Onei's 3-rune Interdimensional Feline Kidnapping Walkthrough - FeSu^Gozag/Jiyva

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

Did you know 100% of deaths in DCSS are the result of taking damage? The common melee brute builds may appear efficient at first, but they suffer from a critical flaw - they let the enemy hit you. Every single time an enemy applies its claws, club, arrows, or reality shattering magic to your sensitive skin, you are exposed to the leading cause of mortality in the Dungeon. I therefore propose an alternative that will make your journey down into the depths 50% less painful, 100% less lonely, and most importantly, 300% fluffier.

The Felid Summoner (of Gozag, and potentially Jiyva later on).

Cats have a terrible reputation for being, supposedly, a “challenge race”, a “tedious ordeal of optimal play” or even an “unfun experience I’d never do again”. I’m here to inform you that this is all baseless canine propaganda, and I hope you too will learn to bow before your true feline masters as you read through this guide. As a cat, you will be able to laugh in the face of paralysis (due to your high willpower), laugh in the face of invisible enemies (due to your intrinsic SInv), and even occasionally laugh in the face of death. This all comes at the high price of having the lowest amount of hit points in the game, and the inability to use any item besides consumables, evokables and jewellery. Thankfully, you won’t need any of the baubles inferior humanoids depend on, as you will delegate most of the dirty work to pathetically obedient underlings.

This guide was written for 0.28. Do not attempt this in 0.27 or lower, or your fate will be swift and very, very sad. The target audience here are players who have already won at least once, and would like a kind of build that’s a bit off the beaten path of the tried and true brute/caster duality, or even their first Felid victory. However, if you’re still looking for your first victory ever, there’s nothing stopping you from attempting this! I got my first win ever as a Felid, and I believe that the caution and focus that one learns from playing this race is valuable on any character.

As the title suggests, pick Felid for your species (ignore the “Advanced” difficulty: that’s merely a ploy to hide true power from your grasp). Pick Summoner for your background, as is wisely recommended by the game.

An Agonizing Introduction (XP Level 1)

Upon starting your run, you will be met with the following:

• 7 pitiful HP points, enough to get two-shotted by a quokka.
• Complete lack of any items, weapons, or armour, and only three equipment slots for jewellery only. Felid culture prohibits equipping rings on your rear-limbs, as this is symbolic of the time one spent caged by their (now rightfully eviscerated) master.
• The pathetic ability to call forth fuzzy critters from the unfathomable depths of the eldritch cosmos.
• A deranged repartition of default skill training. Press “m”, set training to “manual” mode if you haven’t done so already (press “/” to do so), and turn off every skill except Spellcasting and Summonings.
• A very ugly yellow Felid sprite, which you may somehow find cute if you suffer from an utter lack of taste. If you are reasonable and are playing on the offline version, immediately swap to the much superior black cat tile by pressing “-” and cycling through available sprites with left and right arrow keys. In the online version, you can write “tile_player_tile = tile:cat6” in your rc file instead.

All of this is, to put it bluntly, utter trash. The good news is that XP level 1 and 2 are the only thing separating you from supreme feline domination. Please refer to the following advice to avoid becoming a delicacy in the next hobgoblin feast.

• Try to avoid being in melee range of something that isn’t a “trivial creature” - bats, rats, frilled lizards or ball pythons. In the latter case, if a ball python hits you with the “Constrict” status, do NOT continue fighting and attempt to retreat until you have been cleansed from the status. If you are cornered without MP and forced to fight, do so, but be aware that this is very likely your end. You may take one step in a foe’s reach to reposition, but always remember that most of the denizens of D:1 can two-shot you.
• Cast Summon Small Mammal twice for every encounter (press “p” to do so). Bats are almost useless, rats are mediocre, and quokkas are somewhat passable. If you happen to pull forth one of the latter two from your interdimensional nonexistent hat, you may direct them to get their furry heads bashed in at the nearest available enemy. This is done by pressing “t” to bring up the ally command menu, and then pressing “a” and selecting the enemy you wish to submit to death by a thousand adorable critter bites. If your fuzzy friend meets an unfortunate end at the tip of a kobold’s dagger, there’s always more where that came from - bring on the onslaught until all opposition has been reduced to quokka food. You can have up to a maximum of 2 mammals simultaneously - replace the fallen with more units eager to die in your name. While your summons fight it out, feel free to press “.” to allow the battle to unfold, occasionally shooting a “t”-“a” command to direct firepower. Trying to join the action is a certain way to die - remember, do NOT melee non-trivial creatures!
• Remember the golden rule of summoning: what you can’t see cannot be seen by your summons either. No ally can attack outside of Line-of-Sight (LOS) distance. The opposite is not necessarily true: while your feline senses let you see invisible enemies, all of the critters in your starting spells (except those from Call Canine Familiar) are not as fortunate.
• If you run out of MP, retreat (towards known territory, if possible, as delving into the unknown will result in a swift death) and rest up to recharge your reserves. As a Felid, you are faster than most creatures, which makes it easy to outmaneuver foes while you scrape the mammalian demiplane to bring in more friends. Remember, do NOT attempt to melee non-trivial creatures at level 1. You WILL get your snout slapped faster than you can say “YASD”.
• Keep an eye out for branded weapons and poisoned darts! A single hit from either of these is enough to go from a pristine, full health scruff to a game over screen showing 3 unidentified scrolls of acquirement. Your summons can tank darts for you if you stand behind them, but this is extremely unreliable (projectiles continue their trajectory if they are dodged). Branded melee weapons are handled in the same way as dangerous creatures of D:1, that is, drowned in pettable fluffballs until the threat is vanquished and drops their dangerous item (possibly a +34 triple sword “lol you can’t use this play minotaur next time” {flaming, Slay+12, AC+10}). However, if you spot a dart-wielding kobold, it is time to turn tail and get out of there until you are level 2.

Interdimensional Battle Tactics 101

All enemies of DCSS, from the gurgling jelly to the mighty Pandemonium Lord Cerebov, are extremely unintelligent. In a situation like:

@....
.....
..S..
...E.
.....

(where @ is you, S is a friendly summon, and E is an enemy), foes would rather hammer their way through your friend (which may be an eight-headed hydra) to reach you, and certainly won’t think about just circling around to one-shot the squishy cat behind. You will need to abuse this as much as possible. Try to always ensure you are shielded behind your loyal servants. This, for example, is not acceptable:

..@..
.....
..S..
...E.
.....

Since the enemy can directly trace a line between you and their position (imagine they’re trying to fire a Magic Dart at you - if they can hit you, you’re not positioned correctly), they will ignore your ally and charge directly at you to slice themselves some fresh feline cutlets. In a situation such as this, it is preferable to either A) send out more summons to return to a more favourable state

..@..
.....
.SSS.
...E.
.....

Or B), retreat to a hallway.

1-tile hallways are your saving grace as a Summoner. Look at the following situation:

Situation 1

#####
.S.@E
#####

The enemy is possibly an ogre about to bash you into a bloodied furball. Casting your summoning spell placed your unit behind you. Simply walk backwards to swap places with your unit, watch the fight unfold (preferably from a distance), and if your soldier perishes in honourable battle, your MP should have regenerated while they were battling it out: simply send out a fresh combatant eager to finish the job.

#####
@..SE
#####

Zero risk, zero worry. If you run out of MP, simply use your swift cat paws to return to the upstairs, regenerate and try again. Most enemies in the game won’t be able to catch you. Here’s another interesting case:

Situation 2

#####
@E..S
#####

Here, you got unlucky, and casting your spell spawned your unit behind the foe you are attempting to introduce to your friends. You could walk backwards until you have a 1-tile gap with your enemy, then cast your spell again, hoping it lands in the right spot this time around:

#####
@.E..
#####

Casting your spell here may bring you back safely to Situation 1. However, Situation 2 is not entirely unfortunate: fast allies, like Hounds, Quokkas or later Mana Vipers, are capable of biting the enemy while you are running away. If you are in Situation 2, your summon is Fast, and your enemy does not have Fast speed, you may simply walk backwards, kiting this enemy desperate to reach you while your loyal pet bites them from behind every 3 turns or so. It may eventually despawn, but that is simply an invitation to recast the spell.

Of course, if you foolishly end up cornering yourself in a dead end, use a Teleport Scroll. It’s often the second-most common type of scroll.

If all this sounds complicated, do not worry: while it may take a few early D:1 splats to get the hang of it, it will become second nature after just a few battles.

A Devilish Upgrade (XP Level 2)

• Most of the Level 1 advice still applies, but you now have room for one mistake. As soon as you level up and find yourself in a safe area, immediately memorize Call Imp, your new very mischievous addition to the roster. This spell also sucks, but it sucks a little bit less, and that’s exactly what you need right now. Hit “Q” to bring up your quiver menu, and select your new demonic friend. You may now call forth the unspeakably dark forces of Hell (by pressing “p” to use your quivered action) to bring forth a glorified quokka who loves to blink a lot (and expose you to the melee range of enemies unamused by these antics). Occasionally, you may instead pull out a different coloured demon, which are all, relatively to the crimson imp(otent), absolute rampage machines. Imps will also occasionally compliment you and call you their “pillow-pawed masters”, which is a step up from the blank stares of rats. Disregard these attempts to appeal to your nonexistent mercy, and send them to die in your name with more liberal usage of “t”-“a”.
• In cases of difficult battles, feel free to bring forth assistance from your previous, less talkative and much fuzzier friends. You may do this by either clicking the spell in the side menu (in offline mode) or pressing Z, ? then a (in online mode). The total gang of three summons is now sufficient to circle enemies and dish out quick justice to those fearsome dart-wielding kobolds. Keep being careful until you reach level 3. If D:1 fails to provide enough experience for this, carefully descend to D:2 to finish the job, but know that dealing with any of the D:2 new enemies that weren’t featured on D:1 is extremely risky - especially adders and orc priests/wizards. Try to focus on foes you are already familiar with, and use a different staircase if your chosen means of descent places you next to something you haven’t killed yet.

Quite an agonizing experience so far, no? Are you beginning to doubt me? Do you lust to return to a race that starts with HP in the double digits? Foolish! This is where the fun begins.

Canine Thralls vs. The Interdimensional Police (XP Level 3)

Increase (I)ntelligence, and only do so every single time you will be prompted with this choice in the future.

Find a safe area. Memorize Call Canine Familiar, immediately. This is the real deal. There are very few creatures in the early dungeon which can survive having three hounds dumped on them one after the other (the summon cap is one, do not recast the spell if your loyal pet is still alive, unless it wandered off and you wish to obtain a fresher, closer and potentially more obedient specimen). Not only can you just stand back and watch the carnage, you do not risk getting hit, and can effectively watch adders get slaughtered from Line-of-Sight (LOS) distance. Hounds, like imps, occasionally try to look cute and print out endearing messages in the text log. Again, do not let this affect you - remember that the canine race is lesser before feline glory, and heartlessly send them to their doom (“t”-“a”) while they obey with unfaltering zeal.

There is only one small problem.

Every time you attempt to call a canine slave friend, there should be a ~7%-9% chance of a miscast, which will reduce as you progress through the arts of Summonings. Miscasts in other schools of magic are generally not too dramatic (given that the caster is not trying to sever reality itself right after learning how to say “pick a card, any card”). However, your constant telemarketing calls to the eldritch cosmos asking “Who wants to die in the name of feline supremacy?” have begun to get on the nerves of some eldritch monstrosities. TentacleMail may therefore rarely deliver you a Nameless Horror instead of your ordered furry companion. Instead of filing a complaint, start to run. The bad news: a single hit from these things is often enough to cut your HP AND MP in half, they will only leave after you have managed to kill them, and they will occasionally return your summons back to their home realm, so they may meet their family again instead of dying for a cat in a dungeon. The good news: you’re much faster than these terrible abominations.

FAQ:

What do I do if I incur the wrath of cosmic aberrations?

Leave through the nearest up-staircase without getting hit by the Nameless Horror (that means, do not walk into a tile adjacent to the Horror), and take a different staircase to enter D:2. If you are FORCED to walk in melee range, try to minimize your exposure to their reach - do not linger for too many turns, for a few unlucky rolls is all it takes for you to meet your doom!

What if I accidentally spawned some all over the level?

First, you are very unlucky. While the miscast chance may initially be 9%, the risk of a nameless horror answering a miscast is even lower. Second, you should simply skip D:2 and plunge into D:3, returning later once you have the ability to show these tentacled bullies the power of feline might.

How can I minimize my chances of being investigated by the interdimensional kidnapping police?

The Summonings school is not to be messed with. It is strongly advised that you never try to cast a spell with a failure rate higher than 10%, as the consequences may be disastrous. Only violate this rule in desperate emergencies. Hounds should be safe to be called upon as soon as you unlock them, but later spells may require more training before you should even consider trying them out - even in an open, clear space. Only the truly overpowered Dragon's Call spell, which you may get much later on, is worthy of risking a cosmic amber alert.

How can I possibly lose with such loyal followers?

