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Poschengband Pasta

Jul 13th, 2015
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  1. You can get PosChengband here: https://sites.google.com/site/poschengband/
  2. You can find the source here: https://github.com/poschengband/poschengband
  3.  
  4. Some useful links:
  5. -----------------------------
  6.  
  7. Chengband wiki, both auto-spoilers and manual spoilers, lots of info about races, classes, different abilities, spells, etc, mostly actual for PosChengband too (some numbers may be off and PosChengband has more content overall, but still it's very useful):
  8. https://code.google.com/p/chengband/w/list
  9.  
  10. The place where people dump their games with in-progress comments, may be quite useful to check how people build and play their characters:
  11. http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-browse.php?v=PosChengband&r=&c=&n=&e=&s=1
  12.  
  13. Zangband info, partially outdated for PosChengband, but you still may find useful stuff for more basic aspects there:
  14. http://www.zangband.org
  15.  
  16. List of Arena and Quest Rewards, as well as dungeons, their depth ranges, their masters, and any special items those masters drop:
  17. http://nikheizen.github.io/pages/rewards.html
  18.  
  19. List of spellbooks and spell effects (WIP):
  20. http://nikheizen.github.io/pages/spellbooks.html
  21.  
  22. A guide to cheesing the game with an Android Rune Knight (Infinite Money, ridiculously fast levels):
  23. http://pastebin.com/BNJN5pcP
  24.  
  25. Suggestions on which demigod mutation to take: http://pastebin.com/hTi24Nky
  26.  
  27. MPA-Poschengband, a fork which has a bunch of changes for usability and convenience: http://github.com/MarvinPA/mpa-poschengband
  28. Link to a windows binary for 4.0.1 can be found here: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00870841245461261589
  29. If you want 4.0.2, you will have to compile yourself.
  30.  
  31. A list of comprehensive information on the monsters in-game (all the recall data):
  32. http://mikedebo.ca/files/poschengband-spoilers/mon-info.spo
  33. The main page also has links to the other spoilers: http://mikedebo.ca/files/poschengband-spoilers/
  34.  
  35. Contents: (Ctrl+f ?[letter] to jump to the section)
  36. -----------------------------
  37. a. F.A.Q.
  38. b. Introduction
  39. c. Character Creation
  40. ca. Standard Races
  41. cb. Monster Races
  42. cc. Classes
  43. cd. Personalities
  44. ce. Primary Attributes
  45. d. The Gameworld
  46. da. Towns
  47. db. Dungeons
  48. dc. Wilderness and Overworld
  49. e. Mechanics
  50. f. Devices and Consumables
  51. g. Commands, Inscriptions, and Macros
  52. h. Quests
  53. i. Winning (spoilers, obviously)
  54.  
  55. -----------------------------
  56. ?a. F.A.Q. (In progress)
  57. -----------------------------
  58.  
  59. Q. Wow, this pasta is long. Can you give me a tl;dr walkthrough?
  60. A. Read this instead: http://pastebin.com/4AbKZXuT (It's much shorter!)
  61.  
  62. Q. How do I set up multiple windows/terminals?
  63. A. In the options bar at the top of your window, select windows. Enable however many you like. Once you are in-game hit "=" then "w". You can now assign a use to each window available.
  64.  
  65. Q. My settings won't save when I make a new character, how do I fix this?
  66. A. Your setting are saved in your save file for the character you made first. If that character is dead, you may Open that save file to start a new character. You retain all your settings and monster memory. Macros and autodestroyer preferences are written to a seperate file.
  67.  
  68. Q. What is the control for [miscellaneous action here]?
  69. A. Hit "?kb" to see the command list for the regular keyset. "?kc" is the command list for the roguelike keyset if you have enabled that.
  70.  
  71. Q. How do I change my options?
  72. A. "=" brings you to the options list.
  73.  
  74. Q. How do I read the attributes?/My strength is 18/73, what the hell does this mean?
  75. A. Poschengband uses the AD&D system of percentile stats after 18, however, these don't function quite the way they do in D&D. Each 10 after the / is effectively +1, so 18/10 is 19 in sane person language, 18/50 is 23, 18/200 is 38, and 18/***- the max- is 40. The last digit is not used for any calculations in-game, so 18/43 or 18/49 are effectively the same as 18/40.
  76.  
  77. Q. How do I travel between towns?/How do I access the overworld?
  78. A. When standing in a town or outdoor area, press "<" to enter the overworld map. Make sure to bring food!
  79.  
  80. Q. I can't see! How do I use my torches?
  81. A. "w"ear them.
  82.  
  83. Q. How do I know how high my proficiencies go? Where can I see my proficiencies?
  84. A.Proficiencies come in tiers with a value associated with them Unskilled (0), Beginner(4000 or 1), Skilled(6000 or 2), Expert(7000 or 3), Master(8000 or 4). You can see your current proficiencies by hitting "~" then "c" for weapons, "d" for spells, or "e" for miscellaneous skills such as dual wielding or riding.
  85.  
  86. To find your max proficiency, you can ctrl+f your class here: https://github.com/poschengband/poschengband/blob/cdace5edd711381717dc022bd4e42bf7f724ceb5/lib/edit/s_info.txt
  87. The 3rd number is initial value, the 4th is maximum value. Monsters have a 'pseudo-class' from which they inherit their proficiencies. This pseudo-class is almost always warrior.
  88.  
  89. Q. How do I remove mutations?
  90. A. Zul, the northernmost town on the map is found past some mountain ranges. The Chaos Tower (blue +) cures mutations for 5000 AU. One random mutation is removed each time you purchase the service.
  91.  
  92. Q. How do I read these stats the items give me?
  93. A. Say, for example, you have a randart:
  94. The Partial Plate Armor 'Diamond' (+2, +15) (-2) [25, 13] (+4) <+5%> {St;-In; AcElFi}
  95. Hit Dam Hit AC bonus Pval ^ Str -Int Acid/Fire/Elec
  96. This is rare Resistance
  97. and is either a
  98. change to SP, spell
  99. power, or life rating
  100. in most cases.
  101. It increases your strength. (By the Pval)
  102. It decreases your intelligence. (By the Pval)
  103. It increases your magical capacity.
  104. This item gives you- reading from left to right- +2 to hit, +15 to damage, a -2 to hit (counteracted by the existing accuracy bonus) and 25 AC intrinsic to the base armor, a 13 AC enchantment bonus, +4 strength, -4 intelligence and +5% bonus SP.
  105.  
  106. Q. How do I reset the shop gold caps? Mine are all 10000!
  107. A. If you buyout a shop several times in a row, the shopkeeper will retire and be replaced with a new one. The new shopkeeper will have a new random shop cap. You can do this until you get 30000 caps on all the important shopkeepers in Morivant or Telmora, for example.
  108.  
  109. -----------------------------
  110. ?b. Introduction
  111. -----------------------------
  112. Poschengband is an Angband variant which is a combination of features from both Chengband and Posband and a large amount of material stemming from ZAngband. Like ZAngband, your goal is to dive to 100th level of Angband and to kill The Serpent of Chaos after you've dealt with Oberon on level 99.
