FantomFang
08-01-2009, 06:45 AM
!!! WALL OF TEXT ALERT! For those of you who are of the tl;dr; variety, feel free to skip down to the Thing I learned section or to merely start looking at my FLG. I won't mind ;)
This was definitely an interesting game. The original plan was to go for an Ultra, and as you can see in the FLG following this I generally didn't have problems finding the necessary ingredients for the ultra. But what it ended up being once I accidently got Crowned when I was live saccing on PC:5 was a pseudo speedrun, as from then on I never really stopped to grind or buff up my PC like I did in my previous two victories. For example, I never used Smithing like I did previously, where I abused it to make my PC's nigh untouchable by the enemies they fought. In fact, this was my fastest victory ever in both turns taken (around 66k as opposed to 90k on my Mage, and 130k(?) on my Monk) and fastest victory in in-game time (took 66 days as opposed to 83 and 117, respectively). Now, on to the game!
Started off fairly well. Rolled stats were good, To was a bit low, and I immediately went and got Mugger as my first kill and headed off to the PC for the first dungeon (I would only find one more Mugger over the course of the entire game, and that in the Assassin's Guild). Finding a Neutral Altar on PC:5, the cavernous level, I attempted to get a PreCrown, but unfortunate circumstances led me to pray to survive a close encounter, which ended up healing me while simultaneously crowning me as Neutral, with awarded my with a poor Cold Immunity and Bugbiter. I ended up going for a Postcrowning right afterwards and was rewarded for my diligence with Soaker. I never equipped it or used it once. Bugbiter, however, along with a powerful orcish spear of devastation that is in my FLG below became two of my most commonly used weapons for the rest of the game.
My first near death experience came on PC:6 to a Werewolf King in the Mixed Vault that I found there. Funnily enough, there was also a river on the level which split the vault in half and allowed me to easily raise my missile weapon skills and simultaneously farm arrows from a kobold as I shot the entire vault to death from across the river. I successfully rescued the Cute Puppy.
Druid Dungeon was unremarkable (bashed the Dark Druid to death in a snap), except for my first cat kill. Didn't really care too much though. After that, I grabbed the \oTeleportation and headed to the CoC. After a particularly rewarding pool on D:2, I dove down to Dwarftown and acquired the random monster quest, which I quickly succeeded on while Pacifying the Big Room. There I probably spent the most time I would ever be in a level in the entire game, as I got a handful of stoma and enough morgia to raise my stats to the low 20's. I replenished every time I went through there, if needed.
A funny thing happened when I descended and first entered the arena after all of this. I talked to the Ratling Rebel, and the turn IMMEDIATELY after saying his spiel and giving me his pamphlet he stepped on an acid trap, which proceeded to melt all of the flesh off his bones. Ouch. Another thing to note is I found a ridiculous amounts of Neutral altars in the lower portions of the CoC but none when I dove deeper T.T I used the DH to descend low and immediately rescued Khelly due to a lucky AoLS find (found a second one later, too). This proved to be basically all of the corruption removal I needed for the entire game. Also, the Dwarven Mystic gave me a bunch of potions of training, among a couple other potions, and nothing else despite being N= :mad:
After all of this, and only having the portal quest left for the Elder, I dove through the SMC to gain a few more levels before the ToEF (also doing the Gremlin Cave, Graveyard, and Tomb of the High Kings really quickly). It was there I got a surge of Power! which rewarded me with the 3rd and final mainstay of my arsenal for the entire game, Serpent's Bite.
After this, I cleared Darkforge, and then did the ToEF, which was where I had probably another 2 or so Near Death experiences, none to the dragon himself. Almost died killing monsters as I climbed, leading me to rushing the stairs. After I killed the wyrm (using half a dozen charges of a \oStunning and 6 or so dragon-slaying quarrels) I almost died trying to get exp from the temple inhabitants. So i tucked tail and ran after that.
Was quite easy for a while after that. Water TEmple was a breeze (the SfB couldn't even hurt me through my PV) and I found my only Greater Vault on D:26, which rewarded me with Ironfist, which I used for the rest of the game. Casino didn't give me anything good, didn't bother restocking it either. From here on I had to waste quite a few turns, unfortunately, as I had realized two-thirds of the way to the casino I forgot most of my valuable gear (including my SoCR's) in Dwarftown. This would be my last climb up until I closed the gate.
