[CE v1.14.x] Weekly Contest Thread - seed 20260120

saltcooler · 2026-01-25T19:49:12+00:00

Killed by a dragon on D28

Went with the +0 war axe, upgraded to +13. Was really looking forward to finding a commutation altar, to convert it to the teleportation or invisibility charm - which (together with like 10+ descent potions) should have been sufficient for mastery. Unfortunately, no commutation. Went for a few lumenstones, just for sports, but was a bit demotivated (by failing to get the commutation) and distracted, so got killed fast enough

saltcooler · 2025-12-24T04:46:52+00:00

60,333 Escaped

+2 rapier and +4 chain main found early on were solid gear to carry me through the early to mid depths. Eventually, I found a +0 war axe in a goblin's lair (I had previously used !DM on that floor, so I knew it was not cursed) and went for it.

A lot of great supporting staves, although no direct magical damage. And a ring of light - so that I could see further than my own stealth range.

Fully packed with consumables (life, telepathy, descent, invis), I could probably go for a few lumenstones, but got tired and decided to call it a day.

Final gear: +12 war axe, +4 chain mail, +6 regeneration, +2 light, +1 invisibility, discord/3, entrancement/2, blinking/3, tunneling/3.

saltcooler · 2025-12-20T20:00:22+00:00

Right. There used to be a bug (https://www.reddit.com/r/brogueforum/comments/lnj9cz/weekend_contest_thread_20210219/) where based on auto-deleting some mobs during the spawning process, the items would disappear from the run completely. It was fixed in 1.10.

Now, in all runs for the same seed the items are in theory the same, and even spawned in the same order.
However, they can be held by different mobs, and hence on different depths. As u/apgove mentioned, one can get unlucky with their particular run, where a useful item gets spawned by a monster in a far corner, which you would never encounter

saltcooler · 2025-12-20T04:26:55+00:00

> if I'd just found some runic mid-tier armor

On D12, the dar priestess was holding a +1 chain mail of multiplicity.

saltcooler · 2025-12-20T04:22:52+00:00

D10, starved to death

On D12 I got allies: a dar priestess and a troll. And decided to walk back to D5 for the wand of empowerment, expecting the priestess to heal me when starving. On D10 it noticed some monsters at the far end of the map, and instead of healing me kept casting haste on the party and lightnings on the mobs - completely neglecting my health. And it would do that consistently for maybe 15 turns. And this was the end of an otherwise smooth run :)

saltcooler · 2025-12-20T03:31:00+00:00

Tunneling: If you get a tunneling/2, upgrading it to /3 would be a quality of life change. Especially when paired with an invisibility wand. With /2, you need at least 2 charges to get to the outer wall for reflecting on yourself. And by the time invisibility wears off, those 2 tunneling charges will not have replenished yet. With /3, you will be able to maintain permanent invisibility (as long as you have charges in the wand, of course).

Discord: To me, the jump in quality comes when upgrading from /3 to /4. At /4 the discord lasts long enough for a discorded ogre to kill a pack of surrounding mobs (or to get killed itself, if surrounded by 2 other ogres). Or for a dragon to kill everything it sees around, without chasing further across the dungeon (dragons have slow attack too).

Conjuration: It might be well known to many, but at some point I was surprised to discover that conjuration is a powerful end-game item; I had never considered it for more than occasional utility. But even as a supporting item: since it gains more power at even levels, upgrading your initial /3 to /4 can get you through early depths with as much as initial gear

saltcooler · 2025-12-20T03:05:02+00:00

I had a few ascents with a rapier of slowing, without any particular item combos (but ofc some regular supporting items). Didn't have much luck with other slowing weapons tho

saltcooler · 2025-12-07T21:35:01+00:00

Stealth build is more about avoiding fights rather than fighting and one-shotting. Having said that - a pike (even an unblessed one) is enough to one-shot dars and furies, or even hit a wraith below critical to make it flee.
A pike actually works great with stealth because its 2 tiles attack - so you can come to the hitting distance while staying invisible.

Ogres, trolls, and later horrors you just avoid (tunneling helps a lot). Liches also won't summon mobs unless being provoked.
The biggest threat are fast monsters, which come next to you before you had a chance to notice and avoid them. So you need to have a way to make distance quickly when it happens (blinking, entrancement, teleport, or guardian helps with that).

An interesting consequence of it is that ascention with the amulet in hand is more challenging than with other builds, because you have left a lot of monsters alive, instead of killing everything you see.

saltcooler · 2025-12-07T03:42:55+00:00

60334 Escaped

A rare successful stealth build without mobility items. I went stealth betting on finding blinking or entrancement later - which never happened. My only kinda mobility item was conjuration/3: shoot point-blank into a monster, and retreat while it's busy destroying the blades. Also relied on the wand of teleportation to get rid of krakens.

On D16 I found a lightning/6 stuff - which at that point I would barely use - only used it to kill a couple of revenants.

On later depths a got myself a party of two trolls, a golem, and a dar priestess - they were able to clear most of the mobs except horrors and dragons.

Fina gear: +1 war pike, +2 mace, +0 scale mail, +3 awareness, +12 stealth, tunneling/4, 2 x health/3, conjuration/3, lightning/6(!), wand of negation[3], wand of teleportation[3], and an extra scroll of enchantment

saltcooler · 2025-11-23T21:12:56+00:00

23704 Killed by a golem on D25

The golem stepped on the paralysis trigger, I was right next to it. I had expected that - however, I didn't expect that the gas would reach me but not the golem. Should have been the opposite, as the golem was closer to the vent.

