Kobold Berserker without venom

[galdon]

The strategy guide on the wiki seems to be quite bold in assuming you can find a venom short blade early on and can actually gain exp by poisoning then running from powerful enemies. I've so far today played at least 8 Kobold Berserkers, 5 of which reached around floor 8-9 and have only once found a blade with Venom. That run was a lot easier in combat but all the others resulted in each subsequent floor containing less and less monsters I could even take one on one without berserk.

Clearly the pray to Trog that a venom weapon may appear before I am overwhelmed by monsters too powerful to face directly show up strategy is a bit flawed. Is there a good alternate strategy that doesn't rely on praying for one specific kind of weapon showing up before horrible doom?

[KoboldLord]

Is there a reason you don't want to berserk? Kobolds are approximately the best race in the game to berserk, since they have a 6,000-nutrition pad over most other races before they get too hungry to berserk. You'll want a venom-branded short blade over all other probable weapons, but whatever crap you find on the floor will do when you can berserk on anything that sneezes in your direction.

[galdon]

Is there a reason you don't want to berserk? Kobolds are approximately the best race in the game to berserk, since they have a 6,000-nutrition pad over most other races before they get too hungry to berserk. You'll want a venom-branded short blade over all other probable weapons, but whatever crap you find on the floor will do when you can berserk on anything that sneezes in your direction.

Well, I seem to have terrible corpse drop luck. I'd say maybe 1 in 10-15 monsters I kill (that can drop a corpse) actually manages to drop a corpse. I figure it's just a terrible quirk of luck on my part but I have issues keeping my hunger at 'full' most of the time. So, especially when I'm on one of those ruts where I'm running low on nutrition and no corpses want to drop it gets painful to keep spamming berserk. (Oddly as much as i have to spam berserk on the kobold, it goes through nutrition faster than my Troll did)

[FlyingPants]

Apparently you can berserk when you are hungry now, has it always been that way or is this a recent change?

[galdon]

Apparently you can berserk when you are hungry now, has it always been that way or is this a recent change?

might be recent, I seem to remember not being able to when hungry (and I only started playing a tiny bit ago) but now it will let me until I hit very hungry.

[KoboldLord]

Well, I seem to have terrible corpse drop luck. I'd say maybe 1 in 10-15 monsters I kill (that can drop a corpse) actually manages to drop a corpse. I figure it's just a terrible quirk of luck on my part but I have issues keeping my hunger at 'full' most of the time. So, especially when I'm on one of those ruts where I'm running low on nutrition and no corpses want to drop it gets painful to keep spamming berserk. (Oddly as much as i have to spam berserk on the kobold, it goes through nutrition faster than my Troll did)

Bear in mind that the span between hungry and full where you have no adjective at all is something like one-third of the entire span of your possible nutrition. It takes five chunks to cross that span, and each berserk costs just over half a chunk. The adjectives above that point are about two chunks long, while hungry, very hungry, and near starving are about half a chunk each. So staying in that span between hungry and full is really where you should be expecting to spend most of your time.

You are eating brown corpses, right? Kobolds are basically immune to sickness, so a single orc or gnoll pack should top you right off most of the time.

[pratamawirya]

Apparently you can berserk when you are hungry now, has it always been that way or is this a recent change?

Wow, this is nice.

[galdon]

Well, I seem to have terrible corpse drop luck. I'd say maybe 1 in 10-15 monsters I kill (that can drop a corpse) actually manages to drop a corpse. I figure it's just a terrible quirk of luck on my part but I have issues keeping my hunger at 'full' most of the time. So, especially when I'm on one of those ruts where I'm running low on nutrition and no corpses want to drop it gets painful to keep spamming berserk. (Oddly as much as i have to spam berserk on the kobold, it goes through nutrition faster than my Troll did)

Bear in mind that the span between hungry and full where you have no adjective at all is something like one-third of the entire span of your possible nutrition. It takes five chunks to cross that span, and each berserk costs just over half a chunk. The adjectives above that point are about two chunks long, while hungry, very hungry, and near starving are about half a chunk each. So staying in that span between hungry and full is really where you should be expecting to spend most of your time.

