The Ziggurat

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The Ziggurat is a portal that appears when summoned by the Trowel card in a Legendary Deck of dungeons, in the dungeon (But the price to enter is high, 4000+ for example) or in Pandemonium (each Pandemonium level has a 8% chance of containing a Ziggurat).

The Ziggurat has 27 floors, each floor containing more monsters of higher difficulty. At the far end of each oval shaped Ziggurat floor, there are large amounts of treasure, from rings to decks of cards, and one set of stairs going down, and two portals back to the entrance. Once one has left the Ziggurat, they may not re-enter.

In 0.5.2, you'll rarely find any potions, scrolls or wands. In trunk, you will find potions of experience, cure mutation and porridge and wands of healing and hasting and all kinds of useful scrolls.

Floors of the Ziggurat contain themes of monsters. Most are sets of monsters that would be generated in a particular branch, but some are ad-hoc. Detect Creatures can tell you in advance the monster set.

Ziggurats can be entered in wizard mode using &L to place a vault called "enter_the_ziggurat", &{ to map the level, XT to teleport to the portal and &o$ to acquire enough gold to enter. In trunk, you may also just use &P to place a portal to a map called "ziggurat".

Contents

Floors

Natural monsters

Demons and undeads

Multiple Pandemonium lords

These floors contain either pandemonium daemons or lord (multiple ones, with no limit). At Zig:5 there are no lords, while at Zig:27 about a third of the monsters are Pandemonium lords.

Near Zig:27, you may even have 30 Pandemonium lords on the same floor!

Note that giant eyeballs may appear on this floor, be careful!

Mummies

These floors contain mummies, with depth-dependent priority for greater mummies (on Zig:27, 1/8 are greater mummies and the rest are random, including greater mummies).

If you kill the mummies directly, make sure you wear a ring of sustain abilities and an amulet of resist slowing. Also drop your potions.

Angel and Daevas

These floors are rare (20% of normal likelihood) and each monster is with equal probability an Angel or a Daeva.

If you worship a good god, they should be mostly peaceful and there shouldn't be any problem.

In Crawl 0.5, if you don't worship a good god, these are among the hardest floors, since Daevas smite and killing any monster may trigger The Shining One's Cleansing Flame, doing up to 83 HP of damage per monster (but only around 5 HP on average, assuming max piety with your god and non-undead player).

In Crawl 0.6, cleansing flame does much less damage, so these floors are easier.

If you are in lich form, turn it off before coming in melee contact or killing any holy monster.

Fighting strategies

You should do a Ziggurat as the last thing in the game if you are planning to finish it, as Zig:27 can potentially be the hardest place in the game.

Preparation is somewhat similar to Pandemonium, but you need even more care since you don't even get consumables and enemies are much harder.

You need the following:

  • High experience level and skills
  • For spellcasters: ability to cast Ice/Fire Storm at least at Great, ideally Excellent (i.e. at least 20 in Spellcasting, Conjurations and Fire/Ice Magic, ideally 27 in all three, and possibly a ring/staff of wizardry). Ability to cast Controlled Blink at Excellent (around 12 Translocations)
  • Main weapon, if you have or want to train fighting skills
  • Weapon of distortion, at least for Pandemonium ziggurats
  • Ring of sustain abilities and amulet of stasis if you want to absorb death curses
  • Amulet of resist corrosion for acid blobs
  • Amulet of resist mutation for mutagenic glow, shining eyes and neqoxecs
  • Amulet of clarity if you want to use Alistair's Intoxication, or if you plan to use distortion unwield to banish yourself to the Abyss (not recommended, as distortion unwields can randomly teleport you, confused, in the middle of monsters)
  • Amulet of conservation or Cloak of preservation to avoid getting your scrolls and potions destroyed
  • Maximum Life Protection if you are vulnerable to torment
  • All resistances if possible, otherwise at least something like rElec rPois rC++ rF++ rN++
  • If not worshiping a good god, high AC and HP (i.e. Fighting skill) for cleansing flames
  • Around maximum piety with your god, either to pacify angel/daevas if it is a good god, or to maximize the chance of averting The Shining One's wrath otherwise. If you are worshiping Sif Muna, use the Selective Amnesia spell and not the ability, if possible
  • Scrolls of recharging to recharge your wands
  • Scrolls of identify to identify loot
  • Scrolls of remove curse to remove mummy curses and remove cursed loot
  • Scrolls of detect curse to recognize cursed loot
  • Scrolls of fog to block enemy sight
  • Scrolls of blinking
  • Wands of healing, hasting, teleportation
  • Potions of healing to cure confusion (esp. from ball of energy)
  • Potions of porridge to get nutrition in one turn
  • Royal jellies or potions of restore abilities to restore stats drained by mummies
  • Other food if necessary
  • Skill manuals, since you will waste a lot of XP otherwise (you may also find some)
  • The Horn of Geryon, to summon beasts to train skills on
  • As much free inventory slots as possible for all the loot

