I played DCSS as a casual alot of times in the last years, but I never went too far and usually played a troll monk with no strategy in mind. This time I want to be a little bit more strategic, I’m trying new things and I see that, at least, I reach L2/3.
What I now see is that when i reach S-levels entrance I’ll be stomped in 3 seconds, no way that I survive too long. Last run I was trying a MiFi, artifact axe in one hand, buckler in the other one, using throwings to poke, Qaz as a God (I tried it, first time, I understood that it’s not good for melee fighters), I reached L2 (or 3) and entered spider. Cleared 1st floor with alot of effort and some lucky shoot, insta killed in 2nd floor.
I know that is boring, but someone can give me some tips&tricks to play better?
At the moment I’m trying fighter background with this strategy:
I have a 1h melee weapon and sometime a ranged one in the “a-b” switch slots
I understood only in my last game that throwing weapon are a thing and can be used in alot of situation
I try to don’t use potions or scroll till I’m in danger (10% HP)
My “strategy” atm is to explore with the “o”, attack everything, use stairs to manage difficult situations with too many enemies, use potions and scroll only when near 10% hp.
I think that this “strategy” is too much straight forward and it works only in D and L levels, maybe with your suggestion I can improve myself!
Firstly, Quaz is actually good on melee+shield fighters. You just need high Invocation aptitude for Quaz to be good, +2 or +3 is ideal. Minotaur’s +0 is a bit low, but can still be made to work if you want.
Secondly, Do try to use consumables before your hp gets below 10%. When your hp is at 10%, often the only way to reliable not die is ?blink, or even 2 ?blink scrolls. In fact, you can semi-regularly die in one turn from even 30% hp, depending on the situation. !might, !beserk, !haste, ?fear, etc etc are all more powerful if you use them whilst you still have more of your hp remaining.
Using consumables before a fight, especially if you’re anticipating one, like at the entrance of an S-branch is important. Also, you should clear Lair:5 and Dungeon up to around 12 before you step foot in either of the S-branches.
Don’t forget about the most useful resistances for each branch (mostly rPois around Lair and its branches), and you can also check out the Crawl Wiki for strategies in each branch and character guides.
Don’t do this. If an enemy appears in red or yellow text and you don’t know what it does, then look it up (by pressing x; then press = until the cursor is highlighting the enemy you want to look at; then press v). It might be too much to handle, and running away is fine. This is especially the case for named enemies aka uniques, such as Grinder and Harold.
With enemies you want to fight, it’s a good idea to get into the habit of moving back towards a cleared area and taking the enemy with you. Fights make noise and noise attracts more enemies, and you can quickly find yourself surrounded, which is deadly. All this goes double for Qazlal because being noisy is the god’s thing.
Throwing is good and wands (Evocations) are also good, so it’s a decent idea to train a bit of both once you have the items.
A recent thread here had some advice that I’ll repeat for you, particularly because in your situation it might really help: use consumables whenever you think you might need them, instead of saving them until later, since “later” often means “dead” in DCSS.
In your case, you’re still trying to get acquainted with what I think of as the early part of the game, the pre-rune part, and the best way to do that is to live through it. A key to doing that is to use everything you’ve got so that a) you learn where it can help in the parts you’re familiar with (D1-11 or so, L1-3) and b) you learn where it stops being as effective. Learning what happens when you use a potion of berserk rage is much easier on an easy level when you can go through the entire rage-exhaust-recover sequence and survive than if you use it too late and die.
Wands are consumables also and fall into the same pattern: for example, that wand of flame probably works great against weaker enemies at a distance and some enemies standing in water but not so well once you get to the tougher enemies, so saving it until late in your run isn’t doing you any favors.
I’m a bit farther on the path than you but not terribly so: I’ve seen the Orb once before and had a few runs where I’ve collected three runes, but I also frequently die before I get that far, and I’ve never actually got the Orb, much less won. In most of my deaths, I can look back and see one of two things: either I should have used more of my items, or I put my head down and attacked an enemy in a situation where avoidance or outright fleeing was a better choice. (Sometimes it’s just bad luck and that can’t be helped.) So I can definitely vouch for using more consumables and not fighting everything you meet! (You can always go back later when you’re stronger and knock out those tough uniques.)
Also, axes are pretty cool, but the fact that you can hit everything around you with one swing doesn’t necessarily mean you should try to do it every chance you get. There are plenty of situations where it’s better to take on enemies in smaller numbers or even one at a time. (And if you haven’t already figured it out, you’re going to need a specific type of axe - an axe of flaming - to fight hydras, either that or use a blunt weapon, because even a weak hydra can become surprisingly strong if you let it grow a bunch of heads.)
Good luck! I hope you make it a bit farther and learn about a bunch of other ways you can die … it can be kind of frustrating at times to get stuck in the same place over and over, but it does feel pretty good to finally put a good build together and reach uncharted territory.
First of all: thanks everyone for the support.
Today I reached the Lair again, died by mistake, but I’m really enjoying some new things that I never used before (as wands, for example).
A simple question: as a Mifi, is correct to wear the biggest armor you find, even if it has high encumberance?
Do not slack on EV; it’s an extra damage check that the enemy attacks need to pass. While stealth can be put off for a bit, it’s still really useful for moving towards enemies with ranged weapons or spells. I would suggest putting on the armour with the highest arm stat (unless you have better brands on another, lighter set), but you might not want to put on crystal plate armour if it’ll put your EV into the negative. You can train the Armour skill to reduce these penalties, and Strength helps too.
Two noob questions:
1- is there a way to remove the annoying “-more-” in the log chat?
2- is there a key to pop-up the log window and allow me to read everything?
Harm is very controversial. Imo, if your outgoing damage is good and your defensive stats are high (Especially EV, maybe train Evasion), it’s probably worth it. Also, have you found a shield?
Having a shield is almost always worth it – it’s another defensive stat, after all – but your EV is lacking, so I’d recommend equipping something that either increases your Dex, or increases your Str if you’re really encumbered. If you add a morgue file, you can show your build much more easily btw.
