Dungeons of Dredmor

[Miscast_Mage]

I know what I want for Christmas.

REEeee! (Thats the sound a happy Miscast Mage makes).

[Cieyrin]

I know what I want for Christmas.

Mine's on my desk at work, confusing coworkers who I may convince to delve the Dungeons. Now, if I could keep it from nesting and trying to introduce bugs into my code...

[tyckspoon]

Wait, artifact whatnow? Putting artifacts on Krong altars gives you better bonuses than using vanilla items?

Artifact Quality. It's a value given to some items that are defined as, well, Artifacts, as opposed to simply having extra bonuses on it- generally, if an item retains its name after being Krong'd/generated as an artifact item drop (via Zoo reward/sidequest/etc) instead of being given a random name, it's probably an artifact. The first time such an artifact is Krong'd, it will receive (Artifact Quality) bonus rolls instead of the single roll most items get. Only applies that first time, and I'm not sure if it has any impact on how the item gets generated if you happen to receive it as a sidequest reward or similar.. but yes, if you have a baseline Artifact item and you get a positive Kronging on it, it can get many more bonuses than a non-Artifact item.

(Also, if you craft an Artifact item it will receive its artifact bonus rolls on creation, which is part of why the Flail of Pleiades used to be so good- not only was it one of the best vanilla craftable weapons, it would be created with a significant number of bonuses.)

[Science Officer]

Travel to the Wizardlands, they said. They aren't that dangerous, they said. Safe, easy xp, they said. And then I pulled the lever...

[Reynard]

Travel to the Wizardlands, they said. They aren't that dangerous, they said. Safe, easy xp, they said. And then I pulled the lever...

Didn't they also say not to pull the lever?

[tyckspoon]

Didn't they also say not to pull the lever?

I might have mentioned it. I might also have neglected to describe the layout of the Lever room in question, leaving a potential new explorer of the Wizardlands to discover that particular piece of schmuckbait on his or her own.

[AmberVael]

So, my latest character just managed to make two Dwarven Atom Smashers, and has dual-wielding.

I then realized it makes that nasty cloud when it hits, and you take damage from it as well. This is not optimal. Does anyone know precisely what damage it does, so I can work on getting resistance to it? Because I want to be able to use my two atom smashers without killing myself.

In regards to this, I actually have yet to find equipment with which to properly negate the damage (though I'm getting close), but I did realize that my first paranormal investigator skill gave me all the resistances I needed. Therefore, I tossed that buff up and waded into combat against a level eight monster zoo with my Atom Smashers, and devastated it in a few turns. This is going to work nicely.

[Studoku]

Found this in a fountain on level 1:

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Tempted to museum it but I don't think I can gain more than one level.

[tyckspoon]

I have yet to actually find one of those anywhere despite.. I think it's 3 victory runs to floor 15, now, and several others that got into the Diggle Gods realms.

If you're not going to wear it (and it'll probably be the best neck gear you ever find, despite the random/unfocused assortment of stats) I'd Brax it rather than Museum it. Nearly 3 million Zorkmids will let you buy pretty much everything you ever see in the game... and picking up a few good out-of-depths items from Brax will make your life a lot easier than the immediate level from Museuming the thing. (You're right, incidentally- until they fix XP overflow, it's impossible to gain more than one level at a time. And when they do fix XP overflow, you probably will no longer be able to Museum something like that for three level's worth in one go.)

[Science Officer]

I had one game where I found a whole bunch of those, on the later floors. But that was many patches ago.


I have had some very amusing success with what I believe is the most metal build you can make in Dredmor:

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Axes
Berserker Rage
Necronomiconomics
Viking Wizardry
Smithing
Demonology
Piracy

Smithing, Axes, and Magic Steel carry the early game, for much Burliness. Necronomiconomics and Demonology are probably useless. Maybe they could be replaced with Burglary, Assassination, Perception, or BGH, but none of those are nearly as brutal.

[tyckspoon]

Smithing, Axes, and Magic Steel carry the early game, for much Burliness. Necronomiconomics and Demonology are probably useless. Maybe they could be replaced with Burglary, Assassination, Perception, or BGH, but none of those are nearly as brutal.

Necro probably is unless you're willing to wear a lot of mage gear, but if you have the magic power/mana regen to back them up Mark of Cthon and Pack of Fleeting Life are awesome gishing buffs. Demonology's highlights are Celestial Circle and Infernal Contract; I wouldn't rush for them, but they're good to have.

