Onei's Velvet-Pawed Path to Immortality Walkthrough - FeSu^Kikubaaqudgha/Jiyva

Version 0.31: 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This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised.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!

Another contender! Will you prove worthy, or rot like the rest?

Did you know 100% of deaths in DCSS are the result of taking damage? The common melee brute builds may appear efficient at first, but they suffer from a critical flaw - they let the enemy hit you. Every single time an enemy applies its claws, club, arrows, or reality shattering magic to your sensitive skin, you are exposed to the leading cause of mortality in the Dungeon. I therefore propose an alternative that will make your journey down into the depths 50% less painful, 100% less lonely, and most importantly, 300% fluffier.

The Felid Summoner.

It's not "evil magic"! It's recycling. Those bodies would have gone to waste.

Cats have a terrible reputation for being, supposedly, a “challenge species”, a “tedious ordeal of optimal play” or even an “unfun experience I’d never do again”. I’m here to inform you that this is all baseless canine propaganda, and I hope you too will learn to bow before your true feline masters as you read through this guide. As a feline Summoner, you will be able to laugh in the face of paralysis and other dastardly hexes (due to your nigh-unbreakable willpower), laugh in the face of invisible enemies (due to your intrinsic See Invisible passive), laugh in the face of melee enemies (due to your vast repertoire of loyal servants) and even occasionally laugh in the face of death (due to the extremely powerful ability to resurrect after you meet your demise).

This all comes at the high price of having the lowest amount of hit points in the game, and the inability to use any item besides scrolls, potions, evokables and jewellery. Thankfully, you won’t need any of the baubles inferior humanoids depend on, as you will delegate most of the dirty work to pathetically obedient underlings. Prepare to embark on a journey like no other - which will flip the game around completely, turning the lethal into the laughable, and the harmless into the horrifying.

This guide was written for DCSS version 0.31 (released in January 2024). The target audience here are players who have already won at least once, and would like a build off the beaten path of the tried and true brute/caster duality, or even their first Felid victory. While this is quite a complex way to play for a newcomer to Crawl (there are a lot of choices to make and a lot of ways to tackle each encounter), players still looking to snatch that elusive first win can also benefit, upgrade their threat assessment capabilities and significantly improve their tactics in such a way that may lead to victory, perhaps even with a completely different species/background combo!

I myself got my very first win with a Felid Summoner, and would be delighted to have new disciples of the Velvet-Pawed Path join me!

Travel Preparations (optional)

If you care about quality of life, I suggest editing your rc file (in online mode, it's the button right next to the "Play trunk/Play (current version)" button, and in offline mode, it's under the settings folder > init.txt). Add these at the very bottom, on new lines (though this is entirely optional - if you don't think constant confirmation prompts will bother you, feel free to proceed to the next chapter):

default_manual_training = true
show_more = false
fail_severity_to_confirm = 0
fail_severity_to_quiver = 5
tile_player_tile = tile:felid_2

In order, these will:

1. Prevent the very useless and dangerous Auto-training feature from working.

2. Will help you not press "Enter" every 5 seconds while 99 allies and enemies are fighting on the screen.

3. Will allow you to cast dangerous spells without a confirmation prompt.

4. Will allow you to quiver dangerous spells without a confirmation prompt.

5. For the reasonable among you, this will turn your likely very ugly Felid sprite extracted from the default rotation - which you may somehow find cute if you suffer from an utter lack of taste - into the objectively superior black counterpart. Secretly grants bonus Willpower from the sheer confidence your glossy black fur will exude (not scientifically tested). For those visually challenged by the black-fur-on-black-floor lack of contrast, tile:felid_4 or mons:natasha are also acceptable. Offline players can also press “-” and cycle through available sprites with left and right arrow keys while ingame.

Points 3 and 4 may be slightly controversial. The reason for this is simple - the "danger rating" of spells is based off your maximum HP, and as Felid has the lowest max HP in the game, even the actually very safe spell Call Canine Familiar will be labeled as "astonishingly dangerous" and constantly ask "are you sure????" when it's actually very safe, and in fact required for progression.

An Agonizing Introduction (XP Level 1)

As the title suggests, pick Felid for your species (ignore the “Advanced” difficulty: that’s merely a ploy to hide true power from your grasp). Pick Summoner for your background, as is wisely recommended by the game.

You probably know this already, but press "o" to autoexplore floors when no enemies are in sight, Ctrl-D to quick-travel to locations, and "5" to wait turns until you have restored HP/MP.

Upon starting your run, you will be met with the following:

• 9 pitiful HP points, enough to get two-shotted by a quokka, defended by a lonely, single point of AC.
• Complete lack of any items (except a measly consolation magic cocktail), weapons, or armour, and only three equipment slots for jewellery only. Felid culture prohibits equipping rings on your rear-limbs, as this is symbolic of the time one spent caged by their (now rightfully eviscerated) master.
• The pathetic ability to call forth fuzzy critters from the unfathomable depths of the eldritch cosmos.
• A deranged repartition of default skill training. Press “m”. If you haven’t set up your rc file as explained in the beginning of the tutorial, set training to “manual” mode (press “/” to do so). Then, turn off every skill except Spellcasting and Summonings. Important note: at any time, should you wish to review my suggested skill training plan, view the addendum at the end of this guide.
• Your first Extra Life, ripe to be harvested by possibly the very first foe you will encounter.

All of this is, to put it bluntly, utter trash. The good news is that XP level 1 and 2 are the only thing separating you from supreme feline domination. Please refer to the following advice to avoid becoming a delicacy in the next hobgoblin feast.

• Try to avoid being in melee range of anything that isn’t a “trivial creature” - which are bats, rats, frilled lizards and ball pythons. In the latter case, if a ball python hits you with the “Constrict” status, do NOT continue fighting and attempt to retreat until you have been cleansed from the status, at which point you may resume your rampage. If you are cornered or engaged in dangerous melee with 0 MP remaining, use your magic potion immediately. You may take one step in a foe’s reach to reposition, but always remember that most of the denizens of D:1 can two-shot you.
• Cast Summon Small Mammal twice for every encounter (press “p” to do so, or - if the game complains about you being too reckless - "z" then "a"). Bats are almost useless, rats are mediocre, and quokkas are somewhat passable. If you happen to pull forth one of the latter two from your interdimensional nonexistent hat, you may direct them to get their furry heads bashed in at the nearest available enemy. This is done by pressing “t” to bring up the ally command menu, and then pressing “a” and selecting the enemy you wish to submit to death by a thousand adorable critter bites. If your fuzzy friend meets an unfortunate end at the tip of a kobold’s dagger, there’s always more where that came from - bring on the onslaught until all opposition has been reduced to quokka food. You can have up to a maximum of 2 mammals simultaneously - replace the fallen with more units eager to die in your name. While your summons fight it out, feel free to distance yourself from the action, or to press “.” to allow the battle to unfold, occasionally shooting a “t”-“a” command to direct firepower. Trying to join the action is a certain way to die - remember, do NOT melee non-trivial creatures!
• Remember the golden rule of summoning: what you can’t see cannot be seen by your summons either. No ally can attack outside of Line-of-Sight (LOS) distance. If you want something to die, it has to be on your screen. The opposite is not necessarily true: while your feline senses let you see invisible enemies, all of the critters in your starting spells (except those from Call Canine Familiar) are not as fortunate.
• You can close doors behind you by pressing capital "C" - animals of all kinds do not have paws as dextrous as yours, and will be forced to scratch your impenetrable barricade while you rest and recuperate.
• Your summons can tank stones and other missiles for you if you stand behind them, but this is extremely unreliable (projectiles continue their trajectory if they are dodged). Additionally, keep an eye out for branded weapons! A single hit from either of these is enough to go from a pristine, full health scruff to a game over screen showing 3 unidentified scrolls of acquirement. Venom and Electrocution in particular are extremely lethal. Branded melee weapons are handled in the same way as dangerous creatures of D:1, that is, drowned in pettable fluffballs until the threat is vanquished and drops their dangerous item (possibly a +34 triple sword “lol you can’t use this play minotaur next time” {flaming, Slay+12, AC+10}).

Do NOT "kite" (walking away from a creature over and over while it is in melee range of you) your foes. You WILL get your snout slapped faster than you can say “YASD” (a traditional roguelike acronym for Yet Another Stupid Death). Each step gives enemies a 33% chance to attack you for free - a few tip-taps to reposition (and swap places with your ally) is fine, but eating attacks of opportunity for over 10 turns is asking to die.

Quite an agonizing experience so far, no? Are you beginning to doubt me? Do you lust to return to a race that starts with HP in the double digits? Foolish! After this, the fun begins.

Interdimensional Battle Tactics 101

All enemies of DCSS, from the gurgling jelly to the mighty Pandemonium Lord Cerebov, are extremely unintelligent. In a situation like:

@....
.....
..S..
...E.
.....

