[PROTIPS] Secret Tricks

[XuaXua]

Edited all tips so far into the OP.

Tip : Use Cold-branded ammo / launcher or cold targeting spells against clouds of flame to put them out and vice-versa.

[Burningled]

In the labyrinth: Vitrification and smite-targeted spells are an awesome, awesome way to take care of the Minotaur.

Other tip: Tomb card +Vitrification card+Airstrike (or other smite-targeted spell) will take care of any situation which doesn't involve orc (high) priests, daevas, or smiting demons.

[cerebovssquire]

Thanks for putting it all together in the OP.
Now that Zin piety was changed (you gain piety by paying a 1/10 tithe in gold, and piety was decayed, I think you should remove the following from the OP, XuaXua:

You can wait out god wrath in the Ecumenical Temple and temporarily switch to Zin so you don't have to waste food.

Alternatively, add that it doesn't work in 0.10 Trunk. Thanks.
I'd also like to add that the Lair is also a good choice: if you have an amulet of the gourmand you can eat the monsters that spawn over time, resulting in a very low amount of food consumed.

Haste, rC+++, and Ozocuba's Refrigeration simplifies the entrance to Vaults:8.

I'd definitely change this to rC++(+) or even rC+(++). +++ is nice of course but ++ is sufficient even for spamming the spell.

[o_O]

Protip: Blink and Controlled Blink (the spells)

[AtT]

75% health: Fight better be almost over or you'll start running.
50% health: Actively getting the fuck out of wherever you are.
25% health: Didn't happen, you ran away and rested.

[Blade]

If you have a scroll of vulnerability and the spell Polymorph Other, you can usually change the Royal Jelly into a Titan, a Gold Dragon, etc. in three or four casts. Can be useful if you don't want to deal with its spawns (and also if you want a Gold Dragon Armour made from the skin of The Royal Jelly).

[thenewflesh]

75% health: Fight better be almost over or you'll start running.
50% health: Actively getting the fuck out of wherever you are.
25% health: Didn't happen, you ran away and rested.

You can add this to your setting/init.txt:

  Code:

hp_warning = 50
hp_colour = 75:yellow, 50:red


[Dingo]

• Scrolls of vulnerability take away a decent amount of glow.


• Passwall gives you first strike on the other side; this makes it excellent for stabbers (SpEn). With dig, you can tunnel next to sleeping creature, then passwall ambush. Very effective in mostly solid areas like the Elven Halls and Zot.


• ^! to toggle donation categories with Nemelex

[Eaki Godsbane]

Using allies as bombs is fun

- raise a skeleton or summon an earth elemental
- cast Inner Flame at ally
- command ally to attack nearest monster group
- when your ally is at critical hp, cast Lee's Rapid Deconstruction at it to help

Frag grenade = initial heat blast + fragmentation damage

[Eaki Godsbane]

I think I've heard players take advantage of kleptomaniac monsters/uniques
These only apply to monsters with an inventory:

- drop potion of speed
- let monster pick the potion and quaff it
- invoke Slouch

- drop CURSED highly enchanted/randart launcher and 1 appropriate ammo
- let monster pick and equip
- block, dodge or otherwise endure the first shot
- leisurely kill the monster as it bashes you clumsily with it's new bow

Somebody confirm if these tricks are effective?

[ilpalazzo]

The launcher trick is especially good when your opponent uses a shield. Once I fought Wiglaf who dropped his shield for a bow. I used apportation and had bullseye in my hands. Why does he get Oka's good stuff...

[ilpalazzo]

airstrike is good to get rid of tormentors fast (1-3 hits)

[File200]

There are many powerful monsters that are vulnerable to curare. Orb guardians and quicksilver dragons in particular are less threatening when slowed and poisoned.

Unless you are already worshiping TSO, grab a blowgun and some poison needles/sleep needles.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Not quite by the way, maybe we should collect all the config lines here as well?

[XuaXua]

Not quite by the way, maybe we should collect all the config lines here as well?

I use the following section, which I think may be incomplete (you miss it), for alerting when invisible monsters attack.

It's annoying, but it helps save my non-SInv ass a lot.

  Code:


###################### Invisible ###########
force_more_message = It hits you
force_more_message = It misses you
force_more_message = It closely misses you
force_more_message = It completely misses you
force_more_message = You block its attack


If it's complete, I think it should be added, commented-out, to init.txt.

[XuaXua]

Throw to a specified square (taken from Trog entry on Crawl Wiki):

Throw with 'F' and then use '.' to force your thrown item to stay on desired square, even if it misses a target monster.

[rchandra]

Throw to a specified square (taken from Trog entry on Crawl Wiki):

Throw with 'F' and then use '.' to force your thrown item to stay on desired square, even if it misses a target monster.

Seriously? no more jerks hiding in front of deep water to avoid my large rocks? thanks.

[AtT]

Throw to a specified square (taken from Trog entry on Crawl Wiki):

Throw with 'F' and then use '.' to force your thrown item to stay on desired square, even if it misses a target monster.

Also works with spells, so you don't hit allies if you miss or if the spell can pass through multiple enemies.

