A Total Newbie Guide by an Almost Total Newbie

[PowerWyrm]

1) don't touch molds and jellies and mushroom patches. Ignore them
2) don't touch traps. If you want to pass, delve around
3) the moment you see gravity hounds, run.
4) idem for Kavlax.
4A) I can't stress how useful it is to play with PURPLE uniques enabled from your Options in order to be able to apply #4.
5) keep rations in case you stumble on a potion of Salty Water
6) Set HP warning at 60% or more if paranoid
7) never leave base resistances ignored at ANY point
8) if it looks difficult, it is.
9) never leave the starting town without a Scroll (or other means, such as Rod) of Recall

1) That's why you have missile weapons... those immobile monsters won't harm you from distance, but you can
2) Traps are currently either harmless or mildly annoying, shouldn't be an issue
3) When you "see" a gravity hound, it's probably already too late, since many of its friends are probably nearby. Unless you're a warrior without ESP/rods of detection, use detection to avoid them.
4) The midgame can be harsh because of the following: Kavlax, Lorgan, Gorlim. Fight them much later on.
4A) Uniques are now uniques, you don't need purple color. Of course, in the old days, Kavlax was looking like a baby MHD...
5) Food is less an issue now, but keep a source of food ready in any case
6) Many veterans still use a 50% hp threshold here...
7A) Don't try to fight an ancient red dragon when you are actually vulnerable to fire
7B) Watch out when you swap around your equipment... you can still be killed at level 50 by one great ice wyrm breath if you forgot that your armor which you switched for a dwarven balance DSM was your only source of cold resistance.
8A) If it looks difficult, it will be less difficult later, so just move on.
9A) Never leave the town without MULTIPLE sources of recall, unless your DEX is at least 18/150 and you have fire immunity, because scrolls can be burned and rods can be stolen

10) Watch out for your light source if it's not permanent
11) If you can, detect often. The most dangerous stuff is stuff you cannot see.
12) Always have an escape ready
13) Nothing is "too good to use". Dead characters don't use items.
13A) "Too good to use" items are also very valuable. If a fight requires many high end supplies, just forget it.

[Pete Mack]

I never delve around traps. Not finding them at all (and stumbling on them unexpectedly) is a bigger risk. I have lost a total of one character to known traps in hallways. You can pretty much evade summonses by phase door,
and stat drain isn't that big a deal. I suppose if there's a trap door between me and a GCV, I'd delve around it. But it hasn't happened yet. (The known trap death was to a paralyzing trap while fleeing dangerous enemies.)
I have lost a few starting characters to pit traps at very shallow depths, but those deaths cot me nothing--and even the paralysis death only cost a 1/2 hour of play.
Now that traps in vaults have been nerfed, even trap doors aren't a significant risk. It used to be you had to assume there'd be a trap door between you and the good stuff in (say) diagonal vaults. But that just no longer is the case. I pretty much stopped carrying disable trap rods when I realized this. Holy Infusions is the same.

2) ... unless your character is a rogue.
Also, it depends on the trap type. Be careful with trap doors.

[Mondkalb]

2) ... unless your character is a rogue.
Also, it depends on the trap type. Be careful with trap doors.

[Pete Mack]

Rule number one. Play deliberately. Don't rush, and make conscious decisions about which monsters to fight. The biggest problem for a newbie is trying to fight everything, and either dying to exhaustion after running out of healing, taking one step too far before healing, or taking on a monster he has no business fighting.
Kavlax falls in the latter bucket.
Various orc uniques fall in the former ones: together with their entourages, they can easily run you out of supplies if you aren't ready for them. Nar the Dwarf is the same.

Other really bad news individual monsters up through the early midgame:
Gorlim the Betrayer. He's just about as dangerous as Kavlax.
Ethereal dragons(!) and death drakes.
Plasma hounds, which WILL get you if you use teleport self regularly after CL 50.

And of course there is the Drolem (offscreen).

[debo]

Pfft. You didn't even mention buying a lantern.

[Holy_Rage]

Hello fellow Angbandim,

I recently started playing Angband and the deepest I have ever been was Dungeon Level 42. After a series of (mostly) disgraceful deaths, I have reached the following conclusions which will hopefully spare other fellow newbies from their untimely death:

1) don't touch molds and jellies and mushroom patches. Ignore them
2) don't touch traps. If you want to pass, delve around
3) the moment you see gravity hounds, run.
4) idem for Kavlax.
4A) I can't stress how useful it is to play with PURPLE uniques enabled from your Options in order to be able to apply #4.
5) keep rations in case you stumble on a potion of Salty Water
6) Set HP warning at 60% or more if paranoid
7) never leave base resistances ignored at ANY point
8) if it looks difficult, it is.
9) never leave the starting town without a Scroll (or other means, such as Rod) of Recall

I will update this after DL 42 or when I have something meaningful to add.

Game on!