Game #25

2781   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 9 -3/69 HPs)
       Slain by a hill giant on Level 11 of the Dungeon.

Another game, another new monster to die to. I found a bunch of magical leather armour in this game, so went with a dodging/stealth character rather than an armour character, but the problem with wearing light armour is that when you fail to dodge, you get hit for a ton of damage.

That is what happened here. Heavy armour would have been preferable to losing 29 hitpoints in a single attack.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight a hill giant.

Game #24 Finished

160914 Jason the Minotaur Berserker (level 17, -2/237 (238) HPs)
       Slain by a tentacled monstrosity on Level 22 of the Dungeon.

I was easily able to clear the Hive and obtain all the food in it. Even without poison resistance, my natural healing combined with the odd potion of healing kept me from ever being in any real danger.

After the Hive, I continued down into the dungeon. I thought the dungeon was only 20 levels deep, but apparently I was wrong. Since going deeper into the dungeon wasn't helping me, I decided to give the Slime Pits a try to see if I could use summoned creatures to survive it. Immediately upon entry to the Slime Pits, I encountered an Acid Blob, which threw acid at me that ate away at my armour. I summoned some creatures and was able to defeat the blob, but not before my armour took a beating. I decided against continuing into the Slime Pits.

I then went into the Vault. There were some tough fights on level 1, but nothing I couldn't handle. However, around level 5, it became a lot tougher, and even after I decided to leave, a bunch of deep elf conjurers appeared and used flaming attacks to destroy all my scrolls. I went back into the dungeon and went down two more levels where I found a couple of portals to Hell. I jumped in, just to see what Hell looked like and was promptly annihilated by a million summoned demons.

I should definitely consider changing from a Hunter to a Berserker, since the ability to go berserk helps out in a lot of early game situations. I also need to do some research into the levels and roughly how powerful you need to be in order to survive them, since I obviously was not prepared for how tough Hell was.

Game #24

This game is a little bit different than my previous games. While loading a new game of Crawl, I noticed the tutorial option and decided to play it to see if it would teach me anything that I did not already know. I chose a Minotaur Berserker and started playing. There was nothing new in the tutorial, but after you reach level 7, the tutorial turns off and you are just playing the game regularly.

Let me just say that Trog is a far more powerful god than Okawaru, my usual choice. He not only grants the ability to go berserk, but also allows you to summon extremely powerful creatures to fight at your side. With Trog's help, I am now at Level 15 and managing to survive, despite my utter lack of poison resistance. I do have a lucky mutation that allows me to eat meat, as well as an amulet of resist slowing, which means that I am able to go berserk whenever I want with little or no penalties.

However, my lack of resistances is my biggest problem right now. I have cleared the first 16 levels of the dungeon, all 10 levels of the Lair, the first 4 levels of the Swamp and the majority of the Orcish Mines, but I have no idea where to go and what to do next. I don't think I have ever had a character get this far, so this is all new ground for me. If I had poison resistance, I'd go through the fifth level of the Swamp, but even with the summoned help, I barely escaped it the first couple of times I tried it.

I know where the Slime Pits, Hive and Vault are, but I am a bit scared to try any of those levels. The Slime Pits really require corrosion resistance, which I don't have. The Hive requires poison resistance, which I don't have and the Vault may require electrical resistance (at least at the lower levels according the information on the Internet), which I don't have.

I have checked every piece of armour that had a prefix and all the jewelry in the game, but nothing grants poison resistance. I don't want to cheat, but I'm considering save scumming, just so that I can check to see if there is any poison resistance that I have missed.

I think what I will try tomorrow is to go through the Hive with the help of my summoned creatures, just to see what it looks like. Who knows, maybe there will be treasure in it.

Game #23

138    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 3, -4/29 HPs)
       Killed from afar by Jessica on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

Ah, the little things that you must remember in order to have a chance at surviving. One of the more obscure rules of playing Crawl is that you should not wear unidentified rings/amulets, even if they are not cursed, as they are not always beneficial.

In this game, I kept an unidentified ring on and encountered Jessica. While shooting her, she hit me with a magical frost and my ring turned out to be a ring of fire. Death soon followed from a magic dart, as I tried to take the ring off.

Lessons Learned
1. Don't wear unidentified jewelry.

Game #22

424    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 5 0/40 HPs)
       Shot with an arrow by a centaur on Level 5 of the Dungeon.

Not a very exciting game. I did not find any interesting items and discovered that fighting a centaur with a crossbow is not the best plan. It works most of the time, but it can really backfire as in this game due to the fact that the centaur will get multiple shots off to each shot of yours.

