Temple Termagant
Posts: 13
Joined: Sunday, 27th January 2019, 00:50
Sunday, 27th January 2019, 02:24
15 rune win: 9 of 27
Numerous years ago I had a crazy idea to get a 15 rune win with all 27 species and all kinds of god combinations. I tend to take long breaks in between runs, so this "quest" has continued through various versions of the game. As of a few hours ago, I picked up 15 rune win #9! Since I'm a third of the way through, I thought I'd reflect back on the journey so far for anyone who was interested
Win #1: DrWz of Vehumet Power Ranking: 8th
The run that started it all. It will always hold a special place in my heart. I ended up drawing a yellow draconian, which was a pretty neutral result. I remember I rushed firestorm and made heavy use of a staff of energy. I ranked him 8 not bc he was a bad build, but more so because it was my first serious foray into the extended game and I didn't really know what I was doing. I was inflicted with "must kill everything disease" which resulted in a pretty nail-biting firestorm duel with Cerebrov. I also remember not training any dodging.... This guy's high hit points pulled him through. You could also still learn haste as a spell at the time which definitely helped. Not my best run, but it was a win and taught me a lot.
Win #2: MfHu of [Oka to Shining One to Zin) Power Ranking 4th
Pretty standard run for melee character. Merfolk have great aptitudes. Picked up controlled blink and haste spells in the late game. Okawaru was great in the beginning for skill boosts and better gear. Saved the crypt for my switch over to the shining one. Enchanted my bardiche with holy wrath. Switched over to Zin (Zin quickly became my favorite of the good gods). All pretty standard stuff. You can find strategy guides for these types of characters all over. A good strong reliable character build.
Win #3: MuWz of [Ash to Sif Muna] Power Ranking 9th
Mummies suck. Like seriously suck. I thought not having a hunger clock and being immune to torment would be cool. It wasn't. It sucked. I easily died 50+ times getting this character through, but I'm too damn bull-headed to have given up on it. Luckily, most of those deaths came very quickly, so it wasn't a total time-suck. One thing this run did teach me was the value of Ashenzari as a god. The skill boosts were absolutely critical to finally getting this bum off the ground and into the end game where his intrinsics could come into play (although honestly, just play a regular character and learn lichform). Ashenzari is now one of my favorite gods for starting a spell caster. You have to learn to save up all your scrolls of remove curse to curse gear (and not be afraid to wear already cursed gear). Since you're a caster, getting your skills up fast is usually much more important than having phenomenal gear anyway. One downside you won't be gifted any spells, so you have to be flexible and hope you can find or buy some good ones. Regardless, this mummy focused in earth magic and taught me to love the shatter spell.
Win #4: OgHu of Makhleb Power Ranking 7th
Talk about a glass cannon at the beginning. All that power but no defense. Used every resource and very cautious play at first. Then I found some dragon armor. After that, this guy quickly became an absolute beast. Picked up some of the same skills as usual, although I think by this run or the next the haste spell was removed. I was super psyched to get a branded giant spiked club (the most powerful weapon in the game I think). Stupid game refused to give me a single scroll of brand weapon, so I had to use a normal giant spiked club! Oh well, I bashed everything's face in anyway. I ranked him lower due to his weakness at the beginning, but don't be fooled. He turns into a monster once properly armored. Also, it was fun getting health for killing things with Makhleb, as he was very good at killing things.
Win #5: CeHu of [Oka to Shining One to Zin] Power Ranking 3rd
This run was incredibly similar to the Merfolk run, but instead of using melee I was shooting a bow. Centaurs are built for ranged warfare, and their speed makes kiting everything very easy. I used the exact same approach god-wise. I gave this character the edge over the Merfolk Power Ranking-wise bc the sheer amount of kiting made this run relatively simple. Overall though, they were very similar power-wise.
Win #6: HoFi of Qazlal Power Ranking 1st
This guy was awesome and so much fun to play! Hill Orc aptitudes are made for this character. Great weapon and armor, great Invocations. I completely ignored spell casting and just loaded him up with golden dragon armor and focused on Qazlal firepower. Before I made this run, I read somewhere that Qazlal is tough to worship bc basically every monster on the floor will hear you and come storming towards you. Don't buy it! This guy laughed in the face of the hoards and just obliterated anything that came his way. If there got to be too many enemies, upheaval would knock them down. If it was a huge hoard of enemies, disaster area would wipe them out. Anything else got the executioner's axe. His only real weakness was that I had no torment protection for him. So wiping out a huge group of enemies in the tomb actually pummeled him quite a bit. This was also my first character I took into a ziggurat. Made it to the last floor and then ran into a tomb theme, so I had to bail.
