Secret tech? (Or, "Did you know?")

[BlueFish]

What are some subtle things you've come across that maybe not everybody knows?

1) Some non-unique monsters that drop items 100% of the time:

* Mewlip
* Green, blue, and red orcs. Note that green orcs can drop cursed stuff even if they won't pick them up.
* All wraiths (though they are standing on their item rather than carrying it).

This single-handedly makes Mewlips palatable to me. Even while I continue to hate their maprot effect.

2) Confusion trap effect, which is a globe of radius 2 or 3 (not sure), will affect monsters. So that confusion trap can be a potent and inexhaustible defensive bunker if you have a helm of clarity.

[locus]

Dropping glowing items at your feet to increase your darkness resistance is a classic example.

[krazyhades]

Manually targeting projeciles lets you hit squares that the auto-targeter does not realize can be hit. It can't find a path that ends on the square, but it can find a path through it.

[taptap]

You can put escorted uniques to flight by affecting their escort (as long as it is in sight) even if your song / will is not high enough to affect the unique directly.

[T-Mick]

An archer standing in the corner of an "L" shaped corridor will not run away as you approach, making for an easy kill. It's an archer grinder!

[HugoVirtuoso]

Giants are susceptible to Poison. So, stock up Poisoned Arrows and have them ready, especially for the unique Giants.

[wobbly]

Throwing weapons never land on traps. A few stacks will highlight the trap squares in a maze.

Tapping Elbereth on & off with an archer will keep a Troll in bow range.

Many fleeing enemies try to "hide" in the dark vs an archer with keen senses.

[debo]

Giants are susceptible to Poison. So, stock up Poisoned Arrows and have them ready, especially for the unique Giants.

This can be dangerous if you have low evasion. Giants often choose to throw boulders at range, and these are even more powerful than their melee attacks (although also less accurate).

[wobbly]

This can be dangerous if you have low evasion. Giants often choose to throw boulders at range, and these are even more powerful than their melee attacks (although also less accurate).

If your shooting from a doorway you get step out of sight-line to heal-up though. Fleeing from melee range can mean copping a boulder in the head.

Edit: Looking at a giant now with lore-master & the accuracy is the same & the melee attack does more damage. Less damage dice on the melee attack too, which by my understanding means it should critical more often & harder.

[locus]

Opportunity attacks for ranged attacks in melee happen after the original attack, and if you kill the enemy they don't happen at all. Real useful when birds and insects get in your face.

[Patashu]

Throwing weapons never land on traps. A few stacks will highlight the trap squares in a maze.

Tapping Elbereth on & off with an archer will keep a Troll in bow range.

Many fleeing enemies try to "hide" in the dark vs an archer with keen senses.

Now these are good secret techs!

Does anyone have a full list of floor lamp related secret techs? (Like the 'perception bug' thing)

[fph]

Dropping glowing items at your feet to increase your darkness resistance is a classic example.

Does this mechanic work as its creators intended, or are we "exploiting a bug"?

[debo]

I don't think this is secret anymore, but it isn't well documented.

If you are getting frustrated with (normal-speed) archers, there is a pretty simple formula you can use to game their AI to trap them against a wall:

######
#....####
#.......o
#....####
#..@.#
######

Move two steps down from hallway mouth and one step away from wall that contains the mouth.

######
#....####
#....o...
#....####
#..@.#
######

Pass turns until the archer moves into the hallway mouth square

######
#...o####
#........
#....####
#...@#
######

Move against the wall. The archer will either move straight or diagonally out of the hallway, I can't remember.

######
#...o####
#...@....
#....####
#....#
######

Move up and trap him.

This might not be 100% true to life but it's close enough that you should be able to easily replicate it.

[half]

Many fleeing enemies try to "hide" in the dark vs an archer with keen senses.

This makes me want to try a keen senses archer. I like it when games reward the player for getting a new ability like this, rather than have the monsters just know when they can be seen (though I suppose the ideal is that after one well aimed attack they then work it out). My favourite example is how in Nethack 'see invisible' lets you watch all the quite cunning things that invisible stalkers are doing (including waiting for you to approach them, and moving to another square when you work out where they are by attacking them). They still do these behaviours, teaching you how the game normally functions, but letting you now get the upper hand.

[half]

I don't think this is secret anymore

That's probably right. Scatha has been doing this one since before the first public release but was careful to let the community work it out for itself. I often end up fighting them by my own archery or a more ad hoc cornering them in the room's corners, both of which actually work well enough. The corridor corner one sounds like the easiest exploit to remember, while this one sounds like the most powerful.