Walkthrough
Contents
Introduction
This page only covers the general strategy of the game. For specific topics and tactics, see the related pages. The following are good reads for beginners:
- Background and race combinations for beginners
- Character guides
- Escaping from (and avoiding) trouble
- Strategy guides
- Tips and tricks
- Weapon choice
For generic character building strategy see:
You can also check each of the individual Branch pages for more information on a particular part of the dungeon.
Early Dungeon
As the game starts, you'll find yourself in the Dungeon. The first levels are rather simple, but there are a few notable threats. Uniques (especially Sigmund and Grinder), player ghosts, ogres, and bands of gnolls or orcs all pose a significant threat on the first few levels.
If you do decide to take on a threat, isolate that monster, and use any tricks at your disposal -- ranged weapons, spells, wands, throwing weapons. etc. -- but remember, you're under no obligation to kill the monsters now. You get more powerful over the course of the game. The uniques and other "local bullies" don't. It is perfectly fine to partially skip a dangerous level and come back later if you want to.
The Temple
Once you find the Ecumenical Temple (located somewhere on Dungeon:4-7), pick a god if you haven't yet (and aren't a demigod). If the particular god you want isn't in the Temple (perhaps your temple was corrupted by Lugonu), you can find it in the main dungeon. If you're looking to convert to one of the more unusual gods (i.e. Lugonu or Jiyva), then you may have to wait until later to convert.
Portals
Throughout the game, you will find various portals to optional levels. Many of the portals are timed, so if you wish to enter them at all, you must do so quickly!
Portal levels have different themes, so always look up whichever Portal you've found, and consider whether you're equipped to deal with it. Some of these are obvious; you'll want fire resistance for the Volcano, and cold resistance for the Ice Cave. If the portal plays to your weak points, skip it! Likewise, if the "guards" around the portal are too tough for you, you probably won't survive long in the portal itself.
Before you venture into these portals, be sure you have enough space in your inventory to bring back any loot you find, as you will not be able to re-enter the portal. Once you're in, take stock of the situation, and explore carefully. Keep track of the exit portals (there's always at least one handy), and leave whenever you feel you're outmatched!
Some of the first portals you might see include:
- The Sewer, filled with lots of water, and mostly weak monsters. Watch out for poisonous snakes, and whatever lurks at the end of this portal.
Early Branches
While exploring the dungeon, you will find the entrances to the Lair of Beasts (on Dungeon:8-11) and the Orcish Mines (on Dungeon:9-12). Most players will find it easier to clear the Lair first.
The Lair
The greatest threat of Lair is often fast moving enemies with poison, since these are the hardest to escape. Therefore, poison resistance is definitely recommended. If your characters lacks poison resistance and defenses in general, you might wish to explore a bit more of the dungeon, or dip into the Orcish Mines.
Other threats include hydrae which can mercilessly tear apart your character with multiple attacks, packs of hard-hitting and hard-to-hit blink frogs, and the occasional herd of extremely powerful elephants or death yaks. Apart from rime drakes and uniques, mosters dealing elemental damage are rare here.
Like all the other branches you'll encounter, the sixth and final level of Lair is the hardest. Unless there's a portal there, which would be announced upon you entering the level, you won't lose anything by leaving it for later. Feel free to exit that floor if it's too hard, and come back to it when you're stronger.
The Lair always has three branches containing runes of zot, of which two are selected between the Shoals or the Swamp and Snake Pit or Spider's Nest, while the third and most dangerous of the three are the Slime Pits. These are all much more difficult than Lair, so ignore them until later!
The Orcish Mines
Despite the entrance often appearing earlier, the Orcish Mines are tougher than the Lair. Various special types of orcs like sorcerers or high priests will stand in your way, and depending on the layout, you might even encounter orc warlords or stone giants!
The first level is often split into disjointed rooms, so make sure you explore all the staircases on the lower level to avoid missing out on treasure and experience. The second level will always contain multiple shops to spend the gold you've inevitably accumulated by this point.
Sources of magic resistance are useful here to prevent paralysis or other nasty effects the orcs might inflict on you.
You'll find the entrance to the Elven Halls on the second level, but don't go in yet, as the elves are much tougher than the orcs.
Later Dungeon
After you've finished Lair and Orc, make sure to finish the dungeon. You'll find the entrances to the Vaults and the Depths before too long, but you should leave these for later. Once you're done, it's time to begin acquiring the runes of Zot.
Lair Branches
The easiest branches in which you can find runes are the Lair branches. You will always have three branches to choose from: The Shoals or the Swamp, Snake Pit or Spider's Nest, and the innumerably more difficult Slime Pits. They're listed below in order of difficulty, from easiest to hardest. You might also refer to the Elven Halls section, if all the branches are too hard for you.
