Hydra Slayer (now at 16.1), NotEye (now at 8.1)

[Ancient]

Alien hydras were big surprise and then a great letdown. Why do the need to be cancellation resistant when they are canceled from the very start?

That should be very different if your strategy was based on obsidian weapons (alien hydras get x2 against obsidian).

Ahh! Now that makes sense. Alien hydras can be scary for certain characters.

So decapitation destroys a mushroom? Good to know.

Someday I should try to play very carefully and without haste; saving every time I feel bored. Who knows how far I would reach.

I think it is more important to plan your set of weapons and shields well, rather than to play carefully. How many attacks did you usually need to defeat a Hydra? The sentence about legendary Nagas in their description is not a big exaggeration.

Well, I think average would fall somewhere between two and three slightly leaning towards three. Some hydras (like 630-Alien) were one shotted. Some were taken in two hits by making number of heads divisible by ten and finishing off with basic cutters. Nagas have this advantage of using flaming decimator against fire hydra with impunity. Who cares if it has x2 to it when it does not survive the hit? 250-Fire gets treated with flaming decimator, poison three-handed sword and flaming two-handed sword = hydra corpse. Others were done in three rounds like when I could not waste resulting hydra after decimation in one swipe. Two-thousand heads monsters required three to seven strikes.

By the way, Naga wound weakness makes ettins using swords at you look a bit silly.

The ettin hits you with five-handed sword -25+1 = 26 wounds.

Just had a go with an elf. Sadly I was playing 8.0 so cannot comment on the bow. Elves seem to be easy mode for Hydra Slayer. You do not need to carry missile weapon or small sword in case tiny hydras show up. Constant power swipes mean much less worries with finishing off wounded beasts. It is quite fun choosing whether to attack mushroom near hydra or the creature itself. Figuring out right handedness also changed my tactics slightly. Carrying two weapons of equal cutting power I made sure one was held in left hand and the other in right hand.

Just won small game with using just four PJ, three Transmutations and one Stunning.

Hydra Slayer v8.0 character log for Elf Aerithyn (widmo)
You have won and escaped after killing the Ancient Hydra!

Items found and used:
  Rune of Stunning (1/6)
  Rune of Decapitation (0/9)
  Rune of Cancellation (0/12)
  Rune of Growth (0/12)
  Rune of Conflict (0/10)
  Rune of Fungification (0/1)
  Rune of Fungal Necromancy (0/3)
  Scroll of Transmutation (3/15)
  Scroll of the Big Stick (0/15)
  Scroll of Reforging (0/4)
  Potion of Power Swipe (0/9)
  Potion of Weapon Charge (0/3)
  Potion of Extreme Speed (1/6)
  Potion of Knowledge (0/11)
  Potion of Power Juice (4/4)
  Potion of Mushroom Spores (0/4)
  Potion of Ambidexterity (0/4)
  Potion of Life (0/2)

Items used on the last level:
  Rune of Stunning (1)

Costs of winning the small game:
  854 wounds
  4062$ of inventory items used up
  272 mutation score
    (when slaying each hydra, you get +1 for each extra arm)
  5 items used against the boss
     (including permanent effects of BS/L/PJ obtained on previous levels)
  130 wounds from the ancient hydra attacks

Records:
  12 max hydra one-shotted
  2 max beasts killed at once with a Power Swipe
  2 max hydras killed at once with a missile

Unimpressive for an Elf, eh?

Weapons at the end:
  fire spiked shield (P5, from Level 5)
    14 uses, 70 enemy heads
  chaos katana (-11, brought from home)
    27 uses, 272 enemy heads, 9 kills, 25 mushroom heads, 5 destroyed, 35 heads regrown
  obsidian dagger (-1, from Level 8)
    36 uses, 31 enemy heads, 3 kills, 5 mushroom heads, 5 destroyed, 6 stunned heads cut
  bone two-handed sword (-10, frozen two-handed sword from Level 8)
    31 uses, 256 enemy heads, 13 kills, 54 mushroom heads, 12 destroyed, 36 heads regrown, 6 stunned heads cut
  Ash Bisector (/2, Golden Bisector from Level 7)
    65 uses, 100760 enemy heads, 20 mushroom heads, 317 heads regrown, 381 stunned heads cut
  golden triple sword (-12, from Level 10)
    16 uses, 180 enemy heads, 5 kills, 12 mushroom heads, 2 destroyed, 38 heads regrown

