Spriggan Berserkers: The movie, the game, the thread!

[varkarrus]

This thread is all about Spriggan Berserkers, or more specifically the game that was inspired by the movie about Spriggan Bersekers. Even more specifically, it is about Spriggan Berserkers because that joke was dumb.

Either way, I've fallen in love with them. Running around with a god gift +4+3 vampires tooth at only level 6 or so, then proceeding to kill all in your path with berserk and high EV, then nearly dying to the ghost of your previous Spriggan Berserker, as that would make for a QUITE OOD EXPERIENCE, then proceeding to POISON AN ELEPHANT while TEAMING UP WITH A ROCK GIANT...

okay you know what this is getting out of hand. Both of my 2 best runs are with Spriggan Berserker, both died for stupid reasons, and I could have easily continued going for quite a while if I didn't fuck up.

FIRST ONE died because I cast an unknown wand at a hill giant, turning it into a dragon which killed me the next turn.

SECOND ONE died because after clearing out every monster outside the lair, a mummy came along and because I killed a few mummies before in the Ossuary, I went and fought it with my friend, Mr. Rock Giant (played by Bruce Willis in the movie adaptation) but died because I forgot to notice I only had 12 health left, and mummies are immune to poison rapiers.

[Volgon]

SpBe's are fun to play. Food becomes a real challenge until you can take out most things without berserking. A speed sling is your friend.

Here was my best one:

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.8.0-a0-4585-ga6f5c8a character file.

165028 Sprigaberzer XII the Spry (level 17, -2/114 HPs)
             Began as a Spriggan Berserker on Feb 1, 2011.
             Was the Champion of Trog.
             Slain by a giant blowfly (10 damage)
             ... on Level 3 of the Swamp on Feb 2, 2011.
             The game lasted 03:24:05 (54676 turns).

Sprigaberzer XII the Spry (Spriggan Berserker)     Turns: 54676, Time: 03:24:06

HP  -2/114       AC  6     Str 17      Exp: 17/230706 (4), need: 11743
MP  27/27        EV 35     Int 10      God: Trog [******]
Gold 3534        SH  0     Dex 15      Spells:  0 memorised, 18 levels left

Res.Fire  : + . .   See Invis. : +   E - +0,+4 scimitar (flame)
Res.Cold  : + . .   Warding    : .   V - +2 elf robe
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   (shield restricted)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .   M - +0 wizard hat
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : .   k - +1 cloak {rPois}
Res.Elec. : +       Spirit.Shd : .   (gloves unavailable)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .   (boots unavailable)
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   B - amulet of the Air {cFly +Lev rElec EV+3 St
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .   D - ring of protection from fire
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: +   o - cursed ring "Akheorch" {Hunger- +Inv +Lev

@: exhausted, slowed, quick, very resistant to hostile enchantments,
extraordinarily stealthy
A: unfitting armour, see invisible, herbivore 3, speed 3, slow metabolism 3,
spit poison 1, Str -1, Dex -1
a: Spit Poison, Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Trog's Hand, Brothers in Arms,
Renounce Religion, Evoke Invisibility, Evoke Levitation


You were on level 3 of the Swamp.
You worshipped Trog.
Trog was exalted by your worship.
You were not hungry.

You visited 7 branches of the dungeon, and saw 43 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 1 time.
You visited 3 portal chambers: bailey, spiders nest, volcano.

