A Few New Player Questions

[d_m]

1. Sometimes Phase Door loves me, sometimes it hates me.

This is a great thing to learn! I usually try to carry 20-30 ?phase just so that in desperate situations I can just read and re-read over and over until I get away (or out of LOS, or to a non-connected area, etc).

In other situations, when you're on a really dangerous level and you just need to get out of there, I've read ?recall and just ran around (using ?phase as needed) to try to stall for time until it kicks in.

Every monster has a ratio of danger to reward. You've also learned that hydras are relatively high danger for very low reward, and best avoided.

Good luck!

[Derakon]

There are also a lot of enemies much deeper in the dungeon (past level 60, more or less) that sling around high-powered nether attacks. Nether resistance isn't especially reliable -- it has a wide variance in how much damage it actually mitigates. But on average it'll save you a decent chunk of damage, reducing the amount of times you'll have to run away or heal. I wouldn't prioritize it above nexus/chaos, but above light/dark, sure. Light and dark are both pretty rare anyway; nether is common.

[Carnivean]

Another question: Another resists I should be keeping an eye out for?

Resists are a complicated area, in that they don't all provide the same level of protection.

Must cover:
Fire, Frost, Acid, Electricity, Poison. These can be breathed for up to 1600hp damage unresisted. Items with resists reduce damage to 1/3. Temporary resists, such as potions or spells, reduce to 1/3. Stacking a item/permanent resist with a temporary resist combine to reduce to 1/9.

Will save pain:
Nexus, Chaos. These have weird side effect that the resist blocks. Damage reduction is all over the place, but they aren't usually outright dangerous.

Nice to have:
Disenchantment. Stops them bastards ruining your items.
Light, Dark. Can blind you.

There are various items that protect you from status ailments(as opposed to resist). Fear you already know of. Stun and Blind are really good to have too.

[fph]

What killed you isn't lack of rFear, but lack of ways to escape.

Especially at higher levels, Angband is all about being prepared and having the ability to GTFO as fast as possible when things go wrong. Always carry with you a few scrolls of teleportation, teleport level and/or deep descent, as soon as you find them. Potions of CCW and phase door are also handy to remove temporary status effects and get out of melee range from a monster.

Later on, there is another useful addition: staves of teleportation. They have a failure rate, though, so use them only when you can survive one more turn in case of a failure. Word of destruction falls in the same category.

Scrolls of word of destruction, genocide and mass genocide are so good that people usually stock them for the final battles.

Another important addition is a means of detecting which dangerous enemies are around you. As a Warrior, this will be one of the most difficult things to come by. Keep your eyes open for staves and rods of detect monsters / detection.

[tumbleweed]

3. Always run away from a Hydra

The more heads she has, the faster you run!

[marlowe221]

Just thought I would post an update. After taking the great advice I got here, I took a Dwarf Fighter to Character Level 26 and Dungeon Level 29.

I realize, of course, that there is a LOT more to this game but I feel pretty good about making it nearly 30 levels in the dungeon on only my third character.

I had a lot of close calls in this run but managed to think my way through them pretty well. In the end, a Word of Recall scroll teleported me to a location on floor 29 that was only a few spaces away from a 5-headed Hydra. I had no fear resist, add in a few more mobs for good measure and that was all she wrote.

I have learned:

1. Sometimes Phase Door loves me, sometimes it hates me.

2. Fear resist is important!

3. Always run away from a Hydra

4. A Word of Recall scroll will not hesitate to teleport you into the middle of a group of terrible monsters.

Another question: Another resists I should be keeping an eye out for?

[marlowe221]

This is not really surprising, as there are 100 dungeon levels and the max character level is 50.

Warriors, rogues, and paladins should all put most if not all of their stat points into STR and DEX, and then buy a dagger or whip. High STR/DEX gives you multiple blows/round with lightweight weapons, which is significantly more effective than a single blow with a heavy weapon.

Oh, that is good to know. I have read some of the manual for game but I didn't see that - I clearly need to read the rest of it.

