Advice: what to ask using an acquisition scroll

[Roderic]

My promising KoHu of Fedhas has cleared up to Lair 6 and Orc 3 and reached D 14. There is a bazaar portal in Snake 1 that I haven't found it yet. In D 9 there is an acquisition scroll that I want to buy but I'm not sure how it works and what to ask for. Suggestions ?

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.9.1 character file.

Doppee the Nimble (Kobold Hunter)                      Turns: 18770, Time: 04:36:01

HP  67/67        AC 12     Str 13      XL: 12   Next: 84%
MP  23/23        EV 23     Int 11      God: Fedhas [***...]
Gold 1088        SH  0     Dex 17      Spells:  4 memorised, 11 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .    R - +0,+1 dagger of the Queen {stab, +Blink +I
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : . .  d - +3 leather armour
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .    (no shield)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .    W - +1 helmet
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : .    T - +0 cloak
Res.Elec. : .       Spirit.Shd : .    X - +0 pair of elf gauntlets
Sust.Abil.: + .     Stasis     : .    y - +0 pair of boots
Res.Mut.  : +       Ctrl.Telep.: .    Y - amulet of resist mutation
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .    (no ring)
Saprovore : + + .   Ctrl.Flight: .    u - ring of sustain abilities

@: somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, very stealthy
A: disease resistance, carnivore 3, saprovore 2
a: Evolution, Sunlight, Growth, Renounce Religion, Evoke Blink, Evoke Invisibility


You are on level 8 of the Dungeon.
You worship Fedhas.
Fedhas is greatly pleased with you.
You are full.

You have visited 4 branches of the dungeon, and seen 26 of its levels.
You have visited 1 portal chamber: bailey.

You have collected 1627 gold pieces.
You have spent 559 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - a +5,+5 elven dagger
 b - a +2,+1 crossbow
 D - an uncursed sling
 R - the +0,+1 dagger of the Queen (weapon) {stab, +Blink +Inv rPois}
   (You found it on level 2 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   It inflicts extra damage upon your enemies.
   
   
   It protects you from poison.
   It lets you turn invisible.
   It lets you blink.
Missiles
 c - 11 +1 bolts
 e - 18 runed bolts
 k - 52 +0 bolts
 q - 19 +0 darts (quivered)
 z - 33 poisoned needles
 C - 5 poisoned +0 bolts
 F - 3 silver darts
 M - 13 silver bolts
Armour
 d - a +3 leather armour (worn)
 y - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
 T - a +0 cloak (worn)
 W - a +1 helmet (worn)
 X - a +0 pair of elven gauntlets (worn)
Magical devices
 h - a wand of hasting {zapped: 2}
 n - a wand of fire (1)
 v - a wand of flame {empty}
 P - a wand of cold {empty}
 Q - a wand of digging (6)
Comestibles
 o - 12 strawberries
Scrolls
 g - 2 scrolls of recharging
 i - 3 scrolls of detect curse
 j - a scroll labeled BOGICUM UPAL
 p - 4 scrolls labeled PHEXIE STIUZE
 x - 3 scrolls labeled MNIONI THRASA
 E - a scroll of summoning
 H - 4 scrolls of fog
 J - a scroll labeled HIULYU MEIS
 O - 2 scrolls of remove curse
 S - a scroll labeled XOENNIFRI XIEV
Jewellery
 m - an uncursed ring of levitation
 u - a ring of sustain abilities (left hand)
 A - an uncursed steel ring
 K - an encrusted marble ring
 Y - an amulet of resist mutation (around neck)
Potions
 l - 5 potions of healing
 s - 3 purple potions
 w - a viscous yellow potion
 G - 3 potions of agility
 I - a silvery potion
 L - a murky green potion
 N - an orange potion
Magical staves
 f - a thick runed staff
 r - a staff of fire
 V - a staff of air
Miscellaneous
 U - an ornate deck of war {drawn: 2}


