The ROGUE-guide
Anders Wennerberg
here are some facts I have gathered, thanks to many different persons
that should be mentioned but I have been lazy..., sorry about it.
However, most of the facts come from Mark Jackson.
I guess some of the facts might be considered as spoilers, just as a
small warning. All facts might not 100% correct; further, your version
may vary.
Have a good time playing Rogue.
/Anders
B __________________________________________________
| Anders Wennerberg | The normal disclaimer... .->-.
/o_ Karolinska Institutet | Tel: +46 (0)8 7286814 `-<-'
| _)MBB, Medical Biophysics | Fax: +46 (0)8 326505
\o S-171 77 STOCKHOLM | E-mail: a...@mef.ki.se Transmitted on
| Sweden 100% recycled
B "Var redo" "Alltid redo" electrons
"Be prepared" "Always prepared"
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I have a copy of PC Rogue which is quite good... save and restore work,
for example. The title screen says:
Rogue: The Adventure Game
The game of Rogue was originated by:
Michael C. Toy
and
Kenneth C.R.C. Arnold
Adapted for the IBM PC by:
Jon Lane
Significant Design Contributions by:
Glenn Wichman and Scores of Others
********************
Public Domain Software -1984
Not to be Sold
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THE SCROLLS
Scroll name Message/Effect
Vorpalize weapon Your weapon gives off a flash of intense white light
Extra enchantment & attunes to a random monster.
Enchant weapon Your weapon glows blue for a moment
Weapon goes up one hit point (also removes curse)
Enchant armor Your armor glows faintly for a moment
Armor class goes up one notch (also removes curse)
Monster confusion Your hands begin to glow red
Hitting monster makes him confused
Aggravate monster You hear a high pitched humming noise
Causes monsters to seek and attack you
Remove curse You feel as if somebody is watching over you
Removes curses from items you're using
Magic mapping This scroll has a map on it
Completes the map for entire level
Hold monster You hear a faint cry of anguish in the distance
Freezes all monsters in room
Scare monster You hear maniacal laughter in the distance
Drop & stand on it. None will attack
Identify This scroll is an identify scroll
Allows/Forces you to identify any item you carry
Sleep You fall asleep
Briefly puts you to sleep so monsters may find you
Teleportation As you read the scroll, it vanishes (standard)
You teleport to another location & get confused
Create monster As you read the scroll, it vanishes (standard)
New monster appears in adjacent square
Food detection Your nose tingles as you sense food
Food on your level will be highlighted
Blank paper There is nothing on it to read
Does nothing
THE POTIONS
Potion name Message/Effect
Confusion Wait, what's going on? Huh? What? Who?
You become confused, can't control your movement
Paralysis You can't move
You stay frozen momentarily (can use as weapon)
See invisible This potion tastes like slime mold juice
You see invisible phantoms if nearby
Raise level You suddenly feel much more skillful
Rank goes up one (save for later/harder ranks)
Magic detection You sense the presence of magic
Magical items on current level are highlighted
Monster detection No message displayed
All monsters on a level are briefly highlighted
Gain strength You feel stronger. What bulging muscles!
Strength goes up 1 point
Restore strength Hey! this tastes great! You feel warm all over
Restores strength to current maximum
Extra healing You begin to feel much better
Restores many hit points
Healing You feel better
Restores a few hit points
Poison You feel sick
Strength goes down some
Haste self You feel yourself moving much faster
Increases your ability to damage/avoid monsters
Blindness A cloak of darkness falls around you
Makes everything dark/invisible (heal potion fixes)
Quench thirst This potion has an extremely dull taste
Does nothing
THE RINGS
Ring name Effect
Aggravate monster Causes monsters to seek and attack you (cursed)
Maintain armor Protects armor from Aquator attacks
Sustain strength Protects strength from Rattlesnake attacks
See invisible Causes Phantoms to be visible
Slow digestion Digests your food more slowly. Requires less eating
Teleportation Changes your location randomly (cursed)
Increase damage Raises or lowers damage you do depending on +/-
Dexterity Raises or lowers dexterity depending on +/- value
Add strength Raises or lowers strength depending on +/- value
Protection Raises or lowers armor class depending on +/- value
Regeneration Recovers lost hit points much faster
Searching Hidden objects (traps/doors) easier to locate
Stealth Keeps sleeping monsters asleep as you walk by
Adornment Does nothing
THE STAFFS
Staff name Effect
Drain life Divides hits between all in room (including you)
Light Lights up a dark room
Cancellation Cancels out a monsters special power
Haste monster Causes a monster to speed up
Slow monster Causes a monster to slow down
Teleport away Causes a monster to be teleported away from you
Teleport to Teleports monster in direct line of sight to a square
directly adjacent to you.