When I fired, I had 38 hitpoints. The last shot did 13 hitpoints of damage according to the morgue file, which means that the first arrow did 25 hitpoints of damage. Of course, I was five steps away from the centaur, so it is unlikely that I would have survived walking up to it. I guess I should have used a wand.

Message History

The +0 bolt hits the centaur.
The centaur is moderately wounded.
The centaur shoots an arrow.
The arrow hits you!
Ouch! That really hurt!
The centaur shoots an arrow.
The arrow hits you!

.................. 
................. 
................ 
................ 
..<............. 
..###........... 
.   #........... 
    ##........c.) 
     #..@......[. 
     #<.......... 
   ............. 
 ............... 
................ 
 .............. 
  ............ 
   .......... 
      .... 

I hate Crawl.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight a centaur.

Game #21

8071   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 11 -1/89 HPs)
       Killed from afar by a dragon on Level 12 of the Dungeon.

Another high level (for me) character, another new monster encountered and another quick death learning how not to fight said monster. At least it did not take me 10+ games to get another character to level 10 of the dungeon, only to discover how not to fight a dragon.

For next time, I need to go back upstairs as soon as I see the dragon, then go to the Orcish Mines and get enough money to buy the +3 banded mail of fire resistance before returning via a different staircase and nuking the dragon from afar.

I hate Crawl.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight a dragon.

Game #20

125    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 3, -1/26 HPs)
       Slain by a snake on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

Oh how I hate snakes. I encountered three on this level and the first two almost defeated me before the third one actually did. In fact, the second one poisoned me, and while I had a potion of healing, I decided to save it and see if I would recover from the poison naturally. I did, but that took me below 10 hitpoints. While resting to regain those hitpoints, the third snake arrived and took me out.

Stupid game.

Lessons RELearned
1. Use your items if you have them, for you will never have another chance.

Game #19

187    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 3, 0/27 HPs)
       Succumbed to poison on Level 3 of the Dungeon.

Snakes. 'Nuff said.

Stupid game.

Game #18

7055   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 10, -12/79 HPs)
       Mangled by a swamp worm on Level 2 of the Lair of Beasts.

This game truly depressed me, as I played it as perfect as I could, yet died to a situation I had never before encountered. I skipped over level 3, due to a ghost, as well as a later level due to a large number of orc warriors and orc priests. Once I was strong enough, I returned to those levels and cleared them. The Lair was on level 8, but I continued down the main dungeon in order to gain more experience.

As usual, I encountered poisonous creatures on level 11, but had not seen any poison resistance. However, a quick scan through the morgue file indicates that the game did give me a +3 plate mail of poison resistance in a shop on level 5, as well as a +7/+8 blowgun (!). Apparently I also had a staff of poison, which I believe provides partial poison resistance. So, the game was not completely cruel - there were poison resistance options available to me, had I searched for them.

Anyway, after encountering the killer bees, I decided it would be to my benefit to work through the Lair. I easily cleared the first level, though I don't like the fact that there are orcs in the Lair in this new version of Crawl. The Lair is supposed to be home to natural monsters, such as frogs and worms and not anything that can actually carry a weapon.

Anyway, I digress. On the second level, there was water and a very interesting room in the middle of a lake. I had never seen that before and upon opening the door, I was greeted by seven worms. Now worms are not difficult to defeat when you are at level 10, so I started fighting them. As the worms were defeated, swamp worms would appear, and I noticed that there was water within the room, but a lot of it was shallow, so I would be able to walk in.

At the end of the fight, many of the worms were wounded and running away from me, so I stepped into the room to chase them down. I had full hitpoints and nothing indicated that I was in danger. After pressing the L key, I immediately died, as two or three swamp worms ripped into me doing 91 hitpoints of damage before it was even my turn again.

This is my problem with Crawl. How would I ever know that swamp worms hide in the water and get massive bonuses while fighting in the water without first dying to a swamp worm? And how annoying is it to play a character for a long time in order to get to the point where there are swamp worms, just to have that character die learning what not to do?

I hate Crawl.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight a swamp worm.

Game #17

838    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 7, -4/50 HPs)
       Shot with an arrow by a centaur on Level 6 of the Dungeon.

