Choosing a god

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In Crawl, one's choice of god has a significant impact your game.

How Do I Choose a God?

There are two ways to choose a god. The quickest is to begin the game with a background that worships one by default: Berserkers, Abyssal Knights, Chaos Knights all begin the game serving a particular god. The former two also receive a small head start on piety.

Alternatively, you can find an altar dedicated to a god along the way, stand on it, and pray (with either '<' or '>' keys). When asked if you want to join its religion, press y to accept. They can be found as follows:

• Most gods will have an altar in the Ecumenical Temple, a harmless branch located between Dungeon floors 4 and 7.
• A faded altar can spawn between floors 1 and 3, giving you access to a random god.
• If the temple lacks a particular altar, it is guaranteed to be located between floors 3 and 10, with the following exceptions:
  • Beogh's altar can be found in the Orcish Mines, but having a conscious (i.e. not asleep, paralyzed, etc.) orc priest or orc high priest in view grants hill orcs the ability to convert to Beogh on the spot.
  • Lugonu's altar can be found in the Abyss or occasionally in a corrupted version of the Ecumenical Temple.
  • Jiyva's altar can be found on the sixth floor of the Slime Pits, occasionally in the Lair and lower dungeon floors, and very rarely in the Temple as an early jelly vault.

You can only worship one god at a time. If you abandon a god's religion or switch to another god, you'll incur penance. The three good gods (Zin, Elyvilon, or The Shining One) will only react if your new god is evil, or chaotic if your god is Zin. Note that if you do switch from a good god to a non-evil one, and later switch to an evil god, you will face penance from both abandoned gods. Ru also has no penance, except the sacrifices you willingly made.

What do all the *** mean?

The asterisks are an indication of your piety, or your current standing with your god. Higher piety generally means more and stronger god-granted powers. See the piety article for more details.

God Choosing Disclaimer

Going into the mindset of picking one god and the best god for your character may not be the best idea. For example; lets say you are predetermined to start with Okawaru. D:3 provides an altar to Nemelex Xobeh, an unconventonial but perfectly fine god. Meanwhile, Okawaru's altar may not spawn until D:9. Worshipping Nemelex would've given you ** to **** piety by the time you get started with Okawaru! Of course, this doesn't prevent you from picking a god; to learn them, or even just for fun. This article can't change how you want to play the game.

Primary Melee Fighters

These gods work best for characters who primarily kill monsters with weapons rather than with spells.

Okawaru the Warmaster

Okawaru is the "default" god for melee characters. You gain piety by killing; high-HD (strong) monsters are more rewarding.

His simple, straightforward effectiveness has made him one of the most popular, yet criticized, gods in the Crawl pantheon. He provides two active invocations to the player:

Heroism, obtained at 1*, gives a +5 bonus to every non-magic skill. This is an incredibly cheap ability, and one easy to underestimate. Use this for every fight you might have trouble in; it will save more precious consumables.

Finesse doubles your attack speed, and obtained at *****. Approximately 8 Invocations is required to get a decent success rate; but failing costs nothing but MP and your turn. Double attack speed is strong; stronger than even a Berserk, with no downsides other than piety loss. This can turn many otherwise dangerous fights into a cakewalk.

After the activated abilities come the gifts of weapons, armour, shields, and ammo. Many individual items will be of little permanent use, but by the end game you will likely find yourself using mostly god-given equipment. While Trog will also provide weapons, Okawaru is the only god who bestows armour and shields as gifts.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Most melee characters not already worshipping another god. Primarily melee builds who use magic, such as Gnolls, Transmuters, and Warpers. Any character who desires rare equipment (quick blades, rare darts).

Trog the Furious

Trog is the most offensive-minded melee fighter's god. Piety is gained by killing living monsters, demons, holies and spellcasters. His abilities are tremendously useful throughout the game. These abilities are based off of piety; not Invocations, giving you leeway to invest into other skills.

Berserk - immediately gained as a Berserker - temporarily provides massive boosts to damage, speed, and HP. But Berserk prevents you from using useful potions or scrolls, and ending berserk will slow you. Make sure that you've separated and killed every monster around you, or at least a means to escape.

