or You Can (Not) Autoexplore
I won my last trunk game more than a year ago:
Ge0ff the Orderly (L27 ReRe), escaped with the Orb and 4 runes on 2025-06-04 16:23:13, with 1925962 points after 97860 turns and 3:41:10.
After that, I played only old versions: I started with a three game warm-up - DgMo, AtTm, and DETm in 0.18 and 0.30 - then dived right into 0.11 and played the remaining combos in a chronological order. I won 24 Stalkers, 27 Sludge Elves, 18 Priests, 21 Healers, 24 Death Knights, 7 Centaurs, 7 Halflings, 13 Deep Dwarves, 10 Palentongas, 2 Venom Mages, 4 Transmuters, and 18 Meteorans. This is 178 old combos in total. Finishing megaprogress took 14 months of real time and almost 1240 hours of tabbing, which is 2h 55min / day. If we count from my first online game, which was in April of 2015, megaprogress took me 11 years and 4 months.
At the first glance, megaprogress looks like just a bigger version of !progress, but they are quite different. Let’s explore the latter in greater detail first. The regular !progress is such an epic challenge that only six players completed it so far:
??players who did it
bmfx (2020-08-17), Yermak (2021-06-30), dilly (2023-03-12), elliptic (2023-12-16), ge0ff (2024-06-28), particleface (2024-10-22)
It is definitely a fun challenge, but I’ve experienced a few problems while doing it. I like the “win all combos” part, but not the “currently playable in trunk” part of !progress. A new species/background could appear out of nowhere, moving the finish line further away from you. As a result, it reduces the joy you get out of new content.
But a bigger problem is the removal of species and backgrounds. This includes not only pure removals like the removal of Abyssal Knights, but also replacements like Ogres becoming Oni and Venom Mages turning into Alchemists.
The number of your remaining combos goes down, but only if you haven’t won a bunch of the removed species/background combos already. Some of your games no longer count and, for the purposes of !progress, they become wasted time. To minimize this risk, it’s optimal to play combos in a random order. But if I like a species I want to focus on them. And because of that, I had more than 200 unique won combos that didn’t count for my progress. Also, the whole idea that you could win a single person challenge by doing nothing at the last stage is weird.
!megaprogress is supposed to be not only a bigger, but also a more fair and predictable challenge.
??megaprogress
The ultimate challenge that requires winning all playable combos. The earliest version available to play online is 0.10, so the challenge includes everything starting from 0.10 and up to the latest stable version. Trunk-only combos are excluded.
Your wins don’t disappear unless it’s a trunk only game like a Mayflytaur. The total number of combos never goes down. Playing combos in a random order gives no benefit. Focusing on a species or background is never penalized. Knowing that a species or background will be removed soon and not playing them gives no benefit. Even becoming a dev and removing half of the species and backgrounds wouldn’t help you to finish the challenge faster.
That was about fairness, now let’s see why predictability matters.
Progress is an ideal challenge for fast and consistent players. If you win at least 30 games per month then the whole thing will take just 22 months, which is 4-5 releases. Add a couple months for new species - 2 years ± a month and you’re done. There are several megafast players right now, and I hope we’ll get a new !progress winner next year.
Progress is doable for long time players too, but for a mere mortal the best ETA you could have is “eventually”. For me, this “eventually” took more than 9 years, although I didn’t plan to win everything back in 2015, I just played non-repeating combos outside of the tournaments.
And the longer you play, the more you notice how both the removals and additions of new species and backgrounds mess up your progress. The final part of progress is especially stressful and a bit silly: you need to win combos faster than the devs add them. Megaprogress makes your life less chaotic and more predictable: the total number can go up only after a release, so you could plan for 7-8 months ahead.
There is a technical aspect of megaprogress, which is worth mentioning too. The corresponding Sequell commands are supposed to require less maintenance than !progress. The only thing to update is the list of trunk-only combos, which includes not only Mayflytaurs, but also a bunch of weird ancient crawl species and backgrounds. Nowadays it could grow only when an addition overlaps with a removal: CeDe, GhFw, OgSh, and a few more.
The final part of megaprogress took place in 0.30. After winning all Palentongas in 0.29, I played a few remaining VMs and Tms, 6 in total. There were two memorable moments: a GrTm char, which had LCS castable at the end of Lair, all thanks to Ash’s bonuses. And DsTm that got Robust:1 at XL 25, which is as late as it could possible be.
Let’s quickly check what the new version gave the players in terms of new features, and then go to Meteorans.
