I think we learned an important lesson today.

[joellercoaster]

1) There's an Abyssal Kraken? I think I love this game.

2) Just after posting in this thread, my SENe found not one but three Krakens on the same Shoals level. Did any of them leave corpses to experiment on? Of course not.

*sigh* Zombie Kraken vs live Kraken was going to be so, so awesome.

[Galefury]

There are zombie Kraken in Cocytus.

There are two(?) recently added abyss exit vaults that feature a Kraken. I think they made it into 0.8, but I'm not sure. Also they are really rare.

[XuaXua]

There are zombie Kraken in Cocytus.

There are two(?) recently added abyss exit vaults that feature a Kraken. I think they made it into 0.8, but I'm not sure. Also they are really rare.

I must have rolled well to have that one show up, then.

[Grimm]

Amulets of warding are W O R T H L E S S.

[XuaXua]

Amulets of warding are W O R T H L E S S.

Keeps them from attacking you, but doesn't stop spells.

[pratamawirya]

Amulets of warding are W O R T H L E S S.

The rN+ is nice, though.

[Jeremiah]

Oklobs can't see invisible.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Elf Halls Five is no cTele. Elf Halls Five is no cTele.
Treat any bottom level as no cTele. Be prepared to run away without relying on Extremely Strange Quirks, like controlled teleportations, unidentified equipment and wands of unknown effects and unknown amount of remaining charges.
Do each step as if you are doing it in real life, choosing the most appropriate situation and place to take it. This includes not only the game situation, but also your mental status and the Sun shining outside: it is hard to think when sun shines at your monitor.

[XuaXua]

In the TRUNK deployment, Geryon no longer follows you out of the Hell Vestibule.

Got my ass killed on my best character with zero save scumming for nothing.

[XuaXua]

That's actually an 0.8 change.

I never got the chance to try it till now, and the last time I read He'll tactics advice, stair dancing Geryon. Was the way to go.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

WizMode (&) can be helpful if you need to test a srategy but think it might be unreliable. Name that spriggan "Buster", press & when he peeks into the Dungeon and let him test some fancy ways of getting out of troubles you would not dare trying with your precious characters.

[Nobody]

Never ask a scroll of acquirement for armor unless you're wielding a two-handed weapon; otherwise, it'll drop a +0 buckler on you to fill in that equipment slot you "need" to fill.

(I know it's an intended feature of the scroll, but I can't figure out why. Handing out crap items to plug up unused slots seems like more of a scroll tax on unspoiled players than anything else.)

[tcjsavannah]

Don't get too enamored with sticks to snakes, especially when you find that sweet Staff of Energy on D:5

[XuaXua]

Inscribe stuff you don't want to snake with !D. This is the "tell me before I try to snake this" inscription.

(I am using "snake" as a verb because "snake" works great as a verb. Admit it.)

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Snaking

[mageykun]

Don't get too enamored with sticks to snakes, especially when you find that sweet Staff of Energy on D:5

{!D} is your friend here. You might be able to set it up to auto-inscribe, actually.

Edit: ninja-ed.

You verbed the word. Nothing wrong with that.

Double edit: ninja-ed again! :/

[tcjsavannah]

Ok, I tried this and it still let me do it (with a blowgun) - I don't think the inscription would have stopped me unless it actually forced me to stop and think with the "Are you sure you really want to do this?" prompt.

[galehar]

Ok, I tried this and it still let me do it (with a blowgun) - I don't think the inscription would have stopped me unless it actually forced me to stop and think with the "Are you sure you really want to do this?" prompt.

You sure? it works fine for me. I don't even get a prompt, it just says that my blowgun feels slithery. You need to inscribe the item with an exclamation mark (!) a capital D.

[tcjsavannah]

Ok, I didn't include the exclamation point.. works fine now. Thanks everyone.

[Regnix]

The elephant tramples you. You stumble backwards!
_You stop ascending the stairs.

(and are no longer on the same tile as the stairs)

[dolphin]

When you are an SB-crusader fighting two ancient liches on Z:5, remember that they are CASTERS you have a dandy little anti-magic dagger and a +3,+6 ring of slaying.

