Crawl 0.15: Terrifying, Ever-Gnashing Radulae

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Crawl 0.15: Terrifying, Ever-Gnashing Radulae

Tollymain: Jul 9, 2010; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Carcer posted:

Having played offline for a while, and having lost more characters than I care to remember, I'm dipping my toe into online trunk.

What makes Vinestalkers so good? I tried them a bit and while they aren't bad, I don't see them as good as a minotaur, hill orc, gargoyle or merfolk for sheer kill-everythingness.

They're very, very good at surviving. They have a really strong auxiliary attack with an intrinsic antimagic brand that also adds pretty big chunks of MP to their bar, which is basically HP due to their guardian spirit mutation. They also end up getting regeneration 3 as an intrinsic mutation as well. They don't get any Heal Wounds panic buttons to make up for those strengths, but they're still really durable. Also as a hybrid they can often regain their MP after expending it all by mixing it up in melee for just a couple rounds. I need to try that kind of build myself still.

My first (and so far only) win was with a VSBe that shivved everything to death with a quickblade of electrocution. I think but am not entirely sure that the rate their auxiliary procs is indirectly based on their weapon delay, that was at least the idea behind using short blades.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 10:48

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 07:58

apple: May 18, 2003; Jose in the club wearing orange suspenders

Carcer posted:

Having played offline for a while, and having lost more characters than I care to remember, I'm dipping my toe into online trunk.

What makes Vinestalkers so good? I tried them a bit and while they aren't bad, I don't see them as good as a minotaur, hill orc, gargoyle or merfolk for sheer kill-everythingness.

To add to Tollymain, regeneration + MP drain is ridiculously useful at minimizing piety decay since you have very little downtime between fights. Killing poo poo constantly is important to get god gifts often from Trog/Okawaru, and you also get to spam your god abilities more often since it's easy to keep your piety maxed out. You basically have a ghetto amulet of faith because of how little they care about damage once a fight's done. :getin:

e: Another less obvious benefit is that if you're taking a severe beating, resting a lot in a safe floor is a lot less likely to get out-of-depth spawns, since you spend a lot less time resting.

apple fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Oct 17, 2014

# ? Oct 17, 2014 10:58

Angry Diplomat: Nov 7, 2009; Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging

I'll just play a single floor of this zig before I start work. What could go wrong?

quote:

You block the ball of steam.
BONNNG! You hear a chilling moan. You hear a chilling moan. You hear a roar!
You hear a shout! x2
You hear a chilling moan. You hear a shout! You hear a roar! You hear a roar!
You hear a roar! You hear a chilling moan. You hear a shout! You hear a shout!
You hear a shout! You hear a roar! You hear a shout! You hear a roar!
You hear a shout! x2
You hear a chilling moan. You hear a roar! You hear a shout! You hear a roar!
You hear a shout! You hear a roar! You hear a chilling moan. You hear a roar!
You hear a chilling moan. x4
You hear a shout! You hear a roar! You hear a shout! You hear a shout!
You hear a shout! x4
You hear a roar! x3
You hear a shout! You hear a roar! You hear a shout! You hear a shout!
You hear a roar! You hear a chilling moan. You hear a roar! You hear a roar!
You hear a chilling moan. You hear a shout! You hear a roar! You hear a roar!
You hear a roar! You hear a shout! You hear a shout! You hear a shout!
You hear a chilling moan. You hear a roar! You hear a roar! You hear a shout!
_You hear a roar! You hear a chilling moan. You hear a roar!

e: holy gently caress there are a lot of Shadow Fiends here, I'm gonna save and come back to this later

e2: ahahaha according to my dump I've killed 142 Pan lords so far :v:

Angry Diplomat fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Oct 17, 2014

# ? Oct 17, 2014 13:22

Heithinn Grasida: Mar 28, 2005; ...must attack and fall upon them with a gallant bearing and a fearless heart, and, if possible, vanquish and destroy them, even though they have for armour the shells of a certain fish, that they say are harder than diamonds, and in place of swords wield trenchant blades of Damascus steel...

Phinneus Periwinkle posted:

Just got my 2nd rune (From doing snake without poison resist no less) and I'm looking for a little advice before carrying on.

I've only made it this far once before in an older version and unfortunately thought doing slime without rmut or rcorrosion was a good idea. Is there any resistances I should be stacking before going into vaults? Also is there a particular dungeon level I should clear to, as at the moment I've only cleared D12.

