Halls Hopper
Posts: 82
Joined: Tuesday, 15th September 2015, 01:06
Friday, 5th January 2018, 13:40
Mibe's guide on scoring lots of points in DCSS tournaments!
For those who aren't aware, the official 0.21 release tournament starts Today!
So, scoring lots of points in an official DCSS tournament is not very straightforward. In fact, most people I talk to are either uninformed or wrong about the best way to score lots of points. So, Ive talked to some good tournament players and played in several myself. And now I have updated this guide based on what I learned last time and the new rule changes!
There are several ways to score points and they are broken up into the categories on the rule page so I will briefly discuss them and then move on to some good practices to take advantage of the rule set. Feel free to skip to the end if you just want to know what to do and don't care why.
General Scoring
You get a flat bonus of 100 points for your first win, and 50 more points when you get a second win with a different race or role. You also get bonuses for entering and finishing branches, and getting max piety with a god for the first time. The first three players to kill all uniques will also get a bonus, and then small bonus for getting high scores with a combo, species, or role.
The other thing in this section is the points awarded for getting runes. You get 24 points the first time you pick up a rune, and 12 points the next time you pick up the rune. This means that 15 rune games give you more points, but it drops off quite quickly. Its good to think about how much longer a 15 rune game actually takes. If you can win in 4 hours, but it takes 6 hours for you to win a 15 rune game, then after a few 15 rune games it will not be worth it.
Combogod Points
This is a little more complicated. Each race, role, and god has a value assigned to it, and as it gets more wins in the tournament it becomes less valuable. For example, by the end of 0.19 tournament, demigod was worth 129 points while minotaur was only worth 11. This means you should pick the most popular races, roles, and gods early on in the tournament when they are worth the most points, and later on play things like felid, arcane marksman, and fedhas once they are worth more points.
There is another thing to consider here, which is that this section of points gets scaled down. So, for example points between 800 and 2400 are worth half as much as points between 0 and 800 (on average). This is a lot more noticeable when trying to maximize your clan's score, your individual score probably wont go past 2400. Its worth noting that unlike most other sections, these points only contribute the highest value to clan score. So if 2 players in a clan both win a minotaur, only the highest value counts towards clan points. Its not really worth trying to micromanage these to maximize clan score, the point scaling means there are much better sources of points.
The other thing to note here is the 'Nemelex choice' bonus. Nemelex choice is a semi randomly selected combo and the first 8 players to win it will get a 75 point bonus. This is a great source of points if you can win the games fast enough, before 8 others do. However, its worth noting these points will also get scaled, so its probably not worth playing some of the really lame combos. But a new Nemelex choice combo will not be announced until the current one has been won once.
Speedruns and Streaks
The first win and 15 rune win of the tournament both get large bonuses, with runner up prizes.
Getting a low turn count win, a fast real time win, and a great high score can net you huge bonuses. Just as some examples, winning in 2:20 will give you about 150 points. Winning in 25k turns gives you 200 points. And a 55k 15 rune game will give you almost 200 points.
The streak bonus is one of the best sources of points, and is not scaled at all!
All of the points in this section contribute to clan points, and are a much better source of points then combogod.
The real time speed run bonus has been lowered by 25% for 0.21 tournament!
Special Achievements
These are all flat bonuses for doing special challenges. A rule change for 0.21 means these are all worth 50 points now! Winning before xl 19 and orb run tomb are the most difficult, and maybe the only 2 not worth going for still. The others are not terribly difficult and may be worth the time it takes. Probably not worth trying while you are on a streak though.
Clan Points
All of these points only go to your clan and don't do anything to help your individual score. Completing a zig gives your clan 140 points, and if it is the first zig you get an additional 100 points. Also a 100 point bonus for killing all the uniques first. The clan also gets large bonus for the players with the most high scores and also for being the clan with the most high scores. These will usually end up with the clans that have the power players and great speed runners. Trying to get the bonus for low XL rune grabs probably isnt a great use of time, there will invariably be some clan who grabs a rune at xl 9 with a spriggan or something.
