Vs Play: Dungeons of Dredmor!

[The Succubus]

Vs Play
Dungeons of Dredmor

Welcome ladies, gents and diggles to what promises to be a highly entertaining experiment. Many of you are familiar with the concept of a Let's Play - a post by post account of someone's playthrough of game XYZ. We're going to do something slightly different here - a versus Let's Play.

The aim of a Vs Play is simple. Both players will do a step by step account of their journey through the Dungeons of Dredmor, with screenies and banter as usual. However, their rival will also be doing the same thing. The challenger simply has to outlast their rival, with completion of the game as a secondary objective. Each challenger is allowed to make forum appropriate derogatory marks about their rival's progress, along with the audience.

The audience has a special role in a Vs Play - they decide the difficulty, the settings, the levels and most importantly the Theme for the challengers. The Theme is a nebulous idea around which the challengers have to make a skill build. For example, if the theme was "Boom Town", the challengers might go with Alchemy and bombs or with the fiery based Promethian Magic. Challengers will be asked to explain their skill build to the audience and will be pelted with rotten fruit if they don't take it seriously.

Without further ado, let's introduce our first two Challengers, the settings and Theme!

Challenger 1: Science Officer
Challenger 2: Reynard

Theme: Keep It Away!

We're going with Dwarven Moderation, NTTG and a whopping 15 levels of dungeon crawly fun.

Challengers - you have 2 days to pick your skill build and then the Vs Play *must* begin.

The Lemming List!

• Corlindale
• Cogwheel
• Wookietank
• Tyckspoon
• Mistcast Mage
• Tectonic Robot
• Kesnit
• Science Officer
• Succubus
• Reynard - 1 win

[Cieyrin]

*readies a basket of rotten fruit*

That said, I'm highly intrigued to see how it rolls. Not particularly good at DoD, so I'm content to egg on contenders.

[Flickerdart]

Keep It Away, eh...that's nowhere near crippling enough. I want to see bloodshed, not invincible lichslayers!

[Luzahn]

Bah, skill builds?

The best fun is to be had with randomization.

[Miscast_Mage]

I totally promise I won't be rooting for everyone to insta-die on level one horribly so my turn comes quicker huhwhat?

In all srsness though; LET THE DIGGLING COMMENCE!

[Science Officer]

We're off to the races!

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The theme is "Ew, Ew, keep it away'
I've interpreted this to mean:

1) keeping enemies away by knocking them back
2) keeping away from enemies by being hard to hit/teleporty

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So, I've taken
-Emomancy, for Love Will Teleport Us Apart,
-Psionics, for the Shove,
-Unarmed, for its two knockbacks,
-Dodge and Burglary to help keep away from enemies,
-and Piracy, which has a nice mix of both
Additionally, Alchemy is nice to have for health and mana potions.

It just so happens that this very on-theme set of skills contains an assortment of the most powerful abilities in the game. I'm totally not gaming the system for competitive advantage by any means.

Anyways, onwards to floor one. In the very first room, I encounter a Toady. I blast it with sleep bolts until it dies. I gain a level and put my first point in Psionics, to get the Shove. Excellent. From now on, the plan will be to max Unarmed for survivability, then see about putting points into being a competent mage.

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This was kind of a pointless screenshot...

I kill Siegfried, and get another level. Put that point into Unarmed. I now have three distinct means of distancing enemies from myself. Kronged flip-flops gets me a surprisingly useful enhancement: health regen. Always nice.I also acquire two crappy rings, and assorted mediocre equipment.

The end of dungeon level one sees me at character level 5, the third level of Unarmed provides a fourth method of keeping enemies away, Grey Heron Takes Flight.

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I feel good about this build. It could go places. I'm a little nervous with No Time To Grind, and my lack of Archaeology, but I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

[Corlindale]

Cool. I too will be following this with interest :-)

[Deme]

I am very interested in this, since I've seen Dungeons of Dredmore LPs and quite liked them, and hope to see some fun stuff here.

[Reynard]

Awayyyyyy!

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The Skills with Which Bills Will be Paid:
-Polearms, for hurting things without them getting to be friendly with my kidneys, and the on-hit knockback
-Golemancy, largely for the Unliving Wall, but the distractions that the summons provide also stops enemies from getting close.
-Astrology, for the many stuns at it's disposal.
-Psionics/Dodger/Burglary, for the same reasons as my counterpart in this. Damn you for posting here first, but I couldn't think of anything to replace them in the build.
-Blood magic, with four different trees of mana-using skills, this is just generally useful.

