Ziggurat

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A ziggurat is a strange tower constructed of twenty seven levels of incrementally larger combat arenas, each containing greater wealth and even greater danger than the last. Whatever entity created this monstrosity charges a steep price for entry. Beware, for a ziggurat is not a place for the faint of heart: even the bravest and most skilled adventurers have met their ends in one. While a portal to safety will be present on every level, once left, a ziggurat cannot be re-entered.

Ziggurats are the most dangerous, unpredictable, and lucrative branches in the game. Each Ziggurat has 27 oval- or cross-shaped floors, with each floor growing in size as you go down, containing increasingly more monsters of higher difficulty. The entrance to each floor closes as soon you walk through it; the only way out is at the opposite end of the floor. There, you will find large amounts of treasure, including armour, jewellery, valuable potions (many of which are potions of experience), manuals, and many other wonderful things, as well as one set of stairs going further down and two portals leading out of the Ziggurat.

Each floor of a Ziggurat contains a number of monsters of a particular theme. On early floors, you'll face two or three, but the number of opponents rises dramatically as you descend, pitting you against massive hordes by the time you reach the deepest levels. Most are sets of monsters that would be generated in a particular branch, but some are ad-hoc. The deeper you go, the more dangerous it becomes; deeper floors will have a greater ratio of powerful monsters to weak ones, may generate all monsters awake and wandering (0% chance for Zig:1-4, 100% chance for Zig 25-27), and may block teleport control (0% chance for Zig:1-6, 100% chance for Zig:25-27).

Each floor may also contain a central clump of dungeon features. These are often purely cosmetic, but occasionally ramp up the difficulty of the floor significantly; an orange crystal statue or oklob plant cluster is no laughing matter.

One Ziggurat portal is guaranteed to generate somewhere in the Depths, and any Pandemonium floor has an 8% chance to contain a Ziggurat entrance. A portal can also be summoned by the Trowel card of a legendary Deck of dungeons once per game. Entry is denied until the player has at least three runes of Zot in her possession. Summoned creatures cannot follow the player through a Ziggurat portal or stairway.

Once one has left a Ziggurat, the portal turns into an empty arch and may not be reentered. Any new portal encountered or created leads to the first floor of a fresh Ziggurat. Ziggurat portals have no timers.

Monster Themes

Unless mentioned otherwise, the chance for any given set is 5.62% for Zig:1-7, 5.32% for Zig:8-13, and 5.18% for Zig:14-27.

Branches

Lair, Shoals, and the Hells all have 50% chance of the normal chance to spawn.

• Y Monsters from the Lair, plus catoblepas, dire elephants, and hellephants. To reflect some of the branch end vaults, there are also tiny chances for spriggan druids, guardian serpents, deep troll shamans, raiju, and hell beasts.
• N Monsters from the Snake Pit, with bonus guardian serpents and greater naga, plus rare quicksilver dragons.
• m Monsters from the Shoals, with bonus merfolk aquamancers, merfolk javelineers, merfolk impalers, and water nymphs.
• l Monster from the Swamp with depth-dependent priority for hydrae, swamp dragons, and tentacled monstrosities, plus rare golden dragons, green deaths and death drakes.
• y Monsters from the Spider's Nest with bonus ghost moths, red wasps and tarantellas.
• J Monsters from the Pits of Slime (with loot inside a level-end-dividing room behind a door). Notably, this includes acid blobs, giant eyeballs, and eyes of draining.
• o Monsters from the Orcish Mines, plus stone giants and moths of wrath, with heavy depth-dependent priority for orc warlords, orc knights, orc sorcerers, and orc high priests.
• e Monsters from the Elven Halls, with depth-dependent priority for deep elf high priests, deep elf blademasters, deep elf master archers, deep elf annihilators and deep elf demonologists.
• L Monsters from the Vaults, plus titans, golden dragons, and ancient liches with depth-dependent priority.
• D Monsters from the Crypt, with bonus bone dragons, ancient liches, revenants, plus curse skulls and profane servitors.
• M File:Greater mummy.png Monsters from the Tomb, with depth-dependent scaling for bonus greater mummies (reaching a 14.53% of spawns at Zig:27).
• X Monsters from the Abyss, with a tiny chance of corrupters. Notably, this includes starcursed masses, lurking horrors, and wretched stars.
• 1 Monsters from Cocytus, with a minor bonus of ice fiends and blizzard demons.
• 1 Monsters from Gehenna, with a minor bonus of brimstone fiends and balrugs.
• 1 Monsters from the Iron City of Dis, with a minor bonus of hell sentinels, dancing weapons, and iron dragons.
• 1 Monsters from Tartarus, with a minor bonus of shadow fiends, curse toes, and shadow demons.
• 2 Starting from Zig:8, Pandemonium spawns and a single Pandemonium lord, with extra greater demons and classed demonspawn.

