Walkthrough

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Introduction

This page only covers the general strategy and route of the game. For specific topics and tactics, see the related pages. The following are good reads for beginners:

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.

If you do decide to take on a threat, isolate it and use any tricks at your disposal -- ranged weapons, spells, wands, throwing weapons, and more. 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.

D:1

While the first floor is the simplest, featuring no possibility of any unique, it isn't something to be taken lightly. Physically weaker characters (those not of a Warrior start) have to beware of fast threats, namely jackals and quokkas, as you simply can't retreat from them. Gnolls are also tough enemies, though thankfully won't start in packs... yet. Even as a tough brute, you'll want to always limit monster interactions to one at a time.

D:2

The threat of fast enemies persists, this time being adders. Adders are also poisonous, which catches up to you very quickly. If absolutely necessary, drink potions and hope for a potion of curing or other threat-ending consumable. Gnolls and even orcs can form bands, or large groups. You don't want to be skewered by 3 spear-wielding gnolls, hitting you from afar, all at once. And you most likely won't want to deal with orc wizards or especially orc priests (detailed below) yet.

D:3+

Orc priests are 'in-depth' along with orc bands from D:3 onwards, though out of depth spawns can reach even into D:2. Low-HP species will be perennially afraid, as priests can smite for up to 17 damage per turn as long as they can see you. Even if you are a stronger combo, fighting a full pack with a priest isn't a good idea.

Ogres tend to spawn on D:4. Dealing up to 39 damage per melee hit thanks to their giant clubs, Ogres can easily 1-shot or 2-shot players. Thankfuly, they attack slowly - if they've swung, you will gain space against them.

Centaurs have a natural depth of D:5. They outrun you while pelting arrows from range. You'll either need to face them in melee (where they won't fire at you anymore), or otherwise use an item to ease the situation.

Of course, there'll be threats everywhere, but these are some of the early highlights. Depending on your character build, you might find some of these threats unamusing. For example: An ordinary, average HP melee fighter won't find much difficulty with centaurs, if they hide behind walls in order to restrict reciprocal line of sight. However, there's a few unmentioned monsters which are very dangerous to face...

Uniques

Unique monsters always have a name, and can only spawn once per game. More often than not, they'll stand out from the crowd -- in a way that'll most likely get you killed. A D:2 Sigmund recieves his title of "Dreaded" for good reason! Other extremely scary uniques are Grinder (who can paralyze you, giving many free attacks while you have no EV) and Ijyb (who always spawns with a wand). Regardless, if you're unfamiliar, you should check them out with x v in order to see their abilities.

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 abuses your weaknesses, 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.

The Ossuary, with lots of zombies and mummies, and occasionally some exotic undead.

The Bailey, home to militant orcs and other monsters. Many of them hold boomerangs or crossbows to abuse specially-crafted terrain.

The Temple

The Ecumenical Temple, located somewhere on Dungeon:4-7, contains a plethora of gods. Players who've yet to find a god, that are able to worship a god, will most likely find the temple very useful. For more details, see the choosing a god article.

From here on out, threats start blending in. You'll acquire the strength and tools to handle many more situations, and gain more flexiblity with avoiding threats altogether. This point might not be exactly when you enter the Temple, but getting a god often represents a large power spike. (Note: Most gods start providing perks at 1* of piety.)

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, typically anywhere after clearing D:10 to D:12.

The Lair

The Lair features fast moving enemies with poison, who are difficult to escape from. Poison resistance is definitely recommended. If your character lacks poison resistance, or defenses in general, you might wish to explore a bit more of the Dungeon.

Hydrae are another major threat, able to mercilessly tear apart your character. Even if you can survive up to 8 attacks per turn, make sure not to use an edged weapon (long blades, axes, lajatangs, or heavy polearms) without flaming, lest you grow even more. Other threats include packs of hard-hitting and hard-to-hit blink frogs, petrifying catoblepae, and the occasional herd of powerful elephants or death yaks. Apart from rime drakes or the occasional unique, monsters 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, 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. 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 is the Slime Pits. These are all much more difficult than Lair, so ignore them until later!

The Orcish Mines

Despite the fact that its entrance can appear earlier, the Orcish Mines are tougher than the Lair. Various special types of orc, like sorcerers or high priests, will stand in your way. The scariest brutes are orc warlords, stone giants, and ettins; though, thankfully, only the former appears with any regularity throughout Orc.

