Delver

Version 0.26: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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Delvers have, through some mishap, found themselves several floors below the surface of the dungeon. They're equipped with a wide variety of magical escape tools, and are well advised to use them to travel to earlier dungeon floors as quickly as possible.

Preferred Races

Felid, Spriggan, Kobold, and Vampire are the recommended races if you pick a Delver Background.

Starting Equipment

Some species may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.

• +0 weapon of choice (hand axe, spear, short sword, falchion, mace, or unarmed)
• +0 leather armour
• Scroll of fog
• Scroll of fear
• Scroll of magic mapping
• Potion of haste
• Wand of digging with 3 charges

Delvers start on Floor 5 of the Dungeon, always on top of a downstair.

Starting Skills and Stats

Adjusted for your species' aptitudes:

• Fighting: 3
• Chosen Weapon's Skill: 2
• Dodging: 2
• Stealth: 5

Choosing Delver adds 4 to your starting Strength, 2 to your starting Intelligence, and 6 to your starting Dexterity.

Strategy

Delvers are bound to luck; a stray orc priest or Centaur noticing you can end your game instantly. Thankfully, you start with a high Stealth to (hopefully) avoid said encounters; species like Spriggan or Gnoll boost Stealth even higher. Formicids, oddly, enough, also benefit; they can dig through walls safely and can sense enemies with their antenae. Use your starting equipment wisely: a scroll of fear can scare away enemies reliably, scroll of magic mapping can let you skip a floor, the potion of haste gives you the speed to run away from fast foes such as killer bees and adders, and the wand of digging can help you getting to a stair safely.

One strategy, abiet unreliable, is to use your magic mapping in order to find the Temple or an altar early. This may be considered start scumming, but gives you a competent god as soon as D:1. The current lowest turn count game uses Delver in order to find an Okawaru altar on Turn 1.

History

• Delvers were added in 0.26.