0.30:
- Reavers, which were available before 0.8, have returned. Palentongas were replaced with Armchairtaurs
- The Vaults no longer require a rune to enter
- Monks got orbs of light, Mummies got Faith
- Everyone got +0.2 HP to regeneration rate. Several monsters do less damage. These changes were added to buff the player and balance out AoOps and the monster attack speed buff from the previous versions
- Will is capped at +++++. It’s no longer possible to have more than ++ in Tar and while under Will/2
- Harm stacks!
- Lugonu’s Banishment is available at 2* instead of 3*. The player gets an anti-wrath protection when switching from other gods. Bend Space, which was the only way for Formicids to blink, was removed
- Ash’s skill bonuses were nerfed. Trap detection was moved to 4* instead of 0*, because this was ridiculously op. Astral Vision was removed
- Faded altars got previews!
- Oka’s abilities cost a bit more
- Hep’s Knight ancestor got slow attacks
- Condenser vanes don’t produce wrath-inducing clouds any more
- UI improvements: equip and unequip commands were added, the
%screen was updated, damage ratings are displayed on@, and Rampage indicator was added. Bumping with a ranged weapon shoots instead of doing a weak bump attack. Costs of Invocations were de-spoiled. Useless items are greyed out in the inventory - The vorpal brand was replaced with the heavy brand
- Lightning rod got a buff
- Duplicate evokers no longer spawn, jellies can no longer eat them. Evokers recharge faster at low XLs and slower later. A new set: vane and tremorstones
- Orbs of energy became better: they give -Wiz and there’s no backlash
- ?butterflies blow enemies back. The scroll is in a set with ?summoning now
- Artefact orbs, scarves, and magical staves were added!
- Ranged weapons got an update for their stats. Elec, antimagic, and draining brands can appear on all ranged weapons, but venom branded ranged weapons are no more
- Throwing weapons do more damage when they mulch
- Spectral brand does less damage :(
- Sleepcaps were added! Easily one of the best monster tiles
- Demonic crawlers got fast regen
- Tomes can be silenced now
- Howl can be resisted by Will
- Monsters can use spectral weapons
- New spells: Kiss of Death, Momentum Strike, Cig’s Rot, Blastmotes, Vhi’s!, Arcjolt!, Plasma! Plasma had a power-dependent range, but the damage was higher than it is now
- Cerulean imps were added
- Manifold Assault is L4 now, but UC users got a nerf
- Fridge does more damage to tight crowds
- Irradiate malmutates only in 50% casts :(
- Scorch, Simulacrum, and Static Discharge were nerfed. The Discharge was quite op in previous versions
- Removed spells: Conjure Flame, Corpse Rot, and Lightning Bolt
- New unrands: Storm Queen’s shield and toga Victory!
- Staves of Dispater, Battle, and Wucad Mu became orbs
- Majin-Bo is one-handed now!
- Morg was removed
But at the same time:
- Monsters still drink potions and read scrolls of summoning
- There’s no revelation and enlightenment, no talismans, no multi-element magical staves
- You can get double-trapped Zot:5 lungs
- Malign Gateway’s tentacle is instant still, and it can fight on the next turn after you summon it
- Wands of light can blind undead monsters like ancient liches
- There is no Jinxbite, no Permafrost, no Sisters, no Gavotte, no Forgecraft, and no other modern and fun spells
- Gell’s is still available as a spell. Back in old days, a few players used it regularly for tricks like keeping monsters in damaging clouds, but it was one of the least useful spells for me
- There is no Necropolis. Slime:5 has only one layout
- Beogh is orcs-only, Oka still gifts weapon and armour over time, Dith is boring, Makh is boring
So this is how the last version with Meteorans looked like. This species had a predecessor: MFTs, an April Fools species. Mayflytaurs had HP and MPRegen mutations instead of explore regen, and their apts were a bit different.
Meteorans had pretty impressive apts: +3 for M&Fs and Invo, +1 for Fighting, SB, Ranged, Summonings, and Ice, -2 Stealth, and +2 for everything else. They had +20% HP and got +5 Will per level. Also, Meteorans were the only species with the +2 XP apt, which allowed them to get ahead of the curve early on, but it was less noticeable in the late game. It’s kinda sad that Meteorans had a very poor Stealth apt and couldn’t go invisible via potions and items. This removed the “sneak past enemies” option of the turn-count play and left you only the “kill everyone” option.
