I think we learned an important lesson today.

[kuniqs]

Note:

Throw every ziggurat figurine you find into lava.

[Lasty]

Short note from me:

Surprisingly good weapon against iron giants is...Iron shot. I think their size is responsible for IS barely missing them. My recent char looked hopeless in DIS:7 until learned reliable iron shot...Another thing is the rarity of those giants - I really thought i would meet one or two at most but in that very bad layout they were everywhere. I think i counted 8 in total.

Iron giants have 2 EV, so it's very hard to miss them. Bolt of Inaccuracy is the best tech against them.

[Badtown]

Iron Giants used to not see invisible.

They definitely see invisible now.

[archeisse]

Dunno if this one's been said before, but chiming in :

Hornets ARE NOT Wasps
(Mistook them because of the similar tile, I thought it was just my eyes being tired, having played the entire day because of vacation)

Serves me right for grinding gold with Gozag in D:1 really

[ZoFy]

Iron giants have 2 EV, so it's very hard to miss them. Bolt of Inaccuracy is the best tech against them.

On a related note, recently i learned juggernauts are so fast that they have 10 EV despite being giant. Bolt of Inccuracy pretty much never hits them. The same thing goes for quicksilver and storm dragons. Regular and deep trolls have just as much EV too even though their big sprite suggests otherwise. Fire/ice dragons aren't that easy to hit with their 8 EV as well but at least it happened once or twice per 4 shots on my rod.

[ydeve]

Today I learned that some players think that how sprites look indicate something about the monster they represent.

[Sprucery]

FR: add a targeting system where you can target different parts of the monster. Then you could check the tile to see which body part to target. Also add verbal descriptions of body part sizes to xv for console players.

  Code:

You hit the cyclops in the eye, blinding it!

[Sar]

  Code:

Cyclops was critically hit in the groin for 37 damage. He mumbles "Mother", as his eyes roll into the back of his head.

[duvessa]

  Code:

Cyclops was critically hit in the groin for 37 damage. He mumbles "Mother", as his eyes roll into the back of his head.

you ever been hit so hard in the cock that you grew a second eye?

[dowan]

Iron giants in dis are bad enough. I thought the monster I was fighting in depths 3 was a juggernaut until he iron shotted me... I would have just walked away had I realized what it was... another death from not paying attention.


Lesson: Know what you are fighting. Because knowing is half the battle! (The other half is running away)

[Sandman25]

Join Qazlal if you got early Power by Death mutation as Ds. Restoring 12 HP per turn is fun.

Don't join Qazlal as Ds. You will get Repulsion Field making RMsl from Gozag useless.

Don't join Qazlal as Ds. You will get immunity to Freezing Clouds making cloud immunity from Gozag useless.

Edit. Changed Gozag to Qazlal.

[Sprucery]

ITYM Qazlal

[Sandman25]

Forget your plans, crawl will decide what you do.
1) +10 scale mail with rElec? +10 plate armour of pounderness? Forget them, you will use Quicksilver dragon armour because you need MR.
2) Going to ignore arbalest of damnation because you think you don't need it? Forget your desire, you will have to use it because you need MR.
3) Found vampiric Morningstar and Qazlal is great with shield? Forget it, you will have to use arbalest of damnation because you need MR.
4) Going to ignore spells and play pure melee? Forget it, crawl will give you

  Code:

the +11 great mace of Ischa Bya {pain, +Inv rF+ rC++ Str-3}
   (You found it in an ice cave)   

and will make you train Necromancy to 10+ before vaults. Oh, did I forget to mention? You will need Necromancy for MR reasons too, because those zombies from Animate Dead can protect you from banishment/paralysis. You don't want to be in Abyss with Qazlal, right?

[4Hooves2Appendages]

If you're a deep dwarf with access to guardian spirit (e.g. amulet), a way to gain MP from 0 (e.g. potion of magic, staff of energy) and don't mind (serious) tedium, then you have a way to regenerate HP outside of combat, at the cost of satiation.

[joellercoaster]

You can be happily murdering everything you encounter postgame, but a single Brimstone Fiend on its own can still nearly kill you if it decides to.

