Do you dive aggressively or slowly?

[runequester]

It seems there's three broad ways to go:

1: Explore levels thoroughly before delving deeper.

2: Dive rapidly to get good items sooner.

3: "Grind" levels to build up resources before diving.



So far, I've mostly done number 1: Explorer as much of the level as I can each time, but I rarely repeat levels. I am curious how people play though.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I go as deep as I feel confident about my survivability, especially playing warriors. If I have good gear that covers the 4 most important resists, fire, lightning, cold, acid, and a lot of hit points I dive down as far as I can until it gets dangerous to continue without better gear.

Rogues however can use their stealth to dive down deep and search for good artifacts and items, and piccking and choosing their fights, and running away, knowing when to exscape is what keeps you alive or gets you killed, If you notice your destroying everything getting generated on the DL then dive deeper. You have a greater chance of finding better stuff the deeper you go.

Alot of players including myself will try to get to stat gain levels as quickly as possible, around levels 35-40, to build up stats before going deeper, in ex. beefing the character up for a while before going down.

[Derakon]

I dive quickly until I feel like I'm pushing the limits of sanity, at which point I switch to a clear-what-I-can mode until I get some good gear, at which point I dive again. Of course, even in the second mode I'm still taking down staircases; just not as quickly as when diving.

[d_m]

Originally Posted by runequester

1: Explore levels thoroughly before delving deeper.

2: Dive rapidly to get good items sooner.

3: "Grind" levels to build up resources before diving.

When playing for myself I tend to do #2, but when play testing (which is increasingly what I find myself doing) I do #1 instead to get a better feel for what the level was like.

I don't find #3 to be very much fun. I only do things like this when I need consumables for the final fight.

[Zyphyr]

I do pretty much what Derakon does.

[saarn]

I used to always do 1-- I think my best character ever that way maybe hit Clvl 12. Now I do more of 2. I'm still not nearly as good as some people here (I think my best character hit Dlvl 60 / Clvl 40 and I'm out of practice now). One thing I've noticed is that clearing levels is a horrible way to level up your character or to get good equipment. The random stuff monsters drop gets so much better as you go deeper, while the experience for killing monsters on a given level drops very quickly. By contrast, the experience for killing isolated monsters in deeper levels relative to the risk is way better. (I think this is really one of the tricks-- find someone on their own who's vulnerable and whack them, run the hell away from pack mobs or anything unique or that has scary powers like paralyse or summon-- take the stairs you came down on if you need to, and if there is scary stuff up there, come back down until it is clear).

Then again, I play mages a lot so maybe that colors my thinking.

[will_asher]

Originally Posted by runequester

It seems there's three broad ways to go:

1: Explore levels thoroughly before delving deeper.

2: Dive rapidly to get good items sooner.

3: "Grind" levels to build up resources before diving.

Once I have basic necesities (mainly a few ?WoR, CCW & a decent weapon), I go fast as possible to dL10 or 11. Then I do #1 for awhile, occationally repeating a level hoping for better gear. Once I find free action (often doesn't happen til at least dL18), I start doing #4: which is go down immedietly with a boring level feeling, otherwise explore a level until I see something that looks either too dangerous or too annoying to deal with, then I take the nearest downstairs. If I get to dL~35 without getting significantly tougher (I usually die before getting that far), I do #3 for a while. When I'm more comfortable about going deeper I go back to #4.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by saarn

Then again, I play mages a lot so maybe that colors my thinking.

Mages are probably the hardest class to win with, in no small part because their early game is very difficult. Pathetic survivability and limited offense are big shackles to wear. Just in case you weren't already aware.

[saarn]

Originally Posted by Derakon

Mages are probably the hardest class to win with, in no small part because their early game is very difficult. Pathetic survivability and limited offense are big shackles to wear. Just in case you weren't already aware.

What was the amazing post on playing mages?

Run Away!!!!

I think just reading that made me several times better. . .

[Edit]
here it is: [URL="http://angband.oook.cz/fun/mages.php"]

[Raxmei]

Normally 2, switching to 3 when I feel the dungeon's getting too dangerous. There's not much point to making it a priority to fully explore levels in a normal game. The dungeon will regenerate the level as many times as you want and there aren't any unique features to miss. I'll take the time to explore the level if I'm intentionally putting off descending further or I have reason to suspect something good is there.