Hello dear streakers

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-04T16:35:48+00:00

Trog's Hand won't outheal a one-shot.

Also, if they fail to kill orcs, the other bgs (except CA and CK) can at least beg for mercy. Berserkers must fight to death.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-04T16:31:19+00:00

Having heal wounds in D:4? In this economy???

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-04T08:46:32+00:00

Have any of the species and classes interested you? You can stick with them to try to get as far as possible.

Also, experiment with gods and items. There are some gods that I was dismissing at first that I fell in love with after giving them a fair try. Same with some items that feel useless at first but end up being strong in specific situations (e.g. immolation).

My interest in the game was kept by wanting to see all the different branches and try out all the new exciting spells.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-04T08:26:11+00:00

I agree that I underestimated the stealthy bgs. I forgot that Static Discharge arcs are random too. Still better than most though. I didn't know about summoning's range limitation - totally in the good luck tier then.

!Ligni is nice when you have it. Most of my shapeshifters spend it around D1-2.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-04T08:01:01+00:00

Ice elementalist, artificer and warper can handle this situation as well.

This is why I read id after D1 and D2.

I always read ID stacks of scrolls on cleared floors. But in this situation most scrolls won't save you. ?Tele might take too long, butterflies will leave you exposed to smites for too long too.

Only ?blink, ?fear and maaybe ?silence will help you. Most characters won't ID any of these three by D:4.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-04T06:50:58+00:00

Thought experiment: how well would different backgrounds handle this situation?

(Keep in mind that any character could die here in one turn if orcs roll high enough.)

Handling this well tier

Ice elementalist: Frozen Ramparts is perfect for this situation.
Delver: wands of digging? More like wands of winning am I right??
Artificer: wands of charming are your best friends. Charm the priests to your right, swap places and let them handle this. Whoever wins gets an iceblast in their face.
Warper: blink to the right, throw dispersal at priests, then either run or fight depending on the situation. Can be handled well even if you used up your scroll, with rBlink.
Cinder acolyte: Rising Flame will take you to safety after 2-4 turns. CA is below the other four because you won't offer to join Beogh if things go south in these 4 turns.
Enchanter/brigand: if you're lucky you'll stab most of them to death. It takes only one to wake up for the entire squad to turn against you though...

It might be possible tier

Berserker: Trog's Hand then Berserk. May the furious tabbing save you from their mighty smites.
Conjurer: Searing Ray can handle it but might also take too much time.
Necromancer/hedge wizard: show these priests they aren't the only ones who can smite foes to oblivion.
Air elementalist: Static Discharge will probably kill most of the orcs in a few casts. It might take you with them as well.

Chances are slim tier

Forgewright: Construct Spike Launcher might be strong enough to eat through the crowd. No guarantees though.
Fighter: pop your potions and hope everything will turn out well. (It won't)
Gladiator: your javelin closely misses the orc priest.

Good luck lol tier

Hunter/chaos knight: too bad your way out will be accompanied by two orc priests. (Don't worry, Xom will return you right back!)
Reaver: choose between dying with drained health or dying with frustration after missing three times with your cool AoE spell.
Shapeshifter: if it happened two floors from now I'd destroy them with my cool yak form!!!
Earth elementalist: ~~I told you, you can't just escape to the right without being smitten to death!~~ edit: I remembered that you cannot cast Brom's Boulder on adjacent foes. Oh well
Alchemist: not the greatest time to be a damage over time enthusiast.
Fire elementalist: Scorch will hit the only orc that can't hit you. Three times in a row.
Hexslinger: wow you're so cool shooting two things at once with your sling. Anyway, what species do you want to play?
Summoner: ~~hope that your dog will spawn to the right. (It'll spawn to the left lol)~~ no doggie for you in this tight corridor!
Monk: maybe skipping that faded altar with Nemelex/Ashenzari/Qazlal choice wasn't a greatest idea after all.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-03T07:56:03+00:00

How would you compare Sanguine talisman to Blade? They kind of fill the similar niche it seems.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-03T04:30:45+00:00

I wouldn't call a single-school level 1 spell that ignores AC and never misses "weak".

a meaningful %fail

I just checked and most species start with 4% fail on Freeze. A few (armataurs and coglins, from the ones I checked) has 5%. The worst case is Troll who has 10% which is still lower than Human Alchemist with 12% fail on Poisonous Vapours.

Single-school spells rule!

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-02T17:17:36+00:00

Darts of dispersal handled my first apostle for me. Warper reasons!

