Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup - The Soupening

I created an account but can't play right now. I'm working on/coordinating a QA release/test/release cycle this weekend.

I'll check it out soon.

-BEP

It's the perfect game to play at work while waiting for other stuff to happen.

I mean, uh, not that I know that firsthand, I, uh, heard some people say that, yeah.

I was waiting on a build so decided to give it a shot. I got down to level 3 as some kind of Dwarf Necro but couldn't figure out how to heal since they don't auto-heal. I tried all the potions and scrolls I found, but none were healing. I kinda forgot I chose Necro so never even looked to see if I had any spells. Oops.

Right after I went down to level 2 I fell down to level 3. I immediately ran into what I think was a zombie centaur and he waxxed me. I was down to 4HP at that point.

Definitely has that old-school Rogue feel with modern trappings. Learning the inputs will be the hardest part.

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:

I was waiting on a build so decided to give it a shot. I got down to level 3 as some kind of Dwarf Necro but couldn't figure out how to heal since they don't auto-heal. I tried all the potions and scrolls I found, but none were healing. I kinda forgot I chose Necro so never even looked to see if I had any spells. Oops.

Right after I went down to level 2 I fell down to level 3. I immediately ran into what I think was a zombie centaur and he waxxed me. I was down to 4HP at that point.

Definitely has that old-school Rogue feel with modern trappings. Learning the inputs will be the hardest part.

-BEP

This should help. I think it is still accurate for the latest version. It is pretty close, at least. They very seldom change this stuff.

Edit: also, some getting started tips:
1. Minotaur Berserker is a good early character. Start with an axe. If you get into trouble, berserk (hit 'aa') - realize that you need to be sure you kill everything that has seen you, the after effects of berserking will leave you slowed and unable to berserk for a little while. Duck around a corner and heal up (press '5' to wait/rest).
When you get two pips of piety (look in the upper right hand of the screen for your piety) with Trog you get "Trog's Hand" which is the best ability Trog can give you: Regen + MR++. MR (magic resistance) is very important in the game, as a berserker, anytime you see anything that might hex you (orc wizrds for instance), press 'ab' and get a huge boost to MR, negating most of what they can do to you. Regen is always awesome as well.
Later you get "Brothers in Arms" which summons a troll or ogre that will berserk and fight with you. Later still, Trog will gift you weapons (sometimes they are even useful).
2. If you play a melee character, you can get by with what is called "O-tabbing" - hit 'o' to autoexplore and 'tab' to auto attack. It helps speed up the early game where there is not a lot that is too scary. Just make sure to pay attention, things can go pear shaped in a hurry.
3. A lot of the stuff on the ground is garbage but always be on the lookout for upgrades to your equipment. Armor is very important. If you start as a Minotaur Berserker, you will want to get out of that animal skin as soon as you can. The hierarchy is robes/skins < leather < ring < scale < chain < plate < other stuff you can find out later. Generally, the heavier the armor the more protection it gives but it also penalizes you, making you miss more. Train Armor ('m' key to bring up skills) to mitigate these penalties (you also need to be strong enough to wear it, check out the "endurance rating" - this needs to be <= your strength).
4. Tons of other stuff. If you have questions please ask. The game is very deep and complex.

Edit edit: I skimmed this - Michael, you broke your ankle?!? Man, I am sorry to hear that, I hope it is not too bad and you make a speedy recovery!

tboon wrote:

It's the perfect game to play at work while waiting for other stuff to happen.

I mean, uh, not that I know that firsthand, I, uh, heard some people say that, yeah.

I've also heard - from a friend of a friend - that if your work has a web blocker it usually won't catch the SSH connection via Putty or a chrome shell to play via console. Though I would certainly not do that myself during lunchtime or while I'm waiting for tests to run.

And yes, thanks for the kind thoughts to all - just a small fracture in one of the bones of my foot after the harsh mistress gravity had her way with me. 6-8 weeks on crutches and a boot. But for right now I have the weekend off and plenty of couch time for Hollow Knight and Crawl.

Okay, I can't remember this one, and I didn't see it in the above article. It's driving me crazy, but...

What's are the keystrokes for finding, drawing a path to, and cycling through stairs down/stairs up that you aren't near?

