Snake Sneak
Posts: 119
Joined: Tuesday, 10th September 2013, 14:55
Thursday, 28th December 2017, 17:43
YAVP! First 15 rune! Unarmed DsGl^Chei
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I did it!!!!!!!!!
What an incredible trip have been!!!!!
Spoiler warning: this post is a big, continuous, spoiler
Down to the Hell and Pandemonium and back to light. Oh, when I saw the entrance of the Dungeon!
I had 2 victories in the past (both 3 runes) and wanted to try extended. I didn't plan to survive, at first, but here I am
First, the build. I started with Demonspawn Gladiator, going into unarmed. It was the combo I used for my latest 3-runes win (the second in general), but with Makhleb.
I saw a Chei altar on D:1, and thought: ok, it could work. I tried Chei a couple of times in the past but with really bad bad results, but now I am supposed to be a better player (later on this: be warned, better, does not mean good...).
And Chei rocks
Managed to get a PDA in a shop (had choice between "heavily runed" artifact shadow dragon armour and PDA, and went for the latter).
First two runes were quite easy (Swamp and Spider).
On swamp:4 I found the Laernean Hydra, and had to blink, slouch, bend time, and pummel hydra to death. Chei abilities are really really strong, just you have to get used to it.
I was tempted for all the run to get a shield, but in the end I preferred to go without shield, thanks to really high EV because of Chei and PDA.
After that, Vaults:1-4, and Depths.
As always you can find creative ways of dying in depths (for example being paralyzed by some purple floating eye), but I managed to survive.
In the meanwhile I found that with Chei I had a ton of Intelligence, and thanks to PDA started to branch into magic. Statue Form was the logic choice, because I had some idea to go into extended
Then Vaults:5: slouch, slouch, slouch. Animate dead.
Vaults 5 was so easy that for the first time I thought: with Statue, Chei and this Unarmed brutality, I can really go into Extended.
I was missing some resists, and I wanted to gather some XP (and some experience with Chei), so cleared Crypt and Elf.
Both were quite easy... and I was thinking: maybe.... but before I wanted to clear Zot:1-4, and I made it without any trouble.
In the middle of this process I went into this forum looking for some advice https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=24947.
I was suggested to bring bows from 12 to 20, and that was a really good suggestion.
I used a big number of acquirement scrolls (I do not remember how many) until I got a nice unrandart longbow (the Stormbow, +8 longbow with elec).
After clearing Zot:4, I had no choices: Orb... or extended? And here we go!! Extended!!
Vestibule of hell was easy. Geryon had no time to summon anything, was pulverized.
I found in Elf a rF+ helmet, so I went into Gehenna first.
First time ever in the HELL!!!! Woah.
Scary. Weird. Dangerous.
To be honest, I had no real preparation and no real idea of what I could find, but first levels were quite easy. Torment is bearable with rN+++ and/or Statue Form, if you manage to keep low the number of torment-capable things. The stormbow was really helpful, because with Chei I cannot move fast to engage into melee. Definitely, a source of ranged damage is needed here.
Asmodeus was a completely different thing, because there is a lot of noise while you fight, and he was pulled outside of his chamber and caught me in the middle of another fight with a Fiend.
Safe choice was: teleport, and re-engage. But... I engaged him anyway. Stormbow to soften him, and then unarmed to death. Wow. Ended quite low, but that's ok... it's Asmodeus!!!
Worst thing in Hell are the random effects every some turns, stat draining + torment can put you in a very bad condition. And when you are in a bad condition, some fireball lands on you, doing very few damage but claiming attention from all the bored fiends around.
Here I think that the "Powered by Death" mutation is really, really useful. I was regenerating 12HP/turn when fully stacked. Some form of regeneration is vital here, I would not go into Hell without some form of it (Mak/TSO healing, Regeneration, or things like that).
At this point, I could not stop. I was without decent rC+, so I went to Dis and Tartarus.
