Beef Jerky's Simple 3 Rune Minotaur Berserker Guide for Beginners

The following article is a character guide. This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised. Read at your own risk and alter to fit your play style as necessary!

Version 0.14: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

I just recently finished my first 3 rune clear with help of this wiki, but I also felt that there wasn't really a guide for complete noobies like me in the character guides. So this guide will basically introduce a Simple straight-foward MiBe for peope who have just started Dungeon crawl.

Why Minotaur Berserker?

Minotaur is probably the best race for beginners who have just started playing dungeon crawl. Other races like trolls and Hill orcs are also a good options but I think Minotaurs are much more flexible as they excel at using most weapon types except for short blades. Also, being able to eat rotten meat is awesome, but if you are just going for the three rune clear, you will probably get enough bread rations and meat rations by the time you finish lair. Even though they are crap at doing anything magic related, this won't matter to you as your class will be a berserker. So basically, minotaur has little better weapon aptitudes than hill orcs and don't have to worry about starving to death in the late game or have trouble looking for armour like trolls, making them perfect race for the beginners going for 3 rune clear.

In my opinion, berserker class is generally a better choice than fighter and other similar classes. Fighters do start with better equipments and a shield, but most times, you will manage to find something like chain mail and plate armour fast enough so starting with piece of animal skin and a weapon doesn't matter that much. In addition to that, you already begin with a god and an berserk ability that will pretty much get you through early games as long as you dont do something really stupid. Also, worshiping Okawaru is such pain in the ass when he gives you negatively enchanted gifts and berserk and Brother in arms is way better than hero and finesse. Makhleb I don't recommend because I got killed by demon I summoned.

useful controls and commands for beginners

Its a frustrating job to navigate through wall of text when you press ?? on the game screen so I'm going to introduce some useful commands so you don't have to spend hours looking for basic controls

o: pressing this will make you explore till you come across an enemy or items

tab: pressing this will make you kill things that you can kill. (DO NOT USE IT AGAINST STRONG ENEMIES)

5: pressing this will make you wait, so you will heal up. (DO NOT SPAM THIS as you will still wait if there is invisible monsters nearby and it makes you hungry too)

m: this opens up skill training menu

%: shows stats and resistances you have

A: shows mutations you have

,: makes you pick up things you want to pick up

r: reads things like scrolls or books

q: I don't know what quaff means but it makes you drink potions

p: makes you pray to whatever god you worship and offers sacrifice if you are worshiping gods that accept sacrifice (so doing this on a corpse will make you get weapons faster when you are worshiping trog)

c:chops up monsters so you can eat them (You cant eat poisonous meat if you don't have poison resistance though. Eat them whenever you are hungry instead of eating valuable rations or other food)

d: makes you drop things that you don't want. Pressing ctrl+d will ask you quantity of things you want to drop instead of dropping the whole thing

a: makes you use ability. pressing a? will describe abilites you have ( you will be pressing aa a lot )

z: makes you cast spells (you won't have any though)

\: you can choose items you don't want to pick up

>: makes you go down stairs

<: makes you go up stairs

This is probably all the commands you really need to know to explore dungeon fast and efficiently

Useful things to know

To start with,I would like to point out that you are capable of moving diagonally. Keys for doing this is extremely confusing but you will get used to it after dying few times by moving to wrong directions. (Probably a good idea to use mouse for diagonal movements)

Regarding to stairs, anything except for undead and player ghosts will follow you up or downstairs if they are next to you when you are going up or downstairs. This can be used to pick off enemies so you don't have fight a whole horde.

Normally, You want to fight in a narrow hallway so you only have to grind one enemy at a time. However, since this game lets you attack diagonally, remember that there are times 2 or 3 enemies can hit you at the same time.

Chop up monsters eat them whenever you are hungry. Especially if you have gourmand. Don't worry about contaminated meat because it doesn't do anything negative accept for giving you less nutrition. Don't eat bread ration or meat ration unless you are starving.