X to go into full-map exploration mode.

< or > to cycle through the up or down stairs, respectively.

[ or ] to peek at the floor above or below, respectively. If your cursor is currently on a stair, then your cursor will be placed on the equivalent stair on the other floor, if you've seen it already.

And then hit Return to go to the tile you've selected.

Thanks for the tips.

I'm level 5, on level 4 of the dungeon, doing very well and just put on some cursed armor. It was glowing, what choice did I have? I _had_ to try it on!

Do I just start over? I'm doing the Minotaur Berserker thing and have a buttload of scrolls and potions that I don't what they are. I haven't tried any of them.

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

I'm level 5, on level 4 of the dungeon, doing very well and just put on some cursed armor. It was glowing, what choice did I have? I _had_ to try it on!

Do I just start over? I'm doing the Minotaur Berserker thing and have a buttload of scrolls and potions that I don't what they are. I haven't tried any of them.

Nevvvvvvermind. I hit the 'o' key and immediately ran into Dowan and Duvessa. I didn't last long. I could have tried to run to some stairs, but I figured since I had this cursed armor on anyway, I would fight them and at least see how tough they were. I got Dowan low on HP before I died.

Annnnnnnd, it begins again...

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:
bepnewt wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

I'm level 5, on level 4 of the dungeon, doing very well and just put on some cursed armor. It was glowing, what choice did I have? I _had_ to try it on!

Do I just start over? I'm doing the Minotaur Berserker thing and have a buttload of scrolls and potions that I don't what they are. I haven't tried any of them.

Nevvvvvvermind. I hit the 'o' key and immediately ran into Dowan and Duvessa. I didn't last long. I could have tried to run to some stairs, but I figured since I had this cursed armor on anyway, I would fight them and at least see how tough they were. I got Dowan low on HP before I died.

Annnnnnnd, it begins again...

-BEP

So when that happens you are stuck with whatever you put on until you read a "Remove Curse" scroll. People have different strategies for identifying scrolls - some people just read them as they get them, some people only read duplicates, some people wait until they reach the 4th level to read the dupes. Why the 4th level? This is the first level the Temple can show up on - if one of the scrolls you read is Magic Mapping, you can find where the Temple is and head toward it. The Temple contains altars for some of the gods in the game. Having a god is pretty important as they give you benefits (like with Trog). If you start as a berserker, you already have a god, so Temple is not important but if you play as another class it is important to start worshipping a god as soon as you can to get piety with them earlier and start reaping the god's benefits sooner.

Regardless, reading unknown scrolls is mostly safe; there are a couple that can be dangerous, depending on the situation (Scroll of Noise will attract enemies, Scroll of Vulnerability will half your MR, etc.) but by and large, they are safe to read ID if you are not in sight of any monsters, especially scrolls you find early on.

Quaff IDing potions, on the other hand, is dangerous, there are a lot more potions with negative effects. Also, potions are generally more powerful and less numerous than scrolls and so should be saved. Once you have some Scrolls of Identification, ID your potions using those.

bepnewt wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

I'm level 5, on level 4 of the dungeon, doing very well and just put on some cursed armor. It was glowing, what choice did I have? I _had_ to try it on!

Do I just start over? I'm doing the Minotaur Berserker thing and have a buttload of scrolls and potions that I don't what they are. I haven't tried any of them.

-BEP

...and when you are not playing, I still recommend UltraViolent4's videos

...this one being particularly helpful in learning the ropes for me. He's a good teacher with other builds as well.

EDIT: I thought someone mentioned this before, but just in case, UV4 has a good crawl guide as well here. My apologies if I'm being repetitive, but I thought it was worth the risk.

Anyone played with this before? Based on the description, it seems like it will reflect lots of stuff like spells and enchantments, but at 9 skill I'm at 0%. I'm tempted to try it, but I don't have a solid one-handed weapon yet. I also have a skill manual for shields, so it's cheap to dump some points in it to test it out. Wondering if it's worth the reduction to a one-hander. It sounds like it might be totally awesome at higher skill ratings.

o - the +3 warlock's mirror .
A handheld array of hexagonal mirrors, synthesized from a truly exotic substance and polished to a blinding sheen. A skilled user will find that it can reflect almost anything, even spells that pierce through lesser materials and hexes with no physical manifestation at all.