I have 3 scrolls of acquirement so I'm also unclear if I should be using them for better armour or to try and get some good wands.

My character:
http://imgur.com/m5EN5Wa

Absolutely clear the dungeon to 15. It's usually best to do that before entering lair branches, although D: 15 can sometimes be a little scary. After that, I'd go into vaults through 4, then clear depths all the way down, then do vaults 5. Crypt and Elf are places you might consider going, but you don't have to. When it's safe to do them is something that depends on your character, and I never play straight melee characters, so I can't offer much advice. It's always better to try them too late rather than too early, and you can always leave and never come back if you find things getting too scary. Don't do Elf without at least one source of MR, though, unless you want to visit the abyss.

In terms of resists, you're pretty good. Magic resistance is the most important for Vaults, followed by fire. If you can get a source of cold resistance, it will help, but if not then just be careful and you should be fine. You might consider swapping your armor out for something lighter. Merfolk have amazing dodging aptitudes and are terrible with armor. +1 chain mail doesn't offer much defense and your defenses are generally mediocre. One thing to note if you do drop that armor (I would, it's got poor defenses and you can live without any of its randart bonuses) is that with your current MR, you should be nearly immune to being marked by vault sentinels. But without the MR on that armor, they will be able to get you, and it will really suck. If you drop the armor, try and stomp vault sentinels as soon as you see them.

How much shield skill do you have? As a general rule, one point of SH is strictly worse than a point of either AC or EV. If you have found a shield with a resist on it, it might well be better to stop training shields and use that rather than the large shield. My experience is that large shields are a horrible trap that suck up all your XP and give you almost nothing in return. The only times I've ever used them and not regretted it were with zig clearing casters who had nothing else to spend XP on.

For your acquirement scrolls, the "correct" thing to do is use them on wands. A wand of healing or a wand of hasting will give you the most benefit out of anything you are remotely likely to get. What will actually happen is that you'll get two wands of magic darts and one of random effects and really wish you had spent the scrolls on armor. But if you spent them on armor, you'd get three -4 bucklers and wish you'd spent them on wands. I personally would go for armor in this case because it would be more fun. But wands are the default option for acquirement if you haven't found hasting/heal wounds.

Tollymain posted:

They're very, very good at surviving. They have a really strong auxiliary attack with an intrinsic antimagic brand that also adds pretty big chunks of MP to their bar, which is basically HP due to their guardian spirit mutation. They also end up getting regeneration 3 as an intrinsic mutation as well. They don't get any Heal Wounds panic buttons to make up for those strengths, but they're still really durable. Also as a hybrid they can often regain their MP after expending it all by mixing it up in melee for just a couple rounds. I need to try that kind of build myself still.

My first (and so far only) win was with a VSBe that shivved everything to death with a quickblade of electrocution. I think but am not entirely sure that the rate their auxiliary procs is indirectly based on their weapon delay, that was at least the idea behind using short blades.

They have a chance to bite with each attack based on their stats: it's something like (str+dex)/50, but not exactly that because Crawl. This means that to maximize your bites, a fast weapon is indeed ideal. A vinestalker with a quickblade actually deals very serious damage that is competitive with most two-handed weapons, but gets to use a shield and only needs 8 levels in its primary weapon skill. That leaves a whole lot more XP to put into casting or defenses. It's cool that in this one case in Crawl light and fast weapons are as good or better than big and heavy weapons.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 13:38

cigaw: Sep 13, 2012

PF: I've got a minor tiles nitpick/bug/feature here. I'm playing offline tiles (v. 0.15.0) and I've noticed that when you save a game while in Lichform it screws up the paperdoll by your save. It shows up as your native species, holding your weapon but with no armor slots equiped (except for shields). So, you know, naked.

I only noticed this today, with a DEFE; though I don't think I've ever saved a game while in Lichform before.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 14:10

Angry Diplomat: Nov 7, 2009; Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging

Is there an rcfile option to replace the lichform player tile with the lil ghosty guy tile? This is important.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 14:28

amuayse: Jul 20, 2013; by exmarx

Wow, I spent most of the last round randomly collapsing and seizing up but incapable of dying as I had over 500 units of atropine and omnizine inside me. I healed near instantly.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 14:37

Brannock: Feb 9, 2006; by exmarx; Fallen Rib

amuayse posted:

Wow, I spent most of the last round randomly collapsing and seizing up but incapable of dying as I had over 500 units of atropine and omnizine inside me. I healed near instantly.

