Winner in the making?

[Nero]

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Tell me what you think, I know its just starting but I was wondering if anybody thought I could go all the way with this.

I was right in the middle of a fight and I am about to tele out and heal so thats why the HP is so low.

[miyazaki]

Originally Posted by Nero

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Tell me what you think, I know its just starting but I was wondering if anybody thought I could go all the way with this.

I was right in the middle of a fight and I am about to tele out and heal so thats why the HP is so low.

I don't want to be a buzzkill, but this guy is a mere infant in the pits of Angband. It's a nice start, but this game is a marathon! But here is some advice for keeping your little guy alive.

First, recall back to town and buy 6 ?WoR.

Second, don't ever let your HP get so low. EVER!

Third, wear your rings of resist heat and cold.

Fourth, buy as many scrolls of treasure detection as you can (or a rod, if the BM has one). Start searching for a bow or xbow.

Fifth, buy a staff of teleportation. Buy any ?tele, ?tele level and ?deepdescent you can. ?phase is for getting a better attack position; the others are for escaping danger.

[Nero]

Oh yeah, I definetly realize that I have just begun a tedious journey. There was an xbow in the black market I thought about getting but was unsure.

Thanks for your tips, anyone else? all are welcome.

[buzzkill]

Originally Posted by miyazaki

I don't want to be a buzzkill, but this guy is a mere infant in the pits of Angband. It's a nice start, but this game is a marathon! But here is some advice for keeping your little guy alive.

First, recall back to town and buy 6 ?WoR.

Second, don't ever let your HP get so low. EVER!

Third, wear your rings of resist heat and cold.

Fourth, buy as many scrolls of treasure detection as you can (or a rod, if the BM has one). Start searching for a bow or xbow.

Fifth, buy a staff of teleportation. Buy any ?tele, ?tele level and ?deepdescent you can. ?phase is for getting a better attack position; the others are for escaping danger.

All good advice. In short, never let you WoR supply drop below two. This means never leave town with less than three. Resists are huge, 66% damage reduction, know what you have and what you don't. Teleportation is not a 'fail safe' escape. Teleport level is. Detect treasure is ridiculously cheap when compared to it's usefulness. You should be running when your HP's drop below 100, not below 10 (unless you've got a damn good reason to stick around). Pride and greed have killed off more of my characters than any monster ever could.

If you need cash, don't be afraid to sell the gloves of FA, your westernesse weapon has FA covered, and you'll likely find another source by the time you find a better (non FA) weapon. Also, just me here, but I tend to sell a lot of the stuff I'm wearing/using upon every visit to town if I'm likely to find something just as good upon descent without too much trouble. This includes most rods/staffs/wands of limited usefulness as well as mediocre jewelery and {good} armours. In short (once again) I'd sell just about everything that your wearing or carrying. Maybe keep the Resist Fire/Cold if it makes you feel better. Keep in mind that I've never won this game.

[Sirridan]

The best advice I can give is don't be discouraged. It is quite probable that this character will die, and many others that follow. I've lost a lot that were really close before I finally won.

When you die, learn what killed you and avoid that monster until you're ready, or that circumstance.

Always have escapes, keep resists covered, etc etc, it's all been covered.

Now-a-day's I tend to agree with PowerDiver about diving fast to win. At first you get murdered a lot until you learn, but the deeper you go the better things you get, and on the way down you should be able to kill enough to stay at a decent level, just don't dip down too far below 20 without FA.

Probably one of the best tips I've ever gotten beyond that was don't fight things you need to use consumables in order to kill. (with the exception of hard uniques, bosses, and situations where you can't escape). There are times though when going through your stack of !CCW is worth it, like popping a vault or trying to get to something good.

To make that long story short, it's risk vs reward. Don't take risks that don't have a payoff, and going down to stat-gain and to better equipment is a payoff.

[Pete Mack]

Winner in the Making?
Not if you go below HP/3 (never mind 7 HP!) on even an occasional basis.
Rule 1. Set the HP warn level to 5 (for a warrior; higher for other classes)
Rule 2. Pay attention to it!

Other rules:
3. you will want RFire, RCold and RElec relatively early in the game (though not at the expense of melee damage.)
Wear those resistance rings, and keep an eye open for "rElec (Amulet of Resist Electricity.)
4. With SI (See Invis), FA (free action), and an escape _Teleportation), you are good to go to 1500' which is where loot starts getting significantly better and stat gain begins. Screwing around at shallower levels doesn't teach you much, and doesn't really help you towards winning.
5. Carry a source of recovery from rBlind/rConf/poison, cuts (that means a big stack of !CCW)
6. Don't fight everything.
Things to avoid before dl 30 are:
*Hounds, beyond a very few species. Tey destroy your gear, or are otherwise annoying or dangerous
* Basilisks
* Carrion crawlers (too much effort to kill, even with FA.)
* Wyverns
* Ghasts

[Sirridan]

Originally Posted by Pete Mack

5. Carry a source of recovery from rBlind/rConf/poison, cuts (that means a big stack of !CCW)

An addition to that rule:

5a. When money is less of an issue, every return trip back to town buy out the !CCW in the shop and stash some at home. (!CSW too if you want some healing you don't mind blowing through, although it does *not* cure status ailments every time like criticals do.)

5b. When using potions and things, remember they act as food. Beware of gorging yourself and losing 10 speed because of it, it may end up in a vicious cycle of needing to heal using potions, which add to the food counter, which is giving you a big speed penalty which is causing you to take more damage which means you need to heal...

[Pete Mack]

@Sirridan: right.
Another point: most expert players are more concerned with detecting stairs than with detecting objects, prior to stat gain. Any turn spent in searching for loot (beyond picking up unidentified rings, amulets, rods, and potions*) before 1500' is wasted. Make sure you have enough cash for _Tele; otherwise go get those stat potions, Stat!

Edit:
* These are the objects for extreme diving; also included in that list are wands (if you don't have -TO), and sometimes scrolls.
If you aren't an extreme diver, sure pick up other stuff that might be interesting. But don't go out of your way to pick up a single !CSW or ?ID (etc) unless you are playing ironman. It's less effort to restock in the store.

And go read about optimization as it refers to RPGS or math in general.

[Sirridan]

When it comes to going for interesting things, I still go for boots and gloves I see, in addition to body armor if I'm lacking the base 4, or if I'm down in the low 40's and lacking rPoison.

Early boots of speed are a game changer.

[Nero]

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Got lucky and got boots of speed.