TrBe onto a good thing...what now?

[delarado]

So,

I have a TrBe going at the moment that I'm doing pretty well with I think.

  Code:


IWINIT the Grappler (Troll Berserker)                                   Turns: 7069, Time: 00:53:36
HP  92/92        AC  6     Str 27      XL: 10   Next:  1%
MP   3/3         EV 11     Int  3      God: Trog [****..]
Gold 463         SH  0     Dex 16      Spells:  0 memorised,  9 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : +     - Unarmed
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   b - +1 animal skin
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   (shield restricted)
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : .   (helmet restricted)
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   (no cloak)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   (gloves unavailable)
Res.Mut.  : .       Stasis     : .   (boots unavailable)
Res.Rott. : .       Flight     : .   (no amulet)
Gourmand  : +                        q - ring of see invisible
                                     k - +4 ring of dexterity


Inventory: 265/862 aum (30%, 38/52 slots)                                               (_ for help)
Armour
 b - a +1 animal skin (worn)
Wands
 n - a wand of frost {zapped: 6}
 s - a wand of teleportation (5)
 x - a wand of polymorph (17)
 y - a wand of teleportation
 E - a copper wand {recharged}
Comestibles
 a - 4 meat rations
 l - 2 bread rations
 u - a choko
 w - a lemon
Scrolls
 d - 3 scrolls of teleportation
 f - 3 scrolls of remove curse
 j - a scroll of fog
 t - a scroll of enchant weapon I
 B - a scroll of blinking
 G - a scroll of immolation
 J - a scroll labeled YWELOEMOCLOAGG
 M - a scroll of magic mapping
Jewellery
 k - a +4 ring of dexterity (left claw)
 q - a ring of see invisible (right claw)
 e - an uncursed ring of sustain abilities
 m - an uncursed ring of protection from fire
Potions
 c - 10 potions of curing
 g - a potion of flight
 h - 2 potions of might
 i - 2 potions of invisibility
 o - an oily orange potion
 p - a slimy brown potion
 r - 4 black potions
 v - a smoky white potion
 z - a green potion
 A - a smoky red potion
C - 2 brown potions
 D - a viscous yellow potion
 F - a yellow potion
 H - a glowing purple potion
 K - a potion of heal wounds
 L - a gluggy blue potion


My questions before I continue are... how do I go about identifying all of those potions? I seem to keep finding about as many scrolls of identify as I do wands and such like, and I figure they are better used on the wands?

Next question, is there any sort of armor I can wear or do I just stick with the animal skin I started with?

My unarmed combat is up at 13.4 now, I'll keep sole training that till about 15 I guess and then put experience into other things.

Finally, I'm on D:9 and I have an entrance to the orcish mines. Do I head down there, or continue down the dungeon?

[Sar]

Identify wands by zapping them at a weak enemy (or a wall or yourself in a safe situation if it didn't work), don't waste scrolls on them (unless it's something like Heal Wounds/Hasting/Teleport and you really want to know the number of charges it has). You'll get more scrolls later.
You can wear robes. Check the glowing ones (Ctrl+f robe&&ego). they can have some useful egos. You can wear any armour that isn't greyed out, btw.
Find Lair and finish it before Orc. Don't try to fight hydras in melee. Go away, use wands, maybe summon brothers (this is probably a waste though).
I would also use a shield if I found one.

[delarado]

Ok, ill do some reading on Hydras now.

I've wasted loads of scrolls on wands what a pain! oh well. You live and learn!

I haven't been picking up ANY clothing at all, I'll keep an eye out for armor and shields etc.

Is there any way to search for stairs down? I tried CTRL-F'ing for them without success...

What is Lair? Do I just keep going down the dungeon to find it?

[rebthor]

To find downstairs, hit <shift>+x to get to the map, then hit > for down and < for up.

[delarado]

To find downstairs, hit <shift>+x to get to the map, then hit > for down and < for up.

Wow, thats so obvious that I didnt even think or trying it!

[delarado]

Should I pick up some sort of blunt weapon to deal with Hydras?

Im just worrying about how Im supposed to kill them, as I don't presently have any damaging wands at all!

[joellercoaster]

Identify wands by zapping them at a weak enemy (or a wall or yourself in a safe situation if it didn't work), don't waste scrolls on them

To do this most efficiently, slightly injure a weak enemy, then get it between you and a diggable wall at a 45 degree angle.

That way:

You identify digging because the wall behind disappears.
You identify healing because the monster is healed.
You partially identify hexing wands because something bad happens to the monster, or it resists. Teleport, Hasting and Invisibility likewise.
You identify offensive wands because, well, bad stuff comes out of the end and tries to hurt the monster.
Any, importantly, if you have just identified Wand of Lightning, it doesn't bounce back off the wall and kill you

[le_nerd]

Don`t forget to have at least one square between you and the monster for /fireball!

[delarado]

thanks for the tips guys. Regarding the hydrae, how do I get away from them then? As in stop them chasing me?

Ive never understood how to stop anything chasing me unless I am significantly faster than it and can lose it in LOS...

[Sar]

Use stairs.

[delarado]

if they can see you though they will follow you?

[Sar]

Monsters in Crawl are incapable of using stairs unless they were adjacent to you when you ascended/descended.

[rebthor]

And some even then most notably ghosts, zombies, skeletons and Geryon. This might actually be an exhaustive list.

[joellercoaster]

The Royal Jelly? Or do I remember that wrong?

[tasonir]

The best way to deal with hydras on a troll is large rocks. You'll probably want at least 5 in case of misses, but 6-7 is nice to have. You may run into strength limits until you level up a bit more and your strength raises. Sometimes I'll put off lair and try to run d:10-12 to find a cyclops assuming I didn't start as a troll hunter with large rocks on D:1. Be careful about going too deep though, a centaur warrior can cause real problems.

[delarado]

He died to a hydra that I didnt even try and fight I ran away from a 6 headed, went down some stairs, a load of other bads appeared. Back upstairs, some followed me, the hydra was still there, hit my wand of teleportation but died before It took effect used all my potions of curing and healing but just couldnt tank it long enough.

Guess that'll teach me for running away DOWN stairs to uncleared floors.

First time i've seen a branch though and I got to see two, so im happy with that. Will post the morgue file a bit later

[tasonir]

It may depend on what else was nearby you (you want to have a direction without monsters to run in), but assuming you have already read/zapped teleport on yourself, you are better off stepping away from a hydra than using a curing potion to try to heal through the damage. A hydra is the same speed as you, and so it will just follow you and not attack. After 2-3 steps you should teleport. If you have too many monsters around you to prevent you from running than a curing potion won't keep up with the damage anyways - heal wounds might but it's a desperation move.

Note it's possible that it gets a very lucky double turn and steps next to you and attacks, but this is pretty rare and if it does happen once it will not happen again for a very long time (guaranteed to not happen for another 9 turns, won't likely happen for several hundred, and is just as likely that it instead falls behind. it's this happening: http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php? ... domisation)