Conjurer strategy

Sample runs

hyperbolic's uber Naga, who fully cleared several Ziggurats: at [[1]]

sh's Fire Storm run: morgue at [2] with ttyrec at [3].

Luca's Extension + Ice Storm run: morgue at [4] with ttyrec at [5].

Also see trucutru's run with Nemelex Xobeh: he played a naga Fire Storm conjurer with Fighting at 27 (and thus around 320 HP!) worshiping Nemelex Xobeh.

Abstract

The basic idea is to be in lich form (with Necromutation) with all possible buff spells, extend lich form and the buff spells as the duration messages come up, and then alternate Ice Storm/Fire Storm to Sif Muna's mana channeling (or crystal balls of energy with very high Evocations and staffs of channeling).

Demos suggested using Shatter. This, at Earth Magic 25 or higher, does damage to everything in LOS. While the damage is comparable to Ice/Fire Storm for non-flying/levitating monsters (3d55 at power 150 and more for skeletons and simulacra), it is only about a third for flying/levitating ones (such as a lot of Pandemonium lords). You will need 8-9 hits on average to kill flying Pan lords: you may need to either surround yourself with shatter-resistant summons (such as those from Haunt, Summon Elemental if you manage to get Air Magic 15, smoke demons from Demonic Horde and summons of Summon Greater Demon demons), skip levels with lots of Pandemonium lords, or try to have only a clear path only to a single lord and cast a powerful single target conjuration or pummel them individually. Also, beware hostile non-summoned smoke demons, who are highly resistant to Shatter. You will need to escape (or pacify) angel/daeva floors as usual.

Air Magic instead is probably hopeless due to little damage and electricity resistance.

If you are using Extension, try not to use Haste unless you are getting overwhelmed. If you use Haste, you will need to stop extending to let it time out, which may cause all your other effects to time out. Also, you may end up glowing. In this case, wear an amulet of resist mutation, and as soon as lich form ends, immediately learn and cast Necromutation so that you will rot instead of mutating. Once you stop glowing, if you rotted, end the transformation, quaff potions of heal wounds and recast Necromutation. Then, learn and cast all effects you lost.

Specific floors

On Pandemonium lord floors, be prepared for occasional Lehudib's Crystal Spear and Dispel Undead cast at yourself. If you are a spellcaster with Fire Storm, use non-lord monsters, Pan lord summons and your summons to create a buffer and prevent the lords coming close. Then blast with Fire Storm without destroying your monster shield. If you use Ice Storm, try to get the direct path blocked by a non-lord monster, while still having a path to shoot Ice Storm near the lords.

On mummy floors, wear an amulet of resist slowing and a ring of sustain abilities and drop potions. Try not to kill too many greater/guardian mummies at once since you may get 3 points of random stat drain for each kill. If you get a stat too low, try to swap in weapons or jewelery boosting it. If stats get really low, semi-controlled blink to a corner, surround yourself with summons, end Necromutation, eat a royal jelly, and recast Necromutation.