I really tried to play slowly and methodically, but this game did everything it could to defeat me early. I descended to the second dungeon level and after three steps I found myself directly beside Sigmund. My inventory contained one unidentified scroll, 4 unidentified potions and the weapons and armour I started the game with. What exactly are your options in this situation? Running away is difficult at best, due to Sigmund's magic abilities. I thought about it for awhile and could only come up with two semi-viable options.

1. Run away from Sigmund and hope that he does something that gives you a one space gap on him. After that occurs, hope that you can find a staircase before he kills you with magic or before another monster appears and you are stuck.

2. Pick your strongest attack option and try to defeat him before he defeats you.

I chose option #2, betting that the best defense is a good offense. My only skill was with crossbows, so I switched to my crossbow and started firing. Sigmund started swinging and got me down to 1 HP when my final shot finished him off. Truly, that fight was completely random with no skill involved. Running away would have involved just as much randomness, just in a different manner.

Later on in level 2, same situation - I walk out of a hallway and find Ijyb a couple of spaces away and Jessica a couple of spaces behind him, but distracted. I backed up, but she noticed me. Again, I chose to blast away, though escape may have been possible in this situation, given the spacing between me and the monsters. Luckily for me, a couple of bolts finished her off.

After that, things went fairly well, mainly because of all the experience I gained from the early uniques. On level 6, I had just found the temple, picked a god and organized my stash. I then stopped playing slowly and got killed because of it. I walked into a room and discovered a frog and a centaur. A tough combination, so I planned to hit them with my wands. However, rather than just doing that, I moved around trying to get the two monsters to line up for a single lightning bolt. (I really wasn't thinking - I could have just aimed at the centaur and the bolt would have gone through the frog.) My movement allowed them to do a lot of damage and then my lightning bolt missed.

My next move was to use a wand of enslavement on the frog, which worked. I ordered it to attack the centaur and backed off to shoot it from afar. Unfortunately, the centaur was too smart and continued to shoot me until I was dead.

Lessons Learned
1. I really, really, really need to think about my moves when I am in combat.

Game #16

2519   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (Level 9 -3/72 HPs)
       Slain by a slime creature on Level 9 of the Dungeon.

Just to reiterate - stupid game. I'm fairly certain this was the first time I had ever encountered a slime creature, and unless you have died to a creature, you have no idea how to defeat it. Slime creatures are apparently very tough - they must have a lot of hit points and they hit hard.

This is by far my biggest complaint with Crawl. Whenever you encounter a new enemy, it is extremely easy to end up in an unrecoverable situation. Once I get to around level 10 or 11 of the dungeon, every monster I encounter is new, which means that every monster has a very good chance of killing me. Since I only rarely make it that deep, it is very, very hard to learn the tactics required to defeat each enemy.

This game also reminded me of another flaw of Crawl. Poison resistance is absolutely required at certain points in the game, but you are never guaranteed to obtain poison resistance, making certain parts of the dungeon impassable. This occurred on dungeon level 8 in this game, as it contained a number of killer bees. Killer bees are difficult to defeat with poison resistance and absolutely impossible without.

Stupid game.

Game #15

171    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (Level 3 -6/26 HPs)
       Mangled by Sigmund on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

I blame the game on this death. Sigmund is far too powerful to encounter early on in the game, when you have no potions and a bunch of unidentified scrolls. I walked into a room and encountered him. I took a shot with my crossbow and he turned invisible. I then started backing up, but he confused me, making it impossible to read any scrolls or to escape. A couple of blasts of flame and then a scythe finished me off.

Stupid game.

Game #14

21     Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (Level 2 -3/19 HPs)
       Slain by a hobgoblin on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

This game sucked so much, I did not even bother to record exactly what happened. I ran into hitpoint problems early on in the first level, so I ran to a nearby staircase and went down to the second level, where I was surrounded by new enemies and defeated.

Stupid game.

Game #13

417    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (Level 5 -4/44 HPs)
       Killed from afar by Edmund on Level 5 of the Dungeon.

I'm actually surprised this character made it as far as he did. I made one stupid mistake, which was something I had learned in the past but forgotten. Never, ever read scrolls to identify them if you are not wielding a slashing weapon. In this case, I had my crossbow wielded and the first scroll I read was a scroll of curse weapon - that was at the beginning of dungeon level 2. After four dungeon levels and
numerous scrolls, I still had a cursed crossbow as my main weapon. Unfortunately, by level 5 I was out of ammunition and it did not take long for me to die.

Lessons Learned
1. Always wield a slashing weapon when identifying scrolls (at least until curse weapon is found).

