First Time Winning Angband

[SonicSpeedBryce]

So I just finally won the game for the first time ever today. With that last blow to Morgoth, I felt several emotions, namely: joy at finally completing one of the 'major' roguelikes, relief that a month of going through the dungeon did not go to waste, and an odd sense of disappointment that, beforehand, I was scrounging dl97 and dl98 for Bladeturner but never got it. Oh well, assuming I did not screw up, the game was as good as done when I got The One Ring.

That being said, I created an account to share this feat that, in all honesty, these forums probably get frequently enough that it isn't all that special. The character that I won with, Vanna the High-Elf Mage, is on the ladder if anyone wants to take a look.

My only regret is that I spoiled myself hard before and during the game. It makes me curious, just how many people have completed the game without spoiling themselves beforehand? Maybe the pain and anguish that comes with learning all of the intricacies of a game over the course of 100+ playthroughs is worth it for the experience alone, but I don't think I'm the kind of person who could stand that, personally.

[Selkie]

I used to play with save spoils a long time ago. It was a useful to learn the game I suppose, but ultimately I stopped enjoying it.

If you want to win without save scumming it's a just a case of experience, knowing which monsters to fight and which to avoid until later. Most of my deaths happen when I get too greedy these days so you have to remember there's always another treasure around the corner.

This is an old checklist, but it's always very useful

1000': Free Action, See Invisible
1250': Basic four Resistances
1900': Maxxed Stats, Confusion Resistance, Blindness Resistance
2000': Poison Resistance
2500': Hold Life
2700': Chaos Resistance, Nether Resistance
3000': Permanent and Temporary Speed of +20 or greater
4000': Permanent + Temporary Speed of +30 or greater
4950': As much as you can get. Sustains, Speed, every resistance

I'll sometimes force quit when I press the wrong button by accident and die. Do we all do that?

[Sky]

i only cheat when i die to commands queueing because that's literally just a UI bug. I've now taken habit to just running ("." command) everywhere to avoid the near-constant annoyance of fast mobs chasing you before you can react, when you are still at base speed.
I do however often forcequit when in town, specially when im setting up my gear. I have more than once made the mistake of forgetting what combination of gear i had and not being able to remember or recreate it. Obviously that's a randart problem.

my "to-do" list looks different than what above.

1. id !Spd so you can run away from impossible situations (mage pit, tengu pit) or kill early uniques.
2. get a weapon and a launcher (a maul for priests, a dagger for warriors, a bow for rangers), just something to do damage with.
3. lantern and rod of treasure location, so you can navigate the dungeon properly.
4. DL25/35 as appropriate to class/race to look for good gear / stat pots
5. kill orc uniques, or bigger mobs like dragons, mage pits, etc, stuff that drops good consumables. Between (5) and (7) you want some form of TO.
6. first artifacts, normally Lights, will dictate how far you can go. So if you have an early boost to your primary stat, you can go deeper.
7. Resistance (and consumables, enough to be more than enough)
[7. ESP & rPoison] - no specific depth, but you need these before you go against undead / AMHDs.
[8. stat gain] - keep grinding until you have a solid 18/80 in your primary stats and have pretty much everything from this list prior (e.g ranger: longbow of power)
9. grind DL60/65 for good midgame artifacts, including Speed bonuses, high resists, etc
10. greater vaults DL97/8 and just keep pumping up your character. At this point you have nothing to fear as you can Heal/TO/kill/MBan/WoD anything.

[will_asher]

Congratulations on the win. I still haven't won the game yet.

It'd be a lot harder to win without any spoilers (thought still not nearly as much so as with Nethack*). Not wanting spoilers for your first few or ​several games, I understand, but not wanting spoilers before your first win is a tall order, probably for any roguelike.

(*but I have won Nethack once. After much spoiling of course.)

[sffp]

Congrats on the win!

It's far easier to die than to win - that's for sure

[Hounded]

Congratulations. Never fear though, playing Angband is like learning to ride a bike. No matter how many times you win you never forget how to die ignominiously.

Maybe that's just me...

[Pete Mack]

Uh, what? Learning to ride a bike is hard, but actually riding a bike is dead easy. (Though I did have to remind my 79yo mother that riding a bike below 5mph is far more difficult than 6mph.)

[Sideways]

Congratulations!

Learn the game the way you want to learn it; I doubt anybody will judge you harshly for looking up things like monster info. But if you do have regrets about using spoilers, plenty of variants out there waiting that you can still play unspoiled

[archolewa]

I guess it depends on how you define "unspoiled." I did manage to get my first win populating the monster memory the hard way (dying and Rods of Probing). However, I was lyrking here and reading peoples comments on strategies and the like. That being said, I did come up with anti-summoning corridors on my own, and I was playing a priest, who become very hard to kill around DL60 or so. I still havent won with a mage.

Regardless, congratulations! That first win is something special.

[SonicSpeedBryce]

Thank you, all of you, for the kind words of encouragement! I know I'm still nowhere near being good enough at the game to be considered a pro yet, but it's encouraging that I got even one win under my belt. Looking back, though, yeah, maybe I was being over dramatic about using spoilers. Sure, I'll never be able to tell a legendary tale of triumphing over the game with only my own skills and knowledge of the game at that point, but, in the grand scheme of things, not many people will care about that. Oh well.

I've actually been thinking about starting a new character; how does a Dunadan Necromancer sound? Any advice for that character?

[Selkie]

I've actually been thinking about starting a new character; how does a Dunadan Necromancer sound? Any advice for that character?

Sounds hard to me. You're playing in the dark so it's good to have some intrinsic infravision. I like high elves, you get light, dark, and nether resisted, you have high INT and decent other stats (except wisdom, but who cares about that), and see invisible is very useful.

[Sphara]

I've actually been thinking about starting a new character; how does a Dunadan Necromancer sound? Any advice for that character?

Grats for the 1st one.
Early Necromancer will be in lot of trouble with anything evil. That is all kobolds and orcs, for example. Nether bolt just doesn't cut, even though it does some damage through resistance. Try to get a launcher and kite monsters using bat form. You may even buy stackloads of flask of oil and throw them at monsters.

Necromancer is the hardest start by a big margin, imo.

[Pete Mack]

Necro is considered by many to be the most difficult class. (Druid is also in the running.) You might want to try the equivalent half-caster first, tho Blackguard has its own difficulty.

[DavidMedley]

I'll sometimes force quit when I press the wrong button by accident and die. Do we all do that?

I've never force-quit or save scummed. A few times I've turned on the recover from death option, planning to play to the end but I always lose motivation on those characters.

[SonicSpeedBryce]

You know, now I'm almost tempted to run Necromancer just for the promise of high difficulty alone.

Almost.

That being said, it would be nice to have melee as a fallback for nether resistant enemies. I guess I'll try Blackgaurd first then.