Mega-Zig

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised. Take advice as you see fit, and read at your own risk!

After completing floor 27 of a Ziggurat, the next ziggurat will be harder and packed with more monsters. By maybe the 4th or 5th ziggurat, most levels will be entirely stuffed with a monster on every square, with the difficulty eventually capping out at 13 floors. These ultra-hard Ziggurats are dubbed Mega-Zigs.

Character Creation

For some of the most difficult areas that Dungeon Crawl can offer, and with the massive quanity of floors you'll be doing, it's expected that some very specfic character builds are required to complete them.

God: Gozag

Gozag is the strongest god for megazigging. For one, your gold aura will practically always be at maximum effectiveness due to how much gold you will create. With that much gold, you can constantly petition for potion effects - practically permanent Haste, Brilliance, invisibility, and on demand MP are all incredibly strong perks - and they work in lich form, too.

While Gozag is very strong, Makhleb, Vehumet, and Uskayaw still remain fair choices for doing multiple (if not dozens of) zigs. Makhleb and Vehumet provide very strong HP and MP regen, respectively, while Uskayaw's Solo Time and Pain Bond will constantly activate and crush foes in the ultra-hectic dance floors of a ziggurat.

Race: Demonspawn

Demonspawn, thanks to their exclusive mutations, are simply the best race to start megazigging with. Powered by Death provides extremely powerful regen. Mana Shield converts that regen to MP, in addition to guardian spirit. And both Robust and Augmentation are great standalone 3rd-tier mutations. These specific mutations, and indeed, Demonspawn themselves, aren't necessary. But chances are, that they'll really help if you're trying to complete 1000+ floors.

Meteoran is the next best option. They have high HP, high willpower, and the ability to regenerate both HP and MP by exploring tiles, which in a Zig, results in constant regeneration. While you will have to deal with time limits beforehand, once you have completed your first zig, the Zot clock stops entirely.

But unlike god choice, you have a lot more freedom in choosing a mega-zigging race:

• Djinn can cast spells using their HP, which results in a lot more effective MP. However, they are reliant on a decent spell set, with Necromutation and 1-2 good AoE spells.
• Ghouls have torment immunity while able to use potions, but lack base Intelligence.
• Nagas also have high HP and willpower, along with natural AC and neat bonuses in rPois and see invisible.

Low HP races like Deep Elves and Spriggans are ill advised - high aptitudes or fast speed don't matter once you're a blaster who has maxed out all your skills.

Background

It's best to use a spellcasting background such as Conjurer. You will need to rely mostly on level 8-9 spells in a mega-zig. While background largely does not matter in the endgame, spell casting backgrounds start with more Intelligence -- with Cj starting with the most.

Alternate Items

Item sets mostly don't matter. The most relevant item is the wand of quicksilver, which can let you end Silence from both player ghosts and pan lords (no effect on silent spectres). Arguably the tin of tremorstones is better than the condenser vane.

Spells

In (rough) order: Ignition, Necromutation, Polar Vortex, Shatter, and one of Chain Lightning or Fire Storm, are the essentials. Ignition is an MP efficient spell that explodes in a 3*3 area per monster. Necromutation prevents the ever-nasty effects of torment and mutation from working on you. Polar Vortex is another MP efficient spell that spirals around you, clearing up anything left alive. You'll need another spell for fire-immune monsters, Shatter against Dis monsters, and the other level 9 spell against the rest.

Sublimation of Blood is a great way to get more MP when you aren't forced to be in lichform. Translocations are heavily recommended; Disjunction can help keep you from getting hit too much by enemies with chaos attacks, to reduce the risk of paralysis. The rest are optional - you might want Borgnjor's Revivification, Death's Door, Discord, etc.

Armour and Jewelry

Have as much AC as you can have, without hurting your spell success rates. 40 AC is enough. When possible, wear equipment that increases your spellpower. You want to have 40-50 Int. That's more than the minimum you need to cast your level 9 spells, but you'll spend a lot of time with your Int drained as much as 10 points, so it helps to have extra.

An orb of mayhem is usually the best item in the shield slot, despite its lack of SH. Having ~50% of the monsters attack each other is a better defense than some measly SH. Characters doing their first few zigs may prefer a shield, to make up for a lack of stats; the shield of the Gong is nice, a randart +10 tower shield is better.

Wear jewellery that increases your Int or bolsters your resistances. You want to cover every resistance, including 4 pips of willpower. The amount of loot (thus, artefacts) over many zigs means that you will eventually find amazing gear in every slot. The dreamshard necklace is incredibly useful for covering a single deadly mistake. Once dreamshard is consumed, the amulet of Vitality is a great item for its super-charged regeneration.

