YAVP: ULE dwarf assassin

[modular]

(spoilers below)

I Decided to get another ultra victory. This time it was hard. I racked up over a hundred kills in the process (this includes characters I suicide because of the wrong starsign).
I had set my eye on a raven born assassin, settled on dwarf because of the decent toughness etc, and finally got one going.

One I got to the cavernous level in the puppy cave and saw a lawful altar there, it was just a matter of time to get two precrownings, and I got scorched spear and ring of immunity. At this point I knew I had a win. The spear is a very good beginner weapon, and I only got rid of it because I was desperate to feed the ratling. At lvl 16(?) I searched for the water dragon cave, and got the trident (this is why I had chosen a raven born character for this ultra ending). With those two weapons I had a very strong melee and ranged attack and the midgame was more than secured.

The 60 day limit was approaching, and I had not found an amulet of life saving. I had spend a lot of time in the high kings caverns in hopes of finding an AoLS, but I did not find any (nor a water breathing helm for that matter). I even tried pickpocking every monster before I killed it, but I had no luck. However, in the mid game I did find a ring of ice and some 7lb. I also pacified the big room, but I already farmed a lot of herbs before that. I even finished the ToF before any other temples since I had fire immunity and a ring of ice. That non-guaranteed AoLS is such a pain to get.

Besides the scorched spear I also fed the ratling a pyramid artifact (ancient mummy wrapping) and a dwarven graveyard artifact (sword of nonnack), the darkforge artifact (crown of science), big punch and the phial. He didn't want to take my elemental gauntlets, but the bastard picked them up from the floor after refusing them, so I lost that artifact anyway. I did not care about it enough to try and kill the ratling for it (I didn't know if it would anger dwarftown or not, and didn't feel like risking it). I got tactics from the gladius, and kept the RotHK to pass the CoC. Long story short: I got the crown of chaos.

Since still did not get an AoLS at this point, I finally decided to go pool drinking. You can imagine that I got a wish from my first pool (that is very lucky). I was so mad at myself for not drinking from the pools earlier, but there is no way to predict I would get a wish so easily. The puppy cave altar I used for precrowning was used to remove cursed/doomed statuses. I also got paralyze resistance, and decided to stop drinking from pools. With Khelly saved, I could finally progress the game!

Now I could go down to the casino and the shortcut to the surface, where I found a ring of djinni summoning that I robbed later. I did the crone quests for the amulet of chaos, and the ice queen domain quests. Then I went down to get the twin daggers, finish the filk quest, and obtain the ToTRR. I also did the rift and read spell-books for the extra SoCR, and the bug temple. Concentration was gotten from a potion of education. A wish (the ring from the casino) for scrolls of education and a writing set[1] got me appraising (what a waste for a wish - unlucky). I whipped myself to L+ after killing the water dragon and the white unicorn to get crowned with fire immunity, before diving down to D50 and doing the air/earth/mana temples.

During the game some greater vaults where found: 2 or 3 giant, and one fire dragon with a lot of great fire wyrms.

Finally after many hours of game-play Andor was slain and the character became an avatar of order.

The full text is attached.



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R St:53 Le:73 Wi:90 Dx:87 To:68 Ch:54 Ap:21 Ma:83 Pe:69 L+
DV/PV:112/72 H:1042(1042) P:4(1427) Exp: 50/28096886 ChAoS Sp: 265
Blessed Bloated
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Background Information
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Name: R Race: female Dwarf Class: Assassin
Eye color: brown Hair color: black Complexion: tanned
Height: 3'5" Weight: 136 pounds
Age: 63 (grown-up)
Star sign: Raven Birthday: 2/Raven (day 2 of the year)

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Inventory
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Total weight: 10577 stones Carrying capacity: 175845 stones

He: blessed helm of teleportation (+1, +1) [+2, +4] [50s]
Ne: blessed sapphire amulet "Preserver" [+4, +4] {Wi+7} [3s]
Bo: uncursed vigilant adamantium plate mail of traveling (-2, -4) [+1, +13]
Gi: blessed girdle of carrying [+6, +5] [15s]
Cl: blessed cloak of defense [+3, +0] [20s]
RH: blessed Trident of the Red Rooster (+36, 6d12+18) [+12, +12] {Ma+24}
LH: -
RR: uncursed ring of slaying (+6 melee damage, +6 missile damage) [1s]
LR: uncursed ring of slaying (+6 melee damage, +6 missile damage) [1s]
Br: blessed bracers of war [+8, +4] {Dx+8} [10s]
Ga: blessed red dragon-hide gauntlets (-1, +1) [+5, +6] [10s]
Bo: blessed seven league boots [+5, +5] [30s]
MW: uncursed heavy crossbow (+6, +5) [140s]
Mi: bundle of 15 blessed quarrels of humanoid slaying (+3, 2d6+3) [60s]
Tl: uncursed torch (983 turns of fuel remaining, lit) [10s]
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Weapon Skills
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Melee weapon Lvl Hit Dam DV Level Required marks
--------------------- --- --- --- -- ------------- --------------
Daggers & knives 10 +10 +6 +3 excellent 725
Swords 13 +14 +10 +4 Mastery 5734
Pole arms 10 +10 +6 +12 excellent 228
Twohanded weapons 1 +1 +1 +0 basic 25