Full dump: http://pastie.org/1476660

[Z]

Well, I think average would fall somewhere between two and three slightly leaning towards three. Some hydras (like 630-Alien) were one shotted. Some were taken in two hits by making number of heads divisible by ten and finishing off with basic cutters. Nagas have this advantage of using flaming decimator against fire hydra with impunity. Who cares if it has x2 to it when it does not survive the hit? 250-Fire gets treated with flaming decimator, poison three-handed sword and flaming two-handed sword = hydra corpse. Others were done in three rounds like when I could not waste resulting hydra after decimation in one swipe. Two-thousand heads monsters required three to seven strikes.

OK, I understand the set now. Still, it could be improved a bit

By the way, Naga wound weakness makes ettins using swords at you look a bit silly.

Oh, I did not notice that. BTW I am planning to make the ettins a bit more intelligent, so they attack the PCs only when they are vulnerable, so it's harder to slay them for free (what "vulnerable" exactly means depends on the PC's race, roughly "unable to use their racial strength, handicapped by their racial weakness, or under Hydra attack").

Just had a go with an elf. Sadly I was playing 8.0 so cannot comment on the bow. Elves seem to be easy mode for Hydra Slayer. You do not need to carry missile weapon or small sword in case tiny hydras show up. Constant power swipes mean much less worries with finishing off wounded beasts. It is quite fun choosing whether to attack mushroom near hydra or the creature itself. Figuring out right handedness also changed my tactics slightly. Carrying two weapons of equal cutting power I made sure one was held in left hand and the other in right hand.

Probably you are right that they are easier (and even easier now, with the access to the bow). But probably the advantages of Power Swipes diminish on the later levels, below the first victory, as almost every hydra is big then. Anyways, I think it's not the problem if it is easier if it gives new challenges, and the bow changes tactics quite a bit. (Maybe I should forbid the Elf also from using power swipes which end in partially killing a hydra? I am not sure whether this is good because of extra challenge, or bad because of a smaller number of possible tactics.)

[Ancient]

BTW I am planning to make the ettins a bit more intelligent, so they attack the PCs only when they are vulnerable, so it's harder to slay them for free

Good thing. They carry really cool weapons so it should not be possible to take them costless most of the time.

(Maybe I should forbid the Elf also from using power swipes which end in partially killing a hydra? I am not sure whether this is good because of extra challenge, or bad because of a smaller number of possible tactics.)

I am not sure either. A nerf is recommended but such change may prove too strong. If you do make it please consider giving some bonus hit points for slaying more than one hydra in a swipe. "You feel great after making such a marvelous swing!"

[Z]

I am afraid to give such a bonus, because there are some equipment sets which make arranging multiple kills quite easy (and these equipment sets are also very good overall), and it would cause the best strategy of the players using such equipment sets to be constantly arranging multi-kills, which would be boring.

Anyways, version 8.2 is out!

• a new rare weapon type (which makes a difference in ambidextrous attacks)
• Naga healing power (from potions of ambidexterity) wanes after winning the big game (just to make sure that they are unable to go infinitely deep)
• Potions of Knowledge and Runes of Growth now correctly take ambidexterity into account (although this will work really slow if you have many weapons to choose from)
• some minor bugs with Potions of Knowledge fixed (one with nagas, one with vampires)
• Ettin attacks against Nagas no longer get +1
• Ettins are more intelligent now (better at tracking, and cunningly choose when to attack, depending on your race)
• Elven multi-target attack is more restricted now, also some bugs with these restrictions have been fixed (hopefully)
  

[Legend]

Is there a full manual somewhere? I didn't see one in the download of 8.2. The in game help screen only lists the keyboard commands. Not actually how to play. I read the web page for it, but it doesn't specifically say how to play. Also, what does the information that is printed on the hydra info screen when the player presses "f"? Did I miss instructions somewhere? The game looks really cool, but just not sure how to play correctly yet. I only just tried it for the first time tonight.

