Stairhopping the ID for Tension Rooms

[Superteeth]

Hello everyone. I am currently trying to get an UNE with a trollish barbarian. I know that is a terrible idea, but I am not good enough to survive the early game with melee-weak classes. I am currently on level 23 after doing 4 of the temples, have obtained the Medal of Chaos, and am trying to get the quest to kill Filk. I was not lucky at all with wishes, which was what I needed to get wish for the Emperor Moloch to get levels. Now I am stuck at a crossroads: Either continue on to a normal ending, or try to gain the 22 levels I need without being corrupted to death.

I have an idea, though, and was hoping to get some input on whether or not it would work. I know that stairhopping for items has been fixed in the latest version of ADOM, but can you still stairhop for tension and threat rooms? I think I will go to level 30-40 in the ID, stairhop back and forth, and search the level if I get the message for a threat or tension room. Hopefully I will get rooms filled with high-experience monsters to kill, get to level 45, and get back to the surface before dying (maybe I will get some wishes, too). Thanks in advance for any help.

As an aside, does anyone else think it is a bit much for trolls to require at least three times the experience to advance to level 50? They have a terrible maximum age, and huge penalties to learning spells (along with huge penalties to every stat but strength and toughness). Maybe requiring twice the experience would be enough, because it is painful to try to get an ultra ending with trolls as is.

[LFk]

Trolls have that penalty for a reason. They are extremely strong and tough, and can keep a PC of any class alive early by virtue of their starting Str/To alone. I don't think "well, we should consider that some people want to ultra with a Troll, and it's too hard" should be a a valid argument for reducing their exp requirement.

Go do a normal ending. Scumming for the requisite XP to get a Troll to level 45 is going to be a painful experience. I don't think tension room hopping is going to produce the result you hope for, as you'll need it to be filled with exceptionally dangerous monsters (Titans, Molochs), whereas you're more likely to get tension rooms of extremely experienced, but vanilla monsters. Monster generation is allegedly going to be tweaked in pr21, so it may or may not be easier to level up then. You could consider scumming the BDC for wishes, but I'd still figure that you'll be corrupted to death before you get what you need.

I'd say if an ultra is your goal, Troll was not the right way to go. Try again with another class. You can pretty much play any Barbarian, and he/she will be massively powerful in melee, you don't really need to be a troll on top of the most powerful melee class in the game. Dwarves and Drakelings won't go down easy, try them.

[Carter]

Go do a normal ending. Scumming for the requisite XP to get a Troll to level 45 is going to be a painful experience. I don't think tension room hopping is going to produce the result you hope for, as you'll need it to be filled with exceptionally dangerous monsters (Titans, Molochs), whereas you're more likely to get tension rooms of extremely experienced, but vanilla monsters. Monster generation is allegedly going to be tweaked in pr21, so it may or may not be easier to level up then. You could consider scumming the BDC for wishes, but I'd still figure that you'll be corrupted to death before you get what you need.

if he goes down to say, level 50 or so and runs away from anything that isn't a wyrm tension room its doable. But its going to be alot of work and corruption.

I had a troll make level 45 once before D50, wizard troll who abused invis/slow xp multiplers - and he only just made the levels. Probably not feasible with a troll barb

[grobblewobble]

Yes, you can stairhop for tension rooms. Eventually you'll get some big xp room like wyrms or greater molochs.

An easier way would have been to kill eternal guardians, but it looks like it's too late for that.

[JellySlayer]

Troll ultras are terrible. Just go for a regular win. You might be able to get a couple levels clearing the BDC, killing the ancient karmic wyrm, and Casino shopkeeper, plus Mana Temple, but it's doubtful you'll be more than level 32 after all that.

If you really want to do a troll ultra, play an assassin since I believe they get into the guild at a lower level. But better just to do a drakeling or something.

[Superteeth]

Well, I am at it in I:45. I have gained three levels in a relatively short period of time, along with two potions of cure corruption. If I keep getting lucky with the potions of cure corruption, maybe it is doable with a lot of patience. I can still salvage this character if I get lucky enough. I still have the unicorn to cure corruptions with once, which means I can get a full set of corruptions in the ID, get them removed, go back to the ID, and come back out with maybe half of the maximum corruptions, which will not be so bad since you need to be extremely corrupted to enter the chaos plane. If worse comes to worse, I will just get the regular ending (or die).

I was thinking about killing eternal guardians, but I am fairly certain I would not have been able to beat them.

[JellySlayer]

I was thinking about killing eternal guardians, but I am fairly certain I would not have been able to beat them.

Strategic use of alarm traps can apparently make this considerably easier.

[Superteeth]

Peas, I forgot about that. Maybe next time.

[Superteeth]

I have reached level 45, and only have 11 corruptions total. Three greater moloch threat rooms, three titan threat rooms, and a greater titan threat room made up the bulk of my experience gains. And all this before day 180 (it is now day 179 and a couple of hours, I went in on day 174). Now I can get the Filk quest.

[Grey]

Nicely done. I've gotten a troll from level 1 to 50 in the infinite dungeon before - took a long time, but it's certainly possible. Wasn't that bad for corruption either. But then the game crashed when I gave Khelly his amulet...

Hopefully you don't die from something stupid after all that effort :-/