See, Death's Door is way better than Necromutation.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 14:40

Phinneus Periwinkle: Jan 17, 2010

Heithinn Grasida posted:

Amazing Advice

Thanks for the tips, it's all stuff I'll keep in mind, also my shield skill was around 20 which I leveled the first time my shield of reflection caused a yaktaur shoot to himself in the face.

Unfortunately my idea to take a break and wait for some advice lasted for about 5 minutes before I got back into it. The end result?

http://imgur.com/eGTgNvC
:woop:

My first win!

Seriously Yred is amazing, though your buddies get a bit weak around vault 5. While depths onwards was a bit of a slog (though zot was quite easy) the orb run is incredibly easy as you generally have 20+ zombies on every level to body block anyone who pisses you off. Pretty sure my Yred followers would've done better had I had a wand of haste or been able to work out how to get my ghouls to equip themselves, but in the early/mid game profane servitors and bone dragons are ridiculously overpowered.

Also that +1 chainmail you called mediocre? I wore that to zot 5. Does that make me an idiot?

Yes.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 15:22

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

At what point to you swap +10 PDA for +11 chain {rC+ rF+}. I have no cold or fire resists.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 15:25

Araganzar: May 24, 2003; Needs more cowbell!; Fun Shoe

Heithinn Grasida posted:

For your acquirement scrolls, the "correct" thing to do is use them on wands. A wand of healing or a wand of hasting will give you the most benefit out of anything you are remotely likely to get. What will actually happen is that you'll get two wands of magic darts and one of random effects and really wish you had spent the scrolls on armor. But if you spent them on armor, you'd get three -4 bucklers and wish you'd spent them on wands. I personally would go for armor in this case because it would be more fun. But wands are the default option for acquirement if you haven't found hasting/heal wounds.

Are you a wand salesman? You're a wand salesman, aren't you? I can always spot a wand salesman.

Phinneas, you are playing a race that is terrible at armour(-3) and FANTASTIC at dodging(+3), you have 24 dex, and you are wearing chain which has reduced your EV to 5. You want to be wearing at the very most ring mail/mottled/troll leather/swamp dragon armour until you have the budget to get Armour to 10-12, which in 3-5 runes is NEVER. MR++ is nice but you have MR+ on your cloak. Chain is keeping you from casting any spells, which offer you more survivability than a little AC at the expense of everything else. Heavy armour with merfolk armour apts also means extra delays/misses on melee attacks. IMO you are going to die to the first thing you see with a beam attack and an attitude.

Five of six of your armour slots are therefore terrible. You have +10 slaying and a freeze demon trident which is as ideal as it gets for a merfolk. You don't have cold, electric, poison, or mut resist and no sinv. Ideally you want these to come from armour since your rings are incredible. You also probably want a shield with a desirable ego since you have so few resists from jewelry and demon trident with +17/+17 and rising is plenty good to win with. Spectral Weapon would be beyond godly with your gear.

Almost all crawl players I know use something approaching the following rules:
- Is there stuff in the shop you really really want? ACQUIRE GOLD
- Is Evoke higher than any spell skill and you don't have great rods yet? ACQUIRE STAFF
- Are you a conjurer/elementalist, your damage feels low, your preferred school is your highest skill, and you don't have a good elemental or general stave yet? ACQUIRE STAFF
- Are you missing major egos, egos in armour slots, or somewhat optimal body armour? ACQUIRE ARMOUR
- Goddamit, freaking Oka you POS? WEAPON
- Is your armour good and your jewelry terrible, and are you missing key resists or only missing 2-3 valuable jewelry items? ACQUIRE JEWELRY
- Are you set on gear but you STILL not found goddamn Irradiate? ACQUIRE BOOK

Since you have 0 spells memorized, Staff or Armour are the likely choices. Rods are currently fantastic. Of the 8 rods available: 4 (lightning, inaccuracy, clouds, ignition) are devastatingly good, three are moderately useful (destruction, swarm, shadows), and only one (striking) is :negative:

. Rod weighting on acquirement is straight up so 50% chance of getting something amazing and only 12.5% of having a good cry. If you are not already swimming in evocables it is the best choice.