[Ancient]

8.2 already? I downloaded 8.1 yesterday! Won the war with a troll and I must say they are much more powerful than nagas are. With a naga I kept losing HP during deeper levels but troll just keeps regaining them. Will drop a log next time.

Legend:
The web page is the manual. It explains everything I ever needed to know. What is unclear to you?

Crash course for total HS newbies:
Walk into Hydras (represented by numbers or letters) to attack them with chosen weapon. On the right you have a list of weapons you wield. Press a digit next to weapon to select it for next attack. Pick up weapons with 'g' to swap currently selected sword for something else.

Your weapon has a color which represents its type of damage. So, a red weapon will cut as much heads as it says but then a hydra will regrow number of heads written in red color when you press 'f'. Decapitate hydra to kill it. Remember to hit 'i' for stuff you carry.

Finally: have fun!

[Z]

Yes, most of the basic ideas are quite simple and should be possible to understand by reading the story and experimentation. But I have added a section on the webpage which explains them, I think that's what Legend wants.

Congrats for winning with a Troll, Ancient! For me, it was the other way around (Naga was not a problem for me, but the Troll died, although he almost did it... although maybe I buffed the trollish club up a bit after trying, not sure).

[Legend]

Interesting game. I tried it a bit more. The updated web ppage did help some, but still not sure on specifics like how come a weapon of -1 will let me take out a 2 hydra with 2 hits but a -2 weapon won't let me do the same to a 3 hydra? Also what the hydra information means.

I do like how the story on the web page eludes to the rules of play, but would still be nice to also have a read me file with detailed instructions as well.

Is there a way to set a default player and character name? Every time I start the game, both player and character name are set to administrator.

It would also be nice if there was a way to exit back to the main menu after death instead of having to quit and restart the program to play again. Also if there was a use command in the inventory or a yes/no confirmation when using items. I had accidentally used several items that I did not mean to because I pressed the letter of the item without pressing "h" first when I wanted to get info on the item.

Is there a way to get weapon info like you can with the items? What does the b1 next to the bow and m4 next to the storm shuriken mean?

[Z]

"how come a weapon of -1 will let me take out a 2 hydra with 2 hits but a -2 weapon won't let me do the same to a 3 hydra?"

I think understanding what was written on the webpage and by Ancient should answer that question. (Note that whether you can kill a 2-head with a -1, or a 3-head with a -2, depends on how many heads does this particular hydra regrow.) Full information shows how many heads each hydra will regrow against each weapon type, for example if you see a red "+2", then it will regrow 2 heads after being attacked with a red sword.

To set a default character and player name, run e.g. "hydra.exe cCharacter uLegend" (BTW you can press Tab or Esc while editing the name to erase "Administrator") (the information about command line options is shown when you try to use them (run "hydra -h" or something), although it might be difficult to see on Windows)

Regarding having to restart the program to play again, and yes/no confirmations when using items, I think that's how most roguelikes do it.

The letter means the type of the weapon and the number its size, so "B1" means "a bow of size 1" and "M4" means "a missile of size 4". How exactly do bows and missiles work... well, just try them

[Legend]

Most roguelikes do just exit upon death, but some don't. Like Incursion and DoomRL let you go back to the main title screen. Given the rather quick gameplay sessions of Hydra Slayer, I think it would be nice to have an option to go back to the main title since the player is presented with some options upon death anyways.

[Ancient]

Yes, HS could get back to menu upon death but it is minor issue.

Here is promised full log of Olorog the troll who won great war against beasts of Hydras Nest.

Full dump: http://pastie.org/1488147

Some commented excerpts follow:

Items used on the ancient hydra level:
  Rune of Growth (2)
  Scroll of the Big Stick (1)
  Potion of Life (1)

Should not count because the AH was long dead when I used all these runes. Growths were expended for fun. Olorog not understand why money important. There is no mention which AH it was though. On the other hand I would not find logging what items were used on 50th level interesting at all.

