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Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.4.0
Gruff
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Looks like it's finally out after almost a year since 0.3. The game can be obtained Here.
So, uh, many people here play? Any tips to add?
General Newbie Tips
Character Generation and Development
Race is the most important part of character generation. Race defines your character's skill aptitudes, equipment slots, and special abilities. If you're a new player it's generally recommended to start as a mountain dwarf because they have very high aptitudes for most of their available classes, making them easier to get off the ground.
Classes are dynamic based upon skill use. The class you choose at generation is more like a starter kit, giving your character some basic skills and equipment like spellbooks. Reroll as as many different classes as you want until you find one that feels right for you.
Most character deaths happen early. The most punishing part of Crawl is the early game. Don't be disheartened if you keep losing characters below level 10. Learn from your mistakes and get advice from this thread and you will be hacking your way through the Vaults in no time.
Search for secret doors and traps. If a long hallway ends in a dead end, always search it for a secret door by resting for a little while in the area you want to search. Pay attention to your minimap for areas that should be connected but aren't, and search them. There are numerous mini-vaults with loot that you can find by searching.
Train your Traps and Doors Skill. If you have spare experience, stand beside a low-level trap and disarm it by holding down CTRL and moving in its direction. Having a minimum of 5 levels in this skill will save any character from a lot of frustrating deaths.
Exploration
Each floor of the main dungeon has 3 up staircases and 3 down staircases. This *isn't* counting the red "trap door" staircases. It is wise to locate all three down staircases before progressing to the next floor, and in fact to search the bottoms of each staircase in turn. This gives you points of reference for the next floor, as well as three escape routes.
Some areas of the dungeons have disconnected rooms. The orc mines especially are famous for confusing people. You occasionally will have to dive several floors down and then back up taking a different staircase to reach rooms you've missed on the first floor. Remember the 3 staircase rule and use magic mapping as needed.
Combat and Item Use
Never fight in the water if you can help it. Ground bound characters suffer extreme penalties when moving and fighting in shallow water. Stay on land and attack water creatures from there.
Use fire and ice on creatures in the water. Electric eels are one of Crawl's deadliest creatures. To easily kill them, shoot them with a bow of fire or a fire based spell to do extra steam damage, or a bow of frost or other ice based spell to do heavy ice damage. This strategy is crucial for the two water based branches of the dungeon.
USE YOUR GODDAMN CONSUMABLES
Seriously, it's way too easy to get into the mindset of "Well, if I use my last Potion of Healing/Scroll of Teleport/Wand of Fire charge now, I'll be screwing myself later. I'll take a chance and hope for the best!" This is wrong. If you take a chance now, there won't be a later. And when that later time comes, you'll have found far more get-out-of-jail-free items than you have now unless you're profoundly unlucky.
So, uh, many people here play? Any tips to add?
General Newbie Tips
Character Generation and Development
Race is the most important part of character generation. Race defines your character's skill aptitudes, equipment slots, and special abilities. If you're a new player it's generally recommended to start as a mountain dwarf because they have very high aptitudes for most of their available classes, making them easier to get off the ground.
Classes are dynamic based upon skill use. The class you choose at generation is more like a starter kit, giving your character some basic skills and equipment like spellbooks. Reroll as as many different classes as you want until you find one that feels right for you.
Most character deaths happen early. The most punishing part of Crawl is the early game. Don't be disheartened if you keep losing characters below level 10. Learn from your mistakes and get advice from this thread and you will be hacking your way through the Vaults in no time.
Search for secret doors and traps. If a long hallway ends in a dead end, always search it for a secret door by resting for a little while in the area you want to search. Pay attention to your minimap for areas that should be connected but aren't, and search them. There are numerous mini-vaults with loot that you can find by searching.
Train your Traps and Doors Skill. If you have spare experience, stand beside a low-level trap and disarm it by holding down CTRL and moving in its direction. Having a minimum of 5 levels in this skill will save any character from a lot of frustrating deaths.
Exploration
Each floor of the main dungeon has 3 up staircases and 3 down staircases. This *isn't* counting the red "trap door" staircases. It is wise to locate all three down staircases before progressing to the next floor, and in fact to search the bottoms of each staircase in turn. This gives you points of reference for the next floor, as well as three escape routes.
Some areas of the dungeons have disconnected rooms. The orc mines especially are famous for confusing people. You occasionally will have to dive several floors down and then back up taking a different staircase to reach rooms you've missed on the first floor. Remember the 3 staircase rule and use magic mapping as needed.
Combat and Item Use
Never fight in the water if you can help it. Ground bound characters suffer extreme penalties when moving and fighting in shallow water. Stay on land and attack water creatures from there.
Use fire and ice on creatures in the water. Electric eels are one of Crawl's deadliest creatures. To easily kill them, shoot them with a bow of fire or a fire based spell to do extra steam damage, or a bow of frost or other ice based spell to do heavy ice damage. This strategy is crucial for the two water based branches of the dungeon.
USE YOUR GODDAMN CONSUMABLES
Seriously, it's way too easy to get into the mindset of "Well, if I use my last Potion of Healing/Scroll of Teleport/Wand of Fire charge now, I'll be screwing myself later. I'll take a chance and hope for the best!" This is wrong. If you take a chance now, there won't be a later. And when that later time comes, you'll have found far more get-out-of-jail-free items than you have now unless you're profoundly unlucky.
Gruff on
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Theres a few new options in this versions, I tended to lose alot of characters early on too, but in this version I've been getting further more often.
Vampires are fun, only drinks blood, if your low on blood you get better evasion, if you are full you heal faster.
I find Troll Beserkers have alot of fun in the mines, I had one on level 9 basically never left beserk the whole time he was down there.
I am dissapointed.
Someone needs to get on this stat.