Deep diving in the ID

[flibble]

For the first time, I decided not to leave the Drakalor Chain after I closed the gate, and instead take my level 50 dwarven paladin and see how deep I could make it into the ID. I decided not to use stairhopping except in emergencies. In other words, I can only go back upstairs if I'm about to be killed, not just because an upcoming fight looks really tough. At this point I'm down to level 335, and it's getting pretty hairy. Here are a few things I've learned:

- With enough magic mapping, monster detection and teleportation, most levels are easy. But if I used them whenever I felt like it, they'd run out in a hurry. So I only detect monsters when I know there's a tension/threat room and every hallway ends in a door.

- Sources of healing that don't get used up are very important. I kept the rapid healing corruption, and (even though it's a pain to keep switching back and forth) I put on my necklace of rapid healing, bracers and crown of regeneration after most fights.

- Monster power levels are definitely increasing faster than the 'uber' effect. I've gotten hit by ice vortices for more than 200 hp on two occasions, and orcs and cavemen are critically hitting me frequently.

- Encounters are skewed more towards heavy hitters, but not as much as I expected. I've seen plenty of greater molochs and ghost kings, but only one balor, two doppler kings and two emperor liches.

- Trouble can come from unexpected combinations. For example, ghost kings aren't hard to kill if you can move freely and nothing else is attacking you. But one of the toughest spots I was in came from needing to clear out a lich king to get to the down staircase. He summoned a bunch of swamp hydras and I had them in the bottleneck of a corridor so I could kill them one by one. I was still taking a lot of damage, because swamp hydras 300+ levels down are nasty, but it was manageable. Then Mr. Lich decided to summon some giant raccoons, normally not a problem at all, and they started digging through the walls until the hydras were double- and triple-teaming me. Ouch.

So, I don't know how much deeper this character will make it. I haven't had to pray for healing yet, but both of my pairs of seven league boots have gotten destroyed and I've only got one ring of the clear mind left. I figure sooner or later I'll get confused and then swarmed by some powerhouse monsters. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

[cyks]

What level are you on now?

[flibble]

I just got to 391. My biggest problem so far was on 373, where the first room I walked into had an emperor lich that summoned five balors. On top of all the other monsters running around that level, it was tricky for me to keep maneuvering safely. It was lucky that I'd found a spellbook of Ethereal Bridge a little bit before that, because I had to teleport a lot. I also used up about half of my slaying ammo, and what's left doesn't stack very well. At this point I'm almost out of monster detection, and once it's gone, things are going to get tougher. But I've managed to find four carrot rooms, so I'm really good at seeing monsters approaching. If I can make it to level 400, I'll be happy.

[da1edwin]

Wow, what are your stats and HP/PP? Are you trying to evade every monster you can, even things like rats?

[flibble]

My stats are nothing special for a gate-closing character.
DV/PV:102/42 St:47 Le:31 Wi:30 Dx:24 To:44 Ch:23 Ap:12 Ma:28 Pe:45
Sp:145 H:943(943) P:399(418)

And I do a lot of running away, but not all the time. Since the monsters get tougher, but they don't increase in quantity, there are still plenty of times when I find a (relatively) weak monster alone. I kill them for item drops and to have a pathway to retreat into. Mostly with missiles. At this point a melee with nearly any monster ends up costing me some hit points.

I've made it to level 465 now. 457 was nasty. I hit a tension room of ghost kings, and I'm out of magic mapping, so I had to teleport back and forth and back and forth until I found the stairs. I had one stupid moment where I managed to walk into a master mimic and get myself paralyzed... but I recovered before I got taken out.

[meh]

Is finding food a problem? With fewer monsters killed, there must be less corpses and edible item drops available.