[PROTIPS] Secret Tricks

[Grimm]

Every once in a while do ctrl-f "artef" to check if you've missed any artefacts lying on the floor.

[jejorda2]

It doesn't hurt to search for gifts or books either, just in case you missed one among combat messages.

[Stormfox]

Or anything that is conspicuously missing from your inventory and should have spawned by now (for whatever value of "now"). Secondary armour pieces, launchers, food if you're desperate...

[Jeremiah]

Search for "god" too in case you missed any god gifts (only with relevant gods obviously.)

[Grimm]

That's what jejorda2 was getting at. Ctrl-f'ing "gift" or "god" both work.

[rchandra]

if you put

  Code:

stop = duration:

into runrest_messages.txt you will exit autoexplore when a spell is beginning to wear off.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Taken from "New Player Hints?" topic:

Well, normally you would have to enter every unique seperately, but now you just have to copy and paste because this is how nice I am.

  Code:

force_more_message = Agnes comes into view.
force_more_message = Aizul comes into view.
force_more_message = Antaeus comes into view.
force_more_message = Asmodeus comes into view.
force_more_message = Azrael comes into view.
force_more_message = Blork the orc comes into view.
force_more_message = Boris comes into view.
force_more_message = Cerebov comes into view.
force_more_message = Crazy Yiuf comes into view.
force_more_message = Dispater comes into view.
force_more_message = Dissolution comes into view.
force_more_message = Donald comes into view.
force_more_message = Dowan comes into view.
force_more_message = Duvessa comes into view.
force_more_message = Edmund comes into view.
force_more_message = Ereshkigal comes into view.
force_more_message = Erica comes into view.
force_more_message = Erolcha comes into view.
force_more_message = Eustachio comes into view.
force_more_message = Francis comes into view.
force_more_message = Frederick comes into view.
force_more_message = Gastronok comes into view.
force_more_message = Geryon comes into view.
force_more_message = Gloorx Vloq comes into view.
force_more_message = Grinder comes into view.
force_more_message = Grum comes into view.
force_more_message = Harold comes into view.
force_more_message = Ignacio comes into view.
force_more_message = Ijyb comes into view.
force_more_message = Ilsuiw comes into view.
force_more_message = Jessica comes into view.
force_more_message = Joseph comes into view.
force_more_message = Josephine comes into view.
force_more_message = Jozef comes into view.
force_more_message = Khufu comes into view.
force_more_message = Kirke comes into view.
force_more_message = Lom Lobon comes into view.
force_more_message = Louise comes into view.
force_more_message = Mara comes into view.
force_more_message = Margery comes into view.
force_more_message = Maud comes into view.
force_more_message = Maurice comes into view.
force_more_message = Menkaure comes into view.
force_more_message = Mennas comes into view.
force_more_message = Mnoleg comes into view.
force_more_message = Murray comes into view.
force_more_message = Nergalle comes into view.
force_more_message = Nessos comes into view.
force_more_message = Nikola comes into view.
force_more_message = Norris comes into view.
force_more_message = Pikel comes into view.
force_more_message = Polyphemus comes into view.
force_more_message = Prince Ribbit comes into view.
force_more_message = Psyche comes into view.
force_more_message = Purgy comes into view.
force_more_message = Roxanne comes into view.
force_more_message = Rupert comes into view.
force_more_message = Saint Roka comes into view.
force_more_message = Sigmund comes into view.
force_more_message = Snorg comes into view.
force_more_message = Sonja comes into view.
force_more_message = Terence comes into view.
force_more_message = The Lernaean hydra comes into view.
force_more_message = The royal jelly comes into view.
force_more_message = The Serpent of Hell comes into view.
force_more_message = Tiamat comes into view.
force_more_message = Urug comes into view.
force_more_message = Xtahua comes into view.

Thank him if you like this post!

[Patashu]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

[XuaXua]

Because the OP is getting quite long, I'm sure I'm going to exceed the OP length eventually. If it's possible for a moderator to move this post to the second post so I can edit it and add more, that'd be great, unless it kills the links in the OP.

It's really the only reason I stopped consolidating the tips, though maybe moving them to the Crawl Game Wiki is probably in the cards.

