The Tavern

A couple of questions on shafts.

1. Are they hugely more common than they used to be? I feel like I now expect several each game, which doesn't tally with my memories of a year ago.
2. Is there any way to avoid shafts or other traps - any skill that helps, or anything like that?

(This question is prompted by an Ogre who got shafted *twice* from L3 to L5, which seems excessive)

Yes, there have been some discussions here in the forum, e.g. in Shafts - Too common now?

God Ashenzari protects you from getting shafted (in all senses) by exploration traps.

There was a change from a few years back that changed most traps from hidden floor features to a random chance on exploration. If you have played for a while that may explain a qualitative change, although it appears the difference is quite modest. The thread Turukano linked has some numbers.

Here is the PR for the original change:
https://github.com/crawl/crawl/pull/872

Thanks! It looks like in my 6 wins since I started playing again, I was shafted 22 times. That thread says the average (in a slightly older version) is 2.5, so it's a combination of a bit of bad luck and a bit of an increase since I last played.