Arkenstones are common?

[Grotug]

Am I just lucky or are Arkenstones in the first 25 levels of Angband 4.2.4 common? Please share your experiences with finding Arkenstones, thanks! I'm not saying they are as common as the Phial in standarts, but in randarts I find more arkenstones than I do phials....

[Estie]

Not common; the chance for an item set to contain at least one of them is, in my experience, about 50%. However, if one exists at all, it is 1. common and 2. drops only up to a certain depth, typically <45.

[Grotug]

For how powerful they are that is pretty common, though. Thanks for the info. I suppose not finding as many phials could be indicative of my playing style, where I tend to get to the DL30s pretty quickly.

[Sky]

first 25 level, no.
DL25 - 47, yes. Pretty much all your first artifacts are going to be lights, and they start to generate around DL25. With randarts, having 1 extra slot with stat bonuses is a great advantage over standards, and you will pretty much always want an artifact light over a lantern of True Seeing.

I don't go below DL47 until i found one, no matter what other gear i have. They very rarely generate atfter DL47.

[kineahora]

first 25 level, no.
DL25 - 47, yes. Pretty much all your first artifacts are going to be lights, and they start to generate around DL25. With randarts, having 1 extra slot with stat bonuses is a great advantage over standards, and you will pretty much always want an artifact light over a lantern of True Seeing.

I don't go below DL47 until i found one, no matter what other gear i have. They very rarely generate atfter DL47.

Thats kinda weird, no? Neat tip though.

I still tend to do Stat gain at DL 32, so shldnt impact me, but nice to know 47 is a good place to stat gain. I kinda am starting to like 34 for Stat gain staying away from Gravity hounds...

[Sky]

actually DL45-46 is waaaay better than 46-47. There's some nasty stuff on DL47. Just out of experience, i find that DL47 is the real first bump in difficulty, and AMHDs start showing up. Don't ask me what weird RNG magic does this because i dont know.

With the same reasoning, there is no reason to ever do anything between DL65 and DL97. Tons of nasty undead stuff, you might as well read some DD and go directly to the DL97-98 stair scumming.

[Werbaer]

Just out of experience, i find that DL47 is the real first bump in difficulty, and AMHDs start showing up. Don't ask me what weird RNG magic does this because i dont know.

AMHD is native to DL 53 (see monster.txt).
While lesser vaults can contain monsters up to 11 levels out of depth, that is rare. But monsters up to 5 levels out of depth are quite common (see vault.txt).
So you can expect AMHD to start showing up at DL 48.

[Sky]

AMHD is native to DL 53 (see monster.txt).
While lesser vaults can contain monsters up to 11 levels out of depth, that is rare. But monsters up to 5 levels out of depth are quite common (see vault.txt).
So you can expect AMHD to start showing up at DL 48.

^what this guy said.

[ewert]

I did this previously on my personal edit, but can we please please please make sure there are no drop cutoffs that might prevent ARTIFACTS from being spawned deeper down in the dungeon?

I find it beyond annoying that with randarts you need to roam low levels to make sure you get your randart lights. From what I can see it would not be much of a change, just adding the base light types to be available in all dungeon levels.

[AceRimmer]

AMHD is native to DL 53 (see monster.txt).
While lesser vaults can contain monsters up to 11 levels out of depth, that is rare. But monsters up to 5 levels out of depth are quite common (see vault.txt).
So you can expect AMHD to start showing up at DL 48.

So, you're saying that Omarax 35 levels OOD would be uncommon? [Must fight urge to take him on...]

[Sky]

i think the most OOD i got was Witch King at DL30 or something like that. No ESP, base speed. I could not believe my eyes.

[kineahora]

i think the most OOD i got was Witch King at DL30 or something like that. No ESP, base speed. I could not believe my eyes.

I saw Huan once while I was doing Stat gain around level 33. I actually wanted to see if I could stand against him. And I actually survived long enough to find out it was hopeless and I was able to TO him away...

[Egavactip]

It used to be that there was only one Arkenstone possible per game and you were certainly not guaranteed to get it. Now, not only is it possible to get multiple Arkenstones a game, but it seems more likely to get one and to get it earlier at that. Three out of my last four games I had characters who found Arkenstones pretty early. The character I just posted to the ladder, for example, got his at DL22. This is all part and parcel of the great increase in artifact lights that was instituted in recent versions. Prior to that, even with RandArts on (which I always play with), one could get "the" Vial, "the" Star and "the" Arkenstone. Now you can get all of those, and in multiples, plus artifact lanterns and torches (!). It used to be that it was not uncommon for me to end a game with a Lantern of True Sight. These days I usually have a plethora of artifact light sources to choose from during a game.

[Grotug]

The problem with great items being commonplace is they lose their specialness. I remember how speed was such a rare and awesome thing to find. Still great to find it, but it is soo common that it no longer has that aura of specialness around it. Everything's about striking the right balance. Scales are currently in favor of being over-common on speed items if you ask me.

[tom]

The problem with great items being commonplace is they lose their specialness. I remember how speed was such a rare and awesome thing to find. Still great to find it, but it is soo common that it no longer has that aura of specialness around it. Everything's about striking the right balance. Scales are currently in favor of being over-common on speed items if you ask me.

Agreed. Angband works by administering dopamine hits with endless loot boxes.

But optimal drop rate depends on the player. I play exclusively forced descent, so a speed crisis happens to most of my characters around dlvl 50-70, and the eventual good speed drop is a big relief.

Something in modern angband is you can cobble together tolerable speed before you find BoS or ring of speed, because fractional speed artifacts exist. There was none of that in 2.8 days for example