   Skills:
 + Level 5 Fighting
 + Level 7 Short Blades
 - Level 1 Maces & Flails
 + Level 2 Slings
 - Level 11 Crossbows
 + Level 8 Throwing
 + Level 4 Armour
 + Level 12 Dodging
 + Level 8 Stealth
 + Level 5 Stabbing
 + Level 3 Traps & Doors
 + Level 2 Spellcasting
 + Level 1 Translocations
 + Level 9 Invocations
 + Level 6 Evocations


You have 11 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Success   Level  Hunger
a - Freeze                Ice            #....        Fair        1    Strawberry
b - Sandblast             Erth           #......      Fair        1    Strawberry
c - Summon Butterflies    Summ           #........    Fair        1    Strawberry
d - Apportation           Tloc           #.........   Good        1    Strawberry


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (14/27)               Orc (4/4) D:8            Lair (7/8) D:8
 Shoals (0/5) Lair:6        Snake (1/5) Lair:5         Hive (0/2) D:12
Temple: D:4-7          Elf: Orc:3-4      Slime: Lair:6-8     Vault: D:14-19

Altars:
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Sif Muna
The Shining One
Trog

Shops:
D:9: ?  D:10: !  D:14: *  Snake:1: ?+


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You recuperate from illness quickly.
You are small and have problems with some larger weapons.
You are carnivorous and can eat meat at any time.
You can eat rotten meat.



[Confidence Interval]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Whatever you ask for you're likely to get a useless instance of in any case, a bit like Trog gifts: want a weapon? Here's one that's of little or no use to you!

[KoboldLord]

If that Bazaar portal was announced when you entered the level, it's on a timer, so leaving it like you did means it's now gone forever.

Anyway, back to the question at hand. There are two 'safe' acquirement types that are nearly never actually wrong to choose, even though there are good moments for the other ones, too. Armour and jewellery are both nearly always good, and should usually be your first impulse. In this case, I'd go armour.

Armour is particularly good right now because nearly every possible acquirement is likely to be an upgrade for the unbranded armor you have. You might get an unbranded shield since you currently don't have one, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a shield and they can be hard to find anyway. If you don't want a shield, then you might wield your crossbow. Anyway, you might still get a crap artifact, but you're likely to get some sort of wearable armor that has a useful brand.

Jewellery is almost always good, too. Jewellery acquirement is biased towards rings and amulets you don't yet have identified, so make sure you've identified those rings in your inventory before you try, or you're going to get another copy of a ring you weren't planning to use anyway.

Weapon acquirement is really only good in the very beginning of the game, on a mostly-melee character. There's a lot of chances to get weapons that are possibly going to be decent early on, since most humanoids spawn with weapons, and the better your current weapon the less likely it is to be an upgrade. Book acquirements are pretty much the same, except for casters instead of melee. The likelihood of getting something useful is not very high, and it drops significantly if you've found anything good already.

Your evocations skill is higher than any of your spell skills right now, so staff acquirement will get you a random rod. Rods let you pseudo-cast the spells in them if you wield them. Some of these are extremely good, and they would all give you some extra versatility. Casters will generally get the magic staff of their main skill from staff acquirement, but that's not relevant for you.

Wand acquirement is biased towards producing wands of hasting, teleportation, and healing, but since you have a wand of hasting identified it probably won't produce that one. Towards the end of the game this becomes a good acquirement to patch any holes in your want collection, but I'd probably patch up that armor first.

Gold acquirement is nearly never useful, since gold is easy to get and the only shops that have a time limit are those in bazaars, which you're unlikely to see more than once per game. Miscellaneous acquirement is absolutely never useful, and won't become useful until miscellaneous items are overhauled. Food is only worth considering if you are currently starving or expect to soon become so.

[Galefury]

Gold acquirement is actually very good if there is something you want to buy but lack the gold for. Buying something you want is guaranteed to be useful, which is more than can be said about other acquirement types. So if there are lots of good shops in your game (doesn't look like it), gold acquirement is very nice. If there aren't you're probably best off with armor. Don't expect too much.

[thenewflesh]

Your evocations skill is higher than any of your spell skills right now, so staff acquirement will get you a random rod.

