I went back into the Abyss for some more demon slaying. If you're powerful enough to go for all the runes, the Abyss is the easiest post-endgame branch (followed by Pandemonium). Inexperienced players have trouble surviving in this place at a low level, so here are some tips:
* Always keep moving and ignore the items on the ground.
* You may want to run at a slight angle, instead of straight on, to reach the edge of the level quicker.
* While running keep scanning your LOS for major threats, like greater demons, liches, etc.
* If you can't find the exit and you're getting tired of running, then it may be a good idea to worship Lugonu.
Some useful items to bring with you are:
* Ring of levitation: There are some terrifying monsters that cannot follow you over lava and deep water, such as executioners.
* Ring of teleportation: An infinite source of teleporting is useful for getting away from the hordes of demons that
will be following you. Make sure to cancel any active teleports and remove the ring when you find the exit!
* Ring of regeneration: Heal faster while running.
* Boots of running: Anything that increases your movement speed is incredibly useful in the Abyss.
A tormentor. They like to torment you. That's bad.
Seriously, unless you're immune to torment you should kill them ASAP!
TSO provides passive negative energy resistance (a.k.a life protection), which increases with piety gain (to rN+++). Max life protection offers slight protection (around 15% ?) against torment and immunity to draining attacks. Other passive powers include a halo that grows in size the more righteous you are, and life-saving.
The halo is basically the corona spell (increased accuracy and reveals invisible monsters) that also reveals submerged monsters. If you have high enough piety TSO
might save your life by preventing a killing blow from dealing damage to you.
Death drakes breathe miasma clouds (like curare with added rotting!). You've seen how badly curare debilitates unique monsters, so kill these guys with extreme prejudice or flee! I killed it and reached level 22!
We gained our 3rd ability for TSO: Cleansing Flame. It fires a large radius blast of holy energy centered on the player, which does significant damage to undead and demons, but doesn't harm the player or friendly monsters.
After constant victory dancing we finally gained translocations skill! Hopefully, I'll be able to cast my spells soon.
TSO finally recognizes our demon-slaying prowess and gives us an appropriate title.
Oh, and we gained our finally ability from TSO: Summon Daeva. You can summon a servant of TSO. They're protected from Abjuration, and TSO keeps them around longer if you keep killing evil beings.
I skipped on showing a lot of (weak) monsters, but I'll show them off eventually. I don't want this LP to be bogged down with nothing but descriptions of monsters. Anyway, I've never seen an eidolon before... It looks like a wraith with a crown. I wonder if it's dangerous.
I guess not.
After some more grinding I gained two more skills! I still can't cast my spells though. Orange demons have poisonous monsters who aren't immune to poison, for some reason.
We finally maxed out our piety. The bottom of religion screen says we can bless our weapon now.
Weapon blessing replaces a weapon's brand with holy wrath and enchants it (like a scroll of enchant weapon iii). You can't bless artifacts. If the weapon is a long blade or demonic, its base stats will be enhanced and receive a name change. Long blades become a "Blessed Blade", and demonic weapons (whip and trident) become "Holy Scourge" or "Blessed Trishula".
The best candidates for weapon blessing are:
* demon whip
* katana
* demon trident
Green Deaths are
greater demons. Demons come in tiers: 1-5. 5s are the least dangerous demons and 1s (a.k.a greater demons) are the most dangerous demons outside of named demon guardians. Green Deaths can cast poison arrow, poisonous cloud, bolt of venom, and blink. I don't have rPois, so I ran away.
Here's an altar to Lugonu. I have no reason to worship her, so let's go back to the dungeon.
Don't worry. I don't plan on returning to the Abyss any time soon.
Oh yeah!