Walkthrough

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This page contains spoilers. If you would like to play the game without spoilers then do not read this page.

Contents

Introduction

This walkthrough charts the progress of a melee fighter wearing heavy armour who worships Trog, Okawaru or the Shining One. If you have ascended using a different type of character, feel free to enhance this guide according to your experience. The progression order should apply to most characters.

This page only covers the general strategy of the game. For specific topics and tactics, see the related pages. The following are good reads for beginners:

After you win the game, please write a strategy guide for your character/god combination.

You can also look at published wins on public servers for more hints.

Overview

  • Character selection
  • Early game (approx. D:1 - D:9)
    • Pre-Temple dungeon
    • Ecumenical Temple - pick a god and establish a temp stash if necessary
    • Post-Temple upper dungeon
  • Early branches (order may vary)
    • The Hive (delay if you lack poison resistance)
    • The Lair, early levels - establish stash on L2
    • Orcish Mines - you should get good normal armour (i.e. heavy plate mail or light studded leather) here and a good weapon
  • Middle dungeon (approx. D:10 - D:18)
  • Middle branches
  • Special levels (order may vary, delay if you have teleportitis) - you get loot and second and third runes
  • Lower dungeon (approx. D:19 - D:27) and Zot
  • Late branches (optional, order may vary, some characters may find some very hard)
  • The Realm of Zot L5 without picking up the Orb of Zot (possibly delay after Pandemonium if you cannot cure teleportitis)
  • Bonus branches (optional, some characters may find some very hard)
    • Pandemonium (remember to bring food and a weapon of distortion to get out!)
    • Ziggurat (if you haven't found it, can be found in Pandemonium): this can be extremely hard
    • The Abyss until you get the rune
  • Pick up the Orb of Zot and all your runes, run to Level 1 and escape!


Character selection

Note that while race selection is locked in and significantly affects the whole game, the background/weapon/book selection only determines starting equipment and skills, but doesn't affect the game in any other way (i.e you can develop any skills you choose). Also, initial god selection (if applicable) can be changed, but you will incur penance, which may be deadly if you are not powerful enough yet.

If you're new to Crawl, you'll have to experiment until you find a race/background combination that works for you. See Class and Race Combinations for Beginners for guidance.

Don't forget to read the strategy guide for your character combination, if available. The available guides are listed earlier in this article.

Early game

At the start of the game, start descending through the dungeon. Sometimes you'll need to skip levels and take the first stairs down as soon as possible, without further exploration, if they appear too risky. Uniques (especially Sigmund), player ghosts, ogres, and bands of orcs all pose a significant threat on the first few levels. You may be able to isolate the most dangerous monsters and kill them from afar, or by using any tricks at your disposal -- an early wand of disintegration, the Conjure Flame spell, and so on and so forth -- but remember, you're under no obligation to kill the monsters now.

Once you find the Temple, pick a god if you haven't yet. If you're playing a character with low Strength you may want to establish a temporary stash here if your carrying capacity is almost maxed out; characters with high Strength, and therefore a higher carrying capacity, can usually delay until they reach the Lair.

Then, continue exploring the dungeon until you find the entrances to the Lair, the Orcish Mines, or the Hive.

Early branches

As soon as they get poison resistance, the majority of characters can clear the Hive. Butcher the bees for meat (which is poisonous, but poison resistance lets you eat it!) and save the rest of the permafood you find, such as royal jellies, which restore abilities in addition to providing nutrition. A queen bee guards a small treasure trove in the center of the hive structure on the bottom level. Also, if you possess means of levitation and teleportation, you can levitate across the water, search for a secret door (or melt the wax walls with fire), open it, and teleport away. Kill the bees that come out, then levitate again and grab the loot inside.

Other than the Hive, it is probably safest to clear the upper levels of the Lair, but this may vary depending on playstyle and equipment. The first 3-4 levels are not too much of a challenge. You'll find packs of rats, various types of fast-moving poisonous snakes, and eventually sheep, yaks, and even death yaks. The occasional hydra will rear its heads. Establish your stash on L2; only beasts spawn on this level, and they can't pick up items.

Despite the entrance appearing earlier, the Orcish Mines are tougher than both the Hive and the Lair. While bands of plain orcs don't pose much difficulty, orc warriors (nasty), orc knights (nastier), and orc warlords (deadly) may appear. On the mystical side, you'll see plenty of orc wizards who can turn invisible, orc priests who can smite you from afar for serious damage, and even orc sorcerers. To add insult to injury, levels are often split into multiple paths, with some parts being unreachable unless you use a scroll of magic mapping and dig your way to them using a wand of digging or of disintegration. You'll find the entrance to the Elven Halls on the lower levels.