In Dis I almost died to the Serpent of Hell (with some fiends), that was splattering me from afar with Metal Splinters. I could not escape fast, I could not melee it, and Shatter was not online yet. Slouch worked but was not enough. Step from time saved my life. I could have used "blink scroll" next to him, and then melee, but I had never used this trick (and I "learned" it in Pan). Blink scroll has ever been for me an "escape button", not an "engage button". Still a lot to learn!
Ereshkigal was easy, even if she arrived on me really fast (noticed, pressed an arrow - error - and she was on me, Chei slowness + movement error + Ereshkigal speed is a bad combination).
In the end of Tartarus I found a rC++ ring, so, Cocytus!
In the other three Hell branches, I mostly cleared all the floors, but in Cocytus it would have been simply stupid. Too difficult to manage water, ice fiends, slowness, water, and all that stuff.
Went through Cocytus:1-6 quite fast and then managed to kill Antaeus. The fight was quite scary, not because of him, but because of the Ice Fiends that were still alive and shredding me at the end of the fight with Antaeus (that left me around 80HP).
After Hell, I did Slime (TRJ was killed in 3 hits, even without Blade Hands) and entered Abyss. First time that I do this without being banished (and first time I get not banished at all in the entire game).
Abyss was a pain. Really. 5100 turns (2000 in Abyss:1 and Abyss:2 before reading on the wiki that the rune spawns only from Abyss:3).
In the end, in Abyss:5, found the Abysmal rune. Again, without regen is really difficult to survive here in the long run.
Then, Pandemonium.
Pandemonium is really really weird. On one side, it's simpler than Hell, because you do not have random effects, and you can close a door and rest (this is impossible in Hell).
So, if you have not easy access to good regeneration, Pandemonium is easier than Hell, I would say. But just because you can rest.
What you do not expect, is finding some big Panlord with really random abilities that will find a way to kill you. Or, at least, will try.
In the end, in general, Pandemonium is harder because you enter new levels in a random place, and that means two squares from Lom Lobon or in the middle of fiends.
The first Pandemonium rune was the demonic (a guy named Plog in the middle of the eyeballs that steal your mana).
Then fiery (Cerebov), dark (Gloorx Vloq), magical (Lom Lobon), glowing (Mnoleg).
Apart from Cerebov (definitely not easy, because of the rF- debuff), the other Panlords went down fast under my punches and kicks (and sometimes, also horns, because of the weird mutations you get).
I made another error that could have ended my trip: after Cerebov I had all the rF+ rings and amulet, but no rN and no rC.
Then changed realm, and forgot to put back the usual resistances. Oh, what en error.
A couple of fiends without rN was really scary. But I did not notice it, I though: "Oh, I was just unlucky, maybe multiple torments in a row". What a stupid. If you remember, I said "better player does not mean good player".
Then encountered a Panlord, and he casted twice Glaciate. And I was without rC under 30HP.
Blink behind a wall, teleport. Teleport landed at 6 squares from the same Panlord
And I was still with the same HP. But... in the meanwhile I had trained a bit of stealth, and I was at 14 skill, and he didn't notice me while wandering, while I was waiting for the second teleport.
It took me many levels to find the exit from Pan, quaffed some mutation potions, and went to Tomb.
Tomb:1 and Tomb:2 are not easy, but... you can survive. Greater mummies are really tough opponents.
What I was not prepared to, was Tomb:3 (let alone the fact that just arriving to Tomb:3 is not easy...).
Tomb:3 is really really BRUTAL.
Statue form and Shatter (at maximum power level) are not enough. And I managed to pull the entire Tomb:3 level.
I could not see the stairs (don't know why), they were behind some corner. The walls cannot be digged, but luckily Shatter created a 1-square hole.
Standing there, I continued to fight forever. Almost dead, I survived thanks to "Step from time".
Then tried to recover, and was found by some greater mummy. This pattern (step from time, recover, being found by mummy) was repeated four times!!
I was not confident to random teleport in Tomb:3, but thinking at it now, it was my best option.
In the end (thanks Chei) I survived. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH. Golden rune.