[pratamawirya]

Crawl is interesting.

[Rex_Bael]

Long-time lurker, first time poster, but this was such a rookie mistake I had to post it.

Do not read ID scrolls on D:4 unless you are standing on an upstairs to a cleared level and are not slowed. You will get a teleport scroll and land in a room with a Giant Eyeball, a Snake and a Worker Ant and DIE.

[Jeremiah]

(Semi-)controlled blink is not just for escaping - it can also quickly get you closer to that pack of centaurs you want to melee.

[Shade]

Long-time lurker, first time poster, but this was such a rookie mistake I had to post it.

Do not read ID scrolls on D:4 unless you are standing on an upstairs to a cleared level and are not slowed. You will get a teleport scroll and land in a room with a Giant Eyeball, a Snake and a Worker Ant and DIE.

On the ID game:
-Unless you are going to immediately die and need a Hail Mary, only ever play the ID game on a cleared level. (Unless you're that interested in contriving up the circumstances to maximize you chance of an ID every time. YMMV.)
-Waiting until the end of D:3 before you play round 1 of the ID game will give you the best shot of identifying what are often the most useful / least dangerous potions and scrolls as they tend to be high frequency. Though Xom hates me and he's likely to give you 3 mutation potions and only 1 of healing for following my advice.
-A good habit to get into is to pop open the skills screen after you play the ID game, and to twiddle your setting there if you need to. I do it as a matter of rote repetition. I found it a very good habit to help prevent those moments of, "How did I get to 7 in throwing?".

[Rex_Bael]

That's why I said rookie mistake. I usually clear D:3, pop downstairs to D:4 and clear any hostiles in sight, then start ID'ing while standing on the stairs. That way, if you get magic mapping it's not completely wasted and if you get teleport or anything possibly nasty, you can pop back upstairs. Found out the hard way that if you're slowed and read teleport, you don't necessarily have enough time to get upstairs before it kicks in.

Overall I would say that the leading cause of death in Crawl is overconfidence. "Haven't found a monster I couldn't kill quickly and easily yet, so I'll just drop down this hatch here/quaff this unID'ed potion while on low health/read-ID this scroll while nowhere near an escape route/rush this group of Orc Priests/insert generic stupid Idea here."

I love this game

[Shade]

That's why I said rookie mistake. I usually clear D:3, pop downstairs to D:4 and clear any hostiles in sight, then start ID'ing while standing on the stairs. That way, if you get magic mapping it's not completely wasted and if you get teleport or anything possibly nasty, you can pop back upstairs. Found out the hard way that if you're slowed and read teleport, you don't necessarily have enough time to get upstairs before it kicks in.

Overall I would say that the leading cause of death in Crawl is overconfidence. "Haven't found a monster I couldn't kill quickly and easily yet, so I'll just drop down this hatch here/quaff this unID'ed potion while on low health/read-ID this scroll while nowhere near an escape route/rush this group of Orc Priests/insert generic stupid Idea here."

I love this game

One thing you can do is to do your IDing on the down stairs- Say you Dink ID a potion Invisibility, and Speed, and Strength in short order and don't want to waste them, just pop down the stairs, kill what you can, then go up and keep IDing. That has the disadvantage of triggering timers on various portally type things that you may have to rush after... Also, it's not necessarily optimum play to ID wands and scrolls without an enemies present, but it won't break your game or anything either...

[galehar]

I like id'ing potions on the down stairs of a cleared level. Less risk if bad, can go down and use it a bit if good. For scrolls, I do the opposite and id them on the upstairs of an unexplored level (above level is cleared). If tele, go up, magic mapping is not wasted and bonus point if there are enemies in LOS for fear.

[XuaXua]

I like id'ing potions on the down stairs of a cleared level. Less risk if bad, can go down and use it a bit if good. For scrolls, I do the opposite and id them on the upstairs of an unexplored level (above level is cleared). If tele, go up, magic mapping is not wasted and bonus point if there are enemies in LOS for fear.

I scroll-id in LOS of monsters and undead simultaneously for that fear/holy word/torment hat trick. Usually ends up being an EW3/vorpalize/curse weapon blowout, though.