To obtain full monster knowledge from the get-go, show package contents of the Angband.app and duplicate monster.txt from the contents/resources/lib/gamedata directory. Move the duplicate file to the Documents/Angband directory and replace the lore.txt file there with the duplicate file (renamed as lore.txt). These instructions are for Mac OSX. Windows will have a little different directory structure, but the process is the same.

Thanks!

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Which file is it and what should it be called?

To obtain full monster knowledge from the get-go, show package contents of the Angband.app and duplicate monster.txt from the contents/resources/lib/gamedata directory. Move the duplicate file to the Documents/Angband directory and replace the lore.txt file there with the duplicate file (renamed as lore.txt). These instructions are for Mac OSX. Windows will have a little different directory structure, but the process is the same.

[Derakon]

So far, char level = dungeon level has not been working out for me.

This is not really surprising, as there are 100 dungeon levels and the max character level is 50.

Warriors, rogues, and paladins should all put most if not all of their stat points into STR and DEX, and then buy a dagger or whip. High STR/DEX gives you multiple blows/round with lightweight weapons, which is significantly more effective than a single blow with a heavy weapon.

[Mondkalb]

Also, if you use the same file, you keep all information that the "ancestors" of your new character have gathered about monsters. The monster info will get more and more accurate over time. Note, that there are also staffs and rods of probing, which will provide you with all available informations about all monsters in line of sight.

[marlowe221]

Yes for 3.5.1 and earlier, and it can be done after you've started the game. For 4.0.0 it's a file that you copy and rename.

Which file is it and what should it be called?

[Carnivean]

If I load the save of a dead character does that lock me into the same race/class combo?

No, you'll have the option to keep the exact same stats (including an incremental name if you put an I or a 1 after it), or start from scratch.

Is this an option that I have to enable in the = menu?

Yes for 3.5.1 and earlier, and it can be done after you've started the game. For 4.0.0 it's a file that you copy and rename.

[marlowe221]

Thanks folks!

So far, char level = dungeon level has not been working out for me. Then again, I haven't been particularly lucky on gear drops either. My last character went down 5 levels before I found my first weapon and it was a mace. I ended up just buying one from the shop. Perhaps I should be a bit more aggressive with my purchasing!

Hit points divided by 10 sounds interesting, I will try that as a guide.

Regarding no selling - the default in 4.0 is cool with me. I was just confused by it but now that I know, I will not hesitate to dump my random crap on the dungeon floor or in my house.

If I load the save of a dead character does that lock me into the same race/class combo?

If you're playing Angband 4.0.0 (the latest release) then Nick has included instructions to gain full monster knowledge. In previous versions there is a cheat option that is widely considered to be not cheating.

Is this an option that I have to enable in the = menu?

[Jungle_Boy]

My personal rule for how deep to be is dungeon level equals hit points divided by 10. I found out about that rule on this site so I know others use it as well.

I also try to make sure I have free action and see invisible by around 1000 ft (level 20) and resist poison by 2000 ft (level 40).

I also second the recommendation to use a half troll warrior to get started. Once you get some experience you might find a dwarf priest easiest to win with. That is how I got my first win.

[quarague]

Humans are considered a relatively difficult race, they level up more quickly but otherwise get no bonuses. Half-trolls are a good choice, their natural regeneration is very helpful in the beginning. Playing warriors in the beginning is good to get to know the game, you don't have to worry about spell casting, spell books and mana yet, but in return get a more sturdy character.

If you want a very detailed guide, I can recommend

http://lparchive.org/Angband/

which contains fully described walkthroughs with 3 different characters.

How deep a char should be at a certain level is a delicate balance questions, the classic high risk/ high reward versus more careful play. The ideal depths strongly depends on your personal style of play, the particular character you have and the equipment found so far.
Just to put down some concrete number, my personal rule of thumb is char level = dungeon level up to level 20, then 2 more dungeon levels per char level, and from char level 35=dungeon level 50, just dive quickly to the botton at dungeon level 100. I think this is considered very aggressive and fast, use at your own risk :-)