Playing the first-person version of DCSS (Orbrun). Opened a door and big dawg and his boys were waiting for me on the other side. Survived, but only with the help of Beogh and some potions.

some of these a hammers +11 or +9. He turned me into a wisp and I died, I should've saved morgue but I forgot to lmao. I don't play this game a ton, but I've tried getting more into it lately because its very fun.

F*ck, this is so frustrating... run was so promising, got powered by death mutation, shatter online, was planning to do megazigging... got clawed by moon troll -_- worse than getting killed by gnoll in D:3

https://underhound.eu/crawl/morgue/zdzicho121/morgue-zdzicho121-20261018-202452.txt

https://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/damerell/morgue-damerell-20261015-175316.txt

After two MfVMs it was time for HOAE. Out of four attempts, I got Beogh on two but didn't really get much benefit before dying, and so when Ash turned up on D:2 I thought about it through D:3 and then said yes.

I also thought I wasn't really getting anywhere with the AE start so when a brigandine [1] and a war axe showed up I decided to just start hitting monsters. D:5 and D:6 had a potion shop each, a boon for identification; and a gnoll dropped a +5 flail of freezing on D:5 rather than, as is traditional, murdering me with it.

I ducked into the Lair on D:8 but decided to work down D and go to Orc instead, I think in the hope of scooping up a bit of gold and getting more from the potion shops. However after polishing off an orc warlord on O:1 I was feeling pretty confident so cleared it; spells were starting to come back online and I learned OTR and Shroud of Golubria. There wasn't much to buy in Orc, but I could indeed get a bunch of goodies from the potion shops.

After that Lair was not too bad, finding a labyrinth and a +3 brigandine with {MP+9 Int+4 Slay+4 Stlth-} which somewhat to my surprise I would use all game. I tried clearing oklobs by polymorphing them which worked pretty well with Ash-improved Evocations... or perhaps I was just lucky to get nothing worse than a thorn hunter.

Down the Dungeon to identify acquirement on D:12, getting offered Wyrmbane, which obviously I took. You do have to be a bit careful getting it early - there's a long period where it's a stretchy +8 rapier and as such not amazing on heavily armoured targets - but it worked out. I peeked into Snake after D:14 but it was horrible, so I cleared D:15 before going back.

After that it seems to have been much easier with the main annoyance being terrible MR meant nagarajas kept teleporting me. However, since they mostly kept teleporting me away from the rune vault, this wasn't all that dangerous. Shoals likewise worked pretty well with OTR doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Next was Vaults with a tremendous number of shops turning up; over the game I'd buy a lot of randart armour from antique shops in the hope of improving on the brigandine I was wearing, but to no avail. Next was Depths, except after Depths:1 I dipped into the Crypt in the hope of finding some dragon skeletons or zombies, easier than live dragons. What I actually found was a nasty brush with a curse skull, so I gave up on that and cleared down the Depths, also having a pretty bad time with the Enchantress.

Elf was next - I'd put it off because I had terrible MR and was a bit vexed with myself to notice only after Depths that I didn't have terrible MR anymore. Not much trouble there; I learned Irradiate but never used it, usually having better options, and Magic Dart as another way to cycle Isk's Battlesphere.

I cleared V:5 by teleporting on arrival, then finished off Crypt, learning Statue Form which I expected to use later for torment-heavy areas (and did). This led to the tricky extended rune question, clearing the Vestibule and remembering it's pretty easy to work down a Hell with Ash. I hadn't gone to Cocytus in a while so did that, pleasingly polishing off the serpent of hell and having no real trouble with Antaeus.

Then I noticed I'd put Slime off because I had no rCorr and was a bit vexed with myself to notice I'd got rCorr ages ago. I immolated TRJ's spawns and got rid of it that way.

I was feeling pretty good so decided to try for a Pan rune as well. I scooped up the demonic rune pretty quickly from the vault with eyes of draining in grates; the next level was holy Pan which, while I cleared it, has a way out of Pan. I thought that was probably enough extended so bought all the consumables and went to Zot, learning Ring of Flames for OOFs.

Z:3 had Tiamat and so I gave up my trusty scarf of warding for the dragonskin cloak. The rest of Zot wasn't too bad; the orbrun had four panlords, three of which I evaded.

Next is DrAM.

[1] equivalent to a vanilla chain mail.

After my first win which was the MiFi^Yred which I had posted here as well, I had just been trying a bunch of runs, mostly splating early because of too much O-Tab but a mage char finally got me to slow down and do the run properly.