If you have any magic skill at all, you still have a good chance of getting staff of <whatever magic school you have level in>, regardless of your Invocations skill.

[KoboldLord]

Gold acquirement is actually very good if there is something you want to buy but lack the gold for. Buying something you want is guaranteed to be useful, which is more than can be said about other acquirement types. So if there are lots of good shops in your game (doesn't look like it), gold acquirement is very nice. If there aren't you're probably best off with armor. Don't expect too much.

I have never had a game where I've had insufficient gold to afford something I wanted from a shop. Book and jewellery shops are the only ones that come close to running out the Orc gold, and even in those cases some of the things I want are usually things that won't be useful until later. So I just come back for them when I do need them.

[KoboldLord]

I've found gold acquirement to be more useful than jewellery, and certainly way better than book, in almost all cases since 0.8.

I'm not sure why that would be. Gold isn't exactly a scarce resource, and even mediocre rings are desirable in order to swap to them while fighting specific opponents, if you don't have that mediocre ring yet. If I walk away with a vanilla ring of fire resistance, I'm perfectly satisfied with the scroll.

[Grimm]

Gold may not be scarce over the course of the whole game, but it is scarce in the early game. I use early acquirement for gold because there will almost certainly be a good item in an early shop that I wouldn't be able to afford right away, and getting that item will be enormously helpful.

So time is a factor.

[KoboldLord]

Either you guys have exceptionally good luck with shops, or I have exceptionally bad luck. I've never had the experience of finding an expensive item I wanted and being unable to afford it, at least after clearing Orc. That's with a good number of 15-Rune games under my belt, and lots of losses too.

I can see the argument for acquiring gold if you saw the Hat of the Alchemist or something in a shop on D8, and then found a scroll of acquirement on D9, but I certainly wouldn't acquire gold on D8 in hopes of finding a shop with the Hat of the Alchemist on D9.

[dpeg]

Since I am a scroll identifier (a mistake by itself, if common wisdom is to be believed), I am almost never in the position to use an accidentally read acquirement. Hence I always save them for later, when I know better what I need. However, I find minmay's argument for immediate gold acquirement to be very compelling.
As always, I'll be happy if the answer ultimately is "it depends".

[KoboldLord]

Since I am a scroll identifier (a mistake by itself, if common wisdom is to be believed), I am almost never in the position to use an accidentally read acquirement. Hence I always save them for later, when I know better what I need. However, I find minmay's argument for immediate gold acquirement to be very compelling.
As always, I'll be happy if the answer ultimately is "it depends".

A poorly-chosen acquirement now is, in my experience, better than a well-informed acquirement later. If I scroll- or shop-identified scrolls of acquirement, I'd still use it immediately rather than bringing it back to my stash. Partially because the scroll is too valuable to risk to a randomly-spawned orc wizard, and partially because the same piece of loot is so much more valuable early on, when you have fewer alternatives to work with.

[dpeg]

KoboldLord: But why if you don't need anything right now?

[dassem]

Either you guys have exceptionally good luck with shops, or I have exceptionally bad luck. I've never had the experience of finding an expensive item I wanted and being unable to afford it, at least after clearing Orc. That's with a good number of 15-Rune games under my belt, and lots of losses too.

I've had two games lately where I've got an early (timed) bazaar, while I've had <1000 gold. Both had really nice items (teleport control, gourmand, +Dam artifacts, useful cheap spellbooks and so on) of which I could afford only some... If I'd had acquirement, I think both times would have been no-brainers for wishing for gold as there was so little chance of acquiring a better item. (And yes, both characters then got to Zot on the strength of their purchases! )

Another example had lots of nice stuff at the bottom of orc, but such a painful layout (and one of those bazaars) that I didn't have enough gold to get everything I wanted until rather later.
My inner munchkin was disappointed.

Generally though my luck with shops is inversely proportional to the sum of the gold that I have collected and my life expectancy.

[KoboldLord]

KoboldLord: But why if you don't need anything right now?

Then you turn off that rubbish game and start up a game of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup instead.

