H's Minotaur Fighter Guide

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This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised.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!

So you want to win at Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup for the first time? This guide is for you, covering a great beginner combo: Minotaur Fighter (MiFi). Forget everything else written in the wiki (well, just forget everything that I tell you to), because isn't going to be trivial optimal. But I will aim to guide you through a simple combo with a simple and consistent path to success.

This guide is updated to 0.30 (Jun. 2023). Note that it was originally written for an earlier version of the game (0.28), and there may be an inaccuracy here or there.

I'll assume that you know the very basics of the game. If not, view the Tutorial, whenever ingame or via the wiki. For a very brief description: Use lowercase i to view your items, you'll get a lot of them soon. Use the numpad or click around to move. Move into monsters to attack them, and hopefully you won't die. There's a lot of shortcuts and a lot of things that you may or may not use. Use ? then ? to view all commands. All commands in the game are case sensitive. Also check out the table of contents on the right for each subsection.

Main Menu

The absolute first thing you'll see is the character select screen. This is a Minotaur Fighter guide. So pick Minotaur, then click Fighter. Both should be just about the first options in the class selection screen. Then, pick the War Axe. Finally, if you're playing offline, you can choose your name. I'll cover these choices (except name) in the section below; feel free to skip it if you wanna head right in to the Dungeon. 

Specs

• Minotaur - Minotaurs are 7/10 on the "monstrousness" scale, an ancient classification that's only really surpassed by the Troll and the occasional Demonspawn. And it's true: they are absolutely monstrous at physical combat and absolute dumbasses at magic. Minotaurs have high HP and are incredibly proficient at anything resembling a blunt stick, with the best skill set in the entire game.

Minotaurs might be monstrous, but they aren't **that** special. They don't have the eight arms of an Octopode or undead properties of a Vampire. Their main sticking point is... their horns. So powerful are these horns that you can go through an entire game with just the headbutt (on an older version). More specifically, Minotaurs have a headbutt counterattack; while other species might randomly mutate horns, only Mi can retaliate with them. This chance starts at a bit over 20%, and rises as you get stronger. It is deceptively strong.

Horns prevent the use of certain forms of headgear. This was a massive contention point 10 years ago, where the unfortunate removal of Mountain Dwarf left the helmetless Minotaur in their stead. Minos can still wear Hats, which have a better enchantment pool, anyway. Just beware that if your horns ever grow larger (via mutation), then you won't even have that. That's about it in terms of gimmicks: just horns and stats.

• Fighter - Fighter is a very generic class, most similar to a "Warrior" (or the Valkyrie of NetHack). It's the first class on the menu, and for good reason. Fighters start with a 'good' weapon (we're picking war axe, more on that in a bit), scale mail for armor (easily the heaviest armor within starting kits, but becomes trash not even 10 floors in), and a buckler (actually quite good, but you'll want a heavier shield eventually).

The main selling point really is the buckler. Like all shields, bucklers restrict two-handed weapons, and such a light shield only slightly decreases weapon speed. But SH secretly comprises a large amount of defense. I say secret, but the devs caught on, and nerfed them twice in a row... but shields are still a great choice. Fighter serves to give you a headstart in combat potential, guaranteeing that you won't be stuck in a robe and handaxe for a hot second.

Fighters also start with a potion of might. This single-use item gives an extra 1d10 damage for a fairly long, but limited, time. Use it against tough enemies. Use it early against tough enemies.

• Axes - "I suggest an axe (axes are fun)" - Linley Herzell, quickstart.md.

Axes have the unique ability to cleave: every time you swing, you'll hit every adjacent enemy for 70% damage (and the main target for full damage). Why this has never been touched upon in cleaving's 8 year existence is simply unknown to me. Over the years, there has been a single nerf to a single axe that was reverted in the following update. Perhaps the main reason is that you shouldn't be fighting multiple enemies at once in the first place! A player with full control will fight enemies one at a time, Axe or not. But "control" is the keyword here. There's many times where the game will yoink you straight out of nowhere with a teleport or shaft trap, or a guardian serpent instantly teleports 8 allies right on top of you. Axes are insurance against these types of situations. In short, fighting 4 surrounding enemies at once isn't optimal, but Axes are great when you have to do so.

Notes: Axes are useful against invisible opponents; you can attack with ctrl-direction and still attack pesky unseen horrors. Axes also cut hydra heads, a single enemy which this guide will plan for later.

All these traits make MiFi^Axes quite the meme throughout the DCSS community, only surpassed by MiBe (Minotaur Berserker). The reason we aren't playing MiBe? Because I said so. MiFi also opens up god choice for an easier (if not more powerful) deity to deal with the later potions of the game.

Dungeon:1

Alright, we're actually in the game! Or so you think. Before you even start moving, hit m to access the skill menu. Switch from automatic to manual (if it isn't so already). You can still win the game with automatic skilling, but we can do better. Plus, this won't take much micromanagement.

Fighting, Axes, Armor, and Shields should be the skills trained right now. Keep everything else off.  Press the Axes button again to focus it (shows as * instead of +). Now press = in the skill menu in order to turn on skill target. Select Axes and put a target of 18. Don't touch any of these skills for the rest of the game, don't turn on any skill unless explicitly mentioned otherwise, and you should be golden. This is, again, not the truly optimal way to spread skill XP. But it works - Minotaur strength should easily compensate.

Dungeon:1 (for real)

Alright, you're actually in the game! You'll start in one of many carefully crafted entrance vaults. Which specific room you get is random, but they were all manually created by some person. Take note of any suspiciously structured structures: they might get dangerous later.

Then, you want to start exploring. To optimally explore, don't do it in any ol' direction. Explore a bit, then go back and explore tiles that are closer to your starting position. You don't want to leave unknown territory "behind" on your retreat path, since there could be monsters there. When you're desperately running away, a monster could appear from unknown territory any moment, cut off your retreat, and end your Minotaurish dreams. (This type of exploration is not required to win the game.)

Take items. Potions and Scrolls are your main consumables, and almost always have some use. Conveniently, these items will automatically be picked up if you walk on their tile (signified by the green border around them). Their names (dark blue potion...) are always randomized, but consistent per item type per game. We'll get to Identification in about two floors' worth of writing. Every other item will be covered in the Items and Gear section, about three floors from now.

And fight monsters. But before you do so, make sure to press x to enter examination mode, then press v on the monster in order to examine. If you're playing on Tiles, you can right click the monster instead of using xv. You'll want to make that a habit for any new monster you find, though this guide will point out the many especially scary threats.

Once you're done, don't charge at monsters right away. You'll want to instead wait (with the s or . or numpad-5 keys) for the monster to go to you. This reveals less unexplored territory, which makes it less likely for a then-unrevealed monster to ambush or surround you. If you are especially careful, you should retreat towards known areas, preferably in a hallway, before waiting for the monster.

Notable Threats

• Gnolls are incredibly scary as a first monster, even for a Minotaur. They are also an important lesson on weapons! On the wiki, it says that gnolls deal up to 6 damage... but this doesn't include weapon damage. On the examination screen, you'll see how much damage they do when including their weapon. A spear turns 6 damage per hit into 12 damage - enough to 2-shot an XL 1 Minotaur.

Keep in mind that monsters can use any special weapon properties that the player can. Monsters with axes can cleave, but more importantly, monsters with Polearms (spears, tridents, halberds) *can attack from 2 tiles away*. If you run at a spear gnoll, you can get attacked twice and immediately die. Thankfully, they can no longer spawn with halberds, on D:1 (but can spawn from D:2 onwards).

But notice how I always say up to. Monster damage distribution is not uniform; AC reduces damage, and you can always block or evade an attack. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, in true roguelike fashion, is a game centered about managing luck. While you may be willing to take a 1% risk, taking a 1% risk 100 times should *not* end well for you.

Regardless, gnolls are moderately tough monsters, they can easily take out non-Minotaur players.  If you fight them at XL1, don't be afraid to drink that potion of might after 1 nasty hit. If you're a XL3 MiFi, a lone gnoll should be a fair fight. A note that gnolls on D:1 are using kiddie gloves! We'll get to that on the D:2 overview. And like a lot of threats in the future, gnolls are quite the rare enemy to find on D:1; the chances of actually having to deal with one are quite low.

• Quokkas are another lesson - this time in monster speed. Quokkas are "fast", meaning that they occasionally get 2 rounds for every 1 you have. This means that you can't run away, repositioning is harder. A quokka can deal up to 10 damage per turn (twice reduced by AC). But while they are annoyingly evasive, outside of some pretty bad luck rolls, quokkas aren't especially strong monsters. Assuming you're at full health, they are complete pushovers at XL 3 and still very manageable at XL 1. The little marsupial is probably getting over hyped here, especially considering that we're a MiFi.

A trick with fast enemies is that, when they are two spaces away from you (1 tile gap), start walking away. With normal enemies, you can just wait and they'll use their turn to move, meaning you get the first strike. Fast enemies can double turn, so they can move -> hit if you just stay still. So by walking away, eventually they'll double turn in order to move twice, allowing you to get the first hit again.

• Jackals are fast (actually faster than quokkas, i.e. more likely to double turn) and often come in packs. A mob of jackals isn't a pretty fight, even with your axe. Their speed also makes it harder to get a good position. So if you see even one jackal, let it come to you, instead of you charging straight in. Jackals are brutal for mage type characters, but lone jackals should not be a threat even at XL 1. A pack is easily fought if you can back up into a hallway, so that 4 jackals aren't biting you per turn.