  113.  
  114. Since there is a criminal lack of information regarding Poschengband on the internet, this will serve as a more comprehensive overview of how the game works than a regular pasta. If you want a more traditional mini-guide style pasta, I recommend that you read this: http://pastebin.com/4AbKZXuT
  115.  
  116. If there is anything bad/wrong/stale about this pasta, complain loudly in the thread.
  117.  
  118. -----------------------------
  119. ?c. Character Creation
  120. -----------------------------
  121. Possibly PosChengband's biggest draw is the huge berth of races, classes, and monsters you can choose from.
  122. Most races have a subrace and most class types have a subclass (some of which have a domain choice). When creating a character, you must choose a gender, race, class, name, and roll their stats. Your race, class, and personality will all modify your attributes and your skills. The modification to skills isn't shown in character creation, but can be found in the help files.
  123.  
  124. An important thing to keep an eye on when creating your character is that XP penalties for race and class stack multiplicatively. So, while a Human(100%) Sorcerer(160%) would have only a 160% penalty (i.e. 1.6 times the XP needed to level), a Zeus Demigod (250%) Sorcerer would have a whopping 400% penalty. This also works the other way, so a Kobold (90%) Archer (110%), would only have a 99% penalty, meaning they would level very quickly. Having a very high XP penalty makes the midgame long and painful.
  125.  
  126. Good races for players who are starting out are: any humans, high-elves, half-titans, centaurs, and dwarves.
  127.  
  128. Good classes for players who are starting out are: warriors, archers, high mages(Armageddon/Chaos), monks(Nature/Life), and paladins.
  129.  
  130. It's best to just pick what looks interesting to you though, since that's a lot of the fun of the game.
  131. -----------------------------
  132. ?ca. Standard Races
  133. -----------------------------
  134. Standard races choose both a race and a class, as opposed to monsters, for which race and class are one and the same. Almost all of these races have a normal amount of equipment slots, they are thus easier to play in general than many of the monster races.
  135.  
  136. The standard races are divided into:
  137. Human: Tend to be good at everything.
  138. Human: Have sum 0 stats and no XP penalty. They get a very powerful special ability once they hit level 30.
  139. Barbarian: The exception to the Human rule of being good at everything, and are more combat oriented.
  140. Dunedain: Essentially tough humans with a higher XP penalty.
  141. Amberite: Basically Dunedain with intrinsic regeneration.
  142. Demigod: Come with a wide variety of bonuses and massive XP penalties. They get a special ability from the same list as humans
  143. at level 20 and again at 40.
  144.  
  145. Elf: Tend to have low life ratings and good Dexterity. Get bonus infravision and possibly See Invisible.
  146. High Elf: Have high bonuses to skills and great stats. They start with See invisible. Good at anything.
  147. Dark Elf: More magic-oriented elves.
  148. Wood Elf: are somewhat weaker high elves without See invisible.
  149.  
  150. Hobbit/Dwarf: Good at a variety of things; they're all short and generally have relatively low XP penalties.
  151. Dwarf: Excellent combative class for warrior types with a solid life rate and handy intrinsic detection magic.
  152. Gnome: Good choices for a squishy caster archtype. Their built-in Phase Door ability is endlessly useful.
  153. Hobbit: Great starting skills and excellent stat spread for sneaking. Bonus to saves and Hold Life are very handy.
  154. Nibelung: Basically dwarves with the addition of the rare Disenchantment resistance.
  155.  
  156. Fairy: Agile, stealthy, weak, and squishy. They also tend to do well in magic and have intrinsic flight.
  157. Shadow Fairy: Possibly the optimal stealth race. Make superb Ninjas.
  158. Sprite: Sprites are a little weaker, and less stealthy than Shadow Fairies, but have better stats for casting and gain speed
  159. as they level up.
  160.  
  161. Angel/Demon: The three subraces have little in common except theme and their tendency to have intrinsic abilities and resistances.
  162. Archon: Great at everything except gaining levels.
  163. Balrog: Make excellent fighters or fighter mages. They get powerful resists and a breath spell to boot. Have to eat human
  164. corpses.
  165. Imp: Deceptively strong. They have have sum 0 stats, some good resists, and a reduced XP penalty. Good at most things.
  166.  
  167. Orc/Troll/Giant: These tend to be focused towards combat and brute force. Most have Sustain Strength intrinsically.
  168. Cyclops: Great fighters. They get the very handy Throw Boulder ranged ability.
  169. Kobold: Similar to Demon Imps, but weaker. Their poison dart ability falls off in the mid-game.
  170. Half-Giant: Strong fighters. They get Shards resistance intrinsically and the handy stone-to-mud spell.
  171. Half-Ogre: Similar to Half-Giants except they get Dark resistance and the ability to set traps instead.
  172. Half-Titan: Amazing stats and the Probing ability makes them an all-around solid race. They also get rChaos!
  173. Half-Troll: Excellent fighters which suffer from poor stats. They get Berserk and Regeneration intrinsically.
  174. Snotling: The challenge race. Bad at everything except gaining experience points.
  175.  
  176. Undead: Tend to have multiple resistances. Other than vampires, they must eat by consuming wand or staff charges.
  177. Skeleton: Have the crippling disadvantage of their potions affecting an AoE around them. Decent otherwise.
  178. Spectre: Generally poor stats and a massive XP penalty are made up for by the ability to move through walls.
  179. Vampire: Great stats, 4 resists, and built in Vampirism. Good at any class that doesn't need much wisdom.
  180. Zombie: Poor skills and stats pigeonhole them into being a fighter. They do get the handy Restore Life spell though.
  181.  
  182. Other: Huge variety of races in here.
  183. Android: Don't earn XP, but gain levels by equipping better stuff. Also good resists and bonus AC! Eat oil and shoot lasers.
  184. Beastman: Get a bunch of mutations as they level. Stats and skills push them to being a warrior.
  185. Centaur: Good warriors and archers, they gain speed as they level. They also get a sort of controlled blink ability and
  186. natural attacks with their hooves.
  187. Draconian: Get levitation, rBase and rPois, and a breath weapon. Good stats and skills for a reasonable XP penalty.
  188. Doppelganger: They get new forms to change into as they level. Very hard to start off with.
  189. Ent: Fire vulnerability is dangerous early on, but Ents have good stats which get better with levels and make good fighters.
  190. Golems: Good warriors with resistances and AC bonuses which improve with levels. Get the incredibly strong Stone Skin spell as
  191. an intrinsic. They eat wand/staff charges for food.
  192. Klackons: Decent stats for a warrior or archer. They gain speed as they level and start with the useful Confusion immunity.
  193. Kutars: Middle of the line stats, skills, with the bonus of Confusion immunity. Punishingly high XP penalty.
  194. Mindflayer: Very magic-centric race which gets Psionic Blast power and intrinsic Telepathy as they level.
  195. Tonberry: Slow down as they level but are strong, tough, and get a large bonus to slaying which increases with level.
  196. Yeek: Very weak but with surprising non-combat skills. Get acid immunity eventually and start with a fear ability.
  197.  