All of these branches are made somewhat easier with poison resistance, and it's almost a requirement in Snake Pit and Spider's Nest. If you still haven't found any, you can attempt to slay a swamp dragon for its scales in Swamp, hope for equipment to show up in Shoals, or explore levels 1-2 of the Elven Halls.
Swamp
Assuming you have poison resistance by now and a way to kill hydras (spells, flaming weapons or non-bladed weapons), the Swamp should be fairly simple. Be careful to only fight from solid ground unless your character does well in shallow water or can fly (if you're surprised while wading through shallow water, retreat to dry land, then turn and fight).
Some of the bigger threats include thorn hunters, shambling mangroves, and possibly even the Lernaean hydra. But if you can overcome it all, you will eventually find the decaying rune of Zot.
Shoals
The Shoals are made up of several islands, surrounded by vast amounts of water. A source of flight is useful, as you'll probably need to fight from solid ground or fly to avoid incurring penalties. Also useful is a source of invisibility, since almost none of the monsters here can see invisible.
Expect to have to deal with foes such as merfolk bands, various satyrs, and perhaps even the dreadful Witch of the Tides, Ilsuiw. Many of the enemies here use Hexes, so magic resistance is important. Ranged weapons are also common, so an amulet of reflection is invaluable here.
Whatever you do, be very careful when you explore, only autoexploring after you've eliminated most of the threats. Otherwise you will often find yourself trapped in combat, making your chances of collecting the barnacled rune of Zot very slim.
Snake Pit
The Snake Pit is populated by hordes of snakes and nagas; Poison damage and constriction are both common, and this level is especially dangerous to spellcasters thanks to mana vipers. In addition to the obvious choice of poison resistance, fire resistance will help with the salamanders, and electricity resistance will help with the shock serpents.
If you're well prepared, and take things carefully, it won't take long until you slither across the serpentine rune of Zot.
Spider's Nest
The Spider's nest has swarms of fast-moving spiders that can quickly inflict severe poisoning, so don't enter without poison resistance unless absolutely necessary. But don't assume poison is all you have to worry about, as many spiders hit about as hard as yaks. Meanwhile, see invisible will help you to deal with ghost moths.
Once you complete the final floor, you'll find the gossamer rune of Zot.
Slime Pits
The Slime Pits are much more dangerous than the other branches, and require quite a lot of preparation before you can clear them with any semblance of safety. You shouldn't go here until you've at least completed the other two Lair branches, and even then, you're often better off acquiring your third rune from the Vaults or the Abyss.
Once you feel you're ready to enter the pits, you will need corrosion resistance. Golden eyes are dangerous, because they can confuse you while under attack. Make sure to read the royal jelly's page and develop a strategy for dealing with it.
The one exception to all of this is characters who worship Jiyva, who can waltz in and pick up the slimy rune of Zot with no resistance after reaching 6 piety.
The Elven Halls
If you lack poison resistance or a means of flight, clearing the first two floors of the Elven Halls may provide you with one or both of them. The Halls feature many dangerous deep elven casters.
Be careful about opening the runed doors on level 2, as they open to the hall of blades. This can be a dangerous place and it may not even be worth visiting if you already have a good weapon. See the main article for more details.
Thanks to the wide variety of magic, virtually every resistance will come in handy, but the most important one is magic resistance. If your magic resistance is too low, you could be banished, sending you to the Abyss.
Some people like to complete this branch fairly early, even before finishing any of the Lair Branches. While this isn't impossible by any means, it's very difficult, and shouldn't be tried by inexperienced players.
The final level of the Elven Halls contains a treasure chamber with massive amounts of loot, but also lots and lots of the most dangerous types of elves.
The Vaults
The Vaults are an excellent place to collect your third rune, although some characters may prefer the Abyss or Slime Pits. In any case, to enter the Vaults you will need to obtain at least one rune, preferably from a Lair branch.
Once you enter, the most helpful thing you can have is decent AC, EV, and SH. Elemental damage isn't uncommon, but there's a wide variety, so it's best to have wide spread of resistances. Magic resistance is particularly important for Vault sentinels, so if you don't think you can fight an entire floor at once, you'll also want that.
Vaults:5 is exponentially harder than the earlier levels, and often it's best to dip into the Depths before attempting it. Read the V:5 page for a detailed list of the tools and strategies needed to reach that silver rune of Zot.
