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[EnigmaticHat]

I just began this game. (It's more a PTW, actually).
Any advice ?

Be ready to run from any situation that might result in your death.  Monsters usually move the same speed as you and if they're next to you can follow you up or down stairs, so if you don't have a way to disengage then its best to run before you get into melee range.  If you want to risk it you should use at least one buff potion before the fight to give yourself a boost.  Named uniques, 3+ enemies that would each be a credible threat on their own, or something you've never fought before are all red flags that you might die soon if you don't do something.

Usually you want to have as many skill points as you can afford dumped into your main weapon skill at any given time.

The difference between a strong race/background combination and a merely mediocre one is immense.  A Troll Berserker or a Minotaur Hunter or several other combos are going to be way way WAY easier than something like a Halfling Fighter or a Tengu Artificer.  Simply because crawl is balanced to kill you even if you're running a really great starting setup, if you come in with a mediocre setup you're just making a hard thing harder.

[Arcvasti]

I just began this game. (It's more a PTW, actually).
Any advice ?

MiFi of Gozag would be my recommended starter. You could easily go with DsFi or GrFi too, they're both solid and relatively simple. Makhleb or Okawaru would be other good "I want to win" gods. Once you're more experienced, then Ru or Uskayaw are other solid gods.

General tips:

-Try not to move towards enemies on general principle. Walk away or wait instead. If they're sleeping, throw rocks[Or more damaging projectiles] to wake them up.
-Go into Lair as soon as you can. Its generally fairly simple, especially with rPois, although you may want to save the final level for later, since its a fair difficulty jump.
-Weapon choice doesn't really matter that much, but maces/flails are the best for raw damage and don't cut off hydra heads
-Don't bother with large shields and prioritize getting good resists on your shield.
-Generally go with the highest AC+EV armour you can wear, with some exceptions. You want MR the most and ideally at least one level in all other resistances besides rCorr.
-As far as skilling: Maces to 10, Fighting to 8, Maces to 16 and then just train Fighting, Dodging, Armour and Shields[Only train Shields until 15].
-This is a game where you don't NEED a ranged option per se, but they can still be quite helpful. Throwing and Evocations are the two big contenders: I prefer Evocations, but that's because I irrationally detest physical ranged combat. You'll probably still want 10-12 Evocations skill for ally evokers either way.
-If you don't recognize an enemy, examine it with x-v. Crawl is generally pretty good about telling you about enemy capabilities
-Particularly watch out for any enemy with the following spells: Confusion, Paralysis, Banishment, Blink Allies Close and Smiting. There are probably a few nasty spells that I'm forgetting, but all of the above spells can easily end your game. Lure said enemy around a corner so you can isolate them and deal with them. Or just run away and re-enter the level through a distant upstairs, especially if they have Banishment at a good success rate.
-Once you get to around 1/3 hp, escape with everything at your disposal. Most escapes have a bit of a delay and waiting until you're almost dead will get you all the way dead more often then not.
-Once you're done Lair, your branch order should look something like this: Dungeon>Orc>Non-Slime Lair Branches>Vaults 1-4>Depths>Elf>Vaults 5>Zot>Escape the dungeon. You might want to do Elf 1-2 before Depths if you still don't have an eveningstar or a demon whip, but the casters in there can be quite dangerous.
-In general, any weapon brand besides Protection, Venom and Pain is good, although a highly enchanted weapon of those types may still be worth using temporarily.
-Don't trust the wiki too much: Large sections are out of date and the guides are hit-or-miss. The Crawl bots, Bay12 and x-v should be more then enough to inform you.

[Retropunch]

Agree with all the above, my only things I'd say is:

- Ranged is pretty necessary. Get throwing up and a few javelins/throwing axes and you can soften up stuff a lot before it gets to you (even with a relatively low skill level). What turned me from 3 runes games to 9 rune games was the realisation that just sitting and waiting isn't often the best option. Throwing stuff, casting minor offensive spells or buffs is nearly always better than just skipping turns - even if you just shave off a few hp, it's much better than not. There's also a few enemies that move very fast or you'll struggle to get near - having a ranged attack is very useful for this.

- Venom is really good (unless it was recently nerfed) in the early and mid game, and doubly good if you're a fast race. As mentioned, most stuff moves the same speed as you, so if you poison it you can just walk away until it either dies or stops being poisoned (at which point you can rinse and repeat). It's cheesing, but it works. Other brands can be more useful, and things like holy brand are extremely good in certain situations.