15 RUNES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But it was not enough.
Zot:5 was trivial apart from a couple of Ancient Liches and their Crystal Spears (why their Crystal Spears always hit, even if I have 40EV, and my Crystal Spear, when I had it in the past, always miss? it's a mistery).
Got the Orb, and fought my way until Depths:1. I said fought, because with Chei is not an "Orb run", is more likely an "Orb tournament", you face a lot of opponents one after the other.
I also killed a Seraph with his Daevas, and as a Demonspawn this gave me a lot of satisfaction.
Then, in Depths:1, there was the entrance of a Ziggurat that was maybe 10 squares away from the Depths portal. In the excitement of the moment, thinking that I could escape from another Panlord, I entered the wrong portal. Wow.
The first level of a Ziggurat, as I discovered, is trivial. So I thought: I could go down a couple of levels, just to see how it is.
This is really really a bad idea.
I discovered that Panlords and fiends spawn also inside a ziggurat, together with all the nasty things you can already find there.
And when, at the end of the third floor, at 30% HP, another Panlord spawned, I was not happy. But... killed the Panlord, and escaped. Just to find in front of me the Panlord I was escaping from when I entered the Ziggurat portal at first. Death was very close here. Not as close as in Tomb:3, but almost.
After that, ruuuuuuuun! Ok, I am with Chei. Waaaaaalk! Slowly, but walk!!
And here I am now. Sorry for long wall post...!!!! Incredible. Wow.
Thanks developers. Really. Really. Thanks.
Demonspawn rocks!
Branch progression:
I did it!!!!!!!!!
What an incredible trip have been!!!!!
Spoiler warning: this post is a big, continuous, spoiler
Down to the Hell and Pandemonium and back to light. Oh, when I saw the entrance of the Dungeon!
I had 2 victories in the past (both 3 runes) and wanted to try extended. I didn't plan to survive, at first, but here I am
First, the build. I started with Demonspawn Gladiator, going into unarmed. It was the combo I used for my latest 3-runes win (the second in general), but with Makhleb.
I saw a Chei altar on D:1, and thought: ok, it could work. I tried Chei a couple of times in the past but with really bad bad results, but now I am supposed to be a better player (later on this: be warned, better, does not mean good...).
And Chei rocks
Managed to get a PDA in a shop (had choice between "heavily runed" artifact shadow dragon armour and PDA, and went for the latter).
First two runes were quite easy (Swamp and Spider).
On swamp:4 I found the Laernean Hydra, and had to blink, slouch, bend time, and pummel hydra to death. Chei abilities are really really strong, just you have to get used to it.
I was tempted for all the run to get a shield, but in the end I preferred to go without shield, thanks to really high EV because of Chei and PDA.
After that, Vaults:1-4, and Depths.
As always you can find creative ways of dying in depths (for example being paralyzed by some purple floating eye), but I managed to survive.
In the meanwhile I found that with Chei I had a ton of Intelligence, and thanks to PDA started to branch into magic. Statue Form was the logic choice, because I had some idea to go into extended
Then Vaults:5: slouch, slouch, slouch. Animate dead.
Vaults 5 was so easy that for the first time I thought: with Statue, Chei and this Unarmed brutality, I can really go into Extended.
I was missing some resists, and I wanted to gather some XP (and some experience with Chei), so cleared Crypt and Elf.
Both were quite easy... and I was thinking: maybe.... but before I wanted to clear Zot:1-4, and I made it without any trouble.
In the middle of this process I went into this forum looking for some advice https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=24947.
I was suggested to bring bows from 12 to 20, and that was a really good suggestion.
I used a big number of acquirement scrolls (I do not remember how many) until I got a nice unrandart longbow (the Stormbow
, +8 longbow with elec).After clearing Zot:4, I had no choices: Orb... or extended? And here we go!! Extended!!
Vestibule of hell was easy. Geryon had no time to summon anything, was pulverized.
I found in Elf a rF+ helmet, so I went into Gehenna first.
First time ever in the HELL!!!! Woah.