Tactics

Tactics - that is, what you actually do when you encounter monsters - are extremely hard to describe in a text based format. What's said in quickstart.md is all pretty good advice:

• Never fight more than one monster if you can help it. Always back into a corridor so that they must fight you one-on-one.
• Remember to use projectiles before engaging monsters in close combat.
• Rest between encounters. The `s`, `.`, or delete commands make you rest for one turn, while pressing `5` or Shift-and-keypad-5 make you rest for a longer time (you will stop resting when fully healed or if you see a monster).
• Learn when to run away from things you can't handle - this is important! It is often wise to skip a dangerous level. But don't overdo this.

Don't approach melee enemies. If there is a 1-tile gap between you and a (not-fast) monster, wait so that you can get the first strike. As mentioned in the quokka entry, if the monster is fast, then you should be backing up instead. But you shouldn't really approach enemies even from 7 tiles away, at least if they don't have ranged attacks. You simply don't know what's in the darkness of fog - by moving forward, you could be revealing an extremely dangerous monster. It is best to wait and/or throw items at the monsters. The more studious might want to back up into completely known territory before getting a monster close. This also, ideally, will let you back into a hallway and fight enemies one at a time.

For enemies with ranged attacks, you want to hide behind a corner or wall (if possible) so that they have to approach you. Take this example:

..@..
--.--
.|.|.
.|.|.
.|M|.

In a situation like this, where a hallway opens up into a room, the @ symbol (the player) needs to move 2 tiles left or right in order to not be seen. That's "two tiles, aka 1 tile away from the diagonal route" - a rule that I completely made up but should work with most corners. A good portion of ranged monsters (centaurs in particular) won't fire their ranged weapons in melee.

X's mark where you can see in a position (and conversely, where the enemy can see you)

You can visualize line of sight (monsters never attack outside LOS) by using exclusions. Use X to enter map mode, and then e to create an exclusion zone; the exclusions cover every tile that can see the selected tile, so you can see where line of sight is. You can use the exclusion command on the same tile again to clear the exclusions. You can also use X to enter map mode (if you've left it), then ctrl-e to clear all exclusions.

Attacks of opportunity

Attacks of opportunity are a very recent mechanic that you must be aware of, especially in the first few dungeon floors.

A 10-speed ("normal speed") monster cannot usually move and attack in the same turn. But, if you move and there is an adjacent monster next to you, said monster can get a "free", instant attack and then proceed to move. The monster must be as fast or faster than you in order to get a free attack. This makes positioning pre-battle very important. This discourages running in circles forever in order to regenerate health.

If you heard about pillar dancing (running in circles forever in order to regenerate health), then forget about it. For our intents it does not exist. It still exists, but you gotta use summons or play Spriggan to take advantage of it.

Note on Learning

It's difficult to describe tactics, whenever by visual/audio or by text. It might be better to watch other players play DCSS (there are many, many videos around), and imprint their habits by visual example.

This is also the point where I mention autoexplore, pressed with the o key. The entire rest of the guide will assume that autoexplore does not exist because manual exploration is safer. However, in realistic terms, autoexplore saves a lot of time, and 90% of this game really is chaff. The game is nice enough that you can autoexplore and be mostly fine.

Dungeon:2

Dungeon 2 is generally safer than D:1 for one reason: it has upstairs. Three, in fact! The vast majority of floors in DCSS have 3 up- and down- stairs, excluding branch entrances (D:10 -> Lair:1 doesn't count as a stair). Anyways, going up to a cleared floor is a fairly safe and very powerful tool. While it takes 2.5 turns to do, only monsters that are directly adjacent to you can follow you up the stairs. And as descending down an "unknown" stair is fast, you have a one time out against bad spawn RNG.

As an extension of the previous floor's advice, try to explore near staircases; always have a fully explored route to them, visit each 'side' of every unexplored split. It'd be optimal to explore in a circle around each staircase. Don't be afraid to turn around and explore another direction completely, assuming you haven't found any monsters yet. Visiting all three staircases to optimize staircase tile distance is certainly possible. But this isn't risk free - it puts you at danger of encountering some incredibly dangerous monsters, and is also just unnecessary (except for really bad floor layouts).

If you see multiple monsters, you can use staircases to your advantage. When you go through a staircase, only monsters who start adjacent to you will follow you up. So, by going up a staircase with only a few monsters adjacent to you, you can split monsters up. Make sure the above floor is safe. Remember that going through a staircase takes 2.5 turns, which makes this dangerous against powerful monsters. This is called stair dancing.

Do NOT try and drag monsters into a staircase once you are in melee range. Monsters next to you will have a chance to get a free attack on every movement. Instead, drag enemies into staircases before they are adjacent to you.

Also, the rise of staircases now 'allow' us to start the identification minigame! That will be covered in the Identification section below. But first, the notable threats:

Notable Threats

• Adders are beefed up Quokkas, with faster speed, better defenses, a stronger bite, but most notably, the ability to poison you. Poison stacks up really really quickly in this game, and weaker characters soon find themselves with half their health gone just from the poison. A reminder that adders are fast: once they are right next to you, there is no option but to fight. If you see one right as you descend into D:2 for the first time, don't bother, just go back up. In truth, an XL3 or even XL2 Minotaur can probably take one down, but you never want to take a probability in a game like Crawl. And this is because Minotaurs are overpowered and have overpowered horns, not because adders are easy.

If you are forced to fight one of these dudes at a low level, you'll probably want to drink that potion of might very early into the fight. I'm talking when you are poisoned to be below 70%ish HP (shown as yellow damage in the health bar, use % to check exact poison amount). If you still happen to be fighting an adder and are at critical health (<15 HP, not including poison), you should start blindly drinking potions. The most common potion is Curing, followed by Heal Wounds, so drink larger potion stacks first. But by the end of D:2 (XL5), adders should be no threat barring extreme bouts of luck (We sometimes have to take the tiny chance. If we compensated for those, then we'd have no consumables to use).

• Gnolls unsheath their swords(? clubs? halberds.) from this floor onwards. While you can most likely handle one gnoll at this point, four polearm wielding gnolls striking you at once, when you can't even cleave, is not a fun time. Fight them one at a time, and if they have polearms, it'll take more than a simple hallway to deal with them.

What worse is that they (on this floor onwards) can spawn with the incredibly fearsome throwing net. I'm not joking. Nets pin you in place, preventing you from moving or melee attacking, and reduce your EV to near zero until you break or teleport out. It's a risk to run away when a net-wielding gnoll is on screen, though they must actively quiver the net first, and you can xv to check if nets are quivered. Even if you can fight a gnoll pack (you can win the fight at the end of D:2), you will not want to face a big meaty ogre while trapped in a net.

• Run away. They aren't supposed to spawn here. You aren't ready. Regular orcs are fine enough, but multiple orcs might be a signal that a priest is nearby. Go down into D:3 if you have to. You aren't ready. They'll be covered in the next floor's threat list. If you happen to be next to one unscathed, they aren't that bad though? Might and swing away. Good luck getting past the orc horde first. Orc priests are likely to be around other orcs.

• Sigmund is one of the first possible uniques you can encounter (unique monsters, named monsters, guys-with-a-humany-name). While most of the other D:2 uniques (Jessica, Natasha, Robin, Terrence) are alright-ish as a MiFi, Sigmund's 1 damage hit (+13 from scythe, a polearm) really adds up. What's worse is the funny, which is Confusing you over and over so that you get pelted by Throw Flames while unable to do anything meaningful until you die. Do everything I said in the Orc Priest section and more. Unlike priests, Sigmund intentionally spawns this early.

Thankfully, if you see Sigmund on edge of LOS (7 tiles away). you should be able to run safely. Sigmund is a normal speed enemy. Enemies are unable to attack if they are not in your line of sight. So if you retreat a square, a 7 tile Sigmund will now be 8 tiles away, which is out of sight, meaning he needs to spend the turn to move (and not attack). There's no random energy anymore, so this is safe (as long as you don't take a misstep).

Stat Points

On XP level 3 (XL3) and every 6 levels afterwards, you have a choice of stat points. Pick strength. Damage is good, and it helps with armour. There is a lategame risk of intelligence reaching 0 and thus being inflicted by stat zero effects, so start investing into INT at around XL 15, or if you find a -INT item you really want to use.

Identification

Identification is one of the core gameplay elements of NetHack, but here in Stone Soup territory, it is greatly simplified. Recent versions will automatically ID all equipment that you can wear (weapons, armour, rings), meaning the only things you actually need to find are potions and scrolls.

The main way to identify items is to just use them. Both potions and scrolls are identified on use; it doesn't matter if the item actually did anything. They will also be identified if you see a monster use 'em. Monsters can only use a select few items (you wouldn't want a goblin using ligma and becoming a goblin tree). The other way to ID is to use a scroll of identification. But the scroll of identify is not itself identified, meaning blind consumption is required. Finally, certain pre-generated locations may come with pre-identified items; potions of degeneration for an Ossuary, as an example. This isn't reliable in the slightest.

Basically, you're gonna have to 'waste' items sooner or later. In order for your blind-use ID to actually be useful at the moment, try to read/quaff items that you have at least 2 of. This isn't required, but very helpful. It is also convenient, as the two most common potions (curing, heal wounds) and scrolls (identify, teleportation) are very useful items to have. Of these, read scrolls first. But don't do it immediately!

Read scrolls (that you have 2+ of) on the upstairs leading to a cleared floor, when you can't see any enemies, preferably on an unexplored floor.