Win #7: NaWr of Che Power Ranking 2nd
Polar opposite of the last character. As with all nagas, he started off weak do to his super slow movement. The translocation spells helped survive the beginning. Then I found him a bow and started worshiping che. Not much longer, he became downright deadly. Basically just peppered enemies with arrows, controlled blink to a safe distance, then peppered them again. Che's stat gains made the hybrid build easy, and slouch would decimate any large groups of enemies. Completely different build type, but also incredibly powerful.
Win #8: DeWz of Ashenzari Power Ranking 6th
I really thought I would enjoy this run more than I did. For one, Deep Elves are just too squishy for my tastes. Two, I wanted to use ice magic since I hadn't focused in on that before. I also wanted to stick with Ashenzari all the way through. The game never gave me glaciate, which was very disappointing. I also couldn't find a staff of energy. I ended up having to switch over to earth spells and of course picked up lich form. I ended up just stealing most of the pandemonium and hell runes. Not surprisingly he had a lot of offensive firepower, but he always seemed just a few bad rng's away from a stupid death, so I ended up playing him pretty conservatively. Some people would probably enjoy this build a lot more, but to me it was just so-so.
RIP Samwise HaAk of Lugonu
Poor Samwise. I wanted to do ranged character that started with slings and then moved to crossbows as I haven't used those yet. I also wanted a new god in Lugonu. He picked up all 15 runes and then I went into Zot 5 with waaayy too much confidence. Yeah, it happened. A stupid death. Got surrounded by orbs of fire and some other nasties. Went to the abyss twice, but both times coming back immediately got mauled. Kept teleporting into even worse situations. Those stories you read about how Zot 5 can kill you even at the end of a 15 rune run? They're totally true. Ignorant overconfidence is, was, and will always be the mostly deadly thing in the dungeon!
Win #9: DsFi of Uskayaw Power Ranking 5th
Melee builds definitely tend to be my strong suit. So to keep it fresh I tried out Uskayaw. Definitely some different playstyle. I went with axes to build up the piety quickly, and picked the usual translocations. Also focused heavily in necromancy, and got all those top spells up and running too. Ironically, I didn't really use Usk's active abilities all that much. I typically just waited until he puts everyone to sleep and pain bonds everyone. Occasionally a situation would arise in which I would use the grand finale insta-kill. It was definitely a different experience, but a very fun build. The Demon Spawn mutations were also interesting, and I actually ended up getting a bunch of helpful regular mutations along the way as well. I don't think it's quite as strong as the "Oka to Good gods" build, but definitely was good for some variety.
Final thoughts:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that little to no one is actually still reading this! If you are, thanks for sharing the journey so far! Next up on the agenda are a stabber build (which I don't especially like) and a transmuter build. I still have plenty of new gods to try out as well.
Happy Zot Hunting everyone!
Win #1: DrWz of Vehumet Power Ranking: 8th
The run that started it all. It will always hold a special place in my heart. I ended up drawing a yellow draconian, which was a pretty neutral result. I remember I rushed firestorm and made heavy use of a staff of energy. I ranked him 8 not bc he was a bad build, but more so because it was my first serious foray into the extended game and I didn't really know what I was doing. I was inflicted with "must kill everything disease" which resulted in a pretty nail-biting firestorm duel with Cerebrov. I also remember not training any dodging.... This guy's high hit points pulled him through. You could also still learn haste as a spell at the time which definitely helped. Not my best run, but it was a win and taught me a lot.
Win #2: MfHu of [Oka to Shining One to Zin) Power Ranking 4th
Pretty standard run for melee character. Merfolk have great aptitudes. Picked up controlled blink and haste spells in the late game. Okawaru was great in the beginning for skill boosts and better gear. Saved the crypt for my switch over to the shining one. Enchanted my bardiche with holy wrath. Switched over to Zin (Zin quickly became my favorite of the good gods). All pretty standard stuff. You can find strategy guides for these types of characters all over. A good strong reliable character build.
Win #3: MuWz of [Ash to Sif Muna] Power Ranking 9th
Mummies suck. Like seriously suck. I thought not having a hunger clock and being immune to torment would be cool. It wasn't. It sucked. I easily died 50+ times getting this character through, but I'm too damn bull-headed to have given up on it. Luckily, most of those deaths came very quickly, so it wasn't a total time-suck. One thing this run did teach me was the value of Ashenzari as a god. The skill boosts were absolutely critical to finally getting this bum off the ground and into the end game where his intrinsics could come into play (although honestly, just play a regular character and learn lichform). Ashenzari is now one of my favorite gods for starting a spell caster. You have to learn to save up all your scrolls of remove curse to curse gear (and not be afraid to wear already cursed gear). Since you're a caster, getting your skills up fast is usually much more important than having phenomenal gear anyway. One downside you won't be gifted any spells, so you have to be flexible and hope you can find or buy some good ones. Regardless, this mummy focused in earth magic and taught me to love the shatter spell.
