mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason) (03/18/84)
To win you NEED very good armour and >70 hit points (and to be still
alive) at the end of Rustmonsters. Good weapons are a help, and
potions of healing can help you survive lesser monsters while you
wear your cheapy leather armour (keeping your +4 plate mail in your
pack till after R territory). The big trick to this is surviving the
Xorns. Short of getting ganged up on, nothing else but Trolls should be
problems at levels <19. My wife became a total winner once, and the basic
winning technique (?) was finding a +2 plate lying beside 2 or 3 enchant armour
scrolls. Then she found some more EA scrolls and sooned or later had armour
good enough that a R couldn't hit it (AC -5). Lacking armour that good by
level 14 genocide R is worth considering. (I know most people prefer U's,
but the odds are fairly good you'll find them in corridors where they're no
particular menace).
The other thing to realize is that the junk you're carrying (except cursed
junk) is worth a lot (5000-8000 gold), so if you find the amulet but are
afraid you won't make the list take this into account before you head deeper!
Happy spelunking...The Asengard Enforcer