Orc priests, my noble feline acolyte. These green-robed menaces have the ability to inflict undodgeable, instant and two-shotting damage from full LOS range. Right now, no amount of summons could protect you from their devotion to the god of the Orcs. If you see one - or, Xom have mercy, two or more, do not even attempt to test their mettle. Press “x”, move the cursor towards them, and press “e” to set up an exclusion - this is your way of telling the game “NOPE”. Remember, you are much faster than them. Leave through the nearest up-staircase, and attempt a different portion of the level (or descend to D:3 if the level is truly doomed), leaving these dissenters alive for later. They will suffer the consequences of their insolence in due time.

I have no MP, no friends and I am going to die. What do I do?

First, consider running away, or even running in circles around a dungeon wall, pillar or feature - this should give you back some MP to dial up emergency help. If that is impossible, look at your wands - wands of acid, mindburst and iceblast are particularly efficient, although flame can do in a pinch. If that is not an option, read your scrolls hoping for a Teleport/Blink/Fear, possibly quaff potions to stay alive should you find it, and pray. Remember, once you have found the Scrolls of Identification (often the biggest stack of scrolls), you should be using them as soon as you find them (and it is safe to do so)! Don’t procrastinate!

The Delicate Art of Explosive Incineration (XP Level 4)

You now have an extra life! Such is the privilege of feline supremacy. As a proud member of the most blessed race in existence, death is not the end for you. Still, you should pretend it is - it will help you take better strategical decisions. If you do meet an unfortunate end, stay focused, take a break if you are feeling frustrated, and continue to play carefully as if you hadn’t died. Most Felid runs die around 3 to 9 times in an average 3-rune run, so do not feel too bad. The loss in XP level is also practically insignificant, considering your skills stay intact. Felid lives are meant to be used like rare, powerful consumables, and many Felid 3-rune or even 15-rune wins have 1 or 2 deaths as early as D:3. Press “E” to see how long it will take to get your next life.

Once again, as soon as you find a safe place, immediately add your new friend to your roster - the Guardian Golem. Do not even think about casting it yet! Soon enough, it will be below 10% fail rate, and you may then use it safely. Tweak your skills as follows - turn on Hexes, press “=” to set a skill target, select Hexes, and set it to 5.0. While you're at it, you should also set a target for Spellcasting at 8.0.

Starting from D:3, the Dungeon loves to throw at you fast, high-damage, or sometimes even fast and high damage enemies before you are ready for them. You may therefore encounter water moccasins, ogres, killer bees, zombies and skeletons of dangerous Lair enemies (wyverns are a classic), among a variety of other nasty creatures. However, you will laugh in the face of these pitiful attempts at stopping the march of progress, oneshot them with what is probably the most overpowered level 3 spell in the game, and witness the XP trickle down like cat treats. This is what you were suffering in D:1 for - whereas your average MiFi or DECj would meet a swift end against a swarm of light speed enemies that make your healthbar have more red than green (or sometimes yellow), you will sacrifice unholy amounts of expensive machinery, and will probably make the interdimensional inventor shipping these to you very frustrated.

The Guardian Golem does zero melee damage and only knows how to take hits. Nearby summons may occasionally transmit some of their wounds to the Golem instead, but this is barely noticeable. The real reason you summon a Guardian Golem is to BLOW IT UP.

As a Guardian Golem gets close to death, a red icon may appear in the corner of its sprite, and the message log will mention it is “filled with an inner flame”. Once this happens, do NOT stand in melee range of the Golem. It’s going to EXPLODE, INCINERATE everything adjacent to it (including you, if you are incapable of following basic safety protocols), and leave behind CLOUDS OF BLAZING FLAME to block passage and allow you to leave, rest, and recuperate.

Do NOT stand in melee range of your Guardian Golem. You WILL be oneshotted.

From now on, the plan is as follows:

• Summon a Hound for every single trivial-to-medium difficulty battle. Make use of “t”-“a” to direct focus, and do not hold back until the entire canine demiplane has been sacrificed to mitten-pawed glory.
• Demolish every single high damage or out-of-depth (OOD) enemy by letting them uselessly punch a robotic time bomb over and over until it inevitably burns them to a crisp. Ice beast? Boom. Ogre? Boom. Bullfrog? Boom. Wyvern? Boom. Water moccasin, yak, gnoll sergeant, any Unique creature, ugly thing, scorpion, troll, orc warrior? BOOM. They will not survive, and if they somehow do, you can simply bring out more golems for your foes to commit the same mistake. So much for having “human”-level intelligence - clearly, the humanoids are hopeless, dull-witted morons before feline genius.

Try to abuse the 1-tile hallways described earlier in Battle Tactics 101! This guarantees your foes will not attempt to circumvent your units to instead give you a very uncomfortable petting session. You are extremely frail, and lingering in melee range of anything that isn’t a basic orc or a D:1 creature is bound to result in your doom. Constantly use your turns to reposition, ensure you are always behind your summons, and step away from active battles until they are at the edge of LOS. If your summons lose, you will be the next target on the list, and you will NOT survive should you stand your ground with tooth and claw.

It is advised to not send Golems against low-damage enemies - most of the time, this will cause them to despawn before they can blow up, resulting in MP waste.

Anarcho-Catpitalism (God Choice)

You have only three equipment slots to fulfill Ashenzari’s bondage fantasies, no time to learn the ways of Invocations, and would not benefit from weapon gifts with your lack of opposable thumbs. As the lead of an interdimensional kidnapping startup, you should delegate EVERY task to your staff and never do any work yourself.

Ru is technically quite viable for you, but as you don’t care for employee wellbeing, in-office buddhist yoga sessions are not at the top of your schedule. Plus, you will need both of your paws to play with the Orb of Zot like a ball of yarn.

It is therefore in your advantage to strike a divine partnership with Gozag. Unlike those pesky other deities who consider you their servant, Gozag sees you as an entrepreneur, and will only make its presence known if you wish to form a trading partnership with their divine realm in times of need. Gozag is utterly indifferent to the wellbeing of your employees, and will allow you to maim, manipulate and abuse them as you wish. At this stage of your journey, you should only try to gather some funds for your startup - the only divine ability you should currently consider is Potion Petition, and only in times of absolute emergency. For a modest sum of 400 gold, you will be injected with a wide variety of experimental drugs to replenish your magical reserves, regenerate your flesh, increase your IQ, turn invisible and become hyperactive all at the same time. Side effects may include increased ego, and a desire to TAB your promising run into its doom. Try to not use this, and favour using your array of consumables instead - but if the need arises, it’s there.

I know this guide suggests an eventual conversion to Jiyva, but do not convert to Jiyva this early! You will find yourself with zero scrolls, potions and spells, and will curse the slime keeping your worn-down body alive as you try to send forth quokkas against Orbs of Fire in Zot. Don’t let this happen to you!

If you find altars to Elyvilon or The Shining One before Gozag’s, consider giving them a half hearted prayer, with the devious intent to betray them later once you find that ornate, golden altar you are after! Both of these gods come with significant advantages - the former will occasionally heal your summons, protect you from killing blows, and grant you to ability to heal yourself, or remove poison/petrification/confusion like a free potion of curing. The latter will similarly grant healing and durability to your friends, increase their accuracy through the radiant halo around you telling them where to hit, and also occasionally protect you from death.

Both of these gods are also professionals of anger management and will not become enraged once you give up their crusades and focus on your booming business instead.

Elyvilon and TSO will give you the option to train Invocations. Do not. Learning how to deliver an impactful sermon will be utterly useless when your crowd of disciples is more interested in using its vast array of tentacles and toothed maws to wreck havoc throughout the dungeon.

The sad part of serving the “righteous” forces of demon genocide is that they won’t be amused by seeing you open hellish portals to summon imps from the depths of Gehenna. Call Imp is now a forbidden spell (big deal, it’s mostly useless now anyways). As soon as you identify Scrolls of Amnesia, read one, and remove Call Imp (and also Summon Small Mammal) to free up the spell slots.

Despite popular belief, however, these “good gods” are perfectly fine with you sending Golems to their explosive doom, and burning the fur of nearby Hounds to a crisp as they yelp in agony. Just average honourable and chivalrous things.

Murder and Electrical Engineering (D:3 to Lair)

Between level 6 and 8 (variable depending on your dungeon adventures), the ability to memorize Summon Lightning Spire will be made available to you. This is the big gun, the heavy artillery, and other militarily pleasing expressions. Whereas the Guardian Golem granted the power to slay individual high-level threats, the Lightning Spire welcomes a little bit of ranged combat to the battlefield. This stationary turret has zero chill, and will electrocute anything breathing the same air as you in record time, only stopping once you and your allies are the only thing left standing. However, it occasionally likes to sleep on the job, so make sure to wake it up with more ample usage of “t”-“a”.

To tap into this immense electrical power, open up your skills menu with “m” - notice that your Hexes should be at 5 and disabled, or close to 5, and the only other skill active should be Summonings. Now, turn on Air Magic, and set a target to 10. Remember, do not attempt to cast a Summonings spell above 10% fail rate!

There are two main issues: first, the Spire is highly considerate of your wellbeing (which is nice, for the velvet-pawed deserve utmost comfort) yet also just as compassionate towards your other summons (which is less nice, as they are disposable and unimportant lesser beings). It will therefore not shoot if its piercing, bouncing bolt would cause harm to you or to any of your loyal servants. Strangely, it seems to hold a grudge against the Guardian Golem, and will occasionally zap it anyways, but this is uncommon - most likely, the Golem dimension played an amusing prank on the Spire dimension before you ripped both of them from their home realm to perish in unspeakable agony. Just kidding. They’re constructs. They don’t feel anything.

The second issue is that unlike other units, the Lightning Spire is incapable of moving out of your way or swapping places with you. This is problematic if you cast the spell in a hallway, potentially blocking your escape route.

#####
..S@E
#####

You can’t walk backwards to escape the ogre (E), and the (S)pire won’t do anything, too afraid of daring to disrespect you (@)!

Instead of trying to melee an ogre with 0 Unarmed Combat skill, I propose an alternative - a disciplinary paw-scratch. Hold Ctrl, and move in the direction of your Lightning Spire. This will attack it, and immediately one-shot it no matter what, allowing passage again. An alternative is to recast the spell, though this is risky - it may simply land in an equally unfortunate position.

With all of that said, you should be set for clearing floors until you find the entrance to the Lair. Your faithful trio - Hound, Spire and Golem - can take on pretty much anything. In addition, you may occasionally notice Call Canine Familiar will now send out much more effective Wolves instead of Hounds! This guide will still refer to this unit as a “Hound” for convenience. You should honestly send the entire trio for every battle - they will make quick work of anything the game may attempt to impede your progress with. Remember to also put on any jewellery you may find - Intelligence, Wizardry, and Magical Power are the best rings you could hope for (in that order), and Magic Regeneration, Regeneration and Reflection are the best amulets (also in that order).

The true threats are ranged attackers - centaurs, electric eels, or big packs of orc priests (speaking of, if you left enemies or nameless horrors behind on upper floors, now is the time to come back and dispense a rightful whooping!). Since Spires have zero evasion, they will gladly tank arrows for you (unlike those scumbag canines), so they may be of great use should you face off a centaur - hide behind them, and let the ranged battle unfold. Which will win, wooden sharp sticks, or thousand-volt lightning bolts? Spoiler alert: the latter.

However, keep in mind:

..@..
..S..
.....
.....
...E.

This is not a safe way of hiding. The centaur (E) will still turn you from a cat to a porcupine while the Spire will desperately attempt to dish out damage before you die in an anxiety-inducing Damage Per Turn race. Spawn more summons - if a hound gets in melee range, the centaur will panic and stop shooting. Consider a Scroll of Fog if things get too dire. Of course, the classical melee brute tactic of hiding behind a corner/closing a door and waiting for the centaur to get closer remains efficient here. If you have Tukima's Dance (explained below in the next section), you may use this spell to instantly regress these threats from run-ending doom to the laughable sight of a horseman crying as they gets shot by their own bow over and over.

As for electric eels, they can prove to be quite dangerous. These living death traps are resistant to your Spire, and will three-shot you. To add insult to injury, they’re worth almost no experience - for comparison, a single scorpion rewards you with about 53% more experience than one eel. Thankfully, there's a trick: a zap from a wand of flame will oneshot or twoshot them, due to the steam clouds this technique will spawn. If flame is unavailable, iceblast and mindburst will make short work of them.

If you’re unlucky enough to encounter a Melial, know that they are practically cyber-augmented orc priests. Just one isn’t that bad, but they often hang out with their friends, and you do NOT want to be the centre of attention of bee-witch gossip. Eating a quadruple smite in one turn can happen, and it will kill you. Potions of Invisibility work, and so do Scrolls of Fog - have them be zapped one at a time by your spire before they notice your presence, and they should fall relatively quickly. Otherwise, pushing a Golem in their faces may make them lose turns using less of their celestial magic, and more of their venomous stingers.

Once the Lightning Spire is below 5% failure rate, turn on Fighting and Dodging in your skills menu. Set a target to 12 for both of them. Do not turn them off until they have reached this level, no matter what. If you found yourself running out of MP in the Dungeon a lot, you can get a little bit more Spellcasting, but not too much. Level 10 is plenty for this stage of the game.

For the rest of the run, don’t ever have rF- or rC- no matter what. Yes, even if it means giving up an Int+10 ring (you can also wear rF+/rC+ to cancel out the rF-/rC- if it’s really good). Vulnerabilities will be your doom: 50% extra damage is plenty to oneshot you before you even realize what has happened.

