No inventory, no equipment, no stores, no artifacts, Ironman

**bron** · December 18, 2009, 10:09

Although I'm sure no-one other than me is particularly interested,
I kept a running log; below is the play-by-play.

=================================================

Had to tread carefully around level 2 since I was still just punching
things. Found some pebbles, but no sling. Didn't want to try the
potions just yet for fear of one of them being salt-water and wasting
my precious food. Found a second torch, and another 'shroom.

Found a Main Gauche on level 3; decided to wield it immediately and
just hope it wasn't cursed. Fortunately it wasn't. With my 18/40
starting strength I get 3 blows/turn at +3 damage. I immediately
descend to dlvl 5, where I fell through a trap door to dlvl 6. Explored
until I was weak with hunger, then tried some potions. One of them
was the feared salt-water, so my caution paid off. Luckily, I then
found a stack of 5 Satisfy Hunger scrolls! That should get me pretty
far. Haven't found any more light; I'm down to part of 1 torch. It's
hard to remember to un-equip the torch when I'm forced to backtrack
down a known path. The dwarfish infra-vision makes that reasonably
safe, and I need to conserve the light as much as I can for now.

The next couple of levels look to be murderously hard until I can
find the second prayer book and learn Portal, as I have no effective
means of avoiding monsters I can't (or don't want to) fight. PB2
doesn't start appearing until dlvl 10, and I haven't even found
PB1 yet. I did pick up a (normal) sling, so I have at least a minimal
range attack.

Killed Wormtongue on dlvl 8, and he dropped .. only gold. I really
coulda used an exceptional item. But the RNG more than made it
up to me when immediately afterwards when I killed a small band of
novice rangers and found a Lantern, and a Mace (+5,+11) (Defender).
The one blow I get from that is worth almost as much as the 3 blows
I get from the Main Gauche. I'd like to be able to wield the mace
most of the time and swap in the Main Gauche when the extra blows
will be worthwhile, but the regen just eats too much food I don't have
(even with slow digestion, regeneration still burns food twice as fast
as normal). I still have 4 scrolls of Satisfy Hunger at this point,
so I have some leeway. I'll probably start using it at dlvl 10 until
I'm down to only one scroll, or I find something.

Dropped to dlvl 10, found another lantern, a flask of oil and one more
Satisfy Hunger. Plus I got my Strength dinged so I'm down to only 2 blows
with the Main Gauche. I'm definitely going to wield the Defender full
time now. I've pretty much overcome the startup handicap (other than the
lack of PB1) at this point. I'm at clvl 15 with 155 HP. Doing ok for
dlvl 10, but I still lack any effective means of running away: no
?phase, no ?teleport, no =teleport, no =escaping, no (remaining) !speed.
Normal monsters I can handle, but even the comparatively weak Orc uniques
could probably take me out. My only effective technique is to fight
for awhile, then run away one step ahead of the foe and let the regen
heal me, then turn and fight some more. Plenty of things can go wrong
with that. Nothing to do for it but push on.

dlvl 12, clvl 16. Found PB1, several Identify staves, and a Rod of
Fire Bolts (!). Still can't run away, but things have definitely
improved.

dlvl 14, clvl 23. Found another stack of Satisfy Hunger scrolls, so
I decided to invest one of them killing giant fruit flies for the
experience; gained 6 levels. Kinda boring, but the extra 50HP are
very useful. Found a ring of escaping and a sling of extra might,
both welcome additions to my kit.

dlvl 18, clvl 25. Some nice drops recently: 2 staves of Teleportation,
a wand of teleport away, and a ring of damage +9. The ability to
teleport away from a bad situation significantly improves my survivability.
Had two near deaths before I got the teleport drops: a Ranger walked in on
me in a big room and immediately summoned a lot of fire hounds; and had a
pack of Blink Dogs pull me into the middle of a room full of orcs.
I burned through pretty much all of my paltry store of consumables getting
out (barely) alive.

dlvl 19, clvl 27. Found an out-of-depth black ooze, and decided to farm
it for awhile to replenish my consumables and look for PB2. I got some
pretty astonishing drops: PB2 and PB3, some ego shots for my sling, gloves
of slaying, a HA Lucerne Hammer, and a Robe of Permanence (RDisenchant).
Suddenly I'm hugely more powerful; time to dive to stat gain.

dlvl 30, clvl 27. The dive was mostly uneventful, except I picked up
an Amulet of Wisdom +6 (!). I should be doing pretty well as long as I
don't get my prayer books destroyed.

