The Official Bad Advice Thread

[UniqueName]

Kill everything you see especially jelly, undead and demon pits. Gelatinous cubes have one of the best drops in the game.

Clear every level because if you ever need to run up it will be empty.

Sacrifice everything for speed because +45 speed is better than +44 speed.
As a corollary 18/300 str is better than 18/290 str.

ESP lets monsters see you and chase you and makes you unable to rest. This is worse than the One Ring which only let's Sauron, Ringwraiths and High Elves see you.

ESP detects everything so you don't need to.

Don't use destruction because it destroys all the monsters and non-artifacts and messes up the dungeon. It can even blind you.

Use a staff of destruction instead of scroll of destruction so you don't waste your stack of scrolls.

Don't use banishment because then you won't be able to kill it.

Don't use teleport other because you'll have to go find it to kill it. See advice about killing everything.

It's ok to read scrolls of *acquirement* at home.

Armor and weapons can be enchanted to +15.

Wands of annihilation are useless because they don't hurt undead, demons, elementals, golems, and vortexes.
As a corollary Wands of dragon's breath are really good because they're like a box of chocolates and have a chance to hurt almost everything.

Read *Remove Curse* before you wield Calris.

Grand master mystics can only do 95 points of damage max compared to Kronos at 576.

Kill every Q, e, E and Z you see because they either have great drops, never chase after you or always chase after you.

Bard kills Smaug in one shot.

[nullfame]

If you find ammo of slay giant, don't use it! Save those for Morgoth. 5-6 stacks worth should do the trick. Capital P, right?

[Nemesis]

When up against a summoner, many players dig so-called "anti-summoner corridors", but that is actually a very bad idea. You can seldom hide in those corriodors - the summoned monsters will come after you! And then you're stuck in a cramped, dead end and there'll be nowhere to run!

Instead, you can read scrolls of Summon Monster or Summon Undead yourself, those scrolls are lying all over the dungeon floor. However, if you've killed innocent people on the town level, there's a risk that your summons will be hostile to you (this was added into the game to discourage players from cruelty against innocents). However, if your summons turn out hostile, just try again, sooner or later they'll be on your side!

[Sirridan]

You don't need free action late in the game because by then you'll have plenty of money.

[Nemesis]

If you're in a room full of monsters that could kill you in a single turn, reading a Scroll of *Destruction* will save you. Sure, you'll get blinded, but you will never again have to see the hideous creatures in the room! If you don't happen to have a Scroll of *Destruction*, a Scroll of Darkness is a great substitute with identical effect: You'll go blind, but you'll never again see the deadly monsters in the room!

[Sirridan]

That sleeping hummerhorn can't breed if it doesn't have a mate, so it's safe to ignore it and grab that scroll in the room with it without taking it out first.

[Zikke]

The yellow-colored "P" monsters are yellow because they are cowardly and will not attack you. And that also means they have no friends.

[Therem Harth]

Warrior's are the ultimate fighting machine and can easily trade blows vs. Deathmolds with impunity. Go ahead, show that squishy mold who's boss, heh heh ...

Hrus too. No stupid old stone giant can stand agains the might of Ringil!

[Nick]

And on a related note, dragons absolutely won't breath on you if you're standing right next to them. I promise.

And because they breathe proportional to their HP, you want to reduce their HP as fast as possible, which means melee - especially in variants with cone-shaped breaths.

[Zikke]

And on a related note, dragons absolutely won't breath on you if you're standing right next to them. I promise.

Or if they're running in fear. You might as well just follow them and melee them for that last blow.

[Therem Harth]

And on a related note, dragons absolutely won't breath on you if you're standing right next to them. I promise.

[Therem Harth]

You're right though, looking back through my logs it seems most of the stuff he breathes in ToME is unresistable. (Force, disintegration, etc.) And he decided to breath all of it on me.

Anyway, suffice to say that it was a really bright idea to fight him in one of the giant vaults in Erebor, with nowhere to dig a corridor and wide open spaces where he could summon more dragons...

[Derakon]

Ancalagon breathes poison, and in some variants (ToME being a notable one) he has several other nasty breaths.

[cofresi]

Warrior's are the ultimate fighting machine and can easily trade blows vs. Deathmolds with impunity. Go ahead, show that squishy mold who's boss, heh heh ...

[Nemesis]

Remember: Colbrans are those birds that go down rather easy, but stay away from Crebains, those "lightning golems" hurt when you first encounter them!

There's no problem taking on Ancalagon with only basic resists. High resists are for wimps!

Did you mean double resists (high resists are chaos, nexus, shards and the like, and when I checked Ancalagon's attacks he didn't seem to have any of those)?