Interdimensional Recruiting Interview (or how to spend your spell slots).

As you progress through the Dungeon, you may pick up a few books lying around, or perhaps even find a bookshop. Most of them are completely useless to you - Conjurations would only harm your loyal servants in the blast zone, and many are random low level spells meant to carry one through the Dungeon, much less effective than your blessed role of Summoner. However, there are three schools which you should be looking out for: Summonings (duh), Transmutations, and Translocations. Press Ctrl-F to start a search, and try looking up “summ”, “transm”, and “transl”. Also, press “M” (case sensitive), and browse through your spell library for interesting additions. Here is a list of Medium Spells which you should be considering at this stage of the game - you do not have to read all of this, only the paragraphs relevant to the spells you may have discovered or will discover.

---

–Medium Spells–

Summon Mana Viper (LV 5 Hex/Summ): If you thought your current army was powerful, this spell just rockets the Dungeon into easy mode. If you find it at any point before completing the Lair, you should absolutely open your skills, turn on Hexes again, and bump up the target to 10 (press “=” to do so). It’s very fast, deals immense damage (relatively to the Dungeon), and occasionally silences spellcasters. In Lair, its usefulness may be reduced slightly (unless you encounter Fannar, in which case those snakes will be his doom). Still, it’s like an improved version of your Hound, and will be rekindled with usefulness later in the Elven Halls, where magic is abundant. Maximum Summon Capacity: 1.

Summon Forest (LV 5 Transloc/Summ): The supreme destroyer of the Lair, and still useful even in the depths of Pandemonium. If you are fortunate enough to find this, turn on Translocations (you have +4!), and set the target to 10. It requires open space to be casted, so this spell is completely unusable in hallways - which the Lair is interestingly very scarce in. Successfully using it results in creating a maze-like formation of tree-walls, which are immune to damage, block Line-Of-Sight, and deal heavy melee damage to nearby foes. Feel free to run around the maze while pursued by an angry pack of animals - they will simply bring about their doom. The main downside: all this offensive power depends on the Dryad at the centre, which has suicidal tendencies and will gladly run into melee range of a Komodo Dragon. If she is slain, the spell will abruptly end. To prevent this, make use of “t”-“r” to remind the Dryad that her life is worth living, and make her fall back to safety. If you can keep her alive long enough, snapvine tentacles will eventually start to spawn, which will utterly decimate anything still alive. They also constrict enemies, making them easier to hit by your other summons! Maximum Summon Capacity: 1.

Summon Cactus Giant (LV 6 Summ): An interesting upgrade over the Guardian Golem. Its role is very similar - stand in hallway, tank hits, eventually destroy the attacker with immense damage. The melee damage of the Cactus Giant is mediocre, but each hit it receives inflicts heavy reflection damage. It’s perfect to use against those pesky hydras, and should be your go-to 1v1 spell against high damage melee targets, just like the role the Guardian Golem once served. It has a great synergy with Summon Forest: while foes take damage bludgeoning their way through the Giant, they take even more punishment from the berserk trees surrounding them! Maximum Summon Capacity: 1.

Summon Ice Beast (LV 4 Ice/Summ): Rather mediocre. Still, if you found nothing else, you may want to consider it - the slowing effect it has on the reptiles and amphibians of the Lair can be useful. If you decide to use this spell, enable Ice Magic, and set it to a target of 5. If you found any of the spells above, however, definitely use those instead. Maximum Summon Capacity: 1.

Blink (LV 2 Transloc): A generally great escape spell. Set Translocations to a skill target of 5, turn it on, and remember to use this spell if you ever find yourself cornered.

Swiftness (LV 3 Air): With your Air Magic Training, this spell should be easily castable! It’s perfect for closing that distance separating you from the upstairs without getting constantly bitten from behind by a black mamba. Still, keep in mind it slows you after it runs out - and you do NOT want to be slowed in a place filled with snakes, hydras and other creatures viewing you as a delicious treat.

Passage of Golubria (LV 4 Transloc): Quite possibly one of the most underrated spells in the entire roster. This is a scroll of blinking with a small margin of error, but it is unparalleled in terms of “get me out of this situation, now”. If the portal spawns a few steps away, simply move towards it - and if it spawns under you, simply press > as you would with a staircase. Do keep in mind that enemies can also use the portals, destroying them in the process, so if you truly are cornered by multiple bullies eager to chomp/impale/incinerate you, consider using Blink instead, and Golubria only once there is little risk of the entry portal spawning on top of the enemy you’re trying to distance yourself from. For reliable usage, set Translocations to a skill target of 10, and turn it on.

Inner Flame (LV 3 Fire/Hex): Do you like the Guardian Golem? Do you still think your run is lacking in the “EXPLOSIONS” department despite repeated use of it? This smite-targeted spell afflicts the creature of your choice with the same “kill everything around me when I die” curse the Golem suffers from. The obvious usage here is to cast it on one of the members of a yak pack, kill it in some fashion (bonus coolness points if you use a Golem), and incinerate every single one of its friends. If you’re really eeeevil and sadistic, you can also cast the spell on your own summons, turning them into Golems that can actually do damage. An Inner Flamed-Cactus Giant is quite probably the most impenetrable rampart you could ever hope for at this stage. If this sounds fun, enable Fire Magic, and set it to a target of 5.

Leda's Liquefaction (LV 4 Hex/Earth): In brief: this is a flat +25% chance for all melee attacks (with some odd exceptions, such as flying or insubstantial enemies) except your own to miss. BuT… BuT iT sLoWs mE!11! You could not care less, for everything else in the radius is even more slowed. The only dangerous parts of this spell are getting peppered by arrows/spells from a foe outside the range of the spell, or still being attacked when the liquid reaches the one-tile radius when it only affects you and no one else. Vehumet-devouts and blaster-casters will be quick to dismiss this spell as a sacrifice they are not ready to make, but your high EV in ADDITION to +25% chance for any melee attack (again, except flying/insubstantial nasties) to miss will generate a feeling of invulnerability. This is invaluable in the Vaults, the Depths, and Zot. Mix this with Summon Forest to create a muddy swamp: slower steps means more time to get slapped by branches and roots!

Anguish (LV 4 Hex/Necro): You may have noticed that there are a lot of things in the Dungeon that are trying to kill you. This is beyond comprehension, for you and me both know no intelligent creature would ever dare disturb the hallowed quadrupedal march of fuzzy majesty. Through the use of this simple spell, which you should invest into with level 5 Necromancy and level 8 Hexes, this travesty will end. Successfully using it will place a terrible curse on ALL enemies who failed their saving throw and had their Willpower overpowered. From now on, all damage they inflict will cause them to shrivel up in soul-devouring anguish, reflecting an equal amount of damage back onto them. Normally, this spell will be reserved for the masochistic and vulgar "hybrid" casters who want to jump and the fray and kill the opposition by literally just standing there, but you musn't resort to such painful strategies. You have a limitless supply of minions ready to be bashed instead. With the help of Anguish, even a single quokka becomes a monstrous force as your foes are consumed by horrible guilt as they reminisce their senseless murder of innocent fuzzy animals! This works especially well with summons that are meant to be hit, mainly Guardian Golem and Cactus Giant.

Tukima's Dance (LV 3 Hex): If you were to ask me what is the unique I hate the most in ALL of DCSS, it would be Vashnia. If I was prompted to assemble a list of all the unpleasant things I want to do to Vashnia, it would contain more words than this entire guide. At the top of said list, you would find "read a scroll of Vulnerability, then cast Tukima's Dance". You see, crossbow, sling and bow users are the kryptonite to a Felid, as they disrupt the entire strategy of "sacrificing your friends to not take any damage". If you've played a few runs of FeSu, you've probably come to hate ranged enemies with a burning passion. This is where Tukima's comes in: it will disarm centaurs, centaur warriors, orcs with crossbows and sling-wielding nasties like Joesph, rendering them helpless as your army converges towards them (said army now including their own weapon animated with murderous intent). Later in the game, enemies will start to earn massive amounts of Willpower, which will make disarming them difficult, but a Scroll of Vulnerability can fix that. If you kill Vashnia with Tukima's in your game, then splat later, you may not have officially won, but in my eyes, you are a truly victorious feline acolyte.

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To make room for all of these great spells, you may have to train some Spellcasting to improve your memory. Simply turn on Spellcasting, and turn it off once you have enough slots to fit in all these great additions. It's strongly recommended to have at least level 10 Spellcasting by the time you enter Orc:1 if you are using non-starter spells. If you still have the pathetic spells Call Imp and Summon Small Mammal, remember that they should be forgotten as soon as possible with Scrolls of Amnesia. Their respective demiplanes will thank you for ceasing your kidnappings.

You may have also discovered some of the following Big Spells, which require a much more significant investment, but may wish to start training for now: Malign Gateway, Summon Horrible Things, Haunt, Summon Hydra, Monstrous Menagerie, or even the fearsome and coveted Dragon's Call. The great news is that all of these spells use Summonings, which you have already been training. Furthermore, the secondary skill they may require will also be second nature to the blessed feline race, which you are a proud member of - +4 for Translocations (Malign Gateway), or 0 for Necromancy (Haunt).

If you have not found Atlas spells (Storm Form and Manifold Assault - covered in the following section), turn on that secondary skill, and set a target to 15 (if it’s Translocations) or 12 (if it’s Necromancy)! In your screen, you should now be training Fighting, Dodging, Summonings, and the secondary skill, if it is needed.

If you have found the two Atlas spells, leave the Big Spells to rot in your library for now. Focus on the Atlas - follow the instructions below.

If you have not found any of these spells, do not worry. The Sacred Trio of Golem, Spire and Hound is perfectly sufficient to clear up the Lair (though you may need to play with care, use a few consumables, and potentially lose a life or two). You will find these awesome spells in due time. If you are afflicted with this magical draught, keep training Fighting and Dodging alongside your Summonings and other relevant skills waiting to reach their target. This survivability will help you get through these hard times.

An Atlas Towards Victory

If you are lucky, you may discover the fearsome, most potent and actually not that rare Inescapable Atlas. The spells it contains are as follows: Blink, Manifold Assault and Storm Form. Combined, the latter two are enough to carry you from the moment they go online (usually right before the S-branches, if you’re following this guide) to all the way down in the depths of Pandemonium (which you don’t even need to go to for a three-rune game). If you do not find the fabled Atlas, the Book of the Sky and the Book of Spatial Translocations will provide you with the spells it contains in a DIY-Atlas strategy. Random artifact spellbooks can also occasionally contain the Atlas’s spells.

If you ever open up your memorization menu (M) and see that you have Storm Form and Manifold Assault available, stop. If you’re currently in Dungeon, Lair or Orc, your Hounds, Golems and Spires are more than enough to get you through these places (as long as they’re all under 5% fail rate - work on that first). If your Starter/Medium spells are reliable, you should start working on studying the Atlas, and do so immediately, at the best of your ability. This means - turn off Summonings, turn on Transmutations and Air Magic, and set a target to 18.0 for both of them..

EVEN if you found the Big Spells from the previous section - ignore those little cantrips! Focus on the Atlas. The only non-Atlas spells you are allowed to train for are the Medium Spells (Summon Forest gets a special mention, as Translocations work towards Manifold Assault too). If those Medium Spells are close to a good success rate, you may finish ensuring these are reliable.

If you find the Atlas in a shop, buy it. If you find the Book of the Sky and the Book of Spatial Translocations, buy them. If at any point you can start studying the Atlas, do so.

You will not regret it. All that matters is surviving until these spells are castable, and then, the Orb of Zot itself will roll towards you from the depths of the dungeon, begging for mercy.

Bonus points will be granted to the brave cats who forgo their safety and dare to equip an artifact amulet with the Harm property, and live out the true meaning of ONESHOT OR BE ONESHOTTED. Stack Slaying bonuses on your jewellery, memorize the Wereblood spell, and prepare for the goriest meat grinder you’ll ever see.

This guide will frequently say “If you are a user of the Atlas, do this”. This advice is focused towards assisting your melee combat, but your summons are not made irrelevant in any way; in fact, you should keep using them all throughout this run. Even if their damage output falls behind due to your negligence, any HP they lose is HP you didn’t have to lose. Just ignore their pleas for mercy.

Employee Tour at the Zoo (The Lair)

If you play your cards right, this shouldn’t be too hard. Summonings builds shine when put against fast, melee-only enemies, and the Lair is filled with those. The Golem (or Giant, if you found it) decimates black mambas, spiny frogs, komodo dragons, polar bears and hydras. The Spire will annihilate packs of yaks, killer bees, wolves, blink frogs, and even death yaks (though those make take a few castings and a bit of kiting, alongside the occasional Golem). Hounds are a general-purpose summon, which should be brought out in unchallenging battles. Cactus Giant and Forest will crush pretty much any Lair enemy, the former being superior for 1v1s, and the latter for big groups. Still, you have MP to spare - in times of need, just use all of it to bring out a good army, and if things go wrong, just run! Unless the enemy is some type of snake, bee or frog, nothing will be able to catch you.

Prioritize wearing an Amulet of Magic Regeneration to replenish your forces quickly - Regeneration is the second best option, Reflection, the third, Acrobat, the fourth, Faith, the fifth (it’s useless…), and Guardian Spirit, the worst possible option (enjoy losing access to all your summons because you took one wrong step). If you somehow find the Amulet of Vitality, congratulations, you have won the game - +15 HP is extremely powerful on a Felid.

