I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing


Ask fellow adventurers how to stay alive in the deep, dark, dangerous dungeon below, or share your own accumulated wisdom.

Halls Hopper

Posts: 56

Joined: Tuesday, 29th July 2014, 04:36

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 05:07

I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

I hate the Abyss!
The abyss is almost impossible to deal with unless you have a pile of heal wounds or get lucky. Can only survive as long as heal wounds lasts then it's instant death. I find it impossible to rest as there are so many wander monsters and if you run away you just jun into more. The monsters are so fast you cant get away even under haste. Since its near impossible get a teleport to work there is no way got away from the monsters. If you have the supplies to live, and the luck, it can take hours to get out.
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Tomb Titivator

Posts: 909

Joined: Thursday, 3rd January 2013, 20:32

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 05:14

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

I can't say for sure without morgues, but I bet you'll find that what you actually hate is walking around with too little MR+

Abyss is not so bad when you're ready for it, the trick is to avoid getting sent there unintentionally and MR+++ pretty much guarantees that will never happen
Wins (Does not include my GrEE^Veh 15-runer...stupid experimental branch)

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 6454

Joined: Tuesday, 30th October 2012, 19:06

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 05:43

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

Things that help you survive the Abyss:

1. Don't fight too much stuff, unlike the rest of the game, Abyss monsters just keep coming. You need to kill only things that are too dangerous to leave alive.
2. When you do kill things, don't stick around, there's always more stuff in the abyss and the noise of combat draws things to you.
3. Regeneration is a large help it's a good way to heal on the run, rings, spells, TLA they're all helpful.
4. Stealth is also a big help, running from stuff is a good way to survive, and stealth makes it easier to get away.
5. If you are just looking to escape, run at diagonals generally speaking, you'll have to go around stuff, but I find that giant sweeping diagonal paths get me out (or let me find staircaises down) more quickly.
6. Tele scrolls *do* work, but they take a *long* time, if you are going to need one, read it really early, and be prepared to flee while taking hits for a while before it kicks in.
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Pandemonium Purger

Posts: 1298

Joined: Wednesday, 11th April 2012, 02:42

Location: Sydney, Australia

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 06:02

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

Someone link the mikee abyss post thanks

EDIT: Found it viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11724&p=163927&hilit=abyss#p163927

What you did the most wrong was stopping to fight things at all. For most monsters, even in the best case scenario, you kill it without taking much damage but waste turns that could have gone towards exploration. So the hellwing and wraith and all that junk were probably just wastes of your time.

What you are supposed to do when you get abyssed is something like this:
1) Stop. Look at your character and your items. Turn off autopickup. If you are playing something fast, like a spriggan, just walk around and ignore basically everything. Otherwise, go to step 2.
2) Walk around. Every time a monster comes into view and you're not familiar with what it is, either examine it or look it up with the knowledge bots (not the wiki). If this monster is particularly threatening but normal speed, such as a lich or bone dragon, just move so that the distance between you remains as high as possible. This will keep the monster out of LOS of you, and it will not even be able to do anything. This is why no one actually has to fight a lich in the abyss.
2a) If the monster is fast and easy to kill, go ahead and kill it.
2b) If the monster is fast and threatening, use one of your resources to avoid fighting it.

Part of the reason that a lot of 'experienced players' despise the abyss is not that it's threatening but actually the opposite - it's that with careful play, the abyss is just Adventures in Walking Around. In those cases, even for a character much weaker than this, a trip to the abyss generally costs a couple of teleport scrolls or haste potions without any real danger.

I'm sorry if this is not exactly what you want to hear - I know you probably feel cheated, and I wish I had been able to write this post for you earlier. But I noticed that no one had posted this type of information, and I hope it can help you learn to see the abyss as the snoozefest it really is.


Also this one viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5609&p=75208&hilit=abyss#p75208

mikee wrote:
drag0n wrote:I've read the standard advice and nothing seems to help.

I am going to give you some non-standard advice. I am assuming from this OP that you want it and you are going to read it, so I am going to take the time to write it.

Your problems surviving the abyss seem to be related to this:

I'm there for about a thousand turns and I'm hasted and I'm levitating and I'm running from a Hell Sentinel who hits me three times with hellfire


Even though some monsters in the abyss can hurt you from across the screen, new spawns are always created at the edge of your LOS - this includes the hell sentinel or the lich that summoned it. (Small exceptions involve terrain shifting and vaults, but I am only mentioning them so someone doesn't try to inform me about them.) Obviously, a monster cannot cast a spell and move at the same time - so what you must do, for every non-fast monster you do not want to deal with, is immediately move in the opposite direction once you see it. I suggest disabling autopickup while in the abyss, and if it helps you, I know of one player who uses force_more on any monster coming into view.

Abyss Ambulator

Posts: 1244

Joined: Thursday, 10th March 2011, 19:45

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 09:17

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

The trouble with all this is that monsters can spawn in the direction you are walking towards as well as the direction you are walking away from. So you turn and walk in a third direction, to avoid the horde that's following you and the new threat. Until eventually there are threats in all directions and you have to decide which is the least threatening and fight that. Then everything else catches up with you.

