StatsOnly the following stats are relevant at the moment (afaik): strength,
agility, toughness, endurance, willpower, spatial sense, kinesthetic sense
Of these, AGILITY IS GOD. High agility means you move faster, land your hits more often and dodge more often. If you want to survive, you have to be agile. When I play a peasant, I dump all my points into agility and don't look back. All of the other attributes will go up in time.
SkillsFor a peasant melee character, I get novice weapon skill of choice, novice fighter, novice swimmer and three levels of shield user. Fighting levels up quickly, and the weapon skill will level up quickly enough to keep you alive.
Shields will save your bacon over and over. Shields will save you from arrows, dragon/beast fire/secretions (with some care), prone attacks, you name it. Your shield will save you from death way more often than your armour. Especially since you don't have any armour to begin with.
Swimmer will save you from drowning in a puddle. It will also allow you to swim to other islands or continents, if need be. To be truly safe from accidentally dodging into water, you need to level it up by going to a nearby
lake. Lakes have sloped edges and are relatively safe to swim in. Never go into a river unless you want to have excessive amounts of fun. Sturgeon are deadly. To be fair, google sturgeon to see why. They are monstrous. Always check the temperature before taking a dip. You will die instantly if the water freezes. Be careful! Swimming is FUN.
TravelYou will quickly learn that on long journeys, travelling from town to town and resting is the best strategy. Never ever rest outdoors unless you want to die. Scan the forums and you'll see countless stories of god-tier characters waking up to a steel crossbow bolt sandwich. Please note that you can sleep in old lairs and temples safely, *I think* (has anybody ever had any unexpected fun while doing this?) If you have nowhere to sleep, keep heading towards town. Switch back and forth from quick travel to normal mode and check the map in the upper left corner to make course corrections while travelling in the dark.
Sometimes you don't have an alternative and you have to sleep outdoors. By this point, you should have an army with you. Still, expect the occasional bloodbath when doing so.
GearBuy a crutch at the general store and put it into your backpack. As a rule, crutches tend to vanish from general stores when you need them. When the worst happens, you can at least avoid crawling. Crawling or being slow is not a death sentence if you're a good shield user. In fact, you will probably jump several levels in shield user in a short time if this happens to you. However crawling becomes undesireable around burning objects, boiling liquids, and various nasty secretions.
When hauling loot back from a battle, put the items in a spare bag. Drop the bag when you are inevitably ambushed on your way back to the store so that you don't have to fight with a -200 movement penalty. Learn how to liquidate your goods into coins at the stores.
Carry a spare weapon which complements your current one. Take one with high penetration for killing tough beasts and one with good slashing for melees (see the section on surviving melees). I like to play my swordsmen with scimitars and long swords.
ArmourThe wiki article is quite good on the details of how the armour system works, have a look at:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/ArmorThe role of armour is to help you survive a senseless death from a weak foe. It will stop a warthog from one-shotting your legendary fighter in the head after accidentally bumping into it while taking a stroll on the beach. Yeah, your fighter who survived two spinal fractures without permanent injury, and not once, but twice wrestled a bronze colossus on the blood-soaked steps of its foul temple ... *sigh*
Armour will not make you invincible, but I find it can stop even medium-level attacks quite well. For example, an adventurer of mine was in a fight with a night creature and it tried to stab him in the foot. The strike glanced off my high boot harmlessly. The creature then stabbed my companion in the foot, causing permanent nerve damage. It will not save you from powerful attacks, but if you're lucky, it will generally degrade the severity of injuries when the worst happens. The tip of a whip when cracked moves faster than the speed of sound. That's why you hear a 'crack': it's a miniature sonic boom emanating from the tip. Now imagine being hit with a metal whip. Yeah, it's about the same as being shot by a gun at close range, except the bullets are a meter long and they can wrap around you. It also won't stop the *silver warhammer*-wielding, legendary commander from one-shotting you through your 6 cloaks, 6 hoods, iron helm, and 2 iron caps. After getting several characters armoured up to the max and having them die this way, you'll learn. The way to survive against powerful enemies is to be a good shield user and/or dodger.
That said, I like to wear the following:
5-6 cloaks
6 hoods
1 helm
2 caps
3 chainmail shirts + 1 extra chainmail or breastplate
mittens
gauntlets
greaves
trousers
high boots
socks
If you can find them, wear chausses (aka sockmail) instead of socks. I have not encountered proper (metal) mail chausses in adventure mode yet, but they should be out there.