Middle dungeon

After you've explored the majority of the early branches, continue to explore the main dungeon, but take it slow. Monster difficulty will start to ramp up noticeably. You'll find the entrances to the Vaults and Hell before too long. When you begin to feel uncomfortable with how dangerous the dungeon's monsters are, it's time to backtrack a bit and clear the branches below.

Middle branches

Assuming you have poison resistance by now and a way to kill hydras (spells, flaming weapons or non-bladed weapons), the Swamp should be your first target. Be careful to only fight when you are on land (retreat to land if surprised in shallow water), as otherwise swamp worms get a significant bonus and are truly deadly. If you lack poison resistance, you may either get a swamp dragon hide in the swamp, or do the Elven Halls L1-6 first and hope to find equipment there.

Afterwards, you can clear the Snake Pit L1-4 (again, assuming you have poison resistance) and the Elven Halls L1-6 if you haven't already (make sure you have high magic resistance; life protection is a bonus since some spellcasters cast drain spells). The Snake Pit is populated by snakes and hordes of nagas, whose main source of damage is poison, so you should be able to take them on. The Elven Halls feature many casters (deep elf conjurers, deep elf summoners, deep elf priests and even the dreaded deep elf annihilators on the bottom floor), and some deep elf knights who love to pelt you from afar with their bows. Repel Missiles and Deflect Missiles are of great use here. Do not descend to the bottom floor of either branch yet! (L7 for Elven Halls and L5 for the Snake Pit.)

The Vaults (L1-7) are next. You can take some time to explore the Hall of Blades side-branch when you find it. Try to equip yourself to defend against the weapon brands: life protection is quite necessary to prevent or reduce draining. Look for a good branded/randart weapon if necessary, and a weapon of holy wrath for the Crypt. Note that weapons of distortion may banish you to the Abyss when unwielded, and are therefore quite useful for escaping some of the later branches.

You can then explore the Crypt, which is a great source of piety with The Shining One. If you worship another god and plan to switch later to The Shining One, you may want to delay clearing the Crypt (although you can also use the Abyss for this purpose if you already did).

Special levels

You should now be ready to the take the bottom floor of the Snake Pit, the Elven Halls, the Vaults and the Crypt. Those are significantly different from the preceding levels, since they have a non-random layout and a high concentration of powerful monsters. They should be played carefully: explore in a circular fashion from the upstairs, ready to retreat at the first sign of danger, and try to pull individual monsters back to you instead of fighting large packs. See the individual branch pages for needed preparation and strategy. You will need high magic resistance for Elven Halls, poison resistance and resist slowing for the Snake Pit, and electricity resistance and high AC for the Vaults.

You should also go into the Vestibule of Hell, kill Geryon, and evoke his silver horn (which you should then stash away and bring out of the dungeon together with runes and the Orb at the end).

Lower dungeon and Zot

After that, finish exploring the main dungeon.

By now you'll have to stop relying on scrolls and potions, since many monsters will have fire/cold/sticky flame attacks that destroy them. If you continue relying on them, be very careful and wear an amulet of conservation. You can also keep junk potions/scrolls to reduce the likelihood good ones will be destroyed.

Once you've cleared the main dungeon, take 3 runes and unlock the portal to the Realm of Zot. You should be able to clear the first four levels: they are similar to the Elven Halls and feature lots of narrow corridors inhabited by draconians instead of elves. Remember to put on an amulet of resist corrosion to deal with yellow draconians and a source of electricity resistance for black draconians.

If you haven't found gold dragon armour or an awesome artifact armour yet, kill and chop gold dragons in Zot, get their hide and enchant it.

Late branches

After that, you may opt to do a few optional branches. Their difficulty varies based on your character, but they provide plenty of experience, loot, and runes. Note that you risk getting mutated in these branches. If you already have good gear and experience, are low on potions of cure mutation, and don't plan on randomly teleporting in Zot:5, you may want to clear it first. You may also delay some of these if you lack some gear for them (such as high-level summoning spellbooks for the Tomb).

If you are worshiping another god and intend to switch to The Shining One, do so now and clear the Crypt to boost your piety.

The Slime Pits are the easiest, but only enter if you have an amulet of resist mutation (or the mutation resistance mutation), an amulet of resist corrosion, and mostly corrosion-proof gear (i.e. randarts, +4 or better armour or crystal plate mail). Clear the last level extremely carefully, exploring in circles from the upstairs. Kill the royal jelly, but be careful since it spawns jellies when damaged. Then dig or teleport to get the loot and the rune. Alternately, you can convert to Jiyva, which will turn all the monsters in this branch neutral toward you, after which you can make a beeline for the rune -- as long as you're prepared to face the wrath of your previous deity.