You are eating brown corpses, right? Kobolds are basically immune to sickness, so a single orc or gnoll pack should top you right off most of the time.

Eating everything except greens; my Kobold doesn't like greens of any sort.

Would it be easier to start as a background strong in dex and pick Trogg up at the temple? I read that I get a penalty for having higher str than dex on short blades and I keep getting str as my random stat boost to keep it just ahead of dex.

[mageykun]

A berserker is one of the strongest starts there is. I don't think there's any combo where you'd be better off getting Trog at the temple rather than char gen.

The str / dex trade weighting for weapons damage is inconsequential. Use your short blades without fear- the str stacking you start with is not a detriment.

Trog isn't the only source of weapons. If you collect every ego dagger you find for a few floors, you have reasonably good odds of getting venom. That's no reason not to work with something else if that's what you find though- venom is by no means critical to a KoBe. It just helps make life easy.

[galdon]

I am picking up every single dagger I find; When I said 'pray to trog' I was being ironic. Do 'regular' unidentified daggers have a chance of being venom, or only glowing/runed ones?

[FlyingPants]

Also: When you find an amulet of gourmand, you never have any food troubles again.

[Scalding Steam]

He's a kobold, and I don't think amulet of gourmand will have any effect on a race with Carnivore 3.

[hxy]

I am picking up every single dagger I find; When I said 'pray to trog' I was being ironic. Do 'regular' unidentified daggers have a chance of being venom, or only glowing/runed ones?

nope... glowing/runed weapons will have a chance of having a brand
those without the adjective will have a chance of simple +/+

[galdon]

Just found a vampiric dagger; that seems to do pretty well for survivability, since my attacks while berserk do a good bit of damage.

[Ann Hal]

Sounds like the RNGs are screwing with you. KoBe's don't need Poison blades. Any decent short sword if fine. Even a +3 non-brand will do until Trog starts doing the Santa bit on ya.

[XuaXua]

Sounds like the RNGs are screwing with you. KoBe's don't need Poison blades. Any decent short sword if fine. Even a +3 non-brand will do until Trog starts doing the Santa bit on ya.

The important brand is Flaming because then you can berserk kill hydras.

[lucy_ferre]

I heard that the KoBe guide on the wiki is terrible. I'm currently playing a KoBe. A venom blade is nice, but it isn't necessary. I used a variety of weapons effectively with that combo.

The important brand is Flaming because then you can berserk kill hydras.

All short blades, other than sabres and short swords, are stabbing weapons. Only slashing weapons can decapitate a hydra.

[sigfried von murdock]

A lot of nice things are... Not needed.

When it comes down to either Probably dying or berserking... Berserk.

Only corpses with mutenagenic properties, poison, and degeneration will cause trouble, and after you get PoR, half the poisonous creatures are kosher to eat, and the other half can only make you sick (kobolds shake off sickness in no time).

[XuaXua]

I heard that the KoBe guide on the wiki is terrible. I'm currently playing a KoBe. A venom blade is nice, but it isn't necessary. I used a variety of weapons effectively with that combo.

The important brand is Flaming because then you can berserk kill hydras.

All short blades, other than sabres and short swords, are stabbing weapons. Only slashing weapons can decapitate a hydra.

So that's not all short blades, just 60% of them that are stabbing, then?

[snow]

First off you do realize you can eat contaminated chunks? Sickness isn't ever an issue. Second... just use poison needles for poisoning things. Keep in mind you need a blowgun to use needles though Kobolds drop them fairly commonly. I think most players put a few points into throwing to deal with those annoying ass enemies that run from you anyway.

[FlyingPants]

You can throw needles without a blowgun. Dunno how well it works though.