YAVP: 4-rune SpWr of Hepliaklqana, now won all species


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Slime Squisher

Posts: 419

Joined: Monday, 12th September 2016, 16:25

Post Tuesday, 11th August 2020, 13:55

YAVP: 4-rune SpWr of Hepliaklqana, now won all species

http://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/dame ... 220240.txt

I've got a spriggan home, and with that, I have won all 30 species (including the three extra ones in Stoat Soup), starting with a 0.18 DD and first stepping away from heavy armour types with a 0.19 kitty. (I reached every god with win #26, a KoAr^Ely). I mostly don't post YAVPs here, but this one's a bit of a landmark.

This took me 3 attempts (4, if you count a SpNe in 2016 when I had no idea how to play), and this is the first game where I ever had a rune on a spriggan; I was pleasantly surprised by that, expecting a result more like the 60 DEs or 72 kitties I had to try to get one home. That said, there are more than a few places in the log where a little more bad luck would have killed me. (I was frustrated by attempt #1, who got guardian spirit and two rings of magical power but then was paralysed by an orc sorc on O:1).

Warper was probably not the best choice. Sure, you can blink away from stuff - but until centaurs start to show up, you can walk away from stuff. However, Shroud of Golubria's effect (more or less 10ish bonus HP) counts for a lot on a Sp - and it never hurts to start with blinking identified. I got little other mileage out of the starting book.

I also think (while it worked out) going hexer for the ancestor was bad. Sure, it's very effective on hexable things - but I could do my own hexing, what I was short of was damage for unhexable things. The battlemage might have propped up my weaknesses more effectively.

On D:3 I found a book with Confuse which served me well all game, right through to draconian packs in Zot. On D:6 I found an altar to Hep; I hadn't liked the other altars so far (except the one to Dith on D:2, but it was in a transporter vault) so Hep it was.

I nearly got collected by Gastronok on D:8, barely surviving only with a berserk rage, and also nearly died of carelessness with an ogre. Uniques were odd this game since of course about half of them just got stabbed (like Asterion and Azrael, both of whom could have been major problems) and many of the remainder could be kited, but the others were sometimes horribly dangerous. Erica donated me a flaming scimitar on D:9, solving the potential hydra problem.

In Lair:1 I'd enter a labyrinth, killing the minotaur only after a desperate struggle. I also learned Regeneration then realised I didn't actually want to use it because it would use up all my food, and Infusion then realised I didn't want to use _that_ because it would use up all my MP. Lair was OK apart from high-MR death yaks, some of who I just had to leave behind on Lair:5 - but on Lair:6 I got Mephitic Cloud which, with a little skilling, works just fine.

The other thing Lair gave me was a +7 quick blade. What a stroke of luck! This would couple nicely later with 3 then 9 points of slaying to make my melee damage output merely bad.

I went to Orc, where I'd buy (speculatively from antique shops) a ring with {rF+ rC+++ AC+3 Int-4 Stlth+} which I'd use almost all game (the AC seemed worth the loss of Int) and a robe with {rElec rPois Regen+} which looked pretty good heading into Spider and Swamp (especially given I fear Nikola). Orc was not too bad since almost nothing there is unconfusable. I learned Cause Fear here which I expected to use as a panic button (I didn't; if stuff was hexable, I didn't need a panic button) and Spectral Weapon which I used for a while for a damage boost on high-MR things like demonic crawlers and thorn hunters.

I hit a bailey on D:11, the little cluster of circular rooms - this got a bit hairy simply because it's a small map with a lot of monsters. After clearing D:12 I went to Spider.

I immediately hit an ice cave, which turned out to have an Ice Fiend; I bravely ran away, but then unwisely dug around and tried to steal the loot then escape without seeing the Ice Fiend again - fortunately, this worked, although getting a cloak of cold resistance is more use when you don't have rC+++ already.

On Spider:2 I found acquirement and got a ring with {+Inv rF+ rN++ EV+3 Str+2}, which I really did use all game - I didn't use the +Inv much, though, partly because I'm bad and partly because I was lucky enough to have a good supply of the potions.

On Spider:4 I learned OTR which was a workhorse for the rest of the game - it's easy on spriggans to poison and run away, poison and run away. Nasty run-in with some spark wasps, but otherwise OK.

Swamp was more of a nuisance with thorn hunters and shambling mangroves both giving me trouble. I learned Isk's Battlesphere on Swamp:2 to give me more damage otput... but the only thing I had to cycle it was Sting, so it still wasn't a help on rPois targets. I'd learn Shock later to help with this. The Swamp:4 rune vault was the horde of hydras and swamp dragons, which looked scary but was easy enough to poison and confuse to death.

I finished up the Dungeon and went to the Vaults, where I learned Yara's Violent Unravelling - now, I've heard this isn't a lot of use, but I found it marvellous. Whenever an ogre mage or ironbrand convoker made something fast or mighty, I could undo it and blow the monster and its friends up at the same time; deep elf archers with repel missiles, deep elf high priests with brilliance auras, whatever. It's really satisfying to make the monsters' own buffs work against them. My only regret is it doesn't work on berserk spriggan berserkers.