  198. -----------------------------
  199. ?cb. Monster Races
  200. -----------------------------
  201. Monster races- an idea borrowed from Posband- are probably one of the most notable features of PosChengband. These races are a race and class combined, thus their XP penalties tend to be higher than most standard races since their class is accounted for as well. Monster races tend to be harder to play than standard races and most have unusual or missing equipment slots. Many monster races will need to make heavy use of Artifact Reforging to cover their resist holes due to their limited equipment options. Some races evolve into new forms as they gain experience, while others gain power in a single form. All monster races have the proficiency levels of a warrior, assuming they have the capability to use weapons. The monster races are as follows:
  202.  
  203. * Angel: Extremely strong spell-set, decent melee/ranged, and stats which scale with their evolutions. They are rather squishy early
  204. on, but gain speed and bonus life rating as they evolve which makes them potent in the endgame. Massive XP penalty.
  205. * Beholder: They receive a variety of gazing attacks and get some very strong spells at later levels. They are one of the hardest
  206. monster races to play and begin with only a helmet and a light source slot.
  207. * Centipede: A challenge race with limited slots, but may wear multiple pairs of boots. They gain speed as they evolve and benefit
  208. from a low XP penalty, but suffer everywhere else.
  209. * Death Sword: Gain power by absorbing the "essences" of other weapons, slowly gaining multiple brands and slaying bonuses. They are
  210. very difficult to play since their AC is dismal and they have no slots at all, but have a low XP penalty.
  211. * Demon: Demons pack a load of useful resistances and generally good melee skills, but have high XP penalties and eat human corpses.
  212. - Balrog: Very similar to the standard race, they are dominant in melee with an array of extremely powerful offensive and summoning
  213. spells.
  214. - Tanar'ri: They evolve through multiple forms which are very different in function. Notable abilities they receive later on are
  215. wall-phasing in one form and 6 hand slots in another.
  216. - Servant of Khorne: Very disparate forms with a focus on melee combat. They end up being incredibly resilient and strong.
  217. - Cyberdemon: Tough, with a strong melee ability and the ability to shoot rockets. They have standard equipment slots.
  218. * Dragon: Dragons evolve from babies and drakes into Great Wyrms. They have strong natural attacks and spellcasting abilities. Most
  219. have a breath weapon and resist the element(s) they can breathe. Highly limited slots and can't use weapons or body armour. Dragons
  220. start with poor stats, but are good at most things and choose from a realm which they receive spells. High XP penalty. The dragon
  221. types are fairly self-explanatory, so check them out yourself.
  222. * Elemental: Elementals focus heavily on one damage type, get a lot of powerful offensive spells, but destroy certain consumables.
  223. - Earth: Strong, tough, and slow. They get some defensive/utility options as well as a bolt spell. Destroys potions.
  224. - Air: Powerful offensive spells, bonus speed, and a higher XP penalty. Difficult since they destroy Jewelry, Wands, and Rods.
  225. - Water: Strong Acid offensive spells and some bonus speed. They destroy armor when evolved.
  226. - Fire: Strong up until most monsters resist fire, whereafter they will probably resort to melee. Burn up scrolls and staves.
  227. * Giant: Like their standard cousins, they tend to be strong at melee with dexterity penalties. Giants get a penalty when using
  228. "small" weapons and a bonus when using large ones. They all get a "toss" ranged ability to throw rocks at their foes.
  229. - Fire: Get some fire spells, fire sheathe, and add fire brand to their attacks over time. Lower XP penalty for a giant.
  230. - Frost: Like fire giants, except frost-flavoured!
  231. - Storm: Storm Giants complete the cycle, but have a slightly higher XP penalty since electricity is less commonly resisted.
  232. - Titan: Titans get powerful summoning abilities, speed, good stats, and a heal self spell in exchange for a large XP penalty.
  233. - Hru: Hru get earth-based spells and a slightly larger XP penalty, but are otherwise similar to the fire/frost/storm giants.
  234. * Golem: Golems all follow the same evolution path before evolving into their true form at level 45. They are primarily melee
  235. characters which pack tons of resists and general resilience along with a couple earth-based spells as they evolve.
  236. - Colossus: Colossi take a penalty to speed, but get to shoot missiles along with bonuses to life rating and constitution.
  237. - Sky Golem: They get several breath spells, but are the squishiest of the golems. Slightly higher XP penalty than Colossi.
  238. - Spellwarp Automaton: They get disintegration breath and bonus magic resistance in exchange for a massive XP penalty.
  239. * Hound: Hounds are melee types. They evolve through a series of forms chosen randomly from a list with appropriate breath weapons and
  240. resistances. Their limited slots, weak natural attacks, and random evolution make them difficult to play. Have a low XP penalty.
  241. * Hydra: Similar to hounds without the random evolution. They get extra slots as they gain more heads, but their natural attacks are
  242. on the weaker side and their elemental damage types are commonly resisted. They have a very low XP penalty.
  243. * Jelly: Jellies may put equipment of any type into any open slot. They eat items and can divide to summon allies.
  244. * Leprechaun: Weak in combat, but quick. They start of with 50000 gold and get 'Lucky' drops. They gain a variety of teleportation
  245. spells as they level up and can use the steal gold action. Difficult to play.
  246. * Lich: Liches are the most mage-like monster race. They get some very strong resists, speed and incredibly powerful summons and
  247. offensive spells when they reach higher levels. They are tough to get off the ground and have a large XP penalty though.
  248. * Mimic: Similar to doppelgangers except focused entirely on their shape-shifting ability. They can memorize and take the forms of
  249. some enemies they slay. Remember to inscribe your gear "{" with "@mimic" (no quotes) to auto-equip for relevant forms. Fairly
  250. difficult to get off the ground and play effectively since knowing and using all your forms at the right time is tough.
  251. * Possessor: Like mimics, except they take control of slain foes. This means they only have one form at a time and must be very
  252. careful when switching bodies, since their old body will be destroyed. Similar in difficulty to mimics.
  253. * Quylthulg: Summoning only characters with very unusual slots. They can't attack and start with -10 speed (which gets a little better
  254. with levels). Quylthulgs get teleportation spells and every summoning spell of note in the game. They also get a few spells to
  255. support their summoned creatures. Remember to set wands/staves which haste/heal monsters to not be auto-destroyed.
  256. * Ring: Like Death Swords, they absorb the essence of jewelry instead of weapons. They cannot move and must rely on a bearer (which
  257. they attract with their "glimmer" ability) to move around. Very tough to play; their mounts can turn on them in a second.
  258. * Spider: Spiders are very squishy characters that suffer a similar problem with scaling their auto-attacks into the late game as
  259. Hounds and Hydras. Luckily they have 4 ring slots to get slaying bonuses or speed from. Their evolutions are basically a choice
  260. between the simpler combat style of Araneas and an evasive, hit and run style of Phase Spiders.
  261. * Troll: Like Giants, trolls are very melee focused. They get a bite attack, berserk, and regeneration instead of hurling boulders.
  262. Like Golems, their evolution continues through a set path until they reach their true form, with a random evolution for one stage.
