Any advice for a newbie?

[Gavindale Marchovia]

I'm new to ADOM, and I was just wondering if anyone has advice for this game...? I was told in my other thread that the game is hard, and dying will something that happens often, but if there is any advice that I should keep in mind while I play, please let me know. Thanks so much!

[Shinae]

Well I guess I can try give some very low spoiler general tips that helped me early game.

- Some classes are much harder than others. You can check wiki page for classes to know more about them and see the helpful table which shows which classes are newbie friendly. http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Classes
- Many new players have trouble early game with traps. Picking Dwarf as your race can help with this. Dwarves start with generally ok equips, they have more toughness than elves and they start with Detect Traps skill which you can use to detect and avoid door traps.
- Use your First Aid skill. When you get hit and lose hp, even in middle of fight, you can press F7 to turn on Coward tactic and 'a'pply First Aid skill to recover some hp.
- Use Tactics. Above I mentioned Coward Tactic. But you can try other settings too. Aggressive makes you take more hits, but you also hit more likely and harder. Try them. F2 -> F7 are different tactics.
- Know your defensive: DV and PV. DV is dodge value and PV is protection value. When you see item. example: Clothes [1, 0] it means it has 1 DV and 0 PV. If equipment has (+1, +1) [1, 1] it gives bonus +1 to hit with melee and missiles and +1 DV and +1 PV. Generally you want to favor PV over DV. PV means survival.
- You can pray your deity pressing '_' It can heal you and do other nice stuff. You can't use it all the time tho, deity doesn't like beign asked for favors.
- Run away! If you see something you know you can't beat it's better to run than die.

[pjsb1]

Remember to pray using _ if you are low on hit points and about to die. I consistently forget to do this early on in the game and it can make some characters last a lot longer than they would have. Also general advice, if you are feeling discouraged after a character dies it's totally ok to take a break and come back later when you are feeling better.

[Blank4u47]

My advice is to take your time and study the game rules. It helped me a ton when I first started, and let me figure things out for myself instead of desperately seeking spoilers. That said, try the suggested classes first, they really are a lot easier than the other classes.

If you want spoilers though, take everything with a grain of salt. Don't think you can do an ultra with a mist elf your first win, it's been done, but you'll die a lot and may get burned out.

[Mobius]

If it's purple, be scared.

[Maul]

Alright, a few tips which are not really spoily but still rely on you memorizing some stuff that you could have found out through experimenting instead:

Try to get quite a bit of PV early on. PV is king in the early game. Because of the possibility of cursed items, try to only equip armor that is likely to improve your PV. For helmets, those are metal caps (which give 1 PV if they are iron, more if they are higher metal). For armor, leather armor gives 2 PV, studded leather 3 PV, ring/scale/chain/splint/plate give 3 or more at the cost of some DV, but they're worth it. Switch to one of these as soon as you can unless you've already got something giving several PV points, in which case switch only if there is a significant upgrade. (There is always the possibility that leather armor will get spawned with an unlucky [+0, -1] roll and be cursed, of course. That can't be helped, but it's not so common.) I'll leave it to you to find out what other items are generally worth equipping, but remember that just because you found a bone helmet [-1, -1] one game does not mean all bone helmets suck - you may have just stumbled into a bad roll, so be sure not to write off an item based on one example! Unless the disadvantages are obvious and inherent to the item...

If you have very few (0 or 1) PV early on, however - I suggest you consider "true berserking", even if you are not a barbarian or other such strong melee fighter (as long as you use melee at all). Take off all your armor, except shields (and maybe bracers, I can't recall if those count right now) as well as non-armor wearables like amulets and rings, and go into Berserk tactics when fighting (only when you are actually striking). You will get huge to-hit and to-damage bonuses, more than offsetting the defensive weakness. Once you get more PV points, stop true berserking, especially if you are a caster or archer by default.

One final advice: despite the idea of playing a frail spellcaster being scary early on, I'd say wizards are a very good option early on. You avoid a lot of problems associated with physical fighters and lucky spellbook findings can prepare you for just about every problem you will face... if you consider your options properly.

[Couchfighter]

Some character types with good prospects of surviving early on: Troll Healer, Dwarf Priest, Gray Elf Wizard, High Elf Archer, Orc or Dwarf Paladin.

There are many more of course and I'm sure half the forum will have a kneejerk reaction to want to suggest other combinations, but these are all straightforward to play and do well while you're learning things.

As a rule of thumb, you are what you eat. Eat a spider and you'll surely get poisoned, eat a demon and you will get corrupted, but a great deal of corpses transfer powerful bonuses to your character as well.

Last tip from me is to play slow! While it is tempting to hold the direction keys down while walking down a hall or meleeing down enemies to save time, this is possibly the number one way to get another YASD (yet another stupid death) entry. Take your time, pay attention to status texts and what is going on around your character, and try to use your skills and found items to your advantage.