Lightning Shoots a bolt of lightning
Polymorph Changes one monster into another (maybe worse)
Magic Missle Fires a magic missle at a monster (medium light blow)
Striking Strikes a monster (heavy blow)
Fire Shoots a bolt of flame (usually misses)
Cold Shoots a sheet of ice (randomly freezes monster)
Nothing Does nothing
OTHER GALACTIC STUFF
Amulet is available for the first time on level 26. Once it is seen, if it is
dropped or not picked up, it is lost forever.
Every item you pick up in Rogue is worth something. If you are on your way out,
your score will increase if you drop all items of lesser value like scrolls,
potions and food, and try to replace them with items of greater value like
rings and staffs. Remember that not all magical items are greater magic. For
instance, the staff of drain life is fine if you are attacking one weak
creature like a nymph, but if several monsters are in the room, especially
several powerful ones, it becomes useless. Likewise, while the Potions of
blindness, confusion, and paralysis can be thrown at monsters, their effects
are usually minimal, so if you don't have enough room for them in your pack,
dump them at the first opportunity.
Once a scare monster scroll is dropped, it will be destroyed when you try to
pick it up again, so use it only in life or death situations. You can use it
again by grabbing all you can hold and then standing on it again. You will not
be able to pick it up, but it will protect you again for as long as you stand
on it.
Most scrolls can be identified by the message you get when you read them. Some
will not display this message in certain circumstances. For instance, if you
read the food detection scroll when no food is available on your current level,
it will merely vanish. The same applies to the hold monster scroll when no
monsters are in the room. For this reason, and because some of the scrolls are
much to valuable to waste until they are needed, it is often wise to use an
identify scroll when possible.
Only use one Vorpalize scroll per weapon. Vorpalizing the same weapon twice
will overcharge & destroy it. If you find more than one Vorpalize scroll, use
the second on your bow. It vastly increases the damage done by the arrows. A
Vorpalized weapon is attuned to a random monster. Using the identify scroll,
you can find out which monster, or if you simply wield the weapon, it will give
off an intense flash when you're attacked by that particular monster. You can
use the Vorpalized weapon to Zap and instantly kill that monster, but this
magic only works once.
Many monsters have special powers. The Rattlesnake can drain your strength, the
Aquator can deplete your armor (but not damage you physically, so it is often
most wise to remove your armor while traveling in levels 10 to 15), Medusa's
gaze has the same effect as a confusion spell, Ice monsters throw balls of ice
and Dragons breathe flame. Some of these special powers can be countered with
magical rings, but some, like the Vampire who saps your vitality, can't. There
are the obvious ways of dealing with enemies like this, with a telport staff, a
polymorph staff, a scare monster scroll, but the optimum method is with a staff
of cancellation that will cancel out their special power. This is because the
scare monster scroll is too valuable in a massive attack, the polymorph
sometimes takes you out of the frying pan and dumps you neatly into the fire,
and the teleport staff only gets rid of them till they catch up with you
later.
To gain the best advantage of magical items, gather as much as you can and save
the game. At this point, copy a spare saved game onto another disk. Restore the
saved game and identify all items. Potions can usually be identified by using
the Quaff command. Scrolls can be identified either by paying close attention
to the message that is displayed when reading it and matching it to the scroll
table previously listed in this document or by using an identify scroll on
them. Rings, weapons and most staffs must be identified with an identify
scroll. Armor can be identified by wearing it. Identify as much as you can and
write it down on paper. Quit the game and either use a restoring utility like
Norton's or copy the copy you made when you originally saved the game back onto
the master disk. Restore the saved game and use the Call command to name
everything you have identified. Drop items known to be useless like cursed
weapons and armor, then save the game and repeat this procedure until
everything you have has been identified. You will usually end up with more than
you can carry when using this method, so be very careful about what items you
keep. Throw away items of marginal use like the poison or confusion potions and
get rid of anything completely useless like the create monster scroll or staff
of haste monster. Keep items of possible future use like the ring of
teleportation (you may find a remove curse scroll) as long as possible, as they
become very valuable when you are running from the really powerful creatures
like the griffins.