Trog's Hand gives temporary regeneration and magic resistance, and is one of the few ways for a Deep Dwarf to heal. It pales in comparison to the other two abilities, but is useful against monsters who would otherwise banish or paralyse you.

Brothers in Arms summons always friendly, always berserk ogres, trolls, bears, and giants. Berserk gives monsters an even stronger buff to damage; in small numbers, they are more than a match for nearly every enemy in the game, including orbs of fire! Summon brothers early, and summon often; losing piety is much less dangerous than your life.

However, learning, training, or casting magic of any kind will offend Trog. Note that he doesn't mind use of magic scrolls, potions, staves, wands, or rods. In addition, his non-training of Invocations can be a mixed blessing; since if you plan to switch to another god, you'll have to spend time working on that as well.

Trog is a great god for a player new to Crawl, or for any melee character who plans only for a three or four rune run.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Any character with zero short term interest in magic. Trolls, Ogres, Minotaurs, Merfolk, and Hill Orcs will have the easiest time due to their excellent melee aptitudes. Berserk and Borthers in Arms are both such a strong abilities for a starting god that even Deep Elves Berserker is a strong, albeit not recommended, choice.

The Shining One the Righteous

The Shining One is a slightly more defensive-minded god who crusades against evil. He will protect you from negative energy and may intervene to save your life. You'll gain piety gradually from discovering monters, and also when you destroy evil or unholy monsters such as the undead, demons, or priests of other religions.

The Shining One is tremendously useful for the Hells, Pandemonium, and Tomb. He grants you HP and MP for demon/undead kills (often allowing you to avoid having to rest in those areas), gives you rN+++, and holy attacks that are extremely effective for killing the lords of Pandemonium and Hells and everything in Tomb.

Immediately, you'll be surrounded by a halo that, within its range, increases your accuracy and reveals all invisible things - including yourself. This halo will reduce your stealth, and TSO forbids stabs on natural (non demonic or animal) monsters. You get a Divine Shield early on, which grants you temporary SH.

Eventually, you'll get Cleansing Flame, which hits every enemy in a 2 tile radius around you. It only becomes effective at high Invocations against demons and undead, but it is a ridiculously powerful AOE tool once you get there. Even if you get constantly tormentted, TSO's HP on kills means you can keep spamming Cleansing Flames until enemies around you are dead.

You get the ability to summon Angels and Daevas at 5*, and they are strong summons. Angels are fast, use holy-branded weapons, and have late-game stats; able to compete in Zot and the extended game easily.

Make sure you bless a weapon at 6* before taking on the Hells or Pandemonium: use the best weapon you've got. Blessing Demon Whips, Demon Tridents, and Demon Blades will turn them into their respective holy variants, making them acceptable for TSO users.

Although a great choice for late-game because of the prevalence of undead and demons, gaining piety with The Shining One is painstakingly slow outside. His abilities only take off when your Invocations skill is high. And you will not be able to use necromancy or poison related items and spells (including Borgnjor's Vile Clutch and Necromutation). Therefore, many experienced players start off with a different god to get up to Zot, then switch to The Shining One when they are about to enter the branches where their holy powers are most useful. Elyvilon is a strong choice if you want to switch to The Shining One early, because you won't suffer her wrath; transferring piety instead. Starting with Okawaru or Trog are also a great choices, because they are effective where TSO is not; and provide useful gifts. Once you are ready to take on the Pandemonium, switch to The Shining One and head for the Crypt, where you can even reach maximum piety. You will suffer wrath, but you should be able to survive at this point (Blink and run away).

Undead and Demonspawn characters may not follow him, and casting Necromutation will result in excommunication.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Melee characters with dreams of the fifteen runes that lie in undead/demon heavy branches, such as the Abyss, the Crypt, the Tomb, Pandemonium, and the Hells. Those with good Invocations aptitudes, such as Hill Orcs, Merfolk, and Deep Dwarves, are particularly well-suited.

Primary Spellcasters

On the other hand, if magic is your character's planned forte, you'll find Sif Muna, Vehumet, or Kikubaaqudgha more to your liking.