As for rings, +6 Intelligence is the best you could ask for. Otherwise, Wizardry helps getting the big spells castable faster, and Magical Power grants an enhanced ability to kidnap more innocents from other dimensions before you find yourself exhausted. Take the former if you’re training for the Big Spells/the Atlas, or the latter if you are not. If you have found none of these, Poison Resistance is always useful, Protection grants a very noticeable increase in your pitiful AC, and Evasion/+6 Dexterity can help mitigate a few big hits. Positive Energy is almost completely useless to you at this time. Rings of Fire and Ice will get you killed by rime drakes and lindwurms, respectively. All other rings are of mediocre quality, and are pretty much interchangeable.

Ensure you are equipped with the most important resistance of all, rHubris! You may be tempted by seeing a yak pack die in 3 turns to lightning bolts to attempt the same experiment with 16 berserk killer bees from that one nasty vault. Resist. Use your movement speed to reach choke points, and line up your opponents for devastating zaps of your Spire. Even decked out with Cactus Giants and Forests, you will not survive going down a staircase, seeing 20 enemies, and refusing to retreat to instead plop down every single one of your spells. Be careful, don’t deal with more than 8 enemies at a time, pick on little groups, and consider escape hatches if every other descent leads into poisonous, sharp-toothed doom.

You may encounter some dangerous uniques in the Lair. Urug, Fannar and Nessos in particular may destroy you before you even realize what just happened. The counter to each one of those is, respectively, Amulet of Reflection for Urug, Ring of Cold Resistance for Fannar, and Wand of Polymorph for Nessos (and potentially Amulet of Reflection). If you possess the counter, use it, and then feel free to test their mettle against your faithful friends, but if you do not have this counter, set an exclusion with “x”-“e” and do not come back until you have cleared Lair:6.

In emergencies, remember you may have the Blink, Passage of Golubria or Swiftness spells! Additionally, most creatures of the Lair will not resist a well placed Scroll of Fear (and will begin rightfully running for their lives away from a small kitty). Scrolls of Teleportation are always useful to get you out of trouble, and Scrolls of Fog may assist you if the threat worrying you is using ranged attacks. Gozag’s Potion Petition may get you the little oomph you need to unroll another fresh batch of summons to clap that 9-headed hydra, but it should be the penultimate option on your “oh no I’m screwed” list. Scrolls of Blinking are extremely powerful, but rare, and should be your last resort before sacrificing a life.

If you happen to find a timed portal to a Volcano, feel free to try it out, but do not hesitate to retreat if it happens to be particularly nasty (here’s a tip: if you see an enemy in there that’s wearing red or has red skin, it’s time to leave). Ice Caves are death traps for a Felid, and you should not even attempt them, EVER. There’s too much burst for very little loot you’ll actually be able to use. Gauntlets’ difficulty vary on the enemies you find inside - if you see a valuable book containing one of the Medium Spells, Big Spells, or even the Atlas, I encourage you to try your luck, but otherwise, it is not worth battling Abyss enemies in a cramped space that will probably not allow you to use Summon Forest.

In Lair:2, it’s time to play some Gozag gacha, with the minor peculiarity that you will be fishing out reality-shattering incantations instead of Japanese waifus. Open your Gozag Gacha Lootbox by pressing “a”, then “Call Merchant”. If you are currently studying the Atlas, prioritize Jewelry shops. If you are not, prioritize Book shops, with the hope of pulling out the Atlas or Big Spells (or even a Medium Spell, if you’ve been unlucky). In any other case, the hierarchy is Books > Jewelry > Scrolls > Potions > General Stores > Armour&Weapons. Only open one lootbox. If you obtain the Atlas or its spells, refer to the relevant section and follow the instructions outlined there.

Once you have fully cleared up Lair, if you were training for one of the level 7 Big Spells, it may start to reach castable range at this point. Summon Horrible Things and Dragon’s Call may still be quite far away, though. If you were a student of the Atlas, Storm Form should be around 50% or less now.

If you were unlucky with spells, your Fighting and Dodging should be plentiful enough to make a big difference in your defences. Refer to the paragraph below to know what to do next. If you were working on a Big Spell, your defence won’t be as developed, but will still have the few levels required to make an impact. Ignore the paragraph below, and keep training Fighting, Dodging, Summonings and your secondary skill, if applicable. If you are studying the Atlas, ignore the paragraph below, and keep buffing up Transmutations and Air Magic alongside Fighting and Dodging (unless the latter two reached their targets of 12).

What to do if you are still stuck with your starter spells: If looting the Lair still did not grant you any interesting spell, open up up to two Gozag Gacha Lootboxes, following the same rules. If the results are still just as disappointing, you will have to hit the Orcish Mines and pray for a good bookshop. In this emergency situation where you are still stuck with your starting spells, you should stop training Summonings (only leaving Fighting and Dodging). Consider your options: do you have Airstrike in your spell library? If yes, set Spellcasting to a target of 12 to increase your magic reserves, and to send out Airstrikes (you should already be trained in Air Magic thanks to the Spire) while you hide behind your wall of allies - this should be sufficient to clear the Orcish Mines. If you do not have Airstrike, you must have accumulated a nice quantity of skill points in Dodging and Fighting. To go hand-in-hand with this, start training some Unarmed Combat, and set a target to 12, as the time to be a weak, scared kitty is now over. If you have found Blade Hands (or blade paws, in your case), start training some Transmutations, too, and set a target to 12.

Tentacle Rampage Inc. (Big Spells)

These may not be castable yet, depending on when you started your training. Still, I believe it’s important to know what kind of interdimensional horrors you’ll soon be bringing into this plane of reality. Once again, I strongly suggest not gambling with high fail rate spells - Summonings miscasts remain as dangerous as ever, and Translocations miscasts will prevent all forms of movement for a few turns. You do NOT want to have your paws locked in place while getting slapped by the eldritch tentacles of a Nameless Horror. Read only the paragraphs relevant to your current kit, if you so desire. Once again, to make room for all these awesome additions, you will need to train some Spellcasting, and to use Scrolls of Amnesia to remove your obsolete spells.

–Big Spells–

Spells that follow your initial gameplan, adding more special friends to the mix.

Malign Gateway (LV 7 Transloc/Summ): A spectacular spell, not so unlike Summon Forest. You will also require some open space (no casting in hallways). If possible, cast Malign Gateway before Summon Forest, if you have both, or the trees obstructing space may prevent you from summoning a Gateway. The Gateway will initially appear quite a distance away from you, so it is best used to initiate a battle, and not as emergency support. After a few turns, a very long tentacle will slowly protrude out, curious to prod at the world around it. Its little taps do immense damage, probably the highest out of every Summonings spell. There are extremely few creatures in the entire game who can 1v1 a Gateway, and they are locked in the depths of Hell and Pandemonium. The downside is that the tentacle remains tethered to its portal, and is quite slow - it is therefore good practice to distract a powerful enemy with lesser summons while squiggly doom slowly unrolls behind their back. The Gateway is immune to Abjuration, so it’s a good way to say “parry this, you filthy casual” after your entire army has been unsummoned. There is only one little twist - the tentacle becomes hostile to you once the spell ends. This is sudden and unpredictable, so do NOT stand in melee range of your Gateway, EVER. You WILL be oneshotted. Finally, if you try to enter the portal at the base of the tentacle, the game will print out a very scary confirmation prompt. Accepting it will only deal laughable amounts of damage and blink you away, which can be situationally useful. Maximum Summon Capacity: 1.

Summon Hydra (LV 7 Summ): It’s a normal speed unit that does big damage. What more can I say? Nothing special here, it’s simply the next tier above chaff that won’t cut it anymore like Ice Beasts or Hounds. Stacking spell power grants more heads to your hydras, increasing their damage output. Unlike most Summoning spells, you can have two at a time, and they are extremely effective against enemies wielding bladed weapons for the same reason that may have caused the unfortunate end of one of your previous, inferior non-feline characters in the Lair. They can pull their weight against groups, as once some of their heads have slain an enemy, the heads that have not attacked yet will direct the damage to the next target in a single turn. However, their summon duration is short, making this spell the worst in the Level 7 roster, in my opinion. Still, “worst” is a big word - toothed maws are always effective no matter what. If that’s the only thing you have, use it. Maximum Summon Capacity: 2.

Monstrous Menagerie (LV 7 Summ): The upgrade to the Lightning Spire, if you will - all creatures summoned by this spell dispense damaging ranged attacks, in addition to being reasonably talented at melee combat. Manticores and Lindwurms are decent soldiers, and at the very least add their bodies to the pile of allies separating you from doom. At high spell power, you may occasionally see a Sphinx, with immense debuffing power to support your other friends. This remains semi-rare, even at level 27 Summonings, so this spell is passable compared to the other additions to your roster. Still, it remains worthy of its level 7 title, and should be considered if you have spell slots to spare. Maximum Summon Capacity: 2.

Haunt (LV 7 Summ/Necro): The “this must die, now” spell - it lets you point and click any enemy on the screen, and begin amassing deadly shadows around it. These undead special forces have a great sense of punctuality, and will immediately be spawned next to the single target you wish to annihilate by the cold caress of the grave. Their damage output is acceptable, but the affected victim will be effectively paralyzed by the swarm, forced to struggle tooth and nail every turn, in addition to becoming slowed by the hits of wraiths - all these summons are laser focused on their objective and will disregard anyone else. Once the horde has finished its grim work, it will have a few turns to get a few hits in to other enemies they were previously ignoring, before fading out of reality shortly after. Maximum Summon Capacity: 8.

Summon Horrible Things (LV 8 Summ): THE meatshield spell. The damage on this is not especially splendid, though tentacled monstrosities can dish out interesting amounts of rib-crushing damage with their constriction ability. However, the real reason you cast this spell is to surround yourself in tanky units that will give you big warm hugs with their mucus-coated appendages. The summoning cap on this is 8, which is just enough to surround your frail and vulnerable body entirely. You may have to cast it twice to ensure you are fully protected, and recast it as the battle progresses once your cuddle-hole starts getting pierced by the barrage of conjurations and sword-slicing. It has a small chance of draining away one point of intelligence on every cast, but it is quickly regained by accumulating a little bit of experience, and is mostly only for thematic effect. Maximum Summon Capacity: 8.

Dragon's Call (LV 9 Summ): The big one, the apex of everything you’ve been working towards, the motherload, to cut it short - a game-winner. Here’s a complete list of things in a three rune game who can survive taking a bath in dragons: - and that’s it. This is a pure offense spell, as it spawns units adjacent to enemies, getting them in the fight right away. Despite the advertised 9 MP cost, the actual cost is much higher - for every dragon summoned, 2 to 3 extra MP will be consumed. This continues until either the spell ends, or you run out of MP - which is one of the major reasons of wearing an Amulet of Magic Regeneration, as the constant supply will allow you to endlessly keep pumping out residents of the draconic demiplane. If you go to the extended endgame with this build, you will find yourself using pretty much only this spell and Summon Horrible Things, in conjunction with high power Transmutations, and the occasional Malign Gateway for assistance. You will probably only get this in castable range in your second S-branch, or even in Vaults, but once it is online, it is hard to lose the game. Sadly, this spell is very rare to find. Maximum Summon Capacity: As long as the spell lasts, and as long as you have MP - it’s not rare to have 10 dragons at the end.

–Atlas Spells–

Spells that let you get in the fray and battle alongside your summons for even superior damage.

Storm Form (LV 7 Transmut/Air): A hypermobile, cleaving, electricity branded and highly evasive powerhouse to dish out immense damage while dodging everything that comes your way - arrows, javelins, deadly elemental bolts, the responsibilities you’re neglecting by playing DCSS - almost nothing will get through! The addition of hits that land can eventually hurt, but that is exactly why you’re using summons! The big synergy here is that the Blinkbolt free ability granted by this spell lets you teleport to any creature, friendly or hostile. This means that you can plop down a massive swarm of summons, lead the charge in heroic battle, then simply blink back to the backlines once you’re hurt, brutally electrocuting one of your loyal employees in the process (they won’t mind, they are so subdued and zealous at the thought of serving a feline overlord that they will remain as obedient as ever). Then, it’s simply a matter of regenerating behind your army, until you’re ready to attempt another electrical rampage. Please do not attempt this strategy with your Malign Gateway, though. It’s not as… docile as the rest. Storm Form has immense scaling with spellpower, unlike the two other Forms below - you will want to stack as much Intelligence, Transmutations skill and Air Magic skill should you decide to use it. Blinkbolt is a wonderful strategic tool - effectively behaving like Dithmenos’s Shadow Step, but completely free. Use it to escape, use it to engage, use it as much as you can! If you wish, take note of the letter that appears besides the Blinkbolt in the “a” menu. Let’s say it’s “f”. Press Ctrl-D to set a macro, map one to the key of your choosing (I like Space), and write “af”, replacing the “f” with the letter shown in your game. You may now press Space (or the key you mapped it to) to instantly Blinkbolt! This Blinkbolt ability still works on electricity resistant creatures, by the way - while the game may not auto-target them, moving the cursor towards them will still allow you to blink, just without the damage. Oh, and finally, remember that, sadly enough, your Felid speed is removed in Storm Form, reducing you to normal movement delay.