  263. - Ettin: Vanilla Trolls with an extra helmet slot and additional blows on their bite attack.
  264. - Storm: Get extra elemental attack spells, speed, and electric branded attacks.
  265. - Spirit: Get the remarkably useful passwall ability. They take no damage from this, unlike spectres.
  266. - King: The fastest trolls. They may use phase door and summon allies.
  267. * Vampire: Gain a slew of classical vampiric abilities and must suck blood for sustenance. They get dark attack spells at
  268. higher levels. They take damage from daylight and lose AC in illuminated rooms, but can see in the dark. Fairly easy start.
  269. * Xorn: Evolves from a Umber Hulk with its confusing gaze and and eventually gets multi-arm wielding and passwall (losing many slots
  270. in the process). They are a strong melee combatant and get bonus speed from their final form. Fairly low XP penalty too!
  271.  
  272. -----------------------------
  273. ?cc. Classes
  274. -----------------------------
  275. Melee: Melee classes rely on strong weapons with minor augmentation from abilities or spells and use devices mainly for utility.
  276. Notable melee classes are:
  277. Warrior: No XP penalty and some of the best melee skills in the game- only definitively beaten by berserkers
  278. Berserker: Amazing melee and hp, can't use scrolls, wands, staves, rods, or activated abilities of items which is rough later on.
  279. Paladin (under Hybrid): Good melee and a realm of magic, abysmal at shooting. Life magic is safest, Death is weakest.
  280. Rune Knight: The strongest class in the game, they are *amazing* at everything except gaining XP (unless you are an android)
  281. Weaponmaster: Specialize in one weapon type. There are more artifact swords than other weapons, so maybe start with Swordmaster.
  282. Mauler: Limited to one blow/attack, they hit really hard with big, heavy weapons. Can turn monsters into explosions.
  283. Monk (under Martial Arts) Well-rounded with punching, speed, spells, and bonuses for not wearing armour. Nature or Life easiest.
  284. Notable ranged classes are:
  285. Archer: Gets "Create Ammo" which keeps them topped up on quality ammo. They get a bonus to shots/round.
  286. Ranged Weaponmaster (under Melee>Weaponmaster): Specialization in a weapon type that has few artifacts makes finding one hard.
  287. Ranger (under Hybrid): Good shooting and stealth, okay melee, and two realms of magic. No Create Ammo. Weaker than Archer.
  288. *Note*: As a ranged character, you either want to be an archer, or capable of using Artemis' drop since these are the only sources
  289. of "Create Ammo" in the game. Ranged without this ability is suffering unless it's just used to support melee.
  290. Notable stealth classes are:
  291. Rogue: Extremely flexible, great stealth, a magic realm, solid melee/shooting/devices. Bonuses with slings. Gets special backstabs.
  292. Ninja: Very powerful and fun, and gets some intrinsic spells. Darts in and out of the darkness to stealth stab enemies huge dam.
  293. Notable magic classes are:
  294. High Mage: Only gets one magic realm, but gets bonuses to damage, fail rates, and mana costs with it.
  295. Mage: Gets a primary and a secondary magic realm. Can change secondary in-game. More flexible but less powerful than High Mage.
  296. Mindcrafter: Not a book-caster. Their psy damage is especially good versus non-mindless opponents.
  297. Notable hybrid classes are:
  298. Monk: Discussed under Melee
  299. Ranger: Discussed under Ranged
  300. Rogue: Discussed under Stealth
  301. Paladin: Discussed under Melee
  302. Warrior-Mage: Not recommended. Doesn't succeed at being a jack of all trades, only at being a master of none.
  303. Psion: There are a ton of ways to build Psions, based on which talents you take. Ranged, stealthy, melee, blaster, etc.
  304.  
  305. Some classes are rather tricky in one aspect or another. For instance, berserkers have ridiculous offense and hp far surpassing warriors, but their inability to use wands/staves/rods/scrolls is punishing later on, because they don't have access to the usual panic buttons. Necromancers have all their attack spells touch based and cannot play pure summoners; duelists are limited to one blow per round and have -50 AC (+100AC vs chosen enemy), Sorcerers get every magic realm but get -50 AC and very restrictive equipment, etc.
  306.  
  307. A bit about book magic. It's cast with books so you should have books in your inventory and should be able to read (i.e. shouldn't be blind/should have light). Most of book classes can choose their, ahem, magic realms whose descriptions you can read in the in-game help files. Consider that Arcane realm is a shittier one, and some of other realms like Trump or Life are used as additional help for some other way to actually do damage. Unlike innate spells/abilities, you should manually learn your spells from the book with 'G' command, some classes (mages and the like) can choose which spells they learn while others (priests and the like, that's one the main differences between them since they can choose the same realms) learn a random spell from the chosen book, also unlike with innate spells/abilities, you cannot read the description of book spells in-game and should use some other source like Chengband wiki.
  308.  
  309. A bit about the difference between melee and ranged combat (except obvious). When you melee you do all your blows (you usually do several blows per turn) at once and spend the turn at once too. When you shoot (if you are good at shooting you do several shots per turn too) you shoot each shot separately and spend a part of turn each time. It allows you to react sooner if the monster (especially if it's faster than you) make some nasty move. I.e. while shooting you are much less likely to be double-moved than while you melee or move.
  310.  
  311. -----------------------------
  312. ?cd. Personalities
  313. -----------------------------
  314. Personalities are mostly self-explanatory, especially if you check the stat and skill tables in the help file. 'Mighty' or 'combat' are good for fighters, 'nimble' or 'combat' for archers, 'patient' is good for mages etc. Two of them are gender dependent, only females can be 'sexy' and only males can be 'lucky'. 'Sexy' personalty buffs your overall but it makes you aggravate monsters with your sexy attitude (even shadow fairies who normally resist aggravation aggravate monsters if they are sexy) which makes the game quite harder, so that personalty isn't popular. 'Lucky' personalty nerfs your stats but buffs all your skills and makes you find better loot too, that personality is quite popular despite nerfed stats make early-mid game harder. 'Lazy' personality nerfs you overall and is considering challenging, 'munchkin' personality buffs you overall and even divides your exp penalty by half, it's basically playing the game in borderline cheating easy mode.
  315.  
  316. -----------------------------
  317. ?ce. Attributes
  318. -----------------------------
  319. When you create a character you get a menu with birth options. Some of those can make the game harder or easier or significantly change the way how it's played. Generally it's better not to touch them for a while till you know what you are doing. The default way to create a character it's to use auto-roller, setting minimal limits for all or for more desirable stats. If you set more than 2 limits to their caps, the auto-roller probably cannot roll such a character for you. Every character randomly gets some hidden (till you find them in-game) stats as well, it's life rating, an additional coefficient which affects how much life you get per level, it's shown as a ratio to 100 i.e. 100/100 means your hp will not be changed while 105/100 means you get x1.05 hp more etc, and attribute limits i.e. how high you can raise your attributes naturally. To know that info and to change those stats you should use some relatively rare potions, see the 'Consumables' chapter. A bit about attributes, i.e. strength, dexterity etc, you can read their general description in the help files, note that they are listed in a rather weird non-linear format where all attributes higher than 18 are shown as a ratio past 18, the format is described in the help files as well. To quickly recreate a dead character without choosing the race and class and rolling for stats again, you may simply open its save file, if it's dead the game will offer you to create it again.