[Corlindale]

Celestial Circle is one of the best buffs in the game. Great for tanking monster zoos!

Necro might also have zoo uses. I used to have a random build with a primary melee guy who took necro up to the Rift. The plan was to carry around a set of mage gear, purely to switch to it when meeting a zoo and throwing a rift.

[The Succubus]

Right maggots, the next round of the Vs Play is up and next time I want to see more voting on themes!

While you lot go off and do that, I'm going to work on a Dungeons of Dredmor equivalent of The Witcher (alchemy, swords, mushrooms, dodge, psionics and bankster).

[Flickerdart]

Man, I'm having a weird game-crashing bug. The dungeon collapses almost (but not always) every time I cast Polymorphic Injunction on a Snow Baal in the Wizardlands. Since the bastards are heavily resistant to my Promethean spells, this is my best approach against them...

Oh god, floor 9 is the fire monster floor and now everything is immune to fire - and the wands I carefully hoarded do even less damage than my spells! Aaaand the game crashed again.

And now I'm dead. Deepest I've ever made it down. Lessons learned:
1. Never rely on just one damage type.
2. Polymorphic Injunction will make the game crash constantly.
3. Blocking off a monster zoo with a Stone Wand and then blowing them up with Tactical Pyres is hilarious and should be encouraged at all times.

[Science Officer]

While you lot go off and do that, I'm going to work on a Dungeons of Dredmor equivalent of The Witcher (alchemy, swords, mushrooms, dodge, psionics and bankster).

Not really seeing how mushrooms or bankster works for a Witcher. Maybe assassination or big game hunter?

[Flickerdart]

Dammit! Saved up 500 Lutefisk and the stupid statue gave me a Lekon's Seerly Robe. Great for a wizard, but not for a warrior...

On the plus side, my current build seems to work pretty well. Master of Arms, Vampirism 1 and Communism 2 keep me healthy, Dual-Wielding, Polearms and Berserker Rage make me hurt things lots, and Tinkering 1 spots traps so's I can avoid them. One thing I realized with the wizard that died on floor 9 is that action advantage is still important in Dredmor (and fireballing 10 guys at once tipped it in my favour). I used to think that buffs with a chance to activate on hit were dumb, but being able to raise buffs while fighting is awesome in monster zoos - by the end of it, 5x Combat Momentum, Berserker Rage, Walk It Off and all the other buffs that popped up while I was fighting make me more powerful than when I started. Vampirism does a great job of keeping me topped up - I've only fallen to the "your health is low" alert a couple of times due to getting mobbed.

[Science Officer]

So my latest and most brutal character is fairly successful.

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But dang, is he ever angry.

Piracy is so useful, Swashbuckling and Mists of the Corsair are more or less 'Get Out of Jail Free' cards.
Encrusting is also pretty sweet. Diamonds and Alchemical Lubricant on armour, and just about anything on a weapon.

I can't remember if I'm playing on Medium or Hard. I would think hard, because that's what I play now, but it seems to easy compared to my last try. Is there a good way to tell that anyone knows of?

[turbo164]

If you're on Hard ("Going Rogue") it will take 14 turns for you to regenerate one mana (13 base, looks like you have -1 from your armor). Medium ("Dwarven Moderation") will only take about 10 turns.

Might want to turn off Magic Steel when you check, as it can make the counting harder.

[Archonic Energy]

Had an interesting game.
Found a suit of imperial boiler plate on floor 2.
It would be rude not to steal it.
So I did. And scarpered pronto. That was my second highest scoring game. I must remember to steal more often.

[The Bushranger]

Hmm, I really need to get back into Dredmor. Kinda drifted out of the mood while waiting for the bugfix patch after the big update+CotW, plus FTL and Tekkit...

(Also, the Swedish Food mod looks fun.)


Before, I had a good run with a Swords+Crossbows+Promethean+Burglary+Fungal Arts+Vampire+Emomancy combination, finding that the last two worked marvelously well together - the Go-Away teleport keeps a level one vampire alive (well, undead) - and spamming Emomancy's antimagic-field spell on ol' Dred was a handy thing during the final battle (whereas he merely laughed at the Bolts of Mass Destruction I'd been hording)...

[Flickerdart]

How can you steal, anyway? Grabbing an item and then teleporting past Brax? I know he sees if you take something while invisible, but what about using Magical Law 1 to pull items off the shelf?

[The Bushranger]

Grab-and-teleport is one way.

