Advice for forced descent

[StMicah]

I was inspired by Derakon's comment in the thread on auto-explore—'The entire level is an "encounter" and the way you move across it can have major effects on your survival rate.' [Hey, I was bored and re-reading old threads] I like that sentiment.

To really drive that home, I thought I'd play forced descent. But still allow recalling to plan & shuffle equipment. I plan to use my go-to, a hobbit ranger. Any words of advice? I suspect kit management and consumable rationing are large priorities. Also, I rarely rest. How should I incorporate resting into my strategy?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Most of the competitions are forced descent, so definitely give it a go. You may need to clear more of the levels than possibly you are used to if you've been playing a "deep-dive" and scum level 98/99 for consumables and best equipment strategy. Since you are not playing iron-man, and if you are not concerned with getting a low turncount, recall when you finish a level and put consumables acquired in storage. When finished with storage and provisioning in town, just use the stairs to return to the dungeon. They will always return you to your previous level plus one. Finally, if you do begin to approach dungeon level 98 and go on to take on the big bosses - DO NOT use ?Deep Descent, fall through a trap-door, or just peek at DL 99 using stairs thinking you can recall to town to prepare and then return to the level. If you enter DL99, you must kill Sauron to leave. Likewise, if you enter DL100, you must kill Morgoth to leave. That little nuance killed one of my forced descent characters when I didn't provision for the final fight with Sauron before entering the level.

[Derakon]

While there are fewer levels, you can still absolutely skip any levels up through, oh, 2500' if you don't feel that they're challenging you. Past that point you start seeing items you can conceivably use in the endgame, which makes skipping levels a harder proposition to weigh either way. Sometimes it'll make sense, sometimes it won't. Just don't feel like "forced descent = must clear every level", because it's not remotely necessary.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Though, I might start that a little earlier than Derakon, say from DL 30, since that's when stat-gain potions start showing up and I don't want to miss any of them until my stats are up.

[fizzix]

Though, I might start that a little earlier than Derakon, say from DL 30, since that's when stat-gain potions start showing up and I don't want to miss any of them until my stats are up.

Eh, scrounging for stat potions on DL 30 is slow and boring. Much easier to get them from clearing a dragon (anything but white) or an Istar pit at DL 80

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Eh, scrounging for stat potions on DL 30 is slow and boring. Much easier to get them from clearing a dragon (anything but white) or an Istar pit at DL 80

In 3.5, that's what I thought. But in 4.0, it seems like once you pass the "optimal depth range" for an item that its occurrences become rarer. I might just be imagining that though.

[StMicah]

Thanks for the advice. I usually dive and know I don't have to complete every level. But as I'm learning the mechanics of force descent, especially escape tactics, I figured I would try every level though I'll skip if I'm out flanked or just not feeling it.

On my first run, I made it to dlvl 31 and then phase jumped into a neekerbeeker colony where I quickly died (I jumped with very low health). I thought I had made pretty good progress.

Before I start my second: I've some questions about my game play and game mechanics. First: On some levels I spent a lot of time resting (never really did this before) and noticed that monsters generated/re-spawned. How long is it before monsters start being generated? Will a unique or OoD ever be spawned this way?

And, as I've never really rested before: does every turn I rest count involve monster rolls for detecting me?

Previously, I'd save uniques for the end for item generation on the 90floors. Either I'd leave the level if I woke a unique or I didn't know about it through detect and didn't yet have the ability to TO it. On this last run, especially before I found ?teleport or learned the spell, I engaged. Are the item drops in fact significantly better if I wait to kill the uniques? Or is this a preference thing?

[Derakon]

Before I start my second: I've some questions about my game play and game mechanics. First: On some levels I spent a lot of time resting (never really did this before) and noticed that monsters generated/re-spawned. How long is it before monsters start being generated? Will a unique or OoD ever be spawned this way?

And, as I've never really rested before: does every turn I rest count involve monster rolls for detecting me?

Every turn, no matter what you're doing, there's a small chance for an enemy to spawn (and it could be any valid enemy, including uniques). And every turn, no matter what you're doing, you have a chance to wake sleeping monsters, though it depends fairly strongly on how close they are.

Previously, I'd save uniques for the end for item generation on the 90floors. Either I'd leave the level if I woke a unique or I didn't know about it through detect and didn't yet have the ability to TO it. On this last run, especially before I found ?teleport or learned the spell, I engaged. Are the item drops in fact significantly better if I wait to kill the uniques? Or is this a preference thing?

Enemy item drops are given as max(monster's native depth, average(monster's native depth, current depth)). So it does make a difference to wait for later to kill uniques, but it's not an especially huge difference. If you kill Lagduf the Snaga at level 98, he'll drop an item from around the level-50 range. If you want good items in the deeps, they'll be on the floor and/or in vaults.

[StMicah]

After some initial struggles with forced descent (playing with a hobbit ranger), I decided to change style and play with a dwarf priest because of the constitution/strength boosts and less need to carry a bunch of consumables.

I now have my first ironman (?*) win.

* Ironman is just forced descent and no recall, right?

[Thraalbee]

I now have my first ironman (?*) win.
* Ironman is just forced descent and no recall, right?

That is Ironman, yes. Congratulations!

Did you like it? I find it may be a bit slower than a normal game but all in all it is my favourite mode.

[StMicah]

So far, it's my favorite playstyle. There's more at stake and I'm often on the seat of my pants.