Theme Sets

Giants, dragons, archers, and conjurers have 20% of the normal chance to place, while Lair rune branches has 50% of the normal chance.

• i Monsters from the defunct Forest branch, with extra satyrs, tengu reavers, and spriggan defenders.
• C Giants: hill giants, cyclopes, stone giants, fire giants, frost giants, ettins, and titans.
• D Dragons, drakes and hydras.
• d Draconians of all colors and walks of life, with classed draconians increasing by depth.
• e Archers: centaurs, yaktaurs, centaur warriors, yaktaur captains, cyclopes, stone giants, naga sharpshooters, merfolk javelineers, deep elf master archers, and rare fauns, satyr, thorn hunters.
• 6 Conjurers: wizards, necromancers, ogre mages, orc sorcerers, naga mages, naga ritualists, salamander mystics, greater naga, tengu conjurers, tengu reavers, spriggan air mages, merfolk aquamancers, deep elf conjurers, deep elf annihilators, deep elf sorcerers, draconian scorchers, draconian knights, draconian annihilators, liches, ancient liches, and blood saints.
• X Lair rune branches: starting from Zig:14, monsters from the Swamp, the Snake Pit, the Shoals, and the Spider's Nest, with extra greater naga, guardian serpents, hydrae, swamp dragons, tentacled monstrosities, merfolk aquamancers, merfolk javelineers, alligator snapping turtles, ghost moths, emperor scorpions, and moths of wrath.

Elemental

Elemental floors all have 20% of the normal chance to place, aside from Chaos.

• * Fire: fire elementals, fire drake, hell hounds, efreets, dragons, fire giants, and orbs of fire.
• 2 Ice: ice beasts, polar bears, freezing wraiths, ice dragons, frost giants, ice devils, ice fiends, simulacra, blizzard demons.
• 8 Air: insubstantial wisps, air elementals, raijus, titans, storm dragons, electric golems, spriggan air mages, shock serpents.
• A Negative energy: spectral things, shadow wraiths, eidola, shadow dragons, deep elf death mages, deep dwarf death knights, revenants, profane servitors, soul eaters, shadow fiends, and black suns.
• A Holy: daevas, angels, cherubs, pearl dragons, shedu, ophanim, apis, and silver stars.
• & Chaos: heavy depth dependence for chaos spawn, ugly things, very ugly things, apocalypse crabs, high-hd shapeshifters and glowing shapeshifters, Killer Klowns, chaos champions, and a multitude of pandemonium lords.

Fighting Strategies

You should enter a Ziggurat as the last thing in the game if you are planning to finish it, as Zig:27 can potentially be the hardest place in the game. Preparation is somewhat similar to Pandemonium, but you need even more care since the enemies are much harder.