Cat Lord was the next obstacle, and while I was afraid he'd tear me apart, I was barely hurt by him thanks to the same strategy I used on the wyrm in the ToEF. Battle Bunny level was a joke. Air Temple had WAY too many Near Death experiences to count, but needless to say I finished it, wiping out every inhabitant with nothing in the way of gear but stuff that I thought wouldn't be destroyed, which meant no missile weapons of any sort. Oh, and almost forgot. D:36 was a cavernous level, and luckily enough contained a threat room...of MINOTAUR MAGES. Oh god, the confusion and stat drain almost had me there also.
Earth temple was easy enough. Last two scary instances were a Lesser Vault I had to clear on D:47 to advance (Red Dragons) and the Mana Temple, where I decided to use darkness plus a \oMonster Detection to enter the temple and face Nuurag-Vaarn mano-e-mano. Needless to say, I almost died several times, due to lackluster resistances, but eventually beat him to death in darkness (using up the last of almost a dozen and a half !of Extra Healing/Ultra Healing I had been saving and using in the temples and difficult areas) and then managed to escape. Lost many a stat to drain there.
D:50 was a breeze. After getting Far Slayer as my uselessness gift, I combined it with demon slaying ammo for the hard enemies, and bashed everything else to death with Bugbiter or Serpent's Bite. Did Wand of Destruction ending, because I had very little Demon Slaying ammo and didn't want to stick around any more than I had to at this point. It was here I finally hit lv40 and got the first REALLY useful class power, far too late for it to be of any use. Awesome.
Killed the black unicorn from there, cleared my corruption, and won.
Things I learned:
(1) It was heart-pounding and awesome moving through at the pace I did, especially when I moved on to locations where I knew I wasn't TRULY prepared.
(2) Serpent's Bite rocks. I can't believe now that I used Rolf's Companion over this OR Executor on my Mage. Oh, youth.
(3) TWF'ing works great for the first half of the game. Once I had tactics and started being unable to kill enemies rapidly, it became worthless to me.
(4) Check your alignment before praying for a PreCrown.
Up Next:
Maybe that Ultra finally? Either that, or I may attempt speed runs like Gut did for a while. Expect to see a thread pop up soon in regards to that. But first, I am going to attempt a 3-heart run of The Link to the Past. Should be fun, and give me the break I need before starting another serious character in ADOM!
EDIT: Forgot to mention my Wish. I managed to find a RoDS and used it on Find Weakness to augment my melee damage.
This was definitely an interesting game. The original plan was to go for an Ultra, and as you can see in the FLG following this I generally didn't have problems finding the necessary ingredients for the ultra. But what it ended up being once I accidently got Crowned when I was live saccing on PC:5 was a pseudo speedrun, as from then on I never really stopped to grind or buff up my PC like I did in my previous two victories. For example, I never used Smithing like I did previously, where I abused it to make my PC's nigh untouchable by the enemies they fought. In fact, this was my fastest victory ever in both turns taken (around 66k as opposed to 90k on my Mage, and 130k(?) on my Monk) and fastest victory in in-game time (took 66 days as opposed to 83 and 117, respectively). Now, on to the game!
Started off fairly well. Rolled stats were good, To was a bit low, and I immediately went and got Mugger as my first kill and headed off to the PC for the first dungeon (I would only find one more Mugger over the course of the entire game, and that in the Assassin's Guild). Finding a Neutral Altar on PC:5, the cavernous level, I attempted to get a PreCrown, but unfortunate circumstances led me to pray to survive a close encounter, which ended up healing me while simultaneously crowning me as Neutral, with awarded my with a poor Cold Immunity and Bugbiter. I ended up going for a Postcrowning right afterwards and was rewarded for my diligence with Soaker. I never equipped it or used it once. Bugbiter, however, along with a powerful orcish spear of devastation that is in my FLG below became two of my most commonly used weapons for the rest of the game.
My first near death experience came on PC:6 to a Werewolf King in the Mixed Vault that I found there. Funnily enough, there was also a river on the level which split the vault in half and allowed me to easily raise my missile weapon skills and simultaneously farm arrows from a kobold as I shot the entire vault to death from across the river. I successfully rescued the Cute Puppy.
Druid Dungeon was unremarkable (bashed the Dark Druid to death in a snap), except for my first cat kill. Didn't really care too much though. After that, I grabbed the \oTeleportation and headed to the CoC. After a particularly rewarding pool on D:2, I dove down to Dwarftown and acquired the random monster quest, which I quickly succeeded on while Pacifying the Big Room. There I probably spent the most time I would ever be in a level in the entire game, as I got a handful of stoma and enough morgia to raise my stats to the low 20's. I replenished every time I went through there, if needed.
