ARCHIVED Demos' Spriggan Chaos Knight guide

This is an obsolete guide. Chaos Knights were split into Abyssal Knight, Death Knight, and the new Chaos Knight as of 0.8.0. The below applies to version 0.7.0 and earlier. This guide may be relevant for Spriggan Death Knights.

THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR AN EARLIER VERSION OF CRAWL, AND IS NO LONGER RELIABLE. TO HAVE IT REMOVED FROM THE ARCHIVES, PLEASE UPDATE IT FOR THE CURRENT VERSION.

Spriggans are all about speed. This makes them perfect for speed runs. Lugonu doesn't seem like a good choice for a fast game at first, but his abilities allow you to grab runes much faster than normally possible.

Early Game Survival

Primary Skills:

• Spellcasting
• Enchantments
• Fighting
• Stabbing
• Invocations
• Dodging
• Stealth

You begin the game with your Fighting skill at 2 and a +2 short sword. As a worshiper of Lugonu, you'll start off in the Abyss. Don't worry, you have just enough piety to leave. Do not turn off your primary skills, or else you'll have trouble dealing with enemies later on.

Your first goal is to increase your skills, until you are capable of surviving with ease. Remember to flee from any challenging enemies. It doesn't hurt to dive downward a few levels and then come back up. Use everything at your disposal (wands, rods, etc.) to take down whatever you can't stab to death.

Your second goal is to train spell-casting and learn a few low-level utility spells. Generally, any LV2-4 spells on this list is a good choice. Casting your spells with zero hunger is more important than your success rate. The only LV5+ spells worth learning for this combo are Haste, and possibly Silence.

Your third and final goal, before you are ready to start grabbing runes, is to increase your Invocations skill to 10. This will allow you to reliably use all of Lugonu's abilities.

Here is the general outline for the rest of the game:

Runes

0.5

1. Clear the Lair. You need the items and XP.
2. Clear the Orcish Mines. You need the money and XP.
3. Clear the Hive. Royal jellies are always nice to have.
4. Dive to the bottom of the Swamp and get as close as possible to the rune. Then, corrupt the level and run for your life! When you return the number of monsters guarding the rune should be greatly reduced. You can then grab the rune and leave.
5. Repeat #4 for the Snake Pits.
6. Banish yourself. Run around for a few thousand turns and grab the rune.

0.6

Only follow this if the Shoals was generated in your game!

1. Clear the Lair. You need the items and XP.
2. Clear the Orcish Mines. You need the money and XP.
3. Clear the Hive. Free food. Royal jellies are always nice to have.
4. Dive to the bottom of either the Swamp or the Snake Pits and get as close as possible to the rune. Then, corrupt the level and run for your life! When you return the number of monsters guarding the rune should be greatly reduced. You can then grab the rune and leave.
5. Banish yourself. Run around for a few thousand turns and grab the rune. Ditch Lugonu before leaving.
6. Dive to the bottom of the Slime Pits and lure the jellies away from the altar. Rush in and convert to Jiyva. You won't have to fight anything afterwards. Quickly grab the loot (non-artifacts) first and pick up the artifacts/rune last.

Rest of the Dungeon

After you have 3 runes there is no need to enter the other branches. You should gather everything you need for your Orb run and dive to the bottom of the dungeon. It won't be easy, since you're ridiculously frail and squishy. I personally like to avoid most monsters, while heading towards the nearest staircase. If a monster is in my way, I'll either stab it or teleport away.

Realm of Zot

Preparation:

• Several potions of healing and a wand of healing, if you can find one.
• Fire resistance - The only resistance you'll need, but rElec is also recommended.
• Haste - Self explanatory.
• Apportation - You really don't want to brawl with Orb Guardians at a low level.
• The ability to teleport several times in a row (two teleport wands and a few scrolls of recharging will suffice).
• Teleport control - For after you grab the Orb.
• 5 scrolls of magic mapping (only one is necessary) or a crystal ball of seeing
• Several scrolls of fog and/or Summon Butterflies - Tremendously useful.

Map each floor (or bring just one for Zot:5) and quickly head for the nearest staircase. I strongly recommend running from everything, unless it's in your way and you can easily deal with it. On the last floor, buff yourself and teleport repeatedly, until you get close enough to apportate the Orb. Now teleport out of there!

Ascending should be easy. Keep running upstairs and teleport if a demon comes into view.