Advice from accomplished divers

[d_m]

Well, to update this thread, in a list of points:

1. not dead yet
2. on dungeon level 81
3. found thranduil and an amulet of esp
4. found =speed +10
5. lost all -teleport other
6. lost staff of speed
7. running out of teleport scrolls
8. still no great weapons

For awhile I was swapping Holhenneth (for resists/detection) and Thranduil. Once I found the Amulet of ESP (40k at the market) I started just carrying Holhenneth.

I'm doing OK--I just wish I had some teleport other capability. At this point I'm seeing some nice vaults that might be doable if I could clear some of the high-level uniques, but are definitely not reasonable currently.

[ChodTheWacko]

This is how you will die with this character:

Since you don't have ESP, you will maa a lot. You will descend a stairwell into a room. You don't see anything and will maa which will reveal a pack of inertia/time/gravity/vibration/plasma hounds nearby and they will cook you in 1 turn.

Or a dragon, but my money's on hounds.

I was wondering what the heck you were talking about, then I realized you meant mab (detect monsters)

- Frank

[Pete Mack]

With ESP and speed your character's power went way up. What's your HP situation? (Maybe post another character dump?)

[Zikke]

I was wondering what the heck you were talking about, then I realized you meant mab (detect monsters)

- Frank

Oh yeah sorry... I'm playing a priest right now so I was working off memory.

[d_m]

With ESP and speed your character's power went way up. What's your HP situation? (Maybe post another character dump?)

Dump updated.

HP are still wretched (285) so I still do a lot of avoiding. I've decided that my +7 stealth is the only reason I have made it to dungeon level 98 (even more so than the ESP I found). Initially I was mostly playing dwarven warriors/priests, so I don't think I appreciated the stealth stat as much as I should have.

I'm pretty surprised to be on 98 with only around 400k turns (that's a record for me). I did use some deep descent which I found around dungeon level 90 to help get there. I guess now it's just look for stuff and try not to die carelessly.

NOTE: there is a disclaimer in the dump about a savefile transfer error; basically the effect was that I began my dive a few levels earlier. I think that may have improved the situation a little from the last dump you all saw.

[Magnate]

Dump updated.

HP are still wretched (285) so I still do a lot of avoiding. I've decided that my +7 stealth is the only reason I have made it to dungeon level 98 (even more so than the ESP I found). Initially I was mostly playing dwarven warriors/priests, so I don't think I appreciated the stealth stat as much as I should have.

I'm pretty surprised to be on 98 with only around 400k turns (that's a record for me). I did use some deep descent which I found around dungeon level 90 to help get there. I guess now it's just look for stuff and try not to die carelessly.

NOTE: there is a disclaimer in the dump about a savefile transfer error; basically the effect was that I began my dive a few levels earlier. I think that may have improved the situation a little from the last dump you all saw.

That's hugely encouraging - I will never again give up on similarly poorly-equipped characters at 3000'. Thanks for the updates.

[Flee]

keep going down.... next stop 4900'.... detect like mad and run for your life

looks like those words of wisdom were right lol

good job on making it down to 4900' keep running for your life and you got a winner on your hands

[d_m]

Dump updated again: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=9032

Found some artifacts, although most of them aren't that useful to me right now (e.g. Calris, Cubragol). I've found at least one of every stat potion except intelligence (argh).

I managed to acquire some PDSM from a dangerous vault, but then realized that it might not be a great idea to use it right now, since stealth would go from +7 to +3 by wearing it (instead of hithlomir). Crazy?

Finding PDSM kind of sobered me a bit--it's one of the most sought after items but currently it doesn't even help me that much. Should I spend more time trying to fight easy (but xp-rich) foes to level up? Or still look for better items? Or something else?

Thanks.

[Zikke]

It's possible that while this character survived such a dive, it might have been a product of the RNG being nice. I still don't think it was a decision I would make on a regular basis with that early gear.