Related: Torment resistance isn't really.

[Shtopit]

Remember that your level factors in when judging how dangerous a monster is. Last time it was easy, you also were lvl 16.

[VeryAngryFelid]

Guardian spirit does not help vs poison.

  Code:

Health: 0/154
Magic:  8/27

the +2 hat of the Bear Spirit (worn) {Spirit, +Rage rN+ MR++}

Succumbed to Aizul's bolt of poison
             ... on level 4 of the Spider Nest.

[mattlistener]

Hey Tavern -- no important lessons learned yet in 2017?

[stoneychips]

Hey Tavern -- no important lessons learned yet in 2017?

Recently people are too busy demanding everything be removed until Crawl becomes Checkers, designing forks to avoid all the new challenges or bring back old ones, and generally figuring out whatever else just changed to make chunks of this thread completely obsolete.

[mollymolluskus]

Try not to die with a backpack full of scrolls, potions, and wands.

[MainiacJoe]

When you wield an early distortion weapon with an EE because it's better than any other weapon that's dropped, and then realize this means you can't cast strong Sandblast anymore (0.19).

[Elitist]

If you quaff an unidentified buff potion during a fight, don't quaff another. You WILL drink cancellation, and you WILL be back at square 1.

[Shtopit]

Spriggan air mages are smite targeting.

Shillelag is ok for Elf, Firestarter for Spider.

Ogres and Gargoyles should have different approches to orc priests.

Attack speed is much more important when your enemy has a poison attack. How many times can you be poisoned in a swing?

Wands of paralysis and destruction are great against Sonya. Polymorph isn't, if it turns her into a magic resistant unescapable spriggan who can still use her equipment and will hit you no stop with distortion.

[Sprucery]

Wands of paralysis and destruction are great against Sonya. Polymorph isn't, if it turns her into a magic resistant unescapable spriggan who can still use her equipment and will hit you no stop with distortion.

Sonja has HD 6 so yes it is possible to polymorph her into a regular spriggan (HD 7). But I have to say that I very often use polymorph against Sonja if I have it and usually she ends up being a harmless monster. And even the spriggan won't hit you as fast as Sonja...

[tasonir]

  Code:

Cyclops was critically hit in the groin for 37 damage. He mumbles "Mother", as his eyes roll into the back of his head.

you ever been hit so hard in the cock that you grew a second eye?

Eye count aside, I don't think the right reaction to being critically hit in the groin is to "mumble" anything!

[Shtopit]

This is probably obvious for most, but it took me a while to get:

The confusion spell checks MR and HD. Mephitic cloud checks poison and HD. The result is that some swamp monsters with high MR have no poison resistance and lowish HD (spriggan druid: 100 to 11, spriggan rider: 100 to 11). So you can disable them with meph cloud, and use confuse on animals.
Lerny (120:30) and tentacled mon (160:23) are not disabled with any of these two spells. They also don't work well against thorn hunters and mangroves (both have rPois and 100 mr).

Btw, this is why HD should be visible in game.

[Lavandula]

Blurry vision gives 1.5 auts delay, not 0.5.

[Phaedo]

Check your mutations after every fight with a mutating monster.

In other, obviously completely unrelated, news: teleportitis on Vaults:5 is quite dangerous. (YASD) Also, teleport next to monster is quite dangerous on Zot:5 (YAVP, amazingly).

And from my latest game: Erolcha can banish your tiny little XL11 with no MR behind.

[Nod2003]

Even if you are not scumming, Crawl may still decide your level 8 character on D6 has lived long enough and give you an unseen horror to fight.

[rigrig]

A scroll of remove curse might not be lying around on any of the first ten floors, so really do put off trying out unidentified items until you've actually got one.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

When you remove a piece of jewellery that grants invisibility, you flicker back into view.

[Shtopit]

If you are playing a troll earth elementalist and you petrify a hydra to start clawing at it, the hydra will not die. Instead, it will grow a billion heads, each head healing the damage you just inflicted. Even though it cannot move, there is a chance that you cannot outdo its regeneration. And, if you do not renew the spell, you'll end up feeding many more hungry mouths than before.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Taking a bunch of friendly skeletons for a wakl in the early Dungeon is great, until you bump into a SpEE ghost.