CHEATS
DEALING WITH THE MONSTERS
The monster sectors are 245 & 246 on the disk, they are 13 & 14 relative to the
ROGUE.SAV file. After each monster, is the relative hit damage it can do to
you. For instance, the 0d0/0d0 after the Aquator indicates that it is a medium
level monster that is found starting around level 10 and not seen much higher
than level 15. You can tell that it's a medium level monster because there are
two sets of numbers. The high level monsters have 3 sets of numbers and the low
level ones have 1 set. The 0's mean that the Aquator's hits do you no physical
damage. The number after the hobgoblin is 1d8, which means that it can do up to
8 points of damage per hit. The series of numbers following the griffin is
4d3/3d5/4d3. I'm not sure how this is figured, but I assume it means that the
griffin (if it hits you) does a minimum of 11 damage points and a maximum of 22
per hit. As you can see, this is a very bad character. However, he can be made
somewhat less than bad by changing that first 4d3 to a 0d0 and following it
with 8 pairs of hex 0's. This won't make him easier to damage because it seems
to take about the same number of hits to destroy all the monsters, but it will
certainly make his hits less devastating to you.
THE HIGH SCORE SECTOR
The high score sector is 231 on the disk, it is of course, relative sector 1 to
the ROGUE.SCR file. There are 10 records. Up to 23 bytes are allowed for a
name, and everything else is stored relative to the end of the name. For
instance, the 27th byte after the end of the name is your final rank. The 30th
and 31st bytes relative to the end of the name indicate how much gold you ended
up with (in other words, your score). These two bytes are stored in a
hexidecimal LSB/MSB format. The 32nd relative byte indicates whether you were
killed in the maze and whether you died with honors (found the amulet).
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Your character name is stored toward the end of sector 231 on the disk, sector
1 relative to the ROGUE.SCR file. It is stored in ASCII and can be overwritten
with any utility that allows you to make ASCII changes to the sector. Personal
information about your character is stored in sector 292 on the disk, or sector
60 relative to the ROGUE.SAV file. You can raise your hit or strength points
briefly by raising the appropriate numbers, but the program retains them
elsewhere so they revert to normal whenever the program makes a change in their
status. I'm trying to find out where else they are stored, but have had no
success so far because they are not in an ASCII format.
NOTE: When I refer to a sector being somewhere "on the disk", I am of course,
referring to where the file is on my own disk. Use Norton utilities to find
where the file resides on your disk and then use the sector number relative to
the file to find the sector you need.
Hints provided by Stephen King, 10300 Magnolia Ave. Riverside, CA. 92505
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MONSTER LIST
A-Aquator J-Jabberwock S-Snake
B-Bat K-Kestral T-Troll
C-Centaur L-Leprachaun U-Ur-vile
D-Dragon M-Medusa V-Vampire
E-Emu N-Nymph W-Wraith
F-Venus Flytrap O-Orc X-Xeroc
G-Griffin P-Phanton Y-Yeti
H-Hobgoblin Q-Quagga Z-Zombie
I-Ice Monster R-Rattlesnake
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DIFFERENT KINDS OF INFORMATIONS
In the version I played, there were two types of magical items, good and
bad. The good ones showed up as a dollar sign '$' and the bad ones
showed up as a plus sign '+'. So just rename the bad rings as bad and
forget them...identify the good ones.
Vorpalized a bow? Arrows in PC Version. Most of the arrows got destroyed, and
you still only had one zap.
For completeness, I'll point out that a dagger is 1d6 if wielded (1d4 is
when it's thrown) and a spear is 2d3/1d6.
A mace is 2d4, a long sword 3d4 and a two-handed sword 4d4. So an
average basic hit from a mace is 5, from a long sword 7.5, and from a
two-handed sword 10. In this sense a two-handed sword is equivalent
to a +5 mace, but the distribution of damage will be different (the +5
mace scores will tend to be less variable).
The chance of hitting doesn't seem to depend on the weapon type. It
varies with experience level, strength (slightly) and opponent's
armour class.
Drink them all as soon as you find them, at full hit points of course, for
the permanent hit point increase. Same with gain strength and restore
You'd want to save one potion of healing in case of a potion of blindness,
though.
????? You can dig new tunnels by applying a pickaxe where there is currently no
tunnel when you are locked in. Probadly not in PC-version.
The manifestations of the wild magic scroll. Probadly not in PC-version?
Sometimes it overwhelms you, and drags you down to the next level.
Additionally, sometimes it....
...strews the contents of your pack all over the level you read it on.
...identifies everything in your pack.
...kills all the monsters on that level.
...enchants everything you are wearing/wielding.
Some monsters are slow; you get two actions to their one. So... hit, and
then step back. They use their attack to get close to you... hit, and
step back... they don't get a chance to land a blow.