(where @ is you, S is a friendly summon, E is an enemy and . are floors), foes would rather hammer their way through your friend (which may be an eight-headed hydra zombie) to reach you, and certainly won’t think about just circling around to one-shot the squishy cat behind. You will need to abuse this as much as possible. Try to always ensure you are shielded behind your loyal servants. This, for example, is not acceptable:

..@..
.....
.....
..S..
...E.
.....

Since the enemy can directly trace a line between you and their position (imagine they’re trying to fire an arrow at you - if they can hit you, you’re not positioned correctly), they will ignore your ally and charge directly at you to slice themselves some fresh feline cutlets. In a situation such as this, it is preferable to either A) send out more allies to return to a more favourable state

..@..
.....
.....
.SSS.
...E.
.....

Or B), retreat to a hallway.

1-tile hallways are your saving grace as a Summoner. Look at the following situation, where # represent walls:

Situation 1

#####
S.@.E
#####

The enemy is possibly an ogre about to bash you into a bloodied furball. Casting your summoning spell placed your unit behind you. Simply walk backwards to swap places with your unit, watch the fight unfold (preferably from a distance), and if your soldier perishes in honourable battle, your MP should have regenerated while they were battling it out: simply send out a fresh combatant eager to finish the job.

#####
@..SE
#####

Zero risk, zero worry. Here’s another interesting case:

Situation 2

#####
@E..S
#####

Here, you got unlucky, and casting your spell spawned your unit behind the foe you are attempting to introduce to your friends. Inspect the enemy's melee damage by right-clicking them or pressing "x", moving the cursor on them, then pressing "v". If they can't oneshot you on the next turn, it's probably safe to try summoning some additional support, hoping they will spawn behind you and allow for a Situation 1 swap.

#####
@.E..
#####

A Devilish Upgrade (XP Level 2)

If you have reached this point, congratulations, you have won the game. You may now press Ctrl-Q to abandon the run, as objectively speaking, your chances of victory are now exactly 100.00%. Go bake some cookies. Take a nice walk in the park. Do anything else than watching pixelated animals fight. While being an animal yourself.

What? Still here? Very well.

Most of the Level 1 advice still applies, but you now have a little more room for mistakes. As soon as you level up and find yourself in a safe area, immediately memorize Call Imp by pressing "M", your new very mischievous addition to the roster. Press "z" then "b" to meet your new demonic friend. The unspeakably dark forces of Hell will be delighted to deliver you a dastardly blue imp proudly wielding a sharp stick.

This rampage machine is anything but (imp)otent. Savour the tears of the hobgoblins who once terrified you, revel in the yips of those pesky jackals - they will be poked, and there shall be no mercy. Imps will also occasionally compliment you and call you their “pillow-pawed master”, which is a step up from the blank stares of rats. Disregard these attempts to appeal to your nonexistent mercy, and send them to die in your name with more liberal usage of “t”-“a”. Unlike furry mammals, you may only have a maximum of one imp at a time.

At any moment, I encourage you to bring forth assistance from your previous, less talkative and much fuzzier friends! You may do this by either clicking the spell in the side menu (in offline mode) or pressing "p" or "za" again (in online mode). The total gang of three summons is now sufficient to circle enemies and dish out quick justice to anything on D:1. Keep being careful until you reach level 3. If D:1 fails to provide enough experience for this, carefully descend to D:2 to finish the job, but know that dealing with any of the D:2 new enemies that weren’t featured on D:1 is extremely risky - especially adders and orc priests/wizards. Try to focus on foes you are already familiar with, and use a different staircase if your chosen means of descent places you next to something you haven’t killed yet.

Canine Thralls vs. The Interdimensional Police (XP Level 3)

Increase (I)ntelligence, and only do so every single time you will be prompted with this choice in the future.

Got some scrolls? The stack with the highest amount (press "r" to bring up the (r)ead menu) has a high (but not guaranteed) chance of being Identify. Once you have found Scrolls of Identify, immediately read any you may obtain to progressively label each of your possessions. Personally, I think identifying potions before scrolls tends to increase your chances of survival ever-so-slightly. This isn't hard science, whether a DCSS player identifies potions or scrolls first is basically the equivalent of their horoscope sign.

Find a safe area. Memorize Call Canine Familiar immediately (press "M"). This is the real deal. Labelled as "quite dangerous" despite its 7% miscast rate, this extremely strong spell brings forth an Inugami - a once proud general and leader of the canine empire, re-educated into serving its feline master with unbreakable zeal. The tag around its collar proves most interesting - besides reminding it of its status before your Highness, it can also channel powerful bursts which heal the Inugami a massive amount and unleash a cleaving burst on all tiles adjacent to it. To trigger one such energy surge, recast the spell while your Inugami is alive and visible on your screen, spending 3 MP in the process.

Yes, you can spam it and pop foes open with repeated re-casts. No, you won't find funny when your Inugami dies to some overpowered death machine and you're left in melee range with it with 0 MP to spare. It's strongly recommended to prioritize energy-bursting only if one of the following applies:

• Your canine servant needs the heal.
• It is completely surrounded and the cleaving AOE would prove most effective.
• You need a quick finishing blow against a low-HP dangerous foe.

When an Inugami dies in heroic battle, it will retreat to a pocket dimension for a time to rekindle its faith in feline supremacy. When the -Dog status on the sidebar expires - expect 13 to 21 turns - it is ready to return into the fray. Other summons can take up arms while you wait.

With all that considered, Inugami are absolute beasts. Very little in the early Dungeon can survive a 1v1 with an Inugami energy-bursting when it is most needed. Not even Sigmund - he is powerless before canine brutality! Simply stand back, watch the carnage without getting hit, and laugh as adders get slaughtered from Line-of-Sight (LOS) distance.

Inugami, like imps, occasionally try to look cute and print out endearing messages in the text log. Again, do not let this affect you - remember that the canine race is lesser before feline glory, and heartlessly send them to their doom (“t”-“a”) while they obey with unfaltering zeal.

You can look (and cast) any of your memorized spells at any time by pressing "z" then "?". If it says, for example, "c - Call Canine Familiar", pressing "z" then "c" will welcome your new canine unit without having to bring up the menu every time.

How can I possibly lose with such loyal followers?

Orc priests, my noble feline acolyte. These green-robed menaces have the ability to inflict undodgeable, instant and two-shotting damage from full LOS range. Right now, no amount of summons could protect you from their devotion to the god of the Orcs. If you see one - or, Xom have mercy, two or more, do not even attempt to test their mettle. Press “X”, move the cursor towards them, and press “e” to set up an exclusion - this is your way of telling the game “NOPE”. Remember, you are much faster than them. If they stay visible on your screen for 5 turns or more, you are asking to die. Leave through the nearest up-staircase, and attempt a different portion of the level (or descend to D:3 if the level is truly doomed), leaving these dissenters alive for later. They will suffer the consequences of their insolence in due time.

Additionally...

The Aforementioned Interdimensional Police (Nameless Horrors)

Every time you attempt to call a canine slave friend, there should be a small chance of a miscast, which will reduce as you progress through the arts of Summonings. Miscasts in other schools of magic are generally not too dramatic (given that the caster is not trying to sever reality itself right after learning how to say “pick a card, any card”). However, your constant telemarketing calls to the eldritch cosmos asking “Who wants to die in the name of feline supremacy?” have begun to get on the nerves of some eldritch monstrosities. TentacleMail may therefore rarely deliver you a Nameless Horror instead of your ordered furry companion. Instead of filing a complaint, slow down and consider your options. These things drain your mana on each melee hit they land on you, will only leave after you have managed to kill them, and will occasionally return your summons back to their home realm, so they may meet their family again instead of dying for a cat in a dungeon.

FAQ:

What do I do if I incur the wrath of cosmic aberrations?

It depends on your situation. If they are alone or accompanied by a joke of an enemy, getting an Inugami out and spamming energy-bursts should wreck it. Alternatively, if you have damaging wands that aren't Mindburst, feel free to gun them down.

If you are close to dangerous foes which aren't in range yet to hurt you, you may drag the the Nameless Horror to a previously cleared floor, "park" it there and return to the lower level without it, preferably with a different staircase. If you can't manage to kill it, don't forget about the horrifying creature roaming loose if you want to "stair-dance" a dangerous foe later on while clearing the lower floor. Maybe you'll meet it again near the end of your run, at which point it will tremble before the FELINE GOD you have become.

How can I minimize my chances of being investigated by the interdimensional kidnapping police?

The Summonings school is not to be messed with. It is strongly advised that you never try to cast a Summonings spell with a failure rate higher than 10%, as the consequences may be disastrous. Only violate this rule when extreme firepower is needed imminently in a life-or-death situation.

I have no MP, no friends and I am going to die. What do I do?

