3. Don’t be greedy!!!
Your goal should be to die with no useful consumables in your inventory. This is not a metaphor or even an exaggeration really. Most runs will generate more consumables than you need to win, use them freely. If you’re not sure that the upcoming fight is dangerous, then use your buffs just “in case”. Same goes for god abilities, don’t hoard piety, it’s meant to be used.
This is something that i’ve heard so many times. Me having 4 brain cells fighting for 8th place, I can’t seem to absorb it. Could someone design something for my RC that forces a more message if two or more “high” or at least one “lethal” threat are on screen.
Don’t be too hard on yourself :), DCSS is a difficult game and breaking bad habits when you play a lot of runs back to back is really tricky, also threat assessment is one of the more difficult skills to acquire, cause it changes based on your char and where you are in your run.
After a quick look through your morgues I would suggest getting into a habit of zapping wands more. Like just get a muscle memory of shift+v a couple of charges in any non-trivial fight at the very start, it’ll help to get you through the early game more often. To make the whole process easier add something like this to your rc (this is for trunk):
consumable_shortcut += wand of iceblast:b
consumable_shortcut += wand of roots:b
consumable_shortcut += wand of warping:b
consumable_shortcut += wand of acid:c
consumable_shortcut += wand of light:c
consumable_shortcut += wand of quicksilver:c
consumable_shortcut += wand of paralysis:n
consumable_shortcut += wand of charming:n
consumable_shortcut += wand of flame:v
consumable_shortcut += wand of mindburst:z
consumable_shortcut += wand of polymorph:m
consumable_shortcut += wand of digging:d
This will assign your wands to the same letter every run and will make the whole process easier. If you’re playing 0.33 stable version, then you’ll need to replace “consumable_shortcut” with “item_slot”, if memory serves.
It’s also a thing that you need to familiarise yourself with what the latter parts of the game throw at you. Your best run died to not having rC+ in Depths mostly, which is a shame, but it’ll get easier when you’ll start getting to this point more consistently. Watching other people play is also very helpful, I would recommend particleface on twitch or youtube, he’s got some good teaching playthroughs.
Generally building good habits is about taking it one step at a time and not giving in to tilt. Which is admittedly pretty difficult sometimes :D. Hopefully someone else can help with your requested rc setting, I think it can be done, but I’m not exactly sure how.
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Hi there. Don’t stress it out. Watching other people playing is really useful in the case.
Particleface’s beginner’s tutorial is very useful. You might want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognJUPkqJ5w&list=PLY2Drf0NBvk-qO3BxxmlKxasCh-zROFa8
Also, Don not autoexplore (almost ever) and do not autofight (ever) and do not autotrain (ever) until you find yourself comfortable with winning confidently.
If you see more than one yellow threat enemy, stop, evaluate your chances and reconsider your tactics: repositioning into a narrow pathway, a preemptive teleportation, buffing with might, brilliance, invisible, haste, reading scrolls of fear / poison/ vulnerability, immolation, using your evocables and god’s powers.
If your health turns yellow/red, there is a place for another tactical reconsideration.
While you exploring think about your positioning, be aware of level vaults and entering/ not entering them, exclude dangerous areas and staircases, make notes about threats of a level and read them continuing your run the other day.
You might expect about 6-7 scrolls of blinking and >10 scroll of teleportation during a run. So if you find yourself in a situation that requires a blink of a teleport you can evaluate how much (on average, of course) scrolls of the type lies ahead.
Try to get comfortable with using of scrolls of fear. This is the consumable which is really great and very underestimated by beginners. Crowded with low-mid willpower enemies at the beginning of midgame? Read them a scroll of fear. There is no need to save them for later.
Here is my additons to the rc file:
hp_warning = 80
mp_warning = 80
always_show_zot = true
default_manual_training = true
hp_colour = 85:yellow, 70:red
mp_colour = 85:yellow, 70:red
autoinscribe = potion of berserk rage:=!q
autoinscribe = scroll of teleportation:=!r
autoinscribe = scroll of blinking:=!r
autoinscribe = scroll of fog:=!r
tile_door_col = #00a00b
colour.blue = white
tile_show_threat_levels = tough, nasty, unusual
unusual_monster_items += antimagic,chaos,disto,draining,venom,holy wrath,flame,freezing,heavy,electrocution,protection,spectral,speed,vampiric
I’ve learned through splatting a lot of promising characters that could be saved if I played better that if you think of consumables only when you’re about to die, it’s probably not gonna save you. Consumables are much stronger when they’re used preemptively. (I assume you’re facing strong enemies that you can’t simply run away - either because they move faster or have ranged attacks.)
For everyone, teleport is the best thing you can do beforehand if you fear you’ll lose the fight. Invisibility helps a lot if the enemy(ies) can’t see invis. Enlighten yourself if you see monsters that can petrify, paralyze, vitrify, banish, or anything unpleasant that depends on willpower to resist. Ambrosia can help you recover very quickly if you know there’s a nasty creature wandering just out of your los. Turn to your god - e.g. Trog’s berserk, Okawaru’s Finesse, Gozag’s pot pet, Elivylon’s divine vigour, Ru’s apocalypse or Qazlal’s Disaster Area if you’re facing 1000 glass cannons, Jiyva’s slimify…
For melee brutes, quaff haste and/or might if you feel the upcoming fight is tough. Maybe fog if you lack ranged attack. Maybe attract if you’re facing kobold blastminers or orb spiders. For blaster casters, have some brilliance.
Apart from these basic methods, since crawl is turn-based, you can always pause and examine your inventory for smart (or funny) ways to deal with the specific threat. For example tree + scroll of torment + spam wand of iceblast to deal with OOD hydrae. Once I was an alchemist (DsWn^Yred) and I met Mlioglotl. I didn’t have rF+, but I decided that it’s gonna be entertaning to blow Mlioglotl up with my zombies. So I lured Mlioglotl into open spaces, read a scroll of immolation, and told my zombies to surround them. Then BOOM Mlioglotl got shredded into pieces (sadly, I forgot to bind their soul 
). Recently (AnGl^Ru) I got teleported into a group of blink frogs and Urug and I was about to quaff might and haste and try to fight when I realized I could just apocalypse, which is essentially free. After that I got an Urug with only half HP and 0 blink frogs still alive.
But if you’re really about to die despite having all those buffs on you, do use those scrolls of blinking. Spam them until you feel safe. I have died many times thinking, “this isn’t very bad, I’m saving these scrolls for true emergencies” or “I have already spent so many consumables, if I run away they’ll get wasted”
EDIT: Speaking of rc, I like this line:
force_more_message += identif
It reminds you to identify stuff.
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If the level is partly uncleared, you may leap straight from the frying pan into the fire; if the level is a branch end or similar, you may land straight in the middle of the room of bastards, already down on HP from the fight you were unsure about.
Also, teleport doesn’t actually help you win - and if you are winning, you will want to take a turn (and burn another precious scroll) to actually secure the victory against this presumably dangerous opponent, or risk being teleported away before you can polish it off.
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