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This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised.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.

Anyway, 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. Before you run off breaching stuff, a few words. Might help you learning the ropes if you are new in the business.

Preamble for new recruits
This guide is not a comprehensive walkthrough. The further you progress, the less advice you get. For now, three runes are covered, though the build is well suited for more. I plan to expand and revise it some day, based on feedback. Consider posting yet another victory post (YAVP) or yet another stupid death (YASD) on r/dcss if you give this a shot. I’ll check it out.

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

Disclaimer
This is a dedicated Statue Form build. You might not find Statue Form. You can still win. You get no refund if you don’t stick to the skill targets.

XL 1: Initial skill allocation

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. 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

Skill targets are set by pressing =, then the letter corresponding to the skill. You automatically stop training a skill when you hit the target. Stick to this allocation until you reach XL 9. No matter what items you find. Let's go.

Early Dungeon: Strategy and tactics

The early Dungeon can be rough. Especially for puny goblins who try to tackle a troll fighter. With a few basic precautions you should be fine. Beware of hubris. Never let you guard down. Most of this section is general advice, some of it is specific to this build.

Gameplay commands
Press ?? for an overview of commands. DCSS has tons of useful commands. The more you know, the smoother your experience is. I’ll explain only some of them.

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, as we will see later.

Don't let yourself get swarmed
I will slightly relax on this policy later. For now, 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.

Evoke things
Pick up evocable items and use them tactically. Even with zero skill, wands and other evocables have a lot of utility, especially in the early Dungeon. A condenser vane is actually more useful with zero skill than with moderate skill, as it’s more likely to produce noxious fumes, capable of disabling many dangerous monsters with confusion. 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.

Throw things
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. Ranged enemies are an exception and require different tactics.

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.

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. I explain how that works later.

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.

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.

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.

Running 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.

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.

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.

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 quaff a potion also identifies it.

Use your stuff
It might work to just take another swing at that almost dead water moccasin that has already seriously wounded and poisoned you. You either hit it and live, or miss and die. Might be better to potentially waste a potion or scroll. Consumables are precious, but don’t hoard them. Use them whenever there’s a chance you die. Use combat buffs like might before engaging dangerous monsters, not when you only have 10 health left.

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.

The Holy Grail
The one thing you want to find above all else for this build is the spell Statue Form. 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 yet 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 the other options are. There is no guarantee you get another chance.

Other items to look for
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. Willpower and rPois are very useful, too. Keep jewellery with other resistances for swapping. They will be important later, when you face elemental attacks more often. 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. Stick to your kite shield for now, unless you find a better kite shield. Consider enchanting your shield when levels get noticeably harder. Wear the best hat and cloak you find. Collect and keep all potions of mutation for the late game. All purple consumables can be useful.

Items to discard
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.

Early Dungeon: Selected threats

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.

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 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.

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.

Willpower and dealing with hexes
In case you have a ring of willpower, put it on before engaging orc wizards. Compare their chances to confuse 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 very nice to have but hard to come by in the early Dungeon. Most magical debuffs can be removed with the rarely found potion of cancellation.

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, though. 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 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 to low level characters, 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 them from a distance. A wand of polymorph might transform weak-willed monsters and make them drop the weapon, for example.

Dealing with 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.

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.

XL 3: Almost always choose Int

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. For this build, choose Intelligence. We’ll put it to very good use later. Avoid having any attribute lower than 8, though. If you happen to find some powerful item that lowers your Dexterity, try to compensate. Also, the higher your XL goes, the more likely bonuses from equipment or mutations have a bigger impact than attribute gains from levelling up.

The Wu Jian Council

It’s time for a martial arts training montage! You also need to meditate on how time works. I decided to explain Wu Jian in one chapter, instead of spreading it all over the guide.

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.

Time, actions and delay
I have played for over a decade without understanding how time and actions in DCSS really work. 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.