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, in turn, will always contain multiple shops to spend the gold you've inevitably accumulated by this point.

Sources of willpower are useful here to prevent paralysis or other nasty effects that 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

The dungeon itself is considered the 3rd option at this stage of the game, and its perfectly fine to clear all the way up to D:15 if you wish. However, plenty of threats can dissuade Dungeon divers. Ugly things hit hard and move quickly, skeletal warriors are even tougher, and pregenerated entrance vaults (often, to the Vaults) have great danger. It's certainly possible to tackle these threats early, though a character who has cleared Lair and/or Orc will struggle a lot less. As a general rule of thumb, you can stay in the late Dungeon (D:12 - D:15) until you find a threat that's too much to handle.

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: Snake Pit or Spider's Nest, the Swamp or the Shoals, and the innumerably more difficult Slime Pits. They're listed below in rough 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.

Poison resistance, is helpful in Swamp, and 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 (dubiously) explore levels 1-2 of the Elven Halls.

Snake Pit

The Snake Pit is populated by hordes of snakes and nagas; Poison damage and constriction are both common, and mana vipers are especially dangerous to spellcasters. Most of the Nagas move fairly slow (until hasted), which combined with the Pit's Dungeon-like layout, allows you to control threats with ease. To compensate, they'll come with ranged attacks, especially if you encounter Vashnia's crew. Non-humanoid snakes are fast... though most are slowed down by cold.

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 poison might quickly be the least of your worries...

A variety of threats will swarm you in the cavernous layout of the Nest, with few true chokepoints to abuse. Tarantellas have a confusing bite, leaving you stumbling about. Entropy weavers will corrode you, lowering both armour and melee. Invisible Ghost moths will rapidly drain your MP, if you aren't invisible yourself. All the while, emperor scorpions and broodmothers are formidable melee threats on their own. Remember -- this is all with the fast, poisonous brood! Fortunately, the common spiderspawn is frail, not particularly resistant, and vulnerable to poison.

Once you complete the final floor, you'll find the gossamer rune of Zot.

Swamp

The Swamp is an open marsh filled with trees and water, and its inhabitants won't let you forget that.

Right off the bat, Eleionomae and spriggan druids will force you to beware of direct wooded contact. And be careful to only fight from solid ground, unless your character does well in shallow water or can fly. Even then, hydrae (remember Lair?) and the many other threats of Swamp will straight up outrun you unless you are both flying and hasted. Fortunately, if you've found a way to clear the multi-headed foes, those threats shouldn't be too hard to deal with. It might still be a struggle when a swamp worm pulls you into unfamiliar territory, especially if you don't have resistances (poison, willpower for fenstrider witches, rCorr for goliath frogs) to manage.

Some of the other bigger threats include thorn hunters, shambling mangroves, tentacled monstrosities, and at the end, 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. (However, invisibility is ineffective if you are standing in water instead of flying)

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 willpower is important. Ranged weapons are also common, so an amulet of reflection or scarf of repulsion 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.

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. If you decide to come here, it's also suggested to clear the early floors of Vaults and maybe even Depths.

Once you feel you're ready to enter the pits, you will need corrosion resistance. Golden eyes are dangerous, because they can confuse you unless you have enough willpower. 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 zero resistance after reaching 6 stars of piety.

The Elven Halls

If your lacking in anything in particular, clearing the first two floors of the Elven Halls may provide you with them. The Halls feature many dangerous deep elven casters. The most common ones are deep elf pyromancers and zephyrmancers, meaning its nice to have rF and rElec.

Be careful about opening the runed doors on the second level, 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. Dancing weapons are already a big turn off for an early Elf, being fast, not that weak, and near omni-resistant.

Thanks to the wide variety of magic, virtually every resistance will come in handy, but the most important one is willpower. If your willpower is too low, you could be banished into the Abyss. A scroll of silence will shut off most of the threats of Elf, though deep elf blademasters, master archers, and dancing weapons won't really care. Dancing weapons also come with high AC and a variety of resistances, meaning your own magic might not perform that hot.

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 defenses: AC, EV, and SH. Elemental damage isn't uncommon, and there's a wide variety, so it's best to have wide spread of resistances. Willpower 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 (as well as the ever present threat of paralysis from here onwards).

