Dungeons of Dredmore (a new Rogue-like)

[face_palm]why didn't I think of trying that?

so anyway, finally managed to clear out a monster zoo. Promethean magic was essential. EVERYTHING BURNED!

Tentacle Bolts are always useful for monster Zoos for any build.
If you find any keep them till the zoos, especially on the lower levels.

Just went through the dungeon as a purely weapon-based fighter, no magic. I spent WAY too much time exploring the first floor trying to complete all the sidequests for some reason. Then I died on the 3rd floor because I went through the second one too fast, or something.

Anyways, this game's fun. I'll come back to it soon.

I am absolutely awful at this game.

After wandering around the first floor for ages, I finally manned up, crafted a bunch of fire bolts, and went down to floor 2. I was doing well for once, until I triggered a monster zoo. Luckily, I managed to use one of those satanic teleport things to escape. On the other side was a horadic lutefisk cube. I didn't need another, so I threw it away.

Into my first cube.

It exploded.

having gone through about 30 guys, the farthest I've is up to Dredmor himself, who killed me(Artic winds doing 20ish a tick, Fulmoric bolt for 50 a pop! so much damage! Need more resistances!) It was funny, because, looking back no the fight, I totally coulda killed him, I was just stunned at finally finding him and all strategic thinking kinda went out the window.

That character was a dual swords build with Psyonics as support.

edited 15th Oct '11 4:26:38 PM by Blissey1

I have a Character who just fought his way though a Monster zoo with naught but his bare hands and a fucktonne of mushrooms, without magic.

I have long since concluded that this is the best game ever. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Also, don't be ashamed if you end up blowing yourself up: Friendly fire and suicide are ESSENTAL to the Rougelike experience.

…Although you could have probably thought better of that earlier. Like how I keep drinking Verdant poison because I though it was verdant POTION.

The Root of T'Char (that gives an achievement just for EATING IT) gives a wonderful effect that would probably expedite clearing out a Monster Zoo. For two turns it heals you like any other food, and then the Eldritch part kicks in — it summons the tentacular AoE effect (as in Bolt of Squid), randomly teleports you a-la Spatial Instability Potion or the opening Mathemagics spell and places Spell Runes of the explosive persuasion wherever you step, randommly picking an effect or two every turn for 60 or so turns. So long as you keep YOURSELF alive from all of the above, this will probably burn up, telefrag and hentai pretty much anything with a pulse in a largish radius. Now, if only any of my guys who managed to get one to drop would actually survive getting TO a Monster Zoo...

EDIT: Also, the "Deus Ex" build ("I didn't ask for this!", the one where you get an achievement for building a steampunk cyberman; to get it together and make it work you need to have Crossbows, Axes, Dual Wielding, Tinkerer and whatever you might want to increase your survivability) is very very reliably unkillable set, as it turns out. Or would be, if I could complete it — I only got halfway to the set and got eaten about two-thirds of the way through a Monster Zoo because two named monsters ganged up on me =(

edited 23rd Oct '11 4:38:07 AM by Noelemahc

Oh man. This game. So awesome.

I've been trying to play it on Going Rogue and I've been tearing my hair out so much and I love it. Ahhhh, masochism.

The most common build I try is something with a mix of ranged and close attacks with maybe one school of magic. Viking Wizardy, Astrology, and Psionics all seem to be pretty good magics for a character that's primarily physical based. I never seem to get very far, though.

The first month I only did Random builds. They got farther in than my handmade builds, ackshully, as only now I understand how to make builds that can survive at least until the third floor. BTW, Unarmed + Dual Wielding turns you into a machine of death that literally swims in money because you sell the unnecessary weapons and shields. Throw in Archaeologist to recycle the artefacts and Anvils and you gain uberness VERY FAST.

Uh....

You do realise that Dual Wielding does not work with Unarmed.

At least its passives do. And Offensive Maneuvering is good with any weapon, as you will find.

Slew my first Monster Zoo today! Did it with the abovementioned Deus Ex build, owing mainly to two successful Anvilings of the two axes I was wielding (both were Simple Axes which do a meek 3 Sharp, one got 1 Fire and Covers Enemies With Acid, the other - 2 Health and Sets Enemies on Fire) and a nice bottleneck in a library that was what I entered the Zoo through. Several traps, lots of acid bottle arrows and all I had to do was swallow the occasional Diggle Egg to heal myself. All in all, it was fun and gave me two levels worth of XP =)

edited 27th Oct '11 12:07:33 PM by Noelemahc

So, my attempt at the DX run failed, I got whacked by a Diggle Commando, but this was the first time I got to see the third, fourth and fifth floors, as well as survive second, third and fourth floor Monster Zoos. All in all, this was educational, as I now know that some of the DX-set artifacts (the Clockwork Bolt Thrower, namely) require Level 6 Tinkering and you can only get yourself to Level 5 with level-ups - you need an actual stat-raising item to get higher! Also, it needs two Fine Steel Axes to craft the two Clockwork Axes, which I never saw drop and only once saw in the store, so you might have to roll a Blacksmith-and-Tinkerer to get this set done. Aw poot. Then again, I saw a Clockwork Axe on sale for 30+K zorkmids...