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On to the meat and potatoes. My first room contains, because this game hates me, a Deth, two Gnomes and a Batty. After much sleep spam and poking with Talhoffer's (and a hefty amount of running around, weeping), I gain a level. The point goes into psionics, for the push.

And I'm very glad I did, for I soon open a door to find this:

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I shove them all back, and run like little baby man, taking uncertain shelter in a teleporter. Thankfully, all I find waiting for me is a Potato and a set of wizards keys. Soon after, I slay both Siegfried and Bee Arthur in quick succession, and pick up and complete two Sidequests(!).

The rest of this floor is fairly dull, except for the time I almost killed myself on traps. But we don't need to talk about that time. I sell the junk I aquired over the course of the level to Braxx, and buy a magic ring and a foppish tunic with the proceeds. Sadly, no better polearm was to be found. At level 5-and-a-bit, I head down to the next floor.


My build could probably use some work, but right now I've got the third skill in Dodger, and second skill in both Psionics and Burglary, and I'm feeling fairly safe. Well, safer than I did.

[The Succubus]

"And it looks like both Challengers have got off to a good start, in that they haven't managed to kill themselves. They've also figured out which end of a weapon is supposed to go in a Diggle, so we're dealing with people of rare intelligence here. So fellow commentators, what do we make of our Challengers' skill builds?"

[Flickerdart]

No trap-detecting skills? That's a little silly.

[IncoherentEssay]

Could work, Burglary gives just enough to get by early on and later they can either itemize or just kick the traps out of the way with all the knockback they're packing.

[Deme]

"And it looks like both Challengers have got off to a good start, in that they haven't managed to kill themselves. They've also figured out which end of a weapon is supposed to go in a Diggle, so we're dealing with people of rare intelligence here. So fellow commentators, what do we make of our Challengers' skill builds?"

"Well I don't know much about the builds, I will say that it sounds like Challenger #2 really had to put his 'keep it away from me' skills to the test, right from the get-go! This match is still shaping up, and it could be anyone's death next time!"

[Wookieetank]

"Well I don't know much about the builds, I will say that it sounds like Challenger #2 really had to put his 'keep it away from me' skills to the test, right from the get-go! This match is still shaping up, and it could be anyone's death next time!"

"I'm looking forward to the next floor where the participants' keep it away from me abilities will be put to the test with the first appearance of the dreded monster zoos. Nothing like being swarmed by a herd of angry critters to give you motivation."

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A thought on orgainiztion of the vs structure, if the theard stays alive long enough, it would be fun to turn it into a best of the playground sort of competition, where the winners of the first go round have to face each other for the second go round. Would make for a good show methinks.

[Science Officer]

First of all, I would like to congratulate my honourable opponent on his good sportsmanship and bravado. Having selected such skills, it is clear that he is only concerned with giving the people a fine spectacle and has given no thought at all to winning. Truly a selfless gesture.

Next, the Second Floor:

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My first room on the second floor has a shrine to Inconsequentia, and I accept her quest because I am not a coward. The second room has another, and I accept its quest as well, for the same reason.
Third room? Monster zoo. Joy.

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Seen here half empty. Or is that half full? I suppose it depends on how you look at monster zoos.

Some application of two Clockwork Drill Bomb bolts, a wand of fire, and much psychic shovery followed by skilled application of boot clears the place out. It was a smallish zoo. My reward is a Robe of the Beige Warlock, which isn't much better than my leather cuirass. I put it on anyways.

I level up, and put my point into Unarmed. This doesn't get me anymore keep away, but the capstone ability for Unarmed is just sooo desirable.

Another Krong altar, I try to get my cuirass buffed, maybe make it better than this dumb robe, but Krong is displeased. Such is life.

I kill another Toady, and this brings me to level 7. I am now Master of the Dragon Foot Technique!
Next priority, points in Dodge for Knight's Leap, or maybe Burglary for Lucky Pick, or Piracy for Swashbuckling... and then points into magely stuff.


So the unique monster for one of those side-quests is one of those invisible great pumpkins. Ew. Ew. This, I actually want to keep away from.
My psychic powers have no damaging effect on it, but it isn't very aggressive... Fortunately, since it is a quest objective, I can track it on my mini-map. Feet seem to have more of a damaging effect, but I'll have to be careful here. Very careful.

It can bring dead monsters back to life, summon clouds of purple poison gas, and hits for about a third of my health. With a few very careful knock-back kicks, Nice Combos, Wand of Bling hits, Fiery Wand flames, and finally some bolts I manage to kill the unique Great Pumpkinn. My reward is an artifact mace (lame), and 2000 xp (pretty sweet). Much cheese was eaten during this fight.

I wish I could have gotten some better shots of the fight, but the monster was invisible...