Just to be clear, the clan points is a sum total of all individual player points, with the exception of combo god points, which only use the highest value for each race/role/god.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the best way to score lots of points?
TL;DR Get a long streak, speedrun a few times, and win a lot. Also play 10+ hours a day.
And as always, if I made any mistakes or anyone has anything to add, feel free to criticize my guide! Also feel free to ask me any questions!
So, scoring lots of points in an official DCSS tournament is not very straightforward. In fact, most people I talk to are either uninformed or wrong about the best way to score lots of points. So, Ive talked to some good tournament players and played in several myself. And now I have updated this guide based on what I learned last time and the new rule changes!
There are several ways to score points and they are broken up into the categories on the rule page so I will briefly discuss them and then move on to some good practices to take advantage of the rule set. Feel free to skip to the end if you just want to know what to do and don't care why.
General Scoring
Spoiler: show
You get a flat bonus of 100 points for your first win, and 50 more points when you get a second win with a different race or role. You also get bonuses for entering and finishing branches, and getting max piety with a god for the first time. The first three players to kill all uniques will also get a bonus, and then small bonus for getting high scores with a combo, species, or role.
The other thing in this section is the points awarded for getting runes. You get 24 points the first time you pick up a rune, and 12 points the next time you pick up the rune. This means that 15 rune games give you more points, but it drops off quite quickly. Its good to think about how much longer a 15 rune game actually takes. If you can win in 4 hours, but it takes 6 hours for you to win a 15 rune game, then after a few 15 rune games it will not be worth it.
Combogod Points
Spoiler: show
This is a little more complicated. Each race, role, and god has a value assigned to it, and as it gets more wins in the tournament it becomes less valuable. For example, by the end of 0.19 tournament, demigod was worth 129 points while minotaur was only worth 11. This means you should pick the most popular races, roles, and gods early on in the tournament when they are worth the most points, and later on play things like felid, arcane marksman, and fedhas once they are worth more points.
There is another thing to consider here, which is that this section of points gets scaled down. So, for example points between 800 and 2400 are worth half as much as points between 0 and 800 (on average). This is a lot more noticeable when trying to maximize your clan's score, your individual score probably wont go past 2400. Its worth noting that unlike most other sections, these points only contribute the highest value to clan score. So if 2 players in a clan both win a minotaur, only the highest value counts towards clan points. Its not really worth trying to micromanage these to maximize clan score, the point scaling means there are much better sources of points.
The other thing to note here is the 'Nemelex choice' bonus. Nemelex choice is a semi randomly selected combo and the first 8 players to win it will get a 75 point bonus. This is a great source of points if you can win the games fast enough, before 8 others do. However, its worth noting these points will also get scaled, so its probably not worth playing some of the really lame combos. But a new Nemelex choice combo will not be announced until the current one has been won once.
Speedruns and Streaks
Spoiler: show
The first win and 15 rune win of the tournament both get large bonuses, with runner up prizes.
Getting a low turn count win, a fast real time win, and a great high score can net you huge bonuses. Just as some examples, winning in 2:20 will give you about 150 points. Winning in 25k turns gives you 200 points. And a 55k 15 rune game will give you almost 200 points.
The streak bonus is one of the best sources of points, and is not scaled at all!
All of the points in this section contribute to clan points, and are a much better source of points then combogod.
The real time speed run bonus has been lowered by 25% for 0.21 tournament!
Special Achievements
Spoiler: show
These are all flat bonuses for doing special challenges. A rule change for 0.21 means these are all worth 50 points now! Winning before xl 19 and orb run tomb are the most difficult, and maybe the only 2 not worth going for still. The others are not terribly difficult and may be worth the time it takes. Probably not worth trying while you are on a streak though.