Missile weapon Lvl Hit Dam Ra Level Required marks
--------------------- --- --- --- -- ------------- --------------
Bows 9 +18 +13 +3 excellent 164
Crossbows 8 +16 +12 +2 excellent 103
Thrown spears 13 +26 +19 +4 Mastery 3874

Shields Lvl DV Level Required marks
--------------------- --- --- ------------- --------------
Shields 10 +20 excellent 506


Damage caused with your melee weapons:
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Right hand: +189 bonus to hit, 6d12+83 damage


Damage caused with your missile weapons:
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Ammunition: 15, base range: 18, +140 bonus to hit, 2d6+76 damage

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Her achievements during her battles:
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R, the dwarven assassin, transformed into an avatar of Order.
She scored 8007692 points and advanced to level 50.
She survived for 0 years, 97 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes and 7 seconds (143639
turns).

[modular]

I posed this in the general forum, but it needs to be moved to the YAVP forum. My apologies for the mistake.

[Dlightfull]

If you can be arsed, i would really enjoy a more detailed description, since i am looking myself at trying an ultra ending, but i have no clue as to how fast i should tackle the areas.

ULE in 97 days seems very fast to me, my only normal win was in about 154 days.

Also, grats on the win :)

[modular]

First of all: The days are not as important as the turn count. The most time consuming action is wilderness travel, which is why 7lb are very good find for ultras. If you want to compare games by their lenght, you have to compare the game turns. But even that is not a good measure, because a turn can also be spend by waiting or some other meaningless action. In fact, it is possible to finish a game in less than 10k turns (wizard with teleportation spellbook). I spent 143,639 turns, which is 14 times as much as a regular speedgame.

Second: Extensive use of spoilers is recommended. I enjoyed adom the most when I was not spoiled, but that was a long time ago. Now I just use all spoilers available to optimize my game: The (improved) guidebook and the wiki.

Third: Don't die. This may seem obvious, but there are many ways to die in adom. Petrification resistance from pools is highly recommended. High hp and elemental resistance/immunity as wel as high DV/PV. Dont kill yourself on an altar, or by whipping yourself to death. Don't die from corruption on the chaos plane. Don't ruin your ultra ending: Don't kill the ratling (for example by greater demon from dwarftown quest). Don't anger citizens of dwarftown/teringo. Make sure you have see invisibility and/or wear two shield because Khelly can be invisible in Teringo after you save him (!). Don't become a fallen champion (which is why you want to postpone crowning as much as possible).

some general remarks about ultra endings:

The AoLS is the first main hurdle. Pool drinking is the most common way to get a wish. Note that neither the wish nor the AoLS are guaranteed. That means in some games getting the amulet will be very time consuming (real life time, game turns). If you can't get a wish or an amulet, your game is ruined and there is not much you can do except endless scumming. If you can get an amulet of resurrection (http://www.adom.de/forums/showthread.php/13510-New-artifact) then by all means go for it!

You also want to get as many sources of chaos resistance as possible, which is why the special area's are important. An ultra game guides you all around ancardia and makes you visit almost every place - like a big tourist trip. You also want to be neutral in dwarftown for the mystic reward if possible.

In the early game, you have to locate the high mountain village by going to the small cave. That means that usually finding the down staircase in the small cave will be the first priority for any character attempting an ultra ending. Even if you dont go down, you can come back later with invisibility and teleport, and finish the unremarkable dungeon. When you are higher-mid level you really dont want to be spending any turns in the small cave (teleport and > down is only 2 turns). At the very least you have to enter the small cave at low level to generate the monsters, and then you can still come back and use invisibility plus a blessed scroll of magic mapping + teleport to the stairs.

First kill: I go for beggar. Filk was easy to find on floor 4 of the infinite dungeon for me.

Immunities: Acid and lightning immunity can be gotten by scumming for slug corpse (for example in the druid dungeon) and lightning lizard corpses (blessed). Fire immunity intrinsic can be gotten from crowning, but for an ultra ending you have to wait for crowning till the late game. Finding an early red dragon scale mail would be very useful (one more reason to do darkforge pre-ToF). Getting that ring of immunity from precrowning was a huge boost to my character.