Manifold Assault (LV 5 Transloc): Not a Transmutation, but… A game-winner if you get this alongside Storm Form, and still effective with the lesser Statue and Dragon Forms described below in “Replacement Spells”. The unfortunately abbreviated Man Ass allows you to melee attack behind your allies. If you’ve played classic melee builds, it’s kind of like using a polearm, except your spear is 3 metres long, cuts spacetime to hit 4 targets at once, and trivializes any challenge the game could ever throw at you. A character with decent Unarmed Combat skill (>10), in either Storm or Dragon Form, who spams Manifold Assault until their mana bar is emptied is pretty much guaranteed to clear the screen unless it was truly crowded. Quiver Manifold Assault with “Q”, and press “p” to unleash the power. Forget o-tab; this is o-p town now, and it really is OP.

–Support Spells–

Spells that may be worthwhile additions to your kit as useful miscellaneous tools.

Silence (LV 5 Hex/Air): A very situational spell that can kill you if you aren’t careful with it, as it disables all your spells too. Demons draw their power from the depths of the nether realm and not arcane might, so this is ineffective against them. However, nasty mages (especially any flavour of lich, mummy, draconian or elf) will be left in a state of “I have no mouth and I must scream” as they are forced to battle your tentacle swarms with their puny arms instead of their annihilating conjurations. Remember to cast Silence only after you’ve dispatched all your forces, and should you mess up, quaffing a potion of cancellation will stop your Silence early! To check if an enemy is vulnerable to Silence, simply inspect them - and this is important, for an entity capable of magic will not necessarily be neutralized by shushing them. Orbs of Fire are a good (and terrifying) example, as they use pure DCSS developer sadism instead of sound to fuel their devastating spells.

Dispersal (LV 6 Transloc): Have you ever gotten repeatedly slapped by a turbo speed boosted melee dude sticking to you no matter how many speed-enhancing drugs you pumped into your bloodstream? I have! Dispersal is the ultimate answer to situations such as this. It simply removes every monster in a two tile radius of you, either shooting them elsewhere across the map, or occasionally simply placing them a short distance away, depending on their Willpower. Crowded staircases and nasty ambush welcoming parties are the best moments to use Dispersal, just remember you have it, unlike me!

Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling (LV 8 Air): A very boring spell that literally does infinite damage. It will oneshot anything, from a slug to Antaneus, Lord of Cocytus. The twist is that it will only hit the enemy closest to you at the end of the spell, so this is completely hopeless to use against summoners of any kind, who will make you waste your charge on their minions. You must wait with “.” for a few turns to complete casting this spell. For any other character, this is often a death sentence, but as a summoner, you can simply hide behind a wall keeping up steady damage output while you’re getting the big finisher ready. Use it against the super-nasties of the game, like Orbs of Fire or dangerous uniques.

Yara's Violent Unravelling (LV 5 Tmut/Hex): It’s like Lee’s Rapid Deconstruction, but for magic instead of rock. On the tin, this would seem quite useless for a non-Hexes specialist… However, do not be fooled: this is an excellent tool to have on ANY character capable of magic. An immense amount of DCSS enemies rely on self-buffing to destroy you (haste and might are especially common), and this simple smite targeted spell lets you point your paw at them and say “Nope.” in addition to doing considerable damage to them and any adjacent friends they may have.. Most of the little status effect icons that appear next to enemies can be used to fuel Yara’s, although this spell is powerless against the wrath of the free market and any buffs your enemies may then receive (should you abandon Gozag, more on that later). Additionally, enemy summons (and your own, for the sadists out there) will ALWAYS be instantly one-shotted by this spell, no matter what, even if they are not currently under a status effect, and then explode in a flurry of radioactive magical energy right onto the creature foolish enough to be messing with interdimensional convoking. YOU are the summoner, and none shall usurp your title.

Wereblood (LV 2 Tmut): For the Atlas users: secret technology taken from the canine headquarters, now made available for all of the cat-kin to enjoy. This spell turns DCSS into an SSS-combo-stacking fighting game, giving you +1 Slaying for every kill while the spell lasts, up to a maximum of 9. Do not be fooled by the low level of this spell - just like Blink, it is always useful from the Dungeon to everything beyond. It can be annoying to cast it before every fight in addition to casting Storm Form, but a macro set by Ctrl-D can help with that. It’s very easy to rake up 9 kills in the later, more foe-infested parts of the game, effectively granting you free damage at the cost of making a lot of noise with your cringe werewolf roleplaying. Who cares, the sounds of battering lightning paws will help silence it.

–Replacement Spells–

Alternatives to Storm Form if you do not manage to find it.

Statue Form (LV 6 Transmut/Earth): Ugh. I’m not the biggest fan of this spell, but I can’t deny its effectiveness. To put it simply, this is a “tank” spell - massively increase defences at the cost of enduring a permanent Slow status. Again, there is a great synergy with summons here - you may be a lethargic, ugly stone figurine, but the tentacles mauling your foes are still very, very lively and fleshy, and are not affected by this slowness. This Form is the definition of “boring, but practical”, and while you should consider it if it comes up in your game, I will be detracting your bonus points should I be asked to rate your performance.

Dragon Form (LV 7 Transmut): Two words: glass cannon. The most important thing to remember while using this spell is that Cold-elemental attacks will utterly annihilate you, unless you have rC++ at least. Otherwise, it’s a massive single-target melee blaster at the cost of getting hit by nearly everything that comes your way. Remember to use your breath weapon, it’s free! In the end, being in this Form is still better than kitty-mode with 3 AC, so consider battling alongside your allies, and retreating once things get dire - Passage of Golubria and Blink aren’t only good for the Lair!

The Interdimensional Police, Redux (Abjuration)

After you have cleared Lair, enemies with their own Summonings spells will become commonplace. Instead of engaging in a nice and friendly Zotémon battle with you, they would much rather cheat and unsummon your entire army with a very nasty ability, Abjuration, which every summoner enemy has a chance of casting even if it isn’t on their spell list. When using “t”-“a”, try to focus summoners first so your friends remain bound to your service a little bit longer. Orc sorcerers will be the first Abjurers you will encounter beyond the basic Nameless Horrors, but there will be many more sources of Abjuration after this. In cases where it gets truly dangerous, try reading a silence scroll, or casting the Silence spell (described above)! They will be forced to let Zotémon critters clash against each other and do nothing but watch! It’s super effective!

Or, if you’re a bit of a jerk, you can use Yara’s Violent Unravelling, and have every little friend the enemy summoner tries to bring out explode in a burst of irradiated gore right on their face. That works too. Abjure THIS, casual.

Pig-People and Pig-Iron (Orcish Mines)

After the Lair, it’s time to head into the Orcish Mines. Clear the Dungeon until D:11 if you haven’t done so already, then delve into the brown-hued staircase. Sometimes, the entrance may be… relatively spicy. Try to not be stuck out in the open, and don’t hesitate to leave the staircase to reposition in such a way that you aren’t surrounded. Summoners are utterly incapable of stairdancing. If you are a student of the Atlas and have your Storm Form at 30% or lower, though, feel free to gamble a few casts on top of the staircase, and then descend once it has succeeded, tabbing through all of the fools gathered for your welcoming party. Watch out, though, for anything marked by a red-danger-square is not to be messed with here. Ettins, orc knights, or even a fearsome orc warlord if you’re truly unlucky may be found as early as Orc:1. All three should go down to repeated zaps of your Spire as you kite them around the open space - but don’t ever let them even breathe on your scruff - orcs are not especially renowned for gentles caresses.

The Orcish Mines is not exactly a verdant natural space, but you can fix that. If you have the spell Summon Forest, it will also wreck havoc here, due to the large open space.

If you see a knight or a warlord with a crossbow, I’m sorry. Whip out your Tukima's Dance if you have it, but if you don't, delve down, don’t let it follow you, and don’t come back.

Orc:2 is a gigantic arena, containing an immense amount of “popcorn” foes, with the occasional truly threatening threat. Orc priests, and their meaner cousins, the orc high priests, are as dangerous as ever. Orc sorcerers aren’t any more pleasant, but you’ll at least be able to laugh off their paralysis due to your feline willpower. It’s preferable to not eat 3 smites or elemental bolts in one turn - direct your minions to focus fire on these walking YASDs with “t”-“a”. There are many possible layouts in Orc:2 - one in particular is peppered with centaurs of all types, and is extremely risky to clear - make ample use of fog scrolls, chokepoints, and corners. A few other layouts will invite the attention of Saint Roka herself, which you should only ever duel when she is alone.

If you started studying the Atlas relatively early, you should be able to cast Storm Form quite often down in Orc:2. Blinkbolt to the sorcerers, priests and high priests with “a” (or your Space macro), but don’t melee the high-tier threats - use the Spire or a Medium Spell instead. Once Storm Form is at 15% fail rate or lower, start training Translocations and Unarmed Combat in conjunction with Transmutations and Air Magic. Set a target of 15 for your Translocations and Unarmed Combat.

If you have one of the Big Spells online, use it, and use it hard. Malign Gateway is especially fun to cast here, considering the vast open space will quickly generate profits for Tentacle Rampage Inc.

If you’re stuck with starter spells, the Spire is still enough to demolish the hordes, with the occasional Golem to send against Wargs, Knights and Warlords.

At the end of Orc:2, you will find 4 lootboxes shops. My personal previous experiences has shown them to be useless most of the time, but with a stroke of luck, you may find an Atlas, a Big Spell, a scroll of acquirement or at least a selection of nice consumables. If you’ve still found nothing and are stuck with starter spells, open up Gozag Gacha Lootboxes until you run dry. Yes, all of them. No mercy for your coin - you want to be at the top of the Gozag Leaderboard, do you not? Crack open your wallet. If you still can’t find anything… I’m sorry, but that’s probably it for you. You’re very unlucky, you know? Keep trying to progress with your brave Spire, Hound and Golem at your side. They will serve you to the death, no matter what. Perhaps fortune will smile on you on the next floor!

Once you have finished clearing the Orcish Mines, carefully clean out the final Dungeon floors, giving particular attention to centaur warriors, yaktaurs, or giants of any types. All of these are massive nuisances - in the case of the former two, a Blinkbolt will let you close the gap. The latter shouldn’t even be messed with at this time - slap a big exclusion (“X”-“e”), and work on the rest of the floor instead.

Lethal Scenery (S-Branches)

If you’re too underpowered, this is where you die. “Underpowered” here is defined as not having any Medium, Big or Atlas spells. Even a Summon Forest will still be trusty enough to do wonders in the Swamp - in fact, it will berserk all off the trees in LOS, effectively mauling anything that’s close to a wall. It will also prevent Spriggan Druids from calling the forest to their aid, as it is already serving you, and slapping their little leafy bodies with the wrath of the entire plant kingdom combined. Definitely make extensive use of Summon Forest in the Swamp, should you possess that spell and have rolled that branch.

If you possess an Atlas with castable Storm Form, this should be easy. Manifold Assault should be getting there, too. Once the Combo™ is online (both Atlas spells), spamming Manifold Assaults while in Storm Form will kill anything - if that doesn’t work, Blinkbolting will finish them off, and if that still doesn’t work, meleeing them to death should fix the problem. Storm Form is immune to poison and petrification (which are the biggest threats of the S-branches). It also has high EV, which is crucial against the javelin rains of the Shoals. Pick off a few targets at a time, nuking them from the edge of LOS with Manifold Assault, don’t get too cocky, and cash in your double-runes.

If you’re still a Summoner at heart, perhaps with a few Big Spells, then this should be slightly harder, but still manageable.

The biggest threats, which you should focus first, are:

• Shoals: Merfolk Javeliners and Impalers (extra spicy damage output, but they cannot see invisible and are fairly squishy), Sphinxes (no interesting abilities to note here, besides their ridiculously high damage output. Don’t wander too far off a stairwell if they’re around! Wear an Amulet of Reflection in the Shoals, if possible.)
• Spider: Ghost Moths (these will drain all of your MP - but you don’t need MP to do damage, as unlike those puny conjurers, your spells aren’t limited to the turn they were cast. Tentacles keep wriggling long after the initial summoning, and lightning keeps crackling long after the initial transformation. Still, a potion of invisibility will stop their MP-draining ability in a pinch.) Culicivora are the healers of the arthropod world, and should be focused first. Otherwise, almost everything is pure melee here, aside from the occasional bolt attacks, which means a sufficiently chonky army will serve you well to keep threats at bay.
• Swamp: Bunyips (A small, bestial juggernaut - they can oneshot you! Make them waste their attack against one of your allies.) Goliath Frogs/Spriggan Riders (Their reach attacks can pierce your wall of summons! Try to keep 2 empty squares between you and them). Swamp Worms (their harpoons can make you collide with your own summons for extra damage! Stand behind your allies so they are pulled instead.)
• Snake: Salamander Mystics (smite targeted attack - they are the new orc priests! Don’t let there be more than one on your screen at a time, and consider equipping rF+ jewelry.) Naga Sharpshooters (ranged enemies are always your bane as a Felid. Cut corners, and don’t let them get too many free shots. These ones have the added power to teleport projectiles on you, so just hiding behind a wall won't be effective. Fight fire with fire - or snakes with snakes - with a Mana Viper, which will disable their spacetime-distorting abilities)

ANY BRANCH: The unique monsters of the S-Branches are ridiculous. Vashnia, Mara and Nikola in particular are all capable of demolishing your run by their simple presence. A Disciple of the Atlas can perhaps annihilate them through their useful tools - a Blinkbolt into Vashnia to close the gap, some well placed Manifold Assaults to destroy Mara’s clones, and the ability to damage Nikola from the edge of LOS. Do NOT Blinkbolt Nikola. You WILL be oneshotted. A Summoner should not even try to battle against Mara - having all your allies turned against you will not be a fun time. Nikola should always be kept at the edge of LOS as you fight - the closer he is, the sooner your doom will arrive.