See below.

Break In Case of Imminent Negative HP Syndrome (Escape Techniques)

Low health? No mana? Overpowered gigachad about to annihilate you? Consider the following, from safest to most unreliable:

• Scrolls of Blinking will immediately save you, but are rare and valuable. THAT DOES NOT MEAN "save them for next game". USE THEM.
• Scrolls of Summoning/Butterflies do what you specialize in - dialing up friends - but take zero mana. The butterfly variant doesn't attack, but gently blows away your foes, granting a safe space of sunshine and rainbows.
• The useful Blink level 2 spell immediately relocates you to a random tile in sight - but it won't necessarily be available in your game. Maybe if you ask RNGesus nicely.
• Potions of Magic, and the mana acquired from them, can be condensed into the creation of a helpful friend. Again, rare and valuable, but made to be used.
• Potions of Curing will remove all confusion and poison - essential for those pesky redback spiders getting lucky hits - in addition to a small amount of HP and Potions of Heal Wounds restore a bunch of health which, on a Felid, is highly impressive. Do ensure that you can actually make use of the heal to solve your problem and aren't just delaying your death, especially if you just get hit again for the same amount you healed on the same turn.
• Potions of Invisibility drastically reduce enemy accuracy and allow you to walk away with high, but not perfect safety. Check that the foe in question does not detect invisibility by inspecting their stat window - for example, wolves, dastardly agents of the canine empire, won't be impressed.
• Scrolls of Fear immediately causes everything on the screen to regret ever messing with Your Pillow-Pawed Highness and to run away. Check, on their stat screen, that their Willpower is at ++ or less.
• Potions of Haste allow you to walk away without getting kited to oblivion.
• A stairwell brings you back to the much safer previous floor, but brings all adjacent foes alongside you - except zombies, simulacra and summoned creatures. Still quite possibly an improvement over your current situation.
• Assuming you can survive 3-5 turns, a Scroll of Teleportation will whisk you off to a different location. Magical Inks™ Incorporated does not guarantee said location will be safe.
• Wands of Paralysis/Charming incapacitate your foe. You have to beat their Willpower - early game, that is usually around a 50% chance, but there are exceptions. The brainwashing Charming variant can be used to demolish the victim's former allies while you cackle in the back. You can also command them to go to the time-out corner by pressing "t"-"r" and selecting a tile far away from you.
• Damage Wands might, with some luck, solve your problems by murdering them.
• Potions of Ambrosia do a similar effect to Potions of Magic, but over time, and the confusion should be cured with a Potion of Curing once you have enough mana. Not to be relied upon if only a couple of turns stand between life and death.
• Unknown potions and scrolls could save you. They probably won't.
• Dying. Unlike feeble humanoids, this is an option. Try to avoid it. It will happen anyways. Do not give in to despair. Stand up. Fight again.

Do not mindlessly run away for dozens of turns without doing anything. You WILL be eating attacks of opportunity on every step and perishing in record time. At least try casting a spell once your mana comes back.

The Delicate Art of Explosive Incineration (XP Level 4-6)

If you have not pathetically perished to some turbo-murderous orc priest on D:2, you will now be the proud holder of 2 stored Extra Lives, the maximum a Felid can hold at a time. Such is the privilege of feline supremacy.

As a proud member of the most blessed race in existence, death is not the end for you. Still, you should pretend it is - it will help you take better strategical decisions. If you do meet an unfortunate end, stay focused, take a break if you are feeling frustrated, and continue to play carefully as if you hadn’t died. Most Felid runs die around 3 to 9 times in an average 3-rune run, so do not feel too bad. Felid lives are meant to be used like rare, powerful consumables, and many Felid 3-rune or even 15-rune wins have 1 or 2 deaths as early as D:1-7.

Do not quit a Felid run because of an early death! With the way the system is designed, it's almost as if you are supposed to die in early Dungeon. It's much easier to level up early on than in the late game. A life lost on D:4 is gotten back on D:7, but a life lost in Pandemonium may take a full clear of all 4 Hell branches to get it back.

I will repeat it again. Do not quit a Felid run just because you died twice in a row to the same enemy. Save your game and go do something else instead. I know it's infuriating, but that would be like using a blink scroll and then quitting because you're mad about using a lifesaving item. Lives are consumables. Playing a Felid without dying is like playing an Octopode with 2 rings. You are supposed to die.

Press “E” to see how long it will take to get your next life. Press "%" to see how many lives you have (look in the top right of the popup!)

Once again, as soon as you find a safe place, immediately add your new friend to your roster - the Blazeheart Golem. Do not even think about casting it yet! Soon enough, it will be below 10% fail rate, and you may then use it safely. Tweak your skills as follows - turn on Fire Magic, press “=” to set a skill target, select Fire Magic, and set it to 5.0. While you're at it, you should also set a target for Spellcasting at 10.0, and Summonings at 11.0.

As soon as you find an interesting wand or evokable (also known as "anything but a wand of flame"), also turn on Evocations, and set the target to 5.0.

Starting from D:3, the Dungeon loves to throw at you fast, high-damage, or sometimes even fast and high damage enemies before you are ready for them. You may therefore encounter water moccasins, ogres, killer bees, dangerous Lair enemies (wyverns & hornets are a classic), among a variety of other nasty creatures. However, you will laugh in the face of these pitiful attempts at stopping the march of progress, oneshot them with what is probably one of the highest damage level 4 spells in the game, and witness the XP trickle down like cat treats. This is what you were suffering in D:1 for - whereas your average Minotaur Fighter or Deep Elf Conjurer would meet a swift end against a swarm of light speed enemies that make your healthbar have more red than green (or sometimes yellow), you will sacrifice unholy amounts of expensive machinery, and will probably make the interdimensional inventor shipping these to you very frustrated.

More desperate for companionship and physical closeness than the most introverted DCSS win-streak players, Golems will immediately stop all action and become useless if you do not start or end your turn while being in melee range of it, resuming activity once you walk up close enough to give them a comforting paw-tap.

While it functions, it will deliver heavy-damage punches and lose a third of its health every time it does so, in addition to getting its metallic head bashed in by your very upset foes. Needless to say, this thing dies fast. Thankfully, the Blazeheart Golem is designed to pack an extremely potent explosive payload when it is destroyed, and is a master at all things related to flesh incineration. In case you have not noticed, flesh is also what you are made out of.

When a Walking Incinerator Blazeheart Golem perishes in heroic battle, it will leave behind its core, represented as a sphere of pure fire. Once this happens, IMMEDIATELY exit melee range of the core. It’s going to EXPLODE, INCINERATE everything adjacent to it (including you, if you are incapable of following basic safety protocols), and leave behind CLOUDS OF BLAZING FLAME to block passage and allow you to leave, rest, and recuperate.

Do NOT position yourself in such a way that you'd be incapable of leaving the blast zone with a single action. You WILL be oneshotted. Here is an example of what NOT to do:

.###.
..@..
..G..
..E..
.....

If @ is you, # are walls, E is your foe and G is the Golem, the walls will block your only hope of retreating, forcing you to be the recipient of up to 60 fire damage, not to mention the extra damage-over-time from the burning clouds.

If you HAVE to brace for an inescapable blast, or must walk through flame clouds to reposition away from an orc with a +99 Halberd of Feline Culling, consider briefly putting on a ring of Fire Protection/a ring of Fire! This is very fast (less than one turn) and will halve the damage, allowing you to survive.

In fact, "ring swapping" in general is a good skill to develop when playing a Felid. See a lindwurm? Ring of fire resistance. Rime drake? Ring of cold resistance. Nergalle the orcish necromancer? Ring of positive energy. Erolcha the banish-you-to-the-abyss-bot? Ring of willpower. Swapping rings is extremely fast - half of a turn to be precise. Don't try swapping amulets, though, trying to tie up a string around your fuzzy neck without opposable thumbs while a violent brute is inching closer is generally not advisable.

Here are some diagrams of potential ways you can commit feline war crimes with this improvised explosive. Again - @ is you, the one and only genius fuzzball, E are your foolish enemies, and G is your trusty golem. . represents floors, and #, walls.

Hallway Exit Triple-Blast

.EEE.
.#G#.
.#@#.
.#.#.
.#.#.

Outsmarting Lesser Beings in Open Spaces

.EEE.
..G..
..@..
.....
.....

Yes, this actually works. The enemies on the sides won't even swerve around, captivated by the shining metal of your loyal robot.

Some things to consider:

• If a foe has a reaching polearm (tridents, halberds, glaives, spears...), they will completely ignore the Golem and instead repeatedly puncture you, which means you'll have to wait for the Golem to detonate itself by having it use its self-damaging melee attacks. Here is a trick: remember, the Golem remains activated if you start or end your turn next to it. You may walk back and forth to enter and exit its range repeatedly, thus reducing the damage taken from the polearm by about 50%, and still triggering the explosion!