Sif Muna the Loreminder

Sif Muna is the "default" god for spellcasters. Of the three, she is the least demanding, and the most predictable. Her primary ability is spellbook acquirement: as you gain piety, she will gift you spellbooks, each guaranteed to have at least one spell you haven't yet found, weighted toward your current magic skills. Eventually, you will have access to every spell in the game.

Also central is channeling; a * ability that gives you MP at the cost of a turn. This allows easy course correction if you get cornered with no MP.

Divine Exegsis is acquired late, but allows you to cast any spell in your library.

Piety gain is straightforward: kill most monsters. Note that the only ways to lose piety are to "forget her," which is difficult to do as your piety decays extremely slowly (about one point every 2000 turns).

Sif Muna starts off slow, but the boost to spells remains consistent throughout the entire game. And you still retain access to every spell; even if you leave Sif Muna.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Any and all magic users, though pure casters will gain piety (and usefulls spellbooks) much faster. If your primary target is to just gain destructive spells consider Vehumet. If you want to focus on Necromancy Kikubaaqudgha is a more straightforward choice. Over an infinite time Sif Muna will give you all spells, but that won`t help you if you need Conjurations or Necromancy now.

Vehumet the Battlemage

Vehumet is the god for offensive mages, for whom piety is gained through the bringing of death, which his rewards further supplement.

Vehumet provides passive abilities, making him a strong, low-management god if you're new at playing a spellcaster. Killing monsters will grant you piety and may restore some MP. Later, Vehumet will reduce the chance of conjuration failure and increase your conjurations' range.

Like Sif Muna, Vehumet will gift you with spells. Unlike Sif, you get "only" 15 spells; and they start once you hit *..... piety. The last 3 spells will always be 3 level 8 or 9 conjurations, and available as long as you worship Vehumet.

While Vehumet doesn't provide any active abilities, that's also its downfall. Casters who run out of MP, or find themselves in a very tough situation, will find no support from the Battlemage. Unless in a Ziggurat, you won't receive enough MP on kill for your spells. Meanwhile, Sif Muna provides channeling and Kiku provides a mountain of corpses. But a castable Fire Storm might as well be an active ability... once you get it running.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Conjurers and dedicated nukers of all kinds. Common ones include Demonspawn Wizards, Deep Elf Fire Elementalists, and Spriggan Venom Mages. Tengu, with good aptitudes for Conjurations but a poor aptitude for Invocations, are especially suited for Vehumet.

Kikubaaqudgha the Soulstealer

Kikubaaqudgha is the god of the necromantic arts. Piety is gained by killing most monsters.

Spellcasters who dabble in darker domains can opt to worship Kikubaaqudgha. This demon-god appreciates the slaying of living things and demons.

Kiku will allow you to summon corpses very quickly (1* piety) and very cheaply. Combine this with guaranteed Necromancy spellbooks at * and ***, and any character can create an army on demand. This only gets stronger throughout each branch; with zombies remaining competitive all the way to Zot. They level off in the extended game, though.

But in extended; the Hells, Pandemonium, and Tomb, one thing is common - Torment. Kiku provides partial torment protection more comprehensive than TSO. And given a corpse, you can even invoke your own Torment (just not in those three branches).

At 6* of piety, Kiku will provide one of two gifts. Either the the Pain brand on a weapon of your choice, or a collection of high level Necromancy spells (Haunt, Borgnjor's Revivification, Necromutation, and Death's Door). The pain brand will be immediately powerful to any character, even those with little physical training; pain's damage is determined by attack speed and Necromancy. The collection of spells are incredibly useful late game, along with torment resistance.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Any character aspiring to become well versed in Necromancy, for differing reasons. The undead races especially profit from an easy way to torment your enemies without hurting themselves.

"General" Gods

Instead of choosing a god who will simply enhance your character's specialization, you can also go with a god who shores up your weaknesses or who'll provide some emergency help.

Makhleb the Destroyer

Makhleb is the god of violent death. Followers earn piety by killing enemies for the Destroyer.