You will need the following:

• High experience level and skills.
• For spellcasters, the ability to cast Fire Storm and/or Ice Storm and/or Tornado at Great, ideally Excellent.
• Blink and Control Teleport or Controlled Blink at Excellent, to avoid getting surrounded, create some distances from powerful enemies, or just escape.
• A ring of sustain abilities and an amulet of stasis for absorbing death curses on mummy-themed floors.
• An amulet of resist corrosion for acid blobs on Slime Pit-themed floors.
• As many resistances as possible; at least something like rElec, rPois, rC+, and rF++. You should strive for rN+++, especially if you're susceptible to torment.
• A charged wand of disintegration for taking out orange crystal statues.

The following are recommended, though not essential depending on the character:

• An amulet of resist mutation for mutagenic glow, shining eyes and neqoxecs. If you're a caster, these tend to die before they can even peek at your genome.
• An amulet of conservation or cloak of preservation to avoid getting your scrolls and potions destroyed. This can also replace the amulet of resist corrosion.
• Scrolls of identify to identify loot, scrolls of remove curse to remove mummy curses and remove cursed loot, scrolls of fog to block enemy sight, and scrolls of blinking as a backup to Blink/Controlled Blink. Don't hoard too many as they might get burned and you will be finding some anyway.
• Wands of healing, hasting, and anything else you might need.
• Potions of curing to cure confusion (especially if you use a ball of energy), potions of heal wounds to recover lost HP, potions of porridge for instant nutrition, potions of might/agility/brilliance to enhance your battle prowess, and potions of magic to recover MP in a pinch.
• Royal jellies or potions of restore abilities to restore stats drained by mummies' curses.
• Some permafood depending on your metabolism and the spell hunger costs of your spells, but you may find some potions of porridge on some floors; those coupled with the ample corpses you produce should keep you fed.

Keep in mind you're limited to 52 items; only bring what you know will be useful, else you might not be able to take all the loot you want with you. Artefacts with multiple resistances and intrinsics are your friend!

Conjurer Strategy

Sample Runs

• hyperbolic's uber Naga, who fully cleared several Ziggurats: [[1]]
• sh's Fire Storm run: [2] with ttyrec at [3]
• Luca's Extension + Ice Storm run: [4] with ttyrec at [5]
• See also trucutru's run with Nemelex Xobeh: he played a Naga Fire Storm conjurer with Fighting at 27 (and thus around 320 HP!) worshiping Nemelex Xobeh.

The basic strategy is to use Necromutation, along with all relevant buff spells, and alternate between casting a Storm/Tornado and channeling MP. Depending on your god choice, you can also use Sif Muna's channel (more reliable) or Vehumet's MP gain on killing (somewhat more random, but passive). Keep in mind that you can't escape to rest for MP, so make sure to have backup in the form of a crystal ball of energy, potions of magic, Sublimation of Blood, etc...

Note: Don't bother using Shatter. This, at Earth Magic 25 or higher, does damage to everything in LOS, and while the damage is comparable to Ice/Fire Storm for non-flying/levitating monsters (3d55 at power 150 and more for skeletons and simulacra), it is only about a third for flying/levitating ones (such as a lot of Pandemonium lords). It would take an average of 8-9 hits to kill a flying Pan lord.

Specific Floors

On Pandemonium lord floors, be prepared to be on the receiving of the occasional Lehudib's Crystal Spear and Dispel Undead. If you use Fire Storm, try to position yourself so that non-lord monsters, Pan lord summons and your own summons create a buffer that prevent the lords from coming close to you. Then blast with Fire Storm without destroying your monster shield. If you use Ice Storm, try to get the direct path blocked by a non-lord monster, while still having an opening to shoot Ice Storm near the lords.

On mummy floors, wear an amulet of stasis and a ring of sustain abilities. Try not to kill too many greater/guardian mummies at once since you may get 3 points of random stat drain for each kill. If one of your stats dips low, try to swap in weapons or jewellery boosting it. If a stat gets dangerously low, semi-controlled blink to a corner, surround yourself with summons, end Necromutation, eat a royal jelly or quaff a potion of restore abilities, and recast Necromutation right away. Flooding the level with powerful summons to soak as many curses as possible can also work.

