Sil newbie help

[Pete Mack]

1. How do you rest to full health/disturbance?
2. What do "arrows of Brilliance" actually do?

[HugoVirtuoso]

'R' command (capital R) is the rest command, if you're using the Angband keyset.

I think you meant the Bow of Radiance...it lights up the darkened squares.

[HallucinationMushroom]

1. Shift-Z
2. What's an arrow? lol, jk, I'm not sure.

[Pete Mack]

This game is fun!

Finally got a character to 400', wearing boots and ring of Weakness (Ouch!)
Then got blindsided by an Orc champion while defending against a Distended spider.

I think I've got my kit down:
Hope to find a bow & arrows.
Make
* Gloves of Archery
* Boots of Speed
* Helm of Brilliance (in that order)
(First chance, create SB of Brilliance to illuminate hallways.)

Also get: Versatility and Precision, with optional flaming arrows ASAP.

[Pete Mack]

OK, I've watched a bunch of Sil videos, but none of them point out that archery should ALWAYS come after melee. I got to 500' easily by focusing on melee, then started switching to archery. I died at 600' to a bunch of fire drakes and shadow worms, thinking that drakes are easy targets. (They are, but not 3 at a time.)

Long story short: archery is great later in the game, but lousy until you can mow down large groups of Trolls and Orcs in melee. You can do OK with pure archery and stealth early on, but it's a terrible way to play as a newbie.

[Patashu]

I think another common combination is Stealth/Archery - that way anything you can't kill with your archery you can run from, and they naturally compliment each other because Archery demands you keep your distance anyway.

[Pete Mack]

I think another common combination is Stealth/Archery - that way anything you can't kill with your archery you can run from, and they naturally compliment each other because Archery demands you keep your distance anyway.

I totally get that, but it doesn't work for a newbie. Until I get a handle on evasion without detection (and with flanking), I'm going to need pretty good melee.

[debo]

OK, I've watched a bunch of Sil videos, but none of them point out that archery should ALWAYS come after melee. I got to 500' easily by focusing on melee, then started switching to archery. I died at 600' to a bunch of fire drakes and shadow worms, thinking that drakes are easy targets. (They are, but not 3 at a time.)

Long story short: archery is great later in the game, but lousy until you can mow down large groups of Trolls and Orcs in melee. You can do OK with pure archery and stealth early on, but it's a terrible way to play as a newbie.

Stealth is in general a difficult way to play as a newbie imo, because you don't really know how monsters move around yet. I "learned" Sil by killing about 150000 stealth characters (of both archery and melee inclinations), but it wasn't until I started to use bruisers a lot more that I figured out the details of what is dangerous and what isn't.

The artistry/armorsmith feanor start is probably the easiest build I've found to use for a newbie before 400', so I might recommend that.

FWIW my archery videos weren't intended to be a newbie-friendly introduction -- the intro videos did create a pretty standard build to show how that plays out, although they were recorded for 1.0.2 when Charge was pretty much the best thing ever.

[debo]

I also think it's difficult to make a blanket statement of what "works" for a newbie in Sil -- I've been watching a lot of termcasts of relatively new players (who play a lot of roguelikes in general but are new to Sil), and their early successes were from a variety of different builds.

[taptap]

OK, I've watched a bunch of Sil videos, but none of them point out that archery should ALWAYS come after melee.

If you look at dedicated stealthy archers in the ladder, you will find many without any melee skills at all. No skill points and often no versatility either, to add further excitement you can go with low CON as well. You can play with versatility if you feel the need to have some backup option, but specialization is stronger - you don't even try to engage in melee and play more carefully in general.

I would go 2534 Feanor or 2435 Feanor/Finarfin with an archer. I used to make archers with STR 1 aiming for an early 1lb shortbow, but imho STR 2 and a light longbow (as close to 2 lb as possible) forged on 50ft after going upstairs from the first level make for an easier start as an archer. As soon as you have flaming arrows and concentration you are seriously strong in damage output.

[taptap]

OK, I've watched a bunch of Sil videos, but none of them point out that archery should ALWAYS come after melee.

If you look at dedicated stealth-archers in the ladder, you will find many without any melee skills at all. And quite a few of them are first time winners. No skill points and often no versatility either, to add further excitement you can go with low CON as well. You can play with versatility if you feel the need to have some backup option, but specialization is better imo - you don't even try to engage in melee and play more carefully in general. My backup options are vanish / sprinting / staff of warding / stairs not melee.

I would go 2534 Feanor or 2435 Feanor/Finarfin with an archer. I used to make archers with STR 1 aiming for an early 1lb shortbow, but I would end in trouble when I didn't get my criticals in time against protected enemies. Imho STR 2 and a light longbow (as close to 2 lb as possible) forged on 50ft after going upstairs from the first level makes for a good start as an archer. As soon as you have flaming arrows and concentration you are seriously strong in damage output.