Another way is to kill Brax when he blocks your way.

Once you level up a few times, the Dread Collectors become a mere annoyance. Level up a few more times, and the annoyance of Dread Collectors changes from 'so many to kill' to 'so little XP from each'...

[Science Officer]

If you're on Hard ("Going Rogue") it will take 14 turns for you to regenerate one mana (13 base, looks like you have -1 from your armor). Medium ("Dwarven Moderation") will only take about 10 turns.

Might want to turn off Magic Steel when you check, as it can make the counting harder.

Thanks, I found the figure for Health Regen. Turns out I'm on Going Rogue difficulty. Which is actually pretty ridiculous. I'm on Floor 12 with this silly build.

Anyways, I'm level twenty something, Maxed Axes, Smithing, Berserker Rage, and Piracy. The only things left open are the last point of Viking Wizardry, as well as Demonology and Necronomiconomics.

I don't actually like the look of Demonology, despite its high brvtality factor. Holy Damage weakness, and a chance to reduce my health on being hit? No thanks.

The question is, do I put that last point in Viking Wizardry? I have almost zero magic power, so Thor's Bolt probably won't be doing much damage. Whereas Necronomiconomics' Curses and Buffs might fare better without scaling? Plus necromantic resistance at higher levels, if I get there.

[Corlindale]

Don't bother with the Bolt. On a warrior build it'll do next to no damage.

I would personally take Demonology up to Celestial Circle first - but no more than that. It's a ridiculously good defensive buff, and the early points in the tree doesn't penalize you against Righteous damage anyway.

Then get Necro up to Pact of Fleeting Life. Both Mark of Cthon and the Pact can be quite useful for a melee-fighter, provided you can afford the upkeep of the Mark.

[Science Officer]

I guess you're right, Fervor of the Flagellant doesn't seem that bad when I look at it. I guess I'll put my last few points into Demonology, I probably only have only 2 or 3 levels left to gain, at the most.

[The Succubus]

I've been greatly misjudging my Bolts.

I always thought Bolt of Mass Destruction was the number one Zoo clearer but last night I walked in on a Zoo and zapped something with a Bolt of Squid. One turn later, the *entire Zoo was crawling with tentacles*. Next turn half the Zoo was dead. Another Bolt of Squid and 2 turns and the Zoo had gone from 58 monsters to 4.

So yeah, Bolt of Squid scares the crap out of me.

[Cogwheel]

I've been greatly misjudging my Bolts.

I always thought Bolt of Mass Destruction was the number one Zoo clearer but last night I walked in on a Zoo and zapped something with a Bolt of Squid. One turn later, the *entire Zoo was crawling with tentacles*. Next turn half the Zoo was dead. Another Bolt of Squid and 2 turns and the Zoo had gone from 58 monsters to 4.

So yeah, Bolt of Squid scares the crap out of me.

Welcome to Dredmor circa 2011.

Have fun.

[Science Officer]

All right. 15th floor, let's do this.

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Victory or death to follow shortly.

EDIT: Or not. Explored half the floor, and no Dred, but I've got to go now. Guess we'll all have to wait just a little longer.

[The Bushranger]

BoMDs are only really good for knocking down walls. Or, say, for short-range blasting when you open a door and "SURPRISE! MONSTER ZOO! Oh and you can't close the door!". Since a short-range Squid Bolt is a Bad Idea.

If you can stand back a bit and lob one into the middle of the Zoo, however?
Squid Bolts are hilarious.

[Thanatos 51-50]

So, I've been getting back int Dredmor.

I still find that the number one problem with the "Sir Blender" build (Swords, Dual-wielding, Dodger, Perception, Burglary, Smithing, Tinkering) is my tendency to over-commit.
For instance, did you know that Pumpkinns deal 12 slashing damage on a melee hit? Did you also know that having a huge counter/dodge skill makes me forget that sometimes, I cannot dodge/countertank everything that comes my way.

Guys, I was doing in excess of 80 points of damage per hit. On Floor four. I took out the fourth floor monster zoo without any of my Squid Bolts... or food... or potions... Or really, anything but standing in one place, assaulting the "wait" button, and occasionally left or right clicking.
The monsters ran away from /me/. I ran up to /them/ full of vim, vigour, vengeance and murder. I didn't even /hear/ a single "your health is low" message.
I die a level up and half the floor later because I didn't notice I was only at twelve hit points and I over-committed to a random Pumpkinn.
YASD, guys. YASD.