Finally Beat The Game!!!

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  • Basilius
    Rookie
    • Aug 2016
    • 1

    Finally Beat The Game!!!

    Hi All,

    After playing vanilla Angband on and off for 17 years, I'm pleased to share that I've finally managed to beat the game!

    Previously I would play extremely conservatively, only descending when I was comfortable that I could easily clear the current dungeon level. With that strategy, my previous best character reached clvl 37 / dlvl 52 before dying a gruesome death.

    I read some forum posts on diving quickly, and this inspired me to create a Dwarven Warrior who would descend the depths extremely rapidly and live in constant fear that every step could be his last. My strategy would be to first obtain rFire, rCold, rAcid, rElec, rPois, FrAct and Invis by playing conservatively at shallow depths, and then dive straight down to dlvl 98 to look for great gear lying around on the floor.

    I managed to get all of these initial resists without any issue, but I did not dive immediately due to an unfortunate encounter with a Nexus Vortex. It swapped my STR and CHR stats, reducing my STR by ~10 points and crippling my damage output. I did not feel it was fair to have my character start his big dive in that state, so I spent a lot of time around dlvl 40 looking for stat potions to restore his STR. I ended up almost maxing all stats in the process, effectively performing the traditional stat gain phase.

    Before diving, I had my first fortunate find - an Iron Crown of Lordliness, granting telepathy. This would prove to be invaluable in detecting and avoiding danger, and I would continue to use this headpiece until finding my first Ring of Power on dlvl 99 (after killing Sauron).

    After my warrior's stats were close to maxxed, I set off on the relatively quick road from dlvl 40 to dlvl 98. Another extremely fortunate find was the light crossbow "Cubragol" on dlvl 52. The permanent +10 speed granted was invaluable in killing monsters which would have been otherwise impossible, and I continued to keep this artifact equipped all the way up to the final battle with Morgoth.

    The dive was nerve-wracking - I would descend as fast as possible, and run for my life at the first sniff of danger. This often led to me going up and down stairs many times in quick succession, and using a lot of teleportation staves and scrolls. If I detected any interesting, unguarded loot on my way to the stairs I would make a detour to pick it up, and I would also cherry-pick easy kills which would grant a lot of EXP - Mûmaks were a personal favourite for this purpose.

    As I was diving quickly, I started lacking some key resistances traditionally recommended for certain depths. I didn't have pConf until dlvl 59, and I didn't find a non-swappable form of HLife until dlvl 99. However, I dealt with this by making ample use of potions of Cure Critical Wounds and Restore Life Levels.

    Eventually I reached dlvl 98, and I began the process of looking for great gear. I had obtained several wands of Teleport Other by this stage, and I found that with some careful planning I could raid vaults full of monsters that could easily kill me. Any monster I couldn't handle could just be teleported to another part of the level, uniques included! It was by sneakily raiding vaults and finding equipment otherwise lying on the floor that I slowly filled out all of my high resists, and obtained enough speed and damage to start fighting the monsters toe-to-toe.

    I ended up spending quite a long time on dlvl 98 (and after killing Sauron, dlvl 99), preparing for the final battle. I had read up on what a fearsome foe Morgoth was, so I wanted to spend time ensuring I had enough equipment and consumables to take him on. I also decided to kill all of the other uniques in the game, to prevent him from summoning them during the fight.

    I found enough gear to become quite formidable (had almost every resist, 500+ melee damage per round, 1000+ HP, 32+ permanent speed even when 180lb overweight encumbered), and I'll admit that I made use of the pillar dancing trick help kill many uniques. Eventually, I had killed every single unique in the game except for Morgoth and Qlzqqlzuup, the Emperor Quylthulg (in my opinion the hardest monster to kill in the game, due to constantly summoning monsters to shield itself). By this point I could comfortably and consistently clear the entire level on dlvl 99, including whole pits/graveyards and vaults.

    It was then that I finally felt ready to face Morgoth. I descended to dlvl 100, used a few charges of *Destruction* to sculpt the battleground, dropped my staves and waited. I didn't have to wait long - Morgoth appeared in short order, tunneling through walls at a frightful pace to make a beeline for my character.

    However, after all of my preparation, the final fight was quite anti-climatic. I had stockpiled enough potions of *Healing* to quaff one every time my HP dropped below 700, and enough scrolls of Mass Banishment to read one every time Morgoth summoned anything I couldn't tank. In the end he fell quite easily to my 834.2 melee damage per round vs evil, and the game was won.

    I look forward to trying to finish my next game as a spellcasting class, and perhaps without using the pillar dancing trick (I'm starting to feel this trick is extremely cheap).

    Character dump here: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19471
  • Estie
    Veteran
    • Apr 2008
    • 2343

    #2
    Congratulations! You found all the good stuff except Bladeturner.

    Oh and Q is the easiest of the deep uniques to kill
    There are 2 ways: 1. use ranged attack on a hockeystick; 2. get next to him and teleport away all dangerous summons; eventually only harmless summons remain and you can beat him up, he wont do anything further. Obviously the terrain has to be favourable; if it isnt, teleport Q away untill he lands in a place where it is.

