1st ironman attempt YASD

**Grotug** · February 13, 2017, 11:29

How come you weren't wearing the =rPois instead of the =DEX? The only reason I am not wearing =rPois if I found one at that depth is because I have a good =Damage and =Speed.

**Sphara** · February 13, 2017, 12:53

Originally posted by Grotug

How come you weren't wearing the =rPois instead of the =DEX? The only reason I am not wearing =rPois if I found one at that depth is because I have a good =Damage and =Speed.

Good question that is already answered above. Plain stupidity. Knew perfectly well what could happen.

You could also ask why I did not detect monsters as soon as I arrived. One Detect Evil and I could've continued the struggle but no.. daddy wants to fight some minor gold dragons.. Big basilisk was waaaaay beyond my league, rPois or not, so that was 100% gtfo situation. After that dDescent thing I was just escaping and burning consumables. Sheer luck I did not die earlier.

As this was my first ironman, you can probably agree I wasn't that lucky? No? At least now I know not to try un id'd scrolls

**Pete Mack** · February 13, 2017, 13:08

There are plenty of monsters starting from DL 45 that can instakill a priest with only detect evil, which was just as likely at level 45 as 51. It wasn't the scroll that killed you; it would was walking around with a swap ring equipped.

**Thraalbee** · February 14, 2017, 07:27

One thing that I do different is avoiding killing uniques until dungeon level 30. This seems to increase the chance of a decent to really good drop before the more difficult levels

**Philip** · February 14, 2017, 13:07

I'm incredibly dubious about the avoiding killing uniques strategy. The marginal value of a guaranteed {good} or {excellent} object actually goes down the deeper you are. Look at it this way - how many excellent items do you find on the floor or from drops from pathetic monsters (orcs et al.) on DL50 (or 70 or 90 or whatever)? It's quite a lot, in my experience.

Meanwhile, even a {good} object can be great early on. {good} launchers or even ammo are a godsend for just about anyone, early on. A {good} light weapon on a fighter-type is better than anything you're liable to find up to about DL40, depending on your speed. Even {good} armor is better than you might think, since early game is the only time you can't really control when you're in melee very well. A {good} heavy weapon is amazing for Priests, and even Mages (mana conservation is, again, most important early on). Decently often you'll even get an excellent item, and Smeagol and Wormy are guaranteed to give you one.

There's also the matter of the Phial, which has a fairly low chance of appearing on normal drops, but a much higher chance of appearing on a good or excellent drop. I would recommend clearing out the {good}-dropping uniques first, until you get the Phial, and only then go for Wormy and Smeagol. They're pretty annoying (and with Wormy, deadly) to fight super early anyway.

Obviously, you don't want to fight any unique you can't kill without using valuable supplies (!CCW, last couple ?Phase, last couple bits of good ammo) or can't kill at all.

Killing uniques early can be a fun challenge, has a decent reward, and makes the trek to DL30-40 easier. Killing them late gets you a moderate increase in object quality at a point when that is much more easily achieved by going down a couple levels.

**Pete Mack** · February 15, 2017, 05:59

There's just not a lot of need even to stay at dl 30, uniques or otherwise. You will meet them again soon, or others like them. With the exception of DROP_GREAT uniques, your odds of something really useful aren't all that much greater than from what you find on the floor, and consumables are likely to be more precious than just a modest chance at a good item. Vaults are a much better prospect than uniques.

**Estie** · February 15, 2017, 22:46

Most uniques give a very good shot at an artifact when killed deep. For this reason I usually avoid fighting uniques early. In my randart games, I´ve gotten many a golden nugget for the endgame from orc bosses that way.

That being said, ironman is a different story. A large amount of unkilled uniques means that they are going to pop up again and again and, even if relatively harmless, are bound to increase the danger level of already dangerous dungeon levels. High monster density is something I dont want to have in ironman games and escorted uniques are a sure way to cause it.

