Seems to me like saying "become a vampire" is not a particularly helpful bit of advice for new adventure mode players.
- Lairs are useful for storing loot to heavy for you to carry with you. The items do not scatter as they normally do when sites are abandoned.
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- Carrying a crutch can 'just in case', can mean the difference between survival or death if you ever lose the ability to stand in a fight.
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- Don't let enemies surround you if you can help it, try to keep as few enemies in combat range of you at any time, with multiple enemies you can easily be knocked over and trapped on the ground. So keep moving while you fight, and pay attention to surroundings - don't get trapped!
- camping outside can be dangerous alone, I always do this at the side of a river, with campfires surrounding me on one side, and the river on the other - so if I'm woken rudely, I simply slip into the river, swim across and escape if need be.
- I prefer to stash my stuff in human keeps and fortresses; it also doesn't scatter, it tends to be easier for my new adventurers to access, and I can peruse the other fortress junk while I'm there.
- Crutches are good to have, but be wary of this bug:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=6032- Avoiding fighting multiple enemies is
very important; stick and move!
- Unless you're prepared to fight boogeymen, never camp outside alone unless you're (as has been mentioned) in a mountain or beach biome. For this reason, it's not a bad idea to plan long trips along mountain ranges or coastlines. As boogeymen teleport, a river will not help you.
- If you must travel at night alone, it is a far better bet to sneak all the way rather than fast travel. Boogeymen can still appear, but if your ambusher is high enough they may not spot you. In that case, I'd recommend waiting (using '.') until morning; while you can keep moving, boogeymen teleport, so if you sneak past them they will reappear again ahead of you, potentially in a better position to spot you.
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-Steel weaponry can be found in an unmodded game on the bodies of zombie dwarves, or sometimes live kobolds if you're not playing a Dwarf. Best bet is to locate a Necromancer tower and lure the zombies out, and then kill them off one by one and only loot the Dwarf corpses. This requires a Legendary status in every defensive skill as they can swarm you very fast, since zombies can charge.
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-Spears have the best critical hit bonus. And I think they can be wielded one handed? Not sure about that one, since you can always remove shields from your backpack and that automatically assigns them to one of your hands.
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-Steel weaponry (and dwarven-sized armor, steel or otherwise) can also be found in the lairs of werebeasts/night creatures, with the former being
much easier to kill than a massive horde of zombies.
- Spears are indeed one-handed; pikes are two-handed.
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- The catacombs underneath the fort at the centre of a town have a HUGE amount of free metal armour, metal weapons, and other mish mash. They do have bandits and outcasts too though, so be careful! But the bandits and outcasts are not usually near where you enter, they are normally deep in the catacombs. Honestly, taking gear from the catacombs, and from fortresses is all I do; I've never bothered to buy and sell in shops.
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Yeah, I almost never interact with the economy. Fortress/keeps are a great place for gear when starting out, and once you can take on bandits the dungeons/catacombs are full of stuff. In my expierence, fortress/keep stuff can be of higher quality than what you find in a dungeon. Bandits and outcasts are usually not nearby when you enter, but can be, and will mess you up if you haven't trained with that plate armor you're wearing.
Other stuff:
- As the Armor User skill increases, your armor becomes easier to carry, increasing you speed (very important). At a high enough level (master?) armor no longer weighs anything at all.
- Their are power leveling techniques, both in this thread and elsewhere, if you're looking to rapidly boost your skills. The easiest one to my mind, provided you have a decent ambush skill, a shield and a full set of armor, is to find some animal - nothing too dangerous, maybe badger or below (crabs, owls, rabbits are especially harmless). Set combat preferences ('C') to close combat (so you don't counterstrike with a weapon), stand ground (so you don't jump away, as the animal will probably run once their is separation) and stand ground (ditto). Get next to the target animal, reveal yourself, and wait ('.') a LOT. Maybe learn how to make a simple macro from the wiki. Watch the animal helplessly batter your armor-plated form, smack your shield, or somehow miss you despite your not moving; your skills will skyrocket.
- I find at least some degree of ambusher useful, especially early on, although I tend to not use it once I'm powerful enough.
- For the novice, make a swordsman. It's the easiest, generally speaking.
-If engaging a large group of bandits, goblins or even koboloids, I would recommend two stratagems:
- If you are confident you can take the force in front of you, make a beeline for any archers and take them out asap - either by killing, disarming with wrestling or just lopping off hands. The rest should be easy enough to handle at that point.
- If you don't think you can take them, either because of numbers or being caught offguard in an ambush, run. All you companions being massacred? Too bad, run. Provided you're not really slow, and you have companions to preform a valiant rearguard, you should be able to high-tail it out of their.
- Also, if you're just starting, take your time. Learn the game. Have several adventurers die. It's horrifically complicated, after all.