The #1 thing I have done to improve my gameplay

[sage1234]

autofight_stop = 85

I often consider setting autofight_stop = 90 or 95. Setting autofight_stop to 85 is the single biggest thing I have done to improve my gameplay. Experts will probably say you shouldn't use autofight but I do. The default is 30 and I have found if my health is at 30 % I am likely going to die.

Another other #1 tips?

[Shard1697]

use x-v on things

if you're still unsure, use knowledge bots

[Eyesburn]

don't save consumables for later

[ydeve]

Run away frequently. Separate packs. Not everything needs to die.

[CypherZel]

You could start calculating damage for weapons

[Brannock]

autofight_stop = 85

I often consider setting autofight_stop = 90 or 95. Setting autofight_stop to 85 is the single biggest thing I have done to improve my gameplay. Experts will probably say you shouldn't use autofight but I do. The default is 30 and I have found if my health is at 30 % I am likely going to die.

Another other #1 tips?

Autofight is very good. I agree that 30% is too low.

That said, I think 85 (or 90/95) is way too high. The problem is that once you can't use tab anymore, you're far more likely to make mechanical mistakes. Especially if the threshold is that high: you'll run into far too many situations where you can just keep on whacking the enemy and be in no real danger, and that'll condition you into not taking as seriously other situations in which your threshold was triggered. Imagine if autofight_stop was set at 99%. How often would you take it seriously?

Autofight is also much safer than manually-attacking especially against confused enemies, for example (Hepliaklqana hexer ancestor).

I personally set mine to somewhere around 65%.

[vergil]

don't save consumables for later

That one scroll of blinking you're carrying will not help you later if you die now. I've learned that a hard way countless times.

[amaril]

Plus using consumables early generates a feedback loop, of sorts. You need to use fewer, less valuable consumables when you do use consumables (in general), thereby giving you access to a greater # of powerful consumables as the game progresses.

Strategic tips: At some point I realized that the majority of my winning characters could be summarized as "heavy armour melee fighters with a ranged weapon and some evo." Not that magic is weak, but spells > lv 2 are rarely needed to win, and it is usually better to spend xp on things that are useful now than things that might hypothetically be useful after draining your xp for a couple of branches.

[Sar]

Devs hate him!

[mopl]

That one scroll of blinking you're carrying will not help you later if you die now. I've learned that a hard way countless times.

So you kinda didn't learn...

[dowan]

That one scroll of blinking you're carrying will not help you later if you die now. I've learned that a hard way countless times.

So you kinda didn't learn...

Learning is sometimes a slow and painful process...

[vergil]

That one scroll of blinking you're carrying will not help you later if you die now. I've learned that a hard way countless times.

So you kinda didn't learn...

Yep. I didn't.

[Sprucery]

Use enchant armour scrolls on aux armour first.

[ZoFy]

Be afraid of the first adder you meet.
The same goes for orc wizards/priests/warriors, gnolls with polearms and uniques, of course. In some cases, even D:1 humanoids with weapons and jackal packs. This list is not even complete.

[Arrhythmia]

Don't use autofight.

[ydeve]

Plus using consumables early generates a feedback loop, of sorts. You need to use fewer, less valuable consumables when you do use consumables (in general), thereby giving you access to a greater # of powerful consumables as the game progresses.

Strategic tips: At some point I realized that the majority of my winning characters could be summarized as "heavy armour melee fighters with a ranged weapon and some evo." Not that magic is weak, but spells > lv 2 are rarely needed to win, and it is usually better to spend xp on things that are useful now than things that might hypothetically be useful after draining your xp for a couple of branches.

This is the opposite of me. Most of my wins have been with ranged attackers or blasters. Autofight tends to kill most of my melee characters around Depths.

[duvessa]

Autoexplore is way more dangerous than autofight is.

[vergil]

Autoexplore is way more dangerous than autofight is.

100% characters who used autoexplore ended up in morgue.

[Siegurt]

If we looked at my stastics, my last action before death is almost never auto explore, only very rarely is it auto fight, sometimes it is attacking manually or casting a spell, but most often it is quaffing haste, blinking, reading a scroll of teleport or drinking a potion of heal wounds.

Therefore i must conclude that drinking a potion of heal wounds is the most dangerous action in the game, which makes vine stalkers the most powerful race, followed by formacids. And chei is the most poweful god.

[arandomperson12]

Autoexplore is way more dangerous than autofight is.

100% characters who used autoexplore ended up in morgue.

Do you mean that as "all characters, even winners, have a morgue file"?

[and into]

Slow down. The game freezes when you don't input actions. This is a huge advantage in the player's favor. Whenever you find yourself in a tight spot, take your fingers off the keyboard, take a breath, and think through your options.

[genericpseudonym]

Don't use autofight.

Turn off the bit that makes you move toward enemies. Then you can use tab to attack without moving to a worse position or wasting a turn swinging at nothing against e.g. confused enemies.

[HardboiledGargoyle]

Plus using consumables early generates a feedback loop, of sorts. You need to use fewer, less valuable consumables when you do use consumables (in general), thereby giving you access to a greater # of powerful consumables as the game progresses.

It is true (if you assume that using consumables will inevitably be used in a particular encounter is inevitable (which is untrue, therein lies the question of whether to use consumables)) that using consumables early can let you use fewer consumables in total, for the same effect. This is nitpicking, but there are no less valuable consumables. The value of a consumable hinges on what consumables you'll have left after using it. At least, I haven't heard anything like "might is better than agility" or vice versa. So maybe you're saying you'll have "greater quantity and breadth of consumables as the game progresses"?