[Patashu]

Has the secret cheibriados teleport trick been posted, yet? Basically, once your teleport status is up, it checks if it's time for you to teleport or not after your move speed is calculated but BEFORE any monsters get to act on their newfound moves. So if you do one move that takes a really long time (due to being of chei, things like being slow/statue/moving into water/leda's also help) you teleport instantly. The exact mechanics/success chances of it might need testing in wizmode since I don't know how long teleport typically takes to kick in

[Grimm]

Because the OP is getting quite long, I'm sure I'm going to exceed the OP length eventually. If it's possible for a moderator to move this post to the second post so I can edit it and add more, that'd be great, unless it kills the links in the OP.

It's really the only reason I stopped consolidating the tips, though maybe moving them to the Crawl Game Wiki is probably in the cards.

The best I can do is edit the second post, which belongs to dolphin, so we'd need his permission first.

The wiki is a better place for this info. In a thread it's just going to get silted over.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Not if you staple it to the top.

Or we can create a Google Site (like the one with Cherrypicked Bad Ideas) and drop everything there.

[zrn]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

or hold shift when tabbing, which is autofight without moving.

[Grimm]

I never knew that. Gamechanger right there.

[XuaXua]

Every once in a while do ctrl-f "artef" to check if you've missed any artefacts lying on the floor.

I do this more and more now, especially after the tiles change in trunk because I can NOT tell an artefact armour from any other given armour on the screen. They've all apparently lost their visual distinction.

[Patashu]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

or hold shift when tabbing, which is autofight without moving.

W-o-w

[kefir645]

Whoa...

That's some serious Neo moment right there, man. Thanks, zrn.

[pratamawirya]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

or hold shift when tabbing, which is autofight without moving.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

or hold shift when tabbing, which is autofight without moving.

[chrysalis]

Every once in a while do ctrl-f "artef" to check if you've missed any artefacts lying on the floor.

You can also use string operators which is super useful.

For example, to find all branded/possibly branded weapons you've seen so far you can do something like: weapon && ego

If you press ctrl-f then ? you get a pretty damn good documentation of the features.

[Grimm]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

or hold shift when tabbing, which is autofight without moving.

TAB GOT BUFFED

[tasonir]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

or hold shift when tabbing, which is autofight without moving.

I thought I was so clever when I came up with the one tile exclusion in the doorway trick. This tip needs to be spammed all over the forum in completely unrelated threads now

[Deimos]

Tired of tabbing things in a doorway, accidentally moving onto the doorway and now you're meleeing three things at once? Just put a one tile exclusion down!

or hold shift when tabbing, which is autofight without moving.

TAB GOT BUFFED

BUT I ASKED FOR A NERF IN THE TABBING THREAD

[Ezekiel]

FOR DEALING WITH UNIQUES:

DOWAN/DUVESSA

If you find Dowan before you find Duvessa, get him to low health, but don't kill him. If you're fighting both at once and can't get them into a corner, try to at least fight them so one is on either side of you. If Dowan's spells miss you, they will hit Duvessa. Then, once Duvessa is dead, if you've softened Dowan up beforehand, he'll die easily in about one hit.

[cerebovssquire]

(because taking damage from both uniques for an extended period of time is a great idea)

Killing Dowan and then teleporting is the way to go. Luring Dowan out to a staircase, attracting Duvessa and then going down also works. In any other case most characters are probably best off just running away if they encounter them early.

[XuaXua]

I think, since Dowan gets a perpetual buff once Duvessa is dead, and Duvessa only gets that one berserk, she should instead get the ability to berserk once she's done from prior berserk exhaustion.

[cerebovssquire]

I think, since Dowan gets a perpetual buff once Duvessa is dead, and Duvessa only gets that one berserk, she should instead get the ability to berserk once she's done from prior berserk exhaustion.

...because it's obviously good if all things work in the same way? Duvessa provides a more unique challenge than Dowan or many other uniques right now by having a very strong ability once but not afterwards.

[crate]

Usually you just kill whichever of dowan/duvessa you can actually hit, then deal with the other one afterward.

[Silk]

I think, since Dowan gets a perpetual buff once Duvessa is dead, and Duvessa only gets that one berserk, she should instead get the ability to berserk once she's done from prior berserk exhaustion.