I've had two games lately where I've got an early (timed) bazaar, while I've had <1000 gold. Both had really nice items (teleport control, gourmand, +Dam artifacts, useful cheap spellbooks and so on) of which I could afford only some... If I'd had acquirement, I think both times would have been no-brainers for wishing for gold as there was so little chance of acquiring a better item. (And yes, both characters then got to Zot on the strength of their purchases! )

Another example had lots of nice stuff at the bottom of orc, but such a painful layout (and one of those bazaars) that I didn't have enough gold to get everything I wanted until rather later.
My inner munchkin was disappointed.

Generally though my luck with shops is inversely proportional to the sum of the gold that I have collected and my life expectancy.

I'll willingly concede that such situations can happen, but how often? I've visited a bazaar at all in probably less than half of all my wins, and in the majority of those I ended up settling for some cheap consumables and walked out with the majority of the money I went in with because so much of the shop contents was junk I wouldn't bother picking up even if it was spawned on the floor for the taking.

Certainly, if you happen to see a scroll of acquirement while looking for a timed bazaar, you might as well save the scroll for the duration of the search to see if the bazaar has anything that would make you want to change your acquirement strategy, but I can't imagine choosing gold acquirement on speculation alone.

[XuaXua]

I always pick potion.

I have not yet won.

[absolutego]

for a heavy armour character, i nearly always acquire rods. there's a chance you'll get crap (striking, and smiting too) but the rest are from good (some of the desctruction types) to excellent (anything with freezing cloud, good summons, abjuration (not so much anymore) or the rod of venom, which has cure poison, poisonous cloud *and* poison arrow). and rods are very hard to get through other means.

otherwise, gold. it's a safe bet.
sometimes you need a wand of healing or a certain jewelry item for the late game and it's worth trying, but it's a lottery.

[daggaz]

I recently pulled an artifact platemail with this scroll. On a kobold with low str, 1 rank in armor, 18 ranks in dodging, and wearing leather of course. Given the rarity of these scrolls, I would say the algorithm should be tweaked upwards to exclude this kind of thing; you shouldn't be given something that is completely worthless to your character. As of yet (and I was hoping for this time), Ive gotten mediocre upgrades to existing armor or jewelery, which makes me think more and more to just take the money and run. And then, why not just dump a pile of gold in the dungeon somewhere else, instead? Seems to me that asking for anything else (especially early in the game where you havent ID'd everything except _one_ wand) is just a crap shoot, and a bad one at that. This really devalues these otherwise rare and clever scrolls.

[dpeg]

daggaz: You provide experimental advice which is always welcome. Unfortunately, your sample size is 1. Acquirement is on purpose not a wish. Probabilities may need (and got!) tweaking, but it'd be more helpful to the cause if you made a wizmode character with your skills and acquire several dozen armour items.

[Roderic]

Finally I tried to get some branded armour to get some resistance... and all I got was a +1 animal skin

- cry -

- anger-

- despair -

...

I'm still alive with half of my cash and in Snake:3. The bazaar eventually left. I've seen another acquisition scroll but it's 887 and I'm quite reluctant to spend this quantity.

Dpeg, now the sample size is 2

[dpeg]

Roderic: No, this is not the scientific method. You don't collect evidence that supports your hypothesis and pile it up. Rather, you make the hypothesis in advance and run a suitably long test afterwards. Seriously, do it in wizmode, it is easy. We're curious about your findings.

[daggaz]

dpeg: yes, my sample size is 1 in the case of the fullplate. This is sufficient to support the claim that the algorithm should NOT return an item which is so well beyond the scope (or variance, if you will) of the players skill set. In this case, we are talking like six sigma or more. This event should be well past a hardcoded cut-off point, which kicks the algorithm back into a more suitable spread of choices.

No, I dont think the scroll should be a wish, or even a nigh-uncorruptable hope. But it is a rare scroll, and to reflect this, it should return _some_ form of value. As it stands now, looking over player comments, it seems the best option is to just take gold. There shouldnt be a best option, especially something as mundane as generic wealth. It should be a real choice between all of the possibilities (after character considerations are taken). Honestly, who _ever_ takes potion, for example?