[Shard1697]

Well, might is definitely better than agility, fwiw

[Siegurt]

Well, might is definitely better than agility, fwiw

Well, unless your primary method of doing damage is conjuration...

[TonberryJam]

Running head first into the fray to see how easily they kill you. This is how you do it when you don't care that much about it.

[goodcoolguy]

Eat only pure foods and resort to butchering monsters only if absolutely necessary. This will maintain your characters' vital energies and preserve your focus as you play.

[vergil]

Autoexplore is way more dangerous than autofight is.

100% characters who used autoexplore ended up in morgue.

Do you mean that as "all characters, even winners, have a morgue file"?

They do. Here's an example.
http://underhound.eu:81/crawl/morgue/Yermak/morgue-Yermak-20130627-202834.txt

Thought everybody knows that.
So even if you win, you're gonna die.

[Eyesburn]

Autoexplore is way more dangerous than autofight is.

still manual explore can be more dangerous then autoexplore, because you can accidentally move towards an monster while autoexplore (as and into said) will stop you when you encouter an threat

[goodcoolguy]

Autoexplore creates positions that are literally impossible with sensible manual exploration. You really have to mash to make manual exploration worse than autoexplore. It would be really great if there were a careful version of autoexplore that doesn't screw you for not wanting to spend 15 minutes exploring a floor, but there isn't. It's an unfortunate state of affairs, since reasonably careful exploration is totally possible to program and it couldn't be worse in terms of turn efficiency than existing autoexplore.

[BabyRage]

There are some options like

  Code:

travel_open_doors
explore_greedy
explore_wall_bias
explore_improved


I don't know if they help somehow though.

[amaril]

At least, I haven't heard anything like "might is better than agility" or vice versa. So maybe you're saying you'll have "greater quantity and breadth of consumables as the game progresses"?

I would value my last blinking over my last agility or my last lignification. I would even take two blink scrolls over one blink scroll and a lignification. A lot of times, if you use consumables before combat gets life-threatening, you can use the more narrowly-useful ones that you value less overall.

In regards to your parenthetical bit (which I may be misinterpreting), I equate consumables on-hand to raw character power while the game is going on. So a character w/ a scroll of blinking is more powerful (more resilient) than the same character w/o one. The same way having Borg's castable can make a character 'more powerful' even if you never use it.

[genericpseudonym]

Autoexplore is way more dangerous than autofight is.

still manual explore can be more dangerous then autoexplore, because you can accidentally move towards an monster while autoexplore (as and into said) will stop you when you encouter an threat

Use a lua script that rebinds all your movement keys to the "save move" command which doesn't work when monsters are in LOS

Then you have a function bound to F3 or something that temporarily turns them back to normal, but have them revert as soon as no monsters are visible.

[Eyesburn]

even with that added you can go around a corner and get an ogre adjancet to you

[genericpseudonym]

even with that added you can go around a corner and get an ogre adjancet to you

Yes but it would be no more dangerous than autoexplore.

Also it would be really tedious and annoying, don't actually do that unless your forums name is duvessa.

[lethediver]

Plus using consumables early generates a feedback loop, of sorts. You need to use fewer, less valuable consumables when you do use consumables (in general), thereby giving you access to a greater # of powerful consumables as the game progresses.

Strategic tips: At some point I realized that the majority of my winning characters could be summarized as "heavy armour melee fighters with a ranged weapon and some evo." Not that magic is weak, but spells > lv 2 are rarely needed to win, and it is usually better to spend xp on things that are useful now than things that might hypothetically be useful after draining your xp for a couple of branches.

Magic is some tricky shit in crawl. To be good at rolling mages, you have to know where the flaws and strengths of each spell school are. Not just what spells are good, but what BOOKS give the best value, which schools have the best synergy, at what point schools stop being a good investment, when to start transitioning to another school to avoid hitting a wall in the mid or late game... you also have to have a good feel for just how much XP you'll need to sink into armor and still be able to cast your desired spellset.

This all isn't necessarily a bad thing. Hitting a wall as a mage and dying, swamped by enemies, my frail emaciated magely body being pulped by the clubs and giant rocks of Depths baddies, as I clutch my obsolete spellbooks, cursing the gods as I go down... is actually my idea of a fun time. So, mages are great for that. Every mage is a learning experience.

Edit: forgot to include some actual advice. Dont be frustrated when you lose. A good roguelike WILL kill you now and then. Just make adjustments based on how you died and have fun with it. If you arent at least a little impressed or amused when you die, you arent enjoying the genre the way its meant to be enjoyed.

[Shtopit]

Recognize situational passives from universal e.g. If you just cleared all hell and have been in Pandemonium for some 18 levels and end up in holy pan, keep in mind that TSO will not heal you here!
Try to remember what you are weak against before it strikes you (holy wrath...)
Train invo, train evo.
If you see a situation in which you have 30% chance of being killed and 70% chance of survival, don't try it, because you will meet at least 10-20 other such situations during the game, and this means that you have a good chance of dying 3-6 times before you win; pity that 1 is enough. I'd say this is my #1.
Anteus is, in his standardness, an animal, if you are a melee fighter and don't have a plan b while being overwhelmed.
You don't need to do Tomb, although it is a barrel of fun (better than any other branch, IMHO).