The upstairs part is essential because of the teleport scroll; it teleports you just about anywhere on the floor, which could end up with you in dangerous situation without the safety of an upstairs. It's also helpful to have a retreat upward for the scroll of noise, which might attract enemies. It is necessary for the above floor to be cleared, as teleporting next to the thing you've skipped an entire floor for isn't fun. The unexplored floor is not super necessary, but gets the most benefit out of the scroll of magic mapping, which becomes more useful from D:4 on. Basically you don't 100% need an unexplored floor until you reach D:4.

In general, reading scrolls over potions is preferred. Many of them grant lasting boosts (brand weapon, enchant armour...), none of them can permanently harm you, and the sheer fact that identify is in fact a scroll makes blind *reading* required. This is in contrast with potions, where only the rare potion of experience gives a permanent boost, the potion of mutation can give semi-permanent changes either way [Note 1], and the potion of degeneration requires XP in order to cure. Some players like to never blind quaff potions, but I will personally tell you to also drink potions that you have >=2 of. There's no stair requirement - just make sure that you are safe before doing so. If you are in a desperate situation, you don't even need that. Potions lean towards powerful temporary effects, and should be blind quaffed in dire need.

Once you have scrolls of identify available to use, use them to identify potions. This is for the same reasons said above; they are more likely to give powerful-but-temporary effects. The scroll of blinking is the only scroll really designed around emergencies that you won't have a ton of (like teleport or fog), so identifying other scrolls isn't as valuable. 

It's also worth noting that some players like save their scrolls to read (either with the above identifying process, or reading every single scroll) on D:4 in hopes of getting magic mapping and finding the Temple fast. The Temple is very likely an important branch because it houses the many gods. But I'm putting this advice as a footnote for a reason, it's best to have items identified ASAP.

Finally, make sure to visit Appendix 1: Potions & Scrolls to see what these items actually do.

* [Note 1] The potion of mutation can give potentially game-ending terrible terrible mutations (teleportitis, berserkitis, no unsafe scrolls). These three mutations far outweigh any possible good mutations you might get (which can actually be good), even though the potion favors good mutations. Thankfully, the likelihood of receiving one of those three mutations on a blind quaff, then the 2nd potion not removing one, is actually kinda low. More importantly, potions of mutation are our only source of curing mutations, so you really shouldn't gamble. If you still have one of the aforementioned badmuts, you might as well restart the game[Note 2].

** [Note 2] Note that the game's still fairly playable, or at least that's what the devs think.

Dungeon:3

Dungeon:3 is a lot like Dungeon:2 in that you have stairs, the dungeon itself is generated similarly, and that there's a bunch of monsters. The same strategies above don't suddenly get worse.

Notable Threats

• Orc priests are still really scary. This is thanks to their AC-ignoring, never missing, 7-17 Smiting attack from anywhere from the screen. Many monsters, like their fellow orc wizard, require a direct line of fire in order to hit you. Priests just need line of sight. While the Smiting attack won't happen every turn, and definitely won't max roll every turn, there's no explicit cooldown for it. You could get smitten multiple times if you try to charge in, or get smitten in the middle of an orc fight. Speaking of orcs: priests tend to spawn with a pack of other orcs. If you see other orcs, start backing up immediately and lure the minions away.

• Orc wizards have the same spellset as Sigmund. However, without the scythe, power, or durability, they are much easier to manage. It's best if you have a potion of curing on hand and identified before fighting one. It's kinda risky to fight hand to hand, but it's riskier to run away unless you are already 7 tiles away. Like priests, they are also often found with other orcs.

• Most uniques are extra powerful "boss" monsters. There is way too many to list, and most of them are designed to be challenging for your level. But you could always right click or x v to see what they do. Grinder is easily the scariest due to the Paralyse spell, which reduces EV and SH to zero  and makes you unable to do anything. This lasts for up to 5 turns (7 in earlier verisons). Most uniques from this point forward are going to be omitted for brevity's sake.

Items and Gear

We (you) are a Minotaur Fighter, an axe wielding, shield using, heavy armor dude. There's really no need to stray away from that. Wyrmbane? Garbage. The big ass Frostbite axe? It's probably viable, but keep your shield on. Arga? That's the best one-handed axe in the entire game. In all actuality, all these items are really good - and really unlikely to be found - but they are not necessary. (On other characters, Wyrmbane is a godsend!)

The technically optimal thing to do would be switch to Wyrmbane. But describing so many cases would be way too long to note, let alone the fact that many decisions are arbitrary in the first place. The only objective thing, if that, is that a luckless Minotaur can win with the same build, so just stick to the above.

Equipment

The broad axe is the only one-handed axe type better than your starting war axe. All brands (hand axe of venom, war axe of freezing...) except distortion and chaos are better than none; brands are better than an unbranded-but-enchanted weapon. Pick up any flaming axes you find; flaming 2-handers are the one exception to the "wear a shield!" rule, but not yet.

Of hand axes, electrocution is the only non-flaming brand worth using in the long-term, though a really high enchanted one (+4, or +0 with any competent brand) is better than a plain war axe. It's safe to swap to broad axe when you have at least 10 Axes skill. Do not use enchant weapon/brand weapon scrolls on a war axe unless you are forced to (blind reading these scrolls forces you to, so you might as well). You shouldn't need it.

Wear the heaviest piece of armour you can. Minotaurs have enough Strength to wear anything comfortably. Plate armour is the heaviest of the "common" armours and are sometimes worn by monsters. Higher AC is better (you can check the inventory for AC change), though avoid the ponderousness brand. Slow movement is not worth it, even with attacks of opportunity. Every piece of armour that is not body armour has absolutely no cost to wearing them: hats, gloves, cloaks, and boots are free AC. If you happen to get enchant armour scrolls, I would enchant in the order of boots -> gloves -> hats -> cloaks -> body, (this is in order of least-likely-to-be-replaced). Hats of willpower and cloaks of any resistance are pretty much best in slot, so don't be afraid to enchant those first. Shields are more arbitrary. I personally like to upgrade to kite shield as soon as I see one, and swap to tower shield at 15+ skill.

Please note that curses, i.e. items that stick to you, have been removed. Equip items as much as you want, the game will warn you about the few things that are punishing to take off.

Keep in mind that weapons and rings take 0.5 turns to take off, but armour and amulets take 5 turns to take off.

Artefacts

Artefacts (artifacts, which the game accepts as a spelling) are in white text. Cyan text artefacts are special artefacts with unique, predetermined properties. They aren't always better, but they are special.

*Slow and *Rage are always a no go. Never have a vulnerability to an element, though resistances from another item will cancel it out. Weapons that are not axes, and non-broad axes past like Lair/Orc are not worth considering. Body armour / weapons should have a decent +X too; equal or better than your current non-artefact gear. Keep stuff for resistances you might need, but take the things with the most power / best weapon brand otherwise. Armour with resistances and no terrible downsides (- Str/ - Slay, element vulnerability, *Rage...). are good. You don't need artefacts to win.

Also, don't take the obsidian axe. It's not my fault if you lose!

Usables

But there's more items than equipment slots! Let's go over a couple of great items that you can encounter. If you've missed an item anywhere in the dungeon, you can use ctrl-f to search for them. Potions and scrolls are in Appendix 1: Potions & Scrolls, as a reminder.

• Throwable items (stones, boomerangs, javelins, in ascending order of strength) are easily obtainable ranged attacks. We're going to invest in throwing later (not yet!), but throwing stones at 0 skill is still better than nothing. Boomerangs and onwards are quite powerful items. Javelins are particularly busted because they have penetration, and can pierce multiple enemies per throw. Axes might hit 8 enemies at once but you are also taking 8 monster's worth of damage. Javelins in a hallway can hit 7 enemies while you take only 1 monster's worth of damage. This is ridiculously strong, but you are limited in the amount of javelins you have.

Keep in mind that throwing the two larger weapons unskilled takes over a single turn to fire, so don't throw if an enemy is 1 tile away. Pick up all throwables you might find. Except for stones, all throwables persist when thrown, but have a chance to mulch (disappear) for ever throw.

• Poison darts are fairly powerful throwables, assuming the enemy is not poison resistant. Being as accurate and more powerful than a stone, you might as well drop stones if you have a fair supply of darts. Poison darts remain useful up until Lair, and still useful against poison vulnerable enemies (like bees and spiders).

• Curare darts are an order of magnitude stronger than poison. That's because of the Slow, reducing all action speed by 33%. You'll take 33% less damage from a slowed enemy, plus you can actually run away from them. In addition to slow, Curare deals a good chunk of damage at this stage of the game. Like normal poison darts, poison resistant enemies are immune to all effects (watch out for enemies with rPois armour!).

Even late game, many uniques and nasty threats are not resistant to poison (thus, vulnerable to curare_. Unlike the other special darts (atropa, datura), curare will always apply its effect, as long as it hits and the target isn't rPois.

• Gnolls had them, but now you can use the power of throwing nets to your advantage. A netted enemy can't move from their tile, will often use their turn to break the next, have reduced EV, and are vulnerable to stabs (slightly more damage for you). They are actually quite rare, but very powerful and quite accurate. Keep at least 1-2 nets for emergencies and for a specific strategy much later in the game.