A funny thing happened when I descended and first entered the arena after all of this. I talked to the Ratling Rebel, and the turn IMMEDIATELY after saying his spiel and giving me his pamphlet he stepped on an acid trap, which proceeded to melt all of the flesh off his bones. Ouch. Another thing to note is I found a ridiculous amounts of Neutral altars in the lower portions of the CoC but none when I dove deeper T.T I used the DH to descend low and immediately rescued Khelly due to a lucky AoLS find (found a second one later, too). This proved to be basically all of the corruption removal I needed for the entire game. Also, the Dwarven Mystic gave me a bunch of potions of training, among a couple other potions, and nothing else despite being N= :mad:
After all of this, and only having the portal quest left for the Elder, I dove through the SMC to gain a few more levels before the ToEF (also doing the Gremlin Cave, Graveyard, and Tomb of the High Kings really quickly). It was there I got a surge of Power! which rewarded me with the 3rd and final mainstay of my arsenal for the entire game, Serpent's Bite.
After this, I cleared Darkforge, and then did the ToEF, which was where I had probably another 2 or so Near Death experiences, none to the dragon himself. Almost died killing monsters as I climbed, leading me to rushing the stairs. After I killed the wyrm (using half a dozen charges of a \oStunning and 6 or so dragon-slaying quarrels) I almost died trying to get exp from the temple inhabitants. So i tucked tail and ran after that.
Was quite easy for a while after that. Water TEmple was a breeze (the SfB couldn't even hurt me through my PV) and I found my only Greater Vault on D:26, which rewarded me with Ironfist, which I used for the rest of the game. Casino didn't give me anything good, didn't bother restocking it either. From here on I had to waste quite a few turns, unfortunately, as I had realized two-thirds of the way to the casino I forgot most of my valuable gear (including my SoCR's) in Dwarftown. This would be my last climb up until I closed the gate.
Cat Lord was the next obstacle, and while I was afraid he'd tear me apart, I was barely hurt by him thanks to the same strategy I used on the wyrm in the ToEF. Battle Bunny level was a joke. Air Temple had WAY too many Near Death experiences to count, but needless to say I finished it, wiping out every inhabitant with nothing in the way of gear but stuff that I thought wouldn't be destroyed, which meant no missile weapons of any sort. Oh, and almost forgot. D:36 was a cavernous level, and luckily enough contained a threat room...of MINOTAUR MAGES. Oh god, the confusion and stat drain almost had me there also.
Earth temple was easy enough. Last two scary instances were a Lesser Vault I had to clear on D:47 to advance (Red Dragons) and the Mana Temple, where I decided to use darkness plus a \oMonster Detection to enter the temple and face Nuurag-Vaarn mano-e-mano. Needless to say, I almost died several times, due to lackluster resistances, but eventually beat him to death in darkness (using up the last of almost a dozen and a half !of Extra Healing/Ultra Healing I had been saving and using in the temples and difficult areas) and then managed to escape. Lost many a stat to drain there.
D:50 was a breeze. After getting Far Slayer as my uselessness gift, I combined it with demon slaying ammo for the hard enemies, and bashed everything else to death with Bugbiter or Serpent's Bite. Did Wand of Destruction ending, because I had very little Demon Slaying ammo and didn't want to stick around any more than I had to at this point. It was here I finally hit lv40 and got the first REALLY useful class power, far too late for it to be of any use. Awesome.
Killed the black unicorn from there, cleared my corruption, and won.
Things I learned:
(1) It was heart-pounding and awesome moving through at the pace I did, especially when I moved on to locations where I knew I wasn't TRULY prepared.
(2) Serpent's Bite rocks. I can't believe now that I used Rolf's Companion over this OR Executor on my Mage. Oh, youth.
(3) TWF'ing works great for the first half of the game. Once I had tactics and started being unable to kill enemies rapidly, it became worthless to me.
(4) Check your alignment before praying for a PreCrown.
Up Next:
Maybe that Ultra finally? Either that, or I may attempt speed runs like Gut did for a while. Expect to see a thread pop up soon in regards to that. But first, I am going to attempt a 3-heart run of The Link to the Past. Should be fun, and give me the break I need before starting another serious character in ADOM!
EDIT: Forgot to mention my Wish. I managed to find a RoDS and used it on Find Weakness to augment my melee damage.