Oh yeah, to attack, you just gotta move towards the thing that you want to attack.

Starting off

1.Choose minotaur berserker

2.Choose Mace as your starting weapon

weapon choices

Reason I choose mace as my starting weapon is because the end game weapon you will be using is either demon whip or eveningstar and both of them don't need too much skill training. This means that you have room to change your main weapon to a good lajatang or something when you find a good artefect during mid game.

Skill training

You won't be training too much skills as you won't be learning any spells You will be maxing out

Fighting

Armour

Dodging

You will only put certain number of points in

Maces and flails (12 if you are using demon whip and 16 if you are using Eveningstar)

Or if your main weapon is staves

Staves (14)

Shields (20)

And don't be afraid to put in few points on evocations or ranged weapons later on.

Remember that you don't have to invest points in staves if you aren't going to use one and vice versa for mace and shields.

Trog

This is the god you will worship for the rest of the game unless you've gone nuts and accidentally abandon him for Okawaru. I will briefly explain what his abilities do as they are pretty straight foward.

Burn spellbooks: Burns a spellbook and your piety rises. you can use it as landmines but most times you don't really need to.

Berserk: Reason why you worship Trog. Turns you into Chuck norris for few turns, lasts a bit longer when you kill something. Use it when you see something dangerous or your health is under half way and you really wanna do a death match with something. DO NOT USE if you are lethally poisoned or you gotta run away from something

Hand of Trog: Gives you some MR and heals you over time. I don't really use this as much as berserk but still pretty useful. Mainly stops Sigmund or Grinder from giving you those nasty disabled effects or saves you from dying from poison.

Brother in arms: Summons you a berserked bro who will pretty much kill everything. Probably use this when your piety level is ***** unless you really need it. Spam it about 3 times if you are in really really big fights than go berserk yourself or just use it once when you are fighting a horde of things.

Also trog gives you weapons when you kill and sacrifice bunch of things. He will probably give you something useless like slings or weapons that you aren't training but I guarantee you that he will give you your endgame weapon at some point.

Early game phase

So as you start the game, press m. Turn everything off except for mace and flail. Spam tab and o and clear out the first few floors of dungeon. Yeah, most times you will do something stupid and die to something that you shouldn't have tab spammed but you wouldn't really have anything good anyways. Do not drink any potions till you find potion of mutation using identify scroll. Do not equip any rings or amulets before identifying them. Also, look for any type of metallic armour that happens to be lying around and put them on. Steal some whips off kobolds and carry few of them just in case your mace gets corroded. Look for flails and other dnagerous looking maces. If you happen to bump into Crazy Yiuf. You might get end game cloak and get quaterstaff of chaos. You can consider changing your main weapon to staves than. Don't bother identifying enchanted armour or weapons if you happen to find one in early games. If they are really badly cursed, just press cntrl Q and restart the game. Having said that, If you happen to find something like ring of poison resistance or some good piece of equipments in the first few floors, try to be little more careful when you are spamming tab and o. At some point, your maces and flail will be around 11 so try not to put more than you need by turning on other skills you gotta train. (I generally stop at 12 because eveningstar is much more harder to find than demon whips)

Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough

Stop spamming tab key if you come across

orc priest: These green bastards use smite, which can hurt you like hell. They can cast this on you as long as you are in their line of sight. Even worse, they hide behind bunch of orcs so you cant reach them. Best thing to do is get out of their sight, and lure them to melee but if you cant do this, use berserk and beat the hell out of his green togas but make sure your berserk dont run out before you kill all of em

orc wizard: Not as bad as green togas but these purple porks turn invisible and cast confusion on you, which can probably kill you if there is a priest to snipe you with those smites. If you are so annoyed by invis, narrow pass + berserk will prob easily kill them. Also, potion of curing cures confusion (took me about 50 trys till I found that out)

orc warrior: If you see him, don't ask. Just use berserk and kill him. If you are exhausted, run. He is pretty much a strong orc. That's pretty much it. If you are lucky, he will give you very early plate mail.