[absolutego]

how do you guess what the player wants? in the case of weapons, you can weight it from the skills, which is how it works:

For each weapon skill (out of SBl, LBl, Axs, M&F, Pla, Stv, Slg, Bws, Crb), chance to get a weapon of that skill: approximately (1 + that weapon skill level) divided by (9 + sum of all weapon skill levels). Chance to get an artefact weapon: approximately 21%.

staves and books are weighted by skills too. jewelry's weighted toward what you haven't identified yet. wands too, and by quality as well.

armour's harder. the character above had 4 armour, 2 spellcasting and 12 dodging. 5 stabbing too, which may or may not be significant. you're probably going for light armour, but heavy armour is a valid option for an XL12 kenku with four L1 spells. at least, it's far from useless.

that's why it's the most random acquirement (we're talking about the body slot), and it could be better. you could consider skills (armour, stealth, spellcasting, dodging) and spell usage, but it's far from trivial. i'm sure that if you or anyone else can come up with a better algorithm it'll be taken under consideration.

(a +1 animal skin is crap, but non-deterministic acquirement can give you crap sometimes, it's part of the deal.)

[daggaz]

Yeah armor is tricky in that respect, but you could just make a rough cut and people who are on the edge somehow would simply be wise to avoid choosing armor for this reason.

Many people might have 3 or 4 ranks in armor, simply from picking a melee type to start with more hitpoints. Id say that if dodging was significantly higher, it should lean towards light over heavy. Having more than a rank in spellcasting and any specific schools, as well as stealth or stabbing, should really push it over. And of course, you could always compare to the armor type currently worn. Aquirement seems rare enough that most players will be wearing the type of armor they are aiming for at the time of reading, so why not go from there? Its not like you are guaranteed to get full plate, you are just as likely to get a spiffy new hat, after all..

[Blade]

dpeg: yes, my sample size is 1 in the case of the fullplate. This is sufficient to support the claim that the algorithm should NOT return an item which is so well beyond the scope (or variance, if you will) of the players skill set. In this case, we are talking like six sigma or more. This event should be well past a hardcoded cut-off point, which kicks the algorithm back into a more suitable spread of choices.

No, I dont think the scroll should be a wish, or even a nigh-uncorruptable hope. But it is a rare scroll, and to reflect this, it should return _some_ form of value. As it stands now, looking over player comments, it seems the best option is to just take gold. There shouldnt be a best option, especially something as mundane as generic wealth. It should be a real choice between all of the possibilities (after character considerations are taken). Honestly, who _ever_ takes potion, for example?

You can't take potions. XuaXua was joking.

As for the other possibilities -- let's take a look.
Weapon: You only need one weapon; maybe a few others for specific situations, but one main one. Weapon acquirement may be good if you haven't found that one, but is usually, and reasonably, not very useful.
Armour: Armour acquirement is a risk, because there is a decent chance of getting something useless to you, but there is a pretty good chance that you'll get an excellent piece, better than any you'll find, for a certain slot. Risky, but useful.
Jewellery: Rarely exciting, but generally gives you the stuff that you need. From 12 wizmode pieces of jewellery I acquired (L1 HuFi, starting skills), 7 of them were randarts, and all but one were useful.
Book: If you desperately need a spellbook, might be good. Otherwise, it's too unpredictable, but spellbooks are generally like that. Might be useful, but uselessness is not unreasonable.
Staff: A gold mine for berserkers; rods are very rare and acquirement always gives them rods. For casters who haven't found their primary rod, it can also be quite useful. Everyone else might find some uses in it still. One of the best options.
Wand: Minmay provided a pretty good justification for choosing wands; utilitarian, but certainly viable.
Miscellaneous: No, but it's nice to have the option.
Food: Great for starving characters, useless for everyone else. Again, though, nice to have the option.
Gold: Safe, but useless in the mid-to-late game. Unless you have your eye on a particular expensive item, I wouldn't bother.

