[S] Advice for first Ascension Run? [Spoilers]
ehle
lvl 30 gnome wizard who has gotten to the bottom and found the
vibrating square.
Before I wake Rodney, I wanted to see if there is any last minute
advice I can glean from the demi-gods.
Vindalo the Mage St:18/50 Dx:23 Co:24 In:24 Wi:23 Ch:18
Neutral
Dlvl:47 $:0 HP:511(511) Pw:697(698) AC:-42 Xp:30/1198578 Wt:1012/1000
T:140879
All resistances (except drain/stoning), reflective,all controls,
stealth, invis (see below)
Spellbook includes MM, FB, Jumping, Confuse Monster, Finger of Death,
Cone of Cold, Magic Mapping, Detect Monster/Treasure/Food, Remove
Curse, Polymorph, Charm Monster, Cancellation, and oodles of others.
Primary attack is MM. Primary Weapon is MagicBane +2.
SDSM, EoA, helm of Brilliance, cloak of MR, Speed boots, gauntlets of
Dex., all blessed/greased/fooproofed.
Hand of Vecna
Rings of about everthing including slow digestion, conflict,
levitation, free action.
+5 blessed Uni horn.
blessed/greased Wallet of Perseus
oilskin sack w/ holy water and blessed scrolls of remove curse.
3 magic markers
blessed luckstone
1 magic lamp
1 wand of wishing with 2 charges left.
too many scrolls and potions, including genocide, level up (blessed
and cursed)
8 C rations
4 lembas wafers
Vanity tins. (medusa)
Lots (too many) pets including an Archon, several deva, angel, 2 star
Vampires, 2 basilisks, 3 purple worms
You are the Envoy of Balance.
You are piously aligned.
You are fire resistant.
You are cold resistant.
You are sleep resistant.
You are disintegration-resistant.
You are shock resistant.
You are poison resistant.
You are magic-protected.
You can recognize detrimental food.
You see invisible.
You are telepathic.
You are warned.
You have infravision.
You are sensing the presence of monsters.
You are invisible to others.
You are stealthy.
You can teleport.
You have teleport control.
You have slower digestion.
You regenerate.
You are protected.
You are very fast.
You have reflection.
You are extremely lucky.
You have extra luck.
Good luck does not time out for you.
You have extra health.
You can not safely pray.
So is there anything I'm missing? Anything I should do to increase my
odds?
Many thanks in advance!
rose....@googlemail.com
> Hello folks - after 25 years of off and on again nethack, I've got a
> lvl 30 gnome wizard who has gotten to the bottom and found the
> vibrating square.
well done! I wish you the best of luck, hopefully a YAFAP is not far
off...
> Before I wake Rodney, I wanted to see if there is any last minute
> advice I can glean from the demi-gods.
I'll try my best...
> Vindalo the Mage St:18/50 Dx:23 Co:24 In:24 Wi:23 Ch:18
> Neutral
> Dlvl:47 $:0 HP:511(511) Pw:697(698) AC:-42 Xp:30/1198578 Wt:1012/1000
> T:140879
this all looks fine, way more than my first ascension (if I recall
correctly, -25is AC and 200HP?)
> Primary attack is MM. Primary Weapon is MagicBane +2.
I don't know how spoiled you want to be, but that magic missile attack
may well become harder to rely on once you have the amulet, save it
for the harder monsters and whack the rest with Magicbane would be my
advice. However, this shouldn't be a problem!
> oilskin sack w/ holy water and blessed scrolls of remove curse.
I don't know how many you have, but I usually keep one holy water in
my sack and about 10 - 15 in my BoH for the ascension run, it's better
to have it and not use it than wish you had more!
> 1 magic lamp
> 1 wand of wishing with 2 charges left.
> too many scrolls and potions, including genocide, level up (blessed
> and cursed)
magic lamp should be used as a light source unless you really need the
wish, if I was you I would have four noncursed scrolls of gold
detection and a couple extra wands of digging stashed safely away for
the levels above Dlvl 1, plus a way to get confused reliably
(forgotten spell, potions)
> 8 C rations
> 4 lembas wafers
I'd be carrying about 15-20 C or K rations, but again, it's just my
way of playing. You can always pick some up on the way back through
the Castle if you need to.
> So is there anything I'm missing? Anything I should do to increase my
> odds?
it all looks good to me, the comments I've made are just based on my
way of playing safe rather than sorry. The only other things I can
think of are the more wands of teleportation you can get, the better!