[Shtopit]

Monsters using wands of digging against you are sweet if you are alone. When there is a whole pack of decently strong monsters, having an idiot destroying corridors around you and opening halls where you thought you could fight one-on-one is something of an apocalyptic experience. I think it would be worth building a unique around this.

[stickyfingers]

Jorgrun already has Dig, and so do Deep Troll Earth Mages.

[njvack]

It would be funny if Robin had a chance of spawning with a dig wand

[Shtopit]

Banishing your enemies through Lugonu causes LOS-blocking fog for a turn.

EDIT: if in a corridor.

[Shtopit]

Scattershot is sweet if used on Agnes.

[MainiacJoe]

Today my DEEE was at -24 Corrosion from an entropy weaver in a anthole vault on Lair:5. I had cleared the rest of the level, and when I got close to the upstair I cast Swiftness. Then I arrow-keyed towards the stairs, glad to have escaped--smack into a hydra that had spawned by that upstair, which I never even saw, which one-shotted me.

Lesson: Auto-travel always, don't manually move.

[Fingolfin]

Today my DEEE was at -24 Corrosion from an entropy weaver in a anthole vault on Lair:5. I had cleared the rest of the level, and when I got close to the upstair I cast Swiftness. Then I arrow-keyed towards the stairs, glad to have escaped--smack into a hydra that had spawned by that upstair, which I never even saw, which one-shotted me.

Lesson: Auto-travel always, don't manually move.

Shift+direction could have helped you there too

[MainiacJoe]

I wonder. There was the soldier ant and entropy weaver chasing me, so there was a monster in view already. So AFAIK I had to mash arrow keys to maneuver, and I had target fixation on those threats and blundered right into the random-spawn hydra.

Is there a "move safely to this location" key combo that works when there are monsters in view?

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Unfortunately, I don't think 'moving safely' is really possible with monsters in view. That leaves you with moving one tile at a time, with a little gap between key presses. That can feel a little tedious in some situations, but is usually better than manouvering oneself into a bad situation purely out of impatience.

[MainiacJoe]

Unfortunately, I don't think 'moving safely' isn't really possible with monsters in view. That leaves you with moving one tile at a time, with a little gap between key presses. That can feel a little tedious in some situations, but is usually better than manouvering oneself into a bad situation purely out of impatience.

Yes, I came to this conclusion as well while I was away from the forum. There is no way to tell the program, "I know about these monsters, but stop me if any new ones show up."

[4Hooves2Appendages]

I guess I can think of some edge cases, like you are faster than all visible monsters and they have no ranged weapons, and you can see all remaining tiles on your path, etc. But it's probably not worth implementing.

[mattlistener]

It would be funny if Robin had a chance of spawning with a dig wand

To the batcave!

[Shtopit]

If you meet a huge herd of dream sheep and have rF but no clarity, use a scroll of immolation.

Otherwise, the sticky flame propagation still works!

[VictorG]

The wiki says:

Boris is capable of one- or two-shotting careless characters. If you aren't confident you can handle him, run.

I was confident I could handle him. Nothing on Vaults 5 had been much of a challenge to me, and I had just killed an ancient lich. But what I learned today is: Crawl always keeps surprising you!

Boris hits you with the +10 dark maul {crush}!!!

Time for an expeditious retreat!

[Lavandula]

Moths of wrath have strong synergy with jumping spiders.
It seems like chance to trigger their specials depends on damage dealt. Berserk monsters hit 1.5 times harder and 1.5 times faster, so someone who easily deals with spiders in melee may eventually discover that raging jumping spider is more dangerous than raging stone giant. Latter may hit harder, but at least they don't ensnare.
This rule probably applies to other monsters with special melee attacks (tarantellas, anything with trample, gozag-incited vampires).

[Shtopit]

You can use force lance to push your enemies back into the fire!

[Fingolfin]

Formicids are immune to the *Slow artifact property.