gnoll: For some reason, they carry lots of branded polearms and spears which hurts quite a lot in the early game. if your life is under half, consider running away if you are far away from them or just use berserk and do death match if you cant run. If you've been tab spamming and have like 5-6 life, you are probably dead even if you use berserk.

jelly: Not really something that could kill you directly, but it corrodes your equipment. And as you Tab spam, you will end up with mace with -3 attack and good things like that. Thats why I told you to carry bunch of whips and flails you loot from kobolds and gnolls. True story, my gargoyle starved to death when I tab spammed against Queen ant with negatively enchanted mace.

Sigmund: Your worst nightmare in the early games. Basically a stronger version of orc wizard but that probably isn't enough to describe this ugly santa. He confuses you, turns invisible and hurts you like hell with his spells and scythe. you will probably die 50% times if you see him. Other times, you might be able to run away or beat the crap out of him with berserk. If you are going to kill him, use hand of trog so he cant confuse you than berserk so you can send him back to north pole even if he is invisible. After killing him, half of your early game threat is pretty much gone.

Grinder: Not as bad as Sigmund but still have quite high chance of killing you. He uses paralyze and teleports so be careful when you deathmatch him using berserk. Most times, you don't even need berserk to kill him but If you meet him very early on, you probably wanna be little more careful.

Prince Ribbit: Pretty much a blink frog. Except you have chance of seeing him pretty early. Could be really annoying cause he might blink at the same time you activated your berserk. You probably need some luck to kill him if you encounter him in early dungeons.

Other than that, things wielding good wands might kill you but normally, berserk will save your ass most of the times. Player ghosts, you probably can easily kill them with your berserk

Early game summary

Spam Tab and O until you find something good (plate armour, Shield, good weapon, ring of poison resistance)

Don't spam Tab on hard enemies

Don't be afraid to use berserk any time but make sure you are not very hungry or exhausted so you CAN actually use berserk

Check your weapons frequently so you don't have badly corroded weapon. Probably stick with branded weapon or flail at least. Whips are pretty crap (unless it has electric brand).

Mid game Phase

You probably tab spammed your way infront of the entrance of lair or orcish mines by now. This will be around dungeon7-11. You should have at least chain mail as your armour and maybe found a shield and good branded weapon in your hands. Go straight into the lair, or you may with to finish level 1 and 2 of orcish mines hoping to find a shop that might sell an end game Armour. Inside the Lair, you can probably spam tab on most of the things but those komodo dragons give you sickness that prevents you from healing. So make sure you explore with full health at all times by spamming 5 after a good fight. You will probably find enough food in here to last you throughout the game and probably it won't be too hard clearing out the lair. You might bump into few branches like spider's nest and swamp, but don't enter it just yet. Go all the way down to Lair8 and you will probably find something useful. If you have good enough fire resistance or cold resistance Probably good idea to enter ice cave or volcano as they will definitely give you piece of Armour that has according resistance. (Especially Fire resistance for the end game) After clearing out Lair, Finish Orc mines. DO NOT even bother going into elven halls though.

Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough

Spiny frog: Especially if you don't have good piece of Armour and poison resistance. They just pack helluva damage and poison hurts like hell.

Blink frog: They always come in hordes and blink away from you as you cast Berserk. If you are wearing something like plate mail and have good weapon to kill them fast enough, they will be easy to kill. If you have poor equipments, probably summon a bro and fight ins a narrow hallway.

Death yak: Chuck Norris of all the Yaks. Find a narrow hallway (or make one with wand of digging or disintegration) berserk, and beat the crap out of them. To be honest, they are only scary when you accidentally tab spammed into horde of them or you got turned into stone by catoblepas.

Dire elephant: Basically a Death Yak version of an Elephant. Do the same thing you do with Death yaks but bear in mind that they can knock you back.

