[FrogComPosBand] Are there any newb resources for this game? Also some newb questions

[Roshlev]

I love the sheer variety of gameplay this game allows for just in the "normal" section but I find a lot of things incomprehensible and I'm struggling to find any guides for this game.

A few questions I have.

Is there an order to do the dungeons in? Is it just in order of the levels given on the wilderness map except Angband being last despite being "Level: 1" according to the map.

Is there a list of buffs and debuffs somewhere?

What do the levels of quests and those on the map mean? I've found most of my characters can do the "Level 5" quests in the outpost on spawn.

Any advice on when to go to the various towns? I know they have quests but idk what else they have.

[wobbly]

If you lurk around on angband.live you'll find a bunch of players including Sideways and Gwarl. For towns you'll be able to town portal from the inns once you've visited them. I do a loop opening them up once I've finished the dungeons in outpost. Same with recalling to dungeons. Stick your head in as you go past so you can recall later. Avoid anything close to dlvl 40 that'll have a guard outside. Just look for lowest dlvl 1st. Quest levels are a rough difficulty guide. It also sets loot and summon levels. Plenty are much harder then their depth suggests.

[Bostock]

Hi!

Wobbly's answers are good. Here are some supplemental views.

There is not one single best order to do the dungeons in. There are certainly better and worse orders to do the dungeons in. Don't forget that you can break up your diving of a dungeon into as many phases as you want. And itechnically you don't have to do any dungeons other than Angband at all. although it's generally beneficial to kill dungeon bosses, it can be so
annoying to reach the bottom (e.g. the Dark Cave) or you can be so eager to reach deeper depths (e.g. Giant's Hall if your name is "Gwarl") that you might choose to pass up those benefits.

Generally if you are breezing through a dungeon, dive straight from stair to stair, and if you get half your teeth knocked out there and you're not at the boss, leave and come back later. Other than that, just experiment - but be wary of the entrance guardians for level 40+ dungeons (i.e. dungeons that start at level 40 or deeper) that wobbly mentioned. (There's also a guardian for one level 30 dungeon, Battlefield).

I don't know of any list of buffs and debuffs.

Nothing to add to wobbly's comments on quest levels.

Here's what I remember offhand of notable unique or mostly unique things that towns have beside quests:

Thalos - one of the three towns for turning in bounties. Home to the Arena. The Icky Cave (probably the third easiest dungeon) is located here in both Composband and FrogComposband.
Outpost - one of the three towns for turning in bounties. Home to the easiest dungeon, Warrens. In Frogcomposband, also home to the second easiest dungeon, Hideout.
Anambar - one of the three towns for turning in bounties. Has a mutation removal service, although it's ridiculously overpriced. In Composband, the Hideout dungeon (the second easiest dungeon) is located here.
Morivant - only place where you can reforge artifacts. Only Gamble Shop.
(Telmora has nothing unique non-quest-wise at all, although its services can be fairly cheap once you've done one of the later quests.)
Zul - Only reasonably priced mutation removal service. Only shop selling dragon gear. Only guaranteed jewelry shop. Only guaranteed alchemist ("5" shop) that may sell advanced items like stat potions.

Generally I go to each town when I want something that's there (be that a service, or more frequently a dungeon, or most frequently a quest) more than I want anything anywhere else. :-)

Speaking super-broadly, I would refer you to the old proverb for the game Go: "Lose your first 50 games as quickly as possible."

[Bostock]

Oh, as for Angband - there's definitely no need to save your entry into it for last. On the contrary it can be beneficial to start chipping away at it early. It has a number of minibosses along its long path downward, and each of them has exceptional drops, so with a little luck, killing them can power you up. Eventually you will reach a depth in Angband where things are too dangerous, and then you just break off and go somewhere else. This process will repeat quite a bit during each game.

(Though there's no saying you can't also wait to do angband until the very end of the game - you definitely can. But you may be making things harder on yourself than necessary by doing so.)

[Bostock]

Regarding debuffs, I can recommend section "j" of the help, "Defending and Armor," where there is a rundown of the resistances, which describes the debuffs, or at least the attacks, that they defend against.

[CyclopsSlayer]

One thing that I have somewhat ignored in the last twenty years, but would be confusing as hell to a 'newb' is Level Feelings.
While 'Special' and 'Boring' are self-explanatory. There are what, a dozen different messages? Even after all that the first time I saw a yellow 'You feel Nervous' was startling.

[Sideways]

Most of the in-game help files (accessible through '?') were written by Chris (the PosChengband maintainer) or by even earlier maintainers, so they may be a bit out of date, but there's still a lot of useful content there; and some of the key files are fully up to date (I rewrote the Frequently Asked Questions, and the general information file still has Chris's core but up-to-date details). The help files do not answer everything (and often have answers in odd places where they're hard to locate), but they do help with many of the questions new players often have. The general information file, for example, has suggestions about orders you might want to do dungeons in - though it's part of the game that you can do your own things and pick your own order.

"Just follow the level" isn't a bad approach to dungeons, though note that some dungeons are deeper than others. Tidal Cave and Orc Cave, for instance, both start at level 15; but Tidal Cave runs from level 15 to level 27, while Orc Cave runs from 15 to 32 and has a much nastier boss. So you can enter them at similar times, but you'll probably complete Tidal Cave first.

Some players like to spend a lot of time in particular dungeons, or like to avoid a particular dungeon. The anti-magic cave and the anti-melee cave are the most often skipped, since they're a bit weird and have no bottom guardians.

--

The quest danger levels are a rough guide, but it really helps to have played the quests before, so you know what's in them and can make more educated decisions. Note, though, that some quests have random monsters and so their difficulty isn't entirely predictable. The Vault is the most random quest, and also probably the most dangerous quest compared to its nominal level.

--

Bostock and wobbly are both really good players and you can't go far wrong taking their advice.

The best way to learn is by playing and from experience, though, and there is no real substitute for it. Good luck, and have fun!

[CyclopsSlayer]

The RNG can make the obvious order of dungeon anything but. Other than the bottom boss, you can never be certain what you'll meet along the way. Just took my Monk to the bottom of the Orc Caves, when I found Othrod he wasn't alone, he had Orcogar and Azog and their escorts with him.
So, be prepared to lose a few 'sure' fights, the pain is part of the process.

[Roshlev]

TY everybody

[GenericPseudonym]

for instance the Serpent no longer has a hunger attack

The serpent never had a specific hunger attack. Rather, having charge drain resistance converts its "hit to drain charges" into "hit to drain food".

[Thraalbee]

I think the arena (1 on 1) still allows eating e.g mushrooms. Not that useful but in rare cases it helps. All other item use/activations are off though. [Based on PosCheng experience]

[Gwarl]

most relevant with mushrooms of cure poison but possibly of minor relevance to fast recovery and great relevance to snotlings

[Bostock]

Fun though not really unexpected fact: devicemasters can still use their chosen device type in the Arena, and Alchemists can use their potion infusions.