..E..
..G..
..@..
.....

..E..
..G..
.....
..@..

..E..
..G..
..@..
.....

• When you step away from the explosive core, your foes also get a chance to act. Keep in mind that enemies which were in melee range of you may follow you out of the blast zone, thus dodging the explosion as they pursue you.

..C..
.E...
.@...

In this example, C is the imminently exploding core, triggered as you began your previous turn next to the dying Golem, and chose to move diagonal down-left. If you walk downwards now, it is possible that the enemy will also walk downwards alongside you, and dodge the explosion. You should instead wait, so that they are still located in the blast zone when the core detonates!

• If the enemy is super strong/tanky/resistant to fire, keep in mind you'll be very close to them should they survive the explosion. For example, trying to take out a full-health hydra in Lair with a single Golem may result in the hydra walking through the fire, still barely clinging to life, and oneshotting you. Try to use other summons to reduce their health into explosion kill-range before risking your life in this fashion.

• The flame clouds left behind by the blast also deal heavy damage. If a creature has been left on the brink of death from the explosion and is now standing in a flame cloud, it might be worth just waiting one turn while it is in melee range (instead of moving away) so that it remains stuck in the flames and dies. The flame tick happens before they get a chance to melee attack, but do be absolutely sure that you won't need more than one tick, or some two-headed ogre might just oneshot you on the same turn it is reduced to 2 HP.

From now on, the plan is as follows:

• Summon an Inugami for every single trivial-to-medium difficulty battle. Make use of “t”-“a” to direct focus, and do not hold back until the entire canine demiplane has been sacrificed to mitten-pawed glory.
• Demolish every single high damage or out-of-depth (OOD) enemy by letting them uselessly punch a robotic time bomb over and over until it inevitably burns them to a crisp. Ice beast? Boom. Ogre? Boom. Bullfrog? Boom. Wyvern? Boom. Water moccasin, yak, two-headed ogre, sleepcap, gnoll sergeant, any Unique creature, hornet, ugly thing, scorpion, troll, orc warrior? BOOM. They will not survive, and if they somehow do, you can simply bring out more golems for your foes to commit the same mistake. So much for having “human”-level intelligence - clearly, the humanoids are hopeless, dull-witted morons before feline genius.
• Stuck in a pinch with no MP and a really angry dude invading your personal space? Getting turned into a porcupine by a very merry centaur? Getting a taste of orcish zealotry and being told that "smite makes right"? Use wands! They are the guns of the fantasy world, and will dispose of any pesky denizen of the Dungeon. Do not hesitate to spam these against dangerous uniques, centaurs and orc priests. The bolt ones, like Quicksilver, Light or Acid, are especially effective. Remember, if you use Charming, you can "t"-"r" the mind-controlled foe to get away from you, then use that distance to execute a swift, zero-risk retreat!
• If you end up in a terrible situation, refer to the Escape Techniques listed in the previous chapter of this guide.
• In the semi-common case where you encounter the unique siblings Dowan and Duvessa, always slay Duvessa first, preferably with an incinerating payload. Otherwise, Duvessa will get very mad, run at you at light speed and oneshot you.

Try to abuse the 1-tile hallways described earlier in Battle Tactics 101! This guarantees your foes will not attempt to circumvent your units to instead give you a very uncomfortable petting session. You are extremely frail, and lingering in melee range of anything that isn’t a basic orc or a D:1 creature is bound to result in your doom. Constantly use your turns to reposition and ensure you are always behind your summons! If your summons lose, you will be the next target on the list, and you will NOT survive should you stand your ground with tooth and claw. Run, rest and try again.

The Proper Way To Roll Your Face On The Keyboard (Macros)

Getting tired of "zbzc....o....zbzc....o" yet? You can press Ctrl-D to set macros and begin feeling like you are playing some tryhard MOBA instead of composing Beethoven's Tenth Symphony on your keyboard.

For example, press "Ctrl-D", then "1", then type "zb" in the field to link the "b" spell that appears when you look at the spell list (accessible with "I" while in-game). On each press of "1", you will now cast the "b" spell.

Back in my day, you had to draw a pentagram and whisper demonic prayers each time you'd want a skeleton friend. Who thought it was a good idea to automate murder?! Can't you appreciate a good old blood sacrifice in the rules of the art?

This is my favourite loadout:

• 1 for Call Canine Familiar, and later Haunt.
• 2 for Summon Blazeheart Golem, and later Infestation.
• 3 for Summon Lightning Spire, and later any spell of your choice.
• 4 for any other useful spell.
• w for Animate Dead. Normally, it's used for (w)ielding weapons, buuuut... yeah. No opposable thumbs and all.
• e for Death Channel.
• Spacebar for an emergency spell - I like a simple Blink, or, for bonus coolness points, the heart-racing Death's Door. Big button, big problems! I actually remember to use my emergency spells this way.
• c for any other useful spell.
• Later in the game, (Q)uiver Anguish (or, in Crypts/Tomb, Dispel Undead), and cast it with p.

This way, every single time you want both your ally-creation buffs (such as when descending a new staircase), simply press "we". To dial up the early-game squad, press "123". In case of trouble, your salvation is right on the biggest button of your keyboard. For a mega-scarab death rave, press "ep21"!

Dastardliness, Cackles and Dark Tricks (God Choice)

You have only three equipment slots to fulfill Ashenzari’s bondage fantasies, no time to learn the ways of Invocations, and would not benefit from weapon gifts with your lack of opposable thumbs. As the lead of an interdimensional kidnapping startup, you should delegate EVERY task to your staff and NEVER do any work yourself.

Ru is technically quite viable for you, but as you don’t care for employee wellbeing, in-office buddhist yoga sessions are not at the top of your schedule. Plus, you will need both of your paws to play with the Orb of Zot like a ball of yarn. There was also once a time where feline CEOs such as you would strike a divine partnership with Gozag and crack open endless amounts of lootboxes and microtransactions, but that time has come to pass.

We need loyal subordinates, and we need them fast, reliably, and cheaply. Let us therefore learn arts and magic as dark as the colour of our fur, from scratch, under the tutelage of the villainous god Kikubaku-

Kikubaquk-

Kikubaaqudq-

Kikubaaqudgha. Yes. That's how you spell it.

Untainted souls are so much more fun to corrupt! But... why are you so fluffy? I need goth elves and black mascara. I can't have my subordinates looking like this!

Sorry Kiku, malnourished nerds and lanky skeletons are just so passé. If you wish to increase your approval ratings among the public, research has shown that a marketable, plushie-like mascot is a much better driving force for sales and engagement.

Anyhow. The reason I suggest picking Kiku for this build is to secure the mid-and-late game, as the Summoner background is so powerful (as you may have noticed already) that no immediate divine assistance is required. For now, Kiku will do absolutely nothing to help you - focus on proving yourself worthy by engaging in senseless, indiscriminate murder. Or, in other words, just the usual routine. Kikubaaqudgha's altar can spawn in D:3, the Temple, as deep down as D:10 - it really doesn't matter at all, you just need to have joined Kiku before entering Lair.

"An evil god, Kikubaaqudgha requires worshippers to cause the death and destruction of as many creatures as possible." Well, that's rich. It's not as if almost every single other god wants the exact same thing. Why am I being singled out?

Actually, I lied. Kiku does do one thing right away. And that's flaming you in the message log when you lose the run. Let that be motivation to play intelligently.

Murder and Electrical Engineering (XP Level 7-9 to Lair)

Remember, use your scrolls of Identify!

Between level 7 and 9 (variable depending on your dungeon adventures), the ability to memorize Summon Lightning Spire will be made available to you. This is the big gun, the heavy artillery, and other militarily pleasing expressions. Whereas the Blazeheart Golem granted the power to slay individual high-level threats, the Lightning Spire welcomes a little bit of ranged combat to the battlefield. This stationary turret has zero chill, and will electrocute anything breathing the same air as you in record time, only stopping once you and your allies are the only thing left standing. However, it occasionally likes to sleep on the job, so make sure to wake it up with more ample usage of “t”-“a”. Remember that neither the Golem nor the Spire have vision as refined as yours, and will completely ignore invisible enemies - most commonly orc wizards. You can still direct fire on a visible enemy, and if a sneaky invisible trickster is in the way, they will still get zapped!

To tap into this immense electrical power, open up your skills menu with “m” - notice that your Fire Magic should be close to reaching 5. Now, turn on Air Magic, and set a target to 5. Remember, do not attempt to cast a Summonings spell above 10% fail rate! As our offense is starting to reach a comfortable level, also consider increasing your defense - turn on Fighting and Dodging, and set a target to 10 for both of them.