On Angel/Daeva floors, get out of lich form, cast Regeneration, and try to kill them. If things go badly, consider casting Borgnjor's Revivification or escaping, possibly using Death's Door.

If you decide to escape, go as near to the exit as possible, possibly using a lantern of shadows, cast Death's Door, and then alternate Ice/Fire Storm to scrolls of blinking/Controlled Blink and mana channeling to get to the downstairs as soon as possible. Once you are at the downstairs, apport any useful object until Death's Door runs out. Then, go downstairs and use Borgnjor's Revivification to heal. Alternatively, you can escape the Ziggurat, but note that nearby angel/daevas will follow you out, so clear the level beforehand and teleport right away.

Equipment

In addition to the general equipment:

  • Potions of magic to restore MP
  • Rings of fire/ice and/or staff of conjuration/fire/cold to enhance power of Fire/Ice Storm
  • Robe of the Archmagi for later levels, if you don't mind gaining only 1/4 XP
  • Staff/rings of wizardry to improve success of Fire/Ice Storm, if necessary. Also try downgrading large shield -> shield -> buckler.
  • Crystal ball of energy if you have high Evocations (you will probably find one soon in the Ziggurat though)
  • Staff of channeling if not worshiping Sif Muna
  • Spellbooks for all spells you are permanently extending, in case of mistakes

Example spell set 

Your Spells                       Type                          Success   Level       
a - Fire Storm                    Conjuration/Fire              Perfect     9
b - Blink                         Translocation                 Perfect     2
c - Regeneration                  Enchantment/Necromancy        Perfect     3
e - Lehudib's Crystal Spear       Conjuration/Earth             Perfect     8
h - Haste                         Enchantment                   Perfect     6
j - Abjuration                    Summoning                     Perfect     3
s - Summon Butterflies            Summoning                     Perfect     1
u - Dispel Undead                 Necromancy                    Perfect     4
x - Sublimation of Blood          Necromancy                    Perfect     2
z - Extension                     Enchantment                   Perfect     5
B - Controlled Blink              Translocation                 Perfect     7
Q - Selective Amnesia             Enchantment                   Perfect     4
R - Ring of Flames                Enchantment/Fire              Perfect     8
V - Phase Shift                   Translocation                 Perfect     5
X - Death's Door                  Enchantment/Necromancy        Perfect     8
Y - Borgnjor's Revivification     Necromancy                    Perfect     5

Along with permanently extended Necromutation, Deflect Missiles, Swiftness, Flight, Control Teleport, Insulation and Ozocubu's Armor.

Recommended spells

You really should have the following spells:

  • Fire Storm/Ice Storm (at Great/Excellent): a must, to kill lots of enemies at once
  • Haste (at Great/Excellent): a must
  • Controlled Blink (at Excellent): a must, for strategic retreat
  • Extension: a must, to permanently extend lich form and all your buffs

You should have the following spells:

The following is recommended for Angel/Daeva floors if not worshiping a good god, or for general use by getting out of lich form. Note that it is unwise to only bring spellbooks since you may not have time to memorize. You need to memorize these while not necromutated.

  • Death's Door for emergencies, if you decide to escape or skip to the next level
  • Borgnjor's Revivification for emergencies, if you decide to heal, or to heal after Death's Door on the successive level or outside the Ziggurat

You need the following effects going. Either cast them, forget them and use Extension, while bringing spellbooks for them, or alternatively memorize them all (8+3+6+2 = 19 slots at least, not recommended)

You should bring a spellbook of Tukima's Dance to get rid of cursed weapons you try on.