**Sphara** · February 16, 2017, 12:27

Originally posted by Thraalbee

One thing that I do different is avoiding killing uniques until dungeon level 30. This seems to increase the chance of a decent to really good drop before the more difficult levels

This advice paid off almost the first time I tried it.

I'm on my 3rd attempt at the moment and I passed on Nar several times.
Killed him on lvl 32 and got an artifact light crossbow with +18 dmg and +2 shooting speed. I'm outta identifys so I don't know if it has any resists in it as well. But looks like its gonna serve me a long time.

Dragged Wormtongue deeper too but his treasure was disappointing.

2nd attempt I knowingly did a suicide raid on a greater vault (lvl 33). Lured a dracolich out without TO (coz I did not have it). Never got the grasp on those 8 level feeling items. Other vault guardians made me teleport out over and over again and I finally landed near the dreaded dracolich.

**Pete Mack** · February 16, 2017, 16:25

Suicide dive indeed. Pretty rare to be able to take a serious vault at dl33 in any case. With that bow, you can avoid vaults for a while with little loss.

Originally posted by Sphara

2nd attempt I knowingly did a suicide raid on a greater vault (lvl 33). Lured a dracolich out without TO (coz I did not have it). Never got the grasp on those 8 level feeling items. Other vault guardians made me teleport out over and over again and I finally landed near the dreaded dracolich.

**Sphara** · February 18, 2017, 10:21

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=20337

Another failed attempt.

If you're going to comment do not spare your blows. Another fucking death because of hanging on to to some stat boost/sustain ring

Honestly, Trappers being dangerous never even crossed my mind. Before the tombstone appeared, I had absolutely no idea what happened!

Just never even thought I'd have paralysis problem with ESP on. Probably the only monster in the game that is not detected by Telepathy but has instakill paralysis attack, right?

Well, live and learn! This already felt like a winner but I gotta stop using rings that enchant attacks but leave me vulnerable to instadeaths

Edit: Had a lifesaver cloak there. What could be a better goddamn lesson than this? Also: fuck trappers!!!

**Grotug** · February 18, 2017, 12:01

I learned early on how dangerous Trappers can be, without even being paralyzed by them (I think I've only been paralyzed by them once, during a reckless dive). I often get into trouble by them from the simple fact there is someone whomping on me and I'm not paying close enough attention and I don't see anything that can be harming me so it takes me a minute to realize what is going on; often by the time I'm in low hitpoint warning do I stop and realize; oh yeah, it's one of those truly invisible monsters. I finally learned that you can click on squares adjacent to @ until one says "The Trapper" so he's not as invisible as I used to think!

On occasion I will risk the mid DL20s without FrAct (usually only because I am forced to). I'll probably wear an Inertia amulet (-1) if it's the only source of FrAct I can find and I'm deeper than DL25, but I really try to avoid wearing a -2 one.

Once I'm passed DL30 I will with great paranoia *on occasion* risk *briefly* taking off a FrAct item to ID something on the floor when my inventory is full, but I hate doing this. That you would risk running around in the DL40s without FrAct is, I'm sorry to say, suicidal. EVERYTHING is paralyzing you by that depth. But I suppose you do have a point that anything that is paralyzing is also having thoughts about your demise. But as someone who uses teleportation frequently, even with ESP you cannot safely teleport without FrAct. You had some nice gear, too. Tis a shame.

I'm actually surprised your hammer wasn't doing more damage given its dice, your ring of damage, gloves of slaying and massive STR/DEX boosts you were enjoying.

**petebull** · February 18, 2017, 19:49

Targeting Mode via the '*' command reveals trappers too. And then there's the visible monster list window or the "list visible monsters '['" command

**Sphara** · February 26, 2017, 08:35

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=20369

4th YASD with 2 immunities :/

**krazyhades** · February 26, 2017, 17:45

Ouch!

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1st ironman attempt YASD

1st ironman attempt YASD

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