Ochre Jelly

[Grotug]

I have been changing up my strategy from slow and safe to keeping it interesting (I'm using Deep Descents!). But there is always something to spoil my fun. This time an Ochre Jelly brought me from AC 71 to AC40. I can feel my blood turn to acid with ire. It's good thing I have that amulet of resist acid around my neck.

EDIT: Seriously, the over the top acid situation needs to be revised. At the least, resist acid *really* should reduce the amount of damage to equipment by 66%.

So what am I supposed to do now? Crawl back up 5 dungeon levels because I have no armor anymore? grrrrr

[fizzix]

So what am I supposed to do now? Crawl back up 5 dungeon levels because I have no armor anymore? grrrrr

1) learn to avoid acidic monsters unless you have artifact gear. Jellies drop no treasure, so unless they're guarding a vault, it's best to avoid them. Ochre jellies and acidic cytoplasms are fast though, so that is a major annoyance, I agree.

2) I think there should be a distinction between magical enchantments and intrinsic armor abilities. We already pretty much have this with [x] + y descriptions. So acid should lower the [x] and disenchant should lower the y. Then we could bring back those broken scrolls of repair armour and have them only fix acid damage.

3) Item damage/destruction is probably one of the most annoying things in many games. I'm not sure it's terrible though. If your armor was damageable by acid, then you'll probably find a suitable replacement soon enough.

[Grotug]

Yeah, I couldn't evade the jelly and he had done so much damage by the time I realized what he was. There really wasn't any other option but to melee him. Yes, more repair armor scrolls would be really nice. It would also be nice if they would repair the armor to its original without going higher (right now they cap at +15 regardless of the original amount the armor had).

[Derakon]

Yeah, I couldn't evade the jelly and he had done so much damage by the time I realized what he was. There really wasn't any other option but to melee him.

This means you weren't properly prepared for the dungeon. Every character should always have a stack of Phase Door and some kind of ranged attack if at all possible; failing that, try to have a Staff of Teleportation by the time you make it to, oh, 750' or so. Ochre jellies are harmless if they can't melee you.

[Grotug]

I had phase doors which weren't doing me any good because the jelly was so fast and the phase doors weren't taking me far enough away. Phase doors are also unpredictable and are known to land the player next to the thing you were trying to escape. But they can be real life savers, too, especially if there is a nearby, unconnected corridor.

[Philip]

Or if you have a mildly effective ranged attack. They move much faster than you, but not fast enough not to get a hit or two on and they are fragile. They will also stop appearing if you dive past levels 10-60 like I tend to. Of course, by level 60 there isn't anything new in the dungeon, might as well go to 98. I play a lot of mages. The only characters I hate ochre jellies with are paladins, otherwise I range it or smash it quickly enough or teleport.

[Derakon]

I had phase doors which weren't doing me any good because the jelly was so fast and the phase doors weren't taking me far enough away. Phase doors are also unpredictable and are known to land the player next to the thing you were trying to escape. But they can be real life savers, too, especially if there is a nearby, unconnected corridor.

Keep reading phase doors until you get enough space. They have a range of 10 squares; you only need to move 3 to get away from an ochre jelly that's in melee range. Statistically speaking you'll eventually get away.

This is why I tend to carry like 20 Phase Door scrolls with me when I leave town. It's hard to have too many of them, and they're light.

[Nick]

Keep reading phase doors until you get enough space. They have a range of 10 squares; you only need to move 3 to get away from an ochre jelly that's in melee range. Statistically speaking you'll eventually get away.

...and probably straight into the hole that the ochre jelly left in the pit it came out of

[Grotug]

22 is usually how many I have. Later in the game I may carry up to 35.

Well, I am an idiot. Found {excellent} boots on a level with Nexus hounds and some promising weapon upgrades. The hounds were guarding the weapons. I was trying to get to them, but for some *really* stupid reason I just assumed the boots were something useless like feather falling so even though I was resisting what the hounds were breathing when I wore the boots briefly, I took em off and put my others back on which only had [+1] more armor. Part of the problem was I didn't really have a strong feeling of what nexus hounds do, but had a vague notion they cause you to teleport by breathing "nexus" at you. I kept getting nexused away, but because I was developing game fatigue I couldn't be arsed to identify the boots (and I had a staff of identify on hand). Finally, I got nexused out of the level (didn't know that was possible, but it didn't say I found a trap door, said I got hit by nexus and then sank through the floor). So, then I decide to id the boots, and yeah, boots of stability. Maybe my lack of intelligence has something to do with my intelligence and wisdom being lowered by a Ghost of some kind.