Scary. Weird. Dangerous.
To be honest, I had no real preparation and no real idea of what I could find, but first levels were quite easy. Torment is bearable with rN+++ and/or Statue Form, if you manage to keep low the number of torment-capable things. The stormbow was really helpful, because with Chei I cannot move fast to engage into melee. Definitely, a source of ranged damage is needed here.
Asmodeus was a completely different thing, because there is a lot of noise while you fight, and he was pulled outside of his chamber and caught me in the middle of another fight with a Fiend.
Safe choice was: teleport, and re-engage. But... I engaged him anyway. Stormbow to soften him, and then unarmed to death. Wow. Ended quite low, but that's ok... it's Asmodeus!!!
Worst thing in Hell are the random effects every some turns, stat draining + torment can put you in a very bad condition. And when you are in a bad condition, some fireball lands on you, doing very few damage but claiming attention from all the bored fiends around.
Here I think that the "Powered by Death" mutation is really, really useful. I was regenerating 12HP/turn when fully stacked. Some form of regeneration is vital here, I would not go into Hell without some form of it (Mak/TSO healing, Regeneration, or things like that).
At this point, I could not stop. I was without decent rC+, so I went to Dis and Tartarus.
In Dis I almost died to the Serpent of Hell (with some fiends), that was splattering me from afar with Metal Splinters. I could not escape fast, I could not melee it, and Shatter was not online yet. Slouch worked but was not enough. Step from time saved my life. I could have used "blink scroll" next to him, and then melee, but I had never used this trick (and I "learned" it in Pan). Blink scroll has ever been for me an "escape button", not an "engage button". Still a lot to learn!
Ereshkigal was easy, even if she arrived on me really fast (noticed, pressed an arrow - error - and she was on me, Chei slowness + movement error + Ereshkigal speed is a bad combination).
In the end of Tartarus I found a rC++ ring, so, Cocytus!
In the other three Hell branches, I mostly cleared all the floors, but in Cocytus it would have been simply stupid. Too difficult to manage water, ice fiends, slowness, water, and all that stuff.
Went through Cocytus:1-6 quite fast and then managed to kill Antaeus. The fight was quite scary, not because of him, but because of the Ice Fiends that were still alive and shredding me at the end of the fight with Antaeus (that left me around 80HP).
After Hell, I did Slime (TRJ was killed in 3 hits, even without Blade Hands) and entered Abyss. First time that I do this without being banished (and first time I get not banished at all in the entire game).
Abyss was a pain. Really. 5100 turns (2000 in Abyss:1 and Abyss:2 before reading on the wiki that the rune spawns only from Abyss:3).
In the end, in Abyss:5, found the Abysmal rune. Again, without regen is really difficult to survive here in the long run.
Then, Pandemonium.
Pandemonium is really really weird. On one side, it's simpler than Hell, because you do not have random effects, and you can close a door and rest (this is impossible in Hell).
So, if you have not easy access to good regeneration, Pandemonium is easier than Hell, I would say. But just because you can rest.
What you do not expect, is finding some big Panlord with really random abilities that will find a way to kill you. Or, at least, will try.
In the end, in general, Pandemonium is harder because you enter new levels in a random place, and that means two squares from Lom Lobon or in the middle of fiends.
The first Pandemonium rune was the demonic (a guy named Plog in the middle of the eyeballs that steal your mana).
Then fiery (Cerebov), dark (Gloorx Vloq), magical (Lom Lobon), glowing (Mnoleg).
Apart from Cerebov (definitely not easy, because of the rF- debuff), the other Panlords went down fast under my punches and kicks (and sometimes, also horns, because of the weird mutations you get).
I made another error that could have ended my trip: after Cerebov I had all the rF+ rings and amulet, but no rN and no rC.
Then changed realm, and forgot to put back the usual resistances. Oh, what en error.
A couple of fiends without rN was really scary. But I did not notice it, I though: "Oh, I was just unlucky, maybe multiple torments in a row". What a stupid. If you remember, I said "better player does not mean good player".