Base shield rating: 3 Skill to remove penalty: 4.0
Your skill: 9.1

With your current SH, it has a 0% chance to reflect enchantments and other normally unblockable effects.

It reflects blocked things back in the direction they came from.

Thanks for even more tips.

I found the Temple area on level 4 and wasn't sure what to do there since I had a God. Looks like 'nothing' was the right choice.

I'm on level 5 and am in an interesting spot. Lots of baddies near me - the orcs are in a room or something but I guess some of the walls are glass because I can see in and they can see me. I have a bad feeling this is not going to end well. Especially since I'm still using my starting +0 Hand Axe and have +0 Chain and a buckler for armor.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Hboy459.png)

-BEP

Ultimately it's still a buckler. For the amount of skill you'd have to put in to make it worthwhile, you'd probably be better off with a shield or a large shield on a MiBe. Trog's Hand will give you MR++ whenever you need it.

bepnewt wrote:

I'm on level 5 and am in an interesting spot.

That's a player ghost vault, with some bonus monsters to fight. The doors are magically locked, meaning that only you, the player, can open it. I'd recommend not opening it now -- go get a bunch more experience, then come back later (like after Lair) to bust some ghosts.

merphle wrote:

Ultimately it's still a buckler. For the amount of skill you'd have to put in to make it worthwhile, you'd probably be better off with a shield or a large shield on a MiBe. Trog's Hand will give you MR++ whenever you need it.

Thanks! Question no longer needs an answer, though...

I died on Vault 1. Gosh, that was unexpected. I had grabbed the Spider rune and was doing pretty well. Then I got marked on Vault 1, and suddenly I wasn't doing very well. Still, I thought I had things under control when bang, I was dead. Funny how that happens. I expected to die, but just not there. I'm not sure I've ever died on Vault 1.

Overall, I'm happy with my first run though. It's been a loooong while. Things are starting to come back some.

Are there no more wands of healing or wands of hasting?

merphle wrote:
bepnewt wrote:

I'm on level 5 and am in an interesting spot.

That's a player ghost vault, with some bonus monsters to fight. The doors are magically locked, meaning that only you, the player, can open it. I'd recommend not opening it now -- go get a bunch more experience, then come back later (like after Lair) to bust some ghosts.

I didn't realize those couple wall sections were a door. Oops. I let everything out on accident. Trog's Hand followed by me running for the stairs...

I made it up the stairs with only 2 orcs as "companions". I lucked through the whole shebang and ended up surviving. Fun stuff.

I'm now in Lair 2 and just found the entrance to The Shoals. I think I'll stay away from that for now.
Edit: And now a staircase to the Snake Pit.

I've been wearing a Ring of Flight for a while, now. How do I activate it when I want to fly?

The only amulet I've found was one that let me regen magic faster. Crap-O.

-BEP

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Are there no more wands of healing or wands of hasting?

Those are gone, as of a couple of versions ago. Also scrolls of recharging are gone. On the up side, wands now auto-identify when you stand on them, and wand charges now merge together when you pick up a second one of the same type.

bepnewt wrote:

I've been wearing a Ring of Flight for a while, now. How do I activate it when I want to fly?

"a" key to open your activations menu. That's also where your god abilities live.

Also, the typical recommended path of exploration is:

1) Dungeon 1 to 11
2) Lair 1 to 6
3) Dungeon 12 to 15
4) Orc 1 to 2
5) First "S" branch to 3
6) Second "S" branch to 3
7) First "S" branch to 4, get the rune
8) Second "S" branch to 4, get the rune
9) Vaults 1 to 4
10) Depths 1 to 5
11) Get third rune
12) Zot 1 to 5
13) GD0

The "S" branches, in generally accepted difficulty order:
1) Swamp
2) Snake
3) Spider
4) Shoals
You'll only ever get two of those in a game -- (Swamp/Shoals) and (Snake/Spider).

The third rune would typically be one of the below, NOT in difficulty order:
1) Vaults 5 -- beware of even walking down to V:5 unless you're fully prepared, because there's an entry trap.
2) Abyss 3 -- the rune spawns only at A:3 or deeper, and there are no guaranteed exits out of the Abyss.
3) Slime 5 -- very slimy, difficult fights.
I think I prefer Slime 5 as my third rune these days.