...because it's obviously good if all things work in the same way? Duvessa provides a more unique challenge than Dowan or many other uniques right now by having a very strong ability once but not afterwards.

I feel inclined to contradict the idea behind this statement. The nature of Crawl (or pretty much all single player games with skill progression) is that any threat you encounter will be less of a threat when you flee from it and come back sometime later when you have the means to counter the threat. Berserked Duvessa is only slightly different from Grinder in that regard.

Instead, there are few instances where the game is punishing you for tardiness. Jellies eating the non-artifact part of a level dry or maybe giant spore multiplication (never witnessed this, though). Rewarding cowardly play is - at least implicitly - part of the design philosophy.

[Tiber]

If you have a spell like freezing cloud and an open room, you don't have to keep laying down multiple clouds to trap monsters in them. You can achieve the same effect by flooding the area with summoned butterflies until there's nowhere for the enemy to move. This also requires far less hunger and has an added defensive benefit.

This might be pretty obvious, but I could kick myself for not thinking about it sooner.

[Jabberwocky]

If you have a spell like freezing cloud and an open room, you don't have to keep laying down multiple clouds to trap monsters in them. You can achieve the same effect by flooding the area with summoned butterflies until there's nowhere for the enemy to move. This also requires far less hunger and has an added defensive benefit.

This might be pretty obvious, but I could kick myself for not thinking about it sooner.

Freezing cloud has the advantage that the enemies are dead though. Enemies will quickly kill a flock of butterflies.

[Tiber]

If you have a spell like freezing cloud and an open room, you don't have to keep laying down multiple clouds to trap monsters in them. You can achieve the same effect by flooding the area with summoned butterflies until there's nowhere for the enemy to move. This also requires far less hunger and has an added defensive benefit.

This might be pretty obvious, but I could kick myself for not thinking about it sooner.

Freezing cloud has the advantage that the enemies are dead though. Enemies will quickly kill a flock of butterflies.

Umm, I think you're a bit confused. The idea is rather than covering the entire area leading up to you with clouds, you only cast it where you need it, and use butterflies to keep them in the cloud once they walk into it. Yeah, they'll kill the butterflies, but so what? Any enemy that doesn't have AoE spells (i.e. most of them) can only kill one per turn, no matter how strong he is, whereas you can spawn between 4 and 15 every turn, space permitting. And even if the butterflies enter the cloud, they won't die until their next turn. So unless the enemies manage to luck their way through, they'll still be suffering the exact same amount of freezing cloud damage.

[Jabberwocky]

If you have a spell like freezing cloud and an open room, you don't have to keep laying down multiple clouds to trap monsters in them. You can achieve the same effect by flooding the area with summoned butterflies until there's nowhere for the enemy to move. This also requires far less hunger and has an added defensive benefit.

This might be pretty obvious, but I could kick myself for not thinking about it sooner.

Freezing cloud has the advantage that the enemies are dead though. Enemies will quickly kill a flock of butterflies.

Umm, I think you're a bit confused. The idea is rather than covering the entire area leading up to you with clouds, you only cast it where you need it, and use butterflies to keep them in the cloud once they walk into it. Yeah, they'll kill the butterflies, but so what? Any enemy that doesn't have AoE spells (i.e. most of them) can only kill one per turn, no matter how strong he is, whereas you can spawn between 4 and 15 every turn, space permitting. And even if the butterflies enter the cloud, they won't die until their next turn. So unless the enemies manage to luck their way through, they'll still be suffering the exact same amount of freezing cloud damage.

I get it now. That's a very good idea. Thanks.

[Arkhan]

Wands of digging can create instant corridors for you to fight or perform shenanigans in. If you want to expend two charges, you can perform a double diagonal dig at a right angle to create not only a corridor but an un-flankable 1 on 1 corner that blocks LoS to everything that isn't currently in your face.
You can also perform this with two charges of disintegration- except now the corridor wall is to your back.
-

Initiating a teleport on yourself while one is activating will negate them both. This is good to know if, say, you're in an uncleared -cTele room and someone decides to try to send you for a ride.
-

If you see a Giant Spore coming at you, you usually have enough time to immediately drop your food on the ground. Attempting to run from it is usually a futile action, you can usually get all of your stuff on the floor before it hits. I've never seen my food on the ground where I'm standing be destroyed by this.
-

If you're feeling particularly bloodthirsty and need to hunt down a unique or something on a cleared level but don't know where it is because it's had enough time to wander around, Shift-x and Ctrl-F to forget the level map, and let autoexplore investigate the entire level for you. Don't worry, the game will remember important things- you only forget what it looks like for purposes of exploration and fog.