There are two main issues: first, the Spire is highly considerate of your wellbeing (which is nice, for the velvet-pawed deserve utmost comfort) yet also just as compassionate towards your other summons (which is less nice, as they are disposable and unimportant lesser beings). It will therefore not shoot if its piercing, bouncing bolt would cause harm to you or to any of your loyal servants. Strangely, it seems to hold a grudge against the Blazeheart Golem, and will occasionally zap it anyways, but this is uncommon - most likely, the Golem dimension played an amusing prank on the Spire dimension before you ripped both of them from their home realm to perish in unspeakable agony. Just kidding. They’re constructs. They don’t feel anything.

The second issue is that unlike other units, the Lightning Spire is incapable of moving out of your way or swapping places with you. This is problematic if you cast the spell in a hallway, potentially blocking your escape route.

#####
.S@.O
#####

You can’t walk backwards to escape the ogre (O), and the (S)pire won’t do anything, too afraid of daring to disrespect you (@)!

Instead of trying to melee an ogre with 0 Unarmed Combat skill, I propose an alternative - a disciplinary paw-scratch. Press 'v', select your Lightning Spire, then confirm the prompt in the message log. This will attack it, and immediately one-shot it no matter what, allowing passage again. An alternative is to recast the spell, though this is risky - it may simply land in an equally unfortunate position.

With all of that said, you should be set for clearing floors until you find the entrance to the Lair. Your faithful trio - Inugami, Spire and Golem - will make quick work of anything the game may attempt to impede your progress with. Remember to also put on any jewellery you may find (press capital "P") - Intelligence, Wizardry, Magical Power, Protection and Fire Protection are the best rings you could hope for (in that order), and Magic Regeneration, Regeneration, Reflection, Acrobat and Faith are the best amulets (also in that order) - for now. Avoid Guardian Spirit.

If you find a runed door vault with a ghost in it, this could be an opportunity for instant acquirement of three degrees from the Summonings College! They are worth boatloads of experience, but can range from trivial to lethal. Inspect them with "x"-"v", and check their kit - if they have Conjurations that could annihilate you or dangerous Summonings spells, they should be left alone. If they, however, only have a few joke cantrips or only know how to o-tab like a Minotaur Berserker, then it is time to guide them to eternal rest. Once the floor is fully cleared, gather up all your friends, open the door, and make them bash golems, eat electricity and be eaten by spirit-wolves until they die (for the second time in their existence).

The true threats are ranged attackers - centaurs, steam dragons, electric eels, or big packs of orc priests (speaking of, if you left enemies (such as orc priests) or nameless horrors behind on upper floors, now is the time to come back and dispense a rightful whooping!). Since Spires have almost zero evasion, they will gladly tank arrows for you (unlike those scumbag canines), so they may be of great use should you face off a centaur - hide behind them, and let the ranged battle unfold. Which will win, wooden sharp sticks, or thousand-volt lightning bolts? Spoiler alert: the latter.

However, keep in mind:

..@..
..S..
.....
.....
...E.

This is not a safe way of hiding. The centaur (E) will still turn you from a cat to a porcupine while the Spire will desperately attempt to dish out damage before you die in an anxiety-inducing Damage Per Turn race. First, consider Wands - polymorph is especially effective, as wielding a bow is quite hard without opposable thumbs. As you may have discovered yourself. Otherwise, you can spawn more summons - if an Inugami gets in melee range, the centaur will panic and stop shooting. Consider a Scroll of Fog or Summon Butterflies if things get too dire. Of course, the classical melee brute tactic of hiding behind a corner/closing a door (press capital 'C') and waiting for the centaur to get closer remains efficient here.

• Electric eels deal unreal amounts of damage. These living death traps are resistant to your Spire, and will three-shot you. To add insult to injury, they’re worth almost no experience - for comparison, a single scorpion rewards you with about 53% more experience than one eel. Thankfully, there's a trick: a zap from a wand of flame will oneshot or twoshot them, due to the steam clouds this technique will spawn. If flame is unavailable, most other damage wands, while rarer, will make short work of them.

• Steam dragons are deceptively dangerous. Their breath weapon will turn the heat up in every sense of the word, and may even twoshot you should the dice be animated by murderous intent. Thankfully, there is counterplay - a ring of fire protection, or a ring of fire. If you can give yourself a + of rF, this battle will go from terrifying to laughable. If rF is not available to you, tread lightly, and be ready to retreat out of their sight the moment you are hit.

• If you’re unlucky enough to encounter a Meliai or the unique Jeremiah, know that they are practically cyber-augmented orc priests. Just one isn’t that bad, but they often hang out with their friends, and you do NOT want to be the centre of attention of bee-witch gossip. Eating a quadruple smite in one turn can happen, and it will kill you. Potions of Invisibility work, and so do Wands of various kinds - or have them be zapped one at a time by your spire before they notice your presence, and they should fall relatively quickly. Otherwise, pushing a Golem in their faces will ensure a fiery doom.

• Should you be so hapless as to encounter the unique slug mage Gastronok, you must immediately try to avoid empty spaces. Hug walls, surround yourself with allies - if you find yourself with 4 or more completely empty tiles, you WILL be twoshotted with an insanely powerful, irresistible Airstrike ability. If you have found a scroll of Silence, I highly recommend using it as soon as you’ve churned out a few friends to help take him down. If you do not have silencing abilities, keep him at the edge of Line-of-Sight while the battle unfolds, hug walls and potentially some Small Mammals, and be ready to step away the second you are smited by Airstrike. Even with wise positioning, all it takes are approximately 3 casts to detonate you into an unrecognizable mess of gore and fluff.

For the rest of the run, don’t ever have rF- or rC- no matter what. Yes, even if it means giving up an Int+10 ring (you can also wear rF+/rC+ to cancel out the rF-/rC- if it’s really good). Vulnerabilities will be your doom: 50% extra damage is plenty to oneshot you before you even realize what has happened. Press % to check your resistances.

A Malodorous Fanbase (*.....)

Allow every dopamine receptor in that brain of yours to fire up when the message:

Kikubaaqudgha grants you a gift!

appears for the first time in the message log.

Gather up your lucky trinkets and your maneki-nekos, it's time for some Kiku Gacha Lootbox opening. You will receive a batch of low-level Necromancy spells, but in truth, we only actually care about a single one of them - Animate Dead. The others are so laughably irrelevant you shouldn't even spare a single picosecond contemplating their existence.

You ungrateful sack of fleas! Of all gods, I am the one to grant the most gifts to even my least precious followers, and you still have the nerve to be discontent?

Unfortunately, you only have a 50% chance of getting Animate Dead - the other 50% will result in Fugue of the Fallen, which is a decent melee combat spell - a discipline which your weak and unarmed kitty paws are unfortunately not well suited to. For now.

Unlucky? Do keep an eye out for Animate Dead in book shops or loot piles to compensate for Kiku's lack of etiquette. If you still cannot find it, it's not a huge deal. Infestation is a guaranteed gift later on, and can replace it.

You will want to memorize Animate Dead right after your Lightning Spire is below 10% failure rate, and immediately turn on your Necromancy skill, setting a target all the way to the maximum of 27.0.

If you have not received Animate Dead, skip the rest of this chapter, coming back to it should you eventually obtain it from another source.

You may have noticed that the many denizens of the Dungeon are very disrespectful of your Eminence, soon to be their overlord and army commander. Your first task will be to re-educate these ruffians into submission and obedience. Animate Dead provides a buff lasting for about a dozen turns. Each enemy slain while this buff is active has a chance to betray their former allies and serve you as a... slightly more malodorous version of themselves. These will escort you until you leave the floor, or have them perish in battle.

When Animate Dead becomes castable (<12% fail rate), you may begin playing like such:

• Initiate each battle with a batch of highly loyal summons praising how good of a slaver friend you are.
• Begin emanating such confidence with Animate Dead that the defeated will turn against their former companions in your name.

Now, whenever a foe is slain, there is a high chance they will become an ally - and betray their former allies, making the latter join your army in turn, and so on, until all are at your beck and call. It's just like rolling a snowball!

The little militia that will now follow you around will act as a testament to your charisma. Recasting Animate Dead will, however, dismiss all of your current servants, with the hopes of replacing them with fresher, potentially more numerous ones. Therefore, it's great practice to cast Animate Dead when encountering a pack of enemies (yaks or bees, for example, are good fodder), and to only recast it once your lackeys are falling apart.

This is way too complicated for the fluffball that serves as your brain. Join me instead, and gain permanent reaping of the deceased instead of trying to emulate my power with puny magic!

Pah! Don't listen to my competitor. Their worshippers are brutes and thugs, whose first word at birth was "Axe".