Crypt
As you explore the Vaults, you'll eventually find the Crypt, home to all manner of undead. You'll want negative energy resistance (more is always better), and a way to cure or resist rot. Cold resistance can also help.
There is usually no need to enter the Crypt in a three-rune game.
Tomb
Inside the Crypt is the Tomb of Ancients, chock-full of mummies and home to the golden rune of Zot.
This is one of the most dangerous branches in the game, full of smiting, torment, and death curses. Often the first thing you'll see is a band ofsphinxes that can paralyse and smite you to death, so tread lightly.
Lots of negative energy resistance, and some way to deal with the rot are all required. Or, you could worship Kikubaaqudgha for that wonderful death curse protection and torment resistance.
Depths
The Depths are fairly straightforward. 5 floors of elaborate and often very open layouts teeming with monsters leading up to the Realm of Zot entrance. Along the way, you'll find entrances to the Abyss, the Vestibule of Hell, and Pandemonium.
Abyss
The Abyss is the easiest of the branches you'll run across in the Depths. Unsurprisingly, followers of Lugonu will have an easier time here, particularly since they can leave the Abyss whenever they want.
Apportation is great for nabbing that abyssal rune of Zot before you teleport away. You'll also want enough food to keep you from starving, since Abyss has a distinct lack of food, and most characters don't get to leave when they feel like it.
Teleportation is often a decent way to escape a dodgy situation. So don't leave all your source of teleport behind!
Hell
After you enter the Vestibule of Hell and kill all the enemies inside, you'll be granted with four branches: Gehenna, Cocytus, Tartarus, and The Iron City of Dis, all with their own rune.
These places all have three things in common: Annoying Hell effects, torment, and a distinct lack of food. Other than that, they each have their own "theme" with relevant resistances.
- Gehenna: Home to fire, hellfire, even more fire, and the obsidian rune of Zot.
- Cocytus: Realm of Ice and Annoying Amounts of Water. You'll find the icy rune of Zot here.
- Tartarus: Full of undead, draining, and dispel undead. Contains the bone rune of Zot.
- Dis: A city where almost everything is made of iron, including the iron rune of Zot.
If you can't clear the Realm of Zot, you probably shouldn't even bother with these places, but if you want all 15 runes you'll have to enter them eventually.
Pandemonium
Pandemonium is yet another place you probably shouldn't go to if you only want to win. It contains one rune guarded by a randomly generated panlord, the demonic rune of Zot. The other four are guarded by unique Pan Lords, which you only have one chance to kill or outsmart.
This place requires a ton of preparation, as you'll need to be able to deal with Cerebov, Mnoleg, Lom Lobon, and/or Gloorx Vloq whenever the game throws them at you. Definitely check out the Pandemonium article and the articles on the individual pan lords before you enter!
Realm of Zot
Zot, the final frontier... or maybe not, depending on your branch order. This is where you will find the Orb of Zot, the entire reason you're in the dungeon.
To obtain the orb, you'll want lots of fire resistance, and corrosion resistance. Electricity resistance, cold resistance, poison resistance, and see invisible are also helpful.
Eventually you will arrive at Zot:5, which contains the infamous Orb Chamber. Read that page for more details on how to not die there.
Note that even if you want to collect every rune, often it's best to clear out Zot first for the extra experience and items. Just don't pick up the orb!
Ascension
When you've finished ransacking every place you wish, proceed to Zot:5 and claim the Orb of Zot!
Be warned that from the time you pick up the Orb, all portals in the dungeon will close, sealing off Hell and the other netherworlds. Furthermore, Controlled Blinks (either from the spell or scrolls of blinking) become random ones.
To finish the game, simply book it towards D:1. Your priority now is speed: use every method of speeding yourself up available to you, whether it's haste, digging yourself a shortcut, or anything else. Use of any potions, scrolls, or wands that can help you travel more quickly, and don't worry too much about magical contamination; it doesn't matter if you exit the Dungeon as a half-blind, deformed mutant so long as you've escaped safely.
You can also make use of the game's autotravel feature (Ctrl+G), which will automatically calculate the shortest route to your destination, but this won't automatically use items for you.
Occasionally residents of Pandemonium will appear to block your path, including Pandemonium lords. If you can get around them, do so. If they block your path completely, only fight if you can clear a path within a few turns; otherwise, dig yourself a new path, blink, teleport, or take another route.
Only stop to heal if you're in danger of dying, and do so on an upwards stairway if possible. Just travel as quickly and efficiently as possible, avoid getting pinned down, and you should escape without too much trouble.
History
In 0.14 the Depths branch replaced D:16-27, and it was made necessary to obtain a rune of Zot to enter the Vaults.
