harmon_c@h-sc1.UUCP (david harmon) (03/15/85)
From uucp Thu Mar 14 19:12:47 1985
Status: R
>From harmon_c Thu Mar 14 18:50:12 1985 remote from h-sc4
To: harmon_c@h-sc1
Subject: med-hi_level
1) The big thing for getting to levels above the 8-10-12 range is
to conserve your expendable magic, that is potions, scrolls, and wands. You
are meeting monsters that are tougher than you've seen before, but you are
tougher too. So what if the sword that slew Hs in one shot takes a while to
get an imp or jaguar? You have enough hit points now so they are fairly
minor dangers, at least you can afford to take the time to kill them.
You are regaining hit points faster, you know what many of the magic items are,
and you've hopefully built up fairly good armor, weapons, and rings.
You don't need to kill the orc swarms, with a wand, you can pick them off with
your Orcrist mace as they come through the door. Same for killer bees, once
you've eaten one. Giant ants are a pain, but once you have poison resistance,
you can often let the dog kill them. (You didn't leave him behind, did you?
He should be getting to be a big dog about now. If you lost him, pick up
one whose master has become a ghost.) Speaking of ghosts, you should have
robbed or be robbing a at least one by the 6th-8th level. And, you should
have plundered at least one store, giving you an assortment of goodies.
On the other hand, don't get cocky, either. A giant ant can mess you
up good before you get the dead bee, and even after. A swarm of orcs may not
seem like much in a corridor, but when they are surrounding you in a room,
then numbers will tell. Double for killer bees.
Encumbrance will be getting to be a problem by now. Leave your
gems in caches by the staircase. Don't carry around corpses; every so
often, check to see whether you accidentally picked up a few. Drop
definitely cursed or useless items. If you have a ring of levitaion, do
you need the potion? You may want to use a one wish of a wand for 3
remove curse scrolls--with all the stickeycurses from the ghosts, you'll
need them. By the way, you should have used and be using every wish. You
certainly have uses for them. If you don't have any, relax, but keep
your fingers crossed. If you do, now is also the time to wish for scrolls of
genocide. If you have a usual nemesis, genocide that, or go for one of
the basic pains like Dragons, xan, killer bees, or, if you're short on missles,
cockatrices. Speaking of the last, now is also the time to get a pair of
gloves. Cockatrices can be dealt with by throwing missles from an Elbereth.
(And, preferably, from the other side of the room.) If you have gloves, then
you can pick up the cockatrice and wield it until it decays, but don't try to
take it to the next level! If you don't have gloves, avoid the area. You may
want to dodge upstairs for a moment to let it decay. They don't usually have
treasure, so don't get paranoid, but don't touch that corpse!
The big key for this and higher levels is CONSERVE MAGIC! Even at 8th
level, most monsters can be dealt with by hand-to hand, but at higher levels
you will meet monsters such as dragons, xan, and trappers which can be dealt
with only by wands, and have much greater need for those detect items and
healing potions. Similarly, the longer you wait, the more valuble a potion
of gain level becomes (up to a point-by 10th level, the potion (or dead
wraiths) becomes damn near the only way to gain a level.) If you expect to
reach the maze, try to save a potion of detect object and a scroll of mapping
for it. The minotaur will supply the wand of digging. Take as great
advantage of the healing/strengthening powers of nurses as your food supply
(and other monsters) will allow. That is how you get 200+HP.