The Official Bad Advice Thread

[Therem Harth]

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

[Nemesis]

The Bronze Dragon Skull of Madness is an artifact headgear that's very, very rare but easy to recognize. Like Phial of Galadriel it's just a "Bronze Dragon Skull" before being identified. It can be activated for Aquirement and has a really quick recharge time, meaning that you'll be able to get all the other artifacts as soon as you find it! However, it also makes you blind and confused while wearing it and is heavily cursed.

As the benefits from the BDSKM are so great, don't bother uncursing it before putting it on! You can always read your *Remove Curse* scroll later.

[ekolis]

Hehe...

Metroid: the Roguelike... (yes, I know there was already one, thanks Slash!)

t

Take off what?
a) varia suit [40, +6] {resist fire}
b) scan visor [5, +1] {+1 to ESP vs. space pirates}
c) spazer beam (+10, +3) {confusion brand}
d) missile launcher (+1, +8) {explosive}

a

You can't do that here! There are geeks watching!

[Nemesis]

If you equip a weapon and it feels "deathly cold" it means it's branded with frost! All monsters not immune to cold takes double damage!

If your @ is female, you get to see her without armour if you finish the game with low enough turncount!

[Tobias]

When you are at stat gain you can't use Fire/Ice Ball to get those orks off of your !Augment.
But luckily Raal's shows up in the BM around now. So you have 6 new spells to blast them without endangering your Potions.

[ewert]

Wearing heavy armor increases the damage from the "engulfed in a whirlpool", because you can't swim that well in heavy armor. So if you find yourself fighting something that casts that spell on you, quickly start taking off your armor so the next time it casts that you take less damage.

[o-o]

Eating's cheating. If you're hungry, keep on going.

[o-o]

Nothing wrong with that. That's a base 80% chance of success. Add to that your 'lucky feeling', your desire to succeed, and the fact that you've had such bad luck in the past. All that certainly pushes your chances for success, or at the very least survival, well into the high 90% range. It's a no-brainier. In the end, the reward will certainly be worth the risk. You will probably be granted the exact item you were seeking. I can't tell you how many times I've acquired boots of speed following this advice.

1 in 5, you say? With practice these odds change, so keep taking these 1 in 5 chances and you'll get there in the end.

[Nick]

Nothing wrong with that. That's a base 80% chance of success. Add to that your 'lucky feeling', your desire to succeed, and the fact that you've had such bad luck in the past. All that certainly pushes your chances for success, or at the very least survival, well into the high 90% range. It's a no-brainier. In the end, the reward will certainly be worth the risk. You will probably be granted the exact item you were seeking. I can't tell you how many times I've acquired boots of speed following this advice.

In fact, use The Secret to guide your decisions.

[buzzkill]

Unfortunately, I do think this from time to time....

Nothing wrong with that. That's a base 80% chance of success. Add to that your 'lucky feeling', your desire to succeed, and the fact that you've had such bad luck in the past. All that certainly pushes your chances for success, or at the very least survival, well into the high 90% range. It's a no-brainier. In the end, the reward will certainly be worth the risk. You will probably be granted the exact item you were seeking. I can't tell you how many times I've acquired boots of speed following this advice.

[dhegler]

Just go for it, a 1 in 5 chance of death is pretty good odds.

Unfortunately, I do think this from time to time....

[ekolis]

Shouting "Magic MISSILE!" when typing "maa" maxes your damage dice, and greatly improves your chances of getting a beam.

Likewise, pounding the arrow keys with your middle finger as hard as you can increases weapon accuracy, and improves the chance of a critical hit. (I still fall into this habit myself! :P)

Magic missiles are the best spell to cast throughout the game - they do decent damage, and only cost 1 mana, so you can cast 'em practically forever! Those other spells like "fire bolt" - look at the mana you'll waste, and the damage isn't all that much better! Not to mention monsters can resist fire...

Somewhere, deep in the dungeon, there is a mystic tome, the legendary "Fifth Mage Book", the "Book of Black Magick", which teaches mighty elemental spells no denizen of Angband can resist... this book contains the secret spells FIRAGA, BLIZZAGA, THUNDAGA, METEOR, QUAKE, and BIO.

Priests, don't get jealous... there's also a Book of Summonings which lets you summon chocobos, ifrits, and even several Hindu deities!

[Pete Mack]

Once you have free action, there aren't any really dangerous monsters between 1000' and 1350' so you should start doing stat gain around 1250' until you feel like you can kill everything with ease.

[o-o]

No matter how late it is, you can always do another level.

[Sirridan]

Just go for it, a 1 in 5 chance of death is pretty good odds.