An extra word about Vashnia: I hate her, I hate her so much, and so will you. Not even summon-walling will save you, she will literally teleport her 40 damage arrows on you like some First Person Shooter hacker. Mana Vipers will disable her spells, making her much more manageable, and the classic centaur tricks of door-closing and corner-waiting are highly effective. An amusing cheese strategy is, as I mentioned much earlier, to read a scroll of Vulnerability to cut through her insane Willpower, then using Tukima's Dance to disarm her and reduce her to uselessness.

Other S-Branch uniques aren’t so terrible, ESPECIALLY if you have Yara’s Violent Unravelling. Asterion in particular falls extremely quickly with this spell in paw. Blow up his executioners in scythe-blade-bursts, and remove his Haste every time he tries to put it back.

To Atlas users: even if Storm Form is at 1%, you should still keep cranking up Transmutations and Air Magic until level 18. That spell requires utmost devotion, and will repay the faithful with immense damage and defence. Many make the mistake of “getting it online”, keeping it at a pathetic 33% spellpower, and then wondering why their hits are like static electricity shocks. Don’t make this mistake. Power up with Intelligence, relevant skills and the Ring of the Mage/Amulet of the Air, if you somehow find those, until every paw-punch hits like a small-scale hydroelectric dam.

In cases of emergencies, remember you have Potion Petition! It is truly an amazing panic button.

Economical Reform (Jiyva)

If you are not studying the Atlas, skip this section. It’s already hard enough surviving as a 3 AC kitty, and you don’t need berserk enemies dropped on your scruff. If you get the Atlas online at some point in the future, come back to this section.

If you press “Ctrl-F”, search “jiyva” and nothing comes up, you will have to make a decision. Yes, there is a guaranteed Jiyva altar at the bottom of the Slime Pits, and while a strong assortment of Blinkbolts, Passages of Golubria and Dispersals can get you to the bottom (I must admit it is very fun to try for this deep dive), there’s a non-zero chance it will just end your run. If you’re up to gamble, I salute your courage, and invite you to read the advice paragraph at the end of this section. If you want to remain on the safe side, keep in mind that your run will lack the core puzzle piece that makes this build good, and that you may experience some tedium later on.

If you are a master of spacetime-bending lightning-fast strikes, and have discovered an altar to the Slime God (most likely in Lair:5 or Lair:6), it is strongly advised to fight back against abusive capitalism and institute anarcho-slimism instead. Just sticking with Gozag is “viable”, but if you want to unlock the true power of the Atlas, I am sorry to say this apotheosis can only be achieved under Jiyva.

It’s often said that abandoning gods is a huge no-no in DCSS, with the rare exception of converting to The Shining One for the extended endgame, at a point where your character is so overpowered that getting drowned under Trog’s trolls and giants isn’t so terrible a prospect. However, Gozag’s wrath is not that bad, which might seem odd considering the long-term benefits one may gain from Gozag Gacha Lootboxes. It will simply distribute either haste, berserk or might to a portion of the next enemies you meet - and also will occasionally make you waste a turn if you try to drink a potion (33% chance). This is not laughable, but it’s not truly terrifying either. If you’re running the Atlas build, you should be able to Manifold into origami boats any berserk private security squads capitalism may throw in your general direction. This wrath will last from Elf:1 to Elf:3, which is very manageable, as archers have a tendency to forget precise marksmanship techniques when roid-raged from divine berserk injections -- and dancing weapons cannot receive status effects. Plus, elves love to self-buff, making Gozag's incitements redundant.

In return, the benefits are extremely significant. Jiyva will grant immense amounts of regeneration in both HP and MP, allowing supreme durability in combat, and the ability to take a few steps back to heal should you take any big hit. Many mutations will be granted upon you, including even more regeneration, increased spellpower on Storm Form (and all other spells), increased HP/MP capacity, and an array of useful resistances. As a Felid, every hit you take is a BIG HIT, resulting in a constant spawn-swarm of free high-end jelly summons.

If this power tempts you, at the cost of gambling the next 3-4 floors, I strongly encourage you to try your luck, even if you’ve never played with Jiyva before! Tread carefully in the Elven Halls, and ensure buffed enemies don’t stay on your screen for too long - nuke them quickly, and from the edge of LOS. Keep in mind your potions may not be relied on 100% of the time, but that is no reason to not try for a quick sip to buff up before a difficult battle. To check how much wrath remains, press, in this order, “?”-“/”-“G”-“G”.

If you decide to convert, first, finish purchasing all interesting items from your Gozag Gacha Lootboxes (they will all be expired and unavailable once you convert), and enter the Slime Pits, which will be completely passive and lack any form of danger whatsoever. Get to Slime:5, and auto-explore a bit to let the slimes at the centre scatter a bit around the arena (the reason for this is to secure the loot in the central vault and ensure it won't be instantly digested once you return with 6* piety). The Slime God has not received the attention of anything sapient in a very long time, and will be so overjoyed to see you your favour will rise extremely quickly once you resume your quest.

Diving the Slime Pits (extremely dangerous, but fun, will pay off significantly should you succeed)

Equip any piece of jewelry that has rCorr on it. Press Ctrl-F and search “rcorr” to see if you missed any. If they don’t exist in your run, but you have potions of resistance (at least 3), you can try your luck. If you have no potions of resistance or rCorr rings, please give up.

Anything that isn’t a solitary slime creature, a quicksilver ooze or something with “eye” in its name will slap hard. Feel free to tab through the little green puddles (cleave-storm-form is very helpful here), but do NOT mess with acid blobs, merged triple-or-higher slime creatures, azure jellies, and rockslimes. If you see one of these alone AND far away, have full HP/MP, and are standing on a stairwell, you can probably Manifold Assault it into a first-grader slime-making experiment. Azure Jellies inflict a ton of cold damage, so it is recommended to swap to an rC+ ring if they start getting uncomfortably close. Eyes of devastation can be painful, but can be blinkbolted to with ease. Minimize the time you spend here - all that matters is diving down to the next downstairs (use Passage of Golubria/Swiftness to hasten your speed), and to do so quickly. Don’t care too much about bad mutations, Jiyva will fix you up once you let the Slime God touch upon your genetics. Use Dispersal to clear the way, or if you get cornered. Remember, a full round of Manifold Assaults can kill one of the more dangerous specimens, but this is very risky as you will be left powerless once you have gotten the kill. Try to clear a small area above the Slime:5 downstairs, as to ensure retreat is possible. Carefully explore Slime:5 towards the centre, either taking on one enemy at a time, and using Manifold Assault to dispose of them from a safe distance -- or, you can leeroy-jenkins-rush the centre with a potion of haste and Passage of Golubria. Once you see the central vault walls, Passage of Golubria your way inside, and use Blinkbolt/scrolls of Blinking to get to the altar (it’s in the absolute centre). If the altar is covered by some angry goop creature refusing to budge, use Dispersal. As soon as you convert, all attacks will cease.

Killing the Royal Jelly will also kill Jiyva and remove all of the god’s altars, so, uh, don’t do that. Unless you changed your mind about your stance on economical politics and think capitalism is great. But let's be fair, you will probably die if you attempt the boss fight this early in the game with the squishiest race in DCSS.

I’ve written some more advice on the Slime Pits in the “The Final Lock” section further below, but it is aimed towards a pure summoner aiming to grasp the rune through brute force, and with the tools to do so. You may read about the enemy types I have outlined there, but do not think you will stand any chance in an extended battle against three or more of the Slime Pits’ denizens.

Knife-Eared Folks and their Floating Knives (Elven Halls)

This area is completely optional, but I encourage you to clear at least the first two floors to acquire bonus experience. There is little to say about the first two floors: enemies here are almost all about ranged attacks, so Manifold Assault reigns supreme. You should equip rF+ at least to deal with the pyromancers, too - unless your rings are too good to swap out. It’s not that important.

Dancing weapons are very sneaky creatures. They tend to blend in with floor items, only differentiable by the little music note icon on their sprites. Some are utterly trivial (+1 trident of holy wrath) while others will be your doom (+9 executioner’s axe of antimagic). Don’t fight too fast, and check the brands and enchantments of what you are faced against. If it has enchantments of +4 or more, or is branded with Flaming, Freezing, Antimagic, Speed or Distortion, it’s a threat. The ABSOLUTE WORST kind that you can encounter is Protection - it makes the weapon nigh untouchable while it 3-shots you - but this protection is only triggered once they score a hit, so take them out from range. Their HP is very low, but their damage output can be ridiculous, sometimes even bordering on 2-shot kill territory. You can go peak in the Hall of Blades (marked by the presence of runed gates) for some extra experience if you want, but it’s a truly treacherous place. You will be tabbing away, taking zero damage, for one second, and be rocketed back to the title screen the next. Pay attention to what you are facing, and things should go smoothly.

In Elf:3, there are a wide variety of professionals with PhDs in kitty-murder. The valedictorians here are:

• Master Archers: Do not let them get free shots. Use Blinkbolt to close the gap, or Summon Horrible Things for effective meatshields. Don’t be misled by your overconfidence - you may be purring in mockery as 5 arrows whiff past you one after the other, then turn into Porcupine Form the next moment as a single shot cuts away 50% of your HP. If they get berserked by Gozag, laugh as they helplessly run at you and deal zero damage.
• Sorcerers & High Priests: Damnation hurts. Being adjacent to them will make them hesitate, as they’re not masochistic enough to blow themselves up. Let’s be honest, though, being adjacent to them probably implies being in close proximity to a whole lot of other individuals, and that’s bad news. Like any natural or undead mage, they are vulnerable to Silence, the Mana Viper, and to space-bending lightning-paws.
• Annihilators: With your high EV, most of the time, they will miss, but when they don’t, ouch. Their worst spell is the Crystal Spear, but it has thankfully limited range, so keep your distance, as opposed to the previous two.
• Blademasters: It’s an elf, but with +99 daggers of kitty-slaying and rocket-boot thrusters. Only a mighty master of the Atlas could hope to rival them in melee combat, and even then, it’s risky. Get them to chew through a wall of summons, or make them eat a few Manifold Assaults, and they should go down fairly easily. They are particularly dangerous if they get berserked from Gozag's wrath, in which case, you should attempt to constantly keep your distance by spamming Passage of Golubria and Dispersal while you weave in an occasional summon or Manifold Assault. Do NOT melee a berserk blademaster.
• Elementalists: Unthreatening on their own, but they will spam so many earth elemental summons the monster list will overflow from your monitor. However, killing them will immediately make all of their army disappear - use Blinkbolt, Haunt or Airstrike to do so. Limit your exposure to their icy clouds.

Archers and Blademasters can be disarmed with Tukima's Dance, but their high Willpower makes this difficult. Consider using a Scroll of Vulnerability if that is your selected approach.

The rest aren’t so bad. Death Mages have unthreatening spells, but they can revive fallen allies, which can suck if that ally happens to be something extremely dangerous. Thankfully, all these bullies are hidden in their big fortress somewhere in Elf:3, and can be dealt with in little groups at a time. Approach the final vault, lure in a few volunteers, dispose of them, rest, and return, until the flood stops. Dashing in, battling all of them at once, and expecting to win is extremely foolish.

If you have Summon Mana Viper, it can have impressive results here! Antimagic-biting an Annihilator to force them to use their puny arms instead of their reality-shattering conjurations is very effective. The Silence spell (or scrolls) have impressive results too, but don’t get yourself in a pinch where you can’t summon anything or cast Storm Form. Remember, a potion of cancellation will remove your own silence!

Unlike the lesser humanoids, though, Banishment is very unlikely to happen to you here.

The Clanging of Steel (Vaults)

You should probably be studying the Atlas by now. If you aren’t, you’re either loaded with so many allies the enemies can’t ever reach you, or, you’re struggling and have somehow managed to make it this far with the fury of the desperate. Perhaps you even have the dreaded Dragon’s Call.

You don’t need the Atlas to win. Dragon’s Call, or an assortment of other Big Spells, can suffice on their own. If you are a “pure” summoner and you see Dragon’s Call’s fail rate is starting to drop, you should probably focus on getting it castable, even if you have just found the Atlas. You can work on that Atlas after Dragon’s Call is in working order (<10%).

Vaults:1-4 should be the easiest moment of your entire run. If you’re using the Atlas build and aren’t under Gozag’s wrath, spamming “o” and “p” with the occasional “tab” should be sufficient to clear everything here with little stress.