Also, you made no mention of candles, have you got some? If not, you
may like to get a specific amount now, before killing Rodney.
Again, all the best of luck, and sorry if I've been a bit vague but I
don't like spoiling people too much! If you need any more info, please
ask.
cheers,
Joe
Natso
> > Vindalo the Mage St:18/50 Dx:23 Co:24 In:24 Wi:23 Ch:18
> > Neutral
> > Dlvl:47 $:0 HP:511(511) Pw:697(698) AC:-42 Xp:30/1198578 Wt:1012/1000
> > T:140879
>
> this all looks fine, way more than my first ascension (if I recall
> correctly, -25is AC and 200HP?)
-25 AC is a decent amount of AC for a competant player (not having to
rely on AC is far better than having a lot of AC and relying on it...
a lot). Just don't get overconfident with your HP... You may want to
have one or two full healings in your main inventory once you get near
the end of the game.
> > Primary attack is MM. Primary Weapon is MagicBane +2.
>
> I don't know how spoiled you want to be, but that magic missile attack
> may well become harder to rely on once you have the amulet, save it
> for the harder monsters and whack the rest with Magicbane would be my
> advice. However, this shouldn't be a problem!
One thing I always had a problem with was that... the goal of the game
isn't to kill all the monsters. The goal is to survive and win,
however necessary. On your final run, you may find it a lot easier to
ignore most monsters, or just not waste time killing the insignificant
ones at least. Goofing up in combat will likely be one of the biggest
problems during the run, or even after you wake Rodney.
>
> > oilskin sack w/ holy water and blessed scrolls of remove curse.
>
> I don't know how many you have, but I usually keep one holy water in
> my sack and about 10 - 15 in my BoH for the ascension run, it's better
> to have it and not use it than wish you had more!
I agree with everything he said about holy water. B?oRC are always
nice to have too... just remember you don't *need* to use them as soon
as your inventory gets cursed (usually), so be prudent about using
your survival resources during your run: don't risk dieing by waiting
before drinking the !oFullHeal, but don't use your holy water every
time a problem comes up, etc, you'll be fine.
>
> > 1 magic lamp
> > 1 wand of wishing with 2 charges left.
> > too many scrolls and potions, including genocide, level up (blessed
> > and cursed)
>
> magic lamp should be used as a light source unless you really need the
> wish, if I was you I would have four noncursed scrolls of gold
> detection and a couple extra wands of digging stashed safely away for
> the levels above Dlvl 1, plus a way to get confused reliably
> (forgotten spell, potions)
Always! Lit magic lamp is a staple part of my kit; quite more
valuable than the wish inside (usually). Wands of digging will be
useful too, as will the ?oGD, if you know how to use them properly.
I've managed to get by with blank scrolls and a marker before, and
wrote them after I waste enough time...
>
> > 8 C rations
> > 4 lembas wafers
>
> I'd be carrying about 15-20 C or K rations, but again, it's just my
> way of playing. You can always pick some up on the way back through
> the Castle if you need to.
If you have slow digestion, that should more than enough food. Just
stay sharp, and avoid making choices that will make you unnecessarily
hungrier.
>
> > So is there anything I'm missing? Anything I should do to increase my
> > odds?
>
> it all looks good to me, the comments I've made are just based on my
> way of playing safe rather than sorry. The only other things I can
> think of are the more wands of teleportation you can get, the better!
> Also, you made no mention of candles, have you got some? If not, you
> may like to get a specific amount now, before killing Rodney.
>
Just a word about the wands of teleportation... they are an absolute
godsend. If your luck ends up horrible, you'll need a lot of them.
Wands of death are nice too, but the wands of teleportation have a
notable amount of little side effects that end up working in your
favor. If you're anything like I am, you toss all the wands you find
into your bag and never throw anything away... you probable have more
than enough wands to get you through the rest of the game.
A last note: make sure you aren't burdened!
Best of luck!
- Natso
Jistan Idiot
> Hello folks - after 25 years of off and on again nethack, I've got a
> lvl 30 gnome wizard who has gotten to the bottom and found the
> vibrating square.
>
> Before I wake Rodney, I wanted to see if there is any last minute
> advice I can glean from the demi-gods.
>
> Vindalo the Mage St:18/50 Dx:23 Co:24 In:24 Wi:23 Ch:18
> Neutral
> Dlvl:47 $:0 HP:511(511) Pw:697(698) AC:-42 Xp:30/1198578 Wt:1012/1000
> T:140879
>
Looks good to me!
