Random Noob Questions

[115811]

Just found this game this week traveling the interwebs and I have no been disappointed. This is a fabulous community and everyone I've bugged mid game as a spectator have been nothing but kind and informative. It has certainly been a learning process since I first spawned with a killer worm at my throat as a gargoyle earth mage and promptly died trying to bludgeon it to death with my bare hands/claws.... freaking worms. anyways....

First regarding spell power. Does each of the # symbols mean its a an arbitrary number 1-9 or do they just denote 1. For Example would ## be spell power 2 or something like 54 which would be a huge jump from spell power #. Second question is there any way to examine what a monster is capable of before I stupidly attempt to kill it? That how I've been dying every time ie. grinder, the green orcs, player ghosts, packs of gnolls, iron sentinals/giants. Also whats the penalty for going hungry? Do I eventually die? These first levels are pretty easy because it seems I can rest endlessly and then chop my victims. Does moving diagonally count as two turns or just one? Because hypothetically I should always be moving diagonally? Another one is there any way to increase speed via stat training? Also what stat would increase accuracy? How on earth do you use your piety? (Sif Muna becomes very favorable but IDK how to get those promised spell books. (granted I only got to piety +++ i think). Whew! I think thats it for now.

[CanOfWorms]

Each level of # represents some arbitrary number, I think this is accurate about it? You don't really need to know exactly what the numbers are, just remember than every additional # you get means your spells are better! Also it's harder to reach the later #s.

To examine stuff, first press x, then move around until you're over what you want to examine and press v.

Hunger is your limiter for how much you can fool around. If you're not playing Ghoul or Vampire you will eventually reach Starving, Fainting, and then die. You can't stay on a floor forever, because eventually you'll encounter monsters that are extremely dangerous and then if you somehow manage to survive those, monsters will stop generating.

All the 8 directions take the same amount of time. You can check the amount of time an action takes in your HUD, it's next to your time in brackets. Usually something like (1.0). There's no specific benefit to moving diagonally.

You can't train to increase your movement speed. There are spells and items that will temporarily increase it.

For weapons, you can increase accuracy by raising Dexterity, training Fighting or training your weapon's type, e.g. Polearms for spears/tridents/halberds... For spells accuracy is improved by increasing spellpower.

You use piety with the (a)bility menu, if your god is offering abilities. Abilities require varying amount of piety, some don't use any up and others use a large chunk. Sif Muna doesn't give books until you reach 5*s of piety.

[tedric]

There's no specific benefit to moving diagonally.

actually there is a specific tactical disadvantage to moving diagonally because each step reveals more squares, i.e. more potential enemies, but this is vastly outweighed by the specific quality-of-life benefits of aut[o]travel

[amalloy]

Also note that there is an in-game tutorial that could answer most (all?) of these questions, as well as a hints-mode gameplay, that's like an ordinary game of crawl but with extra guidance for new players, which might address some of the questions also. There's nothing wrong with just diving in and playing full games and asking questions on tavern, but when I was starting out I found the tutorial (and my first game being hints-mode) pretty helpful.

[seren]

As a new player myself, I also recommend to read the wiki in depth. It is generally a bit look down on the forum because the information are sometimes out of date and in other places wrong. But some information is better than no information.

[Leszczynek]

Don't use the wiki, use this instead: http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/bots

If you need a quick look at the aptitudes or starting stats, the one thing the link above doesn't provide very well, visit ##crawl IRC channel and use bots. Sounds scary but is tremendously useful and there's almost always somebody you can ask for advice too.

Also if you want to, for racial aptitudes, weapon and armor stats you can use my google spreadsheet I made because I didn't like tables on the wiki, though I can't guarantee it will be always updated: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... Y/pubhtml#

[duvessa]

Also note that there is an in-game tutorial that could answer most (all?) of these questions

The in-game tutorial answers precisely 0 of the OP's questions...

[Eyesburn]

pressing ? then 4(list of keys and commands) in-game helps

[115811]

Thanks for all the replies you guys are great. More random questions! Does the Lair lead directly into the swamp or can I avoid it? My brave and strangely built conjurer is now stuck it seems. The only only stair down is covered in the red x's from two okowiri plant (see screen shot)? Its the same thing that appeared when I accidentally pissed of my lightening tower by chucking a explosion on top of it and it almost killed me.

