Kinda new to Angband...what do you think of this approach?

[Mondkalb]

And after that, variants.

That's why I love FAangband. There is always something surprising.

[Zikke]

Diving is the best medicine against the weariness and frustration that comes with reliving the first shallow levels over and over.

And after that, self-handicap options.


And after that, variants.

[Mondkalb]

Probably time spent into quick diving or at least a fast paced approach to the game is better invested than hours of grinding on low levels. If you die on level 15 or 20 you might have spent about an hour in the first case but probably several hours in the second case. Your char would be dead anyway.
Also, most likely you will learn more the second way. You will progress further every time and you will encounter more interesting items and monsters. Diving is the best medicine against the weariness and frustration that comes with reliving the first shallow levels over and over.

[Ehrblast]

Really, lots of great info and advice here, thanks so much. Im taking it all to heart, but I must say what really gave me perspective was watching the lets Play Angband on Youtube [sorry, forgot the fellows name]. Truth was, I was getting a little bored with my initial approach, likely ingrained from console JRPG's . For kicks, I created a new character, and just went for it. Not over my head, but just pushing the envelope of my characters abilities, and what do I find but that I survive the encounters and Im leveling much more quickly, efficiently. And it became loads more fun. In a moment, acquiring items for use later quickly took a back seat, as they game seems to provide just what I need for the moment. Got to acknowledge the dev's and maintainer for that. Just great! For right now I bookmarked this thread so I can peruse all your input while I gain new confidence in my playing.
Truly, all your input really opened up the game for me.
And now I know for sure what I'll be doing for the next months/years.

[Malak Darkhunter]

That's a straw man if ever I saw one .

I can't speak for anyone else, but I dive(ish) because it makes the game more fun. There's a lot more excitement in always being a hair's breadth away from death and always being slightly out of your depth. The other way lies slaughtering endless hordes of orcs and then dying anyway to a Drolem breath because you got used to not having to detect and if necessasry avoid stuff further down.

Btw, there are degrees of diving. You could be actively looking for the down-stairs, you could have a rule of thumb that says "I will take the first/second/third down-stairs I happen upon", etc.

I dive when prudent and character ability deems it possible to do, if I feel underpowered I wait and build up the character first, If I feel overpowered I might dive 10-20 levels at a time.

[debo]

Here is everything you need to know about angband monsters:
- everything before dl30 does acid damage
- everything after dl30 drains life, and probably charges
- some of those things breathe for a lot of damage

[DeusIrae]

You can do fine not-diving, certainly at the stage you're at; diving will get you stronger faster and is more fun once you know the game better, but definitely not required.

All of the advice so far is good, but here are a couple of other ideas:

-It can be helpful to buy at least one !CLW in town before you go in, so that you know what those look like when you find them. It's not hard to ID them by use or guess what they are based on stacking, but it takes some of the guesswork out and sometimes you run into a bad situation before you get a chance to do much use-IDing.

-If you're playing a ranger, the asymmetric line of sight might be a really helpful thing to know about -- basically, sometimes you can see (and attack) a monster, when they can't see/attack you (or vice versa, of course, so knowing about this can also help you avoid some un-fun ambushes). The most common place this happens is when there's a hockey-stick arrangement next to a wall, like so:

.....
.@...
###k#

You can see the kobold and get some free bow-shots in, but he can't return the favor.

-The advice about learning the monsters is good, though honestly in the first ten levels it doesn't matter that much -- you'll know right off the bat if a baddie is fast, out of depth, or a unique, and there isn't that much else going on in those levels that you need to worry about. I wouldn't be shy about turning on the monster knowledge cheat or looking things up in the database here. Also, one thing to know is that you can pass old characters' monster memory on to your new character, by opening the file of your previous dead character rather than starting a new one each time. You can still change race/class/stats etc., so it doesn't lock you into anything, and means you're not always scratching your head trying to remember how monsters you've fought before, but not for a while, work.

Good luck!

[wobbly]

In regards to grinding vs diving I'd say:

If your having trouble staying alive for long - dive less, grind more.

If your getting bored too easily with enemies being too easy - grind less, dive more.

[Derakon]

Try H-Troll warrior to learn the game.

...