-
Fighters should keep a polymorph wand on them during the early stages, because that's a great way to stop early jellies from corroding the few decent pieces of equipment you've found.

-
Before exiting for the night, set a level annotation right there to remind you what your plan is or anything that should be remembered upon coming back.

You can also perform an annotation/single tile exclusion combo- if you come down a staircase, and it's into a room full of Nope, go right back up, then immediately set a one tile exclusion on that staircase. Now set a level exclusion on the current level stating "Staircase has Baddies on other side" or something- so later, when you come back, you won't have forgotten about that danger. Usually you end up approaching the dangers from a safer angle and dismantling them, but sometimes you'll get cases where that doesn't happen. Annotations and Exclusions are free. Be liberal! It's one of the few times where your character might remember something that you do not.

[Patashu]

If you see a Giant Spore coming at you, you usually have enough time to immediately drop your food on the ground. Attempting to run from it is usually a futile action, you can usually get all of your stuff on the floor before it hits. I've never seen my food on the ground where I'm standing be destroyed by this.

For the record - I have been told that harpies have special coding to eat food off the floor at your feet. They also eat food if they walk over it, so if you want to save your food from harpies awkwardly throw it in the opposite direction from them.

[Grimm]

If you're on a level known to harbour harpies (Shoals, Vaults), leave your food at the top of the stairs until you clear the level. Potions of porridge are handy too.

[pubby]

Mark dead end paths and branches in the labyrinth by dropping stones.

[blueeyedlion]

Mark dead end paths and branches in the labyrinth by dropping stones.

*facepalm* This would have saved me SO MANY hours.

[XuaXua]

Mark dead end paths and branches in the labyrinth by dropping stones.

*facepalm* This would have saved me SO MANY hours.

I tried this; I marked entrances to dead-end intersections with stones.

After a while, they get cleared out when the walls move.

[pubby]

I tried this; I marked entrances to dead-end intersections with stones.

After a while, they get cleared out when the walls move.

Are you sure? I've only done it in one game, but I recall them staying around. Did you place them on the intersection center or the adjacent tile that is the start of the branch?

[XuaXua]

I tried this; I marked entrances to dead-end intersections with stones.

After a while, they get cleared out when the walls move.

Are you sure? I've only done it in one game, but I recall them staying around. Did you place them on the intersection center or the adjacent tile that is the start of the branch?

I've had several vanish, but usually it works well enough for me that I've already dismissed entire sections that, whether the stones there get cleaned up becomes irrelevant (unless I get teleported).

[snow]

I'm sure everyone knows this but if you save and load while in lich form your hunger is reset. This is useful if you're scumming holy pan and can't be in lich form constantly or if you're just too lazy to keep casting lich form over and over.

[bobross419]

I'm sure everyone knows this but if you save and load while in lich form your hunger is reset. This is useful if you're scumming holy pan and can't be in lich form constantly or if you're just too lazy to keep casting lich form over and over.

This seems more like an exploit than a "protip" and should probably be posted as a bug report.

[snow]

Probably.

[galehar]

I'm sure everyone knows this but if you save and load while in lich form your hunger is reset. This is useful if you're scumming holy pan and can't be in lich form constantly or if you're just too lazy to keep casting lich form over and over.

Fixed. Thanks for reporting.

[XuaXua]

I'm sure everyone knows this

Thanks for reporting.

LOL

[cerebovssquire]

This is useful

it would be, except it's food-related

[XuaXua]

Going up against a Summoner like Eustachio?

Summon first. Get your Summon Butterflies going and taking up valuable summoning real estate, so his summons won't have any room for their creation.

[Deimos]

Going up against a Summoner like Eustachio?

Summon first. Get your Summon Butterflies going and taking up valuable summoning real estate, so his summons won't have any room for their creation.

Doesn't Eustachio blink?