DDCK advice?

[tiktok]

I've been playing on and off for about a year and never got much farther than the the Ecumenical Temple. On a whim, I made a Deep Dwarf Chaos Knight and now I'm down to Lair 4. I'm starting to get concerned since I have no idea what I'm doing. I tried to visit Shoals 1, got shot up by 2 centaurs and ran back up.

Any advice would be appreciated.

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.7.1-1-g7ce9b19 character file.

Meldo the Quickloader (Deep Dwarf Chaos Knight)                                        Turns: 13373, Time: 01:25:49

HP  39/91 (92)   AC 15     Str 18      Exp: 11/19858 (100), need: 226
MP  14/14        EV 13     Int 13      God: Makhleb [******]
Gold 412         SH  0     Dex 15      Spells:  0 memorised, 12 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   a - +3,+7 falchion of Brutal Revenge {freeze,
Res.Cold  : + + .   Warding    : .   q - +3 ice dragon armour
Life Prot.: + . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: +       Res.Corr.  : .   (no helmet)
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   (no cloak)
Spirit.Shd: .       Stasis     : .   (no gloves)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Rnd.Telep. : .   (no boots)
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   (no amulet)
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .   m - ring of protection from fire
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .   J - +2 ring of strength

@: burdened, non-regenerating, slow, quite resistant to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: sense surroundings 2, slow healing 3, Str +1
a: Device Recharging, Minor Destruction, Lesser Servant of Makhleb, Major Destruction, Greater Servant of Makhleb,
Renounce Religion, Evoke Levitation


You are on level 2 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worship Makhleb.
Makhleb is exalted by your worship.
You are encumbered.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 3 branches of the dungeon, and seen 16 of its levels.

You have collected 684 gold pieces.
You have spent 292 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - the +3,+7 falchion of Brutal Revenge (weapon) {freeze, +Lev rPois rN+ EV+3 Int-1}
   (You found it on level 8 of the Dungeon)   
   It has been specially enchanted to freeze those struck by it, causing extra
   injury to most foes and up to double damage against particularly
   susceptible opponents. It can also slow down cold-blooded creatures.
   It affects your evasion (+3).
   It affects your intelligence (-1).
   It protects you from poison.
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It lets you levitate.
 b - a +1,+1 dwarven crossbow
 s - a +2,+3 hand axe of chopping
 y - a +2,+3 dwarven hand axe (quivered)
 D - the +0,+2 trident "Ceobb" {freeze, rElec}
   (You found it on level 9 of the Dungeon)   
   It has been specially enchanted to freeze those struck by it, causing extra
   injury to most foes and up to double damage against particularly
   susceptible opponents. It can also slow down cold-blooded creatures.
   It insulates you from electricity.
Missiles
 h - 58 +0 bolts
 r - 27 +2 dwarven bolts
 u - 19 elven darts
 O - 45 +3 bolts
 R - 23 +4 bolts
 W - 6 poisoned bolts
 Y - 19 silver bolts
Armour
 q - a +3 ice dragon armour (worn)
Magical devices
 e - a wand of healing (3)
 f - a wand of frost {zapped: 1}
 p - a long wooden wand
 w - an iron wand {zapped: 6} {tried by monster}
 z - a wand of enslavement
 B - a wand of fire {zapped: 1}
 E - a bone wand
 H - a wand of flame {zapped: 1}
 P - a tapered glass wand
 V - a short bronze wand
Comestibles
 v - 5 meat rations
 N - 5 bread rations
Scrolls
 d - 3 scrolls labeled DUGOCH SUWONGITY {tried}
 g - 2 scrolls of blinking
 j - 19 scrolls of remove curse
 k - 5 scrolls of identify
 l - 5 scrolls of teleportation
 t - a scroll labeled TWYT MUNEMMOKO
 A - a scroll labeled WAIQUS DILAUN
 I - a scroll labeled PHOEFE QUOXUN
 L - a scroll of detect curse
 M - 2 scrolls labeled GYMMIKLIAMO
Jewellery
 m - a ring of protection from fire (right hand)
 o - an uncursed ring of life protection
 J - a +2 ring of strength (left hand)
Potions
 c - 2 potions of healing
 i - a potion of heal wounds
 n - a potion of speed
 x - a potion of magic
 C - an inky potion
 F - a murky silvery potion
 G - 3 potions of restore abilities
 K - 2 emulsified red potions
 Q - a smoky white potion
 S - 5 potions of levitation
 U - 2 yellow potions
 X - a fuming silvery potion


 You have 100 experience left.

   Skills:
 + Level 6 Fighting
 + Level 7 Long Blades
 - Level 9 Axes
 + Level 12 Crossbows
 - Level 4 Throwing
 + Level 8 Armour
 + Level 7 Dodging
 - Level 3 Stealth
 + Level 2 Traps & Doors
 + Level 1 Spellcasting
 + Level 2 Invocations


You have 12 spell levels left.
You don't know any spells.

Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (10/27)            Temple (0/1) D:6             Orc (0/4) D:9
   Lair (5/8) D:10         Shoals (1/5) Lair:3     
 Swamp: Lair:2-5     Snake: Lair:3-6   

Altars:
Elyvilon

Shops:
D:7: (

Portals:
Glowing drain: D:6

Annotations
D:6 exclusions: 58 flame clouds and steam cloud
D:8 exclusion: 5 flame clouds


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You are resistant to damage.
You can recharge devices by infusing magical energy.
You passively map the area around you.
You do not heal naturally.
Your muscles are strong (Str +1).


[lucy_ferre]

Identify your items and wear a robe. Drop anything you don't need. Explore the rest of the lair, then the mines and hive. Don't enter the lair branches yet.

[gb]

pick a spot in Lair:2 where you can leave things you don't need to carry around all the time (extra axes, etc.)
you should probably leave the +0 bolts there too, looks like you're walking around encumbered which costs food and slows you down
identify wands by zapping them at weak creatures (rats in the Lair for example)
identify your scrolls by reading them (in front of creatures until you identify fear)
you don't need to carry around 19 scrolls of remove curse, leave 18 in your stash in Lair:2
wear the ring of life protection instead of +2 Str
quaff potions you don't know to identify them
skills: turn off long blades, so you can pump more into fighting, armour, and dodging
i'd actually recommend sticking with heavy armour because you aren't a spellcaster, the ice armour seems good but keep looking for better stuff. also, you MUST fill those other slots (cloak, gloves, boots, etc.)

go as far down in the lair as you feel you can, then back to the dungeon to do hive, then orc before you start hitting other branches. shoals is very tough. good luck!

[Sealer]

The ice dragon is ok, but since you're playing 0.7 build heavy armour is generally horrible so you're probably better off with a robe anyway.

[danr]

Just to avoid confusion, I corrected the subject line from DDDK to DDCK.

[gb]

quaff potions you don't know to identify them

I advise against this. A single potion of mutation can ruin your entire game if you're unlucky. Just use the scrolls of identify for potions. Also, read http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php?q=packrat.

actually i'd say (from experience) that the worst side effect is wasting potions of cure mutation. but with all the potions nowadays i don't think it's realistic to identify them all with scrolls.

[Stormfox]

quaff potions you don't know to identify them

I advise against this. A single potion of mutation can ruin your entire game if you're unlucky. Just use the scrolls of identify for potions. Also, read http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php?q=packrat.

actually i'd say (from experience) that the worst side effect is wasting potions of cure mutation. but with all the potions nowadays i don't think it's realistic to identify them all with scrolls.

Also don't go on a mid-to-late game quaff-fest if you don't have an ID'ed potion of healing on hand, preferably 2, if you haven't identified both strong poison and decay. The former can be handled with heal wounds, luck, and/or resistance, but the latter will cost you many maxHP before it wears off if you don't have healing to stop it.

[Danei]

If you're going to go binge drinking, you can meta-game a bit to make some educated guesses, based on probability.

Any potion you have a bunch of is probably heal, restore abilities, or sometimes heal wounds or confusion. More importantly, it's probably not mutation.

I like to use an ID scroll on any potion I have only 1 of, sometimes 2, if I've gotten a lot of potions. My goal is to ID mutation, so I can "safely" quaff-ID the rest of them.

[Laraso]

Also, if you see a potion described as "gluggy", that means it's probably a potion of porridge. You might want to save those.

[Sealer]

Fun fact: I always hope one of my early stack of 2 potions is mutation, so I can gamble with my early character.

[danr]

I use a hybrid approach - I do a binge drinking session early on when I haven't invested much in the character yet, and then I get more cautious and start using ID scrolls.

Another way to identify potions of course is to buy them. This is especially good with bad potions because if the shop has them identified they sell for 1GP.

[MrMisterMonkey]

Don't bother going Kiku unless you really want a pain weapon or Haunt before converting to Makhleb, are fine with tediously healing up with vampiric draining, and have fun with necromancy miscasts (including torment and temporary reapers and soul eaters), zombies, and miasma (all of which are part of kiku wrath). I personally wouldn't even consider bothering unless I found an early demon whip and wanted to pain it really badly (but probably not even then).

[Kate]

It's not at all unlikely to find a pain weapon from Pikel or Grinder early on, too. Generally you should only not go Makhleb if you have a *really* good reason.

Why are you wearing a -3, -5 ring of slaying?

(Also, go Jiyva and get all your healing from jelly slurps).

[danr]

Oh, the crappy ring is just because I was in the temple and decided to ID all my stuff there.

Thanks for the advice, I went straight to Makhleb.