So what would you suggest I do? Should I open up the beast box? Should buy a shop to buy the advanced conjuring book? Should I go into the swamp? How about those legendary cards? This game is not very friendly sometimes and I'm afraid to risk it XD. Also is there anyways to use lightening ball where it doesn't immediately blow up and almost kill me? (Maybe I should stop using lightening magic that stuff is freaking dangerous). I found that magical ring in the sewer and its transformed my lowly conjurer into a jack of all magical things. I have been summoning battle sphere, lightening tower and blasting everything with mystical blast, magic dart etc. Also for kicks and giggles I summon demons (not as good as a hoped). The early wand of confusion and avoiding uniques like death itself also helped. Mostly I'm wondering what I should train.

Here's the dump, (I just copied pasted it)

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.18.1-6-gd335043 (webtiles) character file.

1158511 the Eclecticist (Deep Elf Conjurer) Turns: 17564, Time: 03:10:58

Health: 73/73 AC: 6 Str: 5 XL: 13 Next: 75%
Magic: 16/37 EV: 20 Int: 30 God: Gozag
Gold: 4356 SH: 0 Dex: 15 Spells: 10 memorised, 8 levels left

rFire . . . SeeInvis . p - staff of summoning
rCold . . . Gourm . d - +2 robe (curse)
rNeg . . . Faith . (no shield)
rPois . Spirit . B - +0 helmet
rElec . Dismiss . v - +0 cloak
rCorr . Reflect . (no gloves)
SustAt . Harm . (no boots)
MR ..... (no amulet)
Stlth ++++...... S - +1 ring of evasion
u - ring "Avud" {Wiz MR- Int+4}

@: very slightly contaminated, deflect missiles, not resistant to hostile
enchantments, stealthy
A: no striking features
a: Potion Petition, Call Merchant, Bribe Branch, Renounce Religion


You are on level 8 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worship Gozag.
Gozag is noncommittal.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 2 branches of the dungeon, and seen 16 of its levels.
You have also visited: Sewer.

You have collected 4640 gold pieces.
You have spent 284 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand Weapons
h - a +1 dagger
Armour
d - a cursed +2 robe (worn)
v - a +0 cloak (worn)
B - a +0 helmet (worn)
W - a pair of boots
Magical Staves
p - an uncursed staff of summoning (weapon)
U - a short jewelled staff
Jewellery
e - a +3 ring of strength
m - an uncursed ring of see invisible
u - the ring "Avud" (left hand) {Wiz MR- Int+4}
(You found it in a sewer)

[ring of wizardry]

It improves your spell success rate.
It affects your intelligence (+4).
It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
G - an uncursed ring of ice
S - a +1 ring of evasion (right hand)
Wands
i - a wand of lightning
t - a wand of acid (7/15)
w - a wand of confusion (21/48)
x - a wand of lightning (1/15)
y - a wand of lightning
A - a wand of digging
C - a wand of disintegration (1/24)
I - a wand of lightning
L - a wand of flame {zapped: 1}
N - a wand of confusion
P - a wand of confusion
Q - a wand of iceblast
T - a wand of slowing
V - a wand of iceblast
Scrolls
f - 2 scrolls of identify
E - 3 scrolls of amnesia
M - a scroll of teleportation
R - a scroll of enchant armour
Potions
j - 2 puce potions
k - 2 dark potions
l - 3 fizzy white potions
n - 2 cyan potions
o - 3 emerald potions
z - 3 blue potions
D - 5 potions of lignification
F - 2 fuming purple potions
H - a white potion
O - 2 viscous purple potions
X - a fuming clear potion
Books
b - a book of Conjurations

Spells Type Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration 1
b - Searing Ray Conjuration 2
c - Dazzling Spray Conjuration/Hexes 3
d - Fulminant Prism Conjuration/Hexes 4
e - Iskenderun's Mystic Blast Conjuration 4
f - Iskenderun's Battlesphere Conjuration/Charms 5
q - a book of Summonings

Spells Type Level
a - Recall Summoning/Translocation 3
b - Aura of Abjuration Summoning 5
c - Summon Demon Summoning 5
d - Summon Forest Summoning/Translocation 5
e - Summon Mana Viper Hexes/Summoning 5
f - Shadow Creatures Summoning 6
Y - a book of the Sky