Win #4: OgHu of Makhleb Power Ranking 7th
Talk about a glass cannon at the beginning. All that power but no defense. Used every resource and very cautious play at first. Then I found some dragon armor. After that, this guy quickly became an absolute beast. Picked up some of the same skills as usual, although I think by this run or the next the haste spell was removed. I was super psyched to get a branded giant spiked club (the most powerful weapon in the game I think). Stupid game refused to give me a single scroll of brand weapon, so I had to use a normal giant spiked club! Oh well, I bashed everything's face in anyway. I ranked him lower due to his weakness at the beginning, but don't be fooled. He turns into a monster once properly armored. Also, it was fun getting health for killing things with Makhleb, as he was very good at killing things.
Win #5: CeHu of [Oka to Shining One to Zin] Power Ranking 3rd
This run was incredibly similar to the Merfolk run, but instead of using melee I was shooting a bow. Centaurs are built for ranged warfare, and their speed makes kiting everything very easy. I used the exact same approach god-wise. I gave this character the edge over the Merfolk Power Ranking-wise bc the sheer amount of kiting made this run relatively simple. Overall though, they were very similar power-wise.
Win #6: HoFi of Qazlal Power Ranking 1st
This guy was awesome and so much fun to play! Hill Orc aptitudes are made for this character. Great weapon and armor, great Invocations. I completely ignored spell casting and just loaded him up with golden dragon armor and focused on Qazlal firepower. Before I made this run, I read somewhere that Qazlal is tough to worship bc basically every monster on the floor will hear you and come storming towards you. Don't buy it! This guy laughed in the face of the hoards and just obliterated anything that came his way. If there got to be too many enemies, upheaval would knock them down. If it was a huge hoard of enemies, disaster area would wipe them out. Anything else got the executioner's axe. His only real weakness was that I had no torment protection for him. So wiping out a huge group of enemies in the tomb actually pummeled him quite a bit. This was also my first character I took into a ziggurat. Made it to the last floor and then ran into a tomb theme, so I had to bail.
Win #7: NaWr of Che Power Ranking 2nd
Polar opposite of the last character. As with all nagas, he started off weak do to his super slow movement. The translocation spells helped survive the beginning. Then I found him a bow and started worshiping che. Not much longer, he became downright deadly. Basically just peppered enemies with arrows, controlled blink to a safe distance, then peppered them again. Che's stat gains made the hybrid build easy, and slouch would decimate any large groups of enemies. Completely different build type, but also incredibly powerful.
Win #8: DeWz of Ashenzari Power Ranking 6th
I really thought I would enjoy this run more than I did. For one, Deep Elves are just too squishy for my tastes. Two, I wanted to use ice magic since I hadn't focused in on that before. I also wanted to stick with Ashenzari all the way through. The game never gave me glaciate, which was very disappointing. I also couldn't find a staff of energy. I ended up having to switch over to earth spells and of course picked up lich form. I ended up just stealing most of the pandemonium and hell runes. Not surprisingly he had a lot of offensive firepower, but he always seemed just a few bad rng's away from a stupid death, so I ended up playing him pretty conservatively. Some people would probably enjoy this build a lot more, but to me it was just so-so.
RIP Samwise HaAk of Lugonu
Poor Samwise. I wanted to do ranged character that started with slings and then moved to crossbows as I haven't used those yet. I also wanted a new god in Lugonu. He picked up all 15 runes and then I went into Zot 5 with waaayy too much confidence. Yeah, it happened. A stupid death. Got surrounded by orbs of fire and some other nasties. Went to the abyss twice, but both times coming back immediately got mauled. Kept teleporting into even worse situations. Those stories you read about how Zot 5 can kill you even at the end of a 15 rune run? They're totally true. Ignorant overconfidence is, was, and will always be the mostly deadly thing in the dungeon!
Win #9: DsFi of Uskayaw Power Ranking 5th
Melee builds definitely tend to be my strong suit. So to keep it fresh I tried out Uskayaw. Definitely some different playstyle. I went with axes to build up the piety quickly, and picked the usual translocations. Also focused heavily in necromancy, and got all those top spells up and running too. Ironically, I didn't really use Usk's active abilities all that much. I typically just waited until he puts everyone to sleep and pain bonds everyone. Occasionally a situation would arise in which I would use the grand finale insta-kill. It was definitely a different experience, but a very fun build. The Demon Spawn mutations were also interesting, and I actually ended up getting a bunch of helpful regular mutations along the way as well. I don't think it's quite as strong as the "Oka to Good gods" build, but definitely was good for some variety.
Final thoughts:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that little to no one is actually still reading this! If you are, thanks for sharing the journey so far! Next up on the agenda are a stabber build (which I don't especially like) and a transmuter build. I still have plenty of new gods to try out as well.
Happy Zot Hunting everyone!