All of the above items are still throwables. But there's defintely other items available:

• Wands are quite strong with quite a few charges. For my non MiFis I like to train a small amount of Evocations for them. But for the purposes of this guide, just don't train Evo. Wands are fairly powerful even at 0 skill. Of these: wands of flame are useful against electric eels, iceblast and roots will always hit, status inflicting wands will solve any situation this early (if their willpower check succeeds), and acid wands (or quicksilver or light) have raw power and inflict a strong debuff.

Yeah, that's the other consumable left. How about jewellery?

• Amulets are all pretty much beneficial with no downsides, except for faith. The order for me is: regeneration > reflection > faith > guardian spirit > acrobat. Regeneration and Reflection are both great combat amulets. Faith punishes you if you take if off but increases godly favor while its on, so it's pretty good. Guardian spirit, acrobat, and magic regen are all minor buffs for our build but you might as well wear them.

• Rings are also universally beneficial, except for the ring of fire and ice, which provide vulnerability to the other element. As rings are quick to swap, you can change them when you find a relevant enemy or enter a relevant branch. Rings of willpower, slaying, protection, and evasion are always useful and should be worn in that order, should you find more than two. Note that if you have Will++++ elsewhere, you don't need extra.

Note that artefacts (bright white text) may have negative properties.

Dungeon:4 (& the Temple)

Dungeon:4 is the same as Dungeon:3. The same stairs, a similar floor layout, and the same bunches of monsters. The one difference is the possibility for the Temple to spawn.

The Temple is a completely safe branch (unless you drag monsters into it) that is incredibly likely to spawn Temple Gods. Temple Gods are guaranteed to spawn once and only once either in the Temple, or between D:3 and D:10. It can hold all the gods, or, very rarely, none. The point remains: the god that we want is likely to spawn there. The Temple itself can spawn in between D:4 and D:7, so some players like to read scrolls when entering D:4 in hopes of magic mapping.

Notable Threats

• Ogres wield giant club. That's up to 37 damage per turn, or 39 if it's spiked. Fortunately, they swing slowly. They can only get 1-2 attacks of opportunity before they lag behind. But if you can get 2-shot by an ogre, don't take that risk. They are also 10-speed enemies (same speed as you), so you can often run away.

• Sleepcaps cause the sleep status on hit. This prevents you from moving, lowers EV to near-0, and causes monsters to deal bonus melee damage. With the sleepcap alone, that's up to 32 dmg/round. (You wake up from sleep the turn after being hit). And imagine being slept next to an ogre! These are high tier threats, especially when around other monsters.

• Phantoms have a load of resistances... resistance to weapon isn't one of them. But they are the sole monsters with the blink with attack flavour. When a phantom attacks you, you and the phantom will teleport to a random spot in line of sight. One hit prevents you from moving up stairs, trap you between enemies, and/or send you to unexplored territory. As pure enemies, they are moderately durable.

Temple, Gods, and Okawaru

The god we will be picking is Okawaru. No other options here. Forget "pick gods that appear early", Minotaurs are technically strong enough to not need any help until D:10. It could be, and often is, more optimal to pick a god that appears earlier. But for the sake of the guide and consistency I will have to recommend Okawaru. Don't worry; Oka is a very simple, very powerful, and very synergistic god.

Okawaru is the god of honorable, physical combat. It rewards you with piety for killing enemies of high HD (monster level) compared to you. Piety is godly favor. You spend piety to use abilities which help you survive. With Okawaru's gimmick, your piety will rise noticeably faster than with other "kill things for piety" gods, though easy monsters will scarcely provide any piety. Minotaurs have a -1 XP level aptitude, so there's a slight synergy beyond meleelol. It's also convenient because tough enemies that you'd want to use abilities (which cost piety) for, will likely just give you the piety back.

Okawaru might demand honor, but has no grievance against stabbing, poison, or any evil robo-tricks. Oka instead demands that you fight without any allies. All summoning spells, some Necromancy, and certain items simply won't function. You won't ever be casting spells as a Minotaur!Heavy Armour, so the worst losses are various item options. In exchange, it will grant some powerful abilities, and gifts (throwing ammo. and later weapons and armour).

For now, all Okawaru does is limit your options. You can't even abandon it, as most gods are jealous and godly wrath is way too deadly to consider. Abilities will be covered as I unlock them, in the sections below. I obviously can't control for when you get enough piety, so scroll down or check Okawaru's page for more details. Click for the next ability.

Dungeon:5 - Dungeon:7

Alright, you get the drill.

Notable Threats

Note that depths are estimates (as usual) using their base depth, and can appear earlier or later

• Centaurs [D:5] are fast and shoot arrows from a distance. Fortunately, most monsters will not use a ranged weapon in melee, and centaurs don't usually have melee weapons. Hide behind a corner, charge the centaur, or use a scroll of fog (or scroll of butterflies) to close the gap.

•  Water moccasins [D:5] are beefier and slightly faster adders. You should hopefully have a potion of curing. And even without, a lone snake should not be a threat as a Minotaur, at the very least by D:6.

• Steam dragons [D:6] are the first dragons you'll come across. Their steam breath actually does decent damage from a distance, assuming you don't have fire resistance. Thankfully, all dragons must catch their breath (-Breath) afterwards. While it may not look it, steam clouds can and will hurt you (unless, again, you have fire resistance). Also include acid dragons here because they are the same.

• Hornets [D:7] are stupidly stupidly scary, fast, poisonous monsters. Scary in "raw combat", even. What's worse is that they can paralyse - even with poison resistance. Only poison immunity makes you fully immune to para. They can paralyse for 3 turns, and a hornet *alone* can deal up to 80 damage (+ poison) during that time.

Thankfully they don't spawn up here very often... If you are forced to fight one, then use wands or curare (if possible) to take them out.

• Killer bees [D:7?] really make me regret using all my super scary warning points on adders and quokkas. Killer bees move twice as fast as the player, come in large packs (not this early??), and are relentless in their poison. Teleport away, drink a potion of lignification, or get into a hallway and buff up because these guys (especially packs) shouldn't really spawn here.

Heroism

From my experience, you'll get Heroism 1-2 floors after gaining Okawaru. It's that quick.

Heroism is Okawaru's 1* ability. Using it gives +5 to all physical skills. Considering that you're likely at the 10's at this point, that's a 50% skill increase. Now, damage doesn't work like that, but Heroism is still quite strong. Your skills will be 4-5 levels ahead, which should (in theory) let you take on out of depth enemies 4-5 levels ahead of you.

Use abilities early and often. This is quite a difficult lesson to learn, but you need need need to respect it.

Recent changes in 0.30 have made Heroism over 300% more expensive, so you can't spam Heroism as nearly as you used to. But piety is a renewable resource, while potions and scrolls aren't.

Skill Training

When you get to 1* of piety, start training Invocations and set a skill target of 5. Heroism doesn't really require Invo training for a reasonable failure rate (~ 7% failure at 1* and 0 Invo), but it's very convenient because the next ability does warrant training. The skill also increases Heroism's duration to a more comfortable level.

After you get Invo to 5, start training Throwing and set a skill target of 5. Important later and its just good timing for the 3* Throwing gifts.

Click for the next ability, Finesse.

Dungeon:8 - Dungeon:11

With Heroism (hopefully) in-tow, you've officially reached the midgame! With a fair supply of identified consumables, you growing stronger in a relative level, a godly ability, and the choice between Dungeon, Lair, and Orc, and you should be a lot more comfortable from this point forward. The famous quote is, "Once you've entered Lair, you've won the game", or something like that. Simply put, there's a lot more options to prevent bullshit from happening.

Notable Threats

• All the advice for these guys still applies, being perhaps more relevant here, where they are realistic to try and fight. Also killer bee packs.

• If you are attacked by an invisible monster out of nowhere (they usually have to cast the Invisibility spell first), it is most likely an unseen horror. They are incredibly fast (3 turns for your 1) but are batty, meaning they retreat after going in. Best to get in a hallway if you're fighting, and swing in place with ctrl-direction. They can't open doors and their battyness will cause them to retreat from stair-adjacency if you wait a turn or so.

• Two-headed ogres [D:10] are ogres but double. They have two giant clubs and hit twice as hard. You can get two rounded. Otherwise, they are 10-speed (average speed) monsters with no special abilities or resistances.

Finesse

Okawaru's second ability, unlocked at 4*, is Finesse. It doubles your attack speed. It is absolutely nuts in theory. The only caveats are that it doesn't stack with haste, and that its somewhat high piety cost. There isn't too much to say; use this early on dangerous monsters!

Once you've done training Throwing, train Invocations and set a skill target to 8.

Click for the next ability, Duel.

Why You Go to The Lair

Or why to skip the late Dungeon! Or threat list (D:12 - D:13).

The Lair's entrance spawns from D:8 to D:11. While the hydras and cane toads aren't that fun, it is often the safer option of the three (Lair, Orc, Dungeon). In Dungeon, there's a few very dangerous monsters that could appear. So you'll often want to ignore D:12 (and even D:11, if possible) until completing Lair.

• Wizards know the Banish spell, which sends you to the deep dark Abyss with continuously spawning monsters way out of your league with no time to regen. You can use all your consumables there and still die. They are quite frail (as to be expected), but you never want to take this risk until you have to. Preferably you find Willpower+++ before fighting one, and throw your way to victory anyhow.

• Ugly things are not that easy to face when first entering D:11, unless you have silver javelins already. It is the combination of damage and their slightly faster movement speed that makes them dangerous. If found in a pack, note that they'll continuously waste turns mutating into different colours (though that does mean that there's a pack of ugly things you could re-encounter in an unfortunate situation).