You collected 4118 gold pieces.
You spent 604 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 b - the +2,+7 sling "Jiqim" {god gift, speed, Str+2}
   (Trog gifted it to you on level 3 of the Orcish Mines)   
   Attacks with this weapon take half as long as usual.
   It affects your strength (+2).
 r - the +6,-1 dagger "Frymop" (quivered) {god gift, flame, +Blink Str-1 Dex+1}
   (Trog gifted it to you on level 9 of the Dungeon)   
   It emits flame when wielded, causing extra injury to most foes and up to
   double damage against particularly susceptible opponents. Big, fiery blades
   are also staple armaments of hydra-hunters.
   It affects your strength (-1).
   It affects your dexterity (+1).
   It lets you blink.
 E - a +0,+4 scimitar of flaming (weapon)
 J - a +1,+4 sabre of venom {god gift}
Missiles
 s - 45 +0 sling bullets
 u - 24 +2 sling bullets
 O - 70 +4 sling bullets
Armour
 k - a +1 cloak of poison resistance (worn)
 M - a +0 wizard hat (worn)
 V - a +2 elven robe (worn)
Magical devices
 n - a wand of slowing (5)
 p - a wand of digging (8)
 v - a wand of confusion (2)
 w - a wand of polymorph other (5)
 x - a wand of cold (3)
 z - a wand of teleportation (6) {unknown}
 F - a wand of fireball (4)
 I - a wand of polymorph other (8)
 N - a wand of disintegration (6)
 P - a wand of paralysis (7)
 Q - a wand of fire (6)
Comestibles
 R - a bread ration
Scrolls
 c - 3 scrolls of detect curse
 g - a scroll of blinking
 j - a scroll of fear
 l - 4 scrolls of teleportation
 y - 4 scrolls of identify
 A - a scroll of vorpalise weapon {unknown}
 C - a scroll of remove curse
 H - a scroll of magic mapping
Jewellery
 a - a cursed ring of levitation
 d - an uncursed ring of regeneration
 e - an uncursed amulet of conservation
 o - the cursed ring "Akheorch" (left hand) {Hunger- +Inv +Lev rC+}
   (You found it on level 3 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   [ring of sustenance]
   It protects you from cold.
   It lets you turn invisible.
   It lets you levitate.
   It has a curse placed upon it.
 B - the amulet of the Air (around neck) {cFly +Lev rElec EV+3 Stlth++}
   (You found it on level 12 of the Dungeon)   
   [amulet of controlled flight]
   It affects your evasion (+3).
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It lets you levitate.
   It makes you much more stealthy.
 D - a ring of protection from fire (right hand)
 G - an uncursed ring of teleportation
 L - an uncursed ring of life protection
 U - an uncursed ring of teleport control
 W - an uncursed amulet of clarity
 X - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
Potions
 h - 4 potions of might
 i - 7 potions of healing
 m - a potion of restore abilities
 q - 2 potions of heal wounds
 t - a potion of levitation


 You had 4 experience left.

   Skills:
 + Level 14 Fighting
 - Level 11 Short Blades
 + Level 4 Long Blades
 - Level 2 Axes
 - Level 7 Slings
 + Level 20 Dodging
 + Level 15 Stealth
 - Level 14 Stabbing
 + Level 8 Shields
 + Level 7 Traps & Doors
 - Level 1 Spellcasting
 + Level 5 Evocations


You had 18 spell levels left.
You didn't know any spells.

Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (20/27)            Temple (0/1) D:5             Orc (4/4) D:9
    Elf (0/5) Orc:4          Lair (8/8) D:12          Swamp (3/5) Lair:5
 Shoals (0/5) Lair:6        Slime (0/6) Lair:7         Hive (2/2) D:11
  Vault (5/8) D:19          Crypt (1/5) Vault:4     
 Blade: Vault:4-6   

Altars:
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Okawaru
Trog
Xom
Jiyva

Shops:
D:4: %  D:9: =  D:12: ?  Orc:2: [  Vault:2: %  Vault:3: [

Portals:
Ziggurat: D:4 (3740 gp)

Annotations
D:11 exclusion: oklob plant
D:15 exclusion: oklob plant
Lair:8 exclusion: oklob plant
Swamp:1 exclusion: ice statue


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You are tiny and cannot use many weapons and most armour.
You have supernaturally acute eyesight.
You are a herbivore.
You cover ground extremely quickly.
You need consume almost no food.
You are clumsy (Dex -1).
You can spit poison.
You are weak (Str -1).


Message History

You enter the shallow water.
Moving in this stuff is going to be slow.
The giant blowfly bites you.
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
There is some shallow water here.
The giant blowfly bites you!
You die...

               .~~~~~~~
              7.~~~....~
       ~..   77~~.....~..
    ..~..#~7#7~#77......~
   ~~.>...#~#7~77~~7~.~.~
  ~~~~~....~77#77~7777..~
 ~~~~.~~~~~~~7777~7#~~~~7
 ~~~~~~~~~~#.7#~....~~~~~
.~#~~~~~~~.~~~7.~....~~77
~#.~~~~~.~77#7~.~.....~##
~~~#~~#~@(~777~...~~..~#~
~~...#~~y...~~7~..~~.~~~#
....~~~.~J#..#~#~~..#~...
~~....~..~#~~##77777~....
~#.....).~~~##~#7777~..~.
~~.~~~.~.%~~~~~~~7777.~~~
~~.~~~#~.~.#~~~7~77~.#~~~
.~~#~~~.##~~~~#7777.~~~~~
 ~~~~~~.~~~~~.7#7#7#.~~~~
 ~~~~..~~.$..~~~7~77~.~~~
 .~~~.#~7~~~~#~77~~~~#...


