The Tavern

Noob here looking for advice in what to do next with a VSFi of Usk.

Previously I found melee focused characters uninteresting, and gained more enjoyment out of playing VpEn or DEFE. But this combination is really dynamic and exciting for a melee character. I've only had one other character get two runes before (also a VSFi of Usk) but IIRC I then entered the Depths out of curiosity and wound up in an unfortunate situation involving a fire giant and frost giant together.

All of my shops so far have been underwhelming, and I have experienced a dearth of artifacts in comparison to some other games. I'm very happy with my amulet and shield (full MR!), but am still looking for better weapons/armor/etc. Due to the benefits of short blades attack speed on both the Vine Stalker bite and Uskayaw abilities, I have used only rapiers so far. I also have access to the +10 Zealot's Blade in a shop, but am not sure whether it would be worth it to buy now that Clarity is so hard to come by in the new version. Is Zealot's Blade still worth it considering the berserkitis? Everyone says Demon Tridents are good also, so I held on to this one just in case.

Also I haven't used any Scrolls of Enchant Weapon/Armor yet, and am wondering whether I should wait to use them because my weapon and armor lack good egos.

I have a large stock of ammunition stashed and am wondering whether it would be a good idea to branch out into bows or crossbows. My intelligence is low, and especially due to the -4 from my shield, I had sort of written off learning any spellcasting. But I do also have a stash of spellbooks in case that would be worthwhile. Personally I have been comfortable so far with melee exclusively, but I am open to advice. I also have a lot of wands, and a shop for evokables (fan of gales, bag of spiders, etc) in the event that going deeper into evocations is the way.

If anyone has advice about what to train and/or what branches to pursue next, it would be much appreciated! Character file is attached. It seems like most people seem to suggest Elf and then Vaults next.

Thanks!

P.S: I've heard I need non-chunk rations saved for later in the game... I ended up eating all my fruits and some meat rations in Spider because of the Hunger cost of Usk's Stomp. Should I be concerned?

Rapier of elec is a good weapon which will last you till the end of the game. I would enchant it up to max and train short blades to min-delay.

If you want ranged attacks, train a bit more evo, or train throwing. Bows/Crossbows are two-handed, so are not usable with a shield.

As for branches - the normal thing is to do Vaults 1-4, then Depths, then either Vaults:5 or Slime or Abyss, then Zot. Elf and Crypt are optional, though you can dip into both the branches even if you don't intend to complete them.

Don't worry about food.

(Btw, you do not need to use your identify scrolls on weapons (assuming it's not distortion). Just wield them. Use your identify scrolls on potions/maybe scrolls/amulets/wands. )

I usually go for:
D:~12 -> Lair:6 -> Orc:2 ->
D:15 -> Snake >Swamp>Spider>Shoals -> Vault:5 -> Elf:3 -> Depths:5 -> Slime -> Abyss

Minor correction: Hand Crossbows are 1 handed weapons so you can use a Shield with them.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

I ended up clearing Vaults, Depths, Elf, and Crypt without too much trouble, and got the Slime rune but didn't clear all the floors for obvious reasons.

So that was four runes, and I decided to try for the fifth in the Abyss. I got down to the third level, but after searching there for quite some time without finding a rune, I got frustrated and went down to the fourth level. Therein was my mistake. I managed to survive for quite a while on Abyss:4 but still no rune. I tried to use prudent positioning against mutagenic enemies but somehow got mutated to all hell, and wound up at -2 INT with all kinds of other problems. Got mobbed despite my attempts to keep moving and trapped between some unfortunately generated walls. Also had a little bit to drink beforehand, which was probably not the right decision. Alas.

Attached is my morgue file at time of death. At least now I know what to expect for the next game!

Cheers!

A couple of things I notice here:

First, you're wearing a cursed ring of teleportation on the morgue. While I suppose that has some potential fringe benefit in abyss, surely the slot could be better used for something else. You're not currently holding anything else that could go in that slot, but surely there's something, somewhere.

Similarly, you seem to be keeping stashes somewhere. I think you're likely overaggressive on filtering stuff out of your inventory, and in fact, keeping stashes is typically kind of a waste of time. You can always use cntl-F to find all instances of a given item, so if you know you need something, you can always go find it. Item destruction isn't a thing, as of 0.19. (Unless you're worshipping Jiyva.)

Teleport away from dangerous situations in Abyss. If you're fighting anything that you are in any way worried you can't kill outside of a rune vault, read a teleportation scroll.

You drank 3(?) potions of mutation early, which should probably be saved for curing mutations from version .20 onward - they're the only reliable way to cure malmuts.

Nobody mentioned this before, but stats 7 and lower are VERY DANGEROUS, as you found. You can fairly easily suffer one or two stat drain from sickness and the like, lose up to 4 stats from mutations, and zot traps can drain up to 7. Note that all of those things are very real abyss dangers. A ring of +4 int, for example, might have saved your life.

And finally, and most obviously - DCSS drunk is not conducive to survival.

Good run, though!

Agreed that I find the ring situation very odd. Rings are swappable so it's often a good idea to keep a mini collection of rings growing, something like 5-10 rings, so you can switch them around as needed. You rarely need more than rN+; the only time I'd want more rN is if I'm doing extended and facing torments. Abyss is quazi-extended, but doesn't have much torment and you don't need to be wearing a ring of positive energy.

You also never want to wear a ring of teleportation; I don't think it's going to trigger reliably often enough to get you out of trouble spots in the abyss anyways.

For comparison, here's my ring selection on my last winning character, who was also a VS:


So I'm probably a bit of a hoarder and could have dropped a few of these, but you're probably coming across several rings like the ones that I had, which you should have kept. I'll generally always keep at least one of my best of: a ring of protection, evasion, anything with a core resist (rf, rc, mr) that isn't already covered by "always on" gear (like a randart glove I know I'm never removing), and possibly rings with good stats, or MP+9, or a ring with multiple secondary resists (rElec, rPois, rCorr, etc).

In the above list I could probably have dropped the MR/Regen amulet since I had enough MR, and the regen +8 int amulet is better. Probably wouldn't use the magical power ring anymore but on a VS having extra mana is health, which is not bad. A lot of the rest are kind of just 'what if' resistance coverage, but generally speaking I had enough resists and just threw on the rF++ for zot. A good protection ring is almost always one of the best non artefact rings you can have, right up there with slaying.

That's a crazy number of rings to carry around. If you were you a Felid or a Mummy or something, maybe, but wow. I don't know how you find the slots.

Why crazy amount? It is caused by system of crawl mechanics. You always want something with rElec, rPois, sInv, rF+, rC+, you want Wiz/Int for casting transmutation spells, you often want protecton/evasion when you are attacked by monsters with physical ranged attack, you often want slaying when you finally melee them, it is even wise to keep duplicates in case you use an artefact amulet with those properties and then find a better amulet with different properties.