I don't think acquirement needs reform. There are enough reasonable choices that have high enough chances of giving good items; the randomness makes it even more fun when you get something good.

[absolutego]

there's no need to reform acquirement as a whole. (body) armour acquirement could be bettered, is all.

also (and despite your efforts), there's no need to test jewellery acquirement (nor wand or weapon acquirement, for that matter), the bots (see) are quite clear as to how it works.

[Blade]

there's no need to reform acquirement as a whole. (body) armour acquirement could be bettered, is all.

also (and despite your efforts), there's no need to test jewellery acquirement (nor wand or weapon acquirement, for that matter), the bots (see) are quite clear as to how it works.

I just had wizmode open, and I felt like using my 12 scrolls instead of letting them sit there. Posting results was just a side effect of that. Thanks for the link, though; good to have solid statistics on it.

[absolutego]

why? because the items acquired are good?

i've had bad luck with it, as others. the bots say very little so i'd have to check the source.
in any case, it'd be nice to take into account the light/heavy armour distinction in some capacity.

edit: for the record, it took me 27 acquirements in wizmode to get a body armour (a quirk, no doubt), and it was a +2 crystal plate mail. of the rest, only one was crap (a +0 helmet). so yes, minmay's probably right.

[njvack]

Finally I tried to get some branded armour to get some resistance... and all I got was a +1 animal skin

On the upside, +1 animal skins are really rare...

[KoboldLord]

why? because the items acquired are good?

i've had bad luck with it, as others. the bots say very little so i'd have to check the source.
in any case, it'd be nice to take into account the light/heavy armour distinction in some capacity.

edit: for the record, it took me 27 acquirements in wizmode to get a body armour (a quirk, no doubt), and it was a +2 crystal plate mail. of the rest, only one was crap (a +0 helmet). so yes, minmay's probably right.

Generally speaking, advice for acquirement scrolls is best tuned towards the early game. Late-game advice would need to be tuned too much to the specific game situation experienced, and no generic advice is going to be especially meaningful.

In the early game, you nearly always have crap armor. You might be playing that magical game where you get boots of running on D1, a cloak of preservation off Yiuf on D3, and find the Hat of the Alchemist in a shop on D7, in which case you probably shouldn't acquire armor, but probably you aren't playing such a game. You probably have body armor and maybe one other slot filled, and it could be another 20 levels of D, plus side branches on the way, before you see a shield or a hat. Armor acquirement is likely to get you one of those hard-to-find things that you want. It might be barely adequate, it might be mediocre, and it might even be excellent, but on balance you're likely to be looking at a significant upgrade. Later on in the game, when a player has four pieces of branded armor and everything else filled up, I would hope the player would have the common sense not to roll the dice and hope for another windfall when everything's already going their way.

Nearly every acquirement type can shaft you some of the time. Even gold will occasionally decide 300 or so is enough.

[KoboldLord]

It doesn't get so much better that I'm willing to put off using it, though. A +0 wizard hat now is better than a wizard hat of intelligence later.

[Roderic]

On the upside, +1 animal skins are really rare...

I was in the Dungeons of Zot and all I got was this stupid animal skin

[daggaz]

Just pulled a scroll of acquisition on Lair:4. Asked for gold, 1749 gp appear at my feet. I went up to D:8 and bought that Ring of Robustness (AC 8) for 1865 gp. That was an easy choice.

[smock]

Armour acquirement actually gets roughly better as your current armour gets better, because it's biased towards filling unfilled slots...and is biased towards giving absolute crap (we're talking -2 caps here) for unfilled slots. The same goes for wand - since it's biased towards unidentified wands, it gets better the more crappy wands you have identified.

Hmm. So before armour acquirement should I don the most valuable armour in all slots?

[nosrepemos]

This may be somewhat unrelated, but does anyone else find KoBe's who use Maces & Flails are too reliant on acquirement scrolls to get a demon whip? Two times I have rolled whip using KoBes, and both times Trog gifts the most irrelevant crap ever, like weapons I have ZERO skill in, and I only get gifted ONE mace that's not even a demon whip for the entire game. Is Trog just too stingy to gift demon whips?