Doing so will eventually grant you a chance to heal some HP when killing your foes. This creates synergy with anything that can kill; and kill fast - Axes come to mind. Makhleb is often the god chosen for speedruns for this purpose. The healing alone would make any melee character into a supreme force, but Makhleb also comes with strong invocations.

Lesser and Greater Destruction are decently strong ranged attacks. The former only costs 1 HP, while the latter takes piety out some time. Greater Destruction is notable for its piercing bolts, many a which are defunct spells.

Lesser and Greater Demons are both strong summons when you get them. Lesser demons can take out hydras, while Greaters remain strong allies (who can spawn hostile!). Allies in general are strong, reducing the amount of hits directed at you while increasing damage output, and these demons are no exception.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Most melee characters. Special synergy with those with hampered regeneration: [{Deep Dwarves]], Vampires, and Ghouls. Djinni looking to cast spells as much as possible.

Yredelemnul the Reaper

Yredelemnul is the dark god of death. By following him, your character can learn various necromancy-related powers via Inovcation; not spellcasting or necromancy.

By pure worship, you will gain the ability of Animate Skeleton and soon, Animate Dead. Unlike those spells, Yred-created zombies are permanent (but still can't follow through floors). Difficult enemies can be taken out with the help of your army just one space above.

Yred will supply you with minions that do follow you through floors, and they are excessively powerful. Nothing's more fun than an early bone dragon! Bone Dragons and Profane Servitors will give you the tools to deal with everything up until Zot (unfortunately, they get roasted by an orb of fire), no matter how weak your character is.

Yred will also give you some extra tools. You can reflect damage taken to your enemies. And y ou can drain life from every enemy in line of sight, gaining an Invocations-dependent amount of health. Both of these abilities are rather expensive piety wise, so use them wisely.

RBe aware, however, that in the extended endgame (i.e. Tomb, Pan, Hell), gaining piety with Yred is very difficult and his servants will be outclassed. Luckily, his wrath is relatively light, making a switch easy.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Any sort of character who wants some free, powerful allies and some potent panic buttons. His important abilities are redundant to Necromancy or Summoning, and get in the way of Conjurations, meaning it is more often melee characters who favor Yred.

Beogh the Brigand

Beogh can only be worshipped if your character is a Hill Orc. In exchange, he grants the ability to convert orcs into allies!

Orcs will join you when they see you, when you nearly kill them, or when you would have killed them. You get a better conversion chance with higher piety and level, so waiting to complete the (now extremely easy) Orcish Mines is definitely a strategy. They can take out Zot, if by your help and sheer numbers, but struggle in the task of taking over Hell or Pandemonium. Beogh will gift Orcs XP as you gain it; they will eventually level up into Orc Warlords and be given weapons. Polearms are especially nice for your army, able to hit behind you / other orcs for extra damage.

Beogh also gives you access to a powerful Smite. It is quite expensive in piety; but nothing else uses it! It is a guaranteed hit on any enemy within LOS. Take out threatening uniques in just a few turns or an an annoying boggart or opposing orc high priest.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Only Hill Orcs may worship Beogh. Hill Orc Monk is a decent combination. Hill Orc is a strong species, while finding Beogh late will setting your character way behind on piety. Like Yred, Beogh is redundant with Summonings and Necromancy, and orcs may get in the way of some destructive Conjurations.

Elyvilon the Healer

Elyvilon the Healer... heals. In addition to flat healing, you can cure drain/stat loss and pacify others. As one of the "good gods", she does not accept undead or demonspawn worshippers, and allows switching to a non-evil god.

Elyvlion's tools are plain, but powerful. Healing can turn the tides of battle, give you enough healing to escape, and save your life. Almost nothing can outdamage 50+ hp per turn. Divine Protection will also save your life; whenever by activating it or by the standard good god chance. You can also Heal Other; pacifying animal and intelligent non-demon monsters. Ely doesn't change your playstyle, but supplements it, and gives the leeway to play a little more recklessly.

Recommended race and class combinations: Any character with trouble surviving in combat can make use of her healing abilities. Good candidates include Deep Dwarves, who can't heal naturally.

Lugonu the Unformed

Lugonu is the god of the Abyss, with every ability revolving around his power.