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 like cleaving with your claws, as long as you keep moving. 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, with a single step. 120% + 4 x 80% = 440% damage, distributed among the orcs. Don’t get reckless, though. Any monster that survives your move can and will hit you back. It’s still good tactics to use corridors and other bottlenecks to fight one-on-one. When you do get swarmed a little, keep moving and nibble away at the edges of the crowd. Depending on how dangerous those orcs are to you, it might be better to take a step back, hitting just two of them.

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. Read the next section for more details.

Thus, Wall Jump is perfect to finish off injured foes and to deal with whole packs of not terribly dangerous monsters. 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 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.

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.

When you perform a Wall Jump for 20 auts, the monsters 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 were already dead, that is. You don’t deal more damage when slow, because your attack speed is also slower.

Now you know why throwing large rocks at ranged enemies is dangerous. Large rocks have a base attack delay of 2.0. It takes a lot of skill to throw them fast.

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. If you ever find yourself standing next to a staircase with one point of health left, facing a whole platoon of centaurs, use Serpent’s Lash. They can’t do a thing to stop you. Unless they brought a silent spectre, too. Unlike your three martial attacks, 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. This makes fighting large groups of enemies out in the open much more viable. 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. 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. The Storm lasts until the bonus drops to zero. Don’t activate it when you are completely surrounded by enemies. Only Lunge, Whirlwind and Wall Jump prolong the Storm.

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

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.

Mid Dungeon (Temple to D:11 or D:12)

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 invisble 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.

XL 9: Learn to dodge

After reaching XL 9 and choosing Int again, open your skill screen. Activate Dodging and set a skill 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

Don’t touch this allocation before ALL targets are reached. 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 selected new skills.

Taking a break from the Dungeon: Early branches

For now, don’t go deeper into the Dungeon than D:11 or at most D:12. D:12 should be manageable and it’s worth it to gain some extra experience before you enter the Lair. Just 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.

Mid game timed portals
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 are interesting. You can enter without risk and take a look around. 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 by 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.

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.

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 things in the Lair are easily ripped apart. Carefully inspect monsters you don’t know. Scrolls of fear and scrolls of poison generally work well in the Lair. We’ll talk about hydras shortly. They deserve their own chapter.

The Lair 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.

Dealing with Rupert
Rupert is often found in the Lair. He’s a pretty dangerous guy, who’ll try 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, too, if you have one. 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.

One, two, many, lots: Dealing with hydras

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? Is that in any way safe?
Read the whole chapter. Ideally, don’t mess with your first hydra unless you are at least XL 11 and at full health. Disposal of hydras can indeed be unreliable 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 before you are done with the Lair. For now, get some life insurance, in case things go wrong. You can virtually eliminate the odds of things going wrong by buffing yourself or softening early hydras up a little.

Life insurance scrolls and refreshments for young hydra killers

• Scroll of blinking: S-tier life insurance.
• Scroll of summoning: Can potentially kill a hydra. Also serves as life insurance.
• Scroll of butterflies: Life insurance. Attacks of opportunity do not apply when you swap places with an ally. A one square gap is all you need.
• Scroll of fear: May be resisted by hydras. Bring multiple scrolls or read vulnerability first.
• Scroll of teleport: Potentially dangerous on partially explored floors. Takes 3-5 turns to kick in. For a fast escape, consider reading it preemptively when the hydra is two squares away. You can cancel a pending teleport by reading another scroll of teleport, should you want to.
• Potion of lignification: The massive AC boost turns hydra bites into harmless tickles. Also, your arms transform into branches well suited for pummeling hydras. Use this as life insurance or as a safe method of killing hydras in general. 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, but don’t waste this on a single hydra.
• Potion of haste: Both escape option and combat buff. Only fast enough to escape on land. Swimming hydras are faster.
• Potion of invisibility: Makes an attacking hydra 35% less likely to hit you. The beast may lose track of you if it’s still a few squares away. Doesn’t work in water, unless you are flying.
• Potion of might: Decreases the hydra’s chance of survival significantly.
• Potion of berserk rage: Gets the job done, but it's messy and limits your tactical options. Only recommend when your health is still mostly intact.

