Should I try an ultra?

[Dazed]

Hi all,

Preamble - I've got a level 12 Raven-born male ratling monk (yes, he's called Splinter ) who seems promising at the moment. He's managed to find an AoLS already and he's only just completed the first Dwarftown quest after going straight down the Small Cave to the HMV and straight down to Dwarftown. He was pre-crowned on a neutral altar with Bugbiter, which isn't a fantastic artifact but given he's level 7 in both Polearms and Unarmed Fighting it's a nice beginning artifact weapon.

My question is that given he's gotten the AoLS at this early stage, would it be worth aiming for an ultra? I've never done one before so I don't know if there's some sort of Ultra guide out there for the order in which things should be done, or what to be wary of. I think this is the first time I've actually had a chance of saving Khelly.

Issues that I can see... well, I've absolutely no idea what Splinter's first kill was. My usual strategy after diving down the Small Cave is to get to Dwarftown, do the quests at a leisurely pace (ie explore the levels above Dwarftown that I dove past in the CoC, explore the Unremarkable Dungeon, kill Keethrax, Puppy Cave, get the AMW + ankh, Dwarven Graveyard and TotHK before heading back down to finish the rest of the Dwarftown quests (I might make several trips depending on how well the character is going and whether I need some of the rewards from the quests) and then kill/save Khelly. Find Blup's mother too if I have the chance (which I do with Splinter, he's got a helm of teleportation, ring of the fish and potions of invis to help with that).

I tend to hold off crowning until I get the AMW to make use of not getting cold immunity, so Splinter is open to changing his religion for the moment. At the moment his alignment is N- and given he's a monk, I guess the slower hunger rate offsets the artifact hunger increase.

Thoughts? Tips, hints or a plain "Nah, no chance, just go for a normal ending!" would be very much appreciated

[grobblewobble]

Do you want to? Monk is a fine class for ultra, but searching for all the required items (scroll of danger especially) can be a pain. The monk crowning gifts aren't top notch, so having to put off crowning isn't that bad. You don't have to decide now of course, you could wait until late game and see if you found a scroll of danger or a wish to get it by then.

[Cactus]

I would only do it if you manage to figure out your first kill. It's possible without knowing it, but you probably don't want your ratling to deal with I:120 ghost kings...

You can determine your first kill with the old barbarian: Get the courage quest (some more kills might be necessary) and then just make one kill of the usual SMC suspects (kobold, skeleton, large bat, goblin, orc, rat and giant rat) and go back to him. See if he calls you lazy or need to show more. Rinse and repeat.

If you feel comfortable checking out the dwarven halls, I'd do the second quest and save Khelly right now. It's the best use for an early AoLS anyway, regardless of playing ultra or not. Apart from that all you have to do is not getting crowned for now.

[Dazed]

Do you want to? Monk is a fine class for ultra, but searching for all the required items (scroll of danger especially) can be a pain. The monk crowning gifts aren't top notch, so having to put off crowning isn't that bad. You don't have to decide now of course, you could wait until late game and see if you found a scroll of danger or a wish to get it by then.

I'll give it a go - so it's a decision that doesn't necessarily need to be made early? Incidentally a scroll shop was generated on D:6 so I could try and just buy him out until a scroll of danger is produced, is that possible? I'm finding that ratlings seem to get quite decent shop deals compared to the others I've played.

I would only do it if you manage to figure out your first kill. It's possible without knowing it, but you probably don't want your ratling to deal with I:120 ghost kings...

You can determine your first kill with the old barbarian: Get the courage quest (some more kills might be necessary) and then just make one kill of the usual SMC suspects (kobold, skeleton, large bat, goblin, orc, rat and giant rat) and go back to him. See if he calls you lazy or need to show more. Rinse and repeat.

If you feel comfortable checking out the dwarven halls, I'd do the second quest and save Khelly right now. It's the best use for an early AoLS anyway, regardless of playing ultra or not. Apart from that all you have to do is not getting crowned for now.

I found a hobgoblin raiding party in the wilderness, killed a hobgoblin then left and went to the old barbarian, he said I showed promise. Am I right in thinking that this means the hobgoblin was my first kill? I've killed 4 hobgoblins so far.

I'll give the 2nd quest a go - my speed is pretty funky at the moment (118 burdened - Athletics and Raven are awesome) so I'm good for running away from things. Will definitely get the RCT when I can. Sadly I can't get the RoMC because I accidentally walked into a cave lion. Boo. Was doing pretty well avoiding cats up until that point.

[Mobius]

Go for it!
Look at your monster history, and see what is the worst set of 'first kill' possibilities.
Then avoid killing any more of those. I once went down in I-dun to the 60s to find **** in an ultra. Tedious, but possible.

[Dazed]

Go for it!
Look at your monster history, and see what is the worst set of 'first kill' possibilities.
Then avoid killing any more of those. I once went down in I-dun to the 60s to find **** in an ultra. Tedious, but possible.

I hope it's not an orc then. I've killed 74 of those...

[_Ln_]

With enough hobgoblins you might as well visit the SIL, which is a pretty interesting experience (unless you get into melee range of MaLaKaI to be torn to pieces in one turn).

In any case, you can abort the thing at any point if you feel like. Saving Khelly is quite worthwhile regardless of ultras. Especially with a spell-friendly class.

[Blasphemous]

Keep your eyes open for any magical writing sets.
Monks are the best class to write them because they literally suffer zero mana drains that other writing chars have to face, even for difficult scrolls like corruption removal.
It costs a lot of PP but otherwise it's easy to write.
With lots of scrolls of education, protection, corruption removal and others, ultras and the game overall become much easier.

[Dazed]

I'm not entirely sure a hobgoblin was my first kill - reading further suggests that the first kill after I get the Courage quest is the way to check, whereas I'd already chatted to the old barbarian and killed a bunch of stuff before I decided 'hmmm, ultra?' so the hobgoblin test may be invalid Damn!

Heck, I'll give it a go anyway

The current situation is that I've saved Khelly and gotten his rewards (yay scrolls of corruption removal!) and am currently cleaning up stuff for Thrundarr. Will probably do the Dwarven Graveyard and get the AMW too. I guess the plan is to continue as normal until I'm a bit stronger than level 12! What sort of ultra based things can I do in the meantime? Most of the ultra based things look like they require a much higher level to complete because of the monster difficulty.

[SiTLar]

You should gather the stuff for the ratling and the medal, those are pretty much the only ultra things to do now. You have to make a decision about artifacts you won't need.