Electric eel : They shoot electricity at you. Hurts like hell if you don't have relec. Either move out of their sight or do deathmatch with them. Don't chicken out though because you will probably end up dying anyways if you do.

basilisk: Turns you into stone. Very dangerous if you turn into stone while being gored by Death yaks and other things. Fight in hallway to prevent this from happening

Catoblepas : Probably the 2nd worst thing to see in the lair. I think it only appears on L8. It shoots random dust that turns you into stone after 2 turns if you stand in it. Move out of it. However, if you are standing in a narrow passage, you are pretty much stuffed. Some horrible things like this could happen. You've gone berserk to kill hydra -> you turn into stone because of dust-> Berserk runs out -> Hydra kills you.

Brain worm : Normally, wouldnt be too much of a problem for you but sometimes ther are whole bunch of them and turn you brainless. You forget to breath and die. To prevent this, potion of restore abilities or ring of sustain abilities.

Hydra : If you are using mace, wouldn't be too dangerous. Still use berserk though. If you are using anything bladed(Lajatang is bladed too), summon a Bro and go berserk and kill him before he kills you. Probably one of the most dangerous things in the Lair.

Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough

Orc sorcerer : Summons annoying demons like neqoxec. Kill him before demons hurt you

Orc high priest: Smites you, summons demons and there are whole bunch of them in orc 4. If you have lots of health, summon bunch of bros and berserk and focus him down. If your health is low, just use blink scroll or something, run away to orc 3, heal up and fight him again.

Orc warlord: Strongest orc of all except for Roka. Just make sure you don't have too much on your plate and use berserk and summon bro to kill him.

Saint Roka : I doubt you will see him in the orcish mines at all but if you do see him, make sure you are not fighting unending tsunami of orcs at the same time. use stair fishing to take few orcs at a time. When you clear most of the orcs, use the same way to kill orc warlord.

Mid game summary

Still tab and o spam but when you see something that looks dangerous, right click on them and if you see they are extremely dangerous, use berserk or bro summon

You might end up being sent to abyss. 90% of the time, its game over but if you are lucky, you might get out if you run towards one direction and find exit.

Be really careful when exploring orc 4

Mid game Branches

Your way to first 2 runes

Now that you've cleared out lair and orcish mines and explored up to D15. You probably discovered vault on the way but you can't enter it because you don't have any runes. Than, it is time for you to finish one of the branches in the lair. I wish you got something easy like spiders nest and swamp. Shoals and snakes pit is HARD.

The Swamp

Probably the easiest branch for you as long as you have poison resistance and relec (see invisible is good to have too). Make sure you don't fight in the water too much and summon bros when you have too much things trying to kill you. There aren't too many narrow hallways to fight monsters but generally, things in here aren't too strong to kill you except for few uniques and one helluva bastard named vapor. There are 5 levels of swamp and you will find your first (or second) rune on the 5th level which is probably full of swamp dragons and other good stuff like that.

Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough

Alligator They are probably faster than you most of the time and pack helluva punch. Don't fight them in water

Vapour : I'm so glad they are getting rid of him in 0.15. Invisible,shoots electricity. Biggest pain in the swamps. HAVE RELEC

Thorn lotus : I'm not too sure what they shoot at you but it hurts like hell. + they run away from you into deep water so you can't kill them. Use a wand of fireball or something.

Thorn hunter: Similar to their plant cousin but this one doesn't run away. Still packs a punch though.

Swamp dragon : Reason why you need poison resistance in the swamp. They pack a punch and can knock you back so you probably wanna use summon bros and berserk if you see more than 1 of them.

The Lernaean hydra : You unlucky bastard. Run if you hear tree breakingx27. Unless you are wearing something like crystal plate armour or something, you probably have to summon 2-3 bros and do berserk death match with him. If there are other things like swamp dragons though, forget what I said and run. You probably can't kill him unless you are 1v1 with him and have really high AC.

