[net.games.hack] Damn xans

bww@ukc.UUCP (B.Winstanley) (05/18/85)

I was having my best ever game of hack with most of the items
you need to get the Amulet (ie. Ring of Fire Resistance,Ring 
of Levitation,Potion of Object Detection,etc.) when I started 
to meet xans. As in the description they keep on pricking your
legs and reducing your strength so that you "collapse under
your load" making you drop things to be able to do anything.
I did this several times gradually finding it difficult to
find items which weren't needed for survival.

Has anyone else found this problem and hoe did they deal with it??

(potion of Restore Strength would obviously help and Royal Jelly
 similarly but are there any other items or ways of dealing with
 xans apart from genocide)

As a matter of interest what do people genocide as their first,
second and third choices assuming you are on level 8 say ??

If you are interested how this character died then read on :

On level 22 with 90 hit points (13th level with a potion of Raise
Level) he walked into a room and saw a Demon across the room.
He puts on one of his Rings of Regeneration and also a Ring of Fire
Resistance.By this time the positions were as follows :-

	&..@

pretty confident of being able to handle it in a similar fashion
to that of Dragons I moved to meet it.
MESSAGE
=======
A cloud of gas envelopes you ... you fall asleep ...More
etc.
The Demon with its four attacks quite easily wiped those 90 hit
points out in about 10 rounds.

My commiserations to anyone else who has died in this way !!
(The chance of that happening is so low I hate to think about it)

Brian Winstanley
(bww@ukc)

barnett@ut-sally.UUCP (Lewis Barnett) (05/20/85)

> 
> to meet xans. As in the description they keep on pricking your
> legs and reducing your strength so that you "collapse under
> your load" making you drop things to be able to do anything.
> 
> Has anyone else found this problem and hoe did they deal with it??
> 
> (potion of Restore Strength would obviously help and Royal Jelly
>  similarly but are there any other items or ways of dealing with
>  xans apart from genocide)

Nope, restore strength won't do it.  The only cure to run-ins with
xans is a potion of speed.  Don't ask me why, but after having your
legs pricked, a potion of speed gives you the message "Your legs 
begin to feel better."
> 
> As a matter of interest what do people genocide as their first,
> second and third choices assuming you are on level 8 say ??
> 
> Brian Winstanley
> (bww@ukc)

Well, I go for c's first, which seems to be the prevailing wisdom,
though I've only been stoned a couple of times when tangling with
them.  Then D's, and after that... well, xans have earned my eternal
dislike, too, so I take them out.  k's would probably be a pretty
good choice, too.


Lewis Barnett,CS Dept, Painter Hall 3.28, Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX 78712

-- barnett@ut-sally.ARPA, barnett@ut-sally.UUCP,
      {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!barnett

barton@osu-eddie.UUCP (Gary Barton) (05/22/85)

> 
> I was having my best ever game of hack with most of the items
> you need to get the Amulet (ie. Ring of Fire Resistance,Ring 
> of Levitation,Potion of Object Detection,etc.) when I started 
> to meet xans. As in the description they keep on pricking your
> legs and reducing your strength so that you "collapse under
> your load" making you drop things to be able to do anything.
> I did this several times gradually finding it difficult to
> find items which weren't needed for survival.
> 
> Has anyone else found this problem and hoe did they deal with it??
> 
> (potion of Restore Strength would obviously help and Royal Jelly
>  similarly but are there any other items or ways of dealing with
>  xans apart from genocide)

The remedy for pricked legs is a potion of speed.

> 
> As a matter of interest what do people genocide as their first,
> second and third choices assuming you are on level 8 say ??
> 

I usually genocide in the following order :
     1) Cockatrices  -- there are better ways to get stoned
     2) Xans -- Irritating SOBS
     3) Dragons -- If I don't have a ring of fire resistance
     4) U's, e's, k's(not to deadly but makes game slow)

> Brian Winstanley
> (bww@ukc)

Here's a question : Is the only way to get to more maze levels in Hack 1.0.1
to teleport, or do stairs exist that I have never seen ???
-- 
				Gary Barton
			        Ohio State University
				(UUCP: cbosgd!osu-eddie!barton)
				(CSNet: barton@ohio-state)
                                (ARPA:  barton%ohio-state.csnet@CSNET-RELAY)

===========================================================================
The views expressed here are :
     1) of questionable utility,intelligence,authenticity, & legality.
     2) generically disclaimed.
===========================================================================

kscott@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Kevin Scott%Kuntz) (05/22/85)

In article <1963@ut-sally.UUCP> barnett@ut-sally.UUCP (Lewis Barnett) writes:
>> 
>> Xans. As in the description they keep on pricking your
>> legs and reducing your strength so that you "collapse under
>> your load" making you drop things to be able to do anything.
>> Has anyone else found this problem and hoe did they deal with it??
>
>Nope, restore strength won't do it.  The only cure to run-ins with
>xans is a potion of speed.  Don't ask me why, but after having your
>legs pricked, a potion of speed gives you the message "Your legs 
>begin to feel better."

Drinking 2 or 3 potions of speed also gives a similar message when you
drink them in rapid succession, even if you have not yet ran in to a
xan.  Does this mean you are allowed to carry more?  (I have not been
able to test out this theory yet)
>> 
>> As a matter of interest what do people genocide as their first,
>> second and third choices assuming you are on level 8 say ??
>> 
>> Brian Winstanley
>
>Well, I go for c's first, which seems to be the prevailing wisdom,
>though I've only been stoned a couple of times when tangling with
>them.  Then D's, and after that... well, xans have earned my eternal
>dislike, too, so I take them out.  k's would probably be a pretty
>good choice, too.
>
>Lewis Barnett,CS Dept, Painter Hall 3.28, Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
>
I prefer to go for xan's straight off.  
    *****SPOILER*****
After you kill your first killer bee you can eat it and it will give you
poison resistance, allowing you to avoid food burning rings.  Dragons are
also handy, eating them (you must stand on top of them, they are nigh
impossible to lift) imparts fire resistance upon you, after which 
subsequent dragons are relatively easy to kill.  Keep potions of healing
on hand as that when you eat them they are likely to be tainted, and
be prepared to lose a few strength points due to the poison in a bee.

The prevailing attitude here is that cockatrices are not all that common, 
although they seem to come up too often if they come up once.
But they are easy to kill and are invaluable if you have gloves.
Simply keep the cockatrice in your pack and if you run into a treasure 
zoo or graveyard before it decomposes, wield it and go wild!  Whenever it hits, 
it turns the victim into stone, instant death (you still get the normal 
corpses to eat if appropiate to do so).  Stay in one place when doing so, if you
fall into a pit while wielding the cadaver it is instant death for you.
I've had good success with theses stategies, and find that with intelligent
handling of cockatrices (i.e. use up those wand charges & teleport like crazy)
I rarely (one game in the time it has taken me to get the last three wins) 
get turned to stone.
 
  My next favorite thing to genocide is the rust monsters, they are almost
as much of a nuisance to me as xans.  Of course, I usually carry the 
genocide scroll if I have the portage to spare and use the scroll as a
save when something is about to kill me, so I don't always get to pick
what I want to kill.