I'm walking down through the dlvl 30's very slowly: clear a level, cast
Satisfy Hunger, rest until hungry, then go out and clear the level again.
This hugely inflates my Turn count: it takes 65,000 turns on the counter
to get through the full rest cycle. But without artifacts, I really
need to get my stats up before dropping below dlvl 40 (in particular, HP
and number of blows), and I can't bounce between levels in an Ironman.
I may have to abandon this scheme once the Gravity Hounds start appearing.

dlvl 40, clvl 34. Just arrived at dlvl 40 after a long slow walk through
the 30's. Miraculously, I saw no Gravity Hounds at all. I'm at well over
two million turns at this point; about two-thirds of that from resting
to let levels replenish. I did pretty well with the stat gain potions:
not maxed out on any, but over 18 on all of Str/Wis/Dex/Con. I'm now at
650HP and 5 blows with a Short Sword of Westernesse. Picked up a couple
of items of better equipment, notably a set of Cestus of Slaying (+5,+7).
I think (+5,+8) is the very best possible; this is certainly the best I've
ever seen in any game. I also found a copy of PB6 (Godly Insights).
Detection and Identify are great, although I find myself resting a lot to
replenish SP since Identify is expensive and my fail rate is high.

The immediate task is to find something with RPoison. After that, the next
item on my shopping list is a Crown of Serenity to get RConf. Assuming I
get that far, I'll then face the difficult question of how fast to descend.

dlvl 42, clvl 36. And you thought the 30's went slow. Spent half a million
turns on dlvl 40,41,42 looking for Poison Resistance. Just now got a drop
of Green Dragon Scale Mail. Not quite what I was expecting, but it will
do nicely. Importantly, I also found some Boots of Speed (+6). The RNG
has been good to me. With the common causes of Insta-death now covered,
and with the speed bump, I could descend a lot if I wanted to. I'd really
like to get RConf before going too much deeper.

dlvl 50, clvl 37. Mostly killing monsters and looking for Crowns. Avoiding
non-unique fire breathers to try and preserve my prayer books. Found a ring
of Resist Poison which I am wielding in preference to the Green Dragon Scale
Mail since that lets me wear the Robe of Permanence with RDisenchant. Also
picked up a Heavy Crossbow of Extra Might and some Bolts of Flame. Just the
thing for Ringwraiths.

dlvl 52, clvl 38. Found a Crown of Serenity. With RConf I can finally dump
the heavy Teleport Staves. With the RFear I'm also thinking about replacing
PB1 with a couple of Rods of Illumination. I'd really like to keep Light
Area, but the Rods would be lighter and slightly less vulnerable. It's all
moot unless I find some Rods however. Not sure if I should just dive straight
to dlvl 70 to try and save consumables, or if I should clear levels to try
and find more.

dlvl 60, clvl 41. Just shy of 3M turns. Sort of cherry-picked my way
through the dlvl 50's, neither diving nor level clearing, just looking
for targets of opportunity. Didn't really find anything of interest; didn't
really expect to. Killed a bunch of Vrocks and Mumaks for the experience.
The dlvl 60's I'll pay more attention to: since "good" items get a 10 level
boost, there is a legitimate chance of finding an Amulet of Trickery or
(after dlvl 65) a Ring of Speed.

dlvl 67, clvl 42. Found my long desired Amulet of Trickery. It's only +2,
but I also managed to upgrade my boots to +8, so together it's a good speed
level. I can now take off my =RPoison and free up the slot for an eventual
=Speed. Right now I'm filling it with =Acid. I've also managed to get all
my useful staves destroyed. This is unfortunate, but also liberating, since
with no charges to drain, and with Hold Life and RDisenchant, I'm willing
to melee a number of things I would have otherwise avoided (e.g. members of
the Lich family).

dlvl 71, clvl 44. Found 3(!) Shields of Preservation on dlvl 71. All of
them had worthless random resists. I'm wielding one anyway since it has
good AC, and the RDisenchant allows me to switch out the Robe for some
Elvenkind armor with RDark. Found a Scythe of Slicing of Westernesse:
8d4 + =Acid is HUGE, and lots of things are vulnerable to acid. I'm (almost)
going to miss it once I find a =Speed. I've also decided to swap out
my Heavy Crossbow of Extra Might for a Longbow of Extra Might. Not quite
as strong as the Crossbow, but a lot lighter, and I found some stacks of
interesting ego arrows, in particular some seeker arrows of Holy Might.

dlvl 76, clvl 47. =Speed +5. Need a bigger one, but I'm not complaining.
3.4M turns. Still don't have RNether or RChaos. My only source of RLight
is a Ring of Light I'm carrying as a swap. I'll probably be able to abandon
it if/when I dispose of Huan and The Phoenix. Carcharoth and Azriel are
hard to deal with without RNether, but I'd really rather not have Morgoth
summon them. I can probably do without RCHaos since none of the uniques
have a breath chaos attack. Hoping to find a Blade of Chaos, but I'll need
a source of Free Action.