Alright, that may be a slight exaggeration on my end. There can be some spicier moments you may encounter. Here’s some quick advice:

• If an Ironbound Frostheart is in view, do NOT stand in a space adjacent to walls.
• If an Ironbound Thunderhulk is in view, try to either be adjacent or one tile away from them. Any further distance will result in easing lightning bolts from the… roof? This doesn’t matter that much for Atlas users, as they’re made out of lightning anyways, but summoners should be careful.
• If an Ironbound Convoker begins channeling their recall (indicated by a little red flag on their icon), try to delete them before they can finish, lest you find yourself the main guest of a surprise party. Blinkbolt is effective to cut time, and summoners can use a well-placed Haunt, or perhaps forget strategy and obliterate through brute force with Dragon’s Call. If you have Yara’s Violent Unravelling, you can, funnily enough, dispel their “recalling” status effect AND have it explode in their face.
• If a Vault Sentinel curses you with a Mark, retreat through the nearest upstairs, and rest until it has vanished. If the stairwell is too far, you can consider fighting through it if half the floor is already cleared. However, if you’ve been marked on a new floor and the stairwell is out of reach (this can happen after a shaft trap), a potion of cancellation will remove the Mark (and your Storm Form; be careful!).

There can be some relatively interesting uniques here, too. They won’t survive paradox-kitty-punches or a rain of dragons/ghosts, but some of them have a lot of close-range burst. In particular, try to keep your distance from Frederick (and his trusty Servitor), Jory, Mennas, Boris and Nikola. Mara is always a threat, but you should be better equipped to handle him here - just retreat if things get out of hand, and your evil twin business competitor is trying to promote their suspiciously familiar startup Pseudopod Annihilation Inc. You can always return later, and everything will have despawned, except Mara himself.

You can also find a timed portal here! Wizard Laboratories are pretty cool. I encourage you to try them - with the exception of Doroklohe’s Tomb and Tukima’s Studio. Should you enter those ones, you should leave immediately - they’re not impossible by any means, but they’re extremely difficult, and it’s not worth risking the run for loot you will probably not be able to wear thanks to your quadrupedal anatomy. A Bazaar is nice, and you should read Magic Mapping to find it - it disappears quickly, and you may find a few spells or some good jewelry to iron out the last flaws in your build.

Do NOT go to the Death Trap Desolation of Salt. That is asking to die. If you hear a “distant wind”, don’t even think about it. Clear the floor normally. It’s best if the gate disappears before you get to it, in order to ensure you don’t get tempted.

This is common knowledge, but, just in case… do NOT go to Vaults:5. Not even a peek.

If you converted to Jiyva earlier, you should have maxed out your piety by Vaults:4. Return to Slime:5, and dash to the centre with Passage of Golubria. Take the most interesting choice bits from the hoard before it all goes churning in jelly cytoplasm.

Blizzards and Brimstone (Depths)

Before entering the Depths, ensure resistances (rF+ and rC+) are in your inventory, if possible. You may even equip them now, if you wish: it’s worth replacing a +6 ring of Dexterity, but it’s not worth replacing a ring of the Won Run (Int +9, rN+++, Wiz). Use judgement.

Press I twice, and look at the spellpower of your various spells. If Storm Form is between 40% and 66%, very good. If it is lower than 40%, it is WEAK and you probably did something wrong (such as not trusting me on my every word). If it is somehow higher, you are a true believer in the Atlas, and you get bonus points from me.

Manifold Assault may not be at 100% power. However, you want it to be, to ensure 4 targets are smitten by fuzzy spark paws on every cast. Turn Translocations back on if you still need to scale up to that glorious triple-digit-power. I can’t say for sure how many extra skill levels you’ll need (that depends on your Intelligence), but check back every so often, turning off Translocations once it hits 100%. For the rest of the run, get yourself some more Fighting, Dodging, Unarmed Combat and Spellcasting.

For pure summoners, spellpower is not that important. All it does is draw out some of the “better” units one can get in each interdimensional kidnapping, such as sphinxes instead of manticores, increase the duration of Dragon’s Call, or allow you to bring in forests that have Amazonian jungle area of effect instead of the puny cucumber gardens you were growing in the Lair. However, the damage output remains mostly the same, so you are better off getting more Fighting, Spellcasting and Dodging once your main spells are castable.

For Atlas users, the Depths are an o-p-tab-fest, similarly to the Vaults. For pure summoners who have Dragon’s Call, it is similarly quite forgiving. If you are neither of those, Malign Gateway, Summon Forest and other Medium/Big Spells can pull their weight here, though you may need to kite some enemies into open spaces, or down into narrow corridors to unleash Forests/Gateways/Horrible Things (for the former), or Cacti/Hydras/Menageries (for the latter).

The real threats here are:

• Deep Troll Earth Mages: Do not stand next to walls. They don’t do that much damage even if you disrespect this once or twice, but completely disregarding this advice is not wise, as if you give them the opportunity, they will play Minecraft with you until you lose a life.
• Giants and Titans: They do massive damage in melee, and they shoot bolts of tremendous punishment. Equip rF+ or rC+, depending on their element, and try to use Manifold Assault/Haunt/Dragon’s Call to dispose of them from a distance. Otherwise, sending the entire squad and staying in the backline works too.
• Spriggans of all types, including the Enchantress: Despite their diminutive size, they either have immense melee damage (berserkers), nigh-impenetrable armour (defenders), or smite-targeted non-negligible damage (air mages). The Enchantress is a unique mistress of Hexes, but with feline willpower, she should not be too dangerous - her gang is what’s really worrying here. All of them aren’t too bad in melee (with the exception of a berserk Berserker), so an Atlas user shouldn’t have too much trouble.
• Liches: They have Crystal Spears and Orb of Destruction, and those aren’t pleasant to be impaled/blown up by. Silence does wonders here, but otherwise, keeping your distance works too, similarly to Deep Elf Annihilators. In a pinch, reading a few bad jokes off a Scroll of Holy Word will have them convulse in disappointment.
• Juggernauts: Quite rare, but extremely dangerous. Fast on their legs (enough to catch up with you), they have enough damage to oneshot you in a single melee attack - however, their attack speed would make Cheibriados pale in envy at their sheer slowness. Get them to waste this precious strike against one of your unfortunate volunteers, then drown them in Manifold Assaults or allies.
• Flayed Ghosts: Panic inducing - they seemingly deal immense smite-targeted damage without you being able to do anything about it, but killing them will instantly heal all of the pain they inflicted. They are priority targets - the longer they stay in your line of sight, the more dangerous they become.
• Golden Dragons: Big, beefy, and with multi-elemental breath weapons. An Atlas user can shred them up in melee, but it’s best to take them on one at a time. If they go berserk (due to a moth of wrath), it’s time to LEAVE.

The Final Lock (Third Rune/Crypts)

If you are a follower of Jiyva and a user of the Atlas, go to the Crypts. Yes, I know you already have three runes, but you need the EXP.

If you are a pure summoner (preferably with Dragon’s Call, Summon Horrible Things and Malign Gateway), go to the Slime Pits.

If you are allied with Gozag and a user of the Atlas, go to the final floor of the Vaults.

The Crypts

You are about to delve down a mausoleum of boundless suffering, agony, abomination and death. Average day.

The portal to this underground amusement park is found somewhere in the Vaults. The spooky ride will begin with a vast assortment of varied undead: most are not dangerous in any way (in fact, the Crypt is pretty much a popcorn factory). However, this is only a trap to lead you to let down your guard when an actual threat does show up.

These are:

• Curse Skulls: They loooove to spam nigh infinite amounts of summons, and to torment you, instantly cutting your HP in half. This cannot directly kill you, but their little gang of friends will be more than happy to finish the job. These bony menaces must die ASAP. Blinkbolt/Haunt/Dragon’s Call are effective at tearing through their armies, but if you are caught off-guard, retreat - their friends can’t travel up or down stairs with you.
• Revenants: You may be able to dodge a speeding bullet bolting towards the tip of your spark-tail, but you cannot dodge is unholy explosion composed of the screams of the damned. Spectral fireballs will hit you 100% of the time, and they will hurt. I'm talking around 40 damage, here, and there's a possibility they will hit you every turn while you are standing in deadly clouds of ghost-dust. Revenants are squishy, so you will truly benefit from nuking them ASAP with Manifold Assault or Blinkbolt, but keep them on your screen with a direct line of fire, and your meows will soon join those haunted wails.
• Silent Spectres: Utterly pitiful in terms of damage output, but will disable all of your magic while in their surroundings. You are fortunately faster than them when out of Storm Form, so you may escape their aura, but if you’re already transformed, Blinkbolt still works while silenced, allowing you to delete them quickly.
• Profane Servitors: These are not that dangerous on their own - they will rush you at mach speed, whap you with their whip, and o-tab you until they fall. If there's just one, you can easily win the 1v1, but when they are mixed in with other enemies, things start to get spicy as they will permanently reduce your accuracy while you stand in their gloomy aura. Thankfully, everything else in this branch is fairly lethargic, so kiting back the Servitor away from the horde (preferably using Passage of Golubria or Blinkbolt) will allow you to test their mettle safely. In a pinch, if those angels of death are sticking to you like leeches, Dispersal will scatter them a bit to give you time to reposition.
• Khufu and mummy friends: A run-ender… for the lesser humanoids. You, on the other hand, will be using those bandages as a scratching post. If you just spotted them, Maxwell’s Capacitative Coupling can vaporize them before they can react, but if they start showing you their entomological collection, Yara’s Violent Unravelling will be of great aid in dispelling these pesky arthropod swarms. If you get multi-tormented, retreat with Passage of Golubria (or just walk, if there isn’t much danger - that means, if you can manage to stay above 17 HP, as that is the smiting kill-threshold) until Jiyva repairs you with bountiful regeneration.

Otherwise, with an Atlas build powered by Jiyva, this branch is very unchallenging. There can be occasional visits from the Depths liches on a tour to visit their grandchildren - simply apply the same strategies as you did before, that is, make summons eat the Orbs of Destruction, keep your distance to not get impaled, and consider using Silence.

In Crypt:3, you will find the entrance to the Tomb. DO. NOT. GO. IN. It is the hardest branch in the entire game. It is filled with all kinds of mummies who will be very happy to bash your hubris into the ground with endless torment spam, then cackle as you respawn in the death trap between their walls only to die again and be met with “Welcome, Idiot. Please select your species.”

The Slime Pits

Remember how you utterly demolished the Lair? It’s simple logic, really - even 100 AC cannot compete with the power of friendship. Every turn an enemy spends scratching your loyal servants, they spend it not scratching you. Therefore, pure melee foes are rendered helpless before your genius tactics of “nobody’s wellbeing matters except my own”. Well, the Slime Pits is a melee damage fiesta. Yes, there’s some death rays here and there, or perhaps a few acid cannons to melt your scruff off, but that’s nothing to worry about, I assure you! Just… wear rCorr, please. Or, at the very least, quaff a Potion of Resistance should you encounter an Acid Blob.

Since you don’t have the Atlas on your side, the key here is to not get surrounded. Pretty much everything here that isn’t a floating eyeball hits hard, and hits fast. You won’t last a second. Use Horrible Things to constantly wrap yourself in meatshields, dispose of high-tier threats (acid blobs, mainly, as they have a ranged attack) with Haunt, if you have it, and spam Dragon’s Call as much as you can.

Don’t linger in each floor! There’s no loot to be found here - it’s all gently gurgling inside the serene jellies ruling this place, and most of it has been turned into colourful goo. Don’t be so sad, what would you have done with those +87 gold dragons scales of Absolute Epicness [rF+++, rC+++, Slay+10, Str+20]? Use them as a sleeping blanket? Just keep diving down when you see a staircase.

Here’s some of the more dangerous gooey friends you’ll find here. Despite their squishy and play-dough-like countenances, they pack quite the chemical punch.

• Azure Jelly: A very simple enemy: they have chill-touched pseudopods with unholy damage output, move at the speed of sound and will chop off your health bar into bite-sized cubes. Just like your average DCSS player, they know only two things: moving and melee attacking. It is therefore only right that you grant them the demise an o-tabber deserves - drowned in infinite armies until their hubris finally collapses them into a chilly puddle.
• Quicksilver Ooze: Even faster, and with infinite Willpower (you couldn’t care less about that part, unless you were relying on Anguish as your main damage source). The big twist: letting them caress you will have them flood their slime in every alveoli of your lungs, causing damage over time and silencing you from spellcasting. To avoid unpleasant mental imagery, do not ever let them in melee range - ALWAYS try to be surrounded by allies!
• Shining Eye: They do zero damage, but their gaze will nastily violate basic biological knowledge, and rearrange your muscles to shrink in mass (?), grant you panic-induced illiteracy (??), or even warp your brain in such a way that it will randomly distort spacetime and bring you into the nearest death trap (???). As your feline body is already perfect in every way, any change would be a net downgrade. However, unlike you, your obedient units are not as feline and fluffy, and therefore would greatly benefit from a few minor readjustments. Leave them to be warped into pulsating flesh masses, shielding you from the mutagenic radiation - if the Shining Eye couldn’t fire a Magic Dart at you, you are safe.
• Eye of Devastation & Acid Blob: The latter is effectively a more dangerous version of the former. They are the only ranged damage threats in this entire branch, but they hit hard. Fortunately, they have the IQ of a MiBe, and will gladly waste all of their shots on easily replaceable dragons woven from the strands of the cosmos. As said earlier, Haunt does wonders against them, and so does Dragon’s Call - but if you have neither of those, use “t”-“a” to direct focus towards them first, as they are number one threats.

