I think we learned an important lesson today.

[galehar]

Donald is amphibious. Duh.

[Curio]

Donald is amphibious. Duh.

I bet, he hates that.

[Stormfox]

If you are stabbing the royal jelly, use a dagger. No matter how high your Stabbing skill is and no matter how good that quick blade is.

[amic]

Draconian player ghosts have a draining breath attack. I got drained for almost a full level ! Also, maybe it was just a coincidence, but it seemed to me that it (a DrAE ghost) could tell I had rElec, and as a result exclusively used its breath attack and none of its spells.

[galehar]

Also, maybe it was just a coincidence, but it seemed to me that it (a DrAE ghost) could tell I had rElec, and as a result exclusively used its breath attack and none of its spells.

Monsters don't know about your resistances. Naga will waste many turns trying to poison you while your resisting. This could be improved.

[slowcar]

I learned that it is a bad idea to replace the conservation robe with a rF+ one to achieve the last dip in fire resistance when fighting Orbs of Fire.
Well, i killed them, 5 in a row (not at once), most brutal Zot 5 i ever encountered (7 Ancient Liches on top), but noticed afterwards that ALL my scrolls were gone.
Good that i had some of every kind stashed away safely.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

This is only a game. If you feel that you grow bitter, morose and nervous because you've lost way too many adventurers there, leave the game for a while. Or, if you still feel compelled to see the final areas, go to Webtiles and watch someone's playthrough.
You don't need to win. You only can win. Remember that and enjoy the process from this perspective.

[Grimm]

I've found that having this forum to come bitch on has relieved a lot of the Crawl angst I used to feel.

[amic]

Wow, I should have thought of this earlier. Elf:5 is a joke with Poisonous Clous, rPois, and Swiftness/Flight. Just gas the narrow corridor leading into the vault and the elves will drop off as they try to follow you. The only mild challenges are Blademasters and Master Archers because they actually have HP (and the Blademasters are fast enough to keep up with you). Oh, and the occasional random guy who picked up an rPois randart. I did get banished once (lowish MR), but in my trip to the Abyss I found the rune, a nice randart ring, and a potion of cure mutation, so I really can't complain.

[galehar]

Wow, I should have thought of this earlier. Elf:5 is a joke with Poisonous Clous, rPois, and Swiftness/Flight. Just gas the narrow corridor leading into the vault and the elves will drop off as they try to follow you.

I'm planning to take into account cloud damage when doing monster's pathfinding to make them smarter and less suicidal.

On an unrelated note, you can bounce fire and cold beams on green crystal walls.

[mrbobbyg]

Number of CRAWL games I have played: 1500+
Number of times I have starved: 1
Number of times I have starved as a non spriggan: 0
Number of times I have died doing something dumb to save permafood: 30+

[Usht_54]

Yeah, once you make it to the hive, you're pretty much set no matter what you do for food.

As a sludge elf transmuter, I managed to run into a spore. Instead of, say, explode it by tossing a potion while it was still out of range, I got the dumb idea to start tossing rocks instead which missed every single time until it got right up to me and exploded.

[XuaXua]

Wow, I should have thought of this earlier. Elf:5 is a joke with Poisonous Clous, rPois, and Swiftness/Flight. Just gas the narrow corridor leading into the vault and the elves will drop off as they try to follow you.

I'm planning to take into account cloud damage when doing monster's pathfinding to make them smarter and less suicidal.

On an unrelated note, you can bounce fire and cold beams on green crystal walls.

How about take into account that orc wizards shouldn't approach for close combat unless invisible.

How about a check - depending on the success of the confusion attempt contrasted against the monster intelligence, if the confused monster knows there is deep water or lava around, make it so he chooses NOT to move.

[slowcar]

I learned that it is sometimes good to read the changelog before playing the newest trunk.

"HP adjustment for races is replaced by innate robust/frail mutations."

It's not that i had a shortage of cure mutation pots after finding 9 in a Ziggurat (over 27 levels), but drinking another one after the first did not clear the hp-mutation may have been overkill

[galehar]

I learned that it is sometimes good to read the changelog before playing the newest trunk.

"HP adjustment for races is replaced by innate robust/frail mutations."