[Shinae]

Last tip from me is to play slow! While it is tempting to hold the direction keys down while walking down a hall or meleeing down enemies to save time, this is possibly the number one way to get another YASD (yet another stupid death) entry. .

I would like to add to this that you can press 'w' then direction key to autowalk until you meet something, saves time in long corridors and you automatically stop if you encounter item or monster. Also pressing 'w' then '5' from your numpad waits several turns in place. Good for recovering some lost hit points in closed room.

And yes take your time. Game is turn based. I watched some new players play adom in twitch and they started running holding key down when they encountered something bad. You run just as fast when taking your time and plotting your next movement. Also it doesn't take your turn to check your inventory what items you have. Equiping or picking something up uses 1 turn.

[mjkittredge]

Talk to people in towns.
Shields are great for all characters.
Thrown rocks, thrown daggers, and other ranged weapons are great for all characters in the beginning.
If monsters aren't adjacent, switch to Berserk tactics before you shoot them for higher To Hit bonuses.
Go around on Coward tactics setting until you want to use a melee or physical ranged attack.
Lit torches expand your vision range in dungeons
Eat corpses to avoid starvation
In desperate situations, try unidentified wands or scrolls
Watch the weight of items. Lower weight metal weapons and armor are generally better versions.
Sacrifice money and monsters on altars to gain favor. A small amount can allow you to get items identified and water blessed. A lot can get you artifact rewards and more.
Do not sip pools.
Do not get surrounded
Do not go adventuring with insufficient food supplies
Do read monster descriptions to get an idea of their attacks and defenses

[Blasphemous]

The single most important rule (in my opinion):

Run away! If you see something you know you can't beat it's better to run than die.
Second most important rule: use choke points to dispatch large groups of monsters.

[Rick]

Talk to people in towns.
Do not sip pools.


Do NOT sip pools...do NOT touch statues.......................................

I learned anyway that a man is what he wears and wields..
Fighters Elf start with elven chain mail, (one of the) best starting armor you can have...
At low level (in the beginning), AVOID ghouls like a plague, i've lost more PC for simple ghouls and staring eyes that for other mithological beings...
90% of closed doors you want to kick, are for empty and useless rooms, keep in mind if it's worth your death or your only decent weapon to be destroyed..
Put on your head the first helmet you find, because a stone block on your head is something that can happen in every moment..

When a PC die (will be a lot), just start another one and have fun..!

[Shinae]

I personally touch the statues. Sometimes early game I also sip pools. It can potentially be hazardous, but can also turn bad run into great run. It's really risk vs reward. That lucky wish from pool or that +10 to random stat from statue can be really rewarding.

[Blank4u47]

Except whenever I get that +10, it's to charisma :(

[Rick]

I personally touch the statues. Sometimes early game I also sip pools. It can potentially be hazardous, but can also turn bad run into great run. It's really risk vs reward. That lucky wish from pool or that +10 to random stat from statue can be really rewarding.

I know, personal taste, I prefer to keep control of the game (well, despite RNG sure), pools and statues lottery come later in the game, when is much simple to get rid of bad status...not long ago I've "stumbled into a statue" for mistake after a LONG crowning work and the game ended there...you know exactly how you feel:)..swore to never touch statues again..

[grobblewobble]

I'm new to ADOM, and I was just wondering if anyone has advice for this game...?

Stop playing this game now, before it is too late.. once you're hooked, there is no turning back.

[Blank4u47]

I know, personal taste, I prefer to keep control of the game (well, despite RNG sure), pools and statues lottery come later in the game, when is much simple to get rid of bad status...not long ago I've "stumbled into a statue" for mistake after a LONG crowning work and the game ended there...you know exactly how you feel:)..swore to never touch statues again..

Funny thing, I got the dooming statue in the UD then 2 levels later got the one that gives you -para if you're doomed! Took a _very_ long time to get rid of the dooming as I didn't get an altar until dwarftown, but it was kinda a ton of fun! Still play the statue lottery, I feel it's safer than the pool lottery early on.

[Blasphemous]

-para at the cost of getting doomed - gimme any time.

[Rick]

Took a _very_ long time to get rid of the dooming as I didn't get an altar until dwarftown, but it was kinda a ton of fun!

Honestly, that's sure a lot of fun for expert players, lot of frustration for newby..:)



Stop playing this game now, before it is too late.. once you're hooked, there is no turning back.


I can quote this very much too... at least if you're planning to sleep during night instead of playing on the PC..once you love it there is nothing more to do..

[Couchfighter]

Found a pool on a fresh rolled (F)ate Troll Paladin. Against my better judgement I decided to risk some sips.

Drink #1. Cursed. Drink #2. Doomed. Drink #3. Slip and fall in, rust and misery and snakes, snakes everywhere. Needness to say he died very soon after. :D

Don't do it! Just.. don't. :)

[Blank4u47]

FYI, you can't get a wish if you're doomed