My final stuff was: Vampire Hunter Hat, a moderately-Kronged Poncho With No Name, two heavily-Kronged-out Die Kohlaxts, two Kronged-rings which I initially kept along for their different elemental damage bonuses, and artifactey Gladiator Shoes. Oh, and a Recurve Steel Crossbow, which is rather awesome, but takes ages to craft up to.

yeah, if you're running any sort of melee character, then you should have blacksmithing.

The clockwork crossbow is a pain the the ass to get, because you need to find the recipe for it, and then the recipe for the Tinker's Goggles. Wearing those is the only way of getting tinkering to 6 I've seen.

For a total Deus Ex build, you'll definitely need Axes, Crossbows, Dual Wielding, Tinkering and Smithing, which only leaves 2 slots. Plus you won't be able to use many spells with the Clockwork Power Limbs lowering your max mana, and you'll be constantly sorting your inventory to make room for all the crafting rubbish. Seems a bit annoying to me.

Blargh.

I can't ever make a mage character. They always die like 5 rooms in...

Of course, I do always play on going rogue...

I'm a bit vexed that the magic tutorial requires me to cast a spell that costs 20 mana and they only give me 7...

....

And it turns out I ran into some sort of bug. After starting the actual game, it started popping up tutorial prompts and kicked me out of my game after using my special martial arts attack. *wry grin* Eh, life.

edited 6th Dec '11 9:18:29 PM by FuzzyBoots

First playthrough: A bit of a mixed-bag as far as skills go (Swords, Psionics, stuff to let me see further... I don't remember it all). Got bored before the end of the first floor, but since I saved when I quit, I later went back to it and reached the third floor.

Second playthrough: died on the first floor

Third play: died on the second floor

A bunch of plays I can't really remember how many: got no further than the third floor. Somewhere in there I learned what happens when you put a lutefisk cube inside itself.

Most recent play: Seventh floor. During this run I learned stuff like how you don't actually need a smithing kit to smith stuff... only to have the window open. (Quick-sell the kit; dropping it closes the window.) The same works for all the other similar items. My skills during this were very unarmed & assassination-based stuff. And Viking Wizardry, for the voltaic & conflagration boosts. Also knight-jumping... I think that's part of the dodging skill or whatever it is. I love how you can still be "unarmed" while wielding two shields.

.

As far as Monster Zoos go, while I found the first one intimidating, all the ones I've seen since have been mere wars of attrition: can I kill them all before I exhaust my arrows, potions & fungi?

Okay...never ever drink Radiance potion within 3 blocks of Brax...or trigger any other area of effect...seriously, this is the 2nd/3rd time I lost my best character to Brax and the Dread Collectors...although at least this time I got to kill Brax before I bit the dust...

Shame, that game I got 3 Bolt of Mass Destruction in first 2 floors...although I only reached the 3rd and back and 2nd when I died...

edited 7th Dec '11 6:59:16 AM by onyhow

There's been an update! All the skills have new levels in them, except Deadshot, which has been removed and folded into Archery and Perception. Wands are less confusing, and you can't craft stuff by remembering the recipes from previous games any more. You can equip belts, gloves and trousers. You can play as a girl, if you want to.

Also they've added achievements for an upcoming DLC, which will have new skills like Demonology, Emomancy and Vegan.

Awww, man, they changed burglary! Now the infinite lockpick skill is last!

Not that I blame them. That shit gave so much experience...

yeah, now it seems the tons of early game XP skill is archaeology. Gives you +1 trap affinity right off the bat for disarming those level 1 traps, and first skill you get turns artifacts into XP.

Hmmm. Might try that.

Say, did they make the crossbow skill actually useful now? It used to suck balls...

seems that way, all the increase recovery rate skills now also increase damage, and they have a super damage shot of some sort on 40 turn(I think) cooldown. I haven't actually tried it yet though, just looked at it.

edited 14th Dec '11 5:42:08 PM by Blissey1

The secondary skills list (or maybe the skills themselves) seem broken. I had a pair of pants which appeared to give wand affinity, but didn't. I think it was trying to give the skills which used to have that image.

On a Steam-related note, Is the "Complete the Deadshot Skill Tree" achievement now locked from being gotten? I'm glad I got it, but without the skill tree being there anymore, other people may not be so lucky.

So anyone enjoying the fancy new DLC skills?