It's not that i had a shortage of cure mutation pots after finding 9 in a Ziggurat (over 27 levels), but drinking another one after the first did not clear the hp-mutation may have been overkill

The fact that the mutation was displayed in blue should have hinted you that you can't cure it

[akira]

If you find a wand of paralysis on D:1 dont waste it on kobolds, it will keep you alive when Sigmund and his damned pet appear on D:3

[amic]

Save some scrolls of acquirement for the endgame in case you're desperately lacking something important. It is possible to clear all of D, Orc, Elf, Lair, Swamp, Shoals, Hive, Vault, and Crypt and find only one potion of cure mutation and no amulet of resist mutation (in fact, no amulets at all besides controlled flight, faith, clarity, gourmand, and resist corrosion). I had only two acquirement scrolls saved up (having spent 4 or so earlier trying to get decent randart armour for my draconian and totally failing) and got useless jewellery with both of them. Now I don't know whether to go into Zot and try to kill orbs of fire with OOD while staying out of sight whenever possible, or go searching in other branches for resist mutation.

[Xentax]

Save some scrolls of acquirement for the endgame in case you're desperately lacking something important. It is possible to clear all of D, Orc, Elf, Lair, Swamp, Shoals, Hive, Vault, and Crypt and find only one potion of cure mutation and no amulet of resist mutation (in fact, no amulets at all besides controlled flight, faith, clarity, gourmand, and resist corrosion). I had only two acquirement scrolls saved up (having spent 4 or so earlier trying to get decent randart armour for my draconian and totally failing) and got useless jewellery with both of them. Now I don't know whether to go into Zot and try to kill orbs of fire with OOD while staying out of sight whenever possible, or go searching in other branches for resist mutation.

Conservation of Random - I'm XL18, on Vault:5 or so, about to enter Blades, and I've found 3 amulets of resist mutation, and NO others. NONE. Not even cursed ones!

[Grimm]

An amulet of warding will not in fact save you from getting killed by summoned demons.

[slowcar]

You don't need a means of dealing with mutations to do Zot. When you do Zot, you're about to win. It doesn't matter if you have awful mutations when you do.

I disagree here. If you enter zot5 with teleportitis it may very well bring you into very very bad situations. similar with berserk or shouteritis.
and if you fight a couple of fire orbs you will get a truckload of mutations...

[Baldurino]

My theory on survival in DCSS:

Monster Knowledge: The 1st layer of defence
If you always avoid OOD monsters, and fight "in depth monsters" then you won't lose. The trouble is identifying OOD monsters. This just comes with practice.

Caution: The 2nd layer of defence
This is facing every monster in a methodic-risk reducing way. This usually through luring and positioning in corridors. Always have full HP/MP, Can also involve switching resistances and weapons. Always have an escape plan prepared.
The hardest thing about crawl is keeping the concentratration to always remain cautious.

Resources: The 3rd layer of defence
If in doubt use any resources available to kill a monster or escape, and come back again later. It can be sometimes hard to evaluate. If you fight the creature 1vs1 and it gets you to half health and you can barely damage it, definately run. If you play with a lot of caution, there is little need to use resources. If you are very cautious then you won't need to use too much resources.

Luck:
The last defence. Sometimes you will be lucky and barely escape/kill a creature. Only rely on this when everything else has failed. Hopefully, you won't need too much luck if you use monster knowledge, caution, and resources.

No individual level of DCSS is as hard as a dungeon sprint. Crawls difficulty comes from wearing down your concentration until you blunder because you're on "auto pilot" or because you are bored or tired.

[Grimm]

Nice way of putting it Baldurino. Maybe polish that up and put it on the wiki.

[mageykun]

Clearing out a nest of electric eels with naught but a wand of random effects is not for the faint of heart.

[Jeremiah]

Player ghosts can be found in Labyrinths.

Don't really know why I had assumed they couldn't - I guess when playing offline I never died in a labyrinth so none of my ghosts ever showed up there.

[Denniz]

You can kill Iron Golems with Orb of Destruction. Took about 3 each, though.

[Ququman]

Lesson of the day (RIP Hercule Poirot *cries*) :
You're not the only one who's frightening with berserk. See an ennemy berserking ? run. More specifically if it's a unique. Same applies for haste : it's not because there's no icon to show haste that it's not dangerous.