Swamp summary

Fight on dry lands as much as possible

Don't fight more than 2 hydras or swamp dragons at same time

Use stair fishing as much as possible

Kill vapours Kill them all

Have poison resistance and relec

The Shoals

I hate this place. I hate this place so much and I died here so many times. Make sure you have high AC and MR above ++++ along with cold resistance and if you have perma fly, you probably can finish this place as your first rune branch. Pretty much everything in here is able to kill you quite easily if you cant fly and there are mermaids which mesmerizes you and drags you into the water. I'd recommend clearing out shoals after you get your first rune and clear few levels of depth or vaults. Like the Swamp, rune is located in 5th level and be really careful when you explore shoals. DO NOT TAB SPAM in here unless you are strong enough to survive vaults. Also, if you happen to have potion of invisibility, things are going to be a bit easier so don't be afraid to use it all in here.

Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough

Mermaid : Mesmerizes you and drag you into deep water. During all that, there will be merfolks poking you with tridents and cyclopses and manticores throwing rocks and barbs at you. Just kill her fast. You can just laugh at her if you do happen to have high MR though.

Siren : Pretty much does what mermaid does but also summons things. Deal her like you deal with mermaids though.

Manticore: Throws barbs at you. Barbs hurt you when you move. You die. I didn't know you could prevent barbs from hurting you by not moving as most of the things in shoals have reaching attack. However, being a melee, you gotta move to kill things. Hide behind the walls so he can't shoot barbs at you than melee him to death.

Alligator snapping turtle: Packs helluva damage with really bulky amount of health. Make sure you use berserk to kill him and make sure you won't have to deal with other monsters when you are killing him. He moves really slowly so you can kite him too.

Satyr: One of the reasons that makes me recommend shield. probably an inferior version of yaktaur and hurts you because they normally attack you from places you cant reach them. Fight him like you fight centaur.

Ilsuiw: Sees invisible and throws icicles at you. Thats why you would need a cold resistance. Will be easier if you have High MR, Shield and Cold res. Otherwise don't go into shoals 5 because there is a very good chance of bumping into her and horde of merfolks ready to poke you to death.

Shoals summary

Don't go in here without High AC, High MR and Cold resistance

try to hide in some of the small rooms and fight as less number of merfolks possible

Be extra careful

Don't spam tab

Don't move if you have barbs

Use invisibility as much as you can but remember that Ilusiw can see you

Spider's nest

Probably as easy as Swamps but make sure you have Poison resistance and See invisible. There are only few things to watch out for and you probably won't have too much problem clearing this place out. This doesn't mean you won't die here though. Watch out for Orb spiders.

Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough

Tarantella : They confuse you. Combined with orb of destruction or ghost moth, they will probably kill you if you don't have potion of curing

Orb spider:Annoying as hell spiders that shoots Orb of destruction at you. They are fast and they try to run away from you. You probably wanna tab spam them as long as there are no other spiders trying to kill you. Otherwise, use scroll of fear or invisibility so you can 1v1 them. Orb of destruction hurts like hell.

Ghost moth: They are invisible and drain mana. Draining mana isn't a problem for you at all but being invisible and packing helluva bite is a big problem for you.

Spiders nest summary

Have Rpoison and see invis

Watch out for orb spiders

Have enough potion of curing to heal confusion

Snake Pit This place is as bad as Shoals but luckily, nagas are slow and there are many narrow hallways to fight them one by one. However, You need lots of resistances like poison, fire, magic and electricity along with AC because nagas are so strong. You will also need few blink scrolls and teleport scrolls in case they are carrying distortion arrows. Also, having scrolls of immolation will immensely help out clearing the last level.

Things that might kill you if you aren't careful enough

Basically, fighting with any non green nagas in a open is dangerous. Treat them like you are fighting a strong melee enemy and make sure

Naga mage: Teleports other things or you. If you get teleported, there is good chance of you being teleported to group of nagas. This is why you need high MR