Please help (I'm new)

[christain80]

I am a new player and i'm having trouble surviving past level 7. I also would like to know if I can cut down trees, how to cook, and smith.

[JellySlayer]

To use most skills, press the 'a' key to access the skills menu. For certain skills, you need some specific items to use them...

You can cut down trees, but only if you have a hatchet. Other axes won't work.
To cook, you need a cooking set and an uncooked piece of meat. I think most/all characters with this skill start with a cooking set.
To smith, you need a hammer, an anvil, some ingots, a metal item to work, and you need to find a forge somewhere in a dungeon. They are generated randomly, though there are a few guaranteed ones later in the game. Anvils are also quite rare.

Have you tried the tutorial? There should be some tips there for new players, as well as some useful gear in the tutorial dungeon.

Maybe you could explain a bit about what's causing you trouble? The easiest thing to do is start with a character that's pretty strong. Try an orc barbarian or a drakeling paladin. They have very good starting equipment and can overpower most low level monsters. Drakelings can also spit acid (press 'm') to kill more dangerous enemies, though this makes you hungry, so keep extra food handy.

[Blasphemous]

JellySlayer pretty much summed up what you need to do.

On my part, the most important advice I can give to new players is to learn when to run.
If you see something you don't know, especially monsters represented by colorful capital letters - close the door and run.
If your HP drops to single digits - switch to coward mode and run. You get bonus speed at low HP if you switch to coward tactics setting, which will save your life.
If you don't run, no matter how strong you are, you will inevitably face a stronger monster.

Second most important advice to give would be to have at least 10 PV.
This makes you almost immune to all the most common monsters that can attack you plus arrow/spear traps.
Low level GORKS - goblins, orcs, rats and kobolds can't penetrate 10 PV and stronger monsters will deal significantly smaller amount of damage.

Finally, something I have already mentioned - tactics.
Switch between berserk, coward, normal and all the in-between tactics settings often, when the situation demands.
Claw bugs always ignore PV and can quickly kill a low HP player, but if you're on coward mode, your DV bonus can save your life.

[christain80]

JellySlayer pretty much summed up what you need to do.

On my part, the most important advice I can give to new players is to learn when to run.
If you see something you don't know, especially monsters represented by colorful capital letters - close the door and run.
If your HP drops to single digits - switch to coward mode and run. You get bonus speed at low HP if you switch to coward tactics setting, which will save your life.
If you don't run, no matter how strong you are, you will inevitably face a stronger monster.

Second most important advice to give would be to have at least 10 PV.
This makes you almost immune to all the most common monsters that can attack you plus arrow/spear traps.
Low level GORKS - goblins, orcs, rats and kobolds can't penetrate 10 PV and stronger monsters will deal significantly smaller amount of damage.

Finally, something I have already mentioned - tactics.
Switch between berserk, coward, normal and all the in-between tactics settings often, when the situation demands.
Claw bugs always ignore PV and can quickly kill a low HP player, but if you're on coward mode, your DV bonus can save your life.

thanks to both of you.

[divij]

select the candle starsign if you are having trouble with early game. take sturdy race/class like orc/drakeling/dwarf and barbarian/fighter/paladin. dont stay for long in the small cave. dont visit puppy cave. stay coward mode in non combat situations. dont drink from pools. add various monsters to 'your' monster memory..like karmic lizard, any spider/spider spawner, oozes etc. and decide how to deal with them. i also recommend doing the healer quest and dont be miserly about asking him for healing if you are low on hp. enjoy!

[mjkittredge]

Id recommend going with a Archer or spellcaster like Priest, Druid, Wizard. Pick a race with high starting toughness and strength - Trolls, Orcs, Dwarves.

The reason being is that you can kill all early monsters from a safe distance while you acquire better equipment. Archers often one-shot early game monsters, and the casters can kill an entire line of monsters with one spell. Archers have the benefit of not having to worry about power points, as long as you have ammo you can keep shooting. Casters early on you only get like 2 or 3 castings of your bolt spells before you're out of PP and then you can be in trouble, so it's good to play a strong race that can melee if they have to. But being able to wipe out 6 monsters in one turn is very powerful.

Priests have an ability so all items you find, their blessed/uncursed/cursed status is known right away when you pick it up. They are decent at both melee fighting and casting spells.

Druids have all monsters that are Animals start off as non-hostile, and they will often get in fights with other monsters, keeping you safe. You can switch places with non-hostile monsters to get away from things attacking you.

Pay close attention to what month you start as, 2 are regarded as the best. 1 is Candle, you rapidly heal wounds, 2 is Raven, you get a significant speed boost so you can outrun a lot of monsters.

Use shields. They grant a large Defensive Value bonus which only increases the longer you use them, as you'll notice the shield skill increasing. A good weapon combo to go with them is Spears which also increase your DV.

Use thrown/ranged weapons with all characters. It's faster to Target monsters to see if they are hostile or not, and can take off a lot of HPs before they close in on you.

Use doorways and narrow corridors to your advantage, don't get surrounded. If you have to kick down a door, stand diagonal to it, you can avoid some traps this way.

[Nobbse]

I think I would recommend an hurthling elementalist fitting Your style. While such a character probably won't be your first winner character, they have good chances to survive the very early game and go on until the Caverns of Chaos. They are pretty forward simple to play, because You don't have to learn spells, they are given to You with every level You rise.

Advantages:

+ several good options to kill early on
(hurthlings are good in throwing rocks right from the start!)
("Burning Hands" will be Your first melee weapon that is powerful even if You are in Coward Mode)

+ a cooking set in the "Tool-Slot" will help You learn cooking
and You won't be running out of food so easily
(one of the most critical problems of newbies... )


Disadvantages:

- You have to pay attention which monsters are a problem for You, for example
Keethrax is very dangerous for You because he shrugs most elemental spells!
so You will get herbalism late in the game

- hurthlings start with low strength,
so they cannot take with them many of their most liked missile weapons (rocks)
I recommend Your first Talent to be "Potent Aura" and then switching between
Hardy - and 'Porter' - Talent line as soon as possible.


Beside that: My first win was indeed a hurthling elementalist, but in the mean time I find them a bit boring to play.

For newbies I won't recommend even thinking about cutting down trees or smithing (only exception weaponsmiths... )