Starhawk
03-31-2008, 01:06 PM
Finally -- after more than five years -- I have beaten ADOM!
I managed my first victory with no cheating and NO WISHES. The closest I came was a Wand of Wishing with zero charges.
I went off my usual "beaten path" for this game, as I usually send characters through the Unremarkable Dungeon first. If they don't make it, they weren't worth playing anyway.
This gnome, instead, I sent to save a cute dog. When I arrived at the black druid's hideout, I found that the entire dungeon was blocked away from me by a very wide river (right at the stairs on level 1!!). So, I had a decision to make: skip straight to the Caverns of Chaos... or....
...head for the Infinite Dungeon! I decided to stay in the Infinite Dungeon until I found a spellbook of Nether Bolt. This took over a week of game time and brought me to level 12 or so. As well, I had a very impressive arsenal of spells learned from my stay in the ID. So I was able to return, freeze the river, and stomp the black druid.
Then, having learned Veil of the Gods in the ID, I sneaked carefully through the Small Cave and cleared the Unremarkable Dungeon. Made a pile of money in the HMV and then hightailed it through the secret exit to the Caverns. I made it to Dwarftown without a hitch, became Arena champion and checked out the animated forest. My worst mistake here was kicking a black altar and having my equipped items turn to dust -- ack! Fortunately I had a passable backup weapon and was able to recover.
It came time at last to do a lot of things back in the great outdoors: I was most of the way through level 16 and needed to hit the Pyramid. Clearing the Pyramid was easy, and I decided not to make a second trip to the surface: I also cleared the Graveyard, then skipped the ToEF and did the Tomb of the High Kings before circling back to claim the Fire Orb. By this time I was rocking a character that was several levels above the recommended range for the ToEF and was able to blast and stab my way through with no trouble at all. For the first time, I didn't lose a single piece of equipment in the ToEF (I had five resistance sources and four fireproof blankets).
Interestingly enough, my alignment didn't hit L+ until much later in the game than I am used to... maybe around D:25? But I finally got crowned. Stumbled onto an endless parade of neckwear artifacts, a couple of swords of sharpness, and battered my way through the Elemental Temples. Picked up seven levels in two greater dragon vaults (one blue, one red) and had over 600k in gold.
By this time, the corruption was starting to pile up. In addition to no wishes, this character was VERY light in the cure-corruption items. I had a total of 3 potions and 2 scrolls of CC. Fortunately for me, the RNG was *VERY* kind and gave me corruptions that were useful. I had to get rid of poison hands once, stiff muscles once, and mana battery once.
The Archmage of the Mana Temple was difficult for me; I had a lot of trouble luring him out to me. I probably carved up ~300 monsters by hand at the doorway trying to get his attention, but ended up perforating him with humanoid slaying crossbow bolts.
D:50 was terrifying. While I was high level, my equipment wasn't all *THAT* great, I felt. I could carve through chaos servants all day but was worried about standing up to a balor. As it turns out, I really couldn't. I hacked my way to the secret doors and was headed for the lever when the balors began looking for me. Unfortunately, I only had ONE stack of demonslayer xbow bolts, and that was only enough to take the balor to 'severe'. My melee was awesome... but not THAT good. And I was getting pounded with more corruption. So, I started teleporting back and forth, drawing them off. Managed to get both levers clear long enough to teleport in, throw the switch, and zap a wand of destruction. (Another RNG amusement: a potion of education on D:50 resulted in Alchemy, far too late for me to do anything with it.)
I would have loved to fight Andor Drakon, but I don't know how tough he is, and if I couldn't beat a balor handily... hm. I was even more worried about my corruption -- I had eight or nine by that point. I would cry for years if I got to D:50, cleared it, walked through the gate, and dissolved into primal chaos.
So -- a stop at the unicorn's glade on the way out of the Chain and... VICTORY! Hail to the king, baby.
Another amusing note: I could *not* keep a set of bracers more than a level or two before they got blasted away. I finished the game with bare arms.