Then encountered a Panlord, and he casted twice Glaciate. And I was without rC under 30HP.
Blink behind a wall, teleport. Teleport landed at 6 squares from the same Panlord
And I was still with the same HP. But... in the meanwhile I had trained a bit of stealth, and I was at 14 skill, and he didn't notice me while wandering, while I was waiting for the second teleport.
It took me many levels to find the exit from Pan, quaffed some mutation potions, and went to Tomb.
Tomb:1 and Tomb:2 are not easy, but... you can survive. Greater mummies are really tough opponents.
What I was not prepared to, was Tomb:3 (let alone the fact that just arriving to Tomb:3 is not easy...).
Tomb:3 is really really BRUTAL.
Statue form and Shatter (at maximum power level) are not enough. And I managed to pull the entire Tomb:3 level.
I could not see the stairs (don't know why), they were behind some corner. The walls cannot be digged, but luckily Shatter created a 1-square hole.
Standing there, I continued to fight forever. Almost dead, I survived thanks to "Step from time".
Then tried to recover, and was found by some greater mummy. This pattern (step from time, recover, being found by mummy) was repeated four times!!
I was not confident to random teleport in Tomb:3, but thinking at it now, it was my best option.
In the end (thanks Chei) I survived. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH. Golden rune.
15 RUNES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But it was not enough.
Zot:5 was trivial apart from a couple of Ancient Liches and their Crystal Spears (why their Crystal Spears always hit, even if I have 40EV, and my Crystal Spear, when I had it in the past, always miss? it's a mistery).
Got the Orb, and fought my way until Depths:1. I said fought, because with Chei is not an "Orb run", is more likely an "Orb tournament", you face a lot of opponents one after the other.
I also killed a Seraph with his Daevas, and as a Demonspawn this gave me a lot of satisfaction.
Then, in Depths:1, there was the entrance of a Ziggurat that was maybe 10 squares away from the Depths portal. In the excitement of the moment, thinking that I could escape from another Panlord, I entered the wrong portal. Wow.
The first level of a Ziggurat, as I discovered, is trivial. So I thought: I could go down a couple of levels, just to see how it is.
This is really really a bad idea.
I discovered that Panlords and fiends spawn also inside a ziggurat, together with all the nasty things you can already find there.
And when, at the end of the third floor, at 30% HP, another Panlord spawned, I was not happy. But... killed the Panlord, and escaped. Just to find in front of me the Panlord I was escaping from when I entered the Ziggurat portal at first. Death was very close here. Not as close as in Tomb:3, but almost.
After that, ruuuuuuuun! Ok, I am with Chei. Waaaaaalk! Slowly, but walk!!
And here I am now. Sorry for long wall post...!!!! Incredible. Wow.
Thanks developers. Really. Really. Thanks.
Demonspawn rocks!
Branch progression:
- Code:
Pre-runes:
- Dungeon:1-11
- Lair
- Orc
- Dungeon:12-15
Runes:
- Swamp
- Spider
- Vaults:1-4
- Depths
- Vaults:5
- Elf
- Crypt
- Zot:1-4
Extended:
- Hell
- Vestibule of Hell
- Gehenna
- City of Dis
- Tartarus
- Cocytus
- Slime
- Abyss
- Pandemonium
- demonic (random Plog)
- fiery (Cerebov)
- dark (Gloorx Vloq)
- magical (Lom Lobon)
- glowing (Mnoleg)
- Tomb
- Zot:5
- Ziggurat:1-3
Last edited by d3k0 on Thursday, 28th December 2017, 17:57, edited 1 time in total.
Won: SpHu Slinger of Okawaru (3 runes) - DsGl Unarmed of Makhleb (3 runes) - TrFi Unarmed of Nem (3 runes) - GnFE of Ash (3 runes) - DsGl Unarmed (with Statue and Shatter) of Chei (15 runes!!!).
Demonspawn rocks. Unarmed also.
Demonspawn rocks. Unarmed also.