[bobross419]

This may be somewhat unrelated, but does anyone else find KoBe's who use Maces & Flails are too reliant on acquirement scrolls to get a demon whip? Two times I have rolled whip using KoBes, and both times Trog gifts the most irrelevant crap ever, like weapons I have ZERO skill in, and I only get gifted ONE mace that's not even a demon whip for the entire game. Is Trog just too much of a jew to gift demon whips?

Thats just Trog in general. He does give Demon Whips but they seem to be pretty rare, unless you are a Troll using unarmed, then he gives you all sorts of awesome stuff.

[Un67]

^ My first gift for my KoBe win was an anti-magic demon whip very early in the game. I used that weapon for the rest of the game.

(Of course, he didn't give any others over the rest of the game, but you only need that first one )

[starless]

In my current game, I got my first Acquirement scroll on dungeon level 8 or 9.

Got Gold from it, about 3K+. With the money I was able to buy PDA, randart gloves, another piece of armour, some enchant armour scrolls and a new scroll of Acquirement for 650 and still had some gold left.

[bobross419]

In my current game, I got my first Acquirement scroll on dungeon level 8 or 9.

Got Gold from it, about 3K+. With the money I was able to buy PDA, randart gloves, another piece of armour, some enchant armour scrolls and a new scroll of Acquirement for 650 and still had some gold left.

I'm curious - Did you know about all this stuff for sale or did you get the money then happen to find the shops?

[hxy]

In my current game, I got my first Acquirement scroll on dungeon level 8 or 9.

Got Gold from it, about 3K+. With the money I was able to buy PDA, randart gloves, another piece of armour, some enchant armour scrolls and a new scroll of Acquirement for 650 and still had some gold left.

Sounds like a good deal
If I read-ID Acquirement in the early levels, I always ask for Gold. Later in the game I'll stash it in case I think of something I need.

[starless]

In my current game, I got my first Acquirement scroll on dungeon level 8 or 9.

Got Gold from it, about 3K+. With the money I was able to buy PDA, randart gloves, another piece of armour, some enchant armour scrolls and a new scroll of Acquirement for 650 and still had some gold left.

I'm curious - Did you know about all this stuff for sale or did you get the money then happen to find the shops?

Most of those items were in shops on the next level.

[rchandra]

bumping as I'd like some advice for my KoBe. I'm torn between armour, gold, and staff. If I go armour I can buy gloves from a shop to fill that slot first, but I have some armour options as it is - my current chainmail, or spend all my money for +3 leather armour of MR, or acquire gold (would need 1000 or so more) to use ice dragon armour (no rF yet though). staff/rod of course could be good with Kobolds +2 evocations aptitude, especially since I also have the box of beasts.

after typing this I'm leaning more towards acquire staff and buy the leather armour, but still not sure.

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.9.1 character file.

Shagga the Swashbuckler (Kobold Berserker)                                                                         Turns: 25717, Time: 03:09:22

HP  84/84        AC 15     Str 18      XL: 13   Next: 52%
MP   5/5         EV 15     Int  6      God: Trog [*****.]
Gold 533         SH 15     Dex 18      Spells:  0 memorised, 14 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : +    a - +2,+5 quick blade (antimagic) {god gift}
Res.Cold  : + . .   Warding    : . .  H - +2 dwarf chain mail {MR}
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : +    z - +0 buckler (curse)
Res.Acid. : + . .   Res.Corr.  : +    Q - +2 wizard hat of Wrong Decisions {rElec rP
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : .    s - +2 cloak {rCorr, Cons}
Res.Elec. : +       Spirit.Shd : .    (no gloves)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .    w - +0 pair of boots
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .    (no amulet)
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .    Y - ring of see invisible
Saprovore : + + .   Ctrl.Flight: .    l - ring of protection from cold

@: quite resistant to hostile enchantments, quite stealthy
A: disease resistance, carnivore 3, +10% hp, saprovore 2, Str +1
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Trog's Hand, Brothers in Arms, Renounce Religion


You are on level 2 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worship Trog.
Trog is exalted by your worship.
You are very full.