When starting as an Abyssal Knight, or otherwise banished to the Abyss, Lugonu will provide an immediate way out of their hell. This costs a small amount of piety, in exchange for your safety. If you had another god at this point, you'll have to face their wrath, too. This ability also makes the Abyssal rune a cakewalk, especially when combined with Lugonu's passive rune spawn buff.

More powerful than unbanishing yourself, is banishing monsters back. Scaling off Invocations, Lugnou gives you the ability to banish any enemy, checking willpower in the process. Dangerous uniques are no more - with a Scroll of Vulnerability, [[the Royal Jelly] can be sent to hell! Keep your distance and watch your piety; Banish, like other hexes, doesn't have the greatest success rates. But don't prohibitively watch your piety; worshipers can live just fine without their higher tier invocations.

The Corruption ability, given at *****, makes many branch ends, including Zot:5, easier. This comes from two reasons; you break otherwise impassible stone walls, and the swarms of neutral, high level monsters who duke it out with natural inhabitants. You can only corrupt once, but that's all you need.

You can banish yourself too. This is an incredibly costly ability: all your MP, a large chunk of your HP, a huge piety cost, and it leaves you in still dangerous Abyss. But is the Abyss more dangerous than Zig:27? Finally, you can break a weapon with distortion at 6*

Recommended race and class combinations: Any character, preferably melee, seeking alternative means for dealing with particularly meddlesome monsters and levels. Characters already banished to the Abyss who desperately need a way out. Lugonu is rare to find outside of the Abyss and the Abyssal Knight start.

Zin the Law-Giver

Zin is the god of order. He hates any form of mutation; and provides protection from them. Piety is gained from gold donation or killing demonic/undead monsters, which hurts on your shopping supply. But it does make gaining piety with a late-game character quite easy.

His most notable ability is Sanctuary; which scares monsters within a 9-tile radius and prevents almost all attacks. It is nigh-absolute. Almost every situation, every mistake, can be solved by using Sanctuary, especially near a staircase. And if you don't have stairs, at least you can heal or teleport away!

Recite is a free, 1* piety ability; helpful in dealing with particularly dangerous demons, undead, or priests. Why not use it - its a free combat buff. Anything that uses breath is usable but will cancel Recite. Zin also provides ability to Imprison dangerous monsters, and Vitalize your stats.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Zin works well for any strong character (or player!) looking for safety against incredibly dangerous situations and mutations.

Exotic/Challenging Gods

The following gods grant unreliable benefits or are simply more challenging to worship than others.

Fedhas Madash the Natural

Fedhas Madash is the god of plants, allowing you summon plant allies to aid you in battle.

Fedhas is a high-Invocations god. From 0*, you gain the ability to pass and shoot through plants, and peace from oklob plants. Enemies will delay in getting past plant walls; especailly when you create thorny briar plants with your 1* ability. Use this to get away, or to hit enemies safely.

The real invocations come with rapid-fire ballistomycetes and oklob plants, obtained at 4* and 5* respectively. They are stronger than their enemy counterparts, and like any summon, will support a Fedhas worshipper through and through.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Characters who can afford to invest heavily into Invocations; especially Hill Orc and Demonspawn, who have a high aptitude.

Jiyva the Shapeless

Jiyva is the slime god - fittingly, only guaranteed to spawn in the Slime Pits. Assuming you can find them in the Temple or Lair, they are quite strong. Worshipers have to frantically run around grabbing items, before jellies devour them. But devoureditems gives you massive sums of piety.

Your body will constantly be changing with (usually) good mutations and inconsistent stats, while you can manually cure out of designated bad mutations. This trends towards Str with heavy armor, Int with high spell schools, or Dex if neither ability applies. These "good" mutations might prevent you from wearing a Hat of the Alchemist, or lower your AC, but they last for as long as they appear.

Slimeify is the real treat of Jiyva. It is a spammable ability (due to intense piety gain) that turns any threatening enemy into a neutral within 2 turns. (barring already insubstantials, including the orb of fire). Finally, Jiyva will unlock the Slimey Rune for free. However, you'll lose most of the items within the vault itself.