[XuaXua]

I've updated the OP to this point. I am considering sorting by topic (weapons, spellcasting, gods, general) rather than by submission.

[Serne]

I dub this thread Epic, and suggest XuaXua get a round of applause.

And for a minor contribution of my own(it only adds to a prior one) if you wait til clearing Elf to search for robes you can usually pick up a Robe of Resistance which is always nice.

[njvack]

Why wait? You might find one earlier, and elemental resistances in Elf are also always nice.

[AtT]

Just try on all the blue robes you find until you score a Robe of Resistances, then don't worry about nonartifact robes/armor (on a stealth or caster of course) Until you find a Resistance robe or a good artifact one with rC, rF, or MR will have to do.

[XuaXua]

OP now sorted by category.

[ilpalazzo]

Scrolls of enchant armor or weapon I/II/III won't affect artifacts but they will still uncurse them...

[XuaXua]

Added from another thread:

PORTAL FINDER: To locate portals you discovered earlier (troves, ziggurats), use 'Ctrl+o'.

hxy gets credit; thank hxy here.

[TehDruid]

Added from another thread:

PORTAL FINDER: To locate portals you discovered earlier (troves, ziggurats), use 'Ctrl+o'.

hxy gets credit; thank hxy here.

CTRL+o is the Dungeon Overview function, not only does it list Ziggurats & Troves and their costs, but it also tells you on which floor you have left any annotations, such as Uniques you have seen but ran away from. It's the best memo ever!

[XuaXua]

Added THANKS links to all items in the OP.

IF SOMEONE CAN TEST THEM SINCE I CAN'T...

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

gbos: i found that webtiles lags a lot less when i turn off travel delay
gbos: have you tried that before?
MyOtheHedgeFox: No, I did not. What did you change?
gbos: in your init.rc file, there is a line which says something like
gbos: # travel_delay = 20
gbos: if you take out the hash and change it to -5, it takes away all travel delay whilst leaving on autotravel delays
<...>
gbos: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/docs/options_guide.txt check this out

[Serne]

Remember Crawlers: Ghosts of players that died under the effects of a Potion of Resistance in .9.1 are spawned WITH THE EFFECTS OF THE POTION STILL INTACT. Congratulations you now have a ghost with an extra pip of rC & rC as well as rElec & rP. as proof for this I present a PARTIAL dump of a char I had die, and just recently ran into again.

  Code:

Deviar the Covert (Spriggan Venom Mage)    Turns: 10747, Time: 01:52:48

HP  -6/44        AC  4     Str  6      XL: 10   Next:  4%
MP  28/28        EV  4     Int 18      God: Sif Muna [****..]
Gold 495         SH  0     Dex 17      Spells:  6 memorised,  8 levels left

Res.Fire  : + + .   See Invis. : +    a - +2,+3 dwarf short sword (curse)
Res.Cold  : + + .   Warding    : . .  r - +2 orc robe {rF+} (curse)
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .    (shield restricted)
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .    (helmet restricted)
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : .    (no cloak)
Res.Elec. : +       Spirit.Shd : .    (gloves unavailable)
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .    (boots unavailable)
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .    (no amulet)
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .    y - ring of wizardry
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .    j - ring of protection from cold

@: paralysed, very slightly glowing, very quick, somewhat resistant to
hostile enchantments, very stealthy
A: unfitting armour, see invisible, herbivore 3, speed 3, slow
metabolism 3
a: Channel Energy, Forget Spell, Renounce Religion

...
Intervening stuff
...

You feel protected.
You are very lightly contaminated with residual magic.
It was a potion of resistance. The yak closely misses you.
The iguana bites you!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
The yak gores you.
You die...


[edit] perhaps this should go in a different thread on second thought.

[XuaXua]

He ain't resistant to Dispel Undead.

[Serne]

Too bad I'm playing a Demigod Monk atm and don't have access to that spell.

[Burningled]

Are you .9? Because if you're trunk you're missing out on 60 free piety

[XuaXua]

The win/win combo: inner flame + enslavement.

Holy shit, my last two Spriggan Enchanters have found Inner Flame and with enslavement, it is basically just the best fire-and-forget attack ever.

It's just WRONG.

[XuaXua]

The win/win combo: inner flame + enslavement.

Holy shit, my last two Spriggan Enchanters have found Inner Flame and with enslavement, it is basically just the best fire-and-forget attack ever.

It's just WRONG.

PROTIP: Don't enslave others too, just in case your flaming slave survives and then runs to attack you and your other slaves try to "rescue" you. YASD.

[XuaXua]

PROTIP:

Unless shafted, when you arrive on a new level, always go up all the up stairs to the prior level for two reasons, (1) to see if the stairs take you to a new area in case you missed anything including secret timed portals and (2) to qualify the stairs for autotravel purposes. When all upwards stairs, including red ones, are checked and the entire level is explored, go to the prior level and check via 'X' for unused down stairs and try those.

[Grimm]

PROTIP:

Unless shafted, when you arrive on a new level, always go up all the up stairs to the prior level for two reasons, (1) to see if the stairs take you to a new area in case you missed anything including secret timed portals and (2) to qualify the stairs for autotravel purposes. When all upwards stairs, including red ones, are checked and the entire level is explored, go to the prior level and check via 'X' for unused down stairs and try those.