And then there's hit-hit-hit-run_away... This is what mazes, especially
those with multiple closed loops, are good for. You can defeat a troll
by retreating into a maze (in case he doesn't follow); or finding a fairly
tight closed loop (small so you don't find wandering monsters
blocking your way) and then hit/get hurt/run away to recover hp/hit
until the troll dies or you do (normally of boredom)....
The Art of Rogue lies in knowing _when_ and _how_ to run away....
Use "rogue/r" to restore a game that was saved to rogue.sav
You should also be able to say "rogue savefilename" if you saved
to a different file.
the Wizard's password
(<Ctrl-Z>?)
or
bathtub
or
friends
or
Qty 2
type the Wizard's password?
In the PC-Clone PD version, I think it's control-P
Make each ration last as long as you can. When you eat a ration, you
are fine for a while (2000 turns, I think), then you get hungry (for about
500 turns?), and then you faint. Don't eat anything til you've fainted at
least once. Of course, use common sense here. If a big nasty is chasing
you and you are about to faint, it is wise to eat a ration on the run.
Fainting for even three turns could kill you.
You're guaranteed that there will be at least one food every 4 levels.
Just an additional comment - in my version of Rogue wearing rings causes
you to use up food faster (except for slow digestion) I find that I can't
leave rings on for an extended period of time unless I have managed to
stockpile some food first!
Start the game with -r option ( ROGUE -R ) if you saved it with the
default name, rogue.sav. Or, ROGUE savefile ( "savefile" is the name you
saved ) will do.
If you WANT a monster in a room to wake up, you can "slam the door" by
leaving the doorway and entering again. This helps if the room is
dark and you don't want to wander into the middle of a bunch of monsters
(but you're willing to take them on at the doorway).
If you quit the game, you get out with all of your gold
intact. If, however, you get killed in the Dungeons of
Doom, your body is forwarded to your next-of-kin, along with
90% of your gold; ten percent of your gold is kept by the
Dungeons' wizard as a fee[6]. This should make you consider
whether you want to take one last hit at that monster and
possibly live, or quit and thus stop with whatever you have.
If you quit, you do get all your gold, but if you swing and
live, you might find more.
[6] The Dungeon's wizard is named Wally the Wonder Badg-
er. Invocations should be accompanied by a sizable dona-
tion.
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The Roguelet's ABC from G. L. Sicherman (g...@cnvnja.jazz.att.com)
B Flitter flutter in the air,
How I wonder why you're there!
Chasing bats is not much fun--
The worst is when you're killed by one.
--The Roguelet's ABC
E Think again before you try
To impale a FLOATING EYE.
If you miss one with your sword,
You may soon be very bored.
--The Roguelet's ABC
U There's a U - a unicorn!
Run right up and rub its horn.
Look at all those points you're losing!
UMBER HULKS are so confusing.
--The Roguelet's ABC
T One big monster, he called TROLL.
He don't rock and he don't roll,
Drink no wine and smoke no stogies;
He just Love To Eat Them Roguies.
--The Roguelet's ABC
F: When into a room I plunge, I
Sometimes find some VIOLET FUNGI.
Then I linger, darkly brooding
On the poison they're exuding.
-- The Roguelet's ABC
H: If a 'GOBLIN (HOB) waylays you,
Slice him up before he slays you.
Nothing makes you look a slob
Like running from a HOB'LIN (GOB).
-- The Roguelet's ABC
K: Cobalt's metal, hard and shining;
Cobol's wordy and confining;
KOBOLDS topple when you strike them;
Don't feel bad, it's hard to like them.
-- The Roguelet's ABC
T: One big monster, he called TROLL.
He don't rock, and he don't roll;
Drink no wine, and smoke no stogies.
He just Love To Eat Them Roguies.
-- The Roguelet's ABC
U: There's a U -- a Unicorn!
Run right up and rub its horn.
Look at all those points you're losing!
UMBER HULKS are so confusing.
-- The Roguelet's ABC
L See the funny little man,
Try and catch him if you can.
Quickly now! That's too slow--
Where did all your money go?
--The Roguelet's ABC
Chris Camfield
in fact do this? I always figured that when they freeze you, they
are grabbing you in their icy hands, something like that... (I've only
been frozen while adjacent.)
Chris
--
Christopher Camfield (ccam...@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca)
"Wherever we set foot, we tread upon some bit of history" (Cicero)
"Oh Sweetwater, sometimes it feels like ancient Rome..." (The JBC)
"Here's looking at you, kid." (Rick Blaine in Casablanca)