• Death knights come with freezing wraiths and wraiths (which Slow you), and the former actually hits really hard if you are not resistant to cold. They also have Agony to halve HP. They also come with phantasmal warriors which make you more vulnerable to Agony in the first place (and hit hard).

• Skeletal warriors are just stat sticks, melee only 10-speed tough guys. Even with Heroism + Finesse, they are tough to beat. However if you complete Lair first, they aren't that difficult.

It's still recommended that you clear up to D:10 first.

Lair of Beasts

The Lair is a pretty homely place. Branch overviews are going to get a lot shorter, as branches themselves are shorter than the Dungeon proper, and you can fight the "hardest" enemies on the first level. You are getting more and more powerful compared to the game (both due to being a MiFi and the general level curve). It's a 5 level branch (6 in earlier versions). Don't go into any of the Lair's sub-branches right now.

The Lair itself is much more open, with few of the distinctive hallways of the Dungeon. There are plenty of walls, though, and they are quite jagged. You can take advantage of diagonals in order to create faux hallways, and the animals are often too dumb to go around.

Lair has 3 sub-branches. There will be a poison-themed branch (Spider OR Snake) and a water-themed branch (Shoals OR Swamp), along with Slime. Don't go to any of these yet, but keep note of where they are. Once you find them, you can autotravel with G.

Recommended: Poison resistance is helpful. Willpower, too.

Notable Threats

• Hydras are the big bad of any Axe playthrough, if a bit overhyped. Axes cleave, which also cleave hydra heads, which causes the hydra to grow two more in its place. They are actually very powerful against any melee player at this stage of the game, but with some luck you'll have a few tools for them:
  • Run away: Unless they are camping a staircase, you can simply not fight them. Hydras are 10-speed enemies while on land.
  • Throwing: Even with 0 natural Throwing skill, Heroism boomerangs can take half or more of a Hydra's HP. Javelins hit 1.0 delay at 10 skill, so 5 before Heroism. With 10 skill (post-Heroism), even boomerangs will severely weaken hydras before they get to you. You can still throw at melee range, but if the hydra's not at red HP then don't take the risk of going in melee with a hydra. Make sure to always always have an escape route planned early!! If you are forced to take that risk, make sure to have Finesse up, as well. Reminder to train Throwing to 5.0 if you got javelins.
  • Flaming weapon: Flaming cauterizes the wounds, meaning the hydra will lose heads and won't grow them back. Hydras with 6+ heads are still scary to fight so... I wouldn't, not until you've done a few floors of Lair. Reminder to use Heroism.
  • Potion of lignification: Drink the potion, take off your weapon, and fight. This potion prevents you from moving or even teleporting, but with just Heroism, tree form can take out a lone hydra. Be extra careful of other monsters coming in!

You also want to keep note of their heads; hydras naturally spawn with 4-8 of them. An 8-headed hydra hits twice as much as a 4-headed one!

• Basilisks will Petrify you, which will lower EV and SH to zero and leave you helpless to monsters attacks, even if you have extra durability while petrified. It takes a hot second to actually petrify, but you're slow for the petrification process. Not too scary on their own, though imagine for a second, being helpless next to a hydra. A potion of cancellation will end Petrifying. Willpower, if you have it, makes it less likely.

• Dream sheep and torpor snails both have irresistible debuffs. Dream sheep put you to sleep, which gives monsters a free turn on you. Torpor snails slow you.
  • Dream Sheep have more chances to sleep you the more of them are in sight, and they are pack animals. Use a scroll of fog and walls to make absolutely sure to avoid sleep, and keep to the hallways so that you don't take too many hits.
  • You can charm torpor snails to slow enemies, though they have very high willpower. Scroll of vulnerability helps. If you don't have charm, both polymorph and paralysis wands stop them from slowing.

• Cane toads are another fast, poisonous enemy. If you fight them right on hitting Lair:1, I would Heroism to make sure that you can actually fight one on one. Otherwise they aren't so much of a threat on their own. Same with black mambas, though you usually fight them a bit later (and still use Heroism a little later). Much easier to fight with rPois, but it is not required per-se.

• Death yaks are mostly a humbleness check to people mindlessly tabbing. They are standard melee threats, though with high willpower. Weak to curare and/or throwing blunt weapons, and please don't fight more than one at a time (use the stairs!).

• Skysharks are fast death yaks, which can get even stronger. If they hit you in a blood-filled form, they will gain might, and then berserk. You really don't want to fight a berserk skyshark. If they haven't gone might/berserk yet, you can use a potion of lignification to counter them (trees don't have blood). Skysharks have somewhat low willpower, and not resistant to curare.

• Catoblepas fire a piercing line of petrifying clouds. If you're standing on one and use your first turn moving away, then you will not get petrified. Beware of hallways! Animals will also walk into the petrifying clouds, making them easy pickings (the catoblepas itself is a fairly strong enemy).

On a final note, you might want to skip the last floor of the Lair. Every branch has a "vault" on the final floor which is usually more difficult than the proceeding floors. Vaults are nonrandomized structures, though which one(s) you get is random. This is not to be confused with the Vaults branch.

Midgame Lull

Once you have completed Lair, the game starts taking a turn for the easy. It's somewhat reasonable to complete any of D:15, Orc, and Lair first and not face too many issues. Because of this, the other two branches are going to feel very easy. You'll likely have 5* or even 6* of piety with Okawaru, which means you can use HeroFinesse more often, which means you are going to stock up on non-renewable consumables, in addition to Minotaur growths and potential equipment gifts. You can do Dungeon or Orc in either order without it mattering too much. I'll actually list Dungeon first, simply because a wizard's Banish is actually less scary than an orc sorcerer's Paralyse at this point. (Note that Orc also has more loot)

Recent updates were aimed at stopping the "entire-lategame-until-Zot-lull", which at least existed for experienced players. Basically, don't get too comfortable with the ease of the next few branches. The rune-containing S-branches won't be as easy.

Late Dungeon

Beware of wizards!

Recommended: Willpower+++ (if you have it), various resistance swapouts

Notable Threats

See Why You Go to The Lair first. Other than that...

• Slime creatures are very weak on their own, if you've completed Lair. However, they are unique in that they merge in closed spaces, such as a hallway. A fully merged slime can deal over a hundred damage per hit. As Axes cleave, just get them in an open area, and maybe stair dance them up.

• On D:13-D:14, you'll find the entrance to the Vaults. There's normally a bunch of scarier-than-normal enemies there, which are mostly deadly because they're so concentrated. With proper luring and awareness of escape routes/options, it shouldn't be too difficult. You can't enter the Vaults until you have at least one rune, which by then you should be ready to go in.

• On D:15, you'll find the entrance to the Depths. There's one or multiple out of depth enemies, like a fire giant. No need to clear if its too frightening. Depths itself is one of the last branches you should be entering, though early Depths is the main focal point of the Lord of Darkness challenge.

Orcish Mines

Orc spawns from D:9 to D:12. Even though there'll be a lot of plain orcs, very easy at this point, you'll want to do Lair first. Many of the threats (in the usual place, below) are tougher than what the Lair has in store, and also have ranged attacks.

Orc is incredibly open (less walls than Lair), leaving you vulnerable to the orc priests and other ranged attacks in stow. If you haven't found/recieved a broad axe yet, orcs are likely to be holding one.

The Mines also house a ton of gold and four separate shops to spend it on.

Recommended: Willpower+++

Notable Threats

• Orc sorcerers are the main reason you do not want to do Orc before Lair. Orc Sorcs inflict Paralyze, much worse than Petrify (being instant and not giving damage reduction). Also their magic hurts! At least if you don't have resistances to both Fire and Negative Energy. Remember to throw javelins, if you got them, though you can get away without Heroism.

• These are the "out of depth" spawns for Orc, and they are the other reason why to do Lair first. Stone giants hit really hard and large rocks from afar hurt really hard. Ettins are suped up two-headed ogres that can deal 90 damage per round before weapons, i.e 130 per round after. For comparison, an 8-headed hydra deals up to 144 damage but is reduced 8 times by AC, has to high roll 8 times in a row, and you normally face hydras with less heads.

• Orc high priests still have smiting but also summon demons. This includes the Neqoxec, which can inflict permanent Malmutates on you, along with other physically tough monsters. Smiting alone sucks when you are getting swamped by orcs/demons. The ultra-fast Sixfirhy and the fact that the priest needs to actually spawn demons in the first place means that you should take them on as quickly as possible, instead of running away.

Also, I would be careful of being pelted by a bunch of ranged enemies all at once, especially with an orc knight or orc warlord in play.