[Galefury]

The problem with that is that they will probably be faster than you.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Clouds do not replace other clouds. This is a good way to direct, in example, a freezing cloud away from you, filling that corridor. Block one end of the corridor with a mephitic cloud or conjure some flame, thus cutting yourself off the corridor, and then freeze the rest of it: the frost will not touch you through your hazy barrier.

[joellercoaster]

It's much harder for those Kenku to Airstrike you to death once they stop flying and sink to the bottom of the Swamp.

Petrify FTW

(In other valuable lessons... the new Kenku monsters have Airstrike )

[moekitten]

1) do not take orbs of fire lightly ;; especially if you have less than 80hp
2) wait, do not play when you are feeling your char is so weak you want to quit it
3) shadow creatures seems to be better than haunt in zot

man, i do hate splats ><

[Galefury]

If it's late and you think you should really go to bed, do so. Do not play "just one more level" of that Ziggurat.

[Daydreamer]

If you worship TSO and an enemy poisons itself via your shield of reflection you will get penance. That one took me by surprise.

[pratamawirya]

The Royal Jelly is a bad man.

[Maedhros]

(After being drained repeatedly in Crypt and Vault:8 due to shortage of rN items) Oh, yeah, the amulet of warding gives rN, doesn't it? Whoops.

[Ququman]

Snake Pits without poison resist is DANGEROUS, and a permafood black hole.

[joellercoaster]

Vampire Mosquitoes are BASTARDS. Especially when they gang up with bigger bitey Swamp-dwellers.

I've lost count of the number of times those little jerks have got me into deep trouble... if it wasn't for the fact that you can Sublimate their chunks, they would have no redeeming features whatsoever. Far worse than Hydrae... who are at least vulnerable/useful to Necro.

Ohh, I hate Vampire Mosquitoes.

*shakes fist*

[absolutego]

they are actually undead. so you can dispel them, or use holy wrath. which is something.

[joellercoaster]

:facepalm:

I actually knew that already, and had totally forgotten it. I wonder what other really important facts have swapped out lately?

Joel
Realising why he's not winning lately

[XuaXua]

:facepalm:

I actually knew that already, and had totally forgotten it. I wonder what other really important facts have swapped out lately?

Joel
Realising why he's not winning lately

Ya ain't Charlie Sheen. Dispel Undead + Vampire Mosquitoes is the best!

Now if only someone could tell me how to get rid of these #$% Insubstantial Wisps.

[Galefury]

High powered LRD works great against them. But that's not exactly something most chars have available. Plus walls are kind of rare in the swamp. It's nice in the dungeon and vaults though.

[Xentax]

IMB seems to work well against wisps (sometimes takes 2 hits though).

[XuaXua]

Thanks guys. I tried venom bolt and hand to hand and several zombie hydras, as that was all I had.

CONTRIBUTION TO THREAD:
Hunting down a Kraken in Shoals (have levitation and ranged spells!) and then raising it as a zombie kraken will let you safely OWN Shoals.

Tiles graphich designers take note: zombie tentacles are just labeled tentacles, with a friendly heart on them and use the standard tentacles tiles.

[pratamawirya]

Do not underestimate a pack of Hellions. EVER.

E V E R, goddammit!!!

(Just got a very powerful HuTr burned to crisp in Pan....)

[Jeremiah]

Bumblebees are considerably more dangerous than killer bees.

[joellercoaster]

Hunting down a Kraken in Shoals (have levitation and ranged spells!) and then raising it as a zombie kraken will let you safely OWN Shoals.

Huh. I tried this ages ago with a Death Knight, and the Kraken conspicuously refused to extend tentacles, or even follow me around very much. I was a bit disappointed.

Will have to give it another go!

[XuaXua]

Hunting down a Kraken in Shoals (have levitation and ranged spells!) and then raising it as a zombie kraken will let you safely OWN Shoals.

Huh. I tried this ages ago with a Death Knight, and the Kraken conspicuously refused to extend tentacles, or even follow me around very much. I was a bit disappointed.

Will have to give it another go!

They aren't undead tentacles; they're hearted. You also have to make sure to keep him around you.

Found the Abyssal kraken today and took his ass down right before I left.

[Ququman]

Poisonned corpses actually POISON you.

What, it's okay to forget the basics from times to times isn't it ? I was starving

Also, kraken zombie brings Necromancers to an over-the-top state of awesomeness. I want one NOW.