The next side-quest monster is a unique Thrusty, but I'm near levelling, and he doesn't see me, so I leave him be to avoid xp-wastage. This takes some creative application of Psychic Shove..

I level up and decide on Lucky Pick because I'm out of lockpicks. I go to use the ability to spawn some more but there is no ability? What does Lucky Pick do anymore? Hmm. Seems I just open locks now. Not bad. Think I'll get the Knight's Leap next, then get Pyrokinesis. Or maybe the other way around.

The reward for killing the Thrusty is a little nicer. Somewhat better armor? I think? Sacrificing Nimbleness, Magic Power and some useless resistances for a little more protection and some blasting damage.

Krong curses my pirate pants, so I switch to some cutoffs, no big deal.

Heading to dungeon level 3 at character level 8, things are looking good. I didn't get a screenshot of the end of the level, but things didn't change much since this one.

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[Reynard]

Speaking of Zoos:

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The first steps around Floor 2 are tentative ones, but things go smoothly and I'm soon level 6. I put the point into Moustache Golem, name him Mr Gruff, and progress onwards. After hitching another teleporter ride to a hallway filled with oh-so-lootable corpses, and the acquiring of the Baron's Hat, I open a door:

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We can do this, right Mr Gruff?

Mr Gruff tanks like a champ, holding of most of the Zoo while I spam sleep/cry/drink like a hobo/run away/cry more. Mr Gruff falls in valiant combat, and after a very brief period of grief, I summon Mr Gruff II. Level 6 is acquired mid-fight, and I use the new learned Unliving Wall spell to make things more in favour of me and Mr Gruff II.

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As you can see, this means I make Mr Gruff II the only creature able of coming near me, except by murdering my fair heroic moustache. Once this is done, the rest of the zoo is a simple matter of letting Mr Gruff get punched in the... face(?)... while I throw Talhoffer Strikes and Unliving Walls into the scrummage beyond.

Actually, I tell a lie. What actually happened was that I killed about half of the zoo, then ran because the monsters who had made it to the front were too tough for Mr Gruff VI to tank for long enough. I'll be coming back to clear it out and pick up my reward later, but for now, I leave to explore the rest of the dungeon floor.

Sure enough, with a level gained and thus Thaumites bottled, I and Mr Gruff IX return to the Zoo and claim our bloodstained leather jacket.

[tyckspoon]

Lucky Pick does indeed now just count you as always having a pick for opening doors. No longer Infinite Lockpicks, but when I've had it I've found it to be enough- I can still maintain an inventory of several dozen picks to use on chests since I no longer have to waste 1-5 of them opening each locked door.

Hmm.. betting on Science Officer, but rooting for Reynard. Good luck, Inefficient Skills Man!

[Geno9999]

A bit early for me to place favorites on anyone, as and I've only run Clockwork Knight builds. That said and done, I think Science Officer is going to win this one.

Is there any restriction on mods for this competition?

[Cogwheel]

Presumably no mods unless otherwise specified.


Also, my bet's on Reynard. Mostly because golemancy is a crazy skill.

[Reynard]

Inefficient Skills Man press on!

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Floor three holds many surprises, mostly of the evil clone variety. We first encounter them in the Fish-in-a-Long-and-Narrow-Barrel area, and Mr Gruff tries his best, but the thaumites need to be released upon them. That + Unliving Wall swiftly murders all my sexy sexy dopplegangers, and I continue onwards. Not having found a Lukefisk cube yet, my inventory is becoming a wasteland of regents, old clothes and various forms of alcohol. The latter can stay, but the first two come with me, back to floor one, where they are sold to a stupid demon.

Back at the third floor, a lot of walking around looking for rooms that won't kill me is done, but many of them seem to fit that exact description. Eventually, I pick a door, block two squares up with walls, then open it and throw Mr Gruff into the fray, spam silverware traps and then hide. Level 9 is gained, and with it the ability to summon a robot is as well. Be still, my quivering mana pool. It will hurt a lot, but it won't hurt often.

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The Deathbot rampages through the rest of the level, pretty much solo. I have to replace it a couple of times of course, but it'll often run off into the fog to chase down and butcher an entire room while I potter about a room away, looting stuff. Alas, Mr Gruff, your time of usefulness was short-lived.

To floor 4, Deathbot! Just before we go down, though, I find another of Brax's stores, and finally get a better polearm, a trident.

EDIT: So far, this has been going surprising well. a few close calls, mostly trap related. But if I could, I'd gladly swap out Astrology for something, anything useful. I may start levelling it next, to see if it's later skills are actually worthwhile, but right now I really want the mana regen from Leylines.

Though now that I have deathbots, it might be unneeded after all.