Rune Branch Prep

With the 2nd floor of Orc completed, you'll have free reign over its four shops. You might want to use ctrl-F on everything: plate armour, dragon scales, axes, scroll, potion, gold... Who knows, you might've missed a ghost vault or a pile of items lying from your orcish massacre. It's also a good time

Shopping Trip

Hopefully, there's things that you can buy/ctrl-f:

• Emergency items: Includes Scrolls of blinking, scroll of teleport, potion of haste, potion of heal wounds, potion of cancellation. These should be your first priority, never a bad idea. You want potions of curing for Spider.
• Poison resistance: This is most often found on the ring of poison resistance; don't take any body armour lighter than swamp dragon scales. rPois is useful in Spider and Snake, and useful against swamp dragons/swamp drakes in Swamp.
• Willpower: So that you don't instantly die. Will+++ is practical, Will++++ is enough. Don't use the body armour slot unless its plate armour, and don't use any weird weapons or negative artefacts. Otherwise prioritize getting enough willpower quickly. While there aren't many Will-related threats in the S-Branches, is is recommended for just about every branch afterwards.
• Equipment: If you haven't found one already, broad axe, kite shield, amulet (see Items & Gear for what to prioritize).
• Flight: A permanent source of it, namely the ring of flight. Useful in the watery Swamp and Shoals; while you still can't outrun most aquatic creatures, at least you'll be avoiding the attack penalty of water.
• Electricity resistance: Quite the rare resistance, as there's no ring dedicated to it. Take artefacts without too much bad qualities on them (no handaxes or rF--) or the not-common storm dragon scales. There are a few dangerous elec enemies throughout the game and you'll want a source of it.
• Other resistances: rCold is good for Spider. rFire decent for Snake and Swamp, rCorrosion useful for Spider and Swamp. A scarf of repel missiles is good for Shoals.
• Strategic items: scrolls of enchant armour / weapon and a scroll of brand weapon.
• Artefacts: Artefacts of equipment you'd use anyway with high enchantments, no vulnerabilities, and no *Slow / -Tele are good to grab eventually. They are usually expensive, though.
• Overpriced garbage: Scrolls of acquirement are pretty much gambling; the worst you can get is a smaller pile of gold than you started with, though there are very good items too. Manuals are often too expensive even with Orcish gold under your belt. XP-based evocables (box of beasts, lightning rod...) are also very expensive but can be useful.

Skill Training

By now, you should've reached the skill target for Axes, 18.0. This opens up skill training into a few side skills that you may or may not need:

• Throwing to 10.0. Getting natural 1.0 delay javelins is pretty good, and extra damage is always useful.
• Invocations to 12.0 - 13.0. This gets the Duel ability up and running.
• Evocations to 8.0. While I said to ignore this skill earlier, specific skill training doesn't really matter as much anymore. As monsters have stupid high will, wands become less and less useful even with this amount of training. However, many monsters (moth of wrath, death cob, most animals) are still vulnerable to hex effects, and a scroll of vulnerability boosted wand can even take out quite a few uniques. Just beware of uniques with paralysis themselves.

There's really no rush for any of these skills. You'll want Throwing 10.0 by some point in the game, but the others can be forgone completely.

Duel

Duel is the last Okawaru ability, unlocked at 5*. It teleports you and 1 other monster, of sufficient threat, to Okawaru's special arena. There will be no other monsters, though your opponent can still summon allies.

Duel will seem hideously overpriced if you just use it to take out a single enemy. Plus, you already have javelins for that. The real value for Duel is as an escape tool. You'll have to deal with 1 monster instead of 10. And once you've killed the monster, you have a minimum of 15 turns to do whatever you want. In a dangerous situation, this can be life-saving.

In other words, Duel allows you to "pause" a dangerous situation, and fight a single monster. After you've dealt with it, you can prepare for what's outside:

• Heal up. You don't have enough time to regenerate naturally, but the potion of ambrosia and/or potion of curing can be used to recover damage.
• Buff up. Apply or re-apply Heroism, Finesse, Might, Haste...
• Initiate a scroll of teleport, wait 2 turns, then exit from the portal. You will teleport without being hit by the monsters outside.

Duel is one of the strongest panic buttons in the game, but very expensive in piety too.

S-Branches

With Lair, Orc, and Dungeon done, the only place left to go is the Lair branches. They all start with the letter S, hence the name "S-Branch". Three of them will spawn in any particular game; use ctrl-o to see all of them.

To be honest, I'm not terribly sure about the order nowadays. It used to be Swamp first -> Snake/Spider -> Shoals last but then Swamp got buffed and Spider got buffed and Shoals is still hard as ever...

The order I'll suggest is: Snake -> Swamp -> Spider -> Shoals, from first to last. This is completely arbitrary order, but this the order I'll list 'em in. Don't do Slime.

Notes

• An option you can do is to do the first 3 floors of a branch, then go to the other S-Branch branch. This isn't required, but the last floor of each branch contains a "rune vault", often much harder than the branch before.
• Don't underestimate the branch entrances - entering can (potentially) be more difficult than the next 3 floors. You can enter with enemies on all sides of you, making the situation tricky. Not even the stairs up are always safe, since each branch has a way to pull you off stairs:
  • Snake - Nagas and anacondas in melee can constrict you, you need to escape constriction to move or climb back up. A scroll of blinking won't always get you out; it only counts as 2 escape attempts, and if one fails, the scroll is wasted. Teleport works as normal.
  • Spider - Jumping spiders in melee can web you; you need to break out in order to move or attack. (Blink always gets you out, though.)
  • Swamp - Swamp worms can pull you off stairs, straight into unexplored territory.
  • Shoals - Merfolk sirens can Mesmerise, preventing you from moving away from it. Also, wind drakes can blow you off, and common merfolk can have nets (which work like webs).

Snake

Snake is mostly generated like the Dungeon, though lacking in a few layouts. This means its the only Lair branch with hallways. Savour that, because the rest of the game is lacking. Snake is filled with human-snakes (nagas, slower than average) and snake-snakes (faster). You can run away from the former but not the latter. Most nagas constrict you in melee, which prevents movement, reduces EV, and even has a chance to stop blink.

Recommended: rPois
Rec. Swapouts: rF+, scarf of repulsion, rElec

Notable Threats

• Guardian serpents are easily the scariest enemy in the entire branch. Blinks enemies in its sight to surround you, which could instantly teleport 8 monsters right next to you. Even with Axes in your possesion, go all out with Throwing and Oka buffs, and all out with everything if you get surrounded.
• Nagaraja are the biggest naga. That's about it. Not terribly hard with buffs, though they can Haste and actually outrun you.
• Shock serpents have fairly high electric damage, and hurt you if you attack in melee. Using throwing means you won't take discharge damage. Vulnerable to hex wands.
• Naga sharpshooters hit hard from afar. ~50 damage from full screen range, they can also shoot through monsters thanks to Portal Projectile. A single sharpshooter isn't tough once in melee (though, unlike centaurs, they can fire bows in melee), and you can also walk away. But a squad of sharpshooters can deal big damage if you aren't careful.
• Anaconda are fast, and the only snake-snake with constriction. Not that tough for a well-armed Minotaur (different story for casters!) but can be annoying.

Swamp

One of the scariest places in Swamp, for me, is the entrance. Swamp worms will pull you all 'round, and monsters will swarm you without a place to really retreat to. From Swamp:2, you'll have access to a long sought tool: 3 different downstairs.

Other than that, it's a very open branch. It has extremely few hallways, so open Axe combat and stair dancing are nice tools to have.

Recommended: Willpower+++, Flight
Rec. Swapouts: rF+, rPois, rCorr

Notable Threats

• Fenstrider witches inflict paralyse. What else is to say? (This paralysis checks willpower)
• Shambling mangroves constrict you from afar, which prevents movement. They also release hornets, which inflict paralyse. What else is to say?
• Swamp worms pull you closer to them, which can also pull you next to a lot of other monsters. Tree form prevents this but also comes with the flaws of tree form. If you're pulled into a dangerous situation, treat it with respect.
• Will-o-the-wisps fall easily to javelins, but actually hit fairly hard without rF+. Swamp dragons hurt without rPois.
• Bunyips deal up to 120 damage in melee, before AC. Ouch, that really hurt! Their damage is done through 3 attacks.
• Hydras still regrow heads, but now you should be noticeably stronger. If this is your 2nd rune branch, you can easily plow them with Heroism even without Flaming (just not in a large group, and maybe with Finesse). With flaming, and you shouldn't worry about them except for their fast swim speed.

• The Lernaean hydra is a 27-headed hydra that may spawn on Swamp:4. It can't see invisible and is frail enough to be weak to the holy HeroFinesse Javelin, but its higher swim speed means that you gotta be prepared to take on. Note that invisibility doesn't work if you are in water while not flying.

Spider

Spider's layout generates much like the Lair proper; quite open, but not nearly as much as the watery branches, with many faux hallways around. Which you'll likely need to use, considering the massive swarm of spiders. Many (but not all) threats are weak to poison, and very few are immune to curare - this is the best place for those darts and I would use them over boomerangs. Also most spiders can't see invisible, so it's a good anti-swarm "emergency" button.

Recommended: rPois
Rec. Swapouts: rC+(+), rCorr, rN+

Notable Threats

• Jorogumo are an uber-threat, an upgraded hornet. They have the same paralysis poison melee as hornets, but can trap you in webs and deal high damage at range. These are not fair enemies.
• If you find an invisible thing in Spider, it's most likely a ghost moth. These things are nasty in melee combat and inflict stat drain, which can cause the extremely detrimental stat zero if intelligence (or another stat) hits 0. They'll also drain your MP which prevents you from using god abilities. They also can't see invisible, for what it's worth.
• Even with rCorr, an entropy weaver's Corrosion stacks up very quickly. Not terrible to face in melee without corrosion, but watch the status bar!
• Spark wasps hit like a truck especially without rElec, and can zap to go in front of/behind you instantly. They don't appear often outside of Spider:4's rune vault, though. Use wands if you have the training for them.
• Moths of wrath inflict the incredibly strong berserk status... on other monsters. Don't underestimate anything with it, even the weakest spiders can wreck house. Target moths of wrath with javelins, fear them, or just get the hell away. Don't go in melee unless you are sure that no monsters will come in. They can also berserk you, and berserk prevents almost all item usage.
• Pharaoh ants deal high melee damage without rN+, but are very frail. But if you kill the ant before other spiders, you'll create spider simulacrum. Simulacrum are extremely nasty without rC+.
• Radroaches' Irradiate hits hard and contaminates you. Mutations bad! Thankfully they won't Irradiate if another monster is next to them.