> Primary attack is MM. Primary Weapon is MagicBane +2.
> SDSM, EoA, helm of Brilliance, cloak of MR, Speed boots, gauntlets of
> Dex., all blessed/greased/fooproofed.
>
I'd suggest finding the boots of levitation and boots of water
walking. Enchant and fireproof them. Levitation will be essential on
Air. Fireproof waterwalkers lets you cross lava on Fire although
levitation lets you do the same. I personally like to walk along the
ground to easily pick up that /oWishing that gets dropped by some
random monster on the Astral plane.
> Hand of Vecna
>
> Rings of about everthing including slow digestion, conflict,
> levitation, free action.
I usually keep conflict and free action on. Whatever you do, do NOT
take off free action.
> +5 blessed Uni horn.
> blessed/greased Wallet of Perseus
What the heck is a Wallet of Perseus???
> oilskin sack w/ holy water and blessed scrolls of remove curse.
Magicbane really does the job. These will probably not be necessary.
> 3 magic markers
> blessed luckstone
> 1 magic lamp
> 1 wand of wishing with 2 charges left.
>
I'd save one charge on the wand for a dire emergency. The other one
you might use, but I can't think of anything you really need from your
post.
> too many scrolls and potions, including genocide, level up (blessed
> and cursed)
>
With conflict the hordes that L's summon are pretty much not an
issue. I still like to genocide L, h, ;,R,P in that order (other's
will have different opinions on the last three).
> 8 C rations
> 4 lembas wafers
> Vanity tins. (medusa)
I personally like carrying more food. But this will probably be fine,
especially if you feast on a corpse or two.
> Lots (too many) pets including an Archon, several deva, angel, 2 star
> Vampires, 2 basilisks, 3 purple worms
Oh dear, pets and conflict don't go together. With all these I'd
use conflict sparingly. What's a deva??
> So is there anything I'm missing? Anything I should do to increase my
> odds?
>
I think you're ok. Are you playing vanilla? Some of your things I'm
not familiar with and I only play vanilla.
Good luck and I hope to see your ascension post.
Ray
>> blessed/greased Wallet of Perseus
>
> What the heck is a Wallet of Perseus???
It's an artifact bag of holding that is sometimes available on
the Medusa level.
>> oilskin sack w/ holy water and blessed scrolls of remove curse.
>
> Magicbane really does the job. These will probably not be necessary.
You need something in case your BoH gets cursed. Magicbane means
he's less likely to need it, but being able to lift at least 3-4
curses may still be crucial. Especially since he has no wands of
death. He has to rely on Finger of Death to deal with the biggest
Inventory-curser in the game, and may find himself short of mana.
Bear
Alan Schwartz
>Hello folks - after 25 years of off and on again nethack, I've got a
>lvl 30 gnome wizard who has gotten to the bottom and found the
>vibrating square.
Congrats! I just ascended another Wizard who was very much
equipped like yours in the basics, but didn't have nearly
as much extra stuff. And I had lost my finger of death spellbook,
so I had to rely on MM (and +2 MB) largely.
Styles differ, so unlike the poster who uses free action and
conflict, I rarely use conflict, preferring to use free action
and slow digestion until the planes and then free action and
levitation until the astral, and then free action and regeneration.
Key spells: magic missile, charm monster, remove curse,
finger of death, fireball. You can probably get rid of all
other spellbooks.
I strongly second the motion about the ?oGD, a way to get confused,
and the /oTeleport, and about not being burdened. You can probably ditch
a lot of your other rings. If you can keep your pets with you, especially
the Archon and the purple worms, you'll have a pretty easy run, I expect.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Alan Schwartz |
<ala...@uic.edu> | Life is what happens to
Associate Professor & Director of Research | you while you're busy
Department of Medical Education | making other plans
University of Illinois at Chicago | - J. Lennon
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
ehle
Thank you all for the advice!
A clarification - either the google groups client or the list server
stripped the [S] from the beginning of my subject line which may have
made it unclear that this is SLASH'EM, not real nethack. Wallet of
Perseus is the Artifact Bag of holding in slashem. Deva's are slashem
angelic beings.