You could see a large slime creature and a giant blowfly.

Vanquished Creatures
  Mara (Vault:4)
  Margery (Vault:2)
  Xtahua (D:20)
  Frederick (Swamp:3)
  Kirke (D:19)
  Frances (Vault:2)
  2 frost giants
  Jozef (Orc:4)
  Azrael (D:14)
  An ettin (shapeshifter) (D:19)
  A great orb of eyes (Vault:2)
  A dragon (Vault:3)
  A hydra (shapeshifter) (Vault:3)
  Erica (Orc:2)
  Harold (Orc:3)
  10 hydras
  An alligator (Swamp:2)
  3 ogre magi
  A sphinx zombie (D:19)
  6 death yaks (Lair:8)
  A fire giant zombie (Vault:2)
  A ghost moth (Port)
  4 very ugly things
  2 stone giant skeletons
  7 centaur warriors
  2 griffons
  4 skeletal warriors (D:16)
  7 hell knights (Vault:2)
  An unseen horror (D:17)
  5 orc knights
  A swamp dragon (Swamp:1)
  A human (Lair:5)
  Pikel (D:6)
  Joseph (D:8)
  2 guardian serpents
  Urug (Orc:2)
  7 hill giants
  A giant amoeba (D:16)
  5 harpies (Vault:3)
  A stair mimic (D:17)
  2 spiny worms
  4 trapdoor spiders (Port)
  A cyclops (shapeshifter) (D:16)
  A dragon zombie (D:18)
  4 cyclopes
  An elephant slug (Lair:5)
  5 black mambas
  19 elephants
  A fountain mimic (D:15)
  12 mimics
  A trap mimic (D:14)
  A wolf spider (D:12)
  A spiny worm (shapeshifter) (D:16)
  12 yaktaurs
  A hill giant zombie (D:16)
  24 slime creatures
  A shop mimic (D:16)
  8 spiny frogs
  A rock troll (Vault:2)
  An elf (shapeshifter) (D:18)
  42 ugly things
  6 two-headed ogres
  5 komodo dragons
  Sonja (Orc:4)
  A deep troll zombie (Vault:3)
  3 redbacks
  A spriggan (shapeshifter) (Vault:1)
  A rock troll zombie (D:13)
  3 queen bees
(snip)


[mageykun]

The SpBe is my favorite build so far, hands down. My first three all made it to Zot before death. Eventually, I pulled my first win with one.

I'm almost tempted to write a guide for 'em, except it's not really needed. The whole attraction is they're so straightforward to play.

The first perk is spriggan speed, which is a great help in not getting killed. Then the whole meatless deal translates into infinite Trog piety. You should get your second pip before you leave D:1. Unless you get a D:2 Sigmund, you're almost guaranteed to have brothers in arms by the time you come across your first unique, and berserking summons will fix almost anything. You get your first god gift by the lair, or a little earlier, and just ride the gravy train from there. You also only have to train very few skills (fighting, short blades, evasion, stealth, stab, trapds&doors), which makes you become powerful in mele very fast. Sure, eventually you expand into shields, or long blades, slings, evocations, etc but it's much easier than the juggling a mage or hybrid requires. You also start with enough str that you never have to worry about carrying capacity, and can just dump everything into dex.

The hardest part is deciding if watching a tiny fairy hack and slash with a katana taller than he is is worth giving up a buckler and quick blade speed. XD

Biggest weakness is that with no casting, you're very dependent on the the rng for good evocables. Whether or not you find a wand of haste, the right rod (with repel missles, abjuration, clouds, or divination) can make or break you in some of the later branches. Also- you will always roll the shoals, and be hard pressed to find even evocable levitation.

Edit after Volgon: if you can survive to the hive, food isn't a problem. I generally stop beserking once I hit the lair- I only use it for pre-Temple and pre-Lair emergencies, like orc packs with wizards / priests. As soon as you can, kiting with a sling, or dropping a brother in arms and retreating with spriggan speed are much better options than burning food and putting yourself at risk with a 'zerk (in situations where your conventional hack and slash isn't enough, obviously).

Your char looked pretty good! I would only suggest training long blades up higher before using one as your primary weapon in the swamp- I'll bet your weapon speed contributed to your death. I like to keep a good short handy to switch back to if I encounter a bad situation while I'm still training long up from slow and average.