Vaults:5 is exponentially harder than the earlier levels, so players often do Vaults:1-4 and 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. The Crypt tends to be dangerous to any living character due to many sources of torment. You'll want negative energy resistance (more is always better); cold resistance can also help. Therefore, it is great place for (re)gaining piety for The Shining One or Zin.

There is usually no need to enter the Crypt in a three-rune game. Characters that can take torment -- the undead, worshippers of Kiku, and the aformentioned good gods -- won't mind, however.

Depths

The Depths are fairly straightforward. Five 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. Again, if you are only going for a three-rune game, you will have little reason to enter these branches if you already got your third rune from Vaults:5 or the Slime Pits.

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, as they can leave for the low cost of 15 piety. The Abyssal rune will generate on level 3-5, with higher chance the deeper you go. Unfortunately, monster spawns also ramp up quickly on the deeper levels, so level 3 is often the deepest most characters will want to go.

In the Abyss, no monsters will give experience, items, or piety. In exchange, when you gather the rune, you are immediately given 2 XP levels and the skill points to match. However, killing monsters will eventually open up a portal out (and even later, a portal deeper). XP is also needed to counter temporary mutations and various forms of stat drain found throughout this plane.

Teleportation is often the best way to escape a dodgy situation in the Abyss. After teleporting, you can make good use of potions of ambrosia to quickly heal up when no monsters have yet generated near you. Stealth and sources of regeneration help, as you will constantly be on the run (thus, have few places to heal up). Finally, Apportation is great for nabbing that abyssal rune of Zot before you teleport away.

Pandemonium

Players most likely shouldn't enter the Pandemonium if they only want to win. The Pandemonium is a series of endless, but stable, realms, filled with all sorts of demons and other endgame monsters.

It contains five runes, one of which, the demonic rune of Zot, is guarded by a randomly generated lord. The other four are guarded by unique pandemonium lords. You can only enter their realm once, leaving the rune forever if you can't kill, dodge, or outsmart them.

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!

Hell

After you enter the Vestibule of Hell and kill all the enemies inside, you'll come upon portals to the four branches of Hell: Gehenna, Cocytus, Tartarus, and The Iron City of Dis, all with their own rune. Obtaining the Horn of Geryon from Geryon in the Vestibule may be viable - albeit dangerous - for any character with high Evocations (and also isn't worshipping a god who would disapprove).

All of the branches are 7 levels deep and have their own theme with relevant resistances.

Gehenna: Home to fire, damnation, even more fire, and the obsidian rune of Zot.
Cocytus: Realm of ice and large expanses 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.

Each hell enforces a conduct, such as restricting use of all scrolls. In addition, every one will rapidly inflict drain and temporary mutation, which can only cured by gaining XP. Due to these effects, along with a lack of loot, it's best to skip branch floors as much as possible. Along with the already-hellish threats of each threat, delvers will want to be very prepared.

If you can't clear the Realm of Zot, you probably shouldn't even bother with Hell, let alone Pan. However, the Hells are required if you want all 15 runes.

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 of sphinxes that can paralyse and smite you to death, so tread lightly.

Lots of negative energy resistance, and some way to deal with draining are all required. Or, you could worship Kikubaaqudgha for that wonderful death curse protection and torment resistance.

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 reason of your adventure.

To obtain the orb, you'll want lots of fire resistance for the terrifying orbs of fire that you'll eventually encounter. Other resistances 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 clear the place and finally obtain the Orb. Beware that teleportation is delayed in Zot, or while holding the Orb.

Note that even if you want to collect every rune, often it's best to clear out Zot (or at least Zot:1-4) first for the extra experience and items. Just don't pick up the orb until you're done!

Ascension

When you've finished ransacking every place you wish, proceed to Zot:5 and claim the Orb of Zot!

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, digging yourself shortcuts when needed.

You can also make use of the game's autotravel feature, which will automatically calculate the shortest route to your destination, but this won't automatically use items for you (in the case of the orb run, pressing GD0 will take you right to the entrance of the dungeon.

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. Use potions of ambrosia and sources of regeneration to heal yourself faster. Just travel as quickly and efficiently as possible, avoid getting pinned down, and you should escape without too much trouble.

History

In 0.28, the Abyss itself no longer gives items, xp, or piety. Formerly, it was possible for strong characters to scum safely in the Abyss for whatever they needed.
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.