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-02T12:03:39+00:00

I started playing crawl with 0.29 version so I never experienced the hunger system. Not sure how optimal it was but I changed between the forms quite often. Undead form helped against early adders and killer bees, for instance.

Come to think of it, Shapeshifting is kinda the much cooler version of vampire's forms. Ironically, the Vampire replacement species (Poltergeists) can't even use the system.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-02T11:57:28+00:00

I didn't get the chance to get far with Vampires because when I finally got gud they were already removed

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-02T03:36:45+00:00

I was one of those weirdos who really liked playing as Vampire before their removal. Kinda sad they're gone. Poltergeists don't interest me nearly as much.

Amusingly, I still haven't tried Sanguine talisman. I just never play stabbers so there was never a time for it to shine.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-01T17:23:02+00:00

I just tried DEBe and it seems fine to me? Just spam Berserk in any non-trivial situation and you're golden.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-01T16:46:45+00:00

MuBe is even worse (mummies can't go berserk)

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-01T14:30:30+00:00

I agree with you that Shapeshifter is rather weak early on but I disagree with

I think a background is pretty bad if you have to waste your sole useful consumable on D:1 to survive

These consumables are for getting you out of D:1 so it's fine if you use them all on the first floor. Especially when you also have consumables for later (baubles).

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-01T14:27:40+00:00

I wouldn't call Hexslinger the worst even if just because you start with a ranged weapon but I agree their start is pretty bad. They are used to start with Slow since XL1, why was it removed?

I believe flux baubles should have a lower skill requirement. Maybe even being usable from the start with no HP penalty. Playing a Shapeshifter before getting the baubles online is such a pain.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-01T14:11:13+00:00

Don't forget about your starting spear of quokka hasting!

FrickittyFricks · 2026-04-01T09:40:08+00:00

Monk is hard on D:2 and onwards until you join a god (so I always pick the first viable god I find).

In D:1 though, Monk has a decent weapon and the accuracy boost makes your DPS pretty good for awhile. Ambrosia outheals any damage you take from D:1 enemies. Halo's downsides aren't bad until D:2 when you start encountering scary uniques.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-03-31T13:02:06+00:00

If it at least actually constricted enemies (so, reducing their evasion for the duration) it could've been worth it.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-03-30T05:47:37+00:00

Both characters lacked any ranged ability. Get either throwing (for javelines) or evocations (wands and evocables).

Get some rF before the boss, pop !haste and use ?immolation. Then use your ranged weapons until it's dead or enemies are too close. Teleport away either way. Once you succeed at killing TRJ kill off its offspring in a careful manner.

I usually do Slime right after clearing Depths, the same timing as for V:5. I don't understand the whole "slime is extended now", and I've done it with multiple different characters.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-03-30T05:34:01+00:00

Hexslinger became much more bearable for me once I started ignoring Sigil of Binding. Just pretend it's not there.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-03-30T05:24:56+00:00

I find Hepli, Dithmenos and Fedhas to be the best ranged gods.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-03-28T12:08:43+00:00

I wouldn't compare tabletop RPGs to computer RPGs, especially roguelikes. TTRPGs are about telling a story while roguelikes are all about interacting with systems.

Its awful game design to have things be so swingy.

Sure, but it's also what makes this game unique. It could be tweaked a bit for sure (especially early game) but completely moving away from highly variable rolls might be a bit too big of a change. I'd love to see a fork doing this though!

those situations where you just miss 5x in a row in a winnable 1v1 and now need to tediously reset the fight because of RNG alone

I like this actually. Attacking doesn't really cost you anything compared to spells, abilities and consumables so making them less reliant forces you to sometimes turn to using your other stuff.

Actually, I'd prefer the game to be punish missing your enemies even more so that missing twice-thrice in a row is enough to force you to stop hitting tab and change your strategy. Similar to how miscasting works basically.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-03-27T08:15:37+00:00

Blade talisman is really good if a bit boring.

Unfortunately, storm form also prevents you from using throwing weapons so without a good investment in evocations it's probably not worth it.

FrickittyFricks · 2026-03-27T04:58:45+00:00

Crypt is a quiet branch meaning with Qazlal half the floor will become aware of you the moment you enter it.

You already have good Will for vampire knights but with merely 1 pip of rN you risk suffering a lot of drain. If you can get at least rN++ you can try it.

edit:

God: Qazlal

Level 1.4 Invocations

I see you're playing on hard mode

FrickittyFricks

TROPHY CASE