Close Encounter

[bpleshek]

I just had a close encounter at 3000' with some time hounds and a Lich. I feel I'm a bit lost. I've never been this deep before. What should my short and long term goals be besides the obvious lvl 99 and 100 quests?

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=8053

Thanks,

Brian

[aeneas]

This is what people mean when they say it is sometimes safer to go down. You lack speed. Go get some speed. I think the rings are in depth at dlvl 76, but I might be wrong- I just go to dlvl 80, generally. If you hang around too long at 3000' you might get killed before you get fast.

[Zikke]

At that dlvl, sometimes it helps to always assume that as soon as you move off the stairs there is something nasty pursuing you. If you have detects, that can buy you a little time, but that feeling of being hunted even if you don't see anything helps get off the level fast.

[Pete Mack]

I second Aeneas. Go get a speed ring at dl ~80. You ca stop to kill a few wyrms on the way if you have double resist and good archery, but don't waste too much time. Unless you are lucky with BoS, cubragol, or ringil, the first speed ring is your most important find.

[bpleshek]

Well I'm still diving and nearly got the "It breathes, you die." I see the down staircase and it's surrounded by a yellow S pit. I examine most of them and it seems like a bunch of yellow Scorpions. No problem, right. Well like Ron White likes to say, "I was WRONG." I see her breathe and a few pages of "The Yellow Scorpion dies. The Yellow Scorpion dies. The Yellow Scorpion dies. <more> <more> <Low Hitpoint Warning>" and when all is said and done i have 21 HPs left. A quick teleport and I was safe, but now i think i might be good with leaving the level back to town.

Brian

[aeneas]

Well I'm still diving and nearly got the "It breathes, you die."

Assuming (and I think it's a safe assumption) that that's Ungoliant I would probably recall if there's no other way to get off the level without facing her. She's a long way from the nastiest thing in V, but she's pretty tough. Once you're past a certain point all groups of 'S''s should be viewed with suspicion- they often mean either Shelob or Ungoliant. Actually, you should view any tightly packed mixed group with suspicion- every once in a while the RNG will generate two packs with the same letter right on top of each other, but generally a mixed pack is an escort. Not a big deal if it is 'o', but potentially dangerous if it is 'S'.

[bpleshek]

Well I'm at 4100 now and everything looks to dangerous to fight, and no speed yet. I guess I should keep going to 4900'. It is always scary when everything is a capitol letter. Lots of DLQAUs

Brian

[Pete Mack]

with your current equipment you should have no trouble meleeing demons up to hezrou in modest numbers, and maybe bile demons. Once you find carlammas or necklace of the dwarves, Aule will be your weapon of choice. In the meantime you also shouldn't have much trouble vs Ice and Swamp Wyrms using temporary resist spells. (Same holds for Hell Wyrms, but they are too hard on equipment without immunity.) again, you need to swap for better armor. Hithlomir for stealth is arguably your best choice until you get a little stronger. Then Rohirrim is the best. If you find a crown of might, definitely switch to Rohirrim.

[bpleshek]

I've snuck down to 4450'. I've picked up two rings of speed, +7 and +5. In order to wear both, i have to go without my Ring of Resist Poison. Smart move or too much of a risk of "It breathes, you die." ? Without it i'm still +10 when you consider i have +3 from some other equipment.

After that i cautiously eased down to 4600 what what lies next to my staircase but Tensers. That was a nice find. I recalled back to town to learn all my spells in the book.

Brian

[Slick]

Whoops, wrong thread.

[Pete Mack]

tenser's and speed +10 is enough until the endgame. It's rarely desirable to wear two speed rings. Anyway, with tenser's the game should really speed up; you should be able to kill thunder and perplexity wyrms with ease, along with all
Demons except balrogs.

Stay away from big electricity breathers, since you don't want to lose rods of tele other. Same for fire breathers until you find narya (rsn).

[bpleshek]

Well I went down stairs at 4800' into a room that looked similar to this:

#######
LLLLLLL
LLLLLLLL
LLLL@LLL
ELLLLLLL
UULLLLL
LLLLL

#######

You can imagine that i'm happy that I didn't choose to disconnect the stairs.

Pffew

Brian

[warlin]

I thought the player always got the first move while descending down, no matter what ? Or is that NPPAngband only.

[Psi]

I thought the player always got the first move while descending down, no matter what ? Or is that NPPAngband only.

No. That is a (desirable) feature of some variants.

[aeneas]

I thought the player always got the first move while descending down, no matter what ? Or is that NPPAngband only.

I'm not sure that's true even in NPP. But NPP does always drop you in a relatively safe place.

Some monsters have a SLEEP flag. That's misleading actually- it doesn't mean they are guaranteed to be asleep, it just means that they are guaranteed not to breathe as their first action. This is one of the reasons ESP is so valuable.

Note that hounds don't have that flag.