The Official Bad Advice Thread

[HallucinationMushroom]

If you're fighting a bunch of weaker monsters in a long corridor, just hold the arrow button down, letting the messages fly by, till they are all dead. It's very gratifying and totally safe.

[Narvius]

In the beginning, spend all your money on weapon enchantments. You don't need healing and stuff when the enemy has no time to attack you!

[Djabanete]

Man, I'm glad this thread got resurrected.

Secret method for making boots of speed:

Place boots on floor.
Place Ring of Speed on floor next to them.
Zap both with a wand of lightning balls, and say the magic words...

[Dragonboneman]

... at first meeting.

[Narvius]

Kill every unique you meet.

[Melchizedek]

In the early levels, make sure you take out any other monster in the room BEFORE killing the lice or fleas. They're just bugs, don't worry about them.

[Dragonboneman]

Wield Calris, then enchant it.

[Lachre]

So far, I haven't had the misfortune of getting any terrible advice, but I've made enough stupid mistakes on my own to learn a few things. After going through probably two dozen mages (I'm determined to get past level 10 or 12 with a gnome mage) I can say that quaffing unID'd potions probably has more to do with class (or current hp) than anything else. I've been killed twice by quaffing what turned out to be poison. Other than that, being blinded or confused, etc never bothered me since I never quaffed unID'd potions around monsters.

[K.I.L.E.R]

The only things you need to beat the game can be found in the general store.

I agree. I killed Morgoth with my starting weapon and no armor.

[daft]

It is late at night and you are fighting sleep and fighting Saruman. Saruman is badly damaged and you've just shot your last seeker arrow, and all of your rods are still charging. Your mana is kaput. Saruman casts a fire ball and wipes out nearly all of your remaining hit points. You are thinking about reading a teleport scroll, so that you may recover safely, when you come up with a brilliant notion: Saruman is probably weary from the fight, just as you are, and he is bound to make a mistake, giving you the opportunity to go in for the kill. You advance toward Saruman, ready to take a swing at him with your sword. You forget that he 'cackled evilly' several rounds ago and you step onto his poisoned trap. Saruman teleports away. You stand there, at death's door, alone and poisoned, wondering how you could have made such a blunder.

[ekolis]

Mushrooms of hallucination are great ways to learn about enemy weaknesses. ("You cast a lightning bolt. The Dalek dies! Ah, it appears robots are vulnerable to electricity!")

Engraving "elbereth" on your sword will protect you from evil. (No! No! Not Nethack!)

An "artifact" is a relic from a bygone era and as such is completely useless; if you find any you should squelch them.

You need to be at least level 15 to cast "magic missile" or else Cthulhu will eat your soul! (Note: this might not be such bad advice in Steamband...)

Hounds come in many breeds representing various elements, but are mostly harmless - one of the more (relatively) dangerous breeds is the Basset Hound, which represents two elements, that of Gravity and Sound.

[HallucinationMushroom]

The only things you need to beat the game can be found in the general store.

[Djabanete]

Playing under the influence will help you be more immersed in the game which will lead you to making better decisions.

You have two days to write something on this thread about shovels. I expect to be amused.

EDIT: Thanks! That did it for me.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Playing under the influence will help you be more immersed in the game which will lead you to making better decisions.

[darkdrone]

run around wilderness , especially plains, at night as a CL1 mage.

hit the arrow key blindly.

play at midnight when too sleepy.

play when angry at the world (this is Angband, not Quake with the cheats on!)

play mages as a newbie , after a frustrating day at work.

dont do a 'detect evil/monsters" scroll on entering a level.

even if u DID cast Detect spell, you CAN tell the type of monster JUST by looking at the ASCII!!