Shoals

Shoals is even more open than the Swamp. There's no walls and not even trees, just deep water - as you should expect, most enemies can swim just fine in it. The challenge comes from a pelt of bullets, tridents, and nets with enemies that swim much faster than you.

Recommended: Will+++, Flight, repulsion

Notable Threats

• Merfolk javelineers fire javelins. Javelins ignore shields completely, so they'll hurt a lot.
• Water nymphs have Waterstrike - which is basically a Smiting that's 3x as strong (though it can only hit players in/on/above water). They also have a 1-tile aura of water around them, which will cover up stairs.
• Wind drakes can push you off the stairs and have Airstrike, which is almost as strong as Waterstrike, but can be used outside water. Airstrike becomes weaker when you are adjacent to "filled" tiles (wall, monster, etc.), but that's very hard to take advantage of in Shoals.
• Merfolk aquamancers have a 3d20 Primal Wave; ouch, that's even stronger than Waterstrike.
• Satyrs have the Sleep spell; losing a turn to sleep isn't great when an army of fauns are shooting at you. They also hit moderately hard with their bow, roughly the same as naga marksmen, and they'll often come with a group of fauns.
• Alligator snapping turtles are mostly tab checks, simple reaching dudes with high stats.
• Water elemental can inflict Engulf, which prevents god abilities and scrolls. Not terrible by themselves - you can move a tile to end engulf.

Most of the threat comes from the fast-swimming swarms of ranged foes (in an extremely open branch), not any one specific enemy. Multiple merfolk with tridents, with ranged fauns/javelineers and merfolk impalers in the back, all suck to fight. They'll all hit you at once, while your axe isn't. Also merfolk sirens inflict Mesmerise, which you need to teleport or break line of sight to end. This isn't to say that Shoals isn't hard, but its not complicated.

The Lategame

We're close. "Lategame" in this guide comprises of Vaults, Elf, Depths, and Slime, and getting the third or even fourth rune.

It's the midgame lull, but again, but actually quite a bit harder. At this point, many characters will be decked out with Okawaru gifts, piety is plentiful, and most characters end up being ahead of the "curve", in comparison to the earlier parts of the game. There's things that can kill you, but it's much closer to not paying attention and not taking things seriously than monsters actually being tough. Descriptions are gonna get way more terse, at least until we get to Slime. Just watch if you health gets too low.

Elf won't be covered here, mostly out of laziness than anything. Watch out for max roll elves, use hallways, and watchwatch out for the elementalists, who destroy hallways.

Vaults: 1-4

Not much prose here. Don't enter Vaults:5 yet, which is surrounded by heaps of guards and endgame level monsters, especially as vault wardens can lock out the stairs up.

Recommended: Will+++, rC+, scarf of repulsion
Rec. Swapouts: rElec, rF+

Notable Threats

• Vault wardens lock staircases and doors, meaning you can't travel through them. They can die to javelins but aren't *that* frail. Mostly dangerous on the aforementioned Vaults:5, as teleport still works just fine (though might send you to unexplored floor, as usual).
• Ironbound frosthearts hurt quite a lot; they target any tile adjacent (remember diagonals) to walls. Manageable with rC+/rC++, and manageable (on its own) without. Makes it harder to use corridors, though.
• Ironbound thunderhulk are similar to frosthearts, but with rElec, which is a rarer resistance. Their special gimmick is that they can't hit you if you are 2 or fewer tiles away; it's a stronger version of smite otherwise.
• Ironbound convokers take 3 turns in order to bring in a pack of allies from another area. It can be stopped with a phial of floods or a scroll of silence, and if monsters are confined to a hallway, is mostly fine (just beware of frosthearts).
• Vault sentinels inflict Mark, just like an alarm trap without the noise. Vaults is big enough where all monsters aren't likely to wake up and chase you, but it might get a bunch of them. Even Will+++ won't drop it to 1%.
• Yaktaurs (and even centaur warriors) aren't fun to approach. They are simply stronger centaurs, but without two of: a good shield / repulsion / reflection, they actually hurt quite a bit. Do what you would centaur.

Depths

Depths is the Dungeon, 2 (not to be confused with D:2). There's a lot of enemy variety, though many are just popcorn at this point. There's still things that can kill you

Recommended: Will+++, rF+, rC+
Rec. Swapouts: rElec, rCorr

Notable Threats

• Caustic shrikes are the killer bees (hornets, water mocassins) of Depths, coming in fast in swarms and just having really high stats. Bring rCorr as it stacks up really quickly, and hopefully fight them one at a time. As of 0.28, they can't see invisible, so use a potion of invisibility if need be. They also aren't resistant to poison, so Condenser Vane, Scroll of Poison work well.
• Juggernauts move incredibly quickly, and hit (slowly) for a ton of damage per strike. Thankfully, they are still weak to curare. Curare + Heroism should be fine with heavy armour. Heroism + Finesse can also take them out.
• Walking crystal tomes summon spells that deal 3d40 each, and it casts 2 spells at once. Block the spells with some mob or something and rush it down ASAP.
• These guys are mostly just resistance checks (rF for fire giant, rC for frost giant, rElec for spark wasps). If you don't have 'em, they are still manageable if they are alone, even without Oka buffs, just surprisingly dangerous more than anything.

Third (and Fourth?) Rune

You need 3 runes to enter the Realm of Zot. We've already got two, so one more is required for entry. There are three realistic options for the third rune:

• Slime is the most consistent of the 3 branches. It's reliant on one of a few "tricks" to beat the Royal Jelly; while tough, it's mostly a single encounter, and much easier to control than the others.
• Vaults:5 is the most simple of the 3. It starts out hectic, but as soon as you can "stabilize" and get a safe spot to regenerate in the corner, then it becomes fine. Raw strength is rewarded here more, I feel. It's also the only third rune that happens to avoid any mutation risk.
• Abyss is the most RNG of the 3. Monsters spawn randomly, the rune spawns randomly. In recent versions, you'll know where the rune location is. On the plus side, it can often be one of the fastest runes, and once you're in the rune chamber, its fairly easy with spare scrolls of blinking and a few buff potions.

The other big thing is that both Slime and Vaults are loaded with treasure. Treasure is often good, so this guide will cover both non-Abyss runes in greater detail.

Slime:1-4

Slime:1-4 is mostly set dressing. Slimes aren't worth XP, and there's no items worth noting. So when considering the large mutation threat, what most people do is dive floors 1-3 as soon as they kill all monsters in sight. Floor 4 is more important to clear because you'll want escape routes from the boss in the 5th level.

One of the most useful things to do is stay on the up stairs. Stairdancing works well, as the main threats are the masses of slimes and stacking corrosion. Both which won't matter if you can go up, kill 8 slimes, rest, and repeat. Watch out for the notable threats even more than usual, as they are specifically designed to make stairdancing not perfectly safe. Most aren't very common, though.

Slime is covered in acidic walls which will hurt you if you stand adjacent to them. The branch also has plenty of seperated areas, which can often be annoying (esp. on Slime:4).

Recommended: rCorr, Will+++(+), rC+

Notable Threats

• Shining eyes inflict bad mutations on you. Kill them as quickly as humanly possible. Use silver javelins. Shining eyes can't inflict you if monsters are in the way, but javelins pierce just fine. You don't want bad mutations.
• Rockslimes trample you, just like elephants and their ilk. They are also fast and not complete pushovers in melee (mostly a threat in groups). One of the higher priority to javelin before they get in melee. Keep in mind that you can't be moved if the rockslime would push you to a space already occupied by a monster.
• Quicksilver oozes engulf you, preventing you from using scrolls and godly abilities if you don't move. Not a threat on your own, but losing blink scrolls as an option is incredibly scary if you're already close to dying.

If you don't have Will+++(+) yet, watch out for golden eyes and their potentially permanent-confuse. Also floating eyes are an even higher priority, but aren't natural spawns (only appearing with other eyes or with Dissolution).

Slime:5

The first thing you do in Slime:5 is go down the stairs - all three, if possible. Go around and kill everything at the outside, circle around said outside, and don't go in the building. If any stairs are unexplored, go up and clear them out. Avoid alarm traps if possible. Monsters can trigger them, but traps can't be sprung if you can't see them. If you do get marked, either run to the stairs or quaff a potion of cancellation, then teleport.

If you see the Royal Jelly, run to the stairs or teleport. Most 'dangerous' slimes and TRJ are fast, with the bossman being as quick as a hasted player. Clear the entire outside safely, then we'll go on to the boss.

Notable Threat

The Royal Jelly (TRJ) is the boss of this infernal place. TRJ is fast, quite tanky, but most importantly, spawns high level jellies, worth no XP, whenever it gets hit. This is quickly overwhelming if you just tab into TRJ... so don't do that. TRJ itself won't go up the stairs, but any spawned slimes will. Killing the big slime is practically required to get the rune and everything else inside the central chambers. TRJ is vulnerable to silver.

The Strategy: Javelins

This is a fairly safe strategy that (somewhat) relies on Okawaru and its powers. There is a more sane method, but this should be both simple and reliable.

Required:

• 1-2 throwing nets
• 20 or so javelins. Silver is heavily prefered.
• ~10 pre-Heroism Throwing skill
• 1-2 scrolls of immolation
• Everything in the branch recommendations.