Well, I was so frustrated by that scenario that I didn't do enough to deal with the new threats on dl30 I had just sank onto and so a red priest or something cast fireballs at me and I died. Good riddance, I lose patience after awhile trying to make progress. I often find getting out of the late dl20s to be the hardest part of the game. Very tedious. Can't find anything good and yet am being harangued by all sorts of things I can't deal with like carrion crawlers and basilisks. Wish I could find a strategy that worked. Maybe I should deep descent when I reach dl29 or 30 and take my chances in the mid 30s where you can find some decent stuff. At least my intuition on potions is getting better. I quaffed a speckled potion I had a feeling would be a +stat/-stat and figured I'd take my chances: "You feel ugly! You feel strong!" You basically couldn't ask for a better +/- stat potion. That is the only +/- stat potion I've ever quaffed in all my many many hours playing this game, too.

EDIT: Well, that was a fun first dive into the dungeon. On dl5 I found the following: +3 +4 ring of the mouse (if you wear it and don't fight with it you can sell it for a pretty penny) Smeagol, and coulda worn the ring to fight him, but chose instead to save the ring for selling; a maul, a lantern and a zinc-plated wand (id'd as a stinking cloud on a hardened vet in town). On dl3 or dl4 a graze was bringing my health slowly down: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. I quaffed the only potion I had but it was a potion of speed. I actually felt pretty confident it would stop at 0 or 1, though, since grazes don't usually go very long. It's always fun to win the game and be able to say (and I had 0 health at such and such time, especially the beginning). Given my track record, tho, I don't think this is will be the game I win.

Wow, that was cool. Was in a hallway with a monster on either side of me. Was trying to find out what the various staves I had picked up did. U>Walnut staff--poof! the monsters in the hallway are gone. checked to see what it was--dispel evil 60 damage. Not bad for a pickup on dl12 or dl13.

I thought the amount of damage monsters did was supposed to decrease as they became more injured? Seems they get more powerful the lower my hitpoints go. dead again *sigh*

[Raxmei]

Breath damage is a fraction of the monster's current HP so injuring a monster will reduce the damage its breath attacks deal - though this can take a while later on when monsters often have more than enough HP to hit the damage cap for breaths. Other monster attacks aren't affected in this way.

[Grotug]

Breath damage is a fraction of the monster's current HP so injuring a monster will reduce the damage its breath attacks deal - though this can take a while later on when monsters often have more than enough HP to hit the damage cap for breaths. Other monster attacks aren't affected in this way.

so melee attacks are the same all the time? man, read the wrong scroll under pressure...... what else is new.

[Derakon]

Yep, the only thing about monsters that gets weaker as you hurt them is their breath attacks. In particular, non-breath spell attacks remain at full strength.

[brownbear]

This means you weren't properly prepared for the dungeon. Every character should always have a stack of Phase Door and some kind of ranged attack if at all possible; failing that, try to have a Staff of Teleportation by the time you make it to, oh, 750' or so. Ochre jellies are harmless if they can't melee you.

Is that standard? I could never afford a Staff of Teleport before like 1000, since they cost like 3k+.

I thought I dived slow compared to most people too, so I assume you guys would have even less money.

[Timo Pietilä]

Is that standard? I could never afford a Staff of Teleport before like 1000, since they cost like 3k+.

I thought I dived slow compared to most people too, so I assume you guys would have even less money.

Usually you can kill ochre jelly from distance in like one or two turns. It's weak, weaker than black orc. Its only strength is its speed.

One very important lesson in angband to never get surprised. Get a very good distance weapon ASAP if playing paladin that can't detect monsters, only evil. Priests can dispatch one with couple of OoD.

[Derakon]

Is that standard? I could never afford a Staff of Teleport before like 1000, since they cost like 3k+.

I thought I dived slow compared to most people too, so I assume you guys would have even less money.

How much money are you spending on other stuff?

And yeah, I can't often afford it by that point, but that's why it's an "if you don't have Phase Door and a ranged weapon" option.

For that matter, I think all arcane casters should have access to Teleport Self by that point, and all holy casters should have access to Portal. I'm not sure on the exact levels, but that just leaves warriors with no way to avoid them, and warriors of all classes should be able to take Ochre Jellies down in only a couple of rounds.