You have visited 2 branches of the dungeon, and seen 17 of its levels.

You have collected 973 gold pieces.
You have spent 460 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - a +2,+5 anti-magic quick blade (weapon) {god gift}
 b - a +4,+0 short sword of venom {god gift}
 c - a +1,+1 dwarven crossbow of flame
 d - an uncursed blowgun
 g - a +0,+5 sabre of draining {god gift}
Missiles
 i - 99 poisoned needles
 j - 181 bolts
 y - 71 +0 stones (quivered)
 I - 7 needles of slowing
 N - 4 curare-tipped +0 needles
Armour
 s - a +2 cloak of preservation (worn)
 w - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
 z - a cursed +0 buckler (worn)
 H - a +2 dwarven chain mail of magic resistance (worn)
 Q - the +2 wizard hat of Wrong Decisions (worn) {rElec rPois}
   (You bought it in a shop on level 6 of the Dungeon)   
   
   
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It protects you from poison.
Magical devices
 u - a wand of lightning
 L - a wand of draining
 R - a wand of enslavement {zapped: 3}
 W - a wand of slowing {zapped: 3}
Comestibles
 D - 2 meat rations
Scrolls
 v - a scroll of blinking
 F - 4 scrolls of teleportation
 K - a scroll of torment
 U - 2 scrolls of fog
Jewellery
 e - an uncursed ring of levitation
 l - a ring of protection from cold (left hand)
 G - an uncursed ring of teleportation
 Y - a ring of see invisible (right hand)
Potions
 k - a potion of might
 o - 11 potions of healing
 p - 3 potions of agility
 r - 2 potions of speed
 t - 4 potions of heal wounds
 C - a potion of berserk rage
Miscellaneous
 J - a small ebony casket
 M - a plain deck of cards


   Skills:
 + Level 8 Fighting
 + Level 15 Short Blades
 - Level 3 Maces & Flails
 - Level 7 Crossbows
 - Level 5 Throwing
 - Level 3 Armour
 + Level 13 Dodging
 - Level 9 Stealth
 - Level 1 Stabbing
 - Level 7 Shields
 + Level 7 Traps & Doors
 - Level 1 Spellcasting
 * Level 1 Evocations

You have 14 spell levels left.
You don't know any spells.



                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You recuperate from illness quickly.
You are small and have problems with some larger weapons.
You are carnivorous and can eat meat at any time.
You can eat rotten meat.
You are agile (Dex +1).
You are robust (+10% HP).
Your muscles are strong, but stiff (Str +1, Dex -1).


[KoboldLord]

bumping as I'd like some advice for my KoBe. I'm torn between armour, gold, and staff. If I go armour I can buy gloves from a shop to fill that slot first, but I have some armour options as it is - my current chainmail, or spend all my money for +3 leather armour of MR, or acquire gold (would need 1000 or so more) to use ice dragon armour (no rF yet though). staff/rod of course could be good with Kobolds +2 evocations aptitude, especially since I also have the box of beasts.

after typing this I'm leaning more towards acquire staff and buy the leather armour, but still not sure.

Staff/rod seems ideal to me. You might get striking or smiting and be disappointed, but almost all of the other existing rods would be something you would keep and continue using for the entire game.

Armor is generally a good choice, but if you randomly draw a hat or cloak it almost certainly isn't going to be better than the hat or cloak you already have. Any other bit of armor is still likely to be an upgrade, so armor is still likely to be good, but the odds of getting a hat or cloak probably outweigh the odds of getting a rod of striking or smiting.

I don't really put much value on the ice dragon armor just yet. Fire or ice weakness is a serious problem, and I'd certainly not want to wander into yaktaur territory with that hanging over my head. Have you cleared Orc yet? Odds are good you can get good, branded leather or robes there.

[tormodpwns]

what exactly does acquiring Misc items give you?