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[Skorpion]

Since I recently started it, and all, I figured I'd start a thread for all my little questions about it.

- How do I twist stuck-in objects?
- How do I specifically gain strength and toughness, rather than agility?

[Dwarven WMD]

For the first question:
All you really have to do is attack as normal. You'll automatically twist it each time you do until you either move away and retain possesion or they die. Or you died.

For the second question:
Sadly, it seems strength and toughness are only trained through combat. Strength seems to gain little by little through attacking, and toughness through getting hurt or defending.
Technically that means you have to beat the shit out of something weaker to beat the shit out of something stronger.

[Skorpion]

Does that work for things other people have stuck in them, such as arrows?

- Just how tough do I need to BE to take on an elven forest retreat?

- Does it actually do my companions any harm to be constantly hit with wolves and cougars and alligators hurled by my hammer?

[Dwarven WMD]

Well, I've never been able to twist an arrow. Usually they take the arrow out, but even when it gets stuck I've never been able to twist it. I don't think ammunition is possible to twist at all.


Well, toughness affects what you can take before being hurt badly, usually. I had an adventurer with superhumanly tough and I got my ass kicked by a child.
I suggest if you do plan on going to take on an elf forest retreat, you do get your toughness stat up to at least extremely tough. But you should really bring a shield at the very least and get your shield user stat up high. While having decent toughness is a good idea, if I were you I'd have a first line of defense, because at least that lowers risk of a fatal blow.

It depends. Did you companions get hit directly by the flying enemy, or did your enemy just land at their feet?

[Foehamster]

Throwing some stones and other items is a fast way to train stats (plus throwing is a deadly deadly skill).  The best way to train wrestling is to find a zombie groundhog, set attack mode to close combat and go nuts, gouging the eyes out of a leopard and then taking care not to choke it to death works too.

For training shield and armor again set attack mode to close combat and go grab a groundhog, go prone and let it attack you so you block shots.  Just be careful though because if you try this with a bear you might block 100 strikes only to miss one and have your throat torn out.

Swimming trains fast as well, just try not to get incased in ice or drown before you learn how (novice swimming is a good starting stat)

IMPORTANT: Remember to set attack mode back to Strike/Charge/According to opponent and pull your weapon back out before traveling. Nothing's like getting your ass kicked by 10 wolves because you started wrestling instead of chopping.

[Dwarven WMD]

plus throwing is a deadly deadly skill

Oh, and speaking of which you can kill someone by throwing sand if you're good enough.

[Rat Of Wisdom]

Sadly, it seems strength and toughness are only trained through combat. Strength seems to gain little by little through attacking, and toughness through getting hurt or defending.
Technically that means you have to beat the shit out of something weaker to beat the shit out of something stronger.

I swam across a map-tile of ocean and back, and I'm reasonably sure I was a little stronger afterwards (increased carrying capacity). Protip: sneak before you jump in, or just afterwards, and you'll train both skills with every move. It's probably not as efficient as combat, but it seems to me that you exercise attributes every time you exercise a skill, just like dorfs in Fortress mode. Combat skills and Swimming correspond to Strength, Ambushing (and maybe Wrestling?) to Agility and Armor/Shield User to Toughness, I would think.

Well, I've never been able to twist an arrow. Usually they take the arrow out, but even when it gets stuck I've never been able to twist it. I don't think ammunition is possible to twist at all.

It should be possible like this:

[A] (careful attack) -> [Enter] (change mode to wrestle) -> [select creature] -> [select "grab <arrow> with <hand>"] (must have at least one hand free) -> attack as normal, by moving into the square with the enemy creature.

I learned this by sticking my artifact spear into a zombie troll, attempting to move away and losing grip on it. I re-engaged, grabbed it, and could twist as normal, though I apparently wasn't strong enough to pull it out. Not that any of that did any good against a zombie, but that's not the point...

[Skorpion]

Well, I'm Adept in throwing, and Proficient in swimming already; I have those down pretty well, but they only trained agility.
I'm Proficient in shield and armour, and Adept hammerdwarf. My current training method is wandering the world in fast-travel, and hammering wolves and cougars.

As for the companions, the enemies are being slammed into them, causing knockdown and possibly stunning.

- Is there any way to find caves that doesen't involve questing?

- What's the best item for throwing? I have some masterwork steel bolts, a few rocks, and a handful of live flies.

- What's a good speed, and how much crap can I lug around before I reach too low?

[Rat Of Wisdom]

- Is there any way to find caves that doesen't involve questing?

Find? You mean they're not all there on the map to begin with? I've never noticed, all the caves I've ever needed have been pointed out to me, but I don't think they suddenly appeared. They've always been little gray circles. I could be wrong however, and anyway you should be able to find them through dumb luck...

- What's the best item for throwing? I have some masterwork steel bolts, a few rocks, and a handful of live flies.

Ballista arrows.

No, truthfully, it doesn't seem to matter. I shattered a wolf's face with a rock I picked up off the ground, so I think it depends less on what you throw and more on your Throwing skill and your Strength attribute (as said face-shattering occurred at Novice Thrower but Extremely Strong). Hey you know what they say, it ain't the size of the hammer, it's the stone you throw it at oh god someone kill me. Thrower may or may not determine to-hit. </standard RPG logic>

- What's a good speed, and how much crap can I lug around before I reach too low?