Some extra useful tips about this spell:

• Insubstantial enemies (like Will-o-Wisps from Swamp) and most undead creatures will never be recruited.
  • There is an exception: Vampire Mosquitoes and (much, much later on) Death Scarabs are undead, yet can still be turned! They both make for fantastic allies!.
• High speed enemies, like bees, vampire mosquitoes, frogs or snakes will always catch up with you, and will swarm enemies before you even see them on your monitor! Boulder beetles are actually quite slow, and won't get to keep their signature rolling attack.
• Hydras, and much later, Death Scarabs, in zombie slave form, are hideously overpowered and will play the game for you.

Undead... slaves? Pah! I am no slaver. They still have free will! They will turn against those who harm or mistreat them! Can Summoners say the same? I think not! And yet, I am the unholy one?! Disgraceful!

And while what Kiku just said is true, Zombies (and all other undead companions) have no comprehension of the concept of chains of command, and will think you completely innocent if you send forth a golem to blow up in their faces. They will also idiotically stand in the flame clouds and die, waiting for your next order. The Blazeheart Golem should only be used for initiating snowballs or taking down high priority targets once your necromantic journey has truly begun. Feel free to recast Blazeheart Golem - or to step away from it to deactivate it - if it is about to incinerate your army to get a fresher, less explosive specimen.

Kiku grants the ability "Unearth Wretches" very early for on-demand zombie creation. I suggest not using it in the Dungeon, as the results will be disappointing. Wow! A cockroach zombie with 3 damage!! Why thank you, you shouldn't have. It's the intention that counts, Kiku.

I didn't even mean to send these over. I was just doing some housekeeping, brushing up my skulls, sacrifical altars and blood fountains, and accidentally threw a kobold into an interdimensional wormhole. Hate when that happens.

Employee Tour At The Zoo (***...) - Lair:1-Lair:5

Have a glance once in a while at your jewelry collection by pressing "P". Rings of wizardry and intelligence reign supreme, and so do amulets of magic regeneration. Amulets of regeneration, reflection or of the acrobat are quite stellar as well, and rings of Protection, Magical Power or Fire Resistance (for accidental Golem mishaps) will significantly contribute to your survivability. Rings of Dexterity or Evasion are passable, and everything else is pretty much mediocre. Amulets of Guardian Spirit should not be worn unless they are a particularly amazing artefact.

Should you encounter elemental threats (such as the mage Fannar, an Efreet, or a Lindwurm), swap on a ring granting a relevant resistance! It is extremely fast to do so. Just don't forget to put your normal ring back on afterwards, especially if you were using one of the vulnerability-granting rings of fire or ice. Do not casually run around with an elemental vulnerability (rF-/rC-) on a Felid. You WILL be oneshotted.

Soon, you will be once again reading the words:

Kikubaaqudgha grants you a gift!

Well, well, well. Looks like we've got another Kiku Gacha Lootbox on our paws!

Here is my tier list of possible outcomes:

• S: A Run-Defining Asset: Death Channel, Anguish
• A: Great, Though Not Required: Borgnjor's Vile Clutch, Dispel Undead
• B: Worth The Slots, Could Do Better: Martyr's Knell
• F: Insult to Feline Glory: Curse of Agony

You'll always get all of these, except two, chosen at random. Not getting Death Channel is especially sad, but manageable. You'll still want to check every book shop and loot pile for a chance at acquiring it.

Commerce? Capitalism?! My spells are 100% locally sourced, woven by the expert craftsmanship of unionized and esteemed skeleton artisans! You would resort to purchasing mass-produced, store-bought necromancy that's probably also full of microplastics? You and me have a lot of work to do before we can get along with each other.

If you get Anguish, you should learn it as soon as possible, and also turn on Hexes and set a target to 8.0. Because Felids are so adorable and masters of mind-manipulation, you have a +4 aptitude to it!

Compendium of Sinister Plans (Midgame Spells)

Once you are reaching the lower levels of the Lair, it is time to update your spell repertoire. First, use Scrolls of Amnesia if you have them to remove the now useless Summon Small Mammal and Call Imp. Their respective demiplanes will thank you for ceasing your kidnappings.

You should now plan to have:

• Call Canine Familiar
• Summon Blazeheart Golem
• Summon Lightning Spire
• Animate Dead OR a spell from this list
• One or two more spells from this list (if you opt to pick up two spells, they should not take up more than 11 slots together).

Not enough slots? Train Spellcasting! Each slice of 0.5 Spellcasting levels will grant 1 slot. Do not train this more than you actually need, set your training targets properly. Each general XP character level also grants 1 free slot.

You'll want to not take up every slot you have available right now - you'll need 7 for Haunt soon, and 8 for Infestation in a bit. Try to leave behind 4 available slots at minimum.

Here are my suggestions, from most desirable to least usable, in my opinion:

The Essentials

Every game should take these, if they are available.

Death Channel (Level 6 Necromancy) - Like Animate Dead, it is another self-buff you can stick onto your 'e' keyboard macro. Its effect is simple: instead of letting the innocent souls of both living and demonic beings voyage into the afterlife to meet their relatives, you will force the essences of their being to stay behind and cause suffering to their former friends and coworkers. The sheer mass of allies produced is truly a spectacular sight - you may have Animate Dead and Death Channel activated at the same time, in which case every kill will generate up to two allies, flooding the entire screen with green circles in record time. Unlike Animate Dead, as soon as the status expires, your entire protective wall of spectres will vaporize in a single turn, and reveal some very unamused individuals who will gladly charge in and destroy your defenseless scruff. Do ensure you have some less ephemeral allies as backup.

Remember: at this stage of the game, if you aren't pressing the Death Channel button every single time something vaguely resembling an enemy appears on your screen, you should be passing the keyboard to an actual cat, who will no doubt play much more competently than you.

Spectres, unlike zombies, can also see invisible creatures and fly over liquids no matter their original species, which is interesting when such details matter.

I am a firm believer that everyone deserves a second shot in life. Or death, rather. Didn't visit that natural park you always wanted to go to? Couldn't tell your crush you loved them before getting crushed by a rock? Ran out of motivation to write your DCSS guide? Become a mindless thrall and forget about all your regrets! What, did you think I'd actually give you the chance to do these things you missed? Get real.

Anguish (Level 4 Necromancy/Hexes) - Ah, the ultimate answer to the thing Felids despise most - creatures with unreal quantities of ranged damage. This spell attempts to curse the entire screen with 100% reflection damage, meaning all damage they inflict on both you and allies... will be dealt back to them in full. Yes, dear lindwurm, do shoot a fire bolt through my horde of yak zombies, that will totally end well for you.

The lindwurm is wracked by anguish!!!!
The lindwurm dies!

I especially recommend you try it on: orc priests, meliai, any early game dragon, centaurs and their warrior variants, uniques with disgustingly overpowered spells... You have to beat their Willpower, but as any tyrannical regime would tell you, repetition is the key to domination! If the foe of interest has Will++ or less when you examine them, simply cast the spell again until they are successfully cursed.

If you cast the zpell from the 'z?' menu, you'll be able to move the cursor over each enemy and check the percentage chance of successfully landing the curse. Will+++ or even Will++++, like death yaks, or the Minotaur at the end of a gauntlet? No problem. Simply read a Scroll of Vulnerability to cut that confidence in half, and they will regret ever contemplating hurting a fluffball as adorable as you are. Consider that your Willpower will also be divided by two, which can be problematic if that means a nearby enemy spellcaster can easily land a nasty Paralyze or Banishment on you.

Brainless or artificial enemies (from gently gurgling jellies to the dreaded Orbs of Fire) have no concept of love, hate or righteousness, and will remain completely unaffected by Anguish. They won't be unaffected, however, by your swarm consuming them.

Blazeheart Golems become a DEVOURER OF GODS when put against Anguished enemies, who will be blasted both by the immense guilt of damaging your precious robo-friend, and by the more literal explosion of blazing fire that will ensue.

I like to put Anguish on my "Q"uiver, and to cast it with "p" right after I have unrolled a batch of summons. 2-3 casts for a single enemy should be your maximum number of attempts - do not spend your entire mana bar trying to curse a particularly rebellious specimen! You do not want to be left with zero mana - and a very angry reptile in your face - because you tried and failed to curse a Hydra 6 times in a row.

The Complements

These are certainly worth the slots.

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch (Level 5 Necromancy/Earth) - It's a beam. It ignores allies. Point, click, and everything in its path that doesn't resist constriction, isn't located on a deep water/lava tile and hasn't sworn allegiance to your indisputable leadership will be irresistibly crushed into a fine paste and denied the ability to move. Resist the temptation to run around going squish-squish-squish on everything you see without casting any other spell - you will demolish a yak pack. You will think to yourself "wow I'm so OP". You will annihilate a hydra. "haha I am unstoppable". You will come face to face with a black mamba. You have no zombie yaks or hydras protecting you because you thought it would be funnier to give a few animals a power massage. You get fully poisoned and die.