I also learned Invisibility - in retrospect, an odd choice, since I had evokable invisibility for fewer MP.

On V:2 I bought a robe with {rPois rF+ Int+6}; I regretted the loss of rElec from my old robe, but I had resistance potions to buy and couldn't pass up the Int+6. I especially regretted it after forgetting I did it and nearly killing myself with my own disc of storms on V:3.

After V:4 I did E:1 and E:2, absent the Hall of Blades. Then, to Depths. I learned Animate Dead (and Recall), which were moderately useful; however, Depths:3-5 turned into ghastly slugfests. Spriggans were giving me most trouble (especially spriggan berserkers who were faster than me and hit like freight trains) but more generally I was having the problem where all three stairs are surrounded by ghastly stuff. Sojobo was especially problematic. However, I did buy an amulet with {Spirit rC+ MR+ Int+2 Slay+3}, a delightful upgrade from my existing plain guardian spirit. I also learned Controlled Blink - the bcrawl-style level 7 version whose range scales with spellpower.

To Vaults:5! I was feeling bold (and had rF+++) so I cleared the welcoming committee with immolation; I was hasted and invisible so I could just stab vault guards to kick things off, then run away down a side corridor. After that V:5 took a while to clear but wasn't too tricky given the ease of running away to rest and regenerate. I found +15 ice dragon scales with {rPois rF- rC++ MR++} - a perfect example of a marvellous item for a completely different character.

Next was the tricky 4th rune question. yesno suggested Abyss, and that didn't seem too bad; it did in fact get pretty hairy, but on a second trip I found a rune vault with angels and a TSO altar; I got horribly temp-mutated by wretched stars and clearly wasn't winning the fight, so quaffed brilliance to extend the range on Controlled Blink and just blinked to the rune and ran away.

I went to clear out the Hall of Blades and Elf:3, not getting anything particularly good save some XP, but the E:3 room of bastards was no trouble, being full of normal speed poisonable hexable monsters.

I bought up all the consumables, but still wasn't sure how I was going to beat OOFs. From here through Zot I trained nothing but Evocations, since wands and misc evocables seemed like my best chance of doing damage. On Z:1 I found a ring with {rPois rF+ Slay+6} which replaced {rF+ rC+++ AC+3 Int-4 Stlth+}; losing the AC was a shame but the extra 6 slaying on a QB seemed welcome.

I didn't clear Zot - I expected to hit XL 27 anyway on Z:5 and I had all the skills I wanted - just one path between stairs on each level. Z:5 was not too bad - I enslaved draconians and used them as meatshields against orb guardians and dragons, I had enough resistance potions for electric golems and storm dragons, and could Animate Dead a few corpses - until I got to the orb chamber proper to find two OOFs popping out the door along with some Orb Guardians.

My ancestor did sterling work by stabbing one of them with its antimagic blade, and I started phantom mirroring Orb Guardians, acid-zapping OOFs, and using up my boxes of beasts. It turns out you get really good beasts at Evocations 24, and they stomped the OOFs flat in short order.

On the way out a bunch of orbrun spawns turned up in one of the lungs, but I holy worded and kept running; however, I was not best pleased to find a wandering OOF directly in my path. Somewhat to my surprise (and gratification), however, I was so stealthy I could just stroll right past it, resisting the urge to try and stab it, and it only noticed me when I was rounding the corner on the way out.

The rest of the orbrun was pretty uneventful; ran away from one panlord, and an angel turned up in an inconvenient spot but Transference got rid of it.
Last edited by damerell on Tuesday, 1st September 2020, 15:48, edited 1 time in total.
Ascension reports with too many words since 2016.

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Shtopit, Sorcerous
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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Tuesday, 11th August 2020, 17:59

Re: YAVPYAVP: 4-rune SpWr of Hepliaklqana, now w

damerell wrote: I mostly don't post YAVPs here

That's too bad, I've found them enjoyable to read.

So now that you've won all species, I'd be interested to hear how many tries it took with each species? Are there any surprises, if you list the species from "easiest" to "hardest"...?
DCSS: 97:...MfCj}SpNeBaEEGrFE{HaAKTrCK}DsFESpHu{FoArNaBe}
FeEE{HOIEMiAE}GrGlHuWrGnWrNaAKBaFi{MiDeMfDe}{DrAKTrAMGhEnGnWz}
{PaBeDjFi}OgAKPaCAGnCjOgCKMfAEAtCKSpCjDEEE{HOSu
Bloat: 17: RaRoPrPh{GuStGnCa}{ArEtZoNb}KiPaAnDrBXDBQOApDaMeAGBiOCNKAsFnFlUs{RoBoNeWi
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Slime Squisher

Posts: 405

Joined: Sunday, 27th January 2019, 13:50

Post Wednesday, 12th August 2020, 09:17

Re: YAVPYAVP: 4-rune SpWr of Hepliaklqana, now w

Spriggan under Hep. That is true bravery in my eyes, bravo!
There is always something new to learn.