Game #12

65     Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 2 0/20 HPs)
       Slain by a snake on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

Snakes are one of the scariest monsters to encounter early on in the dungeon. I managed to get off two crossbow shots before this one was beside me, and its first set of attacks poisoned me twice. With no identified scrolls or potions, I had to just quaff a potion and hope for the best. After I died, I discovered I did not even have a potion of healing on me.

There are no lessons learned from this game. Crawl is extremely unfair at times and this was one of those times.

Game #11

3925   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 10 0/77 HPs)
       Slain by a troll on Level 11 of the Dungeon.

I just could not buy any luck during my fight with this troll. I quaffed a potion of might and did a lot of damage, but I kept pressing incorrect buttons, including accidentally changing to my crossbow while in hand to hand combat. That gave him a couple of free hits which took me down below half hitpoints. I had a couple of wands of lightning, and wands are my weapon of choice when facing an enemy that is too difficult for me. However, this troll was an expert at dodging lightning bolts, and I quickly fell to 1 HP, at which point many of your escape options disappear. I kept shooting lightning bolts and kept missing until I died.

Some of the new stuff in Crawl is very interesting or odd. An interdimensional bazaar?

Lessons Learned
1. Be very careful of your keypresses when fighting a dangerous opponent.

Game #10

111    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 3 -5/25 HPs)
       Slain by a gnoll on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

Ouch. Gnolls on level 2 are bad enough, but gnolls with magic weapons are even worse. A monster that can do 17 hitpoints of damage when you only have 25 hitpoints in total is tough to defeat. I thought I had played the encounter fairly well, but I forgot how weak a character I was. I had softened the gnoll up with crossbow fire and was fairly confident that one good blow with my axe would finish him, but I did not do any damage with my attack and the gnoll hit me hard.

Message History

The giant cockroach bites you but doesn't do any damage.
You slash the giant cockroach!
You kill the giant cockroach!
You hit the gnoll, but do no damage.
The gnoll is almost dead.
The gnoll hits you with a runed halberd!
Ouch! That really hurt!

Lessons Learned
1. You really need to be aware of out of depth monsters, which is one of the problems with Crawl, as it takes a lot of experience with Crawl to recognize out of depth monsters and therefore treat them with care.

Game #9 Finished

8507   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 11, -2/84 HPs)
       Slain by a giant brown frog on Level 3 of the Lair of Beasts.

In some ways I dislike my characters that survive for a long time more than my characters that die quickly, since you spend so much time playing them and they are so powerful, yet they still die very quickly. In this case, the third level of the Lair was a nightmare. It contained large ponds of water filled with electric eels, as well as an obscene number of tough foes to fight through.

I survived my first excursion into level 3 and took out a large number of enemies. After retreating back to the first level to rest, I went back to get the loot. However, there were just as many enemies as I had already defeated waiting for me and my exploration took me between two ponds where three or four electric eels blasted me to pieces.

Despite that, I still died due to my own stupidity. I had a ring of teleport control and a bunch of scrolls of teleportation. I even used one of the scrolls once I got down to 30 or so hitpoints. However, instead of teleporting to a staircase, I instead teleported to the loot I was trying to get to and landed in a nearby room full of even more monsters. Before I could do much of anything, those monsters managed to wipe me out.

Lessons Learned
1. Escape when you have the chance, you idiot.

Game #9 Continued

I still have not died, despite the horror that was the 11th level of the dungeon. Wyverns, hydras and boring beetles, oh my! Somehow I managed to clear the level without dying and I am currently on the third level of the Lair. However, this level is doing its best to defeat me, with 11 (!) orc warriors, electric eels, fire drakes and other assorted nasty creatures. It has been a struggle, but I am surviving.

Game #9

This game is finally going well, but due to the NFL playoffs, I did not get as much time to play the game as I wanted. Bob has currently made it to level 11 of the dungeon and has found the entrance to the Lair, which is where I will go as soon as level 11 is cleared. However, I just encountered a hydra on level 11, so I will need to rest before going back down and blasting it with my wands. My character dump is provided below:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.4.4 (crawl-ref) character file.