That's a great tip and one that is probably not obvious to new players.

That X command is: shift-x, then > or < repeatedly: that will cycle the cursor through all down and up stairs. There will be exactly three of each on every level, not counting escape hatches, of which there may be a number. If you see fewer than three regular up or down stairs, there's a hidden section of the level somewhere.

Also important to note in this regard: shift-x cycling will only cycle through stairs on a contiguous section of the level. So if there are two unconnected sections of the level, one with two down stairs and one with one, shift-x will only cycle through as many as are in the section your character is currently in.

[XuaXua]

'shift-x' would be why I put a capital X in ala 'X'

I'll edit the tip a bit when I throw it in the OP; was waiting for feedback on it, much thanks.

One thing I was avoiding was pointing out that there are always 3 sets of stairs because you never know when that might change.

[Grimm]

'shift-x' would be why I put a capital X in ala 'X'

I grok you, I just wanted to make that crystal clear for people.

One thing I was avoiding was pointing out that there are always 3 sets of stairs because you never know when that might change.

I've never heard of any plans to change this; currently it is the only way to be sure you're missing a hidden area.

[Yermak]

Did you know that with weapon of reaching you can kill monster under the disturbance and even in deep water?

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

MyOtheHedgeFox: Not quite by the way, do you know you can add dangerous enemies (like Eustachio, Nikola, Sigmund and many more) into your auto-exclusion listing in rc-file?
MyOtheHedgeFox: If they are asleep, they will be excluded.
gbos: oh really?
gbos: do you know where in the file it's found?
MyOtheHedgeFox: When they wake up, the exclusion is lifted.
MyOtheHedgeFox: Can't tell for sure: search for "roxanne" or "hyperactive".

[zeidrich]

Didn't see these in the master list, but I didn't read through all the posts.

Something useful for the early game: If you're running from an orc warrior or similar fighter type monster who will pick up items off the ground, you can drop a club while you're running. The orc will pick up the club and throw it at you, dealing negligible damage, and putting 2-3 squares of distance between you so you can safely make it up or down stairs.

Likewise, if you're fighting a monster with a slow weapon that you're trying to escape via stairs, you can try standing one square away from the stairs, swap weapons, which is a quick action but allows them to take a swing at you, and then move on to the stair tile. There's a reasonably good, but not guaranteed chance that it will still be recuperating from its swing and wont be able to follow you next to the stairs, and you can escape.

[Serne]

On a caster NEVER EVER have one of your big attack spells situated directly next to an important buff(like haste) OR in a key binding that is directly next to that buff because you might just accidentally kill yourself or buff the big bad due to a missed keystroke(I hasted Gloorx accidentally... I've never burned through 3 blink scrolls that fast in my LIFE)

[AtT]

Just because it is your last blink scroll doesn't mean that the game is worth losing trying to save it (for use when you "really" need it).

[Blade]

When casting a cloud spell with limited range such as freezing cloud, it's a good idea to remember that clouds can't be in areas with other clouds. This means that, if there is a monster at the very edge of your LoS, you can cast one cloud fairly close to yourself, leaving a bit of the edge of your range open. Then, on your next turn, cast the spell at the edge of your range; the clouds from the previous spell mean that your second casting will extend further than otherwise possible.

Hope that makes sense.

[jejorda2]

Yyou can cast one cloud fairly close to yourself, leaving a bit of the edge of your range open. Then, on your next turn, cast the spell at the edge of your range; the clouds from the previous spell mean that your second casting will extend further than otherwise possible.

And you can use mephitic cloud or conjure flame for the first spell in this tactic if you are low on food or MP.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

You can reassign your spells (=s) to capital letters (Shift+letters). Useful for Revivification and buff spells that don't give you the last chance to abort them.

[XuaXua]

You can reassign your spells (=s) to capital letters (Shift+letters). Useful for Revivification and buff spells that don't give you the last chance to abort them.

My next post to this thread was going to discuss '=s' to tactically assign spells. I bind attack spells to the z row, defense spells to the q row, and summon/utility spells to the a row.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

I used
the z-row (z, x, c) for the Most Useful Spells (Hibernate-Confuse-Enslave for Enchanters, Throw Flame -- Mystic Blast -- Liquid Flames for Fire Elementalists...),
the a-row for the more powerful but still frequent-to-use conjurations (Fireball, Fire Storm, Invisibility, Poisonous Cloud...) and for summoning,
and the q-row for the enchantments (Regeneration, Deflect/Repel Missiles, Swiftness/Haste, Flight).

The same principle can be used in Tiles, only that you might want to arrange them in alphabetic order if you use mouse more than keyboard.

[CommanderC]

If you are worshipping Beogh, I'm pretty sure this will very useful:

  Code:

force_more_message = You are confused

[Yet Another Stupid Noob]

Different poster made this comment, but if you are levitating then weapons with the electric brand will not proc when used on you. (Nick, and any other unique that happens to have that brand.)