Softening 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. Don’t let the hydra come too close. 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, though, 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.

The Three-Point-Claw-Exploding-Hydra-Technique
Let’s get to it. When the hydra is one step away, activate Serpent’s Lash. Hit the hydra with a Lunge and a Whirlwind. Chances are, the hydra is dead now. It’s not? Your moves were instant, so it’s still your turn. Use a third deft application of your claws to finish the beast. As you gain experience, this approach will evolve into a one-point-technique, 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 at a hydra 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. This might happen early on. Serpent’s Lash cannot miss, but damage rolls vary. By backing off immediately, you disengage the hydra without using consumables. If the hydra wasn’t impressed by your Lunge, don’t push it. Walk away and gain some more experience. Try again later or resort to an alternative method of hydra killing.

The Double Lunge
What if you have to fight a hydra or some other notable threat in a single square corridor? It might happen. 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 hydra’s turn now.

Escaping from excessively lucky hydras
So you made your move and the hydra is still alive, retaliating with all those new angry heads? That’s what your shield is for. You should live for a few turns. If the hydra is almost dead and your health is barely scratched, try a fourth attack. Do not push your luck any further than that. Who knows how many felids the beast has devoured? Maybe it has extra lives by now. Unlike you. It’s time to use your life insurance.

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 unreliable but worth a shot. Be creative. What about using a wand of charming on a conveniently spiny and weak-willed cane toad? Tell it to attack the hydra by pressing ta. You won’t be disappointed by that fight. Granted, this method requires some luck in preparation. One could imagine other, even more elaborate tactics. I won’t mention scrolls of 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.

You might be tempted to use a flaming-branded edged weapon. Don’t. Without weapon skill, your health will drop faster than the head count. Spending experience on weapon skills would make this build weaker.

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 and kill them fast, unless your willpower is high enough to resist. Inspect them to find out. By now, ogres and double-headed ogres aren’t much of a threat to you anymore. 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.

Lower Dungeon (D:13-15)

This should be relatively easy. 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, corresponding 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.

Trading damage for range
Sometimes there’s a physically weak monster with dangerous spells three squares away and you want to attack them right now. You can trade damage for range. Use Serpent’s Lash, just to close the distance and lunge at them. It’s only a Lunge, but that’s enough to one-shot wizards, for example. They can’t act until after your attack. If the monster is a bit tougher, it might be better to get one step closer and hit them from two squares away.

S-Branches: Poison and Water

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 fighter. There is no guarantee you would have found a kite shield in time.

That being said, not much changes now. Inspect monsters you don’t know, use the terrain and regard every non-trivial fight as a little kung fu puzzle. It’s a bit like early Dungeon again, with less throwing. Every move counts. Which branch is easier to do first depends on your items. 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 down there 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. Shock serpents are terrifying without rElec. Don’t underestimate them. Luckily, they 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. They use Portal Projectile to smite-target you with their arrows. Neither summoned allies nor other monsters, only walls give you cover. Consider digging a killhole, if you encounter Vashnia and her gang. Some rFire is nice to have when you fight salamanders.

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. Sparks wasps shock you and entropy weavers corrode you. Then there are jorogumos and tarantellas, eager to 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, 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. Beware of death drakes. Never stand in miasma clouds any longer than you have to. Not even in tree form. Quaff cancellation when that happens. 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. Every resistance is useful here, most of all rPois.

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.

XL 17: A Kind of Earth Magic

Did you find Statue Form? Memorise it now, if it’s already in your spell library (press M). If you put it on your shopping list (press $), go buy the book now. Press Ctrl-F and search ‘statue’ to make sure. You can press =s to adjust the letter assigned to a spell.

Without statue form, the Plan is starting to unravel a bit. Scroll down for Plan B. You will retrieve the Orb no matter what.

New skill targets
Shortly after you hit XL 17 the game should notify you that all skill targets have been reached. Select new skills and set targets as follows. If you did not find statue form, see Plan B.