Book acquirement can also be useful for a non-caster, as it will most likely get you a manual. Manuals for a random skill weighted based on your non-magic skill values, and skills proscribed by your religion are given half weighting.

Early (pre-XL21-24) wand acquirement, on the other hand, has around a 15% chance each of getting you Heal Wounds or Hasting. Heal Wounds is great but at XL18 a good armour piece or a good rod will keep you from having to actually USE heals. It also does not keep you alive when you had heal pots, where armor and rods are useful nearly every fight. Later in the game when gear is secure, an acquire on a missing heal or haste wand will have up to a 30% success rate, 60% if missing both. Until then, it is as much as crap shoot as anything, and your chance of getting something good from a Staff or Armour acquirement does not have to be very high to make either a more appealing choice.

I would guess bias towards wand acquirement comes from speedruns/score attack players who pick up far fewer potions and evocables and for whom xp spent in evocations is non-trivial and for whom a heal, haste, hex, or high damage wand is a godsend.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 16:09

Araganzar: May 24, 2003; Needs more cowbell!; Fun Shoe

BigFactory posted:

At what point to you swap +10 PDA for +11 chain {rC+ rF+}. I have no cold or fire resists.

Never, look at your avatar and learn to be a real man who uses good old fashioned pearl dragon and doesn't lean on resists. (I would be using the chain until I found rF. How do you have +10 PDA and no rF? Are you an ogre/spriggan/troll?)

edit: Yeah, wear the +11 chain, which lets you go to rF++ or rC++ on demand with fire/ice without creating a vulnerability.

Araganzar fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Oct 17, 2014

# ? Oct 17, 2014 16:12

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Araganzar posted:

Never, look at your avatar and learn to be a real man who uses good old fashioned pearl dragon and doesn't lean on resists. (I would be using the chain until I found rF. How do you have +10 PDA and no rF? Are you an ogre/spriggan/troll?)

gargoyle. I had rF++, but Xom taketh away. I've only found rings of fire/ice, so those don't help. I can get rC++ from a +11 elec war axe, which would be fine if it wasn't a war axe. I could probably find a shield with some rF+, too, if I went that route. I'll take my +9 freezing executioner's axe, though.

Still have V:5 to clear, so maybe I'll find some resists there.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 16:27

heard u like girls: Mar 25, 2013

Any word on Lantea? It's been down for quite a while now

# ? Oct 17, 2014 16:39

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

BigFactory posted:

At what point to you swap +10 PDA for +11 chain {rC+ rF+}. I have no cold or fire resists.

Immediately, unless you absolutely need the PDA for casting some absolutely vital spells.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 17:06

Pvt.Scott: Feb 16, 2007; What God wants, God gets, God help us all

So, do most of you guys play on cszo? I might spectate one of these days and soak in divine wisdom while listening to some chill tunes.

What music do you usually listen to while Crawling? Conelrad's (goon-made and free) ambient stuff and NIN's Ghosts I-IV make for a reasonably dark and moody feel. Nothing feels better than some flavor of metal on a Trog worshiper, though.

E: I ask because music is a big part of my life and I tend to find that I listen to different things depending on what games I'm playing or what art/writing I'm working on. Plus it's a good way to find new music when you ask strangers.

Pvt.Scott fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Oct 17, 2014

# ? Oct 17, 2014 18:43

heard u like girls: Mar 25, 2013

Diablo I, II and Quake I soundtracks.

Or just the Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas OST

# ? Oct 17, 2014 19:00

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Pvt.Scott posted:

So, do most of you guys play on cszo? I might spectate one of these days and soak in divine wisdom while listening to some chill tunes.

What music do you usually listen to while Crawling? Conelrad's (goon-made and free) ambient stuff and NIN's Ghosts I-IV make for a reasonably dark and moody feel. Nothing feels better than some flavor of metal on a Trog worshiper, though.

E: I ask because music is a big part of my life and I tend to find that I listen to different things depending on what games I'm playing or what art/writing I'm working on. Plus it's a good way to find new music when you ask strangers.

Sports talk radio mostly.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 19:04

Angry Diplomat: Nov 7, 2009; Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging

Pvt.Scott posted:

So, do most of you guys play on cszo? I might spectate one of these days and soak in divine wisdom while listening to some chill tunes.