Weapons

Hitting things with a weapon is never preferable, even when silenced. Silver javelins are the preferred tool to stop silent spectres and annoying pan lords alike. Nevertheless, you can carry strongest axe you can find (typically Arga or a great randart). If you aren't whacking things anyway, you can hold various stat sticks: randart elemental staves, or the Elemental Staff, depending on the character.

Getting MP

Gozag and Vehumet provide MP regeneration in the form of potions and kills, respectively.

Demonspawn's Mana Shield converts HP regen to MP, in addition to providing some natural MP regen. Combine this with the massive regen provided by Powered by Death, and presto, MP by the boatload. The Powered by Pain mutation also gives them MP when they get hit (an inevitability).

Alternatively, you can use the Crystal ball of Wucad Mu in order to sustain MP for longer. On levels without too many enemies that cast torment, you can drop out of lichform and use Sublimation of Blood; don't try that on mummy levels.

Sample Runs

• Ludicrosity's 172-zig DsIE (0.26, ongoing at time of writing): [1]
• Sergey's Meteoran run (0.29): [2]
• Ge0ff's 27-zig DsCj (0.28): [3]
• gimp' Ogre run (0.27): [4]

Silence

Silence is a very major threat and you need the tools to handle it. You have two essentials: silver javelins, and evocable blink. Javelins (requiring plenty of Throwing skill) allow you to take out silent spectres that are behind hordes of enemies. Evocable blink will help you quickly move out from your position and find silent spectres to kill, as well as letting you move at all while surrounded.

A wand of quicksilver will end the silence spell, but the bolt has to hit the enemy, and it doesn't work on spectres. A condenser vane / tin of tremorstones is very nice to have.

A broad axe is not really required, but it can be nice to have if you don't mind spending a lot of turns doing it. Distortion is good, though Arga (or some +10 broad axe of speed) can be used if you don't want to unwield distortion. Unfortunately, holy wrath is unusable in lichform.

Descending Stairs

Always cast Necromutation before descending stairs. If the next floor is Crypt-themed and you're silenced on entry with Tormentors / Curse toes / Curse skulls / Tzitzimimeh nearby, you'll be glad you did. Gozag worshipers will want to buff up, too: use Potion Petitions until you get Haste, Invisibility, and Brilliance.

Tactics in Troublesome Levels

For the first couple mega-zigs, levels might not be too dangerous. You might not be silenced on entry. Enemies might be asleep, allowing you to pick them off at your leisure with staff of Dispater. However, stay in lichform at all times, because there will be enemies can cast torment. Eventually, though, you're going to run into a crypt level where you are silenced on entry and the screen is packed with enemies.

Tartarus Levels

Tartarus levels are scary due to the quanity of silent spectres, along with plenty of torment and other negative energy threats. Once you hit maximum difficulty, moving on to the next floor is preferable; you can simply get loot on later floors.

If possible, kill enough silent spectres to get a patch where silence doesn't reach, so that you can recast lichform (and also blast away with spells). The thing to fear is your lichform running out while you are still silenced, which will result in getting badly tormented. If you have killed all silent spectres in LOS and you are still silenced, you need to go on the attack. Use javelins. Staying hasted is a good idea because it helps you accomplish more before lichform expires. Only hit things with an axe if they are right next to you and they really need to die (e.g. curse toes). You can waste a lot of time hitting things with axes.

If lichform does run out, consider your options. A potion of lignification, evocables (blink and offensive), wielding and unwielding a distortion weapon until you get banished to the Abyss, or throwing all might help.

Chaos Levels

A chaos level can be identified by the presence of many pandemonium lords. It will also have apocalypse crabs and Killer Klowns. The priority here is to avoid getting hit by chaos attacks, and avoid standing in clouds of chaos, since they can paralyze or petrify you. Continue to use offensive spells, Ignition and Polar Vortex, as usual. Disjunction will also sweep enemies away from you.

Sometimes a panlord will cast Silence, and you'll need to take them out with javelins.

Pan Levels

A pandemonium level can be identified by the presence of demonspawn, with plenty of fiends and other pandemonium denizens. The main danger here is that demonspawn warmongers will sap your magic, leaving your attack capacity greatly diminished. To prevent this, identify and kill warmongers ASAP. Also note that Sap Magic requires an open line of fire and that warmongers can't see invisible, so you're temporarily OK as long as they can't see you or if there are other enemies in the way.

If you do get sapped, you'll only be able to cast only once before you get the -Cast status. Save it for the most important stuff, like recasting Polar Vortex and Necromutation. Your goal is to survive until the Sap wears off. Fog can help, and so can retreating to a safer area, if possible.

