Welcome dungeon crawlers one and all! It’s been over two months since our last update. Things have been a bit slower around the Dungeon as of late, but in such a long time we’ve managed to accrue quite a list of notable changes:

  • Gods
    • Gozag
      • Branch bribing works on any intelligent monster in the branch, based on HD and a branch factor.
      • Branch allies are permanent, but won’t leave their home branch.
      • You can bribe the Dungeon, Depths, Tomb, Crypt, and Pan now! Greed is good.
    • Ashenzari
      • Reskilling ability now costs less piety and works faster, and can reduce skill levels to 0.
      • The Scrying ability is granted at 1* piety, the passive skill boost at 2*, and SInv at 3*.
    • Xom makes fewer chaos clouds. You’re welcome.
    • Ru’s Sacrifice Eye gives only one amulet’s worth of inaccuracy penalty.
    • All altar-based abilities have been moved to the ability menu, and are hence immediately usable when granted: Zin’s Donate Gold and Cure All Mutations, Kiku’s Bless Weapon and Gift Necronomicon, Lugonu’s Bless Weapon, and The Shining One’s Bless Weapon.
  • Monsters
    • New monster: Juggernauts, terrifying giants that lurk in Depths. They move quickly and deliver fantastically punishing blows, but must rest after each attack. Don’t get jugged!
    • Death cobs now have a hunger draining attack and deal significant damage. Don’t get cobbed!
    • Hunger draining attacks on Hungry Ghosts and Death Cobs apply whenever the attack hits, not only if damage is done.
    • Polyphemus can literally (1st definition) throw his Yaks at the player. We’re just as amazed as you are.
    • Salamander genus monsters now all move normal speed and are fast in lava. Because that’s how it is in nature.
    • Demonspawn Warmongers no longer cast Grand Avatar and can sometimes generate with a shield.
    • Salamander Stormcallers’ Firestorm spell does more damage.
    • Monsters have lost some relatively ineffective spells like Animate Dead, Simulacrum, and Hellwings no longer have Teleport Other.
    • Polar bears, Black Bears, and your common backyard Kraken no longer try to flee at low HP.
    • Wolves and Wargs have been taking howling classes and can now howl competently.
    • Wandering Mushrooms no longer spawn as hostile monsters, but you can still make them through Fedhas.
    • Lots of new tiles for things like Giants, Smoke demons, Crocodiles, Quokkas, and terrible 3-headed serpents that lurk in the very Hells beneath.
  • Player and Dungeon (for they are one…)
    • Corrosion applies -4 to both AC and Slaying instead of -5 and -3 respectively.
    • Most random feature mimics are gone, save for those mimicing shops and portals.
  • Spells
    • Darkness is now level 5 instead of level 6! That’s an entire spell level of terrific savings!
    • Casting Haunt no longer causes Sickness. We were….sick of it.
    • Casting Malign Gateway no longer drains Int. We hope….you get the hInt.
    • The Corpse Rot spell rots all corpses in LOS, not just those 5 tiles away.
    • Ozocubu’s Armor and Stoneskin now no longer give respective bonuses to Ice Form and Statue Form.
    • The Singularity spell is no more. Don’t worry about the Moon Troll, he’s been practicing his Caustic Bolt.
  • Items
    • The Sack of Spiders has a better spider distribution that’s been certified by spider actuaries. It makes more appropriate spiders at the low and high ends of evocations and fewer ally-nuking orb spiders.
    • The Crown of Eternal Torment is gone. May discussions as to whether it was OP or Meme torment us no more…
    • The Ephemeral Infusion effect is no more. The Elixir card now directly heals allies, and Demonspawn Bloodsaints don’t need it, since they no longer lose HP when casting Legendary Destruction.
    • High-level spellbooks no longer restrict learning or identification based on spell skills.
    • The contamination over time from Maxwell’s Cage has been reduced by 20%.

We’ll try to have at least monthly updates from now on. Don’t forget to let it end in Hellfire!