    Comment

    • bio_hazard
      Knight
      • Dec 2008
      • 649

      #3
      Congrats! I've still yet to manage a real win in V.

      Comment

      • Egavactip
        Swordsman
        • Mar 2012
        • 442

        #4
        Re Qlzqqlzuup, the Emperor Quylthulg

        He can be very difficult but he can also be extremely easy. The best way to get him is if he is in a corridor juncture or some other area where lines of sight are limited--things he summons can't necessarily get to you. The other thing you need is for him to summon some crappy stuff, which can essentially shield you while you wail on him. If he is not in such a situation and if through teleporting him, etc., you can't put him in a reasonable position to go after him, just wait til the next time.

        On *average*, I think he's easier than some of the others.

        Comment

        • AnonymousHero
          Veteran
          • Jun 2007
          • 1393

          #5
          I haven't seen you since Zenthil Keep!

          Congratulations!

          Comment

          • Pete Mack
            Prophet
            • Apr 2007
            • 6883

            #6
            Congrats! That character is over the top.
            Deathwreaker AND Cubragol AND The One Ring AND Feanor AND Shield of Harardrim AND Cambeleg....
            All of those are middling rare to extremely rare.

            Comment

            • MattB
              Veteran
              • Mar 2013
              • 1214

              #7
              Originally posted by Egavactip
              Re Qlzqqlzuup, the Emperor Quylthulg

              <snip>

              On *average*, I think he's easier than some of the others.
              This...

              Comment

              • xorzac
                Adept
                • Sep 2016
                • 137

                #8
                That link is a good one! How would you get him in there? Wraithform?

                Comment

                • MattB
                  Veteran
                  • Mar 2013
                  • 1214

                  #9
                  Originally posted by xorzac
                  That link is a good one! How would you get him in there? Wraithform?
                  That was just where I found him. Poor planning on his behalf, I'd say.

                  Comment

                  • xorzac
                    Adept
                    • Sep 2016
                    • 137

                    #10
                    Probably easiest deep unique kill ever eh? I hope I get lucky with him - i've read so much about him.

                    Comment

                    • ranger jeff
                      Apprentice
                      • Jan 2012
                      • 78

                      #11
                      It's always nice to hear that common story told again. It seems like so many first wins come after a decade or more of attempts, I know that was the case for me, as well. All the ignorance and fear holding me back. Sooo many deaths to dracolisks. And then one day after probably thousands of attempts, I make it deep. Have I figured something out about the game? I guess so, because it wasn't too many tries after I first made it down into the 60's that I finally found myself standing toe-to-toe with the Lord of Darkness. I think it took me about 20 years... My first win I think was in 2002 but before I was on oook, so not on the ladder. My next win wasn't until 2007 (I got distracted and didn't play the game much in those years.) My first attempt at a roguelike was in the early 1980s, when my dad, working for NCR, brought home a copy of Hack (and Starflight, that was another good one.) I was oft eaten by a grue. That was really just a taste. It wasn't until the 1990s and me in college and the internet that I found roguelikes again. I won a bunch of the other ones, like Nethack, but Angband was more challenging, so I stuck with it.

                      Ah, memories of a life wasted gaming, lol!

                      Comment

                      • Pete Mack
                        Prophet
                        • Apr 2007
                        • 6883

                        #12
                        My first win was not too long before Eddie Grove published Tales of the Bold on rgra. (He was already proselytizing against clearing levels.) I had a checkpoint save file at 2000' to waste less time in the shallow depths. Then a clean win as Dwarf Paladin in 1.2m game ticks. Still not really diving, but fast enough for that era.

                        Comment

                        • Ingwe Ingweron
                          Veteran
                          • Jan 2009
                          • 2129

                          #13
                          I started playing Angband back in the mid '90's, Ben Harrison days when a kind traveler sitting next to me on an airplane was playing and offered me a floppy disk with the game. I played off-and-on, with several year intermissions, but never had a legitimate win until a couple years ago, after watching a lot of Fizzix' "Let's Play Angband" series on YouTube.

                          My greatest advances in learning game play came from: 1) Fizzix' - Let's Play Angband series, 2) the Hobbit vanilla comp where everyone started with The One Ring, Sting, and winner was the player with the lowest experience, and 3) MattB's fist's only challenge.
                          “We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.”
                          ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

                          Comment

                          • robbiodobbio
                            Adept
                            • Feb 2013
                            • 152

                            #14
                            What's the pillar trick? Just keep circling one block of wall so they can't hit you?

                            Comment

                            • Derakon
                              Prophet
                              • Dec 2009
                              • 9022

                              #15
                              Originally posted by robbiodobbio
                              What's the pillar trick? Just keep circling one block of wall so they can't hit you?
                              Stand next to an enemy and a pillar, and have more speed than the enemy. Hit the enemy, then move around the pillar. The enemy will have to spend their turn moving next to you, and thus cannot attack. As long as you have a speed advantage, this makes non-passwall, non-erratic enemies completely safe to fight.

                              Comment

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