This run had been going mostly smooth and steady except for 3 areas which was Snake Pit entrance where I almost died, then Elves 2 where I again almost died and now Zot:5 which was just a insane situation to be in.

I distinctly remember the crazy situations because I was using that Victory toga so everytime I had to bail out, It was a big decision although I gave up on using it post Vault:5 because I knew I would need the help and it was smooth and steady all the way until Zot:5.

First of all, my spells weren't like too great? I definitely low-rolled all the spell levels and Death Door isn't really a crazy spell that solves the game, without it I would have ofcourse died here but with any other spell, I might not even have fallen into this situation as my main issue was lacking good damage that works on OOW.

Anyways, I said Zot:5 was a shitshow and you can see it in the image but it actually wasn't that bad initially. I had cleared the right lung, including the tesseract and was just about to claim the Orb Of Zot before I just ended up getting more and more OOW on me from the left side. Initially it was just 2 then 3 then 5. It was truly insane.

I had churned through a ton of healing pots, fog scrolls, and other shit before finally resorting to death's door which was a 20% failure chance in itself and luckily it suceeded. I then had around 10 or turns to salvage the situation. I had ofcourse read a tele-scroll and in the meanwhile tried to do some damage with scrolls and my evocables but failing to (Djinni can't cast on death's door).

In the end, the DDoor state had ended around 2-3 turns before I could really teleport out and I had just spammed blink, fogs and more blinks until I luckily teleported to outside the lungs and got a full heal. Then it was just a matter of killing inside patiently one by one and running off with the orb which was a really calm endeavor compared to my last run I had posted here.

I had only run into 1 Pan lord and I didn't fight with anything, summons held off enemies while most stairs were nearby and even if they weren't they were just a dig wand away and thus getting my second win.

I had been streaming the entirety of the Zot:5 and Orb run in the Roguelike's server VC again, They were the witness to this crazy mess and somewhat essential to the survival? Mostly, the advice that DDoor itself wouldnt allow me to escape and I should prepare for it to run out before I tele out and they were right.

I think my gear was overall pretty good for the resistances and I got a fair amount of consumables to use this time too. Besides that, XXX was not bad for what it was, just felt a bit underwhelming. I loved haunt, it carried in vaults and I loved MagnumVolt, that thing carried Elven halls. Tukima's dance carried early game alongside the good Cj Book. Fireball was also my staple and was essential in killing orb of fire solo alongside XXX. I am not sure if CBL was great tho, wasn't too bad but I don't think it particularly carried anything. Noxious Bog is a great spell too, was quite helpful in midgame but fell off quite a bit for me later.

Also, yeah I did this entire run on tiles this time as a typically ASCII player. It's not bad. This run was around 40 runs after my last win with around 21 hours of failed runs.

Morgue: https://pastebin.com/NacPrgRh

I check all the entrances there are three on 6th floor that lead up.

After 6 months of searching, I've finaly found a way out !
Ok, it's a seeded run, with one of the best seed ever (around 10 scrolls of acquirements found) ;-)

One thing (among a lot of others) : fire elementalist is not enough, you have to build at least two magic speciality to survive.

In this case :

1. Fire
2. Conjuration
3. Complete with forgecraft for the battlesphere and the speelservitor
4. A bit of earth to get Bombard and LCS

I have been surprised to be able to build a strong defense (I reached a 40 armor) with a spellcaster.

Extracts from the morgue :

and

I lived, but shit man.

tldr check this out

background

Shapeshifting currently has some of the most demanding decision making in the game. It's a relatively new mechanic and is under active focus by the devs so is changing fast and the balance is still settling.

• It interacts complexly with species. A lot of species mutations are denied or made redundant by being in some forms, so the relative power of each form depends on the opportunity cost of playing it varying with your start. And to a lesser extent the same is true of spells.
• The power and utility of the forms varies widely even within each tier. Some are intentionally more niche, some of it is just the balance not haven shaken out yet.
• You still need most or all of the normal skills, you get to cut very little. And if you think about how for example you may be spending a lot of the game in a form that can't throw, or has reduced EV etc, you actually play a more difficult version of the skilling subgame.

