Tips to play quicker

[Pereza0]

So, lately I have realized that I am an extremely slow player (and not particularly good either but that is another topic entirely) and I am looking for tips to speed my game up a bit. One gets more tired when splatting on Vaults 5 takes you as long as it would take other players to do two ascensions.

I can think of some things to speed up my game (don't obsessing over equipment, using macro amongst other things) but I would also like to hear what more experienced players have to say. Spoilers are not really a huge concern (meaning, a playthrough where you are discovering new things is always going to take longer)

[Siegurt]

Reduce travel and autoexplore delay to -1, if you haven't already.

[ackack]

I'm slow compared to comparably skilled players, but I started very slow and have now moved to slightly faster than average. I think the main way to get faster is to get more experience. Most of the time you slow down will be when you're trying to think through situations where you're not sure to do. Playing more will show you more situations, and (hopefully) also reduce the frequency with which you get into bad situations in the first place.

Other things that might help, depending on whether or not you're using the tools the interface offers:
* if you don't use o and tab, start using them. These make a big difference
* don't bother making discrete stashes and embrace the ctrl-f
* use autotravel functionality like X>, G and, again, ctrl-f

[Greyr]

Playing offline helps dramatically with the speed the game runs. As for actually playing quicker, learning your hotkeys helps a ton. I never use the mouse anymore. Also, certain characters just progress quicker, imagine a times run between a MiBe and a FeAs, the assassin will require more careful (slow) play,

[xentronium]

Depending on your character, you can save a lot of time by diving. Berserkers especially can skip many early dungeon levels and be fine. The XP you'll lose will not amount to much.
The main weakness you'll have is sub-par equipment and consumables, but if you feel too weak for your depth you can always go back to an earlier floor and clear that.

[EugeneJudo]

Are you looking for speed real time wise or moves wise? If you're looking to reduce the amount of moves you make then not fully exploring everything is the way to go. This is more doable on certain characters such as a deep dwarf who really won't be able to stop in order to heal and therefore won't constantly waste moves doing so.

[Lasty]

If you find yourself spending a lot of time on management of some sort (inventory management, floor management, hotkey management, aiming management, etc.), see if there are rcfile settings that can help automate those processes. I'm pretty sure having a good rcfile alone cut an hour off my average play time.

[Pereza0]

Thanks to everyone for advice.

Are you looking for speed real time wise or moves wise? If you're looking to reduce the amount of moves you make then not fully exploring everything is the way to go. This is more doable on certain characters such as a deep dwarf who really won't be able to stop in order to heal and therefore won't constantly waste moves doing so.

Real time wise. DCSS is a big time sink and I honestly spend way too much time on it. But unlike with most videogames there is actually the possibility of doing the same thing, but faster, leaving time for other things (or more DCSS who am I kidding) which is what I am trying to do here

[celem]

Right there with you. If i get a guy to the point where he's ready for an Orb run then im always looking at 15 hours or so.

Speaking personally I spend a lot of time ctrl-f'ing and running back and forth from branches to stash.

With the change that monsters will never pick up an item that youve seen then stashing behaviour can be altered and has potential to save quite some time. The only place you shouldnt leave items just lying where they are is floors that can spawn a slime (deep lair/dungeon after 4). I've stopped carrying pretty much everything lately, whereas before I as a hoarder and likely spent some third of my playtime in various micromanagement tasks.

[cloud4ge]

Reduce travel and autoexplore delay to -1, if you haven't already.

how?

[Thalfon]

Add the following lines to your rcfile. If you're playing offline it's either a file called init.txt or called .rcfile in the settings folder of your dcss directory. If you're playing online these are already the defaults, so you oughtn't to have to change anything, but that said, you can edit your online rcfile using the "edit rc" link next to the version number of DCSS you want to play on the screen after logging into your preferred online server.

  Code:

travel_delay = -1
explore_delay = -1
rest_delay = -1

This will prevent the game from updating when travelling/exploring/resting, meaning instead of seeing every step, the game will just instantly show you the situation at the end of your trip/rest.

[Lyrick]

o, tab, axes, and TROG