Disgusting pool luck, some quests done. What now? (Dark Elf Thief)

[grobblewobble]

Well, time is one thing I have in abundance, right? I don't think I'll hit the 90-day limit just because of [smithing]

You might, actually. Smithing (and mining for ore) do take a lot of time ingame. Then again, it can be fun.

Thanks for the correction _LN_, yes for a chaotic ultra crowning needs to be timed differently. Didn't think of that, chaotic ultras are the most difficult ones.

[Athe]

I just noticed this:

My list of artifacts would be:
- Black Tome
- Crown of Science
- Phial of Galadriel (even though it does have some use nowadays)
- Whirlwind
- Sword of Nonnak
- Big Punch

I saw that Moon Sickle wasn't on that list. Is being able to chaos dip really so good that Moon Sickle is worth holding onto for the entire game? I thought that the Chaos Orbs were been good enough, if making as many !oRC as possible before giving away the scythe somehow wasn't enough.

Also, I see a lot of talk about bringing certain chaotic corpses to the village druid. How exactly do I do that? The Water Temple and ToEF:4 are both pretty far from Terinyo, and I won't always luck out with Food Preservation. I just killed the Snake from Beyond and got the light and nimble corruption while exploring the CoC below the temple (not in that order), which is nice.

I thought I might add a little detail as to why I have all the time in Ancardia: I'm on the 75th day right now, and entering the Circle apparently has to wait until the 91st day.

gut, Ogre Cave and the first square below the staircase in HMV are my stash locations.

Silfir, I have pretty much all the resistances that the elemental gauntlets provide, so I decided to use the gloves of dexterity because I like speed a lot, encumbrance notwithstanding.

I just found an uncursed magical writing set {mediocre}. I think I'm going to write ?oEducation with them - is there a better option? ?oCR sounds too dangerous.

Lastly, I just killed my first doppelganger king while doing the aforementioned exploration. She was really tough (and didn't even say anything amusing when chatted to)! Is there any effective strategy against them that isn't wanding/bolting/spellballing them while berserked to reduce their DV?

[Silfir]

I'm fairly certain grobblewobble simply forgot about the sickle. At the very least, it would be one of my prime candidates to get rid of. (But then, I never use potions of raw chaos, so that might simply be one more of my horrific gaps in judgment.)

Elemental gauntlets - yes, but 2 Dex is a drop in the water. Maybe one point of speed, if even that! The 3 PV alone beat it, plus resistances stack. Also, you suffer only half corruption if you use an orb, and if you end up having to use the water orb, you might not have that one turn to switch out your gloves.

Corpses will rot from blessed to uncursed, from uncursed to cursed, and from cursed to nothing - if you uncurse or bless them every time they drop to cursed, you will have more than enough time.

You can probably write SoCR, but prepare to lose four points of Mana at least each time you do, and only try it with blessed set and scroll and have more than 200 HP. But then, I don't think you'll be having SoCR trouble. Scrolls of education (which you also won't be able to write without loss of Mana) are more of a luxury proposition in my book, since pretty late in the game you won't have the time to level up your new skills anyway. Being a dark elf, you already scored Alertness and Find Weakness anyway.

Doppleganger kings are pretty easy to kill with spells, and I'd consider it the only sensible way. (Merchants can use coins.) However, the selection of spells to use includes not only bolts and ball spells from wands or otherwise, but also Darkness. Doppelgangers are helpless in the dark. I still use wands though. As far as I'm aware, DV doesn't do anything against bolts (the monsters who keep shrugging off spells do so based off a hidden "spell resistance" stat), so there's no reason to cast in berserk.

[grobblewobble]

The corpse of the Chaos Wyrm is the easiest to preserve. Leave it on the ground for a few turns and it will (usually) be cooked.

I'm fairly certain grobblewobble simply forgot about the sickle.

This game has too many crap artifacts.

[JellySlayer]

Personal opinion: if you have never won before, don't try an ultra. I don't care how good your PC is looking. Just get your first win and worry about that later.

Some other notes: being Strained! massively increases the amount of food you need to eat. I think it's about 3-4x more, but I can't remember the figures off the top of my head. The speed penalty is also significant, since you're probably well below 100 speed at this point, which, even with 7lbs, can be hazardous. Unless you're carrying all of your smithing supplies with you at the moment of this screenshot, there's absolutely no reason why you should have 8000+ stones of gear on hand.

Your equipment choices are bizarre. Elemental gauntlets, ankh, and mummy wrapping are all much better than the gear you have now. Ring of slaying is much better than ring of luck. Your PV is not particularly low, but you could easily get 10-15 more points just from rearranging your gear to better choices with virtually no penalty. Your DV is pretty much as high as is functionally worthwhile, but PV is always worth improving.

Doppleganger kings can't see in darkness. It's pretty much the only safe way to kill them in melee.

If you've already got the water orb, then I think it is tower time. There is no reason to do the Stone Circle this early in the game. In fact, there is a very good reason not to--corruption rate doubles just before you get to all the very corrupting levels in the game. Better to race down and finish everything you can before Day 90 hits, then, if you really want, do the stone circle after, it's still there. If you miss it and have to do it at Day 120, that's not a problem either.

[edit]Also, killing the water dragon is very, very hard at your level. Since you aren't lacking for gear anyway, and the Casino is just on the horizon, there's no real need to spend time there. If you want the RCT, just teleport in, speak to Mommy, and teleport out.

[edit2]If you are carrying a corpse back to Terinyo for the druid, or a farmer corpse or something, and if you notice it starting to rot, you can greatly extend its lifespan by dipping it in holy water. Remove curse spell or scrolls of uncursing (probably a waste unless you're desperate) work too. Rotting food moves from bless->uncursed->cursed->gone, although you won't always get a message for every step in the progression.