If all else fails, you can drop out of lichform and quaff cancellation, which will remove the Sap and -Cast. However, given the number of enemies that cast torment in Pan levels, this might be a mistake.

Ghost Levels

Floors are sometimes dedicated to player ghosts, which are like bulkier pandemonium lords, though are normal speed and most likely not chaotic. This includes the Silence spell.

Mummies

Annoying! As long as you stay in lichform, they aren't going to kill you directly, but you are going to lose a lot of stats. After you've cleared a bunch of them, you might want to just teleport to the other end of the level and exit, because the more of them you kill the more statdrain you will suffer. Also, stay hasted because they will slow you.

Holy Zig

A holy zig level is full of Smiting; the sheer amount of it can be threatening, even with Makhleb. Just power through it with Ignition while hasted. Stay out of lichform (if you aren't a Demonspawn anyway), though make sure you cast Ignition first, so you won't just die to the elementally neutral smite first. A scroll of fog is helpful.

Fire Levels

Fire levels packed with orbs of fire and hellions can sometimes be a challenge if you don't yet have rF+++. Even if you have 300 HP, you can die pretty fast without high fire resistance. As they are immune to Ignition and fairly resistant to Shatter, other attack spells like Ozocubu's Refrigeration will be helpful.

Ghost Moths

Be invisible, or just brute force the floor with Ignition and javelins.

History

Various options were once deemed essential for Ziggurats were removed, but some new ones were added in return. This covers the history of zig-clearing strategies. For history on zig mechanics themselves, see the main Ziggurat page.

• In general, various inventory and quality of life changes have simplified the Ziggurat experience. For example, you no longer need to carry scrolls of identify or scrolls of remove curse as of 0.27, nor food as of 0.26.
• In 0.30, randart staves and orbs were introduced. Staff of Wucad Mu became an orb and now has entirely different mechanics. Scroll of fog now appears in 100% of games again, though tin of tremorstones and condenser vane became mutually exclusive. Evocable blink costs 0 MP. Shield penalties based off Strength rather than species size.
• In 0.29, the alternate items mechanic was introduced, making the scroll of fog no longer in 100% of games, but introducing the wand of quicksilver to end opposing Silence spells. Ozocubu's Refrigeration nerfed when monsters are adjacent to each other. The Abyss gives XP again, but you always enter it at the deepest floor you've been on (or deeper). Scroll of holy word removed. Meteoran introduced, one of the strongest ziggurat species.
• In 0.28, Gozag's gold aura was simplified and capped at 30%. The Abyss no longer gives you experience, meaning it is more difficult to create a (mega)-zig worthy character. Staff of Wucad Mu was made 1.5x as strong (again), and the lifesaving dreamshard necklace was introduced. Sap Magic was changed from -Wiz to -Cast. Orbs of mayhem added, which is arguably the best item in the shield slot.
• In 0.27, Absolute Zero was removed, and the MP-efficient Tornado became the cold themed Polar Vortex. Chain Lightning became the most efficient spell for killing stray monsters. Wucad Mu was made 1.5x as strong, while Makhleb's healing was halved.
• In 0.26, Controlled Blink was removed, leaving the scroll of blinking for escapes. Evocable MP channeling via staff of energy was removed; Wucad Mu's channeling was replaced with a passive MP refund. Nightstalker, of some noteworthiness, was also moved from demonspawn to kobolds.
• In 0.25, Absolute Zero was introduced; a great spell to kill troublesome single foes. But the crystal ball of energy, for slotless MP channeling, was removed. Brilliance now halves MP costs, a much stronger effect for Zig divers.
• Prior to 0.24, javelins had to have the penetration brand, instead of getting it intrinsically. The silver, steel, and penetration brands all merged into silver javelins.
• In 0.20, the Disc of Storms was removed; which was very useful when silenced. However, Ignition was introduced, the perfect crowd control spell that could surpass even Fire Storm.
• In 0.19, wands of healing, hasting, and teleportation were removed; strong ways of getting those three abilities (especially when silenced). The Haste spell was removed, meaning perma-haste was left to Gozag. Sustain abilities was also removed, and most stat drain effects were halved to compensate.
• In 0.18, finishing a ziggurat gives you a figurine of a ziggurat to start the next floor (as opposed to randomly finding portals in the Pandemonium). This also means that you can only "fail" one ziggurat, as the next failure closes the area for good.
• In 0.16, ziggurat difficulty, thus mega-zigs, were introduced. Gozag was also introduced, though was noticeably weaker until a buff in the next version.
• Prior to 0.11, you could use Projected Noise at the bottom of the map, then walk around the top end (or vice-versa).

For a guide based on 0.16, see this revision.