  320.  
  321. -----------------------------
  322. ?d. The Gameworld
  323. -----------------------------
  324. The Poschengband gameworld is comprised of 5 towns and 26 dungeons scattered across an overworld map with wilderness spaces lying in between. The only dungeon a player must enter to complete the game is Angband, however only trekking through Angband is not only going to be tedious, but possibly quite difficult.
  325.  
  326. The player begins in Outpost, on the far-western side of the map and in immediate proximity to Stronghold, the "first" dungeon of the game.
  327.  
  328. -----------------------------
  329. ?da. Towns
  330. -----------------------------
  331. Each town has a set of shops (1-7 and 9), Your Stash (8), an Inn (Brown +), a Museum (0) and one or two questgivers (Brown or Yellow +). Sleeping in the Inn recharges devices.
  332.  
  333. Shops have a technically unlimited amount of gold, but can only buy in increments equal to their shop caps (these are random for each shop every game and range from 5k to 30k) and cannot buy any more once they have 24 items. Shops restock every few days on average.
  334.  
  335. There are a few services which can only be found in certain towns. The library in Morivant, Telmora, and Angwil can identify items for you. The guilds in Morivant, Telmora, and Angwil can enchant your equipment for you. The Fighter's Guild in Morivant also offers the extremely useful Artifact Reforging mechanic, which will be detailed later. The Trump Tower lets you recall to dungeons you've visited. Lastly- in Morivant, Telmora, and Angwil- the Healers (green +) can heal you and more importantly restore your drained stats.
  336.  
  337. You can teleport between towns at the Inn. You can also rest there, get food (unless you are a demon) and check your fame.
  338.  
  339. -----------------------------
  340. ?db. Dungeons
  341. -----------------------------
  342. The dungeons scattered around the overworld are generally themed either around a dungeon generation gimmick, a monster class, or both. The themes are fairly self explanatory, Orc Cave has orcs, trolls, etc. Forest has animals and insects, Glass Castle's walls are transparent. Monsters aren't limited entirely by these themes, they're more of a guideline to what you can expect. At the last floor of each dungeon, you will usually encounter a boss monster: the master of the dungeon. Slaying the master of a dungeon will let you raise an attribute of your choice.
  343.  
  344. Each Dungeon has a starting "depth-" its Danger Level. These vary between dungeons, so the first floor of the Orc Cave is approximately equal in difficulty to the 10th floor of Stronghold. Early on, players shouldn't dive too far out of depth, but by the mid-game you may be visiting areas with Depths of double your level.
  345.  
  346. Dungeon levels are saved until you exit the dungeon by leaving through the entry or recalling the the surface. Something to note though: each staircase on a particular floor leads to a separate instance of the next floor (above, or below), so you can always find another staircase if something goes wrong on the floor below. This also means that you can fight your way back up the same way you fight your way down.
  347.  
  348. The Angband dungeon has a set of random quests, these exist at floors 6, 12, 24, 38, 44, 50, 56, 62, 76, and 88. Once you enter these levels you cannot leave them without failing the quest. So make sure you are more than prepared for what you might face there. 24 is a floor of particular note since one of the monsters it can spawn is dangerous even for some level 35 characters. Killing the quest creature nets you extra loot and some fame.
  349.  
  350. Some rooms in dungeons are lit, but most aren't and corridors are only lit in niche cases. Make sure to bring enough fuel for your light source or another source of light. Casting a light spell illuminates the area as long as you are inside the dungeon.
  351. -----------------------------
  352. ?dc. Wilderness and Overworld
  353. -----------------------------
  354. The overworld map (accessed by "<") is your primary means of navigating to new dungeons and towns. You must enter a dungeon at least once to recall there, and visiting each town unlocks it for teleportation. Zul cannot be teleported to.
  355.  
  356. You can use the "l"ook command to orient yourself and figure out which tile on the map is which, this also lets you see the danger level of wilderness areas.
  357.  
  358. Ambushes are encounters which occur while traveling the overworld. The player starts off an ambush surrounded by multiple awake monsters which can range from harmless to incredibly dangerous; bring your teleport scrolls.
  359.  
  360. Wilderness areas are notably dangerous in that the difficulty of monsters and size of encounters ranges massively. It is always best to travel the wilderness at daytime so that there is plenty of light to see your enemies by.
  361.  
  362. The unpredictable nature of overworld travel means that new players should always make sure to set out in the morning (by sleeping at the inn), bringing plenty of food, and bringing teleport scrolls.
  363.  
  364. -----------------------------
  365. ?e. Mechanics
  366. -----------------------------
  367.  
  368. Like any *band, PosChengband has a lot of elements and other factors which do damage and/or otherwise debuff you and as a general rule, mid game you should get all elemental resistances and preferably poison one too, later you should be resistant to almost all of them (except Time which resistance is hard to come by, monsters with time attack are rather rare though, well, and some attacks like mana storm are irresistible). Of damage elements, nexus is especially notable for its side effects, because it can swap your stats permanently and there is no way to restore it back (imagine a warrior whose strength and intellect were swapped), chaos can permanently mutate you, but most of mutations are beneficial and you can remove them in Zul anyway, disenchantment can permanently disenchant your gear or yourself if you play a death-sword. Generally, when you choose your gear, having a resistance is more important than having a somehow better damage or AC and, sometimes, even than having more speed. Resistances mostly come from your equipment (but some are innate), you can check them pressing 'n' on your 'C'haracter screen. They are shown how much they protect you in per cent (actually it's +/- ~5%). Different sources of the same resistance stack with diminishing returns, one source gives 50% protection, 2 sources add 65%, 3 sources add 72%, 4 add 75% etc. Free action basically works as immunity, while resit fear and confusion somehow reduce the chance to be feared or confused.
  369.  
  370. As in most of roguelikes, you need food to survive, but, unlike the most, food in *bands is usually easy to get. You can buy ordinary food in a general store or you can get a lot of nutrition eating in an inn. Most of races cannot eat corpses of their enemies, so *band food system is overall more realistic than most of roguelikes have, it's plenty of food and no cannibalism. Potions give some nutrition too and it can save your life if you forgot to bring food and ventured far away from any town. Starving will make you faint and eventually die, while engorging is a huge speed debuff, so if you drink a lot of potions fighting some strong monster, be careful not to engorge yourself. Some of those monsters can suck nutrition from your belly too (eww), so fighting those you should be careful both not to starve and not to engorge. Some of races don't eat ordinary food but feed on device charges, or corpses of humans, or oil, or something else, read the help for details.
  371.  