CombatIn general, if you want to survive many battles (not just 1, or even 10, but maybe 100) you need to be cautious. To be a true
survivor means taking intelligent risks. Think Gimli or William Marshal, not Boromir.
GeneralWhen approaching the enemy, take stock of them first (look at them and their gear, and description). The description will tell you if they have horns, or tusks, and if they are muscular and huge. Also, gauge their speed. If they take 2 steps for every one of yours, don't step in front of them, because they'll get two free hits on you. Try and make them move into your zone of control first so that you have the initiative. If they are small enough, charge them. If they are large, set your attack preferences (press C) to strike and charge defense to dodge. Your first attacks should be to maim or slow down the enemy.
The direction your character is facing is determined by where he last moved or attacked. Beware of being attacked from the side or behind, as it can cause devastating injuries. If you are surrounded, run. Try zig-zagging to make enemies collide with each other and slow down. You should be able to fight a running battle in this fashion. The only exception is if you're a dorf in a martial trance. In this case, dive straight into the eye of the storm and make your offerings to the blood god.
Taking tricky, difficult or poorly aimed shots will create opportunities for your enemies to counterattack. Be cagey and don't give away free shots. Besides initially maiming an enemy to reduce their threat to you, you need a kill strategy. When I play a swordsman, I try to bleed out my enemies. When you get good enough, headshots will become a viable strategy too.
When rushing an archer, consider using trees to block their line of sight to you.
Bandit CampsEspecially at the beginning when you have no followers, armour, or skills, you should approach the camp in
stealth (press S) to scout it. It doesn't matter if your stealth sucks, just be careful not to get too close to an enemy unless you want to have some fun. Loot the camp in stealth if possible, hopefully you can get some armour before the FUN begins. Pick off some followers if possible before going to the leader. Use line of sight to stop the other enemies from spotting you while pick people off. Don't be surprised when the leader one-shots your character in the head after all these precautions.
Night Creature wives/consorts/spousesApproach in stealth in order to grab gear before the main event if necessary. Look (press l and > ) into underground tunnels before entering, or you may have more fun upon entering than you can handle. Don't be surprised when a second consort pops out, or even worse, when the night creature itself is also there (ie. troll + troll spouse). My personal favorite was when my beginner peasant walked into the supposed spouse lair to find the spouse, a troll, and a
troll child waiting for me. Needless to say, the troll child was the one who got the killing blow.
Night CreaturesNight creatures are badasses. They can take a ridiculous amount of punishment, they tend to have thick hides, and some of them are extremely agile and will dance around your attacks like they're nothing. Take along some buddies to cover you.
Surviving in a meleeEventually, you will attract the attention of large groups of well-armed soldiers or bandits, possibly by pissing off their civilisation. In order to
survive the frequent melees, you need to be cagey. Always follow a good sized pack of soldiers during a battle. You may be an amazing demigod of combat, but if you get bum-rushed from behind or the side, and knocked over, stunned, winded or stabbed in the stomach, and you're alone and surrounded by enemies, you will die. Use your companions to engage the enemy, then slip in and get in your maiming shots. On a related note, do not chase after your lone companion when he or she blindly rushes into a group of enemies. One mistake won't fix another. This is a good way to get isolated from the pack and pummeled to death.
If you get a chipped bone or some other kind of extremely painful injury, this is the kiss of death. You have about 10 turns max to get your character to safety. If you followed my advice and stuck with a group of companions, retreat behind them and find a good place away from the action to pass out, then promise Armok more blood if he lets you live and enjoy the show. My best character has only one scar - he was shot in the lower leg, straight through his +iron greaves+ and -iron high boot-, chipping the bone. He pulled out the arrow, threw it at the archer and struck him in the foot. He then high-tailed it to a safe spot and passed out.
I suggest using a good slashing weapon during a melee. Weapons with high penetration, although more damaging, tend to get stuck in enemies at inopportune moments. The turn you spend pulling your weapon out of the enemy could be spent maiming its buddy who just showed up. My favorite weapon for a swordsman is a scimitar. They have unparalleled slashing ability, allowing you to hack off limbs with ease. Remember, you can also pull out a weapon by retreating away from the enemy, if necessary.
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Topic: Survival in 0.31.18 (Read 10303 times)