You can use consumables to help overcome this or teleport, but consumables won't last forever even without item destruction and given the random nature of the abyss it can easily happen before you find the exit.

Tomb Titivator

Posts: 909

Joined: Thursday, 3rd January 2013, 20:32

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 09:37

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

Yep all true but still

Getting abyssed is a harsh way to learn a lesson, but when you do learn it you realize that you have almost 100% control over whether & when it happens
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Crypt Cleanser

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Joined: Monday, 9th June 2014, 13:39

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 13:47

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

Also, just to add, if you're worshiping Qazlal and you get Abyssed, just hang it up. Everything is going to find you no matter what you do.
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Blades Runner

Posts: 538

Joined: Saturday, 15th February 2014, 03:22

Location: NYC

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 14:48

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

The Abyss is the eyesore that defines Crawl. While most of the game is a beautiful balance of danger vs reward, the Abyss is merely there due to schadenfreude and or the bizarre notion that some people might enjoy it.

As has been said using diagonal movement affords you the greatest chance of escape and liberal use of consumables is highly desirable. Picking up floor items is not. Luck plays a huge part for the inexperienced and helps greatly even if you do know how to maximize your chances of escape. Knowing what you can fight without being killed helps but also know what you absolutely must run from is very important. Unfortunately this does not mean run across the great wide open space in front of you. It means find corners. LOTS of corners. running diagonally usually helps find new corners to duck around. Being stealthy helps a little but not much but knowing what the blue smoke signifies helps too. (A monster is nearby and just teleported from that spot.)

Obviously escaping is the only goal that matters in the Abyss until (unless) you are strong enough to take whatever leaps in your way. And the experience will not be fun but imagine tearing limb from limb, the asshat who sent you there when you escape. Just be sure you can actually do that before making the attempt. Being Abyssed isn't the worst thing some of these characters can do to you.

Meantime if you are sick of being screwed by an unfair design do take a break. Perspective (gained from time away) often helps in finding new approaches to unsolvable problems.

Abyss Ambulator

Posts: 1205

Joined: Friday, 8th November 2013, 17:02

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 16:01

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

3 pips of mr is not enough to 'nearly guarantee' you won't get abyssed, especially since you're likely to get smacked with a couple disto weapons now and again. Of course, with extremely tedious play you can lower your chances a bit further, but now and then you're going to end up in the abyss.

The abyss isn't as unbelievably horrible as it first appears, but it's not 'an adventure in just walking around' either. The abyss is randomness incarnate, and sometimes that means you find an exit right away, sometimes it means you have an enjoyable stroll collecting hp and items, and sometimes it means you walk into 3 aliches at once(this happened to me in my last game).

There's a lot you can do, like people point out, walk in diagonals, don't fight if you don't have to, regen if possible, don't forget to use your various potions to give you an edge when needed...

I am not a huge fan of the abyss, but I honestly don't lose very many characters to it. It is extremely frustrating when it does happen though.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 11111

Joined: Friday, 8th February 2013, 12:00

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 16:22

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

I hate Abyss too. But it is ok, it taught me to leave any floor with Erolcha/Psyche immediately, stay with distortion weapon, wear MR items by default instead of Robustness/ring of protection from fire/robe of fire restistance/any other item, different ways to deal with monsters who are wielding distortion weapons etc.
It is not that bad and can be very exciting.
If you are really tired of Abyss, play as Abyssal Knight or stealthy high MR species like Sp/Na/Fe.

Vestibule Violator

Posts: 1601

Joined: Sunday, 14th July 2013, 16:36

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 16:44

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

IMO, Abyss is even the easiest third rune for a stealthy spriggan.

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Sandman25

Swamp Slogger

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Joined: Thursday, 9th January 2014, 01:25

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 18:31

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

I had a HaAs that was clearing elf3, with little MR. The third time I got abyssed, I decided i might as well grab the rune. So I did.
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Tomb Titivator

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Joined: Thursday, 3rd January 2013, 20:32

Post Saturday, 20th September 2014, 19:11

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

damiac wrote:3 pips of mr is not enough to 'nearly guarantee' you won't get abyssed, especially since you're likely to get smacked with a couple disto weapons now and again. Of course, with extremely tedious play you can lower your chances a bit further, but now and then you're going to end up in the abyss.

The wiki says there's a 10% chance of banishment per disto hit. So even without tedious "avoid all glowing weapons" play, your chance of being banished on the first hit is low. Then you know you're dealing with a disto weapon, and you can take appropriate action to kill the foo or move out of range. Hence, "nearly guarantee". Emphasis on nearly.
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Temple Termagant

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Joined: Sunday, 14th September 2014, 02:23

Post Sunday, 21st September 2014, 00:26

Re: I hate the abyss! It's going to stop me playing

Just keep running, if you see an enemy run he other way, only attack things that will kill you, teleport if you can't run. rMut and MR really help.

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