dlvl 77, clvl 48. Decided to take on Feagwath since he didn't have too
many Black Reavers in his entourage. Feagwath himself wasn't too bad,
but it took quite a bit longer than I expected to kill all his buddies
(and all the buddies they summoned). Lots of good drops though. Upgraded
my Boots of Speed to +9, Ring of Speed to +10, and Amulet of Trickery to +3.
After considerable debate, I also decide to wear some Pseudo-dragon scale
mail and carry a Defender weapon. This gives me resistance to everything
except Chaos and Nether without needing any swaps, and an AC over 150.
The downside is that it seriously complicates my ability to add RChaos
since I can't wield just any Blade of Chaos, and the Defender weapon
averages less that 50 damage per hit, so the fights last longer, giving
the monsters more chances to do something bad.

dlvl 84, clvl 49. Some bad luck and over optimism have toasted a number
of my prayer books. It would be annoyingly ironic to lose my last couple
of PB2's and starve to death, given the food problems of the first few
levels. But it's my last copy of PB4 that I'm the most worried about.

dlvl 85, clvl 50. 3.7M turns. Sadly, I succumbed to temptation and stopped
on dlvl 85 to farm some black oozes. I didn't feel too bad about doing
this on dlvl 19 given the circumstances, and the fact that there aren't
any uber items to be found at that depth. But dlvl 85 is another story.
I felt I needed to replenish my store of prayer books, but this tactic
sort of taints the game. Not as bad as pillar dancing perhaps, but still.
Found several !Exp which pushed me to clvl 50. Found a Cloak of the Magi
with telepathy (finally some esp); I'll gladly give up RShard for that
although for the moment I'll carry the Cloak of Protection as a swap.
The one really notable piece of equipment I found is a monster: a Long
Bow of Lothlorien (x3) (+12,+22) (+2). It's random power is Feather
Falling, which is worthless, but the Free Action allows me to potentially
wield other melee weapons (I can get See Invis from PB3 in a pinch). The
damage this puppy puts out with some ego ammo is amazing: my arrows of
Holy Might will do over 800 (!) damage to a demon, and 540 against evil.
Even just enchanted mithril arrows do 200+. Found a couple of Blades
of Chaos, but none with good egos. Am carrying one anyway as a swap.

dlvl 85. I stopped with the black oozes once I had a total of 3 copies
of PB4. Of course I'd like more, but this seemed like a reasonable
compromise. Found a couple of uniques that had been generated while
I was farming. One was Qlzqqlzuup, who summoned a couple more uniques.
Killing them all took awhile. The Mouth of Sauron dropped a 2-handed
flail (HA), which does 70 dmg per blow to evil monsters (at 5 blows per
round), which is really good in a non-artifact game. Also found a
Cloak of Aman (Rlight), which is a much more reasonable swap item than
the Ring of Light I have been carrying.

I am mostly ready to take on the big two at this point, with a couple
of caveats: I only have 2 ?Banish and 2 ?MassBanish, 2 !*Heal* and
3 !Life. This is pretty minimal, but might be just enough. And I
would like to kill more of the powerful uniques so they can't be
summoned.

dlvl 87. Found a Shield of Preservation with RShards. Shards isn't
my first choice, but at least it is worth something.

dlvl 93. 3.9M turns. Well, that's torn it. I carefully stashed my
scrolls before taking on Gothmog, but not my books. I took him out,
and Lungorthin whom he summoned, but they burnt all 3 copies of PB4.
I really don't see anything for it; I can't really take on Sauron
and/or Morgoth without the Heal prayer (or a couple of dozen !Healing).
"Cure Mortal Wounds" should let me limp through most ordinary fights,
but it's just not enough for the big two. I'll just have to spend the
time to find a couple of new copies. Sigh.

dlvl 93. Got lucky; found one after only 30,000 turns. Definitely
need at least one more before I push on.

dlvl 93. Got VERY lucky; found another one after 30,000 more turns.

dlvl 98. Just shy of 4M turns. Killed the Tarrasque, but not before
he toasted both copies of PB4 and both ?Banish. You'd think I'd learn.
I'm guessing it's going to take a lot longer to find replacements this
time around.

I decided to exchange my HA 2hd-Flail for an HA Maul. The Maul does
about 10% less damage per hit, but it is +4 Wisdom, which is sweet, and
has Sustain Wisdom, which (with the Shield of Preservation) covers all
the sustains I want for the final battle.

dlvl 98. Killed the Phoenix; I can now stop carrying around the Rlight
swap cloak, freeing up a valuable inventory slot for some more Slay Evil
arrows.