I have absolutely no time right now but I feel like playing a bit anyway! Does any team still need a player?

Alas, we have two teams of six at the moment.

We have two filled teams of 6 right now, but bepnewt isn’t teamed up. We could perhaps restructure into three teams of 5,5,4, or you and bepnewt could start a third team? Are there any other veterans who could be lured out of retirement?

I'm just dicking around and can't commit to anything. I'm sure it will be like most things and I'll move on after a short time. Don't count on me for any kind of team.

On another note, I was on level 4 of Lair so pulled out after reading Merphle's post above and continued on in the Dungeon. I'm on D9 right now.

-BEP

1662145 math the Conqueror (level 27, 245/245 HPs)
Began as a Minotaur Berserker on Feb 8, 2019.
Was the Champion of Trog.
Escaped with the Orb
... and 3 runes on Feb 10, 2019!

The game lasted 03:15:55 (78475 turns).

Morgue

Won on my first MiBe attempt. Should I quit while I'm ahead?

Most tense moment:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1pDyaiX.png)

Math wrote:

Most tense moment

That’s a pants-changing moment, for sure. Congrats on the escape!

Congrats, math! Nice work! That is most definitely a "stop and think" moment. How did you get out of it?

Math wrote:

Won on my first MiBe attempt. Should I quit while I'm ahead?

Most tense moment:

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1pDyaiX.png)

No clue what those things are you killed, but they _look_ pretty dangerous. Grats!

Question about armor:
I picked up this +12 Chain armor of Negation on Lair 2. I just found some basic plate +0.

I have 9 enchant armor scrolls. Should I ditch the chain and enchant the plate?

I'm sure the regen is nice on the Chain, but I don't know what Negation is. I have seen messages where it say that my Chain armor and Shield made me miss an attack or something and that seemed weird.

-BEP

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/5HBEiQ6.jpg)

“Negation” is just a meaningless flavor word. All that matters is the Regen+, which is always nice, and the +9, which is a great enchant for an artifact. It’s a good set of armor to use up through the first rune or two, but on a MiBe, I’d eventually be looking to end up in Gold Dragon Scale armor, and blow 12 enchant armor scrolls on that.

What’s your skill training look like?

Appreciate it.

I switched skills to Maces because I found the 2 decent ones. I kept Axes going in case I found a nice one at some point. I don't know if that makes sense. I added Evocation because I had a buttload of wands, which I've now culled down to those 4. Again, no clue if I should do that.

Edit: I just finished Lair 6 and found the entrance to the Slime Pits. I'm heading out and back to D:12.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/yG9sPWU.jpg)

-BEP

While maces and axes do cross-train, it’s rarely worth putting xp into both. IMHO, only train the one you’re actively using, and only train it up to the min delay skill level (which is listed on the item description page). You can set a skill training limit so it stops automatically.

Also set a limit of 15 for Shields, for now. If you decide to stick with 1H weapon and a shield, which I generally recommend, then you’ll eventually want to upgrade to a large shield, which has a skill target of 25.

Evocations training is fine. But of the 4 wands you’re carrying, it will only affect the Disintegration wand. It also affects the evocable misc items (lamp of fire, box of beasts, etc). Training it up to 8-12 is usually as far as I’d be inclined to go, unless I find myself relying heavily on the evocables. And usually only after I have my weapon and shield training done.

In your situation, I’d want to get weapon and shield locked down ASAP. I’d probably go:

+ fighting
* mace or axe, to whatever skill target you need
+ armor
* shield to 15

Once weapon or shield finishes, then turn dodging back on. Once the other finishes, then turn evocations back on.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Congrats, math! Nice work! That is most definitely a "stop and think" moment. How did you get out of it?

It's actually much worse than it looks because my berserk had just worn off so I was slowed and unable to zerk again. Also I had the poor-eyesight malmutation.

Basically after that picture I read a tele scroll, quaffed haste, and then either quaffed healing or attacked (the axe was +6 antimagic, so trying to get that to stick on the OoFs) until the tele went through. Got a lucky tele right up out of the lungs and picked all those guys of one/two-at-a-time after resting up.