Costs of winning the big game:
  5080 wounds
  20265$ of inventory items used up

Here wounds dealt by second AH could be interesting to compare with small game boss.

Various stats:
  2 times saved a game
  13 vampire hydras have been killed
    1 unhonorable attacks against mighty vampires

Led one vampire to stunning rune. Otherwise these were clean fights. I pull four dividers, largest shield and three cutters of varying sizes and hope for number of heads to be amneable to one of my N-sectors. That was all planning done for them.

  15 ettins were killed
    52 wounds from ettin attacks
  3 potions of ambidexterity used on scrolls on reforging
    43 points of size stolen from other weapons

Olorog carried many weapons and could often find use for ambidexterity and reforging combo. If reduced weapons happened to be odd size they were left behind. By accident I trashed my only machete and dealt with ettins by smashing them with a buckler and finishing with obsidian dagger.

[g] sapphire maul of death (S73, ruby staff of power from Level 36)

Used ambi+reforge twice on this not to use it anyway.

[h] Staff of the Mushroom Lord (F1, from Level 38)
    1 uses, 1 enemy heads

I suspected F1 means one fungification charge but it behaved just like standard basher. Its mushroom displacement ability is very useful. I led smaller hydras into a place where they were almost surrounded by mushrooms and then stepped through one just to safely pull a missile to finish it off.

Overall I find playing a troll to be a most distinguished experience. All runes become merely powerups but as a compensation you get to actually use the Eradicator and blade of Logaems effectively when opportunity arises. The only thing I regret in this game is not remembering to use vorpal weapons when Z-hydras appeared.

Just to show off:

  [p] frozen vorpal edge of power (-1018, from Level 38)
  [0] frozen vorpal star of might (M1451, from Level 46)

The trollish artifact is too powerful when only small hydras (200 and less, they seem to stay frozen indefinitely) appear and too weak when huge ones (2000 or more, you may not have time to kill two of them) are encountered. Otherwise I found the need to hurry if I wanted to get the most beast down while paralysed to be rightly balanced. It was necessary 400-headed golden before 212-headed vampire despite its less dangerous. It will wake sooner. It was also important to maneuver a while until many creatures were near you so least time is wasted walking from one hydra to another.

[Z]

The trollish artifact is too powerful when only small hydras (200 and less, they seem to stay frozen indefinitely) appear and too weak when huge ones (2000 or more, you may not have time to kill two of them) are encountered. Otherwise I found the need to hurry if I wanted to get the most beast down while paralysed to be rightly balanced. It was necessary 400-headed golden before 212-headed vampire despite its less dangerous. It will wake sooner. It was also important to maneuver a while until many creatures were near you so least time is wasted walking from one hydra to another.

Nice strategies with the trollish artifact:) It seems you have used up most of your BS here. (My troll seemed to be less lucky in terms of BS, only 41 of them until Level 46.) Glad that you liked the Trollish race.

I see some bugs in the log, I'll fix them when I have ideas for enough new features. (Apart from ones you mentioned, I forgot to include the big game mutation score in the log, it claims that you have brought a frozen double sword from home, and does not say what material was the trollish club made of. I suppose the sword was taken off an Ettin, right? And what was the material?)

[Ancient]

Yes, 28 uses of trollish club meaning almost 50% of Big Sticks went into this. The club started as Q2 or even Q3 I think.

[D] golden bastard sword (-9, frozen double sword brought from home)
    64 uses, 509 enemy heads, 21 kills, 63 mushroom heads, 7 destroyed, 39 heads

You mean this? Strangely it escaped my attention. My suspicion is I swapped it with a weapon lying on ground for emergency hydra murdering and then save/restore combo happened. Or I slain etting holding this without picking it up and then saved. Can't help you with this more. :-(

Trollish club had no material shown. It was color index 2, the same color Alien hydras are. When switching description read "Giant Spiked Club". Until I found it with my former naga I hoped to find green "extraterrestrial knuckle" which would reduce wounds by alien hydras.

