Abyss in Trunk

[tormodpwns]

How do you survive the new Abyss? It's still easily survivable for endgame characters, but the 0.10 makeover has made it much more difficult for midgame characters (level 12-17) in my opinion.

With the walls constantly changing and Tele no longer generating a new map, it becomes extremely difficult to find a quiet corner to rest up in or to escape threats. On a melee character, it's not so bad. But on a spellcaster, the Abyss kills because there's no time to regenerate mana.

This isn't a YASD but I'm going to post up a recent morgue file for help. This powerful MuFE had 50 mana, two /TP and one /HW when he got banished, but didn't escape alive for lack of mana. And there's no way to rest up for it.

  Code:

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.11-a0-24-g2832b6c character file.

109381 tormodpwns the Destroyer (level 16, -3/113 HPs)
             Began as a Mummy Fire Elementalist on Jan 27, 2012.
             Was the Champion of Vehumet.
             Slain by a freezing wraith (19 damage)
             ... in The Abyss on Jan 29, 2012.
             The game lasted 02:29:41 (36390 turns).

tormodpwns the Destroyer (Mummy Fire Elementalist) Turns: 36390, Time: 02:29:42

HP  -3/113       AC 12     Str 11      XL: 16   Next: 13%
MP   9/50        EV 18     Int 19      God: Vehumet [******]
Gold 1077        SH  0     Dex 12      Spells:  5 memorised, 11 levels left

Res.Fire  : + . .   See Invis. : +    s - staff of power
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : . .  u - +1 robe {rF+}
Life Prot.: + + +   Conserve   : +    (no shield)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .    c - +2 helmet {SInv}
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : .    f - +2 cloak {darkness}
Res.Elec. : .       Spirit.Shd : .    (no gloves)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .    K - +2 pair of boots {run}
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: x    v - amulet of conservation
Res.Rott. : +       Levitation : .    t - ring of magical power
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .    O - ring of fire

@: confused, quick, quite resistant to hostile enchantments, very unstealthy
A: no food or potions, fire vulnerability, in touch with death, restore body,
cold resistance 1, life protection 3, poison resistance, torment resistance,
unbreathing
a: Self-Restoration, Renounce Religion, Evoke Invisibility


You were in the Abyss.
You worshipped Vehumet.
Vehumet was exalted by your worship.
You were not hungry.

You visited 4 branches of the dungeon, and saw 28 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 1 time.
You visited 2 portal chambers: spiders nest, ice cave.

You collected 2859 gold pieces.
You spent 1802 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 b - the +8,+0 battleaxe "Javveniv" {freeze, rF+ Dex+2}
   (You found it on level 4 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   It has been specially enchanted to freeze those struck by it, causing extra
   injury to most foes and up to double damage against particularly susceptible
   opponents. It can also slow down cold-blooded creatures.
   
   It affects your dexterity (+2).
   It protects you from fire.
Armour
 c - a +2 helmet of see invisible (worn)
 f - a +2 cloak of darkness (worn)
 u - a +1 robe of fire resistance (worn)
 B - a +0 elven cloak
 K - a +2 pair of boots of running (worn)
Magical devices
 h - a wand of teleportation (4)
 j - a wand of digging (8)
 p - a wand of heal wounds (0)
 w - a wand of fireball (3)
 E - a wand of teleportation (10)
 G - a wand of draining (1)
 I - a wand of cold (6)
 N - a wand of paralysis (0)
Scrolls
 a - 3 scrolls of fear
 d - a scroll of noise
 e - 8 scrolls of identify
 r - a scroll of magic mapping
 y - 4 scrolls of remove curse
 J - 2 scrolls of fog
Jewellery
 n - an uncursed ring of teleport control
 o - an uncursed ring of magical power
 t - a ring of magical power (right hand)
 v - an amulet of conservation (around neck)
 C - an uncursed ring of ice
 O - a ring of fire (left hand)
 P - an uncursed ring of teleportation
Magical staves
 m - a staff of wizardry
 s - a staff of power (weapon)


   Skills:
 - Level 8.7 Fighting
 + Level 12.4 Dodging
 - Level 1.5 Stealth
 - Level 6.0 Traps & Doors
 - Level 7.0 Spellcasting
 - Level 15.0 Conjurations
 - Level 14.0 Fire Magic
 - Level 3.9 Evocations


You had 11 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Iskenderun's Mystic   Conj           #######..    1%          4    N/A
b - Throw Flame           Fire/Conj      #######      1%          2    N/A
c - Conjure Flame         Fire/Conj      #######..    1%          3    N/A
d - Sticky Flame          Fire/Conj      #######..    1%          4    N/A
e - Fireball              Fire/Conj      #######...   1%          5    N/A


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (15/27)            Temple (1/1) D:6             Orc (4/4) D:6
   Lair (8/8) D:12          Swamp (0/5) Lair:5       Shoals (0/5) Lair:5
  Slime (0/6) Lair:8     
   Elf: Orc:3-4      Vault: D:14-19     

Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
The Shining One
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Zin
Jiyva

Shops:
D:8: *  Orc:4: [!?=

Portals:
Trove: D:11 (give 2 potions of cure mutation)

Annotations
D:9 exclusion: oklob plant
D:10 don't take middle stairs up!


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You do not eat or drink.
Your flesh is vulnerable to fire.
You are in touch with the powers of death.
You can restore your body by infusing magical energy.
Your flesh is cold resistant.
You are immune to negative energy.
Your system is resistant to poisons.
You are immune to unholy pain and torment.
You can survive without breathing.