- It's nearly always better to drag enemies up stairs rather than walking around/fighting them on an unexplored floor. Walking head on into a gnoll pack is never fun when you're trying to outrun something nasty.

-  Use buff potions liberally - especially ones that you won't need to rely on. You'll get tons (check how many Graven had!) and won't use them if you cling onto them.

[Inarius]

Thank you for all your advice ! I hope i will have fun (but, more probably, !!FUN!!) with it !

[Arcvasti]

An example of the kind of build I'm talking about, from a fair ways into the game. While this one is a Demonspawn, instead of a Minotaur like I suggested, the main difference is that the Minotaur would have higher skills and hp, but less mutations.

Code: [Select]

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.19-a0-1937-g70ed36a (tiles) character file.

cats the Bludgeoner (Demonspawn Fighter)           Turns: 48918, Time: 01:36:32

Health: 140/140    AC: 31    Str: 20    XL:     17   Next: 38%
Magic:  17/17      EV: 12    Int: 10    God:    Gozag
Gold:   3854       SH:  0    Dex: 19    Spells: 2 memorised, 12 levels left

rFire  + . .      SeeInvis .    a - +6 great mace (crush)
rCold  + . .      Gourm    .    Z - +3 plate armour {MR+}
rNeg   + . .      Faith    .    (shield currently unavailable)
rPois  .          Spirit   +    (helmet unavailable)
rElec  .          Reflect  .    U - +2 cloak
rCorr  .          Harm     .    T - +0 pair of gloves
MR     +++..                    V - +0 pair of boots "Nasuytel" {rC+}
Stlth  ..........               (no amulet)
                                A - +5 ring of protection
                                q - ring of the Seven Demons {+Fly rF+ MR+ Dex+3}

@: no status effects
A: hooves 2, horns 3, yellow scales 2, negative energy resistance 1,
nightstalker 2, magic shield, magic regeneration
a: Potion Petition, Call Merchant, Bribe Branch, Renounce Religion, Evoke Flight
}: 1/15 runes: gossamer


You are on level 8 of the Dungeon.
You worship Gozag.
Gozag is most pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 5 branches of the dungeon, and seen 28 of its levels.
You have also visited: Labyrinth, Sewer and Bailey.

You have collected 9784 gold pieces.
You have spent 723 gold pieces at shops.
You have paid 5207 gold pieces to Gozag.

Inventory:

Hand Weapons
 a - a +6 great mace of crushing (weapon)
Missiles
 J - a throwing net (quivered)
Armour
 l - the +1 pair of boots of the Storm King {rCorr Str+3}
   (You found it on level 1 of the Spider Nest)   
   
   It affects your strength (+3).
   It protects you from acid and corrosion.
 S - a +2 chain mail of poison resistance
 T - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
 U - a +2 cloak (worn)
 V - the +0 pair of boots "Nasuytel" (worn) {rC+}
   (You found it on level 8 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It protects you from cold.
 Z - a +3 plate armour of magic resistance (worn)
Rods
 b - a +9 lightning rod (17/17)
   (You took it off a minotaur in a labyrinth)
Jewellery
 j - an uncursed ring of magical power
 m - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
 q - the ring of the Seven Demons (left hand) {+Fly rF+ MR+ Dex+3}
   (You found it in a labyrinth)   
   
   [ring of dexterity]
   
   It affects your dexterity (+3).
   It protects you from fire.
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
   It lets you fly.
 A - a +5 ring of protection (right hand)
 B - a +2 ring of slaying
Wands
 c - a wand of paralysis
 i - a wand of lightning
 y - a wand of hasting (7/9)
 F - a wand of polymorph
 I - a wand of disintegration
 M - a wand of slowing {zapped: 23}
 O - a wand of disintegration {zapped: 7}
 X - a wand of flame {zapped: 5}
Scrolls
 e - 11 scrolls of teleportation
 k - 12 scrolls of fear
 r - 4 scrolls of enchant armour
 t - 4 scrolls of blinking
 u - 2 scrolls of recharging
 C - a scroll of summoning
 D - 3 scrolls of immolation
 N - 3 scrolls of remove curse
 P - a scroll of fog
 Q - a scroll of amnesia
 Y - 2 scrolls of identify
Potions
 d - 5 potions of might
 g - 5 potions of cure mutation
 h - 5 potions of lignification
 p - 8 potions of curing
 s - 5 potions of brilliance
 v - 4 potions of magic
 w - 2 potions of flight
 x - a potion of haste
 z - 2 potions of invisibility
 E - 6 potions of heal wounds
 G - 3 potions of agility
 H - a potion of resistance
 K - 2 potions of cancellation
 L - a potion of ambrosia
 W - 2 potions of beneficial mutation
Miscellaneous
 n - a lamp of fire
 R - a disc of storms
Comestibles
 f - 12 bread rations