Timo speaks wisely. All of his advice in this post is good. Don't be afraid of playing warriors; they don't have magic, sure, but there's plenty of complexity in the game, so they don't feel like second-class citizens. And they are significantly better at combat and survival than other classes (excepting priests and paladins in the late game, who can cast big healing spells).

If you're having trouble with making it to 1000', then your problem is that you haven't figured out the basic tactical game yet. Almost all of the monsters in the first 20 dungeon levels are primarily dangerous in melee, and your deaths will mostly come from getting overwhelmed by groups. Therefore, pick a race/class combination that's really good at melee and is better at surviving getting beat on. Half-Troll Warrior is it.

[Timo Pietilä]

That's a straw man if ever I saw one .

I can't speak for anyone else, but I dive(ish) because it makes the game more fun.

To me it makes game less fun and more boring. Examining dungeon is more fun. There is one aspect of diving though that you should learn even if you don't like diving: change levels sooner than later. Staying too long on same area creates tedium. Even doing opposite of diving is better than staying in same levels too long. It changes the danger level which stops you from getting mentally stuck in one way of playing.

[Timo Pietilä]

Ive quickly become engrossed in Angband. I'm amazed this game can be beaten; I kick and scream when I die at cl10. That's the highest ive gotten.

Try H-Troll warrior to learn the game.

Get light weapon: the more blows you make the more damage you make. Light weapons allow you to get more than heavy ones (until you have increased your STR and DEX quite a lot). It's very rare that less blows will give you more damage / turn especially early in game.

Get escapes. At early levels phase door scrolls. A lot of them.

Get detection. For warrior you need them later, for spellcaster-races ASAP. Detecting things before they detect you is key to survival (there are few exceptions that will detect you further away than you can detect them, but early game that is not an issue).

Get a bow. Any distance weapon will do, but bows and xbows are best. If the monster is unknown to you try to kill it from distance. If it is faster than you, assume it can kill you and get out of there ASAP.

Look at the monsters. Sometimes description tells you if you should run away even before you actually know what it does. Rods of Probing fill the monster memory for the monsters in line of sight, so once you find one, use it.

Speed is paramount. More the better until you reach about +30. If you get slowed (actual negative speed) you are in high risk of getting killed by something faster than you. In early game before you have any permanent speed items potions of speed basically guarantee escape (you get your every action doubled vs monsters). Save them for nasty encounters.

Get healing. Cure light wounds actually make difference in early game and are plentiful in dungeon. With lots of phase door and CLW you can heal while fighting.

Don't get surrounded. Pack/group monsters are dangerous in early game. If you see one spider/canine/orc expect to see more. Fight in closed spaces where you can back to safety if the current opponent turns out to be too nasty.

[Estie]

For the grinding approach you described, the superior race choice is dwarf. They get a digging bonus and a chance to detect nodes and can get filthy rich earlier than other races. It is an effective approach, but at some point everyone has to learn how to play the game. Once that is done, ignoring veins and rather diving faster turns out to be more effective. As for how that is done, there have been plenty of excellent tips by previous posters above.

Another, similar approach would be to play warrior instead of ranger. Warriors can go deeper than others before running into problems.

[AnonymousHero]

Diving is something that the long-time experienced players here think that everybody should do, based on [insert theorycraft here]. I've never agreed with making this tactic the "norm" or recommended, but rather as something that people naturally do after they're familiar with the game.

That's a straw man if ever I saw one .

I can't speak for anyone else, but I dive(ish) because it makes the game more fun. There's a lot more excitement in always being a hair's breadth away from death and always being slightly out of your depth. The other way lies slaughtering endless hordes of orcs and then dying anyway to a Drolem breath because you got used to not having to detect and if necessasry avoid stuff further down.

Btw, there are degrees of diving. You could be actively looking for the down-stairs, you could have a rule of thumb that says "I will take the first/second/third down-stairs I happen upon", etc.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I found that watching "Let's Play Angband" videos posted by Fizzix on YouTube made a quantum leap in my playing ability. Give them a try and I'm sure you will soon be diving successfully.

[Mondkalb]

And don't stay too long on one level. Monsters wake up after a while and after a very long time even new monsters are created.