  372. When you pick an item you have a so-called 'pseudo-ID' of it i.e. sensing the quality of the item, the speed and power of which depends on your class. Classes with 'strong' pseudo-ID, like warrior, archer or rogue can feel if the item is cursed [bad], uncursed [average], enchanted [good], uncursed ego [excellent], cursed ego [awful], uncursed artifact [special] or cursed artifact [terrible], auto-destroyer knows it either and it will destroy [bad], [average] and [good] items (depending on your level and settings) before they are even identified. Classes with weak pseudo-ID like priests, monks or mages can feel if the item is enchanted, ego or artifact - [enchanted] or cursed, cursed ego or cursed artifact - [cursed]. The help files have a table of some classes and the type and speed of their pseudo-ID, but it's rather outdated.
  373.  
  374. There are 3 kinds of curse in PosChengband - an item can be cursed, strongly cursed or have an ancient foul curse. Curse and strongly curse prevent you from removing the item (unless you are a berserker who can tear cursed items from themselves by force) and have some random additional negative effects too, some kind of aggravation, vulnerability to fear, slowing your regeneration etc. Also some monsters can curse items on you. These kinds of curse can be lifted, an appropriate scroll removes it from all worn cursed items at once. Cursed ammo can get the curse removed with sufficient enchanting. Ancient foul curse is irremovable but it doesn't prevent you from removing the item so you can wear it freely. Its effects may be quite nasty but they hit rarely. Also when I say quite nasty I mean quite nasty - you can be affected by amnesia, teleported, paralyzed (even with free action, AFAIK, at least death curse of amberite uniques which invoke the same effects definitely can paralyze you through free action if you don't have an anti-magic item) and surrounded with multiple nasty monsters at once, so items with ancient and foul curse are not advised to be used except as rare and risky swaps.
  375.  
  376. When you kill dungeon bosses, you get a stat increase and also it increases your fame. Completing quests and killing uniques increases your fame either (while failing quests greatly decreases it). The only use for your fame it's artifact reforges, they are useful for everybody but they are especially important for some monster races so playing those you should try not to fail quests ever. Artifact reforges are done in the fighter guild of Morivant, you should have an artifact, enough fame to reforge it (you will see your limit and the power of artifact too) and a blank item of the type of what you want to have a new artifact (i.e. for instance an artifact sword and a blank ring to make an artifact ring). Oh, and a lot of gold too, the cheapest shitty reforge will cost like 400k but you should aim for reforges which cost 1m and higher, so reforges it's rather end game stuff. The new artifact will not have the same properties as the old one, it will be slightly weaker overall and its properties will be random, so it's not guaranteed if you like the result.
  377.  
  378. Most of PosChengband equipment are rather standard for *bands and generally roguelikes - rings, amulets, helmets, armors, shields, cloaks, boots, weapon. Many of those have Japanese names as it comes from the older versions which were made when that Japanese stuff was trendy, so you should learn that 'jingasa' is equipped into the head slot while 'haramakido' is a kind of armor. Most of stuff has ordinary European names though. There is some unusual items, of which I want to mention some: poison needle, a weapon with an unique mechanic, it always does 1 damage but it has a low chance to instantly kill a non-unique monster, it may be useful to fight some monsters like the metal babble; wizardstaff, a weapon which decreases mana consumption of your spells, useful for mages; fishingpole, a weak weapon which can be activated to fish for weak water monsters when you stay near a water tile (romantics!).
  379.  
  380. -----------------------------
  381. ?f. Consumables and Devices
  382. -----------------------------
  383.  
  384. The game has a lot of consumables, I will briefly list the most important of them, but even the brief listing takes a lot of place and needs a separate chapter
  385.  
  386. The consumables/devices are: potions, scrolls, wands, staves, and rods.
  387. Potions - One time use, never fail.
  388. Scrolls - One time use, requires devices skill check.
  389. Wands/staves/rods - Have charges that refill over time. Requires devices skill check.
  390.  
  391. There are several kinds of healing potions, some of which you can buy in shops (mostly Cure Light Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds and Cure Critical Wounds). These basic potions, especially !CCW can heal multiple detrimental effects too, like poison, confuse and blindness. To heal hallucinations you need a potion of Curing (or a staff of Curing, staves of Curing, unlike potions of Curing, don't restore hp though), they are more rare than previous 3. More powerful potions, such as !Healing, !*Healing* and !Life (not !New Life!) should be found as loot (or rarely bought on the black market), they heal 300, 1000+ and several thousand+ hp respectively and (except !Life) the same detrimental effects like !CCW (so, not hallucinations). !Life heals everything. You need a good stack of them for the last fight. !CCW can be in a form of staves and !Healing can be in a form of staves or rods too, but those (especially Healing) are rare and aren't easy to use. Different kinds of healing may be in form of spells too, mostly those of Life magic realm.
  392.  
  393. There are two different kinds of identify (which is common for *bands), it's ordinary identify (comes with scrolls, staves of perception, wearing a stone of Lore, town services and a few other sources), which tells you some basic properties of the item - to-hit and damage enchants, ego, name, number of charges, basic effect for consumables etc and *identify* which tells you all its properties. *Identify* is rather expensive (libraries in towns offer cheaper *identify* than using scrolls), and is usually used on jewelry (ordinary identify is barely useful there), artifacts and some ego items. It's the only way to find what resistances an item has (unless you already *identified* that ego and know what resistances it always gives, but the item still may have hidden resistances and other stuff, even detrimental), so you must use it since mid game. Selling an item (but not dropping it in your home) *identifies* it either and all items which you buy are *identified*.
  394.  
  395. Phase door (short range) and teleport (long range) are very useful escape tools and come mostly as scrolls, but also staves of teleport, some item active abilities, spells and even mutations. There is also teleport level, useful for escape from especially mean floors. The teleport is instant but always uncontrollable. Some monsters have a chance to follow your teleport (but not phase door or teleport level). There are wands and rods of teleport other which can be very useful to get rid of nasty enemies, but monsters can resist the attempt to teleport them away and some of them cannot be teleported at all. Word of recall comes as scrolls or rods (you get a rod of recall for defeating the boss of the Labyrinth) and allows you to quickly leave the dungeon (or to get back), they work after a few turns of waiting. Trump towers in Morivant and Angwil allow you to teleport back to dungeon too.
  396.  
  397. Detection comes in a form of scrolls (not really useful past early game), staves and rods, also spells and passive abilities. Detect monsters and detect stairs are especially useful, detect monsters finds even those who you cannot see with telepathy. A rod of detection detects everything - traps, items, monsters, stairs, but they are rare and take some time to recharge. You get a rod of monster detection for defeating an angel on arena in Telmora and a rod of detection as a reward for Vapor quest. Magic mapping comes as scrolls of magic mapping, staves of enlightenment and as a spell.
  398.  
  399. Potions and staves of speed (also some activatable items and spells) give one of the best buffs in the game - +10 speed. This speed buff from different sources doesn't stack.
  400.  
  401. Potions of Self Knowledge allow you to know your stat limits and your life rating and potions of New Life change those randomly (also they scramble all random abilities like mutations or wild abilities, but not chosen special abilities of humans and demigods).
  402.  