Skills:
 + Level 14.7 Fighting
 - Level 20.0 Maces & Flails
 - Level 10.0 Armour
 - Level 10.0 Dodging
   Level 11.8 Shields

Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (15/15)            Temple (1/1) D:6            Lair (6/6) D:9
 Shoals (0/4) Lair:4       Spider (4/4) Lair:2        Slime (0/5) Lair:5
    Orc (2/2) D:12            Elf (0/3) Orc:2        Vaults (0/5) D:14
 Depths (0/5) D:15

Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You have a pair of large horns on your head.
You are mostly covered in yellow scales. (AC +3)
You resist negative energy. (rN+)
You are significantly more attuned to the shadows.
When hurt, damage is shared between your health and your magic reserves.
You regenerate magic rapidly.
You have hoof-like feet.

Skill      XL: |  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 |
---------------+----------------------------------------------------+-----
Maces & Flails |  2  3     4  6  7  8 10 12 14             17 19 20 | 20.0
Fighting       |                             9 13                14 | 14.7
Dodging        |                                6 10                | 10.0
Armour         |                                   6 10             | 10.0
Shields        |                                      7 11          | 11.8

Action                   |  1- 3 |  4- 6 |  7- 9 | 10-12 | 13-15 | 16-18 || total
-------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------++-------
Melee: Flail             |   154 |   369 |   363 |  1077 |   684 |       ||  2647
       Headbutt          |       |    28 |    78 |   236 |   603 |   188 ||  1133
       Morningstar       |       |       |       |       |   657 |       ||   657
       Great mace        |       |       |       |       |   821 |   666 ||  1487
Invok: Potion Petition   |       |       |       |     1 |     2 |     3 ||     6
       Call Merchant     |       |       |       |       |     3 |       ||     3
Evoke: Wand              |       |       |     5 |    10 |     8 |     5 ||    28
       Lamp of fire      |       |       |       |     1 |       |     1 ||     2
       Rod               |       |       |       |       |     4 |       ||     4
       Disc of storms    |       |       |       |       |       |     1 ||     1
  Use: Potion            |       |     6 |     1 |     3 |     2 |     2 ||    14
       Scroll            |       |    10 |     7 |     9 |    20 |     6 ||    52
 Stab: Distracted        |       |       |       |     2 |     9 |     8 ||    19
       Invisible         |       |       |       |       |    10 |       ||    10
       Confused          |       |       |       |       |     2 |       ||     2
  Eat: Chunk             |     1 |    12 |    25 |       |       |       ||    38
       Royal jelly       |       |       |       |     1 |     2 |       ||     3
       Pizza             |       |       |       |     4 |     1 |     2 ||     7
       Beef jerky        |       |       |       |     8 |     2 |     1 ||    11
       Fruit             |       |       |       |     5 |     9 |       ||    14
       Meat ration       |       |       |       |     1 |     5 |     1 ||     7
       Bread ration      |       |       |       |       |     7 |     4 ||    11
Armor: Scale mail        |    95 |     3 |       |       |       |       ||    98
       Chain mail        |       |   333 |    28 |       |  1192 |   583 ||  2136
       Skin              |       |     5 |       |    16 |       |       ||    21
       Plate armour      |       |       |   206 |   503 |    38 |       ||   747
Dodge: Dodged            |    47 |    82 |    31 |   189 |  1168 |   618 ||  2135
Block: Shield            |    79 |   236 |   151 |   406 |   688 |       ||  1560
       Reflection        |       |       |       |       |     3 |       ||     3

I've been playing quite recklessly, which is not something I advise. However, Potion Petition is a very strong panic button and combat buff. The other thing that's usually good about Gozag, the extra shop equipment, has thus far been horrible. The guaranteed shops in Orc had nothing good and neither did any of the shops I opened.