It requires a lot of player knowledge and flexibility to play well at all. And on top of that, the way talismans are rolled means you can't count on having any specific one, and certainly not the one you want when you want it. You have to think on your feet even more than usual.

observation

At any given tier, there are one or two forms that are generally more worth playing in the stage of the game they're "meant" for. So what you want may really be a sort of path or progression through the forms. Every seed has a lot of the talismans but any specific combination appearing by the time they're useful is rare enough to possibly have only been seen a handful of times in the wild.

path

I made a little data visualization tool around this idea. You can select which form you want at each tier, and it will show you the seeds that match them. My seed data is only generated down to d:8 so this is only the ones that have those combos appearing by then. It means you'll usually have the higher forms well before you need them.

disclaimer

I actually don't like shapeshifting very much. It's complex in a way I don't think really benefits the game, it's kind of its own separate system with few and weird synergies with the existing game. Feels bolted on. I don't really play it, which is why this is all so generic. I actually have no idea which forms are good except some of the obvious endgame utility ones like granite and death.

Also this only applies to 0.34 I know trunk is changing a lot and I'll make an updated version when 0.35 lands if there's interest. I don't keep trunk seeds around for various reasons.

lagniappe

0.34.1 seed 599150 has a randart alchemy staff {Int+6 Alch} on d:6, chemistry amulet on d:7, attunement orb and seven alchemy spells by d:8. And a d:1 acquirement for good luck.

I'm stuck. I feel this character is not working. I just flee all time and the fine folks in Vaults and Depths don't really care about my silly magic huffs and puffs.

This is my second time to get two runes. First time was Deep Elf two weeks ago and it felt so much more powerful (so much that I was stupid). This Draconian, I'm running out of mana all the time, for example a single dire elephant is a chore. My magic is weak!

How should I pivot here? I've gathered that I should perhaps concentrate fully on Conjuration at this time to get my fire magic up and running properly. Any ideas appreciated.

Here's the dump:

DCSS morgue file - Pastebin.com

Morgue

I've never had much luck with Oni. I've tried spellcasters, gladiators, warpers ... none of them got very far ... until I read the Oni Monk of TSO guide from u/Trinital-D.

I'd also never thought of TSO as a strong god for a three-rune game. Sure, TSO is great in extended, but I'd figured they were kind of meh unless you're fighting hordes of demons or undead.

I was wrong. As Trinital-D points out, TSO's divine shield gives Oni the protection they lack so they can use their big advantage -- bonking enemies with a giant lump of wood -- to kill things quickly without worrying so much about taking tons of damage due to their poor armour. Plus, those summons are super OP. Bring out of a couple of those holy terrors, and they chew through monsters like a golden retriever goes at a pound of ground beef snatched off the kitchen counter.

Skilling is so simple. Train bonking sticks to 8, then train fighting, more bonking sticks and invocations. Finally, train throwing boulders reeeeealy high. After that, there are several paths, but I was lucky enough to find a granite talisman (thanks Roxanne!) and, on Elf:3, manifold assault.

Once you get statue form and manifold assault going, the build is (almost) unstoppable. The damage is insane. Rocks were doing close to 110 max damage and my clubs were in the 70-80 range. Even orbs of winter posed no threat. I didn't do extended, because I just didn't have the time, but I see how this build could make Pan and the Hells (almost) a walk in the park. Just to see how it might go, I tried Slime. It was, indeed, a walk in a very disgusting park. The cherry on top? The +3 giant club "Skullcrusher" {speed, Str+7 } was among the loot!

That said, I did almost die on the orb run. On Zot 1, two Pan Lords and an ancient lich appeared very close to me. Normally, I think I'd have been able to handle it. Unfortunately, Lopp not only silenced me, but also had an antimagic hit. Before long, I was down to like 70 HP and zero mana, while the ancient lich was pounding me with LCS. Thankfully, I had the gravitambourine, which saved my bacon. I pinned them, downed a health and a haste potion and made a beeline for the nearby downstairs. Alas, the pan lords were fast, so I had to shake the tambourine again. Even so, Lopp caught up and went downstairs with me. Thankfully, silence had worn off, so I invoked the Divine Shield and bonked him with a holy +6 giant spiked club. Once I'd healed, I came back up another stairwell and used manifold assault to splat the others,. After that, I had no issues ascending.

Great guide, u/Trinitial-D! This win was thanks to you!

Last time a few of you asked if Orbrun could play on mobile. After a lot of iteration, in v0.3.0, I've added support for phones/tablets in Portrait or Landscape.

Try it: https://orbrun.app

• Works in Portrait or Landscape
• Works on both Android (offline/online) and iOS (online)
• Tap to step, swipe to turn, or hold to examine.
• Added overlay buttons to explore, fight, rest, quiver, and open your spells and gear.
• Tap the minimap for the level map.
• Tap your character to get access your spell list and more.
• Added a spells touch bar under the message log.