When Life Gives You Monsters, Make Blood Lemonade (Borgnjor's Vile Clutch)

Borgnjor's Vile Clutch (BVC) is a beam. Point, click, and everything in its path that doesn't resist constriction, isn't located on a deep water/lava tile and hasn't sworn allegiance to your indisputable leadership will be irresistibly crushed into a fine paste. This includes:

• Locking them in place. Nice try, hornets.

• Dealing usually fantastic damage over time. It has very high variability, though - I've seen BVC take down major threats in one fell swoop, or tickle a yak and then fade a turn later.

• Absolutely wrecking the EV score of the affected. Unimaginative pew-pew-people will use this to have their Iron Shots properly hit foes that like to jump all over the place, but for you, BVC is a beacon signal - "Hey! This guy is weak for a few turns and cannot dodge! Whoop em' up!"

The only downside is that the constriction-resistant are immune - jellies of all flavours are the prime example. You can know something if constriction resistant if the spell doesn't auto-target them when you try to cast it and forces you to manually drag the cursor over.

It may become clear why many highly experienced players consider this spell to be among the best, if not THE best in the game. Accordingly, the temptation to run around going squish-squish-squish on everything you see will be very high.

Do not do this.

Here's what will happen: you will demolish a yak pack. You will think to yourself "wow I'm so OP". You will annihilate a hydra. "haha I am unstoppable". You will come face to face with a black mamba. You have no zombie yaks or hydras protecting you because you thought it would be funnier to give a few animals a power massage. You get fully poisoned and die.

BVC is used for two things: starting the snowball and keeping it going. If you are using it with zero faithful allies around, you better be juiced up right now with ways to create them. Killing things without enlisting them afterwards is Very Bad^TM. Unless you only have Animate Dead, a batch of cool zombies you don't want to replace, and nothing else. In that case, that's excusable.

Current Battle Tactics: OVERWHELM (Death Channel)

Death Channel is the second of the four ally-creating spells you will be encouraged to use in this guide. Underrated by many players of the DCSS community, this spell makes up for its ephemerality by its sheer swarming potential. Just like Animate Dead, it is a status effect you can bestow upon yourself before a battle.

Spectre Pros

• Sees Invisible, unlike all other flavours of undead servants! Perfect for wiping out Ghost Moths and their ilk.

If ghost moths are always invisible, but cannot see invisible, then how do they reproduce?!

• Always flies, disregarding all liquids in their quest to overpower all that stands in their path!
• Extremely plentiful - one spectre per slain enemy, without overriding any other ally-creating necromantic spell!
• Similar health/damage statistics as Animate Dead zombies, with an added draining touch that subtly helps out a bunch.

Spectre Cons

• Extremely short-lived. You'll be lucky if they last one entire skirmish.
  • This is the most dangerous part of this spell. Always monitor the composition of your army. If it is composed almost solely of spectres, then as soon as your Death Channel runs out, your entire protective wall will vaporize in a single turn, and reveal some very unamused individuals who will gladly charge and destroy your defenseless scruff.
• Cannot be recasted to extend the duration - which means you can be stuck with a 3-turns-remaining Death Channel while enemies are approaching and you have little MP left. Not ideal.
• Soulless enemies (constructs and the non-living, like Crystal Guardians) and all undead creatures will never be recruited.
• Gives a false sense of security, and secretly inflicts rHubris-- whenever the snowball REALLY gets going.

Who to recruit:

• Literally everything that breathes. If you're entering combat, you should turn on your Death Channel at some point. If you aren't pressing the Death Channel button every single time something vaguely resembling an enemy appears on your screen, you should be passing the keyboard to an actual cat, who will no doubt play much more competently than you.

Cold-Hearted Officers (Simulacrum)

Third of the four ally-creating spells, Simulacra have exactly four advantages over your other troops - they do more damage, they hit harder, they have bigger damage numbers and they also do massive damage. Exceedingly fragile with their weakness to fire and their measly dozen of hitpoints, these represent a pricey, but potentially devastating career path for your repentant enemies. When casting the spell, point-and-click any enemy on the screen to irresistibly present them with an offer to join you they will not be able to refuse. When they are dead, that is.

Simulacra Pros

• MEGA damage. At the extreme, the Lernaean Hydra as a simulacrum deals over 1000 damage per turn, but even a basic hydra will probably melt anything it touches.

• Relatively decent duration. It's no Animate Dead, but as long as you aren't waiting in place after each battle, they can absolutely follow you to the next fight.

• It might be just me, but I think they look very nice with their bright blue and white hues. Cold, soulless, villainous, only willing to see all join your ranks. It's just how I like it.

Simulacra Cons

• MEGA fragile. They get hit, they shatter into pieces. It's as simple as that. They live by the principle of "ONESHOT OR BE ONESHOTTED".

• Very expensive. For a whopping 6 MP, you can only curse one foe, which will produce one or a couple of simulacra, depending on your spellpower. These don't come cheap - choose your targets well.

Who to recruit:

• MULTIHIT ENEMIES. If they go schak-schak-schak-schak instead of THUMP, take them in. Bonus simulacrum damage is a flat bonus applied to each hit. Hydras first come to mind, obviously, but there's more to it than that - dragons of all flavours are outstanding due to their bonus trampling, and anything with constriction effects (especially tentacled monstrosities) will prove worthwhile as well. Demonspawn from the Abyss and Pandemonium are **insane**, but you probably won't see them for a while. Double-attackers like ettins, two-headed ogres or juggernauts are splendid as well.
• Slimes. Don't ask how they move around when turned to ice. It's magic. I ain't gotta explain anything.
• Humanoids casting spells are, generally, **to be avoided**. The main exceptions are uniques or "fighter-mages" like nagas, merfolk and giants, but knowing how to wave your hands in funny circles doesn't really translate well to being a nice icy animated statue.

Emergency Manual For Distraught Would-Be Feline Commanders (or how to salvage a run that misses out on vital spells)

Only read this section if you missed out on one of the previously mentioned spell gifts in your Kiku Gacha Lootboxes.

Sometimes, RNGesus shows their not-so-nice side, and prevents one or two spells from ever appearing in your game. Here are my recommendations (when I say "medium-level Summoning spell", my favourites are Summon Forest, Summon Cactus Giant and Summon Mana Viper!):

• Missing out on Borgnjor's Vile Clutch: Honestly not that bad. You'll simply have to rely on allies a lot more, and be even more generous with your usage of Unearth Wretches. Do not hesitate to use the spell slots you have saved up to get yourself a medium-level Summon spell - Summon Forest even has a constriction effect, potentially emulating Vile Clutch!

• Missing out on Simulacrum: Unfortunate, but not disastrous. Your army will lose a lot of its potential damage output - until you scale up to Infestation, that is. Be prepared to use Anguish a lot more. Do not hesitate to grab a medium-level Summon spell to take up the spell slots!

• Missing out on Death Channel: Really, really bad. Death Channel is a cornerstone of all FeSu^Kiku runs, as it's effectively an ally duplicator. You will want to be on the lookout for this spell at all costs - but having Simulacrum will still greatly help you at flooding the screen somewhat effectively. Later on, bearing both Borgnjor's Vile Clutch and Haunt grants an easy way to spawn the initial batch of simulacra.

• Missing out on Anguish: Kind of sad, but not the end of the world. You'll have significantly more trouble in the early game, but once you can churn out some of the higher level undead reliably (who actually have high damage output on their own without Anguish's help), you won't miss it as much.

• Missing out on Animate Dead: Will significantly increase the danger level of the early game, as you'll actually have to rely on your Hound/Golem/Spire starter trinity to clear mid Dungeon and upper Lair. Having both Simulacrum and Death Channel will eventually make up for the lack of this spell, but until then, abuse your Golem explosion with no restraint. Do not hesitate to memorize Animate Dead later on if you find it - even if it's a low level spell, it's universally useful.

• Missing out on BOTH Animate Dead and Death Channel: This one is brutal, which is why I'm mentioning it specifically. It's almost a death sentence, as the only allies you'll have will be a few measly summons and fragile Simulacra. This negates the whole point of playing FeSu^Kiku, which is negating your terrible defenses with a necromantic meat (and ectoplasm) shield. I strongly recommend investing in a Form (preferably Statue) or a mid-level Summon to make up for your severe lack of allies, because Simulacrum alone cannot protect you due to their fragility. You run the risk of being exposed to a lot more enemy strikes, and must make up for it by filling up the missing spell slots with defensive options like Summon Cactus Giant, and using Borgnjor's Vile Clutch/Haunt a LOT.

And, of course, if you find the Inescapable Atlas or its contents in other random books while Kiku is mocking you with trash spells, consider throwing a big old kitty-grimace their way and return to the One True Gooey Path. It's not an optimal decision at all, but it's better than trying to clear the Snake Pit with two walking ice cubes, a dog and a glorified tower defense minigame.