As far as remaining uniques: there's Carcharoth and Azriel who I don't
want to fight without RNether (and I haven't seen a single RNether item
the entire game). There's Lorgan, the Queen Ant, and The Cat Lord,
who I have been deliberately preserving since they are not too dangerous,
and they all summon a lot. (I'm hoping Morgoth will summon them, and
they'll fill the floor with comparatively weak monsters and so reduce
Morgoth's ability to bring in really serious nasties.) There's Atlas
and Tom, who I haven't seen at all yet. That's it except for Sauron and
Morgoth. Oh, and Maggot.

dlvl 98. Found a black ooze, which I was hoping would shorten the time
it would take to find a couple of PB4's. But I guess I already used up
my luck on that score the last time I got my books burnt. 125,000
turns to re-equip. No excuses left; Sauron here we come.

dlvl 99. The fight with Sauron went remarkably smoothly: dug an ASC
and peppered him with Seeker Arrows of Slay Evil. Sauron spent too
many of his turns either attacking physically, or casting ineffective
spells. It's finally time to take on the big guy.

dlvl 100. Success! For once the fight with Morgoth actually went more
or less as planned. Broke up an area with Earthquake, and fired all
of my seeker arrows of Holy Might (that I've been carrying since dlvl 71
for just this purpose), and Slay Evil. This took Morgoth down to about
half strength. He summoned both Azriel and Carcharoth, but I was able to
teleport them away and they didn't reappear. Eventually he summoned both
The Cat Lord and The Queen Ant, and their entourage plus their summons
(summonses ?) really cut down on Morgoth's ability to call in uber baddies.
A hard fight as always, but not nearly as harrowing as many other occasions
I could name. Realistically, I just got lucky.

**Nick** · December 18, 2009, 10:20

That is really, really impressive.

**Magnate** · December 18, 2009, 10:40

Originally posted by Nick

That is really, really impressive.

It's mind-boggling. Well done.

**Ferrat** · December 18, 2009, 11:39

Wow. Didn't think artifactless ironman was possible. Nice write-up too.

**Psi** · December 18, 2009, 12:43

Well done. That is quite incredible. Infact I'm staggered by your patience alone.

**fizzix** · December 18, 2009, 14:24

Originally posted by bron

Although I'm sure no-one other than me is particularly interested,
I kept a running log; below is the play-by-play.

Haha, it was very interesting. Thanks for the log, it was enjoyable to read.

I wouldn't worry about the black ooze farming, consider it fair game because of the limited drops of the PBs.

And, like everyone else, I am very impressed.

**PowerDiver** · December 18, 2009, 18:12

Amazing!!!!

**d_m** · December 18, 2009, 18:35

Well done!

Clearly we need some new options to make things even harder for you. Some ideas: no_shooting, dyslexic, picky_eater, forbid_left, perma_blind.

What do you think?

**Atarlost** · December 18, 2009, 18:40

How about making him a custom variant where all items decay after 1000 turns?

**fizzix** · December 18, 2009, 18:46

Originally posted by d_m

Some ideas:.... dyslexic

Awesome

>m1a

"You cackle evilly"

**bron** · December 18, 2009, 19:34

Originally posted by d_m

Clearly we need some new options to make things even harder

Trust me when I tell you: you really don't

**tigen** · December 19, 2009, 00:18

Maybe breeders who breed shouldn't give drops. Specifically add a flag on the newly-spawned monsters that prevent drops. After all, it makes sense that some ooze might have picked up some items while oozing around, but it's "child" that spawns in front of you wouldn't have anything other than what it finds after it is born.

Could also apply this kind of thing to summoned things in general, and rebalance things as needed. (e.g. increase the drops of the summoner).

**AnonymousHero** · December 19, 2009, 00:49

Crazy. Just crazy.

It's one of those things where you think 'I could do this given enough time' except you haven't thought of the sheer amount of time/patience required.

**buzzkill** · December 19, 2009, 03:29

Originally posted by tigen

Maybe breeders who breed shouldn't give drops. Specifically add a flag on the newly-spawned monsters that prevent drops. After all, it makes sense that some ooze might have picked up some items while oozing around, but it's "child" that spawns in front of you wouldn't have anything other than what it finds after it is born.

Could also apply this kind of thing to summoned things in general, and rebalance things as needed. (e.g. increase the drops of the summoner).

Seconded (and padded).

EDIT: I was seconding the breeders no droppie. I don't really care about the summoners/summonees/whatever.

No inventory, no equipment, no stores, no artifacts, Ironman

No inventory, no equipment, no stores, no artifacts, Ironman

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