The Zot Clock was ticking 10 times faster for Meteorans, but playing them was a bit different than playing regular turn-count chars, at least if your goal was just to win. For example, you don’t need to immediately dive to D:4 to search for the Temple. Meteorans are all about efficient exploration - converting Zot time into explored territory, gathered resources, and gained XP.
I usually fully explored the Dungeon down to D:12, sometimes going all the way down to D:15 before entering Lair. Diving to Orc:2 is possible at this point, but I usually left it for later, when I was strong enough to clear Elven Halls too. In Lair, I dived straight to the final vault(s) to get the loot, and then went up, searching for S-branches.
Because of the +2 XP apt and good apts in general, your char is usually strong enough to dive S-branches, but once in like 5 games you would have to play extra carefully, as your char lacks a good weapon/level 5+ spells. For example, my MeNe had to do some shadow-form tricks to get the serpentine rune, because my main spell at this point was Stone Arrow.
So there are really two reasons to dive S-branches: you are either strong enough to deal with the rune vault guards, and then you can use the remaining time to explore the rest of the branch. Or, if your char is a bit weak, you would need all the Zot time to slowly and methodically fight your way to the rune.
Finding rPois was its own quest. Because I did Orc after S-branches, there was less chance to find it in a shop or get it from orcs. A few of my chars went into S-branches without rPois, and everyone knows that it’s an unwinnable situation :).
Rune branches had an insidious enemy - exploration shafts. Suppose you already got the rune and just exploring S:1 to burn the rest of your Zot timer. You have 100 decaauts left and then you suddenly fall two floors down! This is a DCSS equivalent of a jump scare.
Portal branches were a bit of a problem for Meteorans: 600 decaauts is not enough to fully clear some of them. You need to get creative to get the most out of portals.
After S-branches, I usually checked Orc shops and cleared Elf. The E:3 loot pile has enough spell books to prepare you for the Vaults, Depths, and Zot. But DCSS wouldn’t be DCSS if it had no surprises. My MeBr spent almost all Zot time searching for a downstairs on E:1, but couldn’t find one.
I used a similar strategy for the Vaults: dived to V:5 and spent all my Zot time there. At this point, my Meteorans were more than ready for Zot, so I just dived the Depths and Zot. Manual exploration is slower than autoexploring, but skipping floors allowed to keep my 3 rune games inside the usual 3-4 hours range.
Meteorans are pretty versatile: casters felt the strongest, because of the AoE spells, but melee chars were fine too. And you could easily turn any char into a blaster mage if you focus on magic somewhere around Lair. For example, my MeAK started as a pure melee char, furiously tabbing with an elec hand axe, but later turned into a full-time mage, casting Fridge more than 1500 times.
Meteorans glow, which not only prevents invisibility, but also acts as Corona - an accuracy bonus for monsters. This makes lightly armoured chars a bit extra fragile early on, but the +20% HP, good Fighting apt, and +2 XP apt were enough to compensate that.
I won MeMo and MeHs as ranged chars, but there was a catch. A plain sling or shortbow are terrible weapons, and you don’t have many scrolls to enchant and brand your weapon, especially early on. So unless you got an artefact or a well-enchanted weapon, the best option to play as a ranged char is to start with some other weapon and switch to ranged in the mid-game. Hexslingers had another problem - there’s no Jinxbite in 0.30! A sling is painfully slow at low skill, and Meteorans have only +1 Ranged apt.
My main gods were Ash, Veh, and Oka. Trog was also fine, but playing Meteorans without Apportation and Passwall is a bit sad. A Dith-worshipping MeAE was my only kinda stealthy char who didn’t immediately woke up everyone. Also, Dith’s Shadow Form was the only way for Meteorans to turn invisible:
That Dith char was a pretty memorable game because of the robe of Vines and Harm combo. The char was surprisingly durable, except for a small trouble on Z:5, where I got to 18 HP and was silenced by a clown pie.
Only in my 12th game, MeCK, I remembered that Oka had a healing ability - Duel - since the game didn’t reset your HPs on exit yet. Lugonu’s Enter the Abyss was also amazing for fully restoring HPs and MPs.
A spectre is haunting DCSS; the spectre of time-based scoring.
Unlike in regular turn-count games, doing things like bread-swinging is counterproductive. But Meteorans have their own silly tactics. Since you have a very limited supply of time, you have to avoid slow actions. If you’re using Statue Form, you need to untransform after each fight (it was a fast action in the pre-talisman times). Similarly, you have to avoid walking through shallow water if you don’t want your Zot clock to tick 60% faster. This is noticeable only in watery S-branches, but you need to keep that in mind anyway.