Message History

The ufetubus completely misses you.
The ufetubus misses you.
Read which item? (? for menu, Esc to quit)
Okay, then.
Unknown command.
You hit the hellwing but do no damage. The golden eye blinks at you.
You resist. The golden eye blinks at you.
You are more confused.
The golden eye blinks at you. You resist. The hellwing misses you.
The hellwing hits you but does no damage.
The ufetubus closely misses you.
The freezing wraith barely misses you.
You closely miss the ufetubus. The golden eye blinks at you. You resist.
The golden eye blinks at you. You resist. The hellwing misses you.
The hellwing hits you but does no damage.
The ufetubus hits you.
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
The ufetubus closely misses you. The ufetubus misses you.
The ufetubus misses you. The freezing wraith hits you!
You die...

    .≈  ≈#.. . ≈
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      ≈≈≈..§#≈≈ ≈≈ ≈
 # .. .#≈§.. ≈≈..
..  .. ≈≈≈§.≈...
#    .._≈.....##
.  .  .....§..G####
  .. .≈.§...§.G4@5#
  . . . #.#§..GW##.#
    .  .G#.#...##  #
  .GG. ≈ ##..##5...#
 ≈ ....#≈§...#.≈≈##...
  #  #... #    ≈≈4. ##
   .. # . #  #.≈ ≈..
  . ≈   . #  . ≈≈≈. .
         . #. #≈≈≈..

Had I gone with Sif, this would be a CIP, but I didn't go with Sif. Still, there must be some trick for staying alive in the trunk Abyss. Had this been an 0.9 game, I would surely have escaped.

[slowcar]

imo it is kind of normal that the abyss is very dangerous to mid-level characters, you can be lucky, but this does not always carry.
regarding this particular death: never found clarity?

[Galefury]

If you can clear your immediate surroundings without making too much noise you shouldn't have too much trouble resting up. Spamming Fireball may be a bit counterproductive. Also, abyss at low and mid levels is all about running away. You want Haste, Swiftness, Flight, that kind of stuff. Boots of running are good, but more stuff that lets you get away is better. Not knowing any utility spells tends to be very very bad in the Abyss. If all you know is how to kill stuff, stay away from places where that strategy doesn't work. Which in the case of low level abyss means: wear MR if you can.

And of course the abyss is extremely random, so if you're unlucky you *will* die.

[Kate]

The advantage of the 0.10 Abyss is that you're much less likely to get cornered, so long as you can survive long enough for a shift to begin. But yeah, teleport and blink are no longer quite as ridiculously good (although teleport is still pretty useful in a tight spot!).

[tormodpwns]

Right, I did notice that the tile-changing was good at times. Once on this mummy I was trying to survive and then suddenly a demon got replaced by a wall tile, enclosing me within! Basically a free Tomb card. But a few turns later I was exposed again.

[joellercoaster]

Swings and roundabouts. It's certainly harder to hide and rest up, but running away is much more effective: the lines of sight change often enough that you can escape pursuers completely, reasonably often. Even when it doesn't happen, groups of pursuers seem to get broken into manageable chunks sometimes.

I also find myself much more engaged in the new Abyss, because it's not so boring, and so I'm less prone to dumbass behaviour. People's mileage may vary on that one though!

[Jeremiah]

Also, getting the rune is a lot harder than it used to be, since it's now nearly always in a vault rather than just lying on the floor.

For one thing the tile morphing mean it's no longer possible to just hide in a corner for thousands of turns until the timer makes the rune more likely to be generated - so you have to survive the whole time by running around.

Then for another thing, when it actually gets generated, most of the vaults I have encountered are actually pretty hard. They probably wouldn't be that dangerous in a normal branch as you could keep retreating to rest up, but in the Abyss it's more or less impossible to rest, as either more monsters will turn up or you will get randomly teleported and be unable to get back to the rune - so you have to get through the whole vault in one go without resting.

The only time I've actually managed to get the Abyssal rune in 0.10 was from the holy vault when I was playing a follower of TSO - but in general I would recommend not attempting to get the rune until after Pan.

[slowcar]

i like it that autoexplore works in abyss, especially when i play on my notebook (without numpad, and sometimes restricted mouse space, like a train)

[Stormfox]

The rune vaults vary wildly in difficulty. The one with several clusters of golden eyes behind iron gratings is beyond cruel. The one with the three Lugonites packing distortion quarterstaves is barely an annoyance if you have any sort of ranged capability. (The latter is the one I've seen most often.)

Still, the fact that it's a lot harder to just miss the rune because you didn't see it out of the corner of your eye and the "Found an abyssal rune" message gets lost in message spam is a good thing.

[TehDruid]

Worst abyss rune vault ever: 4 summoners behind a patch of lava each that spam summon demons (and tormenting fiends if i'm right).

[tormodpwns]

Does the Abyssal rune behave like the Pan runes? As in, if you get teleported away from the map, it's gone forever?

[cerebovssquire]

No. You will find it again.

Still, the fact that it's a lot harder to just miss the rune because you didn't see it out of the corner of your eye and the "Found an abyssal rune" message gets lost in message spam is a good thing.

You could have just used a

  Code:

force_more_message = "Found an abyssal rune of Zot."

in your rcfile.

I still think the Abyss is significantly more easy than Pan, especially if you have Apportation (and let's face it, basically every character at that stage with some spellcasting ability has that).
I had a really easy vault with just three spatial vortices guarding the rune. I think this one could use some increase in strength?