Bob the Quickloader (Mountain Dwarf Hunter)        Turns: 11120, Time: 02:56:38

HP  21/66        AC 17     Str 18      Exp: 9/3985 (92), need: 1097
MP   5/5         EV  7     Int  9      God: Okawaru ***
Gold 298         SH  0     Dex 17      Spells:  0 memorised,  8 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   c - orc hammer
Res.Cold  : + . .   Warding    : .   n - +2 orc chain mail {rC+}
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : .   i - +2 helmet
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   (no cloak)
                                     h - +1 pair of dwarf gloves
Sust.Abil.: .       Rnd.Telep. : .   l - +1 pair of elf boots
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: +   (no amulet)
Res.Slow  : .       Levitation : .   v - +1 ring of dexterity
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .   q - ring of teleport control

@: somewhat resistant to magic, fairly stealthy
A: blurry vision 1, Int +1, Dex +1
a: Might, Renounce Religion


You are on level 10 of the Dungeon.
You worship Okawaru.
Okawaru is greatly pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

You have visited 2 branches of the dungeon, and seen 12 of its levels.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - a +3,+3 orcish war axe
 b - a +1,+0 dwarven crossbow
 c - an uncursed runed orcish hammer (weapon)
 u - an uncursed glowing sling of frost
 w - a lajatang
Missiles
 x - 162 stones (quivered)
 z - 39 sling bullets
 F - 19 +2 dwarven bolts
Armour
 h - a +1 pair of dwarven gloves (worn)
 i - a +2 helmet (worn)
 l - a +1 pair of elven boots (worn)
 n - a +2 orcish chain mail of cold resistance (worn)
 D - a +2 leather armour of fire resistance
Magical devices
 s - a wand of lightning (7)
 y - a wand of confusion (6)
 H - a wand of draining (4)
 I - a wand of fire {zapped: 3}
 K - a wand of magic darts {zapped: 1}
Comestibles
 e - a bread ration
 k - a meat ration
Scrolls
 d - a scroll of identify
 f - a scroll of teleportation
 g - a scroll of remove curse
 j - 2 scrolls of detect curse
 t - a scroll of magic mapping
Jewellery
 q - a ring of teleport control (left hand)
 v - a +1 ring of dexterity (right hand)
 M - an uncursed ring of ice
Potions
 m - a potion of invisibility
 o - 3 potions of healing
 r - 2 potions of heal wounds


 You have 92 experience left.

   Skills:
 + Level 3 Fighting
 + Level 6 Axes
 + Level 2 Slings
 + Level 10 Crossbows
 - Level 1 Darts
 + Level 1 Throwing
 + Level 4 Armour
 + Level 2 Dodging
 + Level 2 Stealth
 + Level 1 Traps & Doors
 - Level 1 Evocations


You have 8 spell levels left.
You don't know any spells.

Overview of the Dungeon

Branches: (use G to reach them)
Temple: D:6       Orc   : D:9       Lair  : D:11      

Shops: (use Ctrl-F "shop" to reach them)
D:5: *  D:6: (


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

Your mind is acute (Int +1).
You are agile (Dex +1).
Your vision is a little blurry.


Message History

The giant bat misses you.
The giant bat hits you but doesn't do any damage.
There is a stone staircase leading up here.
You can't use spell magic! I'm afraid it's scrolls only for now.
The giant bat hits you but doesn't do any damage.
You climb upwards.
There is a stone staircase leading down here.

#.###### ##.....................
#.#       #...........###.......
#.#       #...........# #.......
#.#       #...........# #.######
#.#       #.........(.# #.# 
#.#       #####.####### #.# 
#.#           #.#      ##.#### 
#.#######     #.#      #.....# 
#.......#######@####   #.....# 
......#..##........#   #.....###
......##.##........# ###........
#.....##...........# #.......###
#.....####.........###.#.....# 
####.##  #.........##..#.....# 
   #.#   ##........##.#####.## 
   #.#    #........##.#   #.# 
   #.#    #...........#   #.# 


There are no monsters in sight!

Vanquished Creatures
  A hippogriff (D:11)
  A troll (D:10)
  A manticore (D:10)
  3 ogres
  3 centaurs
  An ice beast (D:9)
  A gila monster (D:10)
  5 boring beetles (D:11)
  Sigmund (D:4)
  A giant lizard (D:10)
  4 giant frogs
  2 orc warriors
  An ugly thing zombie (D:11)
  5 imps
  4 orc wizards
  4 giant ants
  3 orc priests
  A big kobold zombie (D:9)
  A giant lizard zombie (D:7)
  3 gnolls (D:8)
  2 worms
  11 snakes
  Terence (D:2)
  An ooze (D:1)
  A giant eyeball (D:8)
  10 giant cockroaches
  8 goblins
  10 hobgoblins
  11 kobolds
  48 orcs
  2 quokkas
  12 rats
  A small snake (D:11)
  14 giant bats
  6 giant geckos
  2 giant gecko zombies
  5 giant newts
  10 jackals
  A quokka zombie (D:6)
  A snake zombie (D:7)
203 creatures vanquished.