  403. Destruction comes as scrolls and staves of destruction, and spells, it can be very useful late game, especially when fighting tougher uniques. It attempts to remove everything and everybody which got into its range (and the range is huge) and also it changes the layout creating a lot of walls (it's supposed to be piles of debris, I think, but those aren't piles). Destructed uniques aren't considered dead, they are just teleported from the level so you can meet them again later, monsters can resist destruction too. Destruction is useful to get rid of summons both destructing them and creating a lot of tangled corridors where you can hide (destructing an area before the fight is a common strategy to fight some end game summoners). You should be careful not to destruct quest monsters like Oberon or Serpent, if you succeed to destruct them they will be created again on the floor with full HP (!) so you will waste all your effort. Also using destruction blinds you unless you resist it.
  404.  
  405. There are a few wands, rods and staves which you can use to do direct damage, their names are self-explanatory. For many classes using such devices may be crucial on some stages of the game or even till the end. Mana storm and rockets are probably the best devices of this sort, but they are both rare and hard to use. You can get a staff of mana storm for killing the boss of Volcano.
  406.  
  407. Genocide and mass genocide comes as scrolls and spells, they are quite useful to fight summoners, genocide attempts to delete all non-unique monsters of a given symbol and mass genocide attempts to delete all non-unique monsters in an area around you. Note, that unlike destruction you cannot get rid of unique monsters this way and you take some damage for every genocided monster.
  408.  
  409. There is a lot of other consumables too, which restore your drained exp, remove curse and *remove curse* (but not remove ancient foul curse), restore your stats, permanently increase stats (desirable find!), temporary increase stats, temporary give you resistances, enchant your weapon/armor, give you a random item etc. Food is a consumable too and some types of food (mushrooms) have the same effect as potions, mushrooms of restoring, which restore all drained stats are especially useful ones. There are some detrimental consumables as well, including those which not only blind your or reduce your stats or something but can even destroy your precious artifacts, so don't use them not identified.
  410.  
  411. I should note one of nastier monster attacks directly related to magical devices here, it's charge draining. It's a very very annoying thing which both drains charges on some of your devices and heals the monster completely. Both of final bosses has that kind of attack so you preferably either dispatch them from distance, or use rune of protection (comes as a scroll and a spell of warding) which prevents monster from hitting you till it destroys the ward, or drop/leave home all wands, staves and rods, or have a resist to it (from having the corresponding human/demigod special ability, being a nibelung or device master).
  412.  
  413. -----------------------------
  414. ?g. Commands, Inscriptions, and Macros
  415. -----------------------------
  416.  
  417. You should read the help for commands but some stuff still isn't very obvious, so, I will list some useful commands.
  418. You can check damage output of your weapon with 'C' + 'w' and damage of your shooter with 'C' + 'b'. To check the monsters you encountered, use '~' menu, it's '~' + '4', use the same menu to check your mutations ('~' + 'Space' + 'b'), weapon skills ('~' + 'Space' + 'c') and other information related to your character. To turn on a very useful set of automatic commands to auto-id and auto-destroy stuff, more powerful than the basic auto-destroyer, press '_', and edit the file if needed (it's pretty obvious how to edit it). To change some in-game settings use '=' menu, for instance '=' + '4' + setting always_small_levels to 'Yes' may speed up your early-mid game generating small dungeon floors more often (it's dangerous later if you cannot find a safe place to teleport to, so it's wise to turn it off mid-late game). To remove a pile of rubble or to attempt to dig a wall use 'T' command, to fill a lantern with oil use 'F', to check the log use 'Ctrl' + 'p'.
  419.  
  420. Your inventory is very limited, you have a-z slots only, so use them wisely. You can leave items at home and it has a lot of space but it's limited too (240 items). It's the only way to have a stash since all items which you drop on the ground will disappear. The game constantly keeps your inventory in order, like magic books are always at the top, then go potions, then scrolls, then rods, then staves etc and therefore items constantly change their designated letters when you pick a new one, which may be rather inconvenient. You should use inscriptions and macros to speed up the game. Macros help to speed up to access to some abilities too.
  421.  
  422. To inscribe an item use '{' command. Your inscription, if you want it to use with macros, should have @ + command to use that item + the number or another symbol you gave to it. I.e., if it's ammo number 1 it should be '@f1' where 'f' is the command to shoot, if it's a spell book it should be '@m1' where 'm' is the command to cast etc. You now can shoot it both with macros and manually calling the item with the number 1 instead of its inventory letter.
  423. To write a macro press '@' + '4' + enter the trigger + enter the series of commands. For instance to set a macro to 'F1' to fire ammo inscribed as '@f1' to the nearest target press '@' + '4' + 'F1' + '\e\e\e*tf1'
  424. That '\e\e\e' was set there by default, it's simply several escapes, just in case, you don't really need them, '*t' chooses the nearest target and 'f1' shoots. The same way you write a macro to cast some stuff, like 'm1a', to cast spell 'a' from the book inscribed as '@m1' etc. Macros which deal with abilities work the same, except you shouldn't inscribe anything. For instance you play an android and want to set a macro to use your ray gun ability to shoot the nearest target, you make a macro '*tUa' i.e. the same commands which you would press manually, you just link them to a single button.
  425. To save the macro for future use (i.e. when you restart the game) use '2' command in that '@' macro menu, each character name has its own file with macro configs.
  426.  
  427. -----------------------------
  428. ?h. Quests
  429. -----------------------------
  430.  
  431. Apart from the two main quests which you need to complete to win the game - to kill Oberon on 99th floor of Angband and the Serpent on 100th, there is a few of other random and non-random optional quests. You usually want to complete them for fame, loot (loot is main reason to do some of the quests) and quest rewards.
  432.  
  433. All random quests it's killing a random unique of appropriate (slightly out of depth) difficulty on some floors of Angband, those floors are 6th, 12th, 24th, 38th, 44th, 50th, 56th, 62nd, 76th and 88th.
  434. Leaving a quest floor before killing the quest unique counts as failing the quest which directly affects your fame. There is no reward except the drops.
  435.  
  436. As for non-random quests, they should be taken manually from different places. Quests go in sequences and failing one will interrupt the corresponding sequence. All non-random optional quests, except Warg problem, are set on a special quest level which you enter with a yellow stairs near (sometimes several screens away) the place where you took the quest and which you shouldn't leave till completing the quest unless you want to fail it. Warg problem is set on 5th floor of Stronghold dungeon, but unlike Angband random quests, you may leave the floor freely (so stairdancing is an option). The difficulty of quests (their level) is supposed to correlate with the difficulty of the corresponding dungeon depth, but in practice it's usually harder, like the worst situation you can meet at that depth. You generally should have a lot of teleport scrolls, healing/curing potions, means of detection, speed potions and other consumables when you enter them. Note that walls on quest levels are often indestructible and you cannot use destruction to change the layout too. Here is the list of all quests with some comments.
  437.  
  438. [Outpost: Mayor]
  439. Thieves Hideout [5] - most of characters can complete it since CL (character level) 1 or 2, you will get CL3-5 to the end of the quest and the reward it's a [good] item depending on your class
  440. Warg problem [5] - most of characters can complete it as soon as they complete Thieves Hideout and it will move them to CL10-14 very fast
  441. Haunted House [48] - has decent loot and a lot of undead
  442. The Royal Crypt [70] - those drujes are very dangerous even for CL50 endgame characters, there is no real reason to complete it either
  443.  
