clark@sdcsla.UUCP (Clark Quinn) (12/02/84)
AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! Thanks, I needed that. Would someone please mail or post some advice on dealing with the vicious Venus Flytrap (F, version 5.3)? I had a great game going, with a two-handed sword that had had at least three enchant weapons read on it, I had Plate mail of AC 10 WITH rust-proofing, I had two teleport scrolls, potions of healing, gain strength, restore strength, I was on level 12 with level 8 or 9 experience, something like 53 hitpoints (no snickers, please, this is about as far as I've gotten in 5.3), when I ran into one of those nasty F's. With only one arrow, I shot at the thing (in retrospect, I should've left the turkey alone). Then, for lack of another tack, I beat on it. Wrong! When I tried to get away, I couldn't, and it hit me. When I hit it, it wouldn't die, and it hit me. It also took about 8 hitpoints a shot from me. I was going to try teleporting, or healing, or something, but I guess I took one too many shots at it, giving it one too many at me, and it was tombstone time. So, how do you deal with these #!$*?! things? HELP! Any help will be greatly appreciated. (This is the second time I've been in such a sticky situation.) Thanks, -- Clark (ucbvax, decvax, akgua, dcdwest)|sdcsvax|sdcsla|clark
chris@politik.UUCP (Christopher Seiwald) (12/03/84)
> Would someone please mail or post some advice on dealing with the > vicious Venus Flytrap (F, version 5.3)? > clark@sdcsla.UUCP (Clark Quinn) Just go toe-to-toe. Run up and fight. You need anywhere from 20 to 40 hit points spare when you do this. Arrows do little, and trying to run away is futile. You can usally pass by them once with impunity. -- Christopher Seiwald dual!ptsfa!politik!chris
kaufman@uiucdcs.UUCP (12/03/84)
[the nymphomaniac hit -- more --] The dreaded venus fly trap does variable-but-deterministic damage on you. The first time it hits, it does one point of damage. On each subsequent attempt, if it hits it does one more point of damage than on the previous attack, and if it misses, it still does as much as on the previous attack! Thus, if it takes off 7 points to put you at 8, it's time to start worrying. Scrolls of teleportation are very effective against these things. Healing potions will help, but you'd better kill it soon after, or that potion's effects will be nullified in a couple of rounds. Of course, scare monster won't let you down. Once, I read a couple of enchant weapons and a monster confusion right before going into battle with one of them. As it turned out, I couldn't hit the %*&#@ for at least a half dozen rounds. I suspect they have some sort of magic resistance that makes them easier to hit with a +0,+0 feather. Sigh! Yours in peaceful rest, Ken Kaufman (uiucdcs!kaufman)
clark@sdcsla.UUCP (Clark Quinn) (12/03/84)
> > Would someone please mail or post some advice on dealing with the > > vicious Venus Flytrap (F, version 5.3)? > > Just go toe-to-toe. Run up and fight. You need anywhere from 20 to 40 > hit points spare when you do this. Arrows do little, and trying to run > away is futile. > You can usally pass by them once with impunity. > -- > Christopher Seiwald > dual!ptsfa!politik!chris Gee, Chris, if I hadn't received a lot of other messages detailing some effective strategies (thank you all), I might have believed that wealth of misinformation you provided. I only hope some other relatively neophyte rogue player doesn't take you seriously. In fact, to make sure, I better post this. For those of you who might have occasion to run into a Flytrap, I will summarize the information I received. Flytraps are sessile (they don't move) so you can run away, but if you get next to them, you will be stuck. So, if you see them across a lighted room, throw things at them (like arrows, I have killed them that way). Or avoid them. If you get next to one (like stumbling across it in a dark room), your first move is to try to get away, they don't always stick you the first time but mostly they do (You CANNOT usually pass by them once with impunity). If you do get stuck, you may be in trouble. The lore says that they secrete digestive juices that weaken you, thus each hit takes more hit points than the last. So, do not use the 'f' fight key! This key goes until you are just above the maximum hit points you have taken, and with the Flytrap, you always take more. Due to this, 20 or 40 hitpoints is probably not enough, I would not feel safe with less than 50 or 60 unless I had a lot of magical assistance (the proverbial +4 +5 chainsaw, AC 11 force field, etc.). If you have that teleport away, use it, also any nasty wands (magic missle, etc). Now, how about those wraiths and phantoms? -- Clark "With friends like you, who needs enemies?"
tony@ur-cvsvax.UUCP (Tony Movshon) (12/04/84)
> AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! > > Thanks, I needed that. > > Would someone please mail or post some advice on dealing with the > vicious Venus Flytrap (F, version 5.3)? ... My impression is that Flytraps in 5.3 derive considerable strength from any attempt to move away from them once you are stuck. I have never been killed by a flytrap that I attacked furiously as soon as I ran into it; I have been wiped out by several whose grasp I tried to escape. Is there reality in this or has that elaborate random-number generator called "rogue" produced yet another superstition ... ?
rsk@stat-l (Rich Kulawiec) (12/06/84)
From: clark@sdcsla.UUCP (Clark Quinn) (in reply to Christopher Seiwald's advice to just whack away at Flytraps...) > Gee, Chris, if I hadn't received a lot of other messages detailing some > effective strategies (thank you all), I might have believed that wealth > of misinformation you provided. > > I only hope some other relatively neophyte rogue player doesn't > take you seriously. In fact, to make sure, I better post this. Well, Clark, hate to ruin your day, but going toe-to-toe with flytraps is a perfectly acceptable strategy. You are indeed very hasty in condemning this tactic as "misinformation". Since rooms are mostly darkened at the levels on which flytraps occur, a player is unlikely to find one except by stepping next to it. Strategies involving thrown weapons become not-quite-so-optimal at this point, as the flytrap will probably wake up and hold you adjacent to it; you will most likely not get the opportunity to walk across the room and stick a few arrows in it. I might also point out that if you are unable to kill flytraps in toe-to-toe combat, you're probably not going much further in the dungeon anyway. In all the games I've won, flytraps have never been a problem.
ron@wjvax.UUCP (Ron Christian) (12/08/84)
I concur with Rich. One seldom has the choice to do anything
else but go toe-to-toe with flytraps. As long as you don't
attempt to run away from them after >The Flytrap hits<, they
aren't much of a problem. That is, either you will die, or
you won't. Like any other monster.
I've usually thrown away my bow and arrows by then to make
room for magic and food. It takes a *lot* of arrows to kill
a flytrap, and by the second one, you're out of arrows anyway.
Of course it helps to have lethal magic at your disposal, but
one cannot predict what possesions one will have at time of
battle.
milord Oliver
--
"Where can you find Ron Christian
a stale work environment Watkins-Johnson Co.
with excellent pay?" San Jose, Calif.
--bay area newspaper {pesnta,twg,ios}!wjvax!ron