Optional spells

You may want the following spells:

  • Ring of Flames: to enhance Fire Storm and allow you to walk in the fire clouds (but be careful to compensate the rC--)
  • Airstrike: to kill giant eyeballs which may appear in Pan lord floors, if you lack Fire Storm
  • Sublimation of Blood: you can either use this on corpse chunks, or on yourself (especially if you are a high HP race)
  • Blade Hands: if you're a hand-to-hand combat specialist
  • See Invisible (you can't reliably use Extension for this)
  • Phase Shift (using Extension on this will tend to cause too much glowing)
  • Condensation Shield, but use a branded +2 buckler or a shield + ring of wizardry instead
  • Control Teleport, but note that the hardest floors tend to disable teleport control
  • Dispel Undead: to kill undead anacondas rushing at you, skeletal dragons who survive Fire Storm, or to kill mummies one by one
  • Lehudib's Crystal Spear: to kill dangerous monsters (especially Pan lords) who get close to you
  • Other single-target conjurations: Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, bolts. You may not really use them much though, since if there a lot of monsters, they will be ineffective, and if there aren't, you can just semi-controlled blink away and then use Fire/Ice Storm
  • Other summoning spells, either as a monster shield, or to actually kill the monsters
  • Alistair's Intoxication if you are really worried about the humanoid floors (you shouldn't)

Bring spellbooks for all the status effects you are extending with Extension, as well as one for a level >= 6 spell (>= 8 for Necromutation) you will temporarily remove, so that you can recover if you forget to cast Extension.

Superfluous spells

You don't really need the following:

  • Dig: the perimeter is undiggable. Pillars are diggable but you have no reason to dig them. However, bring a stone of earth elementals if you plan to use tomb cards.
  • Levitation: there may be some pools of lava in the center, but don't bother, especially if you've got Flight
  • Resistable (i.e. non-Alistair) status effects

Crusader strategy

See coolrobin's Ogre Chaos Knight of Lugonu with morgue at [6] and ttyrec at [http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/coolrobin /2009-11-01.00:42:05.ttyrec.bz2].

See 78291's torment immune Demonspawn crusader/reaver of Okawaru failed run with morgue at [7] and first ziggurat at [8] and second one (with death to daevas) at [9] and [10].

First, you should convert to Lugonu (for corruption and self-banishment), The Shining One (peaceful angel/daevas, divine warriors) or Elyvilon (peaceful angel/daevas, healing) (or also Nemelex Xobeh, see appropriate section).

Then, set up spells and enchantments as described for conjurers. You probably won't have Necromutation (and can't use it anyway with the good gods), and may not want to use it anyway. Consider adding Regeneration to the perma-extended buffs.

Also add the Silence spell, and use it to handle spellcasters and stop mummies from tormenting and smiting. Use a lantern of shadows along with it when needed. Bring a staff of channeling to channel mana, and a staff of energy for hunger-less casting. Add Invocable invisibility for ranged fighters. Add Alistair's Intoxication and use it to neutralize humanoids. Consider bringing a rod with Abjuration.

Fight in melee, use berserk+resist slowing or haste+might.

Angel/Daeva floors can be handled by proper god choice or one of the escape strategies below. Mummies and Pandemonium Lords can be handled by Silence.

Archer strategy

German Joey's Arcane Marksman: morgue

  1. Summon a horde of Air elementals and restore your MP.
  2. Buff yourself with support spells.
  3. Slowly advance forward; if the floor looks hard, summon powerful monsters and haste them.
  4. Kill as many monsters as possible in the front row with arrows.
  5. Retrieve your arrows with Apportation and try to keep as many monsters out of your LOS as possible.
  6. Once the wave became 2-3 monsters thick, start using rods and wands to damage the remaining monsters.
  7. Finish off survivors with your arrows.

The biggest threat for these characters is the mass Smiting. Almost every floor has some kind of smite spam. The worst are orc levels, which sometimes has 60+ monsters, including numerous high priests that smite you and summon smoke demons that smite you. Using Abjuration every other turn or casting Airstrike is a good way to quickly run out of MP.

Wait until there are a dozen hostile summons before you get rid of them. Smoke demons will fog up the LOS, keeping a lot of smite happy monsters out of your sight.

Spell-less strategy

Attempting to clear the ziggurat without spells in HIGHLY INADVISABLE! You'll die, unless you worship Nemelex.