Clan Points
Spoiler: show
All of these points only go to your clan and don't do anything to help your individual score. Completing a zig gives your clan 140 points, and if it is the first zig you get an additional 100 points. Also a 100 point bonus for killing all the uniques first. The clan also gets large bonus for the players with the most high scores and also for being the clan with the most high scores. These will usually end up with the clans that have the power players and great speed runners. Trying to get the bonus for low XL rune grabs probably isnt a great use of time, there will invariably be some clan who grabs a rune at xl 9 with a spriggan or something.
Just to be clear, the clan points is a sum total of all individual player points, with the exception of combo god points, which only use the highest value for each race/role/god.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the best way to score lots of points?
- •At the beginning of the tournament you should pick a race and role that you know will end up worth almost nothing. MiBe is a classic choice. If you think you have a reasonable chance of getting first win or first 15 rune then go for it, but you gotta be pretty good, there are some really fast players.
•You should try to get as long of a streak as possible. In my experience its better to focus on the streak first, and then once you break it focus on other ways of scoring points.
•These two tips combined mean you should probably play the strongest combos early in the tournament, when they are still worth some decent amount of points, and to make your longest streak easier. But remember, combogod points get scaled down harshly, and its not really that important to maximize them compared to other bonuses.
•For example, in the 0.19 tournament Yermak scored 5787 combo god points, which got scaled down to 2434. Ultraviolent4 scored 3071 combogod points, which got scaled down to 1820 points. So...almost double the combo god points, led to about 600 extra points.
•You should win any Nemelex choice combos you have a reasonable chance of doing. Some combos are so bad that they never get 8 wins all tournament, like FeWr or something. That said, if its such a bad combo that it will more than double your time to win, or you think you might break your streak or get a high level splat, its not worth it. Remember these points are scaled with combogod points, so they get less important the more races and roles you expect to win.
•You should have 1 high score game (ie a 15 rune speed run), 1 low turn count game ( 3 rune speed run) and 1 low real time win. Even if you cant go that fast, you can still get decent bonuses for reasonable scores. Winning in 3 hours, doing extended in 80k turns, and a 3 rune game in 35k turns are all fairly doable for an experienced player and will give you and your clan decent bonuses.
•You should do 2-4 extended games, for the rune bonuses.
•You should enter every branch and portal at least once, and reach full piety with every god.
•You should beat any highscore that you easily can. Lots of combos wont even be won at all, although its quite tough to get race and role high scores, compared to specific combos.
•It is also worth noting that win rate has no effect on your score at all, so feel free to start scum and splat as much as you want!
•One thing I learned from last time, the 20 point bonus for winning a previously unwon combo is very good, and adds up fast. To be clear, this bonus is only for clan points. This also helps your clan get the most combo highscores bonus.
•Make absolutely sure that if you see a rare unique (tiamat, murray, ignacio, dissolution) that you kill it! One of these is always the last unique a player/clan needs to get the bonus.
•Go for the special achievement banners worth 50 points! Ascetic III is the easiest.
•Lord of Darkness III and Avarice III can be completed in the same game. The hardest part is going from d:15 to u:1. If you survive and complete depths you wont be very far behind a character who did everything.
•Vow of Courage III is pretty tough because you will have to do tomb before depths. Remember you can banish yourself with distortion weapons. Also if you get the hell ending in lair or the pan ending in orc you can go to those branches to get your six runes!
•Nature's Ally III is really hard, and you will need some luck most likely. Consider using dithmenos's shadow form.
•Ruthless Efficiency III is the hardest IMO. You pretty much have to do it as a spriggan (or maybe felid).
•Also note that you can play with the same name across multiple servers. You can start multiple games at once and play simultaneously. Although be careful when streaking, the next game in the streak has to start after the previous one ends!
TL;DR Get a long streak, speedrun a few times, and win a lot. Also play 10+ hours a day.
And as always, if I made any mistakes or anyone has anything to add, feel free to criticize my guide! Also feel free to ask me any questions!
Last edited by mibe420 on Friday, 5th January 2018, 18:16, edited 2 times in total.
