noob question : how to deal with hundreds of monsters

[dying_is_my_hobbit]

I tried two times.

First time, after 7 or 8 levels without any kind of resistance, I suddendly felt in a trap and got teleported in the middle of a room with hundreds of monsters. I died with no solution visible.

Second time, after 5 or 6 levels without any kind of resistance, I suddendly found in front of me a source of monsters (I must have slayed at least 200 of those white giant louses) that at the end came behind me letting me think it was filling the level. I died with no solution visible.

What am I missing ? Is there a way not to suddenly die like this ?

[Psi]

You probably won't like this reply, but the answer is *not* to deal with hundreds of monsters. Detect traps to avoid being teleported into a situation you cannot handle and shut the door and leave the level if lice start breeding.

[dying_is_my_hobbit]

You probably won't like this reply, but the answer is *not* to deal with hundreds of monsters. Detect traps to avoid being teleported into a situation you cannot handle and shut the door and leave the level if lice start breeding.

I like this reply.

I just now need to learn how to detect trap...

[LostTemplar]

Louses do breed, they are infinite. Teleport and find a stair. First time it was probably a monster pit with 95 monsters, avoid this for a while. Generally use detect monster and teleport. In angbang you have to solve the trouble before you get into it.

[dying_is_my_hobbit]

Louses do breed, they are infinite. Teleport and find a stair. First time it was probably a monster pit with 95 monsters, avoid this for a while. Generally use detect monster and teleport. In angbang you have to solve the trouble before you get into it.

Does that mean that I must learn "detect monster" and "teleport" before going down five levels of stairs ? Being a dumb warrior is harder than I thought !

But that's OK, I think you gave me the directions to look at.

Thanks

[LostTemplar]

How about scrolls of phase door, and detect evil staff ? This if for future, in your case it was simply avoidable by detect traps(first), and running away in time (second).

[buzzkill]

Bare bone basics the beginner. Carry scrolls of phase door, a lot of them, read them, they will save you 90% of the time (for now). Carry scrolls of detect doors/stairs. Always know where a staircase is. That should be enough to at least double your current progress. Are you familiar with what the scroll Word of Recall does? You should always have one of those too.

[Derakon]

Some monsters "breed explosively", like those lice. With those monsters, unless you can kill them before they get out of control, your only options are containment and fleeing. None of the breeders in Vanilla can open doors, so you may be able to shut them off that way. Otherwise, run away and look for stairs.

There are also occasionally large special rooms in the dungeon. You'll know you've found one when you find a 5x19 room surrounded by a "moat" (a 1-tile corridor), with a door in the center of one wall of the room. Some of these rooms have a checkerboard pattern in them with more monsters and items than usual, some are basically empty, and some are monster "pits" or "nests" -- all 95 spaces in the room have a monster and all the monsters start out awake. The monsters will have a theme, for example all being orcs or all being molds/jellies/mushrooms. The latter isn't too dangerous but the orc pit can really get you into trouble.

The important thing to do about these rooms is to know that they're there. Cast Detect Monsters (mage/rogue/ranger), Detect Evil (priest/paladin), or carry a staff of Detect Evil (warrior). Then either avoid the area, or approach it very carefully. Orc pits can be profitable to clear in experience and items, but you pretty much need to have good melee combat.

Also, sometimes your young character will just get in over his head and die, and there's not much you could have done about it. Early traps are a good example, because trap detection isn't readily available until later -- usually you'll be fine early on since the traps are rare, but sometimes you stumble into one and get killed. Fortunately your character was young so you didn't lose much time. Just make a new one and get back in there.

[dying_is_my_hobbit]

@buzzkill : I'm familiar with nothing, as I stupidely thought that scrolls and staffs and so on were only for mages or priests and not for the warrior class.


(yes yes, über noob, I was just lured last night into the game due to the wonderful graphics and a post on reddit...)

[dying_is_my_hobbit]

Another question : is it possible (no numeric keyboard) to move and hit in diagonal ? Monsters seem to hit me in diagonal...

[Derakon]

Heh. Welcome to the game! Okay, so: staves, scrolls, and potions are the warrior's answer to the spellbooks that everyone else gets to carry. Scrolls and potions work 100% of the time (but you can't read scrolls if blinded or confused); staves can be used anytime but are unreliable. Use the 'I' command to inspect items and they'll tell you what they do and what your chance of success are.

Your top priorities, item-wise:
* Phase Door, teleports you a short distance away. A semi-useful escape; also good for avoiding melee range. On that note, get a sling, bow, or crossbow and some ammo.
* Cure Wounds potions. CLW (Cure Light Wounds) doesn't do all that much, but CSW and CCW (Serious and Critical) will help big-time if you're confused, blind, or stunned. They'll also restore a small amount of hitpoints. If you need to heal, phase door away first.
* Word of Recall. Teleports you to and from the dungeon. Basically just saves you a lot of tedious searching for staircases.
* Heroism. Gives you temporary fear resistance, which is very handy for warriors.
* Teleport. You can't get this until later because it's expensive, but staves of teleport will bounce you across the dungeon. If you really have to get away from a big threat, they can be lifesavers. Or they may just end you up next to something even more dangerous. Still, uncertain doom is better than certain doom...

Also, take a look at the lighter weapons in the stores. Depending on your STR and DEX scores, you may get multiple strikes each round with them, which could significantly improve your damage.

[Nomad]

Another question : is it possible (no numeric keyboard) to move and hit in diagonal ? Monsters seem to hit me in diagonal...

Press '=' to open the options screen and then choose the 'set movement delay' option, and set it to 1 or more instead of 0. That should allow to you make a diagonal movement by pressing two arrow keys at the same time. (The movement delay controls how strict the game is about judging whether the keys were pressed at exactly the same time. If it's set to 0 you can't make proper diagonals, because it's really hard to press two keys down at exactly the same millisecond. )

[buzzkill]

Another question : is it possible (no numeric keyboard) to move and hit in diagonal ? Monsters seem to hit me in diagonal...

On my laptop (I'm assuming yours too) the Fn key plus 7,8,9,u,i,o,j,k,l form sort of a psuedo keypad, and will move you in all 8 directions (scratch i/5). If not the 1 (sw) 3 (se) 7 (nw) and 9 (ne) keys at the top of your keyboard will work too, though awkwardly.

[Derakon]

There's also the roguelike keyset, which puts all of your commands on the main island. I think it uses u/i/o, h/j/k, n/m/, for movement.

[dying_is_my_hobbit]

Press '=' to open the options screen and then choose the 'set movement delay' option, and set it to 1 or more instead of 0. That should allow to you make a diagonal movement by pressing two arrow keys at the same time. (The movement delay controls how strict the game is about judging whether the keys were pressed at exactly the same time. If it's set to 0 you can't make proper diagonals, because it's really hard to press two keys down at exactly the same millisecond. )

Thanks, it works.
And the Fn+keys too.