[galehar]

I don't bother waiting for undeads to id scrolls, since they are not very common at shallow depth, holy word is very rare and not very useful (so I don't care if I waste one or 2 id'ing them).

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Do not cheat without any reason. You quickly get irritated this way.

[tcjsavannah]

Don't underestimate the damage a Kobold can do with a wand of lightning.

[hxy]

Finding a trap stops auto-travel, but it does not interrupt stair climbing...

  Code:

 There is a stone staircase leading up here.
_You found a trap!
_You climb upwards.
_There is a stone staircase leading down here.


[Zuboki]

You can't use a scroll of vorpalise weapon on a blowgun, even if it is +5.

[Grimm]

Glowing shapeshifters exist, can appear as early as D 12, and can turn into things like storm dragons. Caveat pugnator!

[thevogonpoet]

If your transmuter is face to face with an ice beast, basing your decision purely on attack and selecting spider form instead of ice form is probably a mistake.

[asdu]

If your transmuter is face to face with an ice beast, basing your decision purely on attack and selecting spider form instead of ice form is probably a mistake.

Especially since ice beasts are resistant to poison, so the only offensive advantage spider form has over ice form is negated (but, really, ice form has a much stronger attack overall)

[Shade]

If your transmuter is face to face with an ice beast, basing your decision purely on attack and selecting spider form instead of ice form is probably a mistake.

Especially since ice beasts are resistant to poison, so the only offensive advantage spider form has over ice form is negated (but, really, ice form has a much stronger attack overall)

That and you can butcher meat and use your resists to eat some nasty stuff.

Though Spider Form is good for bite / poison and run, and cling is actually useful.

[jejorda2]

Evasion is a big part of what makes spider form great, but I don't think you can dodge Freeze from an Ice Beast.

[pratamawirya]

Hellions make for AWESOME allies

[Girafales]

Do not get scared the first time you get The Orb. Belive in yourself

[Mackerel]

Never ask a scroll of acquirement for armor unless you're wielding a two-handed weapon; otherwise, it'll drop a +0 buckler on you to fill in that equipment slot you "need" to fill.

(I know it's an intended feature of the scroll, but I can't figure out why. Handing out crap items to plug up unused slots seems like more of a scroll tax on unspoiled players than anything else.)

I've tried four times to get armor with a scroll of acquirement. One time I got a decent cape (+1 and something else, can't remember what); the other three times I got uselessness (2 +0 leather armors and a +0 buckler, I think).

I've usually gone for a weapon, and what I've gotten hasn't always been useful for me, but it is comparable to a Trog gift.

Does anyone have experience with getting a really good piece of armor -- or at least pretty decent -- from an acquirement scroll?

[tcjsavannah]

I got the Assassin boots in my latest acquirement scroll lottery. I did have an open shield spot and equipped a random buckler before cashing in just to make sure I didn't get the random buckler to fill.

[Grimm]

I always take gold from acquirement scrolls. That way I can choose a decent item from a shop.

[KoboldLord]

I always get more gold off the floor than I can spend in all the shops in the game combined. I'll usually go jewelry unless I'm feeling desperate to fill some armor slot that the RNG refuses to fill for me. Even mundane jewelry will usually be worth carrying around for a while. I'll rarely actually wear marginal-use rings and amulets, and when I do it's usually only for a single battle, but unused jewelry usually takes up more slots of my active inventory than any other single category of item.

[Shade]

Never underestimate an Deep Elf Blademaster's ability to walk through your Freezing Clouds and disembowel your Deep Elf Conjuror in a couple of turns. To add insult to injury I had just beaten my Firestorming ghost that had a bad run in with Mara in the Elf:5 vault previously, and I got cut down in the last room of Treasure where all I had to do clear it was take a little rest to get a handful more MP. Oh, and I already had the Serpentine rune and cleared most of the Shoals.

[amic]

Eudemon blades can't be cursed. Even if you're with Ash. Even if you decided it was clearly the best weapon you have and just spent all your Enchant Weapon IIs on it.