On angel/daeva floors, get out of lich form, cast Regeneration, and try to overpower them. If things go badly, consider casting Borgnjor's Revivification. If you decide to escape, go as near to the exit as possible, possibly using a lantern of shadows, cast Death's Door, and then alternate Storm/Tornado to scrolls of blinking/Controlled Blink and mana channeling to get to the downstairs as soon as possible. Once you are at the downstairs, apport any useful object until Death's Door runs out. Alternatively, you can escape the Ziggurat, but note that nearby angels/daevas will follow you out, so make sure you come out on a clear level and teleport away.

On crypt floors, mages casting Fire Storm should be very wary of unborn, both in and out of LOS. You will take severe self-inflicted damage if you flame even one of these while Yredelemnul's Mirror Damage ability is active. The mirrored damage ignores both your resistances and AC, unless you've cast Death's Door. If it's in your LOS, you'll have seen it "kneel in prayer and [be] bathed in unholy energy." Thereafter, for approximately 20 turns, its glyph's colors will be alternating. You can also see if Mirror Damage is active by examining it to see if it is "reflecting injuries".

On slime floors, the treasure will always be somewhat protected, in a centered chamber rather than on the open floor.

Equipment

In addition to the general equipment:

• Enhancers (e.g. rings of fire/ice, staff of conjuration/fire/cold/air, etc...) to enhance the power of Fire/Ice Storm and/or Tornado as needed. A robe of the Archmagi is amazing for this purpose.
• Staff/rings of wizardry to improve the success rates of Fire/Ice Storm and/or Tornado, if necessary. Also, try downgrading your shield type (large shield to a normal shield, normal shield to a buckler) if your Shields skill isn't high enough to get rid of the spellcasting penalty. Your offense is your best defense.
• A crystal ball of energy if you have high Evocations (you will probably find one soon in the Ziggurat) or a staff of energy.
• Identify scrolls, as many as you have. You're going to be going through a lot of stashes.

Example Spell Set

Your Spells                       Type                          Failure   Level       
a - Fire Storm                    Conjuration/Fire              1%          9
b - Blink                         Translocation                 0%          2
c - Flight                        Charms/Air                    0%          4
e - Deflect Missiles              Charms/Air                    0%          6
h - Haste                         Charms                        0%          6
j - Abjuration                    Summoning                     0%          3
s - Summon Butterflies            Summoning                     0%          1
u - Dispel Undead                 Necromancy                    0%          5
x - Sublimation of Blood          Necromancy                    0%          2
B - Controlled Blink              Translocation                 1%          7
Q - Swiftness                     Enchantment                   0%          2
M - Mass Abjuration               Summoning                     0%          6
V - Phase Shift                   Translocation                 0%          5
X - Necromutation                 Transmutation/Necromancy      1%          8
Y - Borgnjor's Revivification     Necromancy                    1%          7

Optional Spells

You may want the following spells:

• Ring of Flames: to enhance Fire Storm's power and allow you to walk in clouds of flame.
• Airstrike: to kill giant eyeballs, which may appear in Pan lord floors, if you lack Fire Storm and its smite-targeting.
• Sublimation of Blood: you can use this on potions of blood (if you're a vampire), corpse chunks, or on yourself (especially if you are a high HP race). If your floor had monsters that left corpses, consider butchering a few of them and bringing the chunks to the next floor.
• Phase Shift to boost your EV.
• Dispel Undead: to kill undead anacondas rushing at you, skeletal dragons who survive Fire Storm, or to kill mummies one by one.
• Lehudib's Crystal Spear: to kill dangerous monsters (especially Pan lords) who get close to you.
• Tukima's Dance: to get rid of any cursed weapons you identify by wielding.

