Walkthrough

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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:

For generic character building strategy see:

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

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 Background 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 and Grinder), 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. Remember, you get more powerful over the course of the game. The uniques and other "local bullies" don't....

Once you find the Temple, pick a god if you haven't yet (and aren't a demigod). 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 often delay until they reach the Lair. If the particular god you want isn't in the Temple (perhaps you got the "corrupted temple"), you can find it in the main dungeon.

Then, continue exploring the dungeon until you find the entrances to the Orcish Mines and the Lair. Even though they are generally discovered in that order, most players will find it easier to clear the Lair first. These branches are not just digressions; clearing them is a major part of the game, and you will get significant resources from each. But, speaking of digressions...

Portals

Throughout the game, you will find various portals to optional levels. If a portal demands a price, ignore it for now. Many of the portals are timed, so you have a decision to make. Other portals will have different themes, and each has characteristic types of monsters and other threats. First, look up the portal, and consider whether you're equipped to deal with it. Some of these are obvious; to mention some later portals, it's fire resistance for the Volcano, perma-food for the Labyrinth. If the portal plays to your weak points, just skip it! (That is what "optional" means, after all.) Likewise, if the "guards" around the portal are too tough for you, you probably didn't want to go inside anyway. If the timer runs out before you're ready to go in, well, that's life in the dungeon.

If you do venture in, take a moment to set up your resistances and then clear out your inventory of anything you surely won't need for this portal -- after all, you're hoping to come out with lots of treasure! Generally, you can just drop stuff near the portal, but if there are smart monsters about, you might want to hide it. (The last level is good, but mind the timer!) Once you're in, stake stock of the situation, and explore carefully. Keep track of the exit portals (there's always at least one handy). If you're overmatched, take what you've got so far (if anything) and skedaddle -- whatever's around the next bend surely isn't worth getting killed! If you step in and immediately face an "oh, sh*t" situation, RUN, because it's not going to get easier!

Most likely, the first portal you find will be the Sewer, which is good practice for your general strategy here: The sewer features lots of water, and mostly weak monsters, but there will be poisonous snakes, and the end of the sewer can have nastier monsters. Merfolk may be able to reach some extra treasure because of their ability to cross deep water. The second is likely to be the Ossuary, with lots of zombies and/or mummies, and occasionally more exotic undead. Both are highly variable, with many possible maps and a range of hazard levels. The Bailey may show up a bit later -- this one needs distance attacks, defense against missiles, and a fair dose of raw killing power.

Early branches

While most of the individual branches are more-or-less optional, you do need to clear several of them to get your runes and win the game. Often when you first reach a branch entrance, you will not be strong enough to deal with the inhabitants, so you'll have to gather experience and equipment in the main dungeon, then come back later. When you do venture in, you should normally clear all but the last level. These "branch endings", especially those with runes, are a major leap in danger over the rest of their branch! It's wiser to leave them be until you've gotten much more powerful, and are ready to take them on. Note that runes are not needed for anything until you are ready to enter the Realm of Zot.

It is generally safe to clear the entirety of the Lair when you find it. The first 3-4 levels are not too much of a challenge. You'll find packs of rats, various fast-moving poisonous snakes, frogs and assorted other beasts. (Watch out for spiny frogs, an early threat.) As you go deeper, sheep and yaks will be joined by death yaks, elephants, and even the occasional dire elephant. 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. If you start having trouble with the beasts, return to the main dungeon (or other branches) for a while, rinse and repeat. Watch out for the occasional fire-breather such as a lindwurm, fire drake, or even a mottled dragon. Lair:8 may have some more dangerous vaults, but most characters can still manage.

Despite the entrance appearing earlier, the Orcish Mines are tougher than the Lair. While bands of plain orcs don't pose much difficulty, orc warriors (nasty), orc knights (nastier), and orc warlords (deadly) may appear as you go deeper, punctuated by various ogre types. 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 summoning demons. 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, but don't go in yet, the elves are way tougher than the orcs! As noted above, don't even touch the last level unless you're really "sweeping all before you" (and then watch out for those uber-orcs). You may also find a big ogre vault on Orc:4 -- if so, this will be your introduction to ogre mages!

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 you've passed over so far, especially finishing the Orcish Mines and Lair.

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... if it exists (Only one of Swamp and Shoals will appear in any game). Be careful to only fight when you are on land (retreat to land if surprised in shallow water). If you lack poison resistance, you may either get a swamp dragon hide in the swamp, or do the Elven Halls L1-2 first and hope to find equipment there.

Afterwards, you can clear the Snake Pit L1-4 or the Spider's Nest (again, assuming you have poison resistance) and the Elven Halls L1-2 if you haven't already (make sure you have high magic resistance). 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). On the flip side, there are also 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! The Shoals are a bit tougher, but early levels can be included at this point., but the Slime Pits are much more dangerous, and need quite a lot of preparation.

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 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). Dispel Undead and the Necromancy to back it will make the Crypt almost trivial.

Special levels

You should now be ready to the take the bottom floors of the Lair branches, the Elven Halls, the Vaults and the Crypt. (If you're uncertain, try finishing the main dungeon first, though you won't be able to open the Zot gate yet.) These "branch endings" are significantly different from the preceding levels, with non-random layouts 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 for the Snake Pit, and electricity resistance and high AC for the Vaults.

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.

Once you've cleared the main dungeon, go 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.

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.

You can also enter the Vestibule of Hell, kill Geryon, and evoke his silver horn to open Hell. (Before 0.9, bringing the Horn out of the dungeon would increase your score; it's not clear if this is still true.)

Hell's four branches each require particular resistances and contain fiends to 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 for a multi-rune, but not "complete" win. Or... you can 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. As of 0.9. you can only get one demonic rune, after which no more will appear. 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 one earlier (having found or made a portal) 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. At this point, you can search for a portal back to the dungeon... or you can stay longer, to chase a rumor: The Abyssal Stair. (Then come back and tell us what you learned!)

Ascension

In older versions, you would begin ascension by gathering your runes most valuable items (especially fixedarts such as the Horn of Geryon) on D:1, or later collection to boost your score. As of 0.9, inventory value no longer contributes to score. Your runes do, but those are now carried outside your inventory, for free.

So, when you've finished ransacking the netherworlds and such, just proceed to Zot:5 and claim the Orb! Be warned that from the time you pick up the Orb, all portals in the dungeon will close, sealing off Hell and the other netherworlds. Furthermore, you will be under -cTele (that is, no teleport control anywhere) from this point on.

To finish the game, simply head to the nearest upstairs, rinse and repeat. Wands of hasting and teleportation are good to have handy. Wands of digging are also quite useful to dig passages to the nearest exit.

Occasionally residents of the Abyss will appear. Steamroller the small fry, but if a Pandemonium lord or a very nasty monster comes up, use whatever means you have to escape. Note that even under -cTele, you can still perform a semi-controlled blink.

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