Alignment juggling: Amulets of balance should be worn if you don't want to get a big alignment hit from chaotic acts. You want to remain CN if possible. Avoid extreme alignments like C- or L+ until the late game (it is easier to get chaotic than to become lawful). Whips are the easiest way to become L+ by far. Using altars to change alignment is possible, but beyond the early game it is dangerous (equipment can get cursed or destroyed, or worse things cool happen). BTW, don't ever step on a chaotic altar. That is why I try to never use chaotic altars for precrownings (too dangerous). In the early game a normal whip (1d3) should be enough. For the late/mid game you need to look for higher damage (1d30) whips because you will have some PV from toughess. Note: Avoid death caused by holding down the 'repear command button' either by not holding down the key, or by wearing an AoLS. If you have a spare AoLS, wear it while whipping yourself in a safe place (for example wilderness).

You need 6 artifacts to feed the ratling. This is easier to do after you save Khelly and/or do the tower of flames: More artifacts are found below like moonsickle or in the casino / greater vaults (see wiki for tips). You can enter the stone circle every 30 days. 7lb are very important to keep your time spent traveling down. Ideally you want to aim for day 60 (since day 30 is probably too soon for most characters, unless you find 7lb very early perhaps). Day 90 is probably also still good: You can do it before diving down to finish the game.

Gaab'Baay's Quests: Danger scroll and wand of monster creation: You need to get lucky. If you can't get these, try a wish. If you cant find the scroll of a wish then you will have to scum for a long time. This can ruin your game in the sense that the game will no longer be enjoyable. Getting the boar skull: Use an item that dooms you in the wilderness. The best moment to do this is after you reach lvl 15 (at higher level there will be more different enemies). Note that you don't have to do it at lvl 15, and by the time you reach his quest you will probably be in the twenties. Farmer corpse: Use hunting weapons and amulet of balance and/or a companion. Do not attack in anyone in Terinyo, or you will anger everyone and will not be able to get the ToTRR. Lure the farmers to the wilderness. See wiki for tips.

Killing Keriax: I used potions of blindness, cursed potion of invisibility (same as blindness) and dragon slaying ammo.
Note that with most of these chaotic bosses you can throw a blessed potion of cure corruption at them to make them weaker. I generally don't do this unless I feel like my character is too weak. For example, if I have to kill the ACW with a weak character, I will try to get a potion of cure corruption from the druid quest corpse to throw it at his face.
Generally disabling bosses is a very good tactic. Slaying weapons or ammo is also strongly recommended. That is another reason why the rune covered trident is so powerful for some bosses (demon and undead slaying), and raven star-sign is the best for getting the rune covered trident early.
http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Keriax

Andor Drakon:
Use all potions of boost [stat]. Potions of boost speed are the best, should be drank the latest, and blessed. I used quarrels of human slaying while wielding the ToTRR. Killing him was very easy (drop the chaos artifacts - remove corruptions asap). The final plane is *very* corrupting. I also threw a potion of cure corruption at him, to get rid of some of his currupting attacks and death ray. I was not in melee range with him, but it was just a precaution.
http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Andor_Drakon

Sources on how to do an ultra ending:

Ultra ending on wiki http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Ultra_ending
Guidebook http://www.adomgb.info/adomgb-4.html
Improved guidebook https://students.mimuw.edu.pl/~ak320770/adomgb/adomgb-4.html

Sorry if that was too long/boring to read. If you want specific advice I would be happy to give it, but you will have to specify what you need. Thank you for reading this.

[Cactus]

...
Killing Keriax: I used potions of blindness, cursed potion of invisibility (same as blindness) and dragon slaying ammo.
Note that with most of these chaotic bosses you can throw a blessed potion of cure corruption at them to make them weaker. I generally don't do this unless I feel like my character is too weak. For example, if I have to kill the ACW with a weak character, I will try to get a potion of cure corruption from the druid quest corpse to throw it at his face.
Generally disabling bosses is a very good tactic. Slaying weapons or ammo is also strongly recommended. That is another reason why the rune covered trident is so powerful for some bosses (demon and undead slaying), and raven star-sign is the best for getting the rune covered trident early.
http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Keriax
...

I would just like to add that every monster that uses poison (that includes Keriax) can be stunned with thrown potions of cure poison. These are quite common and by the time you IDed them they're usually not needed anymore for the PC himself.
If you don't have to rely on slaying ammo (e.g. spellcaster) it's even more trivial, since you can load up your sling with a big stack of cure poison and don't have to waste turns for changing ammo.

[grobblewobble]

Since still did not get an AoLS at this point, I finally decided to go pool drinking. You can imagine that I got a wish from my first pool (that is very lucky). I was so mad at myself for not drinking from the pools earlier, but there is no way to predict I would get a wish so easily.
While lucking out with the first sip is indeed extremely lucky, the total probability of getting a wish from draining all darkforge pools is about 50% (assuming you clear dooming as soon as you get it, of course). I would recommend to try sipping first, before any desperate grinding.

In any case, congratulations on the ultra win! Assassin is cool, too.