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

Options
This guide isn’t supposed to be flexible. Yet, here are two options for a bit more utility. Pick at most one. This will delay getting Statue Form castable, but not much.

• If you found the spell Bink, 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 for this build. Memorise Apportation, too.
• To give your evocations a bit more oomph, train Evocations and set a target of 5.5. This will make a condenser vane less useful.

Useful low-level transmutations
Definitely memorise Wereblood and Passwall, since you are training Transmutations and Earth Magic anyway.

• Wereblood is no game changer, but a slaying bonus and some healing is always nice to have. Remember to cast it from time to time. It stacks with Heavenly Storm.
• Though I use Passwall mostly for fun, it’s a great escape option when you are next to a passable rock wall and see trouble coming. You always get to act first on the other side of the wall.

Plan B

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.

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. 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, 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.

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 rElec and some rCold. 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. All in all, this should feel easier than the S-Branches. Do not enter Vaults:5.

XL 21: Force equals mass times acceleration

Statue Form should have a high enough spell success rate to start using it by the time you hit XL 21. This depends on how much Int you have and whether you picked an extra option at X17 or not. You might want to put on a ring of wizardry or just keep training for a while longer. If you didn’t find Statue Form, scroll down for Plan B again.

Assuming you wear a robe and have 12 Int:

picked option      Wiz       spell success
-------------------------------------------
      yes     |  no        |     22%
      yes     |  yes (1x)  |      9%
      no      |  no        |     17%
      no      |  yes (1x)  |      7%

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, as you keep training your magic.

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.

Dealing with 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.

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? Fighting becomes even more of a kung fu puzzle now. It’s all about positioning and using you martial arts to best effect. 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.

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.

Plan B again

So you didn’t find it. Well. Good thing you didn’t train for it. You can always learn Statue Form later. Probably not in time for a 3-rune win. Right now, you need more defence.

• Put on some heavy dragon scales.
• Swap your kite shield for a tower shield.

You’re still a troll fighter, you still have claws. 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.

XL 22: Final skill allocation

You should reach all skill targets before you hit XL 22. Now it’s time for the final skill 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 all targets. By then you have a feel for the character. Take over the strategy wheel. Will you focus on defence? Train more Evocations? Learn more spells? Maybe even get some Stealth? I will supply some options when I expand this guide. Good luck.

The Crypt

Willpower and rNeg are most important here. Will+++ is reasonable protection, will++++ is better. Statue Form makes you immune to flaying, rendering flayed ghosts utterly harmless. Partial torment resistance 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. Use Serpent’s Lash to deal with particularly dangerous monsters, like dread liches or curse skulls. Destroy them before they start summoning reinforcements. All summons instantly disappear, when the summoner is dealt with. If the Crypt gives you trouble, try the Depths first.

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. If you get to them in time. Otherwise, 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. Best don’t get hit by them at all.

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 other rune branches aren’t covered here, yet. I’ll add them when I expand this guide.

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 malmutation
Sometimes you get lucky and receive a beneficial mutation from those horrible shining eyes. It’s not likely. Unless you managed to avoid their gaze completely, they probably malmutated you a bit. 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 mutations wisely to get rid of really bad mutations or too many bad mutations. If you are certain 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 later.

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 group 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.

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 mana to recast Statue Form.
• Death Cobs irresitibly slow you down with their melee attack. This stacks with the slowness of Statue Form, increasing your movment 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. Then 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 could trigger an alarm trap in the anteroom and make your stand there.

The Orb Run
Everything in Zot:5 should be dead now. 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 have lots of consumables, don’t hold them back anymore. Use haste just to run faster, use digging to take shortcuts. Use blinking just to save a few turns, if you still have a dozen. Save 2-3 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 three runes

Didn’t pick up the Orb, yet? Want to earn a little commission? They say, magic runes are in high demand on the black market. This build is well suited for the extended game. I’ll continue the guide after a bit more play-testing. Happy crawling, everyone.