The strategy itself:

1. Clear Slime:5 except for the central chamber and TRJ itself.
2. Stand on the stairs. Try and lure TRJ near you - Slime is quiet, so shouting (t t) is more attractice than usual. Go down different stairs if possible. It's alright to be *near* the stairs, because you can haste and stand on them.
3. When TRJ is in view, 6-7 tiles away (no closer), quaff Haste if you aren't on the stairs. Get to them. Teleport if much too close (4 tiles).
4. When on the stair, use a throwing net; TRJ isn't immune. Then use Heroism and Finesse.
5. Start throwing javelins. Use silver javelins, as many as you have. Use silver boomerangs if you don't have javelins and have a clear line of fire to TRJ.
6. When TRJ spits enough jellies (so that you can hit 2+ jellies and TRJ at the same time) OR when TRJ gets "severely wounded", use the scroll of immolation.
7. Continue throwing until things explode and TRJ dies. Then stairdance, but don't get too cocky. Better to just go down a different staircase, go to the central chamber, and let the slimes disperse.
8. If TRJ gets within two tiles and you have no more nets, or 4+ slimes get adjacent to you, just go up and try again. HeroFinesse + Javelins can work on their own if you're high enough level.
9. And you should be done! Grab the loot and rune and get out.

More sane strategies

There are other, more sane strategies. See here (3:00:00) for a more sane approach.

Vaults:5

Immediately upon entering Vaults:5, you will be attacked by two dozen vault guards. Resist the urge to immolate them to bits, because they aren't the real threat. However, don't forget to buff up before entering; Heroism+Finesse should be enough, and you'll want Might and maybe Haste during your first entry in case scary things appear.

Notable Threats

• Vault wardens are the main deterrent torwads mindlessly stairdancing; they lock the stairs. A primary target to javelin out. Note that wardens won't retroactively lock the stairs; if you already hit the command to go up, it can't interrupt.
• The same can't be said for a tentacled monstrosity, who will constrict you if it gets into melee range (even as you are going up the stairs).
• Ancient liches are the biggest "raw" threat in the Vaults. While they normally aren't too threatening once you get into melee, you always have to beware of sudden 100+ damage spikes. Hasted liches should be treated with the utmost caution. A scroll of silence is the strongest button against them, but that limits your own options too.
• Quicksilver dragons end buffs, including Tele(port), but not including Heroism or Finesse. Super dangerous if you rely on said buffs.

The Strategy

One strategy: every time there are a few monsters next to you, go up the stairs, which brings up to 8 guards at a time. Do this over and over to stairdance them. There is a major threat that prevents this from working (hint: vault wardens), which you should have javelins for, but this is the basic strategy involved. Rebuff yourself with Okawaru abilities the first few times you go down, at least until the initial entrance party (guards + first set of monsters that wander in) ends.

The alternate strategy relies on getting to a random location and rolling with it. Usually this uses a scroll of teleportation, but an escape hatch (the wooden stairs down) or shaft will do the trick. Try to get to the corners and plow things. You'll want to start teleports way early, when things are getting too crowded. Once you can rest safely in a corner, then Vaults:5 becomes much easier.

Thanks to the random placement and types of monsters, there isn't a process like there is for TRJ.

The Final Stretch: Zot & the Orb Run

With 3-4 runes in tow, the final challenge awaits. As long as you're in Realm of Zot, teleports from the scroll will take longer to kick in (minimum 8 turns). Use all your magic mapping here, because there's nowhere else to really use them on.

Recommended: rF++(+), rElec, Will+++(+)

Notable Threats

• Quicksilver dragons still have quicksilver bolt! And now purple draconians do, too.
• Draconian shifters have Blink Allies Encircling, which will immediately surround you with up to 8 allies in its sight, which ranges from scary to a two-turn death. On the plus side, draconians can't see invisible, so if you're surrounded by just mostly them then just drink a potion. Just remember that they are also purple draconians.
• A Moth of wrath can inflict berserk. You don't want berserk gold dragons.
• Death cobs are extremely fast and will slow you. They aren't strong at all for a Zot enemy, but the slow can be extremely annoying. Thankfully, they also can't see invisible.
• Curse toes inflict torment. Potion of lignification will make you immune to torment, but at this stage, will likely lower your raw defenses. Another "make things dangerous if other things are nearby", though having other torment-vulnerable enemies in sight makes it less likely for torment to actually happen.

• The infamous orb of fire deserves its reputation. Will be covered in Zot:5.

Zot:5

The final stretch of the final challenge. Zot:5 contains the "lungs", which can easily be identified by the surrounding stone walls. Explore everything outside the lungs first. Before charging the lungs, if you have spare digging wands, you can create hallways near the lungs.

There are two lungs, and two, tight hallways in each lung, Clear the middle out first, and make sure that nothing is on the "edge" of each side. You may want to stand just outside the lungs and use a scroll of noise.

Not advised: You may want to set off an alarm trap (if available), use a haste potion, run to a pre-set hallway, buff up, then javelin your way to victory. This might be required if both lungs are "trapped". As orbs of fire can pierce each other, you are going to need rF+++ (after using potion of resistance) for this to be remotely sane, instead of absolutely insane. Best to have an escape plan here!

Notable Threats

• The orb of fire is the final enemy. Go all out on them, have rF++(+), Okawaru buffs, Heroism+Finesse+Might. They have tons of health, deal tons of fire damage, and mutate you. Watch out for berserkitis and -Scroll while mid combat. Vulnerable to silver.
• An ancient lich can deal 140+ damage per turn on a max roll. Antimagic (only antimagic broad axes should be considered) and silence work well on them, and they aren't too too bad on an "average" combat roll, but don't fight one with another enemy without Okawaru buffs + Haste. Don't silence unless you are 1. sure that you are alone, having lured the lich out or 2. have Hero+Finesse already up and a potion of cancellation ready.
• Don't let anything that torments you on the screen. Use fog, silence, potentially throwing to kill dread liches ASAP (but after OOFs). Also watch out for paralysis - Will++++ is required to fully resist it. Duel if it gets too scary.
• Killer Klowns Throw Klown Pie can turn you into a pig, which prevents you from using your weapon or any of your armour. Orb of fire lol. Also, they can inflict silence, -Potion, rF-... everything can be cancelled with a potion of cancellation, except -Potion, which a wand of quicksilver will end. Not too scary on their own. Use Duel, scroll of blinking, or at least Fog if there's an orb or lich nearby. Vulnerable to silver.
• Not much of a threat on their own, orb guardians are standard fast melee enemies that become a threat due to their high numbers, and extremely powerful when berserked.

See the Zot:5 page for more info.

What to do if teleported inside the lungs

Assuming you're in danger (any monster in sight):

• Haste. Okawaru buffs if there's only a few monsters (1-3 monsters, no orbs of fire).
• If there is a teleport trap in vicinity, you're probably gonna want to use a blink scroll (or just walk to it).
• Get to an edge as quickly as you can.
• If there's only a few monsters, you can start throwing.
• Use Duel if you need to regenerate.
• Use Haste (if not already up) -> Teleport -> Fog when you have no other option. When teleporting, go all out on buffs, then either fight or spam Curing/Heal Wounds (as appropriate).

Prevent monsters from stepping on dispersal traps and Zot traps as much as possible. Even if the monster steps on the trap, you get hurt. If the trap isn't in your LOS then monsters can't activate it.

What to do if the lungs are trapped

Lungs are considered trapped if you can't get through them without going over a trap. This covers traps, going in order of "least worst trap to worst trap".

If both lungs are trapped, and one lung just has an alarm trap, you should: activate the trap -> potion of cancellation -> haste -> run. Or you can do what I outlined above; activate the trap -> haste -> run to/dig out a hallway -> buff -> fight.

If both lungs are trapped, and one lung has dispersal/net traps, it's probably best to: 1. lure out monsters with multiple uses of scroll of noise, kill them and then 2. run over the trap. Dispersal should send you to the other side eventually, while you can break out of the net trap. You're gonna need a scroll of blinking to get out reliably.

If both lungs have teleport/Zot traps, then you're out of luck. Teleport doesn't hurt you when monsters step on it. Lure monsters in and hope for the best; just don't let monsters step on Zot traps. It may be wise to use scrolls of blinking to get in.

It's definitely better to use the alarm trap trick than to go in on a double-trapped Zot, assuming you have access to one. It may be necessary to go to the Crypt or grind the Abyss for XP at this point. To be truly optimal in this situation, aim for casting Blink and/or Passage of Golubria in whatever armour you're wearing, so train Translocations + Armour + Shields.

Orb Run

Once you've cleared Zot:5, get the orb and get out of here! Enemies of midgame to endgame quality will spawn everywhere throughout the Dungeon. Use G D 0 for autotravel to find the fastest route up. This doesn't take into account places that you can dig to. If you need to leave the floor immediately (as a monster spawns), use x < to locate the closest upstairs.

Don't fight anything that you can outrun (without items). Scrolls of blinking and haste are your best friends. Use throwing nets. This works well on most of the demonic enemies you fight, prioritize demons that can torment you. If you need to regenerate, do it on an upstairs (before going up), and use a potion of ambrosia.

Once you've reached the exit on D:1, go up and win the game. If you were planning on getting more runes, then you should've thought about that before grabbing the Orb!

Conclusion

So that's it, for now. Hopefully this is enough to learn the fundamentals and get past the early-game of DCSS.