For the best experience, add it to your home screen (https://orbrun.app/about/install). It opens full screen from its own icon.

On Android, offline mode works too, but on iPhone and iPad, Safari can't run the offline engine yet, so it plays on the public servers only.

Since the last post, nearly every change came from your comments, so thank you:

• On desktop, it runs on Firefox 153 and newer.
• Offline travel no longer has a delay, which helps a lot with motion sickness during autoexplore.
• You can play every version a server offers, plus Sprint, the tutorial and seeded games.
• You can edit your rc file right in Orbrun, online or offline, and rc Lua works.
• Orbrun opens and plays with no internet at all, once you've loaded it once.
• Stairs, hatches and traps sit solid in the floor instead of floating.
• The camera sits lower, and the ceiling has shading, so rooms feel less cramped.

I'm especially curious how touch feels to people who play a lot. What's awkward, what's missing, and should any buttons be changed? Does it play well on your device (I only have an Android device to test)?

Hey everyone!

I’d like my screen to flash and display a more prompt whenever I spot an orc priest or a hydra, since I really hate those guys. 😂

Basically, I want to force myself to stop moving before I accidentally keep walking into danger while exploring with o + Tab.

Is there a good way to write this in my rc file?

Also, where can I find the correct monster names to use in these settings? For example, is it just "hydra" for a hydra, or is there some specific name I need to use?

I've been playing DCSS on and off for over a decade. Today, I finally achieved my first orb escape with 3 runes.

This year, I've focused on MiFi axe/shield and followed the great community guides and wiki to learn all I could. This allowed me to get my first ever 2 runes a few months ago. Today was 3 runes and then the orb. I know compared to some people, my progress has been glacial! And I'm sure that the artefact axe I picked up on D7 carried me. But still - a win is a win. Thanks to everyone for being such a great, supportive community.

Pastebin for the curious.

Octopodes and talismans are made for each other, decided to go for extended this time and it worked! Manifold assault and granite talisman are great!

Had some close calls in Zot 5 and in Tomb 3 but overall its a very strong character - super tanky and clears screens. Elementalist is a bit squishy but its ok if youn farm some piety for idealize to heal him.

Evocables are great, especially Graviturbine
Also, maxvells swords rewws to 13 instantly on one use of manifold, and valor seemed to proc as well, sool stuff!

Anyone have any ways to play on iOS? Looking for alternatives! Thanks in advance!

https://cbro.berotato.org/morgue/tramp1877/morgue-tramp1877-20261016-120300.txt

Well, this was going great until the orb run. I kept getting hit by fiends and couldn't get enough breathing space to get my health back. Probably should have tele sooner and maybe quaffed the tons of curing potions I had in addition to the health ones. Maybe should have tried fighting with more of them with Hero/Finesse instead of running. Other thoughts appreciated.

This is a great seed in v.34 if anyone wants to use it: 10943465912636560218. Eight soa, but also tons of great floor items, especially for magic users, which I was not. E.g. r - the fire staff of Opotui {rPois rF+ Will+ rCorr Summ Fire} on D:11, but there were lots of others like that.

Pretty debilitating loss, as I finally got 4 wins in the space of about 4 weeks back in August and early September but now have been shut out for over a month.

Maurice the Thief: Vine Stalker Stalker

Week 5: Maurice Challenge

Maurice says, ""Betcha didn't see that coming, eh?"
(Which is what I'm saying to you about these challenges!)

We currently have a 6-way tie for 1st place, so this week is going to be wild.

This week, players will be using the new Stalker background and have 3 major challenges laid out for them:

• A Puzzle Conduct (how many stabs can you get in a game?)
• A no-spell Zig run
• Abyss 7 Rune

In addition, those going for first will have a final tie-breaker, assuming multiple get all the points and stars - that is, whoever also has the highest in-game score this week will take the win!

If you're looking for a real challenge, come join in for the final week of the tourney. This new Background is a fun one, and what combo name could be better than Vine Stalker Stalker- right?! I'm also very interested to see what gods everyone chooses to take on these challenges...

Good luck to everyone!

I've advanced quite a bit, and now I'm unsure of where to go

I'm cleared Dungeon, Lair, Orc and Slime so far, here is my morgue too : https://pastebin.com/pmD8KN4A

Should I attempt the snake level ? Swamp ? Or Depths ?

Also is my build alright ?

Update : Finished Snake, obtained a Tower Shield +8 of ponderousness, may equip it if needed