In Slime:5, you will find the Royal Jelly. Despite its intimidating stature, speed, and damage, it also only knows how to o-tab. Oh, and spawn summons like you when it takes damage. This is the true Zotémon final boss, the Summoner’s War, the test on who can really catch em’ all. The answer to such high firepower, of course, is to whip out more firepower. Try to cast EVERY spell in your library, until the screen is FLOODED with units. Watch the battle unfold. If things start to look dire, it’s time to sorrowfully violate the Elyvilon Convention, and end the war with a weapon of mass destruction: a Scroll of Immolation. As both your forces AND the wobblies will be affected, the result will be a fireworks show that all the Guardian Golems in the world could never hope to match. It is advised to not stand in the blast zone (that means, adjacent to anyone) if you care about not being pulverized instantly. Use Dispersal if you need to build yourself a quick nuclear fallout shelter!

After asserting dominance, you are free to browse the Slime Pits’ treasure. Most of it is constituted of very expensive scratching posts and randart robes to tear to shreds, but you may find a few nice drinks, or some good reading material.

Vaults:5

First, while standing on the door to the entrance of the Vaults, open up your "a"bility menu, and use Bribe Branch, only once.

As you may already know, there is a surprise party waiting for you right as you descend into the Vaults:5 entrance. It would be very impolite to not bring quality liquors and fun games for the whole family. That is why, standing on the Vaults:4 downstairs, you will, in the following order:

• Quaff a potion of brilliance;
• Cast Storm Form;
• Quaff a potion of haste;
• Read a Scroll of Teleportation;
• Go down to receive your surprise.

You’ll only have a few turns at best to celebrate with the Vault Guards at the entrance. You may do a few tests to find out if long swords can conduct electricity into the body of its wielder, but you will be yanked into a completely random location shortly afterwards.

What you see in this moment can vary wildly. It could be a cozy little chamber, or the worst screen of DCSS you have ever seen. In the latter case, remember you have a lot more spacetime distorting-magic stored inside your fluff (where do you even hide all this stuff???). Read another Teleport Scroll, and hope for a better result. With Storm Form, a nice array of support spells (Passage of Golubria and Leda’s Liquefaction are especially useful here!), and potentially Potion Petition, you will surely survive until the magical roulette brings you where you need to be - that is, either a closed room with one or a few 1-tile chokepoints, or the very edge of the map. If you aren’t sure where that “edge” is, a scroll of Magic Mapping will greatly aid you to take in your bearings.

From then on, it’s a matter of taking it slow, passing each denizen of the Vaults through your border inspection booth between the frontiers of Living and Being Dead. All of their papers should be in order to complete their immigration quickly, but there’s a few who might be attempting to replace you in your role of Cat of Life and Death:

• Titans, Golden Dragons, and Giants in general to a lesser degree: Besides the ranged beam and breath attacks, which are most of an annoyance than a threat, meleeing them is a gamble. You will probably dodge everything, but if you don’t, there will be a lot of red on your screen. Manifold Assault is preferable, and if caught in a tight spot, Blinkbolting to a lesser enemy should place the necessary distance for survival.
• Anything that has “lich” in its name: You have been acquainted by grandpa Liches already, but for the true family gathering surprise party that is Vaults:5, the great grandparents have exceptionally joined the occasion. Lesser humanoids would tremble in their boots at the thought of being paralyzed, but your utter self-conviction in the unquestionable superiority of the feline race will grant you enough innate Willpower to escape this terrifying ability in almost every situation. Demon summons are annoying, but nothing a few localized Yara’s Violent Unravelling nukes can’t fix. Crystal Spears, however, are horrible, and are the main reason you should try to not get within 3 tiles of one of these decaying archmages. Silence will render them helpless, but be aware that you may find yourself equally helpless after you have disposed of them if your Storm Form runs out while you are still silenced. A potion of cancellation can fix this!
• Quicksilver Dragons: Quite possibly the meanest bully on this floor. Their breath can knock you out of Storm Form, which will result in disastrous consequences if your tabbing frenzy brings you to use a lot less lightning thunder-claws, and a lot more pillow-paw-pads. Take it one turn at a time when they are in sight, ensuring you transform again should their breath hit you, only to then resume your scheduled rampage of all that breathes (and also of that which doesn’t).

Eventually, the horde’s onslaught will subside. Grasp the Silver Rune, cry a little bit before all these nice artefacts you can’t use, accumulate gold (those coins will make a nice replacement for the gravel in your litter box), and scamper onwards to the final step of your journey.

Worst Disco Ever (Zot)

If you are still with Gozag, stand on top of the Realm of Zot’s entrance, and Bribe Branch with 3000 gold. This will utterly trivialize most of the challenge down here, as you will walk caressed and pampered by the bony and scaly hands of liches and dragons, with the occasional warm tendrils of Orbs of Fire to warm your heart. Check back on your funds every now and then with “^” (then switching to the “Extra” tab). If you start to run low, dump in another 3000! All donations towards the Bring Your Kitten to the Death Trap Foundation are appreciated. Though, try to keep at least 3000 gold on you for Zot:5.

One of the pre-designed vaults for this branch is literally called “player_grinder”. I think that says everything you need to know about this place. Bring rF+ at least if you don’t want to be one-shotted by the fearsome Orbs of Fire. Yes, even if it means swapping out that ring of the Won Run (Int +9, rN+++, Wiz) from earlier. If you ring/amulet is really that good, you can keep it on, swapping to rF+ once you encounter one of these insubstantial bullies. Do not forget.

Zot is unlike everything else in DCSS. Whereas the Lair is animal-themed, the S-branches are water-and-poison-themed, or the Crypt is undead-themed, the Realm of Zot is “I am going to kill you”-themed. It is meant to seize victory from your paws at the very end, and its devious design has been carefully revised over decades of development to create the most tense experience imaginable.

In case you’ve been playing older versions of DCSS, remember that Scrolls of Blinking are now 100% reliable here, and that Passage of Golubria still functions (albeit with slightly reduced accuracy).

Unlike previous branches where I would name a list of Things That Will Kill You, Zot is more about deadly combinations of foes rather than single overpowered enemies. Of course, there are the infamous Orbs of Fire, which are the product of a truly machiavellian developer team. These terrors should be nuked on sight with Maxwell’s Capacitative Coupling, but if that is impossible, Mana Vipers will disable their magic should they manage to hit, and a wall of summons can eat a good amount of fireballs before the blazing barrage has you next on the list. Manifold Assault is actually not that effective; unless there’s a bunch of other enemies on the screen, I don’t recommend spending ALL of your magic on it - this may bring the Orb of Fire down to half-health, and bring you down to zero health in exchange as you are blasted with explosions on every turn. Even if you are an Atlas user, it is strongly recommended that you output chaff for the OOF to work through - a scroll of summoning, or even a freaking quokka from the start of your journey if you’re that desperate. OOF can malmutate you just like the Shining Eyes of the Slime Pits, and getting random teleportation right now is a death sentence - but if you can sacrifice fluff-balls (or tentacles) to the genetic pyre, your cells will be safe.

Then, there’s moths of wrath and their berserk friends. Anything in this game gets 500% scarier when it gets mad, but this is especially true if that “anything” is a Golden Dragon. Do NOT melee a berserk golden dragon, EVER. You WILL die. Use MANIFOLD ASSAULT, and FOLD them into AN ORIGAMI DUCK. (Why am I speaking in caps? Was I bitten by a moth of wrath too?).

There’s also some amusing, normally deadly combinations that you will laugh at before annihilating with extreme prejudice. The first thing that comes to mind are Draconian Shifters, who think it’s really funny to blink all of their friends into adjacent melee-range to you. For a weak Vehumet worshipper (except Vehumet’s most prized avatar, Iskenderun herself, and creator of three very popular Conjuration spells - did you know she was a Felid?), this is a death sentence, but you do not care, for if you have given your all to the Atlas, you possess the ability to delete each and every single one of these discount dragons with a few presses of TAB, proving the supremacy of fluff over scales. This is especially funny with Draconian Scorchers/Stormcallers, respectively, who are very scary at range with their damnation-pelting/upheaval-spamming (respectively), but begin crying all over themselves when adjacent to you, as they have a terrible fear of blowing themselves up with their own spells. Weaklings. Psyche in the Dungeon has no problem blowing herself up with Iceblast if it means another new player rage quits DCSS for good.

Tentacled Monstrosities are also a joke. Have fun watching them trying to constrict their tentacles around your insubstantial body and-

Oh, right, there’s a non-zero possibility you’re still somehow a pure summoner and have never touched the Atlas. In this case, Dispersal will be your saviour, your love, and your most trusted friend. Use it to escape constriction, use it to dispel the draconian-ambush, use it to get berserk golden dragons off your scruff! Remember, it works every time. Unless you miscast. But you’ve been training Translocations, right? Right?

There’s Killer Klowns, too. Despite only wielding clubs, these weapons have obscene levels of enchantment (+12 is not rare) and some of the most annoying brands in the game. The pies they throw have a wide variety of random effects, which I will summarize as follows: “they suck”. Maxwell’s Capacitative Coupling is not wasted here, but they do love to blink around a lot, which makes them very vulnerable to Manifold Assault.

Zot:5 is the ultimate floor of the game. It has a tendency to be very difficult for most characters, but you are not “most characters”. FeSu is very much make-it-or-break-it. Most runs that would have died in Zot:5 have perished much earlier. If you are here now, there’s a very high chance you will succeed, but still, proceed with caution. First, read a scroll of Magic Mapping, and clear out the peripheral area that does not look like five oval chambers connected to each other. You will find there an assortment of creatures you’ve already seen in the rest of Zot - repeat the same strategies, with the exception that you should IMMEDIATELY remove a Mark if it is placed on you. A potion of cancellation works, and climbing back up a staircase to a previously explored levels does as well, and even Yara’s Violent Unravelling on yourself will function if you have high HP and wouldn’t be threatened by this action.

These oval chambers, referred to as the “lungs” of Zot, are extremely dangerous. Zot has a very bad lung infection, and it’s your job to help them with the surgery - however, the parasites responsible for Zot’s illness are not happy to budge. Prepare for Orbs of Fire galore, at least five liches of assorted kinds, a few sprinkles of the worst dragon types here and there, a circus-full of Killer Klowns, and to top it all off, a metric ton of Orb Guardians with fast movement and heavy attacks. Fortunately, 1-tile choke points are guaranteed down here. Proceed slowly, disposing of each threat one by one with Manifold Assault (for those that don’t have the red danger-square) or Maxwell’s Capacitative Coupling (for those that do). If you’re a pure summoner, use Dragon’s Call, Horrible Things and Haunt in absurd amounts. Your true pocket weapon, however, is Malign Gateway - even an Orb of Fire is powerless before the curious tummy-scritches of Cthulu!

Divide and conquer, taking one step back to step forward three. Eventually, the Orb of Zot will appear in all its pinkish-hued glory, ready to be rolled and toyed with like a ball of yarn.

Interdimensional SWAT Team (Orb Run)

Grab the Orb, and either walk into the nearest teleportation trap, or read a scroll of Teleportation. Whichever is faster.

You will now be pursued by Heaven and Hell combined. This matter got a lot more serious than the kidnapping of a few dogs and quokkas. They want kitty blood, and they are fully equipped to draw it.

Fighting is foolish. Make a run for the stairs, with zero regards for your consumables. Use them ALL. Use potions of haste on an empty floor if you have a couple to spare. Blink-scroll to a staircase at full health if something weird just spawned next to you. Sip on your potions of might just because you like the taste. Every single time a Pandemonium Lord appears, inspect them; some are utter pushovers, and some are terrifying angels of death with rocket-boots and a burning desire to squash your hopes as they are about to be materialized. In my personal opinion, the ones that don’t have any spells in their set are always the worst. I fear a lot less the demon who has mastered Bolt of Cold than that which has mastered Fist in Your Face.

Tormentors are particularly nasty. Use Manifold Assault, Haunt, or a Scroll of Fog to remove them from your Line-Of-Sight. Otherwise, eating three torments in a row will easily place you into kill range which an Executioner suddenly appearing in your snout will be happy to claim.

Blinkbolt is especially useful in the Orb Run! If the Pandemonium Lord “lol u die” spawns next to you, blinkbolt to a stray Orb Guardian to escape your whooping into oblivion with 75 damage strikes.

Exploit your wand of Digging, if you have one, to speed things up. To auto-calculate the shortest path, you can press Ctrl-G, and write “D0”. This will automatically bring you towards victory, stopping you as soon as a threat appears.

Eventually, the outside world will finally return to your sight. Feel free to inject all possible potions and toxins you possess into your bloodstream, or try to stack as many status effects as possible before leaving, as is tradition. You did it! Do not forget to try cleansing your bad mutations as you ascend, as it would a shame to be an immortal demigod-cat with a few extra limbs and a cancerous tumour.

When you start your next game, die to a 3-floor shaft into a hornet zombie, be demolished with zero counterplay, and go do something more productive than putting .pngs on a grid close to each other until one of them disappears.