From sfg at eecs.berkeley.edu Fri Aug 15 08:46:07 2003 Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 08:35:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: number three I just ascended a Valkyrie (about 58K turns and 4.7M points -- less than my barbarian's 4.8M). The high score list on my laptop has 13 games, two of which are ascensions. Good ratio :-) (we'll just ignore those hundreds of other games I've played in the last eight years). I highly recommend a Lawful Valkyrie as an easy character to ascend. Next I want to do a weaponless vegetarian monk, a wizard, a knight and a priest. I also think an illiterate and an atheist would be fun, but don't know if I'm up to those yet. I was going to try for no wishes, no polypiling, no genocides, but around dungeon level 8 I got a wish from a throne and just couldn't bring myself to type "nothing" when I so wanted that GDSM. I did make it through without any more wishes. I also did no nurse-dancing, wraith-luring, polypiling, polymorphing nor genocides. I was tempted too. Keep in mind that from the castle onward I had this nice /oWishing(0:3), a blessed scroll of charging, some scrolls of genocide, plenty of holy water and a wand of polymorph in my BoH. I did use the E-word a few times, but never in any important way (mostly to guard stuff I dropped). No wishing pain: Despite finding a couple magic markers on my own, I didn't have enough to fully pimp out my weapons (+5 Grayswandir and +0 silver sabre) and armor (I was a lowly AC -36 -- gdsm, speed boots, gauntlets of dex, elven leather helm, oilskin cloak / robe later, lots of divine protection). I didn't have a Hawaiian shirt (no loss since my other armor wasn't enchanted all the way anyhow) and didn't see any shields of reflection until the astral plane. The worst though was losing my ring of teleport control after I got teleportitis. No genocide pain: The amount of hassle master liches give me reminded me why they always go first or second (usually I wipe out L entirely). A little mishap with a master mind flayer in Moloch's Sanctum made running upstairs with the amulet extra special fun. The other things I often genocide (disenchanters, ;, c, titans (don't usually do these, but should) and green slime) weren't a big deal. The only reason the mmf got me was 'cuz I was surrounded (by a bunch of rodneY's friends and couldn't run or teleport). Finding lots of /s of Death was a big help. I had a few scares when I was screwing around in a magic trap (for no really good reason) and realized that green slimes were being generated. Since I was blind, I just merrily hacked them to pieces and gasped in mortification when I saw the corpses. Things that were useful: The shops were good to me (speed boots, gauntlets of dex). Warning is a good thing. A blessed magic lamp is great in hell. My ring of free action (which I didn't get 'til late) probably saved my ass a few times on the astral plane ("You momentarily stiffen"). The plane of Air was much easier with conflict (like last time). The cursed scrolls of gold detections and wands of secret door detection are nice for the elemental planes in general. In the early to mid game a tinning kit is great for getting rid of trolls and getting intrinsics / strength (but useless later when you have all the intrinsics and don't give a damn about the trolls). I did have a bunch of "oLifeSaving, but never needed them. I probably would have been better off using a "oReflection. Even as a valkyrie, spells were useful. I used magic missile (which you can get basic in), detect monster and light (both unskilled) to great effect. If I were paying more attention, I could have used remove curse a few times (also unskilled, but nonzero chance of success). I #dipped for Excalibur early on -- it is a good weapon, but Grayswandir beats it later on. I got crowned early enough that it actually helped this time. Using attack wands (esp for those disenchanters, ;, (m)mfs, green slimes) is a good thing. Wands of teleport, cancellation (water, blank scrolls, uncursing rings and amulets), digging are also nice. I even got some good use out of my wands of light and secret door detection (you may as well use 'em, no point in hoarding them). "So thou thought thou couldst kill me fool!" -- rodneY " And I was right, just like the other eight times." -- me