The Tomb is filled with mummies. These cast death curses when killed (including torment for priests and greater mummies), but the real problem are mummy priests and greater mummies, who can both torment *and* smite you, resulting in a quick death; this can be mitigated with torment resistance or immunity. Note that in 0.6.0, Kikubaaqudgha provides protection from mummy curses at high piety, so her worshippers should have little difficulty. Alternately, if you are a summoner or a follower of a god who grants summoning invocations (The Shining One is perfect here), you can let your summons handle the mummies, though you'll need to proceed carefully. Life protection is a must to reduce harm from torment. The Tomb contains loot and a rune. If you have teleportitits and lack torment immunity, avoid it. Some player do survive anyway, but it's quite risky.

Hell's four branches require resistances and contain fiends, which torment you. Again, life protection is a must, and sustain abilities is recommended. Every branch has loot and a rune at the end. You can also get the Sceptre of Asmodeus and the Staff of Dispater here. Note that you will very likely be cast into the Abyss at least once.

Zot:5

At this point, if you don't have or can cure teleportitis, or you plan to randomly teleport in the Orb chamber, it is best to clear it now. You may alternatively wait until after Pandemonium, but you risk getting teleportitis and aren't likely to become much stronger at this point (there are several guaranteed neqoxecs in Mnoleg's lair and they are spawned regularly anyway in Pandemonium and the Abyss).

If you do have teleportitis, no means to cure it, and don't plan to randomly teleport in Zot:5 or you can still become stronger, you may want to do Pandemonium, the Abyss and perhaps a Ziggurat first in hopes of finding a potion of cure mutation (or enough potions of mutation to randomly remove it). Note that there is no loot in Zot:5 except for the Orb, so you can skip it safely. If you don't want all the runes, you may also consider converting to Zin, getting piety with donations and/or waiting to use his Cure All Mutations ability.

If you worship The Shining One and are low on piety, you may want to replenish it in the Abyss so you can do the Zot chamber with an army of angels.

Read Zot:5 for more details on the level itself and the strategies for clearing it.

Bonus branches

You can now take the Orb and ascend if you don't want all the runes. Alternatively, leave the Orb in place and prepare for Pandemonium. Make sure you bring a distortion weapon, plenty of food, and all other equipment/resistances described on that page.

When entering a new Pandemonium level, take a second and look at the color of the floor and walls. If you think it matches a unique demon lord's level, explore it, kill the demon lord if present, take the rune, and if it is Cerebov, take the loot too. Otherwise, explore and take the first portal you find to a new Pandemonium level. If you stumble upon a random named demon, kill him and see if there is a demonic rune. If you've killed Mnoleg, Gloorx Vloq, Lom Lobon and Cerebov and still have no demonic rune, continue through Pandemonium until you find one.

You may now continue to wander indefinitely and get as much loot and as many demonic runes as you like. The record as of 2009-11-25 seems to be 98 demonic runes. You will find food in Pandemonium, but wearing a ring of sustenance or playing a mummy will make Pandemonium farming easier, especially if you use skills that cause hunger.

After all this, or in case you stumble upon a portal to one while roaming Pandemonium, you can raid one or more Ziggurats. Note that this can be extremely dangerous and the loot will be useless since you can already kill everything in the game anyway. If you haven't found a portal to a Ziggurat yet, you may be able to create one using a legendary deck of changes or a legendary deck of dungeons. Failing that, just wander around Pandemonium until you find one.

Finishing a Ziggurat is extremely hard: the later levels may be full of multiple Pan lords who haste themselves and summon tormenting and smiting demons, and there may be no safe strategy for it with your current character. Nonetheless, it is possible to fully clear them. Of course, you may also opt to enter earlier if you find or make a portal outside of Pandemonium to get some of the loot in the early levels, which are often quite survivable.

Once you have done all that, use your distortion weapon to banish yourself to the Abyss. If you want the abyssal rune and haven't found it yet in a past trip, wander around until you find it. Then search for a portal back to the dungeon.

Ascension

Take all of your runes and your most valuable artifacts (to improve your total score!) to D:1. Be warned that you cannot access Hell once you pick up the Orb. Then, get some means of teleportation and teleport control, go to Zot:5 and pick up the Orb.

Ascending can be done by simply heading to nearest upstairs. If a Pandemonium lord or a very nasty monster comes up, use a controlled teleport to escape. You can teleport all the time, but it will make you glow and possibly mutate.

Once you reach D:1, take the Orb, the runes, the horn, and the artifacts and go upstairs. Congratulations!

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