I have mixed feelings about Meteorans: on one hand, they are exceptionally strong, on the other, this was more manual exploration than I did in like 3-4 years. I autoexplored only 1-3 floors per game, usually after getting a rune or clearing the final vault, when I had some spare Zot time. But the autoexplore was too wasteful on some floors/layouts, and the manual exploration always felt more efficient. Also, I liked that unexplored tiles were a tactical resource.
Meteorans who finished a zig had the same problem as DDs of Jiyva: autoexplore didn’t know that it could wait to restore HPs/MPs. So you had to rest manually, as back in the 0.11 times.
On the other hand, I felt a strong parallel between Zot(N) and Very Hungry status lights, which demand your constant attention. Additionally, you can’t freely travel through the dungeon for shopping, and the inventory management becomes a problem as in the item destruction days. “Do I want to carry a scroll of brand weapon or an rC ring?” This is a bit too intense if you prefer recreational tabbing.
A few words about the final megaprogress game, MeEE of Veh (use crawlmorgue and fuckaibros for the morgue). Earth Elementalist was a strong start and also a perfect match for my only missing custom Me title - Rock Star.
The book near the entrance had Sublimation of Blood, but the game refused to give me any source of regeneration. The first seven trolls didn’t drop a TLA, and an artefact TLA from E:3 was unusable:
Another problem was the absence of AoE spells. Even in S-branches, my main damage spells were Poisonous Vapours and Ignite Poison, a quiet and efficient combo. There were a couple of tricky moments early on, which I solved with immolation.
Immolation allowed me to solve a huge crowd on Lair:3 that were camping a staircase: Kirke and her hogs, Rupert, and a few yaks. The mid-game went pretty smoothly, and later I completed a ziggurat and maxed out Earth, but couldn’t find Shatter.
It was an epic journey full of struggling and memorable moments. I shared my experience on the Roguelikes Discord, and here are a few highlights.
I did not expect that:
- I could find “pockets” of progress even in early versions. Like, 0.12’s prism and battlesphere were original positional magic created in the era of bolt spells
- wining all Sludge Elves would be so hard. These 27 combos took me three months, and I really hope that this species will be reintroduced, so other megaprogress players won’t have to go through them in ancient versions
- I would become a console player for a while, because old WebTiles are so slow
- I would enjoy the food mechanic while playing Felids in 0.11. It was a mini-game: cats could eat raw meat at any time, but non-clean chunks had a chance to make you nauseous. So, you could build up your satiation safely, eating only clean meat, or you could gamble with brown chunks, risking that this would lock your ability to eat for a while. And this small mini-game turned a tedious game mechanic into something fun
- the removal of respawning monsters was the cornerstone supporting most of the simulationism in DCSS. Without the respawns, it became clear that DCSS is not a dungeon simulator, but a tactical roguelike. As a result, a whole bunch of quality-of-life improvements became possible, from the removal of hunger to unlimited inventory
- DDs and Meteorans were so strong and easy to play. The final part of megaprogress was a blast
- the “stone soup” development model would work in a long run. Playing though megaprogress allows you to see different eras of the game development more clearly. All these devs had different goals and priorities, but somehow this translated into a surprisingly steady and constant progress. Things like the unrewarding Abyss do happen, but they don’t stay for too long
- and I certainly didn’t not expect to win all these combos when I started playing online in 2015 :)
But the hardest part of megaprogress was being unable to play trunk. I missed a few epic bugs, like undead being able to worship good gods (for example, see sekai’s Purifying Revenant), and I couldn’t help by finding bugs and by giving feedback for the new features. Instead I had to relive bugs I personally helped to fix, like having these omnipresent angry tiles:
Although, being able to immediately tell if a Lair floor has a Slime entrance was pretty useful :) (due to a bug, a floor with acid walls had no wall shadows). Playing the game is one thing, but participating in the development makes your overall experience so much better!
Thanks to the devs and contributors, server admins, and fellow o-tabbers for everything, and particularly to rypofalem for setting up Sequell commands. A special thanks to everyone who spectated the final megaprogress game and to those who read these Tavern posts! I still have unplayed combos - a whole bunch of Gale Centaurs - and it’ll be interesting to get back into trunk. I’ve heard the devs added a thing or two during my 14-month absence :). So stay tuned!
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