[kerplunksploosh]

Would it be too cluttered to run multiple matches at once? (curious to see how useful Piracy is for Science Officer... I weep for Reynard's Astrology)

[Reynard]

Would it be too cluttered to run multiple matches at once? (curious to see how useful Piracy is for Science Officer... I weep for Reynard's Astrology)

Do you weep for it's choosing or for it's neglect?

[Science Officer]

Hmmm, yes no mods. But it seems Reynard is running the Conquest of the Wizard Realms expansion, whereas I am not. Not sure who this gives an advantage to.

I thought we were limited to one floor per day? Or was that a minimum?

I'm not sure about Piracy. Swashbuckling helps Keep Things Away (or at least away from your vitals), the Mists of the Corsair is an escape, so it can't be that useless. I don't know what the Black Spot does, but Broadside has knock-back which is on theme. I also heard they buffed the damage to it.

However, since I'm not taking Archaeology, I probably won't have enough points to get that far in Piracy. Probably my skill points will be eaten up by Burglary or Emomancy...

As for Golem-mancy, I once built a "wizard" whose only schools of magic were Golem-mancy and Psionics. I had presumed that the Digging Ray, since it could bust through walls and was "generally game-breaking" would also deal terrific damage to monsters. Disappointment. The build was fairly successful, just so slow I was bored to quit.

[Reynard]

Hmmm, yes no mods. But it seems Reynard is running the Conquest of the Wizard Realms expansion, whereas I am not. Not sure who this gives an advantage to.

I haven't been to the Wizardlands yet, and if you don't have it then I won't be using the Keys at all. I might get lucky with a drop of good equipment you don't get, but the chances of that drop actually being useful to my hodge-podge of a character is fairly slim.

[Science Officer]

I have found some lost keys (that lead to empty rooms to store stuff) in other games, but none with this character so far.

[kerplunksploosh]

As far as I'm aware of, the keys were an addition with the Wizardlands (although it could have been a patch at the same time...), and the infinite stash is extremely convenient, but not really that much of an advantage. The portal, on the other hand... is like a mini Mysterious Portal to die in!

I have yet to find a use for Astrology. The starting buff is nice but dayum, everything else gives me a sad. Seems like the monsters resist both the stun and damage part of the spells :(

I've always wanted to play with Piracy. Let me know how useful it is when/if you level it!

[Corlindale]

Astrology isn't bad - the capstone skill is very powerful and scales surprisingly well with magic power (and it can get a really low cost too!). It is reputedly even useful against Dredmor, with a damage type he doesn't have significant resistance to.

My money's on Science Officer for this one. Golemancy may be a killer at the first few levels, but it doesn't scale very well, so I predict some difficulties for Reynard later.

[Science Officer]

Glad to see so many people supporting me!

Third Floor:

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So, floor 3. I hope I find a cybercone or a cybernetic amulet on this floor. Both would be nice, but with NTTG, it's unlikely.

I clear out that big Doom room, but find nothing useful. Continue to kill everything with my mind, feet, and softballs, and level up. Decide I should really get some more ranged capabilities, I put a point in Psionics to get Crystal Healing, on my way towards Pyrokinesis. Putting a point in a Wizard skill reduces the cost of Psychic Shove to 1 Mana. 1 Mana. This is the best thing ever.

In a room with a bunch of Robos, I find my cybernetic amulet. Sweet.

Completing a side-quest nets me a crossbow with some oddly useful bonuses.

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I find a mysterious portal. I never use these, they're a stupid risk. However, taking stupid risks is just the sort of thing that will let me get ahead of Reynard. I'll leave until I level up again.

When I do, I get the Nerve-Staple as planned. One point away from the oh-so-efficient Pyrokinesis.

Anyway, here goes nothing.

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And that's that.
If I'd gone for dodge instead of Psionics, I could have Knight's Leap-ed out of the poison cloud. Or if I'd not done something so blaringly stupid, I could have survived. I also could have stunned the witch before it poisoned me.
Sorry to disappoint all those who backed me, but I died in an attempt to give a good show, get an advantage on Reynard, when simply outlasting would have been the better strategy.

So, put me in the losers' bracket, or some such, I'll wait my turn and try again.

[Corlindale]

Aww, that's too bad. But props for taking the risk - that's the kind of playstyle which will keep this VS entertaining!

Congratulations to Reynard!

[Reynard]

I would like to thank the ability to create walls and robots out of thin air for my undeserved victory, as well as the complete lack of spine which prompted me to run away from diggles so many times.

I wouldn't remotely claim to have the better build, or apparently the best luck judging by my gear, but cowardice has seen me through.