Things that I know I've done wrong:

-Going with Gozag, even though I found their altar somewhat late[I'd probably have been better off with the D:4 Ru altar]
-Training a bunch of Shield skill before I got a good 1-hander. I ended up using this great mace because it was the first mace I'd found better then my starting one.
-Not training any Evocations at all, even though I've been making heavy use of wands and rods this game.
-Charging into every enemy encounter funs blazing and then using Potion Petition when I inevitably get desperate. If gold wasn't so plentiful, this could start to be a problem.
-Using Call Merchant before I'm done with Orc and have seen what the shops in there have to offer.
-Abandoning an early Exec Axe of Chopping because I wanted to stick with Maces.

Random tips that I've remembered:

-Read-ID your scrolls: None of them hurt you permanently and you get a reliable panic item once you've IDed Fear/Tele/Blink scrolls.
-Scroll-ID your potions, starting with the largest stack and working your way down. There are a couple potions with lasting nasty effects, but most of them are merely useful consumables you don't want to waste
-Wands are very nice early on, even with no skill. Even with a 15% chance of success, its still quite worthwhile to get off a few zaps of Slow/Paralyze/Confusion at an approaching Hydra or something.
-Wands of flame in particular stand out for being very good against electric eels or in layouts with lots of water because of stem clouds.
-Using Digging/Disintegration wands to shape terrain so that only one enemy can see you at a time is highly useful in open branches like Lair or Spider.
-Electricity damage bypasses some AC, which means enemies with those attacks are deadlier then you'd think.


Honestly though, this character has mostly survived due to having ridiculous amounts of consumables, even without Potion Petition. Otherwise I'd have bitten the dust in the D:3 Sewer right off the bat. So I once again emphasize caution, especially early on when you have less of a store of piety/gold to plow through bad situations with.

[Retropunch]

-snipping good advice-

I'd completely agree with Covenant, in terms of saving buff potions you should always keep a might and haste around for serious situations, but don't be too frugal, especially with ones that don't directly buff your playstyle (so might is obviously a lot less important for magic users, so can be used more often).

I'd also agree on specialising on skills. I've tried to do a number of runs with the 'auto' skill setting and I've found it pretty rubbish. You've got to specialise, although I don't tend to go completely 100% on one much (I do the specialise button on one, and leave one or two (max) others on).

[Ozarck]

let's talk early game:
polearms can hit you from a square away, even with another monster in between. in general, try not to get surrounded, and fight in corridors instead of the open.
keep a clear path between you and upstairs. you want to not encounter enemies when retreating.
Orc priests generally come with other orcs and will fuck you up. (smiting is autohit, and has a significant damage output for early game)

it's been said, but should be emphasized: monsters move at least as fast as you most of the time and Will follow you to the ends of the earth, never needing food or sleep. So, fight one at a time, and run from anything you don't know you can kill. Run toward up stairs.

don't drink test potions.

expect to die a lot.

[Arcvasti]

And my test character is dead. In Shoals. Goddamn dodgy merfolk avatar.

Protip: If you get Shoals and aren't a Gargoyle/Merfolk/Grey Draconian, then go to D:1 and exit the dungeon so you fail with dignity.

[Aoi]

And final tip: Stay the fuck away from hydras.

I take that one to heart so badly I have a forced [more] prompt on hydras when I play anything with a bladed weapon. Incredible lifesaver.

[frostshotgg]

Re: Ice Caves

The strat for them is just read a TP scroll. 9 times out of 10, you'll be on the far side of whatever is nasty near the exit. The 10th time, literally just run past everything. At the end, there's a ton of loot which has piles and piles of cold resist gear (rC) you can put on and then backtrack through for the exp.

[TheDarkStar]

Protip: If you get Shoals and aren't a Gargoyle/Merfolk/Grey Draconian, then go to D:1 and exit the dungeon so you fail with dignity.

I died so many times in Shoals that I started doing Vault:1-4 first because it was easier.

Also, re: ice caves/volcanoes: just make sure you're prepared. For ice caves and volcanoes, make sure to have something to get the relevant resistance and/or (hopefully and) a potion of resistance in case you run into dragons or powerful demons. For volcanoes, try to go through quickly because fire clouds will occasionally appear and on some maps stuff gets sealed off after time. For ice caves, go slowly and try to limit the number of creatures you fight at once. Also, try not to rest anywhere with ice clouds. In general, equipment from both ice caves and volcanoes will have the appropriate resistance so if you're missing the relevant resistance (or want more) make sure to grab armor or rings you see.

re: labyrinths: I've never died once in all of the dozens of labyrinths I've been through. Basically, make sure you have food in case it takes a while to get through and some buff potions (especially might, but agility helps a bit and healing potions are good if you decided to forgo heavy armor) to actually kill the minotaur. Of the other enemies you occasionally find, they are all far weaker than the minotaur itself (unless you meet a player ghost (if that's possible in labyrinths)). Also, as far as I can tell there's always a way to get to the minotaur no matter where you are, which means that if you're stuck you can walk along the edges (which are usually close to forming a complete ring around the map) until you find a route you haven't tried yet.