Vanquished Creatures (others)
  A scorpion (D:8)
  A jelly (D:8)
  A giant gecko (D:4)
  A jackal (D:5)
  2 orcs
  2 giant newts
  A kobold (D:6)
9 creatures vanquished.

Grand Total: 212 creatures vanquished

Notes
Turn   | Place   | Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
     0 | D:1     | Bob, the Mountain Dwarf Hunter, began the quest for the Orb.
     0 | D:1     | Reached XP level 1. HP: 14/14 MP: 0/0
   241 | D:1     | Reached XP level 2. HP: 16/19 MP: 1/1
   987 | D:1     | Reached skill 1 in Axes
  1205 | D:2     | Reached XP level 3. HP: 26/27 MP: 1/1
  1779 | D:2     | Noticed Terence
  1793 | D:2     | Defeated Terence
  1844 | D:3     | Reached XP level 4. HP: 32/33 MP: 2/2
  1869 | D:3     | Reached skill 1 in Armour
  1920 | D:3     | Reached skill 5 in Crossbows
  2700 | D:3     | Reached XP level 5. HP: 38/39 MP: 3/3
  2724 | D:3     | Reached skill 1 in Stealth
  3095 | D:4     | Noticed Sigmund
  3128 | D:4     | Defeated Sigmund
  3606 | D:5     | Entered Level 5 of the Dungeon
  3998 | D:5     | Gained mutation: You are agile (Dex +1).
  3998 | D:5     | Gained mutation: Your vision is a little blurry.
  4695 | D:6     | Reached XP level 6. HP: 33/44 MP: 3/3
  4844 | D:6     | Reached skill 6 in Crossbows
  4969 | D:6     | Reached skill 1 in Darts
  4984 | D:6     | Reached skill 1 in Slings
  5003 | D:6     | Reached XP level 7. HP: 51/51 MP: 4/4
  5039 | D:6     | Reached skill 5 in Axes
  5441 | Temple  | Entered the Ecumenical Temple
  5542 | Temple  | Became a worshipper of Warmaster Okawaru
  5599 | Temple  | Gained mutation: Your mind is acute (Int +1).
  6030 | D:7     | Reached skill 7 in Crossbows
  6035 | D:7     | Acquired Okawaru's first power
  6576 | D:7     | Reached XP level 8. HP: 57/58 MP: 5/5
  7652 | D:8     | Reached skill 8 in Crossbows
  8598 | D:7     | Reached skill 1 in Traps & Doors
  8678 | D:10    | Entered Level 10 of the Dungeon
  9035 | D:10    | Reached skill 9 in Crossbows
  9056 | D:10    | Reached XP level 9. HP: 22/66 MP: 5/5
  9112 | D:10    | Reached skill 1 in Throwing
  9811 | D:10    | Reached skill 1 in Evocations
 10030 | D:5     | Got a steaming jade ring
 10106 | Temple  | Identified the ring "Xyumeof" (You bought it in a shop on level 5 of the Dungeon)
 10406 | D:11    | Noticed a boring beetle
 10426 | D:11    | Defeated a boring beetle
 10513 | D:11    | Reached skill 10 in Crossbows
 10536 | D:11    | Noticed a boring beetle
 10557 | D:11    | Defeated a boring beetle
 10610 | D:11    | Noticed a boring beetle
 10619 | D:11    | Defeated a boring beetle
 10702 | D:11    | Noticed a boring beetle
 10748 | D:11    | Defeated a boring beetle
 10758 | D:11    | Noticed a boring beetle
 10773 | D:11    | Defeated a boring beetle

Game #8

333    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 4, -1/33 HPs)
       Slain by a gnoll on Level 6 of the Dungeon.

I'm still not used to all the new features that have been added to Crawl since last year. Apparently there are now traps where you fall through a shaft to a lower dungeon level. That happened to me here, where my poor level 4 hunter fell from dungeon level 4 all the way to dungeon level 6. While I was attempting to find a way back up to level 5, I encountered 3 gnolls and 4 jackals.

I did quite well, killing 2 of the gnolls and all the jackals (thank goodness for an identified potion of might in my backpack), but I got a little overconfident with the last gnoll. I didn't notice that he was armed with a halberd and I let my hitpoints go down too low.

Lessons Learned
1. Watch your hitpoints very, very closely. Once below 50%, start looking for escape options (or keep moving until your hitpoints go back up).