I think 1000 is standard no-attribute not-carrying-shit human speed. Elves are faster.* Wiki probably has creature speeds, I dunno. I'm up to 1200ish with some agility and I can outrun wolves by degrees. Sneaking lowers it dramatically but will lower it percentually less with skill levels, apparently. Same with swimming and speed through water. Carrying capacity depends on Strength, but of course if you ditch iron gear for leather you should be able to lug more shit without training, et cetera.

*It just occurred to me that this might be a greater factor in elven retreats being hardcore than the elves' actual resistance to damage, which if the wiki is correct is pretty poor. Unless NPC elves get better armor than elven adventurers. Anyway, I always had a string of messages to scroll through before I could do more elf-stabbing, and those strings frequently ended in "You have been struck down", so draw your own conclusions.

[Dwarven WMD]

Well, I've never been able to twist an arrow. Usually they take the arrow out, but even when it gets stuck I've never been able to twist it. I don't think ammunition is possible to twist at all.

It should be possible like this:

[A] (careful attack) -> [Enter] (change mode to wrestle) -> [select creature] -> [select "grab <arrow> with <hand>"] (must have at least one hand free) -> attack as normal, by moving into the square with the enemy creature.

That doesn't seem to work. Whenever I grab an arrow in an enemy and attack as normal I don't twist it no matter what I do, I just clobber them with my hammer, even if my hand is on the arrow the whole time.



Citizens of a town do point them out through interrogation asking them about the nearby surroundings, though it doesn't always reveal one.

[Skorpion]

No, truthfully, it doesn't seem to matter. I shattered a wolf's face with a rock I picked up off the ground, so I think it depends less on what you throw and more on your Throwing skill and your Strength attribute (as said face-shattering occurred at Novice Thrower but Extremely Strong). Hey you know what they say, it ain't the size of the hammer, it's the stone you throw it at oh god someone kill me. Thrower may or may not determine to-hit. </standard RPG logic>

Nice. Should I drop the steel hammer and sword I'm carrying around, then?

As for weight of armour, that's not a worry. I'm wearing full masterwork adamantine plate armour, courtesy of a fort.

[Rat Of Wisdom]

Well, I've never been able to twist an arrow. Usually they take the arrow out, but even when it gets stuck I've never been able to twist it. I don't think ammunition is possible to twist at all.

It should be possible like this:

[A] (careful attack) -> [Enter] (change mode to wrestle) -> [select creature] -> [select "grab <arrow> with <hand>"] (must have at least one hand free) -> attack as normal, by moving into the square with the enemy creature.

That doesn't seem to work. Whenever I grab an arrow in an enemy and attack as normal I don't twist it no matter what I do, I just clobber them with my hammer, even if my hand is on the arrow the whole time.

Odd. Maybe it requires your combat preference to be set to "Wrestle", or at least "According to Opponent"? (I have mine set to the latter and I think I've always twisted an embedded weapon. Said weapon was always a spear, but the wiki says arrows/bolts are just miniature spears...)

Nice. Should I drop the steel hammer and sword I'm carrying around, then?

Hmm, if it's not giving you weight problems I'd keep them around for the variety. Stabbing shit gets boring after a while, and so would throwing I presume. Also stuff with high damage resistance (I want to say DAMBLOCK but I'm not sure if that's technically correct) tends to glance off thrown shit (like a cyclops who just wouldn't fucking die no matter how many rocks I chucked at him) and some weapons are better against certain targets (piercing is good for single organics, or lots of them if you're fast and strong; slashing's good for basically everything, blunt's good for stuff that doesn't care about pain because you can smash legs and make your getaway if shit goes pear-shaped).

[Dwarven WMD]

Well, I've never been able to twist an arrow. Usually they take the arrow out, but even when it gets stuck I've never been able to twist it. I don't think ammunition is possible to twist at all.

It should be possible like this:

[A] (careful attack) -> [Enter] (change mode to wrestle) -> [select creature] -> [select "grab <arrow> with <hand>"] (must have at least one hand free) -> attack as normal, by moving into the square with the enemy creature.

That doesn't seem to work. Whenever I grab an arrow in an enemy and attack as normal I don't twist it no matter what I do, I just clobber them with my hammer, even if my hand is on the arrow the whole time.

Odd. Maybe it requires your combat preference to be set to "Wrestle", or at least "According to Opponent"? (I have mine set to the latter and I think I've always twisted an embedded weapon. Said weapon was always a spear, but the wiki says arrows/bolts are just miniature spears...)

Mine is usually set to strike or charge, but I've gotten various weapons stuck in various enemies before and been able to twist my weapon.

Speaking of which, I wonder what happens if I use ammunition as a makeshift knife?

[Skorpion]

Okay, I just dropped into the fort again for a new hat, and my dwarven shields ran into a GCS.

Any hints?

[Dwarven WMD]

Okay, I just dropped into the fort again for a new hat, and my dwarven shields ran into a GCS.

Any hints?

Hints about fighting a GCS or just in general?