I managed my first victory with no cheating and NO WISHES. The closest I came was a Wand of Wishing with zero charges.
I went off my usual "beaten path" for this game, as I usually send characters through the Unremarkable Dungeon first. If they don't make it, they weren't worth playing anyway.
This gnome, instead, I sent to save a cute dog. When I arrived at the black druid's hideout, I found that the entire dungeon was blocked away from me by a very wide river (right at the stairs on level 1!!). So, I had a decision to make: skip straight to the Caverns of Chaos... or....
...head for the Infinite Dungeon! I decided to stay in the Infinite Dungeon until I found a spellbook of Nether Bolt. This took over a week of game time and brought me to level 12 or so. As well, I had a very impressive arsenal of spells learned from my stay in the ID. So I was able to return, freeze the river, and stomp the black druid.
Then, having learned Veil of the Gods in the ID, I sneaked carefully through the Small Cave and cleared the Unremarkable Dungeon. Made a pile of money in the HMV and then hightailed it through the secret exit to the Caverns. I made it to Dwarftown without a hitch, became Arena champion and checked out the animated forest. My worst mistake here was kicking a black altar and having my equipped items turn to dust -- ack! Fortunately I had a passable backup weapon and was able to recover.
It came time at last to do a lot of things back in the great outdoors: I was most of the way through level 16 and needed to hit the Pyramid. Clearing the Pyramid was easy, and I decided not to make a second trip to the surface: I also cleared the Graveyard, then skipped the ToEF and did the Tomb of the High Kings before circling back to claim the Fire Orb. By this time I was rocking a character that was several levels above the recommended range for the ToEF and was able to blast and stab my way through with no trouble at all. For the first time, I didn't lose a single piece of equipment in the ToEF (I had five resistance sources and four fireproof blankets).
Interestingly enough, my alignment didn't hit L+ until much later in the game than I am used to... maybe around D:25? But I finally got crowned. Stumbled onto an endless parade of neckwear artifacts, a couple of swords of sharpness, and battered my way through the Elemental Temples. Picked up seven levels in two greater dragon vaults (one blue, one red) and had over 600k in gold.
By this time, the corruption was starting to pile up. In addition to no wishes, this character was VERY light in the cure-corruption items. I had a total of 3 potions and 2 scrolls of CC. Fortunately for me, the RNG was *VERY* kind and gave me corruptions that were useful. I had to get rid of poison hands once, stiff muscles once, and mana battery once.
The Archmage of the Mana Temple was difficult for me; I had a lot of trouble luring him out to me. I probably carved up ~300 monsters by hand at the doorway trying to get his attention, but ended up perforating him with humanoid slaying crossbow bolts.
D:50 was terrifying. While I was high level, my equipment wasn't all *THAT* great, I felt. I could carve through chaos servants all day but was worried about standing up to a balor. As it turns out, I really couldn't. I hacked my way to the secret doors and was headed for the lever when the balors began looking for me. Unfortunately, I only had ONE stack of demonslayer xbow bolts, and that was only enough to take the balor to 'severe'. My melee was awesome... but not THAT good. And I was getting pounded with more corruption. So, I started teleporting back and forth, drawing them off. Managed to get both levers clear long enough to teleport in, throw the switch, and zap a wand of destruction. (Another RNG amusement: a potion of education on D:50 resulted in Alchemy, far too late for me to do anything with it.)
I would have loved to fight Andor Drakon, but I don't know how tough he is, and if I couldn't beat a balor handily... hm. I was even more worried about my corruption -- I had eight or nine by that point. I would cry for years if I got to D:50, cleared it, walked through the gate, and dissolved into primal chaos.
So -- a stop at the unicorn's glade on the way out of the Chain and... VICTORY! Hail to the king, baby.
Another amusing note: I could *not* keep a set of bracers more than a level or two before they got blasted away. I finished the game with bare arms.