Game #7

401    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 5, 0/43 HPs)
       Slain by an ogre on Level 5 of the Dungeon.

I was playing quite well until arriving on level 5. I had defeated Terence, Jessica, and a ghost of Bob. Level 5 contained at least two ogres, since I killed one and was killed by the second. I went with poisoning the ogres with a blowgun and poisoned needles and it would have worked fine except for the fact that an imp teleported behind me as I was leading the sick ogre down a hallway. Unable to continue moving, I was forced to fight the ogre face to face. I only had 17 hitpoints (as I had already been hit a couple of times) and the ogre removed all of them in a single blow.

Lessons Learned
1. Crawl is cruel. I really did not have any options in this situation, other than to hope that the random number generator would be nice to me.

Game #6

797    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 7, -8/57 HPs)
       Killed from afar by an orc priest on Level 6 of the
                                   Dungeon.

I was playing very well until I got impatient with the game, as this game was all about giving me enemies that I was not able to handle. I had to completely abandon level 4 due to the hippogriff (!) and ghost of Bob that I was unable to defeat. Level 5 contained a couple of jellies, but I was prepared (with a sling and stones) and managed to defeat them before falling through a trap into level 6. Level 6 was my final undoing, as it contained a number of orcs, including orc priests.

The first priest I encountered hit me hard, but I was able to escape to level 7 to rest, before returning to level 6 and making a pincushion out of him. By the time I encountered the second, I was sick of running away and foolishly stood and attacked him. I don't know what god the orc priests worship, but he hits you like a ton of bricks.

Lessons Learned
1. Orc priests are very dangerous.

2. If you want to finish the game, keep running away from dangerous opponents.

Game #5

103    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 2, -1/19 HPs)
       Slain by a snake on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

I really want to blame the game on this one, as snakes can be difficult opponents early on in the game. They are faster than you, which means you cannot outrun them and they are poisonous, which increases the damage they do. This snake quickly poisoned me and all I had were three unidentified potions. I drank the first one, which turned out to be a potion of paralysis and Bob stood there while the snake devoured him.

However, it was my fault that I was in that situation. I had walked into a large open area with a snake, a goblin and a rat. I opened fire with my crossbow, but as the goblin was closest, it was the default target, so I killed it first. I should have identified the snake as a more dangerous foe and shot it before it could close to hand to hand combat range. That may not have resulted in my survival, but it would have given me a better chance.

Pity. I actually obeyed some of my lessons learned this game, such as the goblin on level 1 with a runed dagger who took me down to 6 hitpoints. I danced around a pillar until I was able to defeat him, rather than standing around and dying.

Lessons Learned
1. Shoot the most dangerous monster first.

Game #4

153    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 3, 0/27 HPs)
       Slain by a gnoll on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

ARGH! Even when you play correctly, this game still finds a way to kill you. Actually, the interface found a way to kill me, and I am going to have to spend some time researching keybindings before playing again. I am playing on a laptop, which means I do not have a keypad, so the automated resting command (SHIFT + Key5) is not easy to press (as it would be something like SHIFT + FN + I). Therefore, I was resting by just holding down the period key, which doesn't stop you from resting when an enemy appears. The gnoll appeared, walked up to me and bludgeoned me to death before I was able to take my finger off the period key.

Lessons Learned
1. Use the features of the game properly.

Game #3

343    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 5, -6/41 HPs)
       Mangled by an orc warrior on Level 4 of the Dungeon.

I still have not learned that every fight is not a fight to the death. I think I have realized one of the main problems with my gameplay - whenever I first encounter an enemy, I make a good decision as to whether or not I should fight them. However, once that decision has been made, I blindly attack until someone is dead. That is what happened here. I was a long way away from the orc warrior, hit him with a wand of confusion and was able to hit him with a number of bolts before he ended up beside me. He was hurting and I decided I could defeat him in hand to hand combat. I continued to attack him, even once he got my hitpoints below 10. Thus, my untimely death.

I did use up all my potions of healing, but unfortunately, potions of healing do not help against an opponent that can hit you for as much damage as the potion heals. Another lesson learned.

Lessons Learned
1. Orc warriors are dangerous to low level characters and should be avoided.
2. Re-evaluate the combat whenever your hitpoints drop below 50%.
3. Potions of healing are for healing poison, not for healing damage in the middle of combat.