Death's Door + Torment + Refrigeration strategy

If you feel lucky and brave, this is the most awesome strategy possible, for floors with enemies vulnerable to torment (not holy floors).

The plan is to first cast Death's Door and position yourself in the middle of the enemies (use Controlled Blink): being as slow as possible (e.g. with Cheibriados' Make Ponderous) helps here, since for a single Death's Door turn, the enemies will have more turns to surround you (and thus be obliterated by the following).

Then cast Symbol of Torment until everything is "almost dead" and cast Ozocubu's Refrigeration (1-2 casts should be enough) or Cheibriados's Slouch: this should kill everything in sight.

Worship of Kikubaaqudgha will allow you to torment by praying to save MP, use the gifted corpses to regain MP with Sublimation of Blood, and have more HPs left after Death's Door expires.

Note that this is a dangerous strategy, since smite does 7-17 HP damage, and can thus kill in one hit without Kiku, or two hits with him, before you get a chance to cast Death's Door again. It's probably best to use something safer. However, if you worship Nemelex, you can probably entomb yourself if things go badly. Alternatively, with Cheibriados, Step out of Time might be able to reliably make the monsters unaware of you (might need a lot of piety and Stealth).

Strategies for troublesome floors

Skip with Death's Door

See "Conjurer strategy" above.

Banishment with Lugonu

Obvious, just banish yourself.

Banishment with Distortion weapon and amulet of stasis

You may try to banish yourself with a distortion weapon.

However, you have about the same chance of going to the abyss as to be instantly teleported on the level, damaged and confused. An amulet of stasis -TELE artifact (note that you must be able to wear it along with the weapon!) will prevent this though, and allows you to use distortion with the only downside of confusion and HP damage.

Tomb card

Nemelex Xobeh

See trucutru's run with morgue [11] and ttyrec [12].

You can convert to Nemelex Xobeh and sacrifice all the stuff in the whole dungeon. This will allow you to receive gifts of decks and stack decks to be able to use specific cards at will.

You can use the Tomb card to create a safe haven and then a chokepoint in the Ziggurat. This is extremely powerful, since only a few monsters will be in sight. It is probably optimal to do so in such a way that the tomb is contiguous will walls. If you dig a corner against the wall, only that square will be visible. Doing so facing a Ziggurat corner may be advisable too.

The Portal, Elixir and Damnation cards are also incredibly useful (the former does instant controlled teleport, the second full HP/MP restore and the third banishes you to the Abyss if you are the only creature in sight).

You can combine this strategy with any other, possibly even spell-less melee.

You should also sacrifice all the loot you don't need for more decks.

Random Tomb card

It is possible to use the Tomb card even if not worshiping Nemelex Xobeh.

First, you must have high enough Evocations, some appropriate decks, a means of teleportation (usually wand), a means of hasting yourself (usually wand or spell), either the Detect Creatures spells or a few scrolls of blinking or Controlled Blink spell and possibly a means of summoning friendly monsters (e.g. Summon Small Mammals, box of beasts) and an amulet of stasis (or another non-weapon -TELE artifact).

Cast Detect Creatures and upon detecting angels (or other threats you want to avoid), haste yourself, position yourself, and start drawing cards. If you don't have Detect Creatures, some scrolls of blinking used towards the entrance direction may also do.

Tomb cards are found in decks of defence and decks of escape. Plain decks of defence and escape are safe (but require very high Evocations).

Ornate and legendary decks of escape can cause random instant teleportation. You should wear an amulet of stasis, which prevents the effect.

Ornate and legendary deck of defence may contain the Banishment card, which will banish you to the Abyss if there are no monsters in view. If you don't want to be banished, you may either wait for a monster to show up (very risky) or create one yourself, which must however either not stand near you, or stand between you and a wall, so the tomb is not ruined. A simple way of accomplishing this is to use a box of beasts and then position the monster between you and the Ziggurat wall.

If you get the Portal card and were not wearing stasis, teleport again to cancel the teleportation. If you get transformed in bat or spider form, end the transformation. If you get blinked, go back in position.

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