Vindalo does have a wand of death (Thanks Orcus!), lots of wands of
digging, and spellbooks of Jumping, Cancellation, Remove Curse,
Polymorph, Digging, Cure sickness, 2 more pages of other spells, and
the magic markers to write a few other spellbooks if needed.
I have 20 wax candles (I figured a few spares can't hurt).
I'll go back to my stash and pick up some more wands of
teleportation. I'm guessing those are for booting monsters you don't
want to mess with out of the way?
I found a neat trick that might be old hat to the list, but was new to
me - many creatures that can't be tamed reliably, can still be
polymorphed. In slashem polymorph is always temporary. When a
polymorphed creature is reduced to 0 HP it reverts to the original
form. I got my pet Archon and several other nasty pets by
polymorphing them, THEN taming, then zapping them till they revert.
The taming still holds and there is not "rumble of thunder" if you
don't really kill it.
Once I wake Rodney, about how often will he show up? Do I have to kill
him/polymorph/stone/sleep him EVERY level? About how many times will
I need to deal with him on the way back up? Is it worth Cancelling him
on a regular basis?
How bad is the mana penalty for spell casting once I have the amulet?
I have 698MP, + the Power Surge technique, is the penalty so bad I'm
really not going to be able to rely on casting for attacks?
I have they EoA as my quest artifact, but its my 3rd form of magic
resistance. I've heard Rodney will try to steal it and use it
himself... a MR Rodney seems pretty dangerous... should I forsake the
increased MR regeneration and put the Eye in my bag rather than risk
Rodney taking it?
Should I periodically use a wand of draining on Rodney to keep his
level manageable? Are there ways to take him out of action that last
longer than killing him, or don't give him a level boost when he comes
back?
I've seen posts where people suggest digging a path from each
staircase all the way up before waking Rodney, is this really worth
doing?
I think in Slash'em teleport is disabled once you have the amulet.
Does that include zapping yourself with a wand? Does it cancel branch
porting with the Eye? Portals?
I have one big stash in one of the branches (Chaotic Level - usually
accessed via Eye Branchport). Should I move some portion of it up to
level 1 so I can restock before going up into the planes?
Several people have mentioned a Ring of Free Action as an essential
part of the AK - I have one, but is there a specific threat/creature
that its needed to counter or is it just a high number of YASD occur
from being frozen/paralyzed?
Does an amulet of flying do ok on the planes or do you need true
levitation? I have a bullwhip for picking up items if levitation is
needed.
If I can scrounge up another saddle, is there a good fast reflective
or Magic Resistant mount that I should consider trying to get? I tried
it a bit earlier, but accidently killed my warhorse because I so often
bounce MMs for the double or triple damage - Creature, wall, creature,
Me, Creature is the intended plan, but I forgot instead of ME the MM
would hit my mount.
I'm a little short on ?oGD, I might write or polypile a few.
I have both water walking and levitation boots, though I hate to give
up speed... Can you jump while levitating? Or is it easier to just
throw gold to zip along?
Sorry about so many questions - I think I'm just being a worry wart,
but after getting this close for the first time in sooooo long I'm
trying to make sure I've dotted all my i's and crossed all my t's.
Don't worry about spoiling me - i got the full satisfaction of playing
unspoiled back with I got my first version of nethack on 5.25" floppy,
before there was any such thing as the internet... I even had to learn
the vi keys by trial and error! Let me tell you back then the whole
game was one big riddle - figuring out what you could do was the
biggest challenge - especially since my copy always threw an error of
some sort and the "dungeon collapsed" well before you could even get
to the castle ;)
Thanks again for the help. Sorry about the delay in responding -
holidays kept we away from the internet and my game for a while.
ehle
One more question -- you can enchant elven armor to +7, can you
enchant elven daggers to +7 (in Slashem).
Thanks!
G-Mon
6bf3-43c8-a4c...@f16g2000yqm.googlegroups.com:
>
> One more question -- you can enchant elven armor to +7, can you
> enchant elven daggers to +7 (in Slashem).
> Thanks!
>
All weapons, elven daggers included, can be safely enchanted to +7.
Ray Kulhanek
> Hello folks - after 25 years of off and on again nethack, I've got a
> lvl 30 gnome wizard who has gotten to the bottom and found the
> vibrating square.
>
> Before I wake Rodney, I wanted to see if there is any last minute
> advice I can glean from the demi-gods.
>
> stealth, invis (see below)
>
> Spellbook includes MM, FB, Jumping, Confuse Monster, Finger of Death,
> Cone of Cold, Magic Mapping, Detect Monster/Treasure/Food, Remove
> Curse, Polymorph, Charm Monster, Cancellation, and oodles of others.