And yes, I like trolls best. Nagas seemed more attractive but in practice it turned out to be the other way around for me.

[cephalopoid]

Code: [Select]

Hydra Slayer v8.0 character log for Naga Cephalopoid (cephalopoid)
You have been killed after defeating the Ancient Hydra...

Items found and used:
  Rune of Stunning (8/10)
  Rune of Decapitation (8/12)
  Rune of Cancellation (1/13)
  Rune of Growth (7/26)
  Rune of Conflict (0/11)
  Rune of Fungification (3/5)
  Rune of Fungal Necromancy (4/7)
  Scroll of Transmutation (6/30)
  Scroll of the Big Stick (35/35)
  Scroll of Reforging (5/8)
  Potion of Power Swipe (0/13)
  Potion of Weapon Charge (0/11)
  Potion of Extreme Speed (15/16)
  Potion of Knowledge (1/9)
  Potion of Power Juice (8/8)
  Potion of Mushroom Spores (4/33)
  Potion of Ambidexterity (6/6)
  Potion of Life (2/2)
  1 items have not been picked up
Items used on the ancient hydra level:
  Potion of Extreme Speed (2)
  Potion of Life (1)

Costs of winning the small game:
  635 wounds
  9072$ of inventory items used up
  270 mutation score
    (when slaying each hydra, you get +1 for each extra arm)
  7 items used against the boss
     (including permanent effects of BS/L/PJ obtained on previous levels)
  111 wounds from the ancient hydra attacks

Various stats:
  4097 total wounds (0 of 892 HP left)
  34311 total turns (hydra movements)
  38800 total seconds of real time
  36 levels solved
  3 times saved a game
  8 vampire hydras have been killed
  6 ettins were killed
  2 potions of ambidexterity used on scrolls on reforging
  3 potions of ambidexterity used on other scrolls

Various head stats:
  118 heads regrown by vampire hydras while attacking
  41 total heads awakened after stunning
  1 total beasts awakened after stunning (part or total)
  2349 enemy heads grown by Rune of Growth
  7975 heads stunned by Rune of Stunning

Records:
  576 max hydra one-shotted
  105 max power of Mushroom Spores at once
  2 max speed drank at once
  2 max runes active at once

Attack types used:
  normal blade: max 32, to win 11, 1672 uses, 6459 enemy heads, 34 kills, 3429 mushroom heads, 159 destroyed, 26 heads regrown, 65 stunned heads cut
  obsidian blade: max 4, to win 4, 3907 uses, 2706 enemy heads, 4 kills, 3122 mushroom heads, 540 destroyed, 36 stunned heads cut
  blunt weapon: max 36, to win 7, 443 uses, 96 enemy heads, 1 kills, 102 mushroom heads, 13 destroyed, 2 stunned heads cut
  divisor: max 10, to win 10, 308 uses, 138166 enemy heads, 100 mushroom heads, 43 heads regrown
  eradicator: max 2, 77 uses, 17440 enemy heads, 16 mushroom heads, 11 heads regrown, 32 stunned heads cut
  shield: max 4, 28 uses
    62 total damage prevented by having a shield of big size
    -502 total damage prevented by having a shield of matching color
  zombie: max 12, 0 uses, 730 enemy heads, 3 kills, 565 heads regrown, 99 stunned heads cut
    2422 total mushroom heads converted to zombie heads
  non-zombie hydras: max 10, 0 uses, 370 enemy heads
  ambidexterity: 1186 uses, 169275 enemy heads, 324 kills, 3156 mushroom heads, 349 destroyed, 2279 heads regrown, 1473 stunned heads cut
    3346 one-hand hits used in ambidextrous attacks
  bare hands: 15 uses, 5 destroyed
  pickaxe: max 1, 68 uses, 306 mushroom heads, 66 destroyed