Turncoat! Betrayer! You lawless toxoplasmosis-infested flea-ridden fuzz-thing! How dare you suggest abandoning the righteous forces of evil and torture for some first-grader slime making experiments?

Kiku's wrath really isn't that bad... relatively. Wrath is still wrath. As you might expect, it mostly revolves around tormenting you, using torment on you, and also cutting your HP bar in half with Torment. Did I mention you might also be occasionally tormented? There's some other minor effects, but if you can cast Storm Form and fight with it, you can survive Kiku's wrath. The only scary part is when you suddenly get tormented in the middle of a hard battle. Don't o-tab everything you see, be ready to use an escape tool if your HP bar explodes, and soon, the mad cackling of Kiku will grow silent.

A Short Guide on the Necromantic Hierarchy (interactions between ally-creating spells)

If I could summarize each ally-creating spell in one word, it would be this:

• Animate Dead: Permanence.
• Death Channel: Quantity.
• Simulacrum: Power.
• Infestation: Versatility.

Animate Dead, Simulacrum and Infestation are body spells. They will not stack. A single enemy can become a scarab, multiple simulacra, or a zombie, but not multiple of these undead types at the same time. The higher level spell always takes priority. You cannot Infest and then cast Simulacrum on a target, then expect to get simulacra. The order you cast the spells in does not matter.

Death Channel is a soul spell. It stacks with every other ally-creating spell, and will not impede the production of any scarab, simulacrum or zombie.

Addendum: From Lackey to Supervillain (Character Building)

For convenience, I will gather all skilling targets and the spell memorization order in this section. Feel free to return here as you need for quick reference!

Your Propaganda Arsenal (Spells)

Throughout this run, you will be encouraged to memorize, in this order, and approximately at these points of the game:

(Note: the "LV" numbers are how many spell slots you need for each spell, not your XP level. As for the locations on the right, you are expected to memorize the spells at these moments, not for them to be immediately usable!)

• LV 1 - Summon Small Mammal (D:1)
• LV 2 - Call Imp (optional - Necromancy is very tight on spell slots and Scrolls of Amnesia are precious, but this spell helps prevent early splats) (D:1)
• LV 3 - Call Canine Familiar (D:2)
• LV 3 - Summon Guardian Golem (D:2-D:3)
• LV 4 - Summon Lightning Spire (D:3-D:6)
• LV 4 - Anguish (D:5-Lair:2)
• LV 4 - Animate Dead (D:5-Lair:2)
• LV 5 - Borgnjor's Vile Clutch (Lair:1-Lair:5)
• LV 6 - Death Channel (Lair:3-Orc:2)
• LV 6 - Simulacrum (Orc:2-SBranch:2)
• LV 7 - Haunt (SBranch:1-SBranch:4)
• LV 8 - Infestation (Slime:4-Vaults:2)
• LV 8 - Necromutation (Vaults:1-Vaults:4)
• LV 4 - Dispel Undead (Vaults:4-Crypt:1)
• LV 9 - Death's Door (Tomb:1)
• LV 7 - Enfeeble (after Death's Door is at 8% fail rate or less)

Check your "M"emorization screen every so often. Whenever you have the spell slots required to memorize the next spell, do so immediately and, if it has an entry in the section below, adjust your skills appropriately.

Do note that Kikubaaqudgha will not necessarily grant you every single necromantic spell on this list every game. Their delivery service can be a little bit... lacking at times.

Running a forbidden knowledge book printing business isn't easy. I'd like to see you explain to your publisher why blood sacrifices are essential to have in "Fun Necromantic Activities for Children"!

Skip to the next entry on the list if you are incapable of finding a spell anywhere in your game. As soon as you find a missing spell, however, you should add it to your repertoire as soon as possible to catch up. I strongly encourage you to cast every single one of these fantastic incantations at least once in your game!

Situationally, these spells may be useful as well.

• Blink (universally useful escape spell on any character)
• Sublimation of Blood (niche, dangerous spell that takes very few spell slots)
• Statue Form (will pave the way towards Necromutation, will be replaced after the latter is online)
• Ozocubu's Armour (easy to cast alongside Simulacrum's Ice Magic training. Great defensive replacement if Statue Form is not found!)

Of course, the Wilderness Trinity will never not be overpowered. If you fail to obtain one of the crucial Kiku spells, these can certainly come along as a replacement:

• Summon Forest (Translocations 8, Summonings 10)
• Summon Cactus Giant (Summonings 14)
• Summon Mana Viper (Hexes 10, Summonings 10)

Studying the Dark Arts (Skills & Training Targets)

As soon as you start your run, train these skills and set them to these targets, with the "=" button:

• Spellcasting: 14
• Summonings: 14
• Turn off Stealth and Dodging.

Right when Summon Guardian Golem has been memorized, add the following skills:

• Hexes: 5
• Fighting: 10
• Dodging: 10
• Forget Summon Small Mammal as soon as you can.

After Summon Lightning Spire becomes part of your kit, complement it with this:

• Air Magic: 5

(OPTIONAL) - Blink will never not be useful, and can come along at any point in your run:

• Translocations: 8

If you find Animate Dead, your necromantic journey can truly begin.

• Necromancy: 27

Upon getting either Death Channel or Anguish, power yourself up like so:

• Necromancy: 27 (if you have not already done so)
• Hexes: 10 (only if Anguish has appeared in your game)

Haunt brings you back to your blessed origins of Summoner. If its spell rate is less than 15%, it's worth adding to your kit.

• Forget Call Imp, Call Canine Familiar, Summon Guardian Golem and Summon Lightning Spire (in that order) if you need spell slots.

Ultimately, after Death's Door's failure rate has dropped below 5%, your choice of ultimate pick to iron out your last weaknesses is quite open-ended.

Enfeeble:

• Hexes: 16
• Fighting: 21
• Dodging: 21
• Forget Anguish if you need spell slots.

Unused Text

In a nutshell:

• Borgnjor's Vile Clutch is a long-range piercing beam that leaves all allies completely unharmed, and irresistibly afflicts all squeezable (that means no jellies and ghosts) enemies in its path with a Constriction status effect that prevents movement and deals heavy damage every turn.
• Death Channel is like Animate Dead - a status effect that incites the betrayal of the slain against their former friends. However, this spell summons spectres instead - they are immensely more plentiful, stack with all other ally-creating necromantic spells, and will rapidly flood the screen - but are also very ephemeral, fading into thin mist a few dozen turns after the spell was cast.
• Simulacrum is a single-foe, smite-targeted mark that lets a chosen enemy become a collection of high-ranking officials of your perfectly obedient army on their death. They wield ridiculous damage output (seriously, it's insane), but have paper-thin fragility.

The synergies thus just keep growing - not only can you now gain double the amount of undead from each target with Death Channel, you can now also use Borgnjor's Vile Clutch to constrict and imprison those who have still not sworn unbreakable loyalty and service to your charismatic, fluffy form. In addition to restricting movement, bypassing allies and dealing damage, this absolutely nukes enemy evasion, leaving them extremely vulnerable to taking a beating from your faithful soldiers - both those incited into betrayal and undeath, and those you kidnapped from other dimensional planes, such as your trusty Hound. Later on, you will be able to select choice targets with Simulacrum, who will instantly freeze all thoughts of rebellion, opposition or resistance against your military might with their immense cold damage.

Life would be so much simpler if everyone was an undead thrall, you know? Perfect order, absolute obedience, flawless coordination. I bet technology would be propelled centuries foward if people stopped clutching that worthless "identity" everyone keeps talking about.

Through some unfathomable magical force, all DCSS characters are seemingly capable of learning any discipline in minutes while doing utterly unrelated things. In real life, it would be like mastering painting while going to do reps in the gym. Or getting an education while playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

And yet, they pour all of that experience into knowing how to swing a metal stick really, really fast, or how to correctly pronounce "pew pew" while conjuring forth assorted metal pellets and crystal shards. But in their tutelage, they learn next to nothing about the omnipresent entity that is Death itself, and when the words "You die..." finally stain the bottom left corner of their screen, they are left powerless.

In this guide, we will not make the same mistake. We will learn to know Death until it becomes that friend we go to the movies with on rainy Sundays.

Apart from clearing the Dungeon, this build is a very different experience compared to the FeSu^Jiyva playstyle of rushing Storm Form and tabbing through the entire game. Do not be fooled by the fact that both start as the same background! I recommend this playstyle to players who have won at least one game, and would like to try out something a bit off the beaten path of the brute/blaster-caster duality. As a dastardly wielder of the magic that controls life and death, you will be using an abundantly available weapon against those who dare stand in your way - your aforementioned enemies, brainwashed to serve you instead. You will experiment with deranged synergies that other mages could only dream of, stand in the middle of over 50 enemies with 15 HP remaining, and tell yourself "this is fine."

Soon, all will fall, horrified at how foolish they were to stand on the wrong side of the Felid-Zot war.