If you want to spectate right now, hit me up (username Diplomat), because I'm currently continuing my lunatic orbrun third-zig clear attempt. Just finished floor 21!

e: I'm about to enter the final floor!!

Angry Diplomat fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Oct 17, 2014

# ? Oct 17, 2014 19:11

Brannock: Feb 9, 2006; by exmarx; Fallen Rib

# ? Oct 17, 2014 19:37

Mr. Lobe: Feb 23, 2007; ... Dry bones...

Pvt.Scott posted:

So, do most of you guys play on cszo? I might spectate one of these days and soak in divine wisdom while listening to some chill tunes.

What music do you usually listen to while Crawling? Conelrad's (goon-made and free) ambient stuff and NIN's Ghosts I-IV make for a reasonably dark and moody feel. Nothing feels better than some flavor of metal on a Trog worshiper, though.

E: I ask because music is a big part of my life and I tend to find that I listen to different things depending on what games I'm playing or what art/writing I'm working on. Plus it's a good way to find new music when you ask strangers.

I sometimes listen to the Tactics Ogre PSP soundtrack. Or In The Court of the Crimson King on loop.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 20:24

Angry Diplomat: Nov 7, 2009; Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging

code:

    11034839 Diplomat the Genius of the Arcane (level 27, 97/204 HPs)
             Began as a Deep Elf Conjurer on Sept 29, 2014.
             Was the Champion of Sif Muna.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 15 runes on Oct 17, 2014!

             The game lasted 1day 04:10:29 (158524 turns).

Welp I did it. I orb megazigged and then walked out of the dungeon victorious.

e: omniresistant and with all four level 9 elemental spells reliable, too!

# ? Oct 17, 2014 20:50

Roctavian: Feb 23, 2011

Pvt.Scott posted:

So, do most of you guys play on cszo? I might spectate one of these days and soak in divine wisdom while listening to some chill tunes.

What music do you usually listen to while Crawling? Conelrad's (goon-made and free) ambient stuff and NIN's Ghosts I-IV make for a reasonably dark and moody feel. Nothing feels better than some flavor of metal on a Trog worshiper, though.

E: I ask because music is a big part of my life and I tend to find that I listen to different things depending on what games I'm playing or what art/writing I'm working on. Plus it's a good way to find new music when you ask strangers.

I have these short periods of free time these days, and I've found that playing Crawl for just one album is the ideal kind of play session.
recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td-Xzg5DDFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXA22VkUA4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBr_rAfAZQw

# ? Oct 17, 2014 21:07

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I play tom waits's discography so it escalates from fairly peaceful but sad songs like "old shoes" in the early dungeon, to rough shanty songs like "singapore" in shoals, to angry vicious been through hell ballads like "hell broke luce" as I face extended or zot.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 21:10

Brannock: Feb 9, 2006; by exmarx; Fallen Rib

I find myself doing Slime and Elf a lot those days, since I don't think Vault's reward is really commensurate to the danger level it presents. As such, I've figured out ways to handle them with a minimum of risk, without needing to be level 27 and packing a mass amount of resistances.

Elf:3 is easily defeatable with a killhole, as has become common knowledge those days. Luring the elves one by one into your rumble ring is tedious though. Use scrolls of noise! Read one, retreat into the hole, and kill a couple dozen elves. Read another one, retreat, and kill another couple dozen elves. Enjoy your loot, at least until the devs decide to give deep elven sorcerers Dig.

Slime is a bit trickier, because the royal jelly has a habit of wiggling away from you when it sheds jellies and the ?vuln/polymorph trick isn't particularly reliable even at high Evocations. (I've never managed to get it to work.) What I do here is find a square corner on the outside of the vault, likewise:

Standing in that corner means you're exposed to at most three tiles at once, which is a good deal easier to handle than eight tiles of threat. I also find it a lot more reliable to deal with than standing in the corridor, because once you've killed TRJ you can /dig or /disint backwards one single tile and funnel the rest of his minions into a 1v1 battle like I've done above. ?summoning and spamming evocables also helps screen you from TRJ's children.

Square corners don't always spawn, in which case you're out of luck and have to do it the hard way! :kiddo:

Of the five regular runes I think the Vaults rune is by far the most difficult and dangerous to grab, and I'm surprised that it's the standard third rune. Abyss isn't too bad as long as you have a good sense of whether or not you'll be in danger 10-15 turns from now, and a good portion of characters have the right resistances and beef to handle Slime.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 21:18

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

Will the plutonium sword get me killed or what?