[Inarius]

Some questions while I'm reading you :

- You all seem to say some races are "easier" than others, is it because
       / a : game is unbalanced ?
       / b : these races are easier to manage at the beginning, but not easier in general
       / c : some races are just stronger, and the other races are here to make the challenge harder (some sort of "role-playing" ?)
- Same question for gods
- Question about spells. I have seen a LOT of spells on the wiki, is it like many other games (I've been playing a lot Spiderweb games and I remember the huge list of spells in Blade of Exile, for example) where only a few are useful, or is it like (b) above ?

[Graven]

Mostly C, but it's not about "roleplaying" - most traditional roguelikes allow for various levels of challenge; barring things like IVAN which offers various levels of What the Fuck Just Happened.

The devs are currently working with a greater focus on balance, and a lot of the playerbase isn't taking it to heart, since Crawl was never really meant to be "balanced". There are beginner-friendly races - Minotaur, Gargoyle, Hill orc for fighters, Deep Elf, Tengu for spellcasters, and there are challenge races - Mummies, Ogres. This is mostly due to different races having different rates of gaining skills, different defenses, different armour and item limitations, and innate mutations which modify your playstyle.

For example Minotaurs gain more health than other races, increase their skills with melee weapons, armour and dodging at higher rates, and have Horns, which means every time they dodge an attack, they automatically retaliate for some damage.

Mummies are flimsy, have incredibly horrible rates of skill increase, cannot use potions at all, and are Undead, which means they don't get hungry, have some innate resists but are vulnerable to Holy weapons, which while rare, are common enough to be a problem.

Gods are somewhat similar, but not quite - the idea of gods is to modify your playstyle to a rather significant extent. I won't go in details, but easier gods like Trog - which berserkers start with - Okawaru, Vehumet, are entirely beneficial, in a way that does not require drastically modifying your playstyle. Each god grants passive and active abilities, and requires the player follow a conduct.

Trog requires killing stuff, burning spellbooks, not practicing any magic. He grants the ability to go berserk (you get faster and stronger for a time, then you get slowed after it ends), the ability to resists spells and regenerate health for a time, the ability to summon really powerful allies, and gifts you rather strong weapons. This perfectly augments a melee playstyle, while keeping it easier for beginners due to hot having to balance melee and spells.

Other gods like Xom, well... try it out sometimes. There are also weirder gods which turn your playstyle around - Cheibriados, who offers incredible stat increase in exchange for drastically slowing your movement, or Ru, who offers a powerful debuffing aura in exhange for sacrificing various abilities, skills or item usage.

There are very few outright useless spells, and the best players often find a use for those as well on weaker playstyles. Higher level damage spells are usually more mana efficient than lower level, but buffs and debuffs remain valid for a lot of time, depending on your playstyle. Stealthy characters will prefer a different set of spells than, say, pure spellcasters, or melee/buff hybrids.

[Aoi]

Valid for the first two questions-- Intentionally 'unbalanced', and particularly if you insist on playing with a strategy that isn't suited for that race/class/god combo. (Some are counter-intuitive and surprisingly good if you know what you're doing, though.)

Almost all spells are useful to some degree and in certain situations; spells that are nigh objectively useless get pared out in short order, generally speaking. Some, that look useless at a glance, can be quite potent with a bit of creativity or exploitation of mechanics. On the other hand, there are also spells that are more or less intended to be forgotten later on (predominantly when they're supplanted by more powerful spells).

[Retropunch]

Covenant and Graven are bang on about 'intentionally unbalanced' - most of it is about a playstyle combination and mistake tolerance. All the races are 'good' in certain race-class combinations, whilst worse in others. However, different races have vastly different levels of new player friendliness and tolerance for mistakes. Felids have a very low level of mistake tolerance, but minotaurs high. Felids can be extremely powerful though if played right.

It's exactly the same with Gods - some are just 'gives you cool extra powers' whilst others require you to know their systems well.

In terms of spells, I also have to agree that whilst all spells can be useful, you just don't need the majority of them. For many the same effect can be achieved with a different spell that also works in wider applications, and for others they have such specific use cases that it's easier to just spam a more powerful spell rather than waste the slots.