Jiyva is hard to recommend, if only because Jiyva altars are so late. Elyvilon gives you a god to chew on before you find Jiyva's altar. Alternatively, you can switch to Jiyva late-game upon gaining a particularly bad mutation you can't cure, such as teleportitis. Just make sure you haven't killed The Royal Jelly yet. Late game, you'll have had plenty of chances to spawn consumables already.

Recommended race and class combinations: Going into a game expecting to use any god is a bad mindset, and this couldn't be more true for Jiyva. Characters who struggle with any of the three 3rd runes and strong monsters, such as Felids or Spriggans, benefit most. Trolls, Vine Stalkers, and Vampires all enjoy faster regeneration, or less time for slimes to eat valuable items.

Xom the Unpredictable

Xom is an interesting god that'll likely cause you to die in a hilarious way. Most of his actions are either harmful, flavourful, or somewhat helpful. Eventually, Chaos Knights will end up with a large amount of beneficial mutations, but a god that'll still kill them on a whim.

Recommended Race and Class Combinations: Chaos Knights start off worshiping Xom. This is considered a "challenge class", and the game does not recommend it for any race.

Cheibriados the Contemplative

Cheibriados is the slow god; and has you undertake up to 10 aut slower movement (doubled time for regular classes). Being slow is a huge disadvantage; you can't reposition yourself or run away from an enemy without using some form of resource. But Cheibriados can give you means to escape; or prevent the need to escape all together.

As piety rises (by killing faster creatures), you will gain increased stats. At 6* piety, this equates to +15 Str, Int, and Dex. Chei worshipers can wear heavier armor while casting stronger spells and dodging more. Transolocations are most useful for slow characters. But these stats start as slow as Chei itself; and leave you vulnerable to many threats in the early dungeon without much compensation.

Slouch is a powerful invocation that always hits every enemy within LOS. Threatening screens can just be completely negated; at the cost of piety, of course. Step from Time is an ability that benefits from large spaces; monsters will wander away in due time, giving you at least the space to escape.

Cheibriados worshipers are punished for making a mistake. A single move can give 2-3* turns for every opponent you've seen. Being slow also changes how you play Crawl, entirely. Being flexible with how you play a slow character is a must.

Recommended race and class combinations: Nagas and Barachim are slower than most everything else in the dungeon, letting them gain piety at lightning speed with Chei and enhancing the damage output of Slouch even further. The latter has access to hop, giving a powerful and free repositioning tool.

Nemelex Xobeh the Trickster

Nemelex Xobeh allows you to use powerfully magical decks more safely. Playing with cards is time consuming and risky, but offers great utility and even more power than spells. Decks of summoning provide powerful allies, legendary decks of dungeon have the Trowel card (makes portals to bazaars and ziggurats), and decks of escape provide life-saving effects more powerful than anything else in the game (Tomb, Portal, and Warp).

Recommended race and class combinations: Any character who can use some powerful magic can usefully worship Nemelex Xobeh. Greater benefits fall to characters who are otherwise lacking magical options, or those with good Invocations. Melee oriented Deep Dwarves, Hill Orcs and Formicids especially can benefit.

Ashenzari the Shackled

Ashenzari is the bound god of Divination, and lets players identify items, see through walls, and gain knowledge of their equipment as you gain piety. Piety gain is easy; simply explore new areas and collect runes to access his powers. However, in order to access these gifts you must be as bound as he is, allowing your equipment to be cursed. How dangerous this trade-off is depends on your character and play style. Fortunately, Ashenzari doesn't mind if you uncurse yourself on occasion to switch gear.

However, Ashenzari is a great god for Pandemonium scumming/Ziggurat raiding. At that point you will likely have the best gear you can find, so you're fine to curse yourself permanently. Piety gain is extremely quick in the Abyss, so you can transfer XP constantly while there (as you will be frequently, between Pan trips.) Instant Ziggurat portal detection upon entering Pandemonium levels and free IDing for everything you find in there reduce the headaches involved tremendously.

Recommended race and class combinations: Ashenzari works well for characters that could use a boost in their abilities. He can help mediocre spellcasters cast things they would normally have trouble with, and average melee fighters can perform considerably better than average with his help.