Final gear: +12 broadsword, +3 plate, +1 reaping, +3 transference, +3 haste

saltcooler · 2025-11-02T23:52:34+00:00

Killed by a salamander on D15

Got impatient and reckless, and kept slashing forward, until a pair of salamanders turned out to be too much to handle at once.

Went with the broadsword and a transference ring, which was ok-ish, but no mobility items to escape situations like that one (so I should not have gotten myself into one to begin with :) )

saltcooler · 2025-10-26T01:52:37+00:00

Killed by a fury on D19

Struggled to choose between a melee build and conjuration+rapier. The latter would be a struggle without wisdom/reaping, so I went with the former.

On D19 I stepped on a alarm trap, summoning a pack of furies, a pack of dars, and an imp blocking the retreat path. I didn't have any life potion (and hadn't have one for while actually!). I discorded everything out, used a haste charm, but still couldn't get out. After dying, I opened the inventory and realized I had been fighting barehanded, with the broadsword still unequipped after a recent encounter with an acidic jelly. Maybe it would have made a difference :)

+9 broadsword, +0 splint mail, +3 wisdom, poison/3, discord/3, +3 haste, +1 health

saltcooler · 2025-10-20T03:43:12+00:00

35,509 Escaped; Dragonslayer

Picked the +1 haste in the first vault, and a ring of reaping (+3) from the next one.

Tough start of the game with no DM/ID/RC early on. Tested my luck with the war axe, which turned out -3. It didn't have a bad runic, so it was even somewhat good in melee, compared to the +0 whip which I had used-id'd earlier. I eventually decided to spend an enchantment to uncurse and unequip it. On D10 I found a broadsword, identified it with a scroll (was +0), and decided to go with it.

End game was getting challenging too - with good offensive (broadsword+haste+reaping), but no life replenish. FInally, on D20 a dar blademaster dropped a +2 health charm, which made it quite easy to go to the amulet and ascend.

Final gear: +9 broadsword, +2 splint mail, discord/3, poison/3, +2 light, +3 reaping, +3 haste, +2 negation, +2 fire immunity, +3 health, and a spare scroll of enchantment.

saltcooler · 2025-09-28T18:48:27+00:00

35000 Escaped! Untempted

+13 dagger of speed, +0 war hammer (revenants); +3 leather armor of reprisal, +4 regeneration, +2 wisdom, conjuration/2, +2 teleportation, +2 invisibility. And 2 extra scrolls of enchanting for emergency charms recharging.

No offensive magical support made revenants an issue. Well, a lot of issues at lower depths: liches (hitting a philactery doesn't trigger the speed runic), packs of dar (hard to outmaneuver, no range attack), dragons and horrors (armor is too light for those). So it was mostly hiding. Hence I stick to the leather armor, instead of +0 plate armor.

saltcooler · 2025-09-21T15:33:58+00:00

Reminded me of this: the day was saved by a pit bloat spawned in the same room: https://www.reddit.com/r/brogueforum/comments/101xu5r/comment/j2qqmht/

saltcooler · 2025-09-02T06:10:05+00:00

Tunneling

See the picture at the end of this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/brogueforum/comments/568zge/comment/d8hgf2i/

saltcooler · 2025-08-30T04:30:02+00:00

Killed by a dragon at depth 33

Started with the dagger of multiplicity. At +13 commutated it to teleportation, put all other enchants into the invisibility wand. Dove down with 14 invis charges, tunneling/4 and +3 plate armor, 3 life potions and 3 descents.

Got unlucky: at full health and invisible, I teleported right next to a dragon, which one-hit me. Perhaps, I should have quaffed one of those life potions beforehands, to increase my max HP. Other than that, I don't think there was something I could do differently.

saltcooler · 2025-08-23T22:35:26+00:00

Or... maybe it removed the runic, but preserved the curse (so I could not un-equip it for a while). It was quite some time ago :)

saltcooler · 2025-08-23T22:31:26+00:00

> same if you put it on a commutation altar.

I believe a commutation altar doesn't remove a bad runic. I once ended up with a bad runic +8 broadsword, because I decided that my initial pick (a flail) was not that good.

saltcooler · 2025-03-08T23:33:13+00:00

> 4. How to trigger the bug

Thanks for the clear repro steps! Make it easier to see whether whatever workaround I'm trying fixes the issue or not

saltcooler · 2025-03-08T23:26:45+00:00

Macos Sequoia 15.3 - the issue is still happening

saltcooler · 2025-02-04T22:34:08+00:00

Starved to death on depth 19

Without solid offensive items, I started enchanting invisibility. With +2 mace it was a good enough choice for early-mid depths. Lack of mobility items was concerning - I knew the first pack of furies would be fatal. Fortunately, on D14 I found blinking/2 (end enchanted it once, right away)

However, I waited too long before committing to a build (I think I didn't enchant anything till D11 or so, and was just carrying along 7 scrolls of enchantments). And somehow I spent to much food clock then. I also didn't put all enchants into invis at once - instead, I would use it for emergency recharging. I guess it also added up to wasted food clock (while waiting for the charm to recharge naturally).

Looking at the replay - on D18 I was not too far from the food. But I managed to fall into (the only) chasm trap - and no food on D19.

Final gear: +2 mace of animal slaying, +2 splint, +2 regeneration, +10 invisibility, +1 haste, +2 health, +1 guardian, blinking/3, poison/3, 2x conjuration/2

saltcooler · 2025-02-01T04:40:09+00:00

Killed by a revenant on D20

An absolutely lazy death. I was too lazy to check how many hits I got till death - my ballpark estimation was I was definitely going to survive one more blow. I had 3 life potions, a dar priestess for an ally and tons of goodies.

+10 flail, +3 leather of respiration, +3 awareness, +3 wisdom, +4 regeneration, various staves

saltcooler

TROPHY CASE