[varkarrus]

I ONLY ever used the berserking for emergencies. I am so stingy with god abilities, I don't know why!!!

also both of my best chars were level 9 or so... I'm not very good at this game xD.
I hope that a spriggan berserker will be the first one of my guys to win.

[Zicher]

I ONLY ever used the berserking for emergencies.

That's the proper use .

By the end of Lair, you won't almost never need to zerk again. BIA will still be handy, but you'd rarely use it post-Vaults.
Afterwards, with 50 EV and some nice katana, you have a perfect samurai .
All you have to is watch your HP at all times.

[mageykun]

If you go quick blade + buckler, then you get 40-50 evade and 30ish shield, and microsecond attack delay, which means you don't have to be nearly as paranoid about watching your hp. The main drawback is I find you really need some slaying to offset your low base damage or you're in trouble by Zot. The katana is more than nice enough to hack through things sans slaying, but you lose the added protection, compounded with the slower attack speed, so you really do end up walking a razor with hp.

...finding a katana of speed is something that definitely shows up in my wish list of orgasmic crawl happiness. Even with Trog though, it can be hard to get an unbranded one.

[FlyingPants]

seems rly hard to get resists because you can't wear most armor.

[Zicher]

seems rly hard to get resists because you can't wear most armor.

Not any harder than for any other spriggan .

[FlyingPants]

I dnno, i haven't played a spriggan before. Also: i found an amulet of faith, and going through the elf area i have to turn around every level because my inventory fills up with god gifts!

[Zicher]

I dnno, i haven't played a spriggan before. Also: i found an amulet of faith, and going through the elf area i have to turn around every level because my inventory fills up with god gifts!

Then why keep them? There's little for need for carrying more then one gift, the one you're wielding. Just ID and drop the others .
There are cases which make you want to carry other god gifts (a flaming weapon or a randart with good resists for switching).

Also, if you're already receiving gifts, drop the amulet right after you receive some gift you're going to use. Piety can be then quickly regained in Orc or Hive, and you'd want the amulet slot for something better.

[Jenx]

Because elves can be bad enough without handing them a +7+13 longsword of electrocution for example.

[Zicher]

Because elves can be bad enough without handing them a +7+13 longsword of electrocution for example.

True. Good point. But wouldn't this be a weapon you'd like to keep?

[FlyingPants]

gah beserk, why won't you last longer?!? why do you run out just as i arrive in front of a deadly monster?!?!

[Jenx]

Because elves can be bad enough without handing them a +7+13 longsword of electrocution for example.

True. Good point. But wouldn't this be a weapon you'd like to keep?

Not if you have the +8+10 katana of slicing. (Like I did. Another SpBe did get a +7+12 longsword too. It was fun killing stuff with that beast)

[Zicher]

Because elves can be bad enough without handing them a +7+13 longsword of electrocution for example.

True. Good point. But wouldn't this be a weapon you'd like to keep?

Not if you have the +8+10 katana of slicing. (Like I did. Another SpBe did get a +7+12 longsword too. It was fun killing stuff with that beast)

In that case, you still don't want an elf knight to pick it up randomly.

[XuaXua]

Because elves can be bad enough without handing them a +7+13 longsword of electrocution for example.

True. Good point. But wouldn't this be a weapon you'd like to keep?

Spriggan == Sneak, even if melee. Electrocution == NOISY.

I love these guys.

I had a -2 +8 Quick Blade of Slicing and later got the Captain's Cutlass which was AWESOME (didn't realize it was a short sword).
I also built up a vorpalized Bow +7 and got arrows up to +7.

Buckler +3 of reflection, but it got reduced to -3 in the Slime Pits. I then acquired a +2 buckler with +3 STR +2 DEX. Eventually got the +3 buckler of reflection built back (I had a hide +3 with several bonuses but a -3 int which really worked against me towards the end).

The worst part of the character play was a low low LOW int and fighting those mind flayers in PAN + a degeneration mutation, even with the sustain abilities ring.

[smock]

Spriggan == Sneak, even if melee. Electrocution == NOISY.

Consider using a sneaky weapon for sneaking. Swap to a weapon of electrocution when no one else is around or everyone is already going after you.

Also, if you're stabbing a sleeper, electrocution never kicks and neither does the noise. Personally I think this is an exploit and should be changed. (Any thoughts here?)