# ? Oct 17, 2014 21:20

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

cheetah7071 posted:

Will the plutonium sword get me killed or what?

Isn't it basically all upside now? Just don't take it off unless you have to.

# ? Oct 17, 2014 21:26

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

According to wiki and learndb, it can polymorph enemies. On the other hand I'm using a +14 triple sword that occasionally does extra damage so I guess I shouldn't complain. Almost certainly better than +3 branded double sword + mediocre shield.

FR: double/triple swords cut off extra hydra heads.

e: haha just turned a ghost moth into an emperor scorpion, this is rad.

ee: wolf spider into ghost crab, never taking this thing off

eee: death yak->seven-headed hydra is less rad.

cheetah7071 fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Oct 17, 2014

# ? Oct 17, 2014 21:35

Brannock: Feb 9, 2006; by exmarx; Fallen Rib

Win #15!

code:

2989679 Brannock the Chief of Staff (level 27, 199/199 HPs)
             Began as a Gargoyle Gladiator on Oct 17, 2014.
             Was the Champion of Okawaru.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 5 runes!
             
             The game lasted 04:47:09 (77487 turns).

Nothing too exciting or atypical, really. Highlight of this game is getting abyssed twice in a row by the same monster. I took it as a message from the Crawl gods and went to grab the abyssal rune. (I got abyssed again a third time on Elf: 2.)

code:

 40523 | Shoals:5 | Cast into the Abyss (merfolk aquamancer)
 41473 | Shoals:5 | Escaped the Abyss
 42057 | Shoals:5 | Cast into the Abyss (merfolk aquamancer)
 43616 | Abyss:3  | Got an abyssal rune of Zot
 43815 | Shoals:5 | Escaped the Abyss
 43834 | Shoals:5 | Got a barnacled rune of Zot

# ? Oct 18, 2014 00:03

Poulpe: Nov 11, 2006; Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Brannock posted:

Nothing too exciting or atypical, really. Highlight of this game is getting abyssed twice in a row by the same monster. I took it as a message from the Crawl gods and went to grab the abyssal rune. (I got abyssed again a third time on Elf: 2.)

I like it when you get banished to the abyss and meet up with an elf less than fifty turns later who then proceeds to banish you further into the abyss.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 00:10

Floodkiller: May 31, 2011

Brannock posted:

Of the five regular runes I think the Vaults rune is by far the most difficult and dangerous to grab, and I'm surprised that it's the standard third rune. Abyss isn't too bad as long as you have a good sense of whether or not you'll be in danger 10-15 turns from now, and a good portion of characters have the right resistances and beef to handle Slime.

Of my wins after the Vaults:5 corner change that made it really risky, my third runes (and gods at the time) are:
9x Silver (2xDD^(Mak, Trog), 1xFo^TSO, 2xOg^(Trog, Chei), 2xMi^(Trog, TSO), 1xDr^Xom, 1xTr^Mak)
5x Slimy (1xDE^Veh, 1xVS^Chei, 1xKo^Trog, 1xNa^Lugonu, 1xFo^TSO)
2x Golden (1xGr^Oka, 1xDg w/statue form)

From that trend, it seems like I mostly chose Vaults for tanky melee characters (who do well for surviving a long time in a meat grinder), did Slime when I was too squishy to take on V:5 (with exceptions: the naga was because I just corrupted and ninja'd the rune instead of fighting, and the formicid had a cloak of preservation/TSO summons), and did Tomb when I had rTorment+rRot. The lack of abyssal rune, even on the NaAK, is because I never know when it is a bad time to fight in the Abyss at lower levels (almost all the time), so I just avoid it until I can steamroll it.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 01:35

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

Boo bad bazaar vault.
I left my flight ring behind after finishing Swamp.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 02:35

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

Quaff a potion.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 02:51

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

cheetah7071 posted:

Quaff a potion.

None of those either!
I didn't want to waste the inventory space

EDIT: Herp derp I forgot about blinking.
Will this bazaar worth the cost of a blinking scroll? Stay tuned!

EDIT2: No. No it was not.