Slime Squisher

Posts: 419

Joined: Monday, 12th September 2016, 16:25

Post Thursday, 13th August 2020, 00:10

Re: YAVPYAVP: 4-rune SpWr of Hepliaklqana, now w

Sprucery wrote:
damerell wrote: I mostly don't post YAVPs here

That's too bad, I've found them enjoyable to read.

Well, OK, I might go back to doing it, but for now - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~damerell/games/crawl has the lot, dumps and YAVPs. I think I stopped posting after the VpSk, aside from the 15-rune GhMo.
So now that you've won all species, I'd be interested to hear how many tries it took with each species? Are there any surprises, if you list the species from "easiest" to "hardest"...?

Well, this is heavily informed by getting better at the game, but, in order:
  • DD, 11 attempts. Obviously very strong, since I was learning the game and yet managed to get a win inside about 16 games (at the time, I would not just play one species until I won it).
  • VS, 22 attempts; but might have taken less if I hadn't got ambitious and gone to Pan (and killed Lom Lobon, becoming more ambitious). I think VS is pretty strong once it gets rolling.
  • DG, 5 attempts. I don't think DG is as bad as people think - it's a very strong start, and to feel the lack of a god in the middle game you have to survive the start.
  • Ce, 10 attempts. I didn't really know how to exploit the movement speed much, but even so this wasn't too hard - Ce's just so robust.
  • Fe, 72 attempts. Yeah, they're fast, yeah, good apts, yeah, lives, but I still think kitties are pretty damn hard.
  • HO, 1 attempt. After sweating over kitties it was pretty easy to bring a heavy-armour monster-whacker home, and HO's pretty good at that.
  • Gr, 5 attempts. My first win that relied on damaging spells. Gr is super good at this, much better than DE which I think is a newbie trap.
  • Mi, 2 attempts. Obviously very strong.
  • Ba, 14 attempts. Ba I think is kind of middling - the move speed is horrible, the +LOS isn't great, but their apts are superb and they've got an infinite sorta-cblink.
  • Fo, 17 attempts. Fo's a similar picture to Ba - one huge downside, lots of good stuff.
  • Op, 10 attempts. I got super lucky to win that Op, and I honestly don't know how to play one at all well. I think they're pretty difficult.
  • Mf, 12 attempts. Mf's pretty good, with some really high apts.
  • DE, 41 attempts. DE I think is weak; slightly better at spells than (say) Gr, horribly frail.
  • Na, 24 attempts. Even more horrible movespeed, but at least when you get rolling you're super robust. If you're going to be slow, it's consoling to be slow but absolutely hard as nails. I think Na's weak overall but mostly just because of the dismal early game.
  • Hu, 4 attempts - but these were all CKs who stuck with Xom, so I dunno it says much about Hu.
  • Dr, 2 attempts. I think Dr's pretty strong for a spellcasting game, up there with Gr.
  • MD, 6 attempts. Dunno why it took me 6 attempts to get one home - they're as strong as Mi. I guess I was going for more runes at this point.
  • FD, 4 attempts. Faerie Dragon's meant to be "a minotaur of magic", as strong and as straightforward.
  • Gn, 1 attempt. Gnoll's super good for any kind of hybrid approach.
  • Og, 12 attempts. I don't like Og - until some armour turns up, you're just a big target.
  • HE, 7 attempts. HE's a bit like Mf, mostly human but better at some things.
  • Vp, 19 attempts, but I can't say much about the strength of Vp because I was trying to do Tomb as the 5th-ish rune and that doesn't help survival.
  • Te, 17 attempts. Another species let down by frailty, but also I did get one to Z:5 and died of player error so I guess they're better than those 17 attempts suggest.
  • Ha, 2 attempts. Ha's pretty good, but also this was old oklob-farm Fedhas.
  • Tr, 2 attempts. Tr facerolls the early game and that's half the battle won, all you need then is a decent god.
  • Ko, 5 attempts. Ko's kind of weak (and I did find Wyrmbane in the winning game, which helps :-)
  • Gh, 2 attempts, and given that the second one felt confident enough to go for 15 runes when I'd never before had more than 7, that seems to make Gh pretty solid.
  • Mu, 7 attempts. Mu's pretty horrible. I resorted to just going Yred, an easy way to get a win without too many runes.
  • Ds, 1 attempt. Get mutations that serve you well, and Ds seems good - but with 1 game played, I've no sense of how often the mutation set is that good.
  • Sp, 4 attempts. Very strong if you're better than me and remember to use the speed all the time.

Sorcerous wrote:Spriggan under Hep. That is true bravery in my eyes, bravo!

Thanks, but not that brave. Obviously losing the HP is painful but the ancestor gives an awful lot of benefit.
Last edited by damerell on Thursday, 13th August 2020, 01:06, edited 1 time in total.
Ascension reports with too many words since 2016.

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Sprucery

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Post Thursday, 13th August 2020, 00:26

Re: YAVPYAVP: 4-rune SpWr of Hepliaklqana, now w

Congrats, Damerell. I saw your post on Reddit and meant to reply, but I forgot.

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