Game #2

45    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 2, -1/22 HPs)
      Slain by a worm on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

In my second game, I continued to make rookie mistakes. I walked down a set of stairs and arrived in an open area with a worm right beside me. A goblin was a few steps away. One of the first rules of Crawl (it is even in the quickplay guide) is to never fight more than one monster at a time. I should have gone back upstairs immediately, dragging the worm with me, or I should have moved into a hallway where only one monster could attack me. Instead, I stood there, attempting to fight two enemies and died a quick death.

Not a very interesting game, nor is the information I obtained earth-shattering.

Lessons Learned
1. Never fight more than one monster at a time.

Game #1

173    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 3, -1/27 HPs)
       Slain by Sigmund on Level 3 of the Dungeon.

It has been a very long time since I last played Crawl, and it showed on my first game, where I completely forgot how dangerous the named NPC spellcasters are. Sigmund was invisible, blasting me with magic and swinging a very dangerous scythe. I never should have fought to the death. It is easy to forget that you do not have to defeat every monster nor do you have to explore every level in order to win the game. If you encounter an enemy that is too difficult for you to defeat right now, the correct solution is to not fight. You can always come back once you have gained a few levels of experience. Unfortunately, one of the pieces of information that you cannot learn until you die is what monsters are dangerous to a character of your level.

As Sigmund had a very slow scythe, it would have been very easy to get one space away from him, at which point I could have popped down to Level 4 and continued exploring the dungeon.

Lessons Learned
1. For any given character level, certain monsters are dangerous, in that you must be extremely careful when fighting them. If you fight, you should fight with every attack in your inventory and you should consider retreat as soon as possible, if your first attacks are not successful.

For low level characters, the named NPCs with spellcasting abilities (Sigmund, Jessica) are dangerous.

2. Escaping from a fight is always an option and should be considered in any battle where things are not going well. Defining not going well is difficult, but many good Crawl players consider leaving a fight the moment they are below 50% of their hit points. For now, I will use the same rule. I should remember to update my configuration file so I get a warning at the proper point.

Diary of a Mediocre Crawl Player

For many years I have had a love/hate relationship with Crawl, a simple text based RPG.

I love it because it is a very elegant RPG system, with a lot of interesting monsters, rules and levels, and it reminds me of a very big brother of the original Rogue, which I spent many hours playing as a youth.

I hate it because it is a vicious and cruel game, where you have but a single life and no option to save. Well, you can save the game, but that also quits the game, and when your character dies, all the saved game information is deleted. It also contains a fair amount of "spoilers" - information that is required to survive during gameplay that you cannot discover until after you have been killed by not knowing it. Basically, in order to survive many of the situations in Crawl, you must first have encountered those situations in order to know what not to do. For example, almost every Crawl player has had a early character die due to eating kobold meat, as the only way to learn that kobold meat is poisonous is to eat it.

As the name of this blog states, I am not a very good Crawl player, even when I know the information required. I read about people who complete the game on a regular basis and it amazes me, as so few of my characters make it past level 5 of the dungeon. And that is one of the problems with getting better at Crawl. The majority of the experts long ago mastered the lower levels and can no longer provide any useful information to people struggling with the early part of the game. They are too concerned with the late game, or with crazy character combinations that make the game even more difficult. Any information they provide is often in the form of commandments, with absolutely no rationale as to why that information is important. (My favorite - when asked what is the simplest character to play, most reply with a Troll Berserker, but then add the caveat, "provided you know when to Beserk," and then add no more information. I won't tell you how many of my Troll Berserkers have died in the low levels, attempting to figure out when I should go Beserk.)

So, the goal of this blog is to document my Crawl games in order to allow myself and others to critique them and discover the techniques required to successfully complete a game of Crawl. In order to provide a point of reference, I am going to always play the same character - Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter. I like the ranged ability of the Hunter class, as it allows you to defeat enemies from afar, which is a great help. However, even ranged characters end up in hand to hand combat, and Mountain Dwarfs are sturdy and good with an axe. I am also going to play the latest version of the Stone Soup build (v 0.4.4), as I really love the automation features of Stone Soup, which limit the amount of pointless movement commands I have to make.

My primary goal is not to defeat the game, but to simply obtain a single rune. I plan to go for the rune in the Swamp, as I have actually made it to the level with that rune in the past, so I know that I should be able to do it, and at least in the original Crawl, it was the easiest rune to obtain. As a secondary goal, I want a large percentage of my characters to make it to level 10 of the dungeon, so that it doesn't take me as many attempts to get the rune.

I am going to try and play one game each day, though there will be many times where that is not possible. As long as I end up playing around one game each day, I will be happy.