The Realm of Zot

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Zot redirects here. For the force that pursues you throughout your adventure, see Zot clock. For the mythical wizard said to have created the Orb of Zot, see Zot (mythical wizard).

The Realm of Zot is a region of the dungeon that is so terrifying, so full of madness, frenzy and lunacy, that it has been locked securely against random trespassers. Only the most demented adventurers would dare gather the required keys, break the seal and penetrate deeper — all in the vain hope for a fabled artefact no one has ever laid eyes on before. The entrance to this branch can be found on level 4 of the Depths. This branch can only be entered while carrying at least 3 runes of Zot. This branch is 5 levels deep.

The Realm of Zot is the final branch in the game. It houses the goal of your quest, the legendary Orb of Zot, but its ferocious guardians won't let you just walk in and take it without a fight...

Useful Info

The Realm of Zot is 5 floors deep. A single locked gateway to Zot be found on the 4th floor of the Depths. To unlock it, you will need at least three runes of Zot, acquired by clearing other branches.

The mere proximity of the Orb warps space throughout the Realm, interfering with certain kinds of Translocations: teleports are delayed to 8-14 turns, while Passage of Golubria lasts shorter and is less predictable.

Visiting and clearing the Realm of Zot can be done long before you decide you've collected enough runes and are ready to win the game, and doing so will likely provide you with useful items and a significant amount of experience. It isn't until you actually pick up the Orb itself that the game enters its final stage. Read the Orb of Zot article for details on the Orb, the ascension run, and winning the game.

Layout

The layout of the Realm of Zot is occasionally similar to the Elven Halls (a series of small and large rooms interconnected by narrow corridors), though each floor has a high chance of being a massive, floor-wide vault with wide hallways and a generally symmetrical layout.

Zot:5

The final floor houses the Orb of Zot. The "Hall of Zot" has a similar layout in every game, and is defended by some of the most dangerous monsters in the game. Teleporting is a much less reliable panic button here than it is elsewhere.

Recommendations

The first four floors of the Realm of Zot can be cleared as soon as you've acquired 3 runes of Zot and reached the entrance on Depths:4, but doing so without preparations for its many threats can be extremely costly:

• The bands of draconians you encounter have a wide variety of abilities at their disposal; engaging an entire band at once will give them time to corrode you, blast you with damnation or powerful Conjurations, lock down your ability to teleport away, or simply beat you to death. Whenever possible, try to break up the band and take them out one or two at a time, and if possible change your resistances to match the threats you face at the moment. Also, be aware that draconians lack see invisible; an invisible player has a significant advantage when facing them.
• Due to the rock and stone walls of Zot and their ability to multizap, electric golems can inflict staggering amounts of electricity damage very quickly. While it isn't necessary to keep up electricity resistance at all times, be ready to have it as soon as an electric golem appears. As they are fairly rare, a few potions of resistance should be sufficient. This also applies to storm dragons, but they're significantly more survivable without it.
• Most of the time, Killer Klowns aren't too dangerous. However, their pies can inflict extremely dangerous random effects. Both silence and rF- can make fighting enemies much scarier, and there's an incredibly deadly combination of a bad form and -Potion, where you are stuck armourless while unable to use potion of cancellation to get out.
• Curse toes are one of the only sources of torment in Zot, and charging in to face one will rapidly deplete your HP and force you to fight your way through a horde of nasty fungal foes. Lure them into range around a corner to take away their biggest advantage, and don't waste time on their summons if you have the chance to attack the toe.
• By far the most dangerous opponents in Zot are the orbs of fire. These opponents can do tremendous amounts of fire damage very rapidly, and will pile bad mutations on you if you don't have mutation resistance. On top of that, they are extremely durable. Unless you are extremely confident in your skills, don't explore Zot without a bare minimum of rF+, and avoid actually fighting orbs of fire without rF++ or better.

The fifth and final floor of the Realm of Zot is taken up almost entirely by the sprawling Orb chamber. See the Zot:5 article for details on how to handle the Orb chamber and its guardians.

Monsters

Common monsters

d Draconians	y Moth of wrath	y Ghost moth	z Death cob
D Shadow dragon	D Golden dragon	D Quicksilver dragon	D Storm dragon
X Tentacled monstrosity	z Curse toe	X Orb guardian	9 Electric golem

Dangerous monsters

p Killer Klown

L Ancient lich

L Dread lich

* Orb of fire

Uniques

g Grunn

L Josephina

T Parghit

d Tiamat

9 Vv

History

• Prior to 0.28, classed draconians could have varying colours, and Zot's entrance was on Depths:5.
• Prior to 0.27, ancient liches had 5 spell sets, making covering all resistances somewhat more necessary. Dread liches were introduced to summon and inflict paralysis in their stead.
• Prior to 0.26, scrolls of blinking and the removed Controlled Blink spell could not be controlled when in Zot or holding the Orb of Zot. Also, Passage of Golubria was uncastable, instead of behaving less predictably.
• Prior to 0.20, scrolls of blinking behaved normally on a Zot level.
• Prior to 0.19, the translocations restrictions of the Orb of Zot did not apply to the entire Realm of Zot.
• Before the removal of teleport control in 0.17, teleport control was disabled on Zot:5
• Prior to 0.14 (and the introduction of the Depths), the entrance to the Realm of Zot was found on Dungeon:27.
• Prior to 0.13, floor layouts in Zot were never full-floor vaults, and narrow corridors were much more common.