>
> 3 magic markers
> blessed luckstone
> 1 magic lamp
> 1 wand of wishing with 2 charges left.
Save one of the wishes for a rubber chicken if you get in trouble
on Astral. If you run out of power for magic missile (and you quite
possibly will if carrying the amulet), magicbane is a poor melee
choice (although its other properties make up for that).
If you see Rodney, use a finger of death immediately. You'll spend
more resources than that if you give him enough time to summon nasties
or double trouble.
Always carry as much as you can without being burdened, but if you've
got anything in a BoH, make sure you can take the essentials out
without becoming burdened. In particular, food and !full healing can
be heavy if they're in a big stack. For the former, become satiated
before entering the final portal so you'll have a bit of a buffer for
Pestilence and won't have to worry about becoming hungry normally at
all. You can drop all your wands of digging after leaving earth, so
that'll help.
Bring a blank spellbook and a couple of blank scrolls so you can write
anything you decide you need after climbing the stairs. Re-read all
your other spellbooks before waking Rodney in case your memory of any
of them is starting to fade.
> You can not safely pray.
If that's just because you're currently in Gehennom, you're fine, but
if there's still a prayer timeout, sacrifice a few things just in
case.
Inlaw Biker
> Hello folks - after 25 years of off and on again nethack, I've got a
> lvl 30 gnome wizard who has gotten to the bottom and found the
> vibrating square.
>
> Before I wake Rodney, I wanted to see if there is any last minute
> advice I can glean from the demi-gods.
Did you win yet? I can't image you would die at this point except for
insta-death. I have ascended a lot of characters and I have never had
anywhere close to 500 hit points.
Anyhow my advice... the only way to can die now is by insta-death or
by overconfidence.
- Zap wizard with a wand of death instantly. Don't mess around, just
zap him quickly and keep moving.
- On your first ascension don't be ashamed to genocide L's and h's.
- You have never been to the Astral plane... just play defensively.
Don't enter with conflict, and run from the &'s. Lure them to a
corner and run away again so they can't reach you.
- Good ways to blow it at this point: Messing around with cockatrice
corpses; letting a monster with gloves pick one up; kraken, eels and
mind-flayers; fighting while burdened, being hungry, not carrying
blessed 1-bite food items (famine), not having full-healing potions at
the ready. Being hungry/fainting on the air plane is a good way to
die. Going up the stairs without the amulet, offering to the wrong
altar, drowning, and stepping into lava or water are awesome ways to
ruin your day.
- Do you have 4 scrolls of gold detection?
- Lots of digging wands?
For rings, all you need at this point is a ring of slow digestion,
levitation and free action. Put on conflict if you must.
> So is there anything I'm missing? Anything I should do to increase my
> odds?
>
> Many thanks in advance!
Nope, you can do it. Good luck!
Inlaw Biker
I now realize you're playing slash'em (I saw the bag of Purseus in
your list) - I have never ascended Slash'em so my advice may be moot.
Anyway...
> Several people have mentioned a Ring of Free Action as an essential
> part of the AK - I have one, but is there a specific threat/creature
> that its needed to counter or is it just a high number of YASD occur
> from being frozen/paralyzed?
Yes, in my opinion it's the 3nd most important ring in the game,
behind Slow Digestion and Levitation. Levitation is only important in
obvious circumstances and can be taken off when you don't need it, and
can essentially just be discarded once you reach the Astral plane.
Free Action avoids death from combination threats, such as being
frozen or incapacitated while monsters pound on you. All you can do
is press the space bar while your hit points dwindle to zero...
In the early game, other rings are more important. Once you acquire
the various resistances you need you can toss those rings and just put
on the Free Action towards the end game.
David Damerell
[misquote fixed]
>ehle <david...@gmail.com>:
>>Several people have mentioned a Ring of Free Action as an essential
>behind Slow Digestion and Levitation.
What a peculiar list you must have! Levitation (and other effects to
surmount the same problems) is readily available from many sources and
most of the non-ring ones can't be comedically exploded when you've over
lava. Slow Digestion is nice to have but hardly vital... in the early game
before corpse supplies become unfeasibly huge.
--
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
And now, a seemingly inexplicable shot of a passing train.
Today is Gouday, November.
Tomorrow will be Chedday, November.