from existing).

Teleports never place the player over in dangerous clouds, and only over lava or deep water with a permanent source of flight. Amphibious characters may also teleport into deep water. Teleportations due to teleportitis only occur if they would land you in sight of monsters.

Formicids cannot teleport except for the occasional automatic shifts which occur in the Abyss. Certain artefacts also prevent teleportation.

History

• Prior to 0.28, monsters could cast Teleport Other, to teleport other.
• Prior to 0.26, the *Tele intrinsic could be obtained from a ring of teleportation, acting like teleportitis.
• Prior to 0.25, suffering a Translocations miscast effect could teleport the player.
• Prior to 0.17, teleport destination could be controlled with teleport control. Also, 20% of Abyss teleports had a delay of only 3-5 turns.
• Prior to 0.13, the teleport control status effect did not delay teleports.