HisMajestyBOB fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Oct 18, 2014

# ? Oct 18, 2014 04:07

Petanque: Apr 14, 2008; Ca va bien aller

I never liked playing SpEn because I'd always splat myself within the first 10 levels. Now with Dith I'm having a lot more luck, just picked up Spider and Shoals rune by just casting Invis and flying to the runes, then teleporting out. This feels pretty awesome. Not sure what to do for the third rune, though.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 04:34

Kekekela: Oct 28, 2004

John Wilkes Booth posted:

This feels pretty awesome. Not sure what to do for the third rune, though.

Abyss

# ? Oct 18, 2014 05:03

rchandra: Apr 30, 2013

code:

         ..........#..'..........    rchandra the Fencer
         #..##+##..#..#..#######+    Demigod
            +...#..'..#..#.......    Health: 166/166   ========================
            #...#..#..#..#......)    Magic:  35/35     ========================
         #. #...#..#..#..#.......    AC: 36            Str: 31
         #..#...+..#..#..#.......    EV: 11            Int: 12
         #......#..#.!#..#.......    SH:  0            Dex: 18
        ##....8.#..#..#.>#'######    XL: 19 Next: 57%  Place: Elven Halls:2
        ........@..#..#.)).......    Gold: 2606        Time: 77738.3 (22.0)
        ...........#..#^.........    Wp: b) +7 cutlass of Jyhonituecw {elec, +B
         ######+####..####'######    Qv: T) 3 throwing nets
                  ...............    Contam
                  ...............
                  ...............    8   Roxanne
                   ....#####...##
                   ..............
                   ....######'###
_You now have 2606 gold pieces (gained 19).
_l - 7 potions of curing (gained 1)
 Marking area around Roxanne as unsafe for travelling.
 Roxanne, Geomancer Emeritus comes into view.
 Roxanne zaps a wand. You resist with almost no effort.
_It is a wand of paralysis.

Glad I was exploring with my MR weapon out instead of sword of power, exploring into Roxanne paralysis seems bad.

# ? Oct 18, 2014 05:09

PleasingFungus: Oct 10, 2012; idiot asshole bitch who should fuck off

John Wilkes Booth posted:

I never liked playing SpEn because I'd always splat myself within the first 10 levels. Now with Dith I'm having a lot more luck, just picked up Spider and Shoals rune by just casting Invis and flying to the runes, then teleporting out. This feels pretty awesome. Not sure what to do for the third rune, though.

You'll very likely want to go to the Abyss, but probably clear Vaults 1-4 and Depths first.

(The general advice wrt third rune is "tanky characters should do vaults:5, sneaky characters should do abyss, lunatics should do slime". Depends on the exact character, though.)

# ? Oct 18, 2014 05:14

apple: May 18, 2003; Jose in the club wearing orange suspenders

It's me, the scummy mummy:

I found a sewer in D:6, so I decided to become the H.O.M. (Hypothetical Optimal Man, H.A.M. is catchier but more inappropriate) and broke the 5 key after clearing sewers, since special levels won't spawn OOD monsters.

I think I died a little inside

e: http://crawl.berotato.org/crawl/morgue/bananaken/bananaken.txt

apple fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Oct 18, 2014

# ? Oct 18, 2014 08:18

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 6, 2024 07:58

Araganzar: May 24, 2003; Needs more cowbell!; Fun Shoe

apple posted:

I found a sewer in D:6, so I decided to become the H.O.M. (Hypothetical Optimal Man, H.A.M. is catchier but more inappropriate) and broke the 5 key after clearing sewers, since special levels won't spawn OOD monsters.

I think I died a little inside

e: http://crawl.berotato.org/crawl/morgue/bananaken/bananaken.txt

I thought about doing this when Djinn were a thing because presumably you could pick up a stunning set of mutations as well. A spriggan could do this as well with 6,000 turns per bread ration or potion of porridge. Did Xom gift any permafood or porridge pots?

I thought I'd let y'all know about the Crawl Something Death Challenge. You sign up and you get ONE shot at the combo of the week. You have until the 25th to sign up and play the first combo - Merfolk Assassin. If you ever thought to yourself "permadeath and no restores is great but is there anyway I could put more pressure on myself?" well, you have your answer. There are little bonuses based on gods and certain conducts, but you will have more fun if you follow my alternate challenge rules:
1) gently caress it
2) kill poo poo

Araganzar fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Oct 18, 2014

# ? Oct 18, 2014 08:31

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Crawl 0.15: Terrifying, Ever-Gnashing Radulae

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