The Abyss

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The Abyss is a truly bizarre place, ever-changing and twisted. It is filled with all sorts of monsters, mostly of demonic nature, whose common aim is to feast on intruders. It is also the garbage dump for many sorcerers, who delight in sending would-be champions like you to these proving grounds of madness.

Reportedly, there is some structure to the chaos, as Lugonu seems to concoct schemes around this place and its denizens.

The abyssal rune can be found there. The Abyss can be purposefully reached through portals in the deeper levels of the main dungeon.

A one-way gate to a demon-haunted realm, riven by chaos, its very substance impermanent and whimsical, filled with creatures out of nightmare.

The Abyss is an extra-dimensional chaotic plane without definite shape or form, inhabited by unholy horrors and ruled by Lugonu the Unformed.

Whether you end up in this horrible place intentionally or as the result of sheer bad luck, dedicated explorers will eventually find the abyssal rune of Zot and perhaps even a way out!

Layout

The Abyss' layout is randomized each time you visit it, but usually consists of wide open areas, narrow wandering tunnels, and on rare occasions orderly structures. Nearly any wall type in the game can be found here, and patches of shallow water, deep water, and lava are commonplace.

The chaotic forces of the Abyss cause a number of strange phenomena to occur:

  • The Abyss is constantly shifting and cannot be permanently mapped. Only tiles recently or currently in your line of sight are shown, and anything that leaves your sight is quickly forgotten. Terrain in the Abyss shifts with nearly every step. This may open new escape routes for stranded adventurers – or seal ones they were planning to take.
  • You will be teleported at random every so often, bringing you to a new part of the Abyss or even resetting the level and dumping you in a fresh patch of chaos (20% chance per teleport). Be aware that dropping something from your inventory may result in losing it forever, and that your army of summoned monsters will be constantly left behind. Recall helps with this somewhat.
  • Manual teleportation and blinking also behave erratically in the Abyss. Teleport attempts have a chance to fail, and take much longer than normal to kick in. Doing so also has the same 20% chance of resetting the level. Blinking is extremely difficult here, succeeding only 11% of the time (Lugonu followers get 3× those odds). Teleport control is nearly useless; its only effect is to double the success rate of blink attempts, but they still send you to a random tile.

Exploration has its rewards, however. Almost any item in the game can be randomly generated here, and wandering will eventually uncover both the abyssal rune and a portal out. Every tile you come across has a 1/7,500 chance of being a way out, and every iteration of the Abyss you explore has a 1/200 chance of containing the rune (rune generation becomes more likely the longer you spend wandering, and much faster for followers of Lugonu).

Structures

While the most common sights in the Abyss are monsters, chaotic walls, items, and altars to Lugonu, more orderly things can be found:

  • Altars to any god randomly occur here, though with less frequency than those to Lugonu. If you see a stone structure surrounded by plants and trees, you may have come across a fully-functioning Ecumenical Temple (though corrupted temples to Lugonu also occur).
  • After teleporting, you may find yourself in the middle of an arena filled with monsters, loot, and a portal out of the Abyss. You can face the monsters and collect the loot if you'd like, but remember that another teleport may kick in at any moment.
  • A small stone walled vault with a door may be generated that holds the abyssal rune. Use caution when entering, as some vaults contain tough monsters.

Entering the Abyss

There are several ways to enter the Abyss:

  • Enter a portal to the Abyss. These are found in Pandemonium, Labyrinths, and the lower levels of the Dungeon. This is the safest method, but it causes you to drop any distortion weapons you're carrying at the gate. They'll be there if/when you return.
  • Fail to resist a monster's Banishment spell.
  • Repeatedly wield and unwield a weapon of distortion.
  • Get hit by a weapon of distortion.
  • Severely miscast a Translocations or Summonings spell.
  • Gate yourself to the Abyss using Lugonu's abilities (permanently weakens you).
  • Play as an Abyssal Knight to begin in the Abyss.
  • Renounce Lugonu's religion or abandon it for another god.
  • Draw the Damnation card from the deck of escape (may banish enemies instead).
  • On rare occasion, a Zot trap will send you to the Abyss.

Exiting the Abyss

  • Use an exit portal.
  • Use Lugonu's Depart the Abyss ability. You can convert to Lugonu easily in the Abyss, but generating the piety needed to use this ability takes time, and your former god will not appreciate this.

Tips & Tricks

  • The enemies found here are on par with those found in Hell, so a full complement of resistances (particularly mutation resistance) is recommended. Getting surrounded here can be deadly, but if you can run away for long enough the level will reset, saving you from your pursuers. Swiftness or boots of running are especially useful to speed up exploration - or Flight to pass over magma (but be careful not to fall in!) - and Stealth can let you walk away from fights you just don't want to deal with.
  • You may be in the Abyss for a long time, and few of its inhabitants leave corpses, so a generous supply of permafood is also highly recommended.
  • Abyssal Knights start in the Abyss, and may choose to look around before either leaving through a portal (there's usually one near their starting position) or using Depart the Abyss. However, this level of the Abyss will only contain items on par with those found on Dungeon:1, while the monsters will be as deadly as normal. Don't stick around any longer than you have to.
  • The Abyss is an easier branch than the Hells or Pandemonium, but it can be tedious. One of the easiest ways to get the rune is to hide in a secluded corner at first, letting time pass in relative safety and thus raising the odds that future level resets will contain the rune. The chance maxes out at 8,260 turns (1,990 for Lugonu followers), but you can probably hunt it down before then. Of course, if you're also here looking for loot, this isn't an option.
  • Getting sent to the Abyss early (usually through Banishment) is often a death sentence, but you may be able to survive long enough to find a gate out. Use every speed advantage you can muster to avoid every combat you can; even if you can defeat some of the weaker foes, you want to spend every possible turn exploring new tiles and generating new chances of escape.
  • Where an exit portal sends you depends on how you arrived at the Abyss. If you arrived by portal, you will reappear at that same one. If you arrived by other means, you will be sent to a random spot on the level where your banishment took place.
  • Final Note: For weaker players, surviving the abyss is about mobility and not about XP or treasure. To this end, when you see a monster, you should head in the opposite direction. Levitation and Digging will help manufacture avenues of escape when you're seemingly trapped. Blinking and Teleport scrolls are for when a horde has accumulated and you're trapped. (Since teleports take a while to kick in, consider teleporting on sight when you see speedy, lethal monsters like the Executioner.) Relatively few monsters can fly: use lava and deep water to strand pursuers. Spawn summons to slow/entangle pursuers. Use quiet dead ends to regenerate HP/MP. Then, get moving.

Monsters

History

Prior to 0.10, the Abyss' terrain shifting would happen at a much slower pace, and only when you weren't looking directly at it.

In earlier versions, the Abyss would wrap around on itself if you went too far in one direction.

At one time prior to 0.10, Banishment to the Abyss was in Hell's mystical force's repertoire.

In 0.12, the Abyss will be revamped yet again.

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