[eith]

electrocution doesnt make any noise anyways, only if it hits water.

[7hm]

Spriggan Berserkers are a blast.

The toughest part is food early.

This is my best character (SpBe or anything else):

7933802 Jordan7hm the Intangible (level 27, 227/227 (237) HPs)
Began as a Spriggan Berserker on Mar 5, 2011.
Was an Elder of The Shining One.
Escaped with the Orb
... and 17 runes (of 15 types) on Mar 8, 2011!

The game lasted 18:16:24 (221473 turns).

Trog gave him the Captain's Cutlass halfway through the vaults and that was what he used for the rest of the game. A good rod of warding (and a bunch of other rods) allowed him to cast abjuration and DSML and were a huge benefit going into Zot. He was training his dodging against orb guardians and going mano a mano with orbs of fire. Dropped Trog after clearing Zot (doing it again I would have dropped Trog a lot earlier) and had TSO help with the endgame content. He ended up killing all the rune guardians except for Anteus. EV was up to 45 at the end of the game.

Dropping Trog and waiting out his wrath was fun. He would summon the berserking stone giants and such, and I would abjure them immediately. Oh trog and your cute wrath.

[smock]

electrocution doesnt make any noise anyways, only if it hits water.

Wow, really? That's very pervasive rumor.

[XuaXua]

So what's the deal, does electric brand cause noise or no? Every time I use it, monsters show up.

[smock]

It seems to make a lot of noise when the electrocution brand kicks in. Stealthy stabbing with daggers of elec has worked quite well for me. Most of the time if somehow the critter doesn't die to my stab, I'd want the elec to kick in, noise and all, to kill the critter. Obviously this works best when there's nothing dangerous around.

[orz]

This build is really fun.
I love starting as an Spriggean Artificer instead of starting as Berserker directly.

[kipponium]

Wow these guys really are effective, i just played one for the first time and got my first ever win straight away after playing literally hundreds of other failed characters (i've been playing since 0.5 )

One thing to note though is that you should definetly not train slings or you'll drown in a rain of them from trog, and they really aren't very useful at the end. Waiting for crossbows is a much better idea (+5 bolts of penetration decimate draconian gangs )

[Stormfox]

Slings tend to be favored because 1) aptitude is great, and 2) rate of fire doesn't suffer if you're using a buckler. Although with silver ammo no longer getting its bonus against undead, that may tip the balance a bit toward crossbows. Your point on penetrating ammo is a good one.

I may have to try that with my next SpBe...

[XuaXua]

Don't discount the one-hit steel bullets +5.

[mageykun]

There's nothing wrong with crossbows (penetration is very awesome), but you can find slings as early as d:1, and in the beginning you can use humble rocks as ammo (no need to beg the rng for bullets or bolts!). This also means they can be used safely to deal with early slimes, and heck, later slimes should you chose that branch.

If I get a lucky Trog gift of a crossbow early on, I'll take it, but usually by the time I start finding them, my slings are well established.

[Grimm]

Why are crossbows so late-appearing?

[JeffQyzt]

Why are crossbows so late-appearing?

Note: we're pretty OT here...

I believe because they're more damaging, so they don't spawn early for the same reasons that e.g. War Axes and Long Swords don't. The difference being that there's no low-damage "trainer" version for crossbows (or any other launchers, for that matter, except *maybe* bows --> long bows.)

[KoboldLord]

You can usually get an early sling off a goblin or hobgoblin, an early blowgun off a kobold, and an early bow off a centaur. You get your early crossbow off… a yaktaur? Or an orc knight. Have fun with those.

Equipment from monster inventory is an enormously larger factor than equipment from floor trash. You certainly can find a crossbow on D1, but any particular object is going to be extremely rare until you've had a lot of levels generated. Equipment generated as inventory of a common early-game monster will be ubiquitous almost immediately.

[Grimm]

Even so, slings, bows and blowguns litter the early levels, regardless of monster drops, while crossbows don't show up with any regularity in those spaces.

[Stormfox]

Well, I tried the crossbow path. Almost went way too long before starting training, as I walked right past the first spawned crossbow on D:6 and was starting to transfer my stash from Temple to Lair:2 before I found it. (That's what control-F is for, friends.) It has its merits, but overall slings seem to work better. If nothing more they spawn sooner and rate of fire is better, particularly with a buckler equipped.

On the other hand, once yaktaurs started showing up I wasn't waiting for Trog to drop ammo on me.