Spells Type Level
a - Summon Lightning Spire Summoning/Air 4
b - Airstrike Air 4
c - Silence Hexes/Air 5
d - Deflect Missiles Charms/Air 6
e - Conjure Ball Lightning Conjuration/Air 6
f - Tornado Air 9
Z - a book of Ice

Spells Type Level
a - Ice Form Ice/Transmutation 4
b - Metabolic Englaciation Hexes/Ice 5
c - Ozocubu's Refrigeration Ice 6
d - Bolt of Cold Conjuration/Ice 6
e - Freezing Cloud Conjuration/Ice/Air 6
f - Simulacrum Ice/Necromancy 6
Miscellaneous
a - a phantom mirror
r - a legendary deck of cards
s - a plain deck of cards
J - a box of beasts
Comestibles
c - 6 bread rations
g - 5 meat rations
K - 18 beef jerkies


Skills:
+ Level 5.4 Fighting
+ Level 10.9 Dodging
- Level 8.2 Stealth
+ Level 18.2 Spellcasting
- Level 11.6 Conjurations
- Level 6.4 Charms
+ Level 4.8 Summonings
- Level 7.1 Air Magic
- Level 3.8 Evocations


You have 8 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

Your Spells Type Power Failure Level Hunger
a - Magic Dart Conj #### 0% 1 None
b - Searing Ray Conj ###### 1% 2 None
c - Iskenderun's Battles Conj/Chrm ######.. 1% 5 None
d - Iskenderun's Mystic Conj #######. 1% 4 None
e - Fulminant Prism Conj/Hex ######.... 1% 4 None
f - Dazzling Spray Conj/Hex ######.. 1% 3 None
g - Summon Lightning Spi Summ/Air #######. 1% 4 None
h - Conjure Ball Lightni Conj/Air ######.... 3% 6 #......
i - Deflect Missiles Chrm/Air ######.... 7% 6 #......
j - Summon Demon Summ ######.... 3% 5 None


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (8/15) Temple (0/1) D:6 Lair (8/8) D:8
Swamp (0/4) Lair:5 Spider (0/4) Lair:6 Slime (0/6) Lair:8

Altars:
Fedhas
Gozag
Pakellas
Qazlal
Yredelemnul

Shops:
D:4 ?=}! D:7 ( D:8 !

Annotations:
D:3 0TuCroisQuonJoue's ghost, amateur NaCj
D:4 Ddmdna's ghost, amateur OgBe
D:5 Prince Ribbit
D:7 Fusentrap's ghost, weakling FoWr
Lair:2 Nergalle
Lair:4 exclusion: lightning spire
Lair:8 exclusion: 3 oklob plants

Message History

Your battlesphere wavers and loses cohesion.
Cast which spell? (? or * to list)
You feel a surge of power! You open a gate to Pandemonium! A demon appears!
Casting: Summon Demon
Confirm with . or Enter, or press ? or * to list all spells.
You feel a surge of power! You miscast Summon Demon.
You are very lightly contaminated with residual magic.
Your head hurts.
Casting: Summon Demon
Confirm with . or Enter, or press ? or * to list all spells.
You feel a surge of power! You open a gate to Pandemonium! A demon appears!
Casting: Summon Demon
Confirm with . or Enter, or press ? or * to list all spells.
You conjure a globe of magical energy.
You swap places.
Casting: Iskenderun's Battlesphere
Confirm with . or Enter, or press ? or * to list all spells.
Aiming: Summon Lightning Spire
Press: ? - help, Dir - move target cursor
You feel a surge of power! An electric hum fills the air.

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You can see a friendly soul eater, a friendly sun demon, a friendly lightning
spire and a friendly battlesphere.

[genericpseudonym]

Floor 8 is the last level of the Lair of Beasts.

You can go back up to the regular dungeon from Lair:1, and go on to explore the Dungeon, the Orcish Mines, and eventually the Vaults.
When you're a little stronger you can come back to the lair and explore some of the branches that are connected to it. There are a few possibilities and they're slightly randomized, but you can see which ones you've seen by hitting control-o to get the dungeon overview.

You can also hit capital-G to get a menu of places to 'G'o to, and your character will automatically head to the one you picked until he sees a monster or gets hungry or something.

[pumpyscump]

http://crawl.develz.org/info/inline.php?q=hyperelliptic