  444. [Outpost: Inn]
  445. Old Man Willow Quest [22] - you either want a no-teleport item and some ranged attack or free action to dispatch the boss
  446. Dark Elven Lords Quest [25] - watch for dwellers on the threshold who are summoners and kill them ASAP
  447. The Cloning Pits [45] - has a lot of copies of different uniques, most notably 3 copies of ant queen who is a crazy ant summoner, killing the queens is the top priority, levitation and stone to mud are very useful there, the reward is good artifact boots
  448. The Old Castle [50] - has a lot of strong monsters including a monastic lich, dracolich, a couple of titans and stuff like that which will come at you from all sides, the reward is a good artifact suited for your class
  449.  
  450. [Telmora: Castle]
  451. The Sewer [15] - can get surprisingly hard since it has 2 breeders, get confuse and blindness resistance or kill the blue icky thing ASAP, actually kill it and the gremlin ASAP anyway, acid resistance helps too
  452. Logrus Master [25] - you should kill one caster with a strong chaos attack spell, so prepare to be hallucinated, drained and possibly mutated
  453. The Vault [30] - 4 rooms with a sword in each, you should pick the correct sword placed randomly and get away, usually has a lot of strong monsters including uniques so you preferably should have high stealth (use stealth items), the sword which you pick it's your reward, the artifact sword 'Sting', a very good weapon with some useful resistances
  454. The Barrow Downs [35] - has a lot of loot (including an artifact cloak) and wights, paralyze resistance is mandatory, watch for emperor wights or have nether resistance/reflection, your experience will probably be drained too
  455. Killing Fields [50] - no loot, crappy reward, has a lot of warriors of dawn who are rather annoying (those guys respawn with a high chance, if you didn't read the book) than dangerous, at least when you are not surrounded by them
  456. Eric's Stronghold [70] - dig to Eric and kill him ASAP otherwise you will fail the quest to a lot of summoners, that quest is rather hard even endgame and you have no real reason to complete it too
  457.  
  458. [Morivant: Castle]
  459. Vapor Quest [25] - you should have see invisible and, preferably, nexus resistance, otherwise fumes can permanently swap your stats in a nasty way (they can it with the resistance too though), mutations are possible too, the reward is a rod of detection
  460. The Rise and Fall of Micro$oft [50] - has a fun layout with 666 written in lava with shallow lava, but apart from that has shitty loot and rewards, it's easy too, at least if you are accurate with heavy trapped corridors
  461. Doom Quest 2 [55] - a ranged attack may help, has some quite strong undead like iron liches, the reward is a staff of healing
  462.  
  463. [Morivant: Thieves Guild]
  464. Tengu and Death Swords [25] - the swords don't move so the quest is easier if you pick a shooter and some ammo, watch for tengus don't teleport you adjacent to the swords, a no-teleport item is good but not mandatory
  465. The Mimic's Treasure [25] - this quest may be quite deadly since chest mimics are summoners and can summon summoners... generally you want to have a speed buff and either to dispatch mimics from distance opening doors by one and attracting as less of them as possible (but you should kill a lurker and a door mimic before you can shoot a chest one) or to quickly reach and kill them, confusion resistance helps too
  466.  
  467. [Angwil: Manor]
  468. Orc Camp [15] - one of the easier quests, just be careful and kill those orcs one by one
  469. Doom Quest 1 [15] - easy quest with a lot of loot, but you preferably need to have see invisible (can be completed without) and fire resistance to take a couple of arch-viles sealed at the end
  470. Spawning Pits [65] - yet another very hard and deadly quest which you have no reason to complete, has a lot of summoners
  471.  
  472. [Zul: Tower of Sorcery] |
  473. Node of Sorcery [65] |
  474. |
  475. [Zul: Chaos Tower] | - these are quests for mages of the corresponding realm to get a grimoire of their realm
  476. Node of Chaos [65] |
  477. |
  478. [Zul: Nature Tower] |
  479. Node of Nature [65] |
  480.  
  481. -----------------------------
  482. ?i. Winning (spoilers, obviously)
  483. -----------------------------
  484.  
  485. To win the game, you must defeat Oberon on level 99 of the Angband dungeon, then slay the serpent(J) on level 100.
  486.  
  487. You will need a small list of things for this:
  488. -Scrolls of Genocide and Scrolls of Mass Genocide
  489. *Optionally staves of genocide too, or the spell
  490. -Scrolls of Destruction and a Stave of Destruction (or two)
  491. -Many sources of phase door and teleport
  492. -*at least* 15 total !*Healing* and !Life, take all your !Healing down with you too (certain characters can get away with less, but if you know you can, you don't need this guide)
  493. -A wand of Teleport Other or the spell
  494. -At least 3 pips of each base element resistance
  495. -2 pips of shards and chaos resistance
  496. ->25 unhasted speed. >35 if possible. Going over 50 unhasted speed is probably not worth what you sacrifice for it.
  497.  
  498. You will also want to take out as many of the more dangerous potential summons as well. Notable uniques worth taking out before fighting the Serpent include: Loki, Nodens, Gothmog, Tiamat, Vecna, Kaschei, Cthulhu, Azathoth, and Oremorj.
  499. Notable uniques which are just "avoid at all costs" for most characters are: a Plain Gold Ring, Morgoth, Lord of Darkness, The Unicorn of Order, The Destroyer, and The Metal Babble. You will probably just want to try to separate these from J before destructing them.
  500. Before fighting Oberon, it is also wise to kill every other Amberite unique monster, since he can summon all the higher level ones.
  501.  
  502. *A note about devices and melee*
  503. If you are melee, and do not have some form of charge drain resistance/immunity from Demonic Grasp mutation or Balrog race etc. do not rely on devices without the "of holding" ego for the serpent fight. It's better to use scrolls of teleport and potions of speed, than staves. Also toss away your staff after you are done with it.
  504. The Serpent is also surrounded by highly damaging fire/elec/cold auras, which are definitely worth slotting in an immunity to those elements if you can afford it.
  505.  
  506. Before the fights themselves, use Destruction (preferably from a staff) to blow up a bunch of territory, making it better for fighting in. This is more important for the J fight, but less relevant for the Oberon fight.
  507. *Important* Do NOT use destruction on Oberon or the Serpent once you have started fighting them. It's fine when setting up, but destroying them will return them to full HP.
  508. Once the fight starts, stay hasted all the time. Use Genocide when surrounded by same-glyph enemies (summon cyberdemons/ancient dragons) and mass genocide when surrounded by different glyph enemies(summon greater undead).
  509. Uniques can't be genocided, so the best course of action is to teleport away. The Serpent is faster than nearly any enemy and bores through walls, leaving them behind most of the time. If you catch uniques away from the serpent, read Destruction to get rid of them.
  510. You want a buffer of ~600 HP to stay above at all times. The serpent is more than capable of doing this much damage in a single round of combat so watch out. Oberon is less serious, but do be mindful- psycho spears hurt.
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