The Tavern

What is the best statigy for wining a chaos knight? Should I renouce religion on floor 1? Stick with Xom the whole game?

Swap your chaos weapon with the first decent available asap, identify Tele and haste asap, play normally hoping you get things from xom that aren't demons on d. 4
Oh, maybe keep also a backup weapon in inventory in case he decides to swap yours with some enemy

choose Troll

Weapon swapping was removed (as long ago as 0.14, I think?) AFAIK -- too annoying. Xom only swaps characters (inc. player) now.
+1 on getting rid of chaos weapon, using chaos brand is a very reliable way to die.

I think using a chaos weapon can be helpful with Xom, not because they are great, but because if it goes badly it amuses Xom, which will give him better drops.

no point in better drops when you are dead

Exactly why you shouldn't try to entertain Xom. Crate IIRC once gave the advice to play Xomites as if they had no god, and this way of thinking has worked best for me so far. Trying to entertain Xom mainly just resulted in YAISDs.

+1 on "choose Troll, play normally." I thought I'd won a CK; maybe it was offline. If he doesn't outright kill you (which he will, sometimes) I remember him being better than no god.

Ah, here it was, splatted in Pan because dumb mistakes.

How to win a CK:
1: Ditch chaos weapon at first opportunity. If you've planning a stabber build, this weapon may actually be useful to you later on, but it's too dangerous to use early.
2: Kite, a lot. Xom does a lot of stuff based on tension. Scary monsters in LOS create tension. So kiting is especially useful for a Xomite, because he'll take that opportunity to do stuff that helps you.
3: Think about escaping earlier than usual. Xom finds it funny to send hostile demons after you, as well as heavily damage you from time to time. So you don't want to spend much time at low HP, if you can help it.
4: Aside from 2 and 3, play normally. Don't quaff unid'd potions to amuse xom, don't worry about xom getting bored, just play at your normal pace.
5: You're going to get teleported around. A lot. Just another reason to try to stay at high HP, be very careful on floors with scary vaults, as Xom may well teleport you directly into them. This makes Zot 5 especially interesting...
1a: That chaos weapon you ditched early on is a very powerful weapon if you're playing a stabber build, it's a pretty good way to incapacitate normally difficult to hex monsters later in the game. Just make sure you're prepared to deal with double the trouble you're in, because it could duplicate, haste, berserk, or otherwise enhance your enemy...

Xom is helpful and also really dangerous early on. He stays just about at the same level of helpfulness throughout the game, but he gets less dangerous as you get stronger, since you'll be more able to escape the bad stuff. He'll give you a lot of good mutations over time, as well as any number of random gifts, some of which will probably be helpful.

I lost my KoCK after xom teleported me into 3 oof and turned me into an ice beast. I had decent rf+ from gear but that all got melded so I got roasted in a turn w/o being able to react. So yes, Zot5 is quite interesting indeed.

Probably we need amulet of being self which makes you immune to polymorph.

The sad thing is I am pretty sure Xom considered it to be helpful to turn me into an ice beast...

Were you teddy bear? It is a bug then I think.

I could look at my morgue which is not available at this moment, but I am pretty sure being ice formed is considered a "helpful" action in general even though in this circumstance it was pretty much the worst thing that could have possibly happened.

This is what I meant as bug. It should be good in Lair and Lair branches (probably Crypt also), bad in Vaults/Elf/Depths and extremely bad in Zot.

Renounce religion on turn 1.

Doesn't Xom Wrath simply consist of still worshiping Xom without being able to unworship in perpetuity?

I think Xom is generally mean during wrath, but sometimes decides to be nice because Xom, and is eventually mollified.

My experience is that turn 1 abandonment makes it extra likely that you get D:1 sixfery or some other absurdly fatal Xom action.

The odds aren't too bad. I wouldn't try it on a streak, though.

I've had success going UC Ghoul and ditching Xom as soon as I find a good fast god (e.g., Yred). As a ghoul, most of what Xom does to you when he/she/it is pissed can be handled by just nomming on a cockroach. And once you get a couple meatshields, you can usually get away from the nastier summons.


Update: Yep. Xom is off my back again. I got off easy, looking back at what was dropped. Putz is just a normal Yred ghoul happily chewing his way through Lair at this point. Yay. Maybe I'll ditch Yred for Mak and go 15 runes.

If you abandon Xom you're not playing a chaos knight. Cheater :3

Joking aside, as others have said, don't try to please Xom - just play extra carefully. And it would probably a good idea to add something to your rc file that warns you when standing in seething chaos. I failed to noticed that particular nuisance a few times - and getting paralyzed isn't a good idea. Neither is using chaos weapons. Also pay attention when Xom brands your enemies weapon with chaos - learning Tukimas/Blink and so on might be worthwhile.

+1 Choose troll. CK gives a +2 robe start.