Crusader Strategy

See coolrobin's Ogre Chaos Knight of Lugonu: morgue and ttyrec

See 78291's torment immune Demonspawn crusader/reaver of Okawaru, failed run at [6], first ziggurat at [7], and second ziggurat (with death to daevas) at [8] and [9].

• First, convert to Lugonu (for corruption and self-banishment), The Shining One (for peaceful angel/daevas, divine warriors), Elyvilon (peaceful angel/daevas, healing), Okawaru (attack speed boost and skills boost), or possibly Nemelex Xobeh (see section below).
• Set up as many spells and enchantments as described for conjurers as you can. You probably won't have Necromutation (and can't use it anyway with the good gods) or Fire/Ice Storm and Tornado, though.
• The Silence spell, while counter-productive for pure conjurers, works beautifully for a crusader-type character against spellcasters. It even stops mummies from tormenting and smiting! Use a lantern of shadows along with it when needed.
• Bring a way to channel mana, and a staff of energy for hunger-less casting.
• Consider bringing a rod with Abjuration.

Fight in melee with all buffs (Haste, Might, etc...) except for berserk: it will definitely expire before you've cleared all monsters on the harder floors, and being slowed/exhausted in the middle of a pack of demons or some such is a surefire way to die. Angel/Daeva floors can be handled by proper god choice or by escaping.

Nemelex Xobeh Strategy

See trucutru's run with morgue [10] and ttyrec [11].

You can convert to Nemelex Xobeh and sacrifice all the stuff in the whole dungeon. This will allow you to receive gifts of decks and stack decks to be able to use specific cards at will.

• You will be finding many decks, and Nemelex will help you to use them effectively.
• You can use the Tomb card to create a temporary safe haven and then a chokepoint in the Ziggurat. This is extremely powerful, since only a few monsters will be in sight. It is probably optimal to do so in such a way that the tomb is contiguous with walls. If you dig a corner against the wall, only that square will be visible. Doing so facing a Ziggurat corner may be advisable too.
• The Portal, Elixir and Damnation cards are also incredibly useful (the first does instant controlled teleport, the second full HP/MP restore, and the third banishes you to the Abyss if you are the only creature in sight).
• Decks of all types have powerful effects: see the Nemelex guide for more details.

Spell-less Strategy

Do not attempt to fully clear a Ziggurat without spells of some sort. It is very likely to be fatal. Having said that, the first few floors are usually safe for many XL27 characters, although this can still be risky.

Strategies For Troublesome Floors

Skip With Death's Door

See "Conjurer strategy" above. Cast Death's Door after getting as close as possible to the stairs. Make a break for it.

Banishment With Lugonu

Banish yourself to the Abyss, so you can recover. You'll return to the same level after leaving the Abyss.

Banishment With Distortion Weapon and Amulet of Stasis

You may also try to banish yourself with a distortion weapon. However, you have about the same chance of going to the Abyss as to be instantly teleported on the level, damaged and confused. An amulet of stasis or -TELE artifact will prevent this, though, and allows you to use distortion with the only downside of confusion and HP damage. Be prepared to cure numerous bad mutations - another effect of distortion unwields is to induce glow, and if you're in dire enough straits to be using distortion unwields to escape, you probably don't have time to let it dissipate safely. In 0.10 or newer, you will return to the same level after leaving the Abyss.

Wizard Mode

Ziggurats can be entered in wizard mode using &L to place a vault called "enter_the_ziggurat", &{ to map the level, XT to teleport to the portal and &o$ to acquire enough gold to enter. You may also just use &P to place a portal to a map called "ziggurat".

History

Prior to 0.14, Ziggurat portals would generate randomly in the main Dungeon, and required you pay an admission fee of 2,100 to 14,000 gold to enter.

Prior to 0.11, you could use Projected Noise at the bottom of the map, then walk around the top end (or vice-versa).

Prior to 0.10, it was possible to permanently leave a Ziggurat via Banishment.