Weapons at the end:
  obsidian dagger (-1, from Level 10)
    3400 uses, 14 enemy heads, 1 kills, 2714 mushroom heads, 529 destroyed
  flaming machette (-2, brought from home)
    605 uses, 36 enemy heads, 11 kills, 176 mushroom heads, 44 destroyed, 16 heads regrown, 5 stunned heads cut
  obsidian shortsword of dancing (D4, obsidian sabre of dancing from Level 31)
    128 uses, 6 enemy heads, 1 kills, 102 mushroom heads, 13 destroyed, 2 stunned heads cut
  ash double sword (-8, obtained by reforging, from Level 30)
    67 uses, 8 enemy heads, 1 kills, 8 mushroom heads, 1 destroyed, 8 stunned heads cut
  ash double scythe (-14, golden double sword brought from home)
    727 uses, 136 enemy heads, 10 kills, 400 mushroom heads, 45 destroyed, 8 heads regrown, 48 stunned heads cut
  golden blade of might (-32, golden six-handed sword from Level 32)
    40 uses
  Poison Decimator (/10, from Level 9)
    178 uses, 234 enemy heads, 9 mushroom heads, 17 heads regrown
  Acid Eradicator (R2, Storm Eradicator from Level 12)
    77 uses, 420 enemy heads, 16 mushroom heads, 11 heads regrown, 32 stunned heads cut
  Staff of the Mushroom King (F12, Staff of the Mushroom Lord from Level 23)
    177 uses, 61 enemy heads
  ruby mace of might (S36, ruby epic staff from Level 30)
    53 uses

On the ground:
  golden double sword (-8, from Level 36)
  emerald hammer (S3, from Level 36)
  silver pentagram (M5, from Level 36)

Weapon history:
  (L2) silver sabre (-3, from Level 1)
    1 uses
  (L2) poison shortsword (-4, from Level 2)
    6 uses, 16 enemy heads, 4 kills
  (L3) amethyst quarterstaff (S4, from Level 3)
    1 uses
  (L5) frozen scythe (-7, from Level 5)
    5 uses
  (L6) amethyst morningstar (S7, brought from home)
    2 uses
  (L6) ash broadsword (-6, from Level 4)
    15 uses, 6 enemy heads, 2 heads regrown
  (L7) acid bastard sword (-9, from Level 7)
    2 uses, 9 enemy heads
  (L9) ash katana (-11, from Level 9)
    5 uses, 11 enemy heads
  (L10) storm shortsword (-4, from Level 2)
    56 uses, 20 enemy heads, 4 kills, 12 mushroom heads, 3 destroyed
  (L10) chaos dagger (-1, brought from home)
    143 uses, 8 enemy heads, 4 kills, 72 mushroom heads, 66 destroyed, 4 stunned heads cut
  (L12) Ash Bisector (/2, from Level 6)
    52 uses, 54 enemy heads, 15 mushroom heads, 12 heads regrown
  (L15) ruby warhammer (S6, from Level 12)
    14 uses
  (L20) ruby great mace (S10, from Level 19)
    5 uses
  (L22) golden small shield (P4, from Level 19)
    27 uses
  (L24) Poison Bisector (/2, from Level 14)
    58 uses, 21 enemy heads, 33 mushroom heads, 14 heads regrown
  (L26) Bone Pentasector (/5, Bone Double Bisector from Level 21)
    18 uses
  (L29) fire spiked buckler (P3, from Level 28)
    1 uses
  (L30) sapphire pick axe (W1, from Level 29)
    68 uses, 306 mushroom heads, 66 destroyed
  (L31) emerald epic hammer (S29, from Level 25)
    63 uses, 29 enemy heads
  (L31) Silver Double Bisector (/4, from Level 28)
    2 uses
  (L32) obsidian shortsword (-4, obtained by reforging, from Level 9)
    507 uses, 76 enemy heads, 3 kills, 56 mushroom heads, 11 destroyed, 36 stunned heads cut

Last messages:
  Switched to (4) ash double sword.
  Switched to (3) obsidian shortsword of dancing.
  Switched to (1) obsidian dagger.
  Switched to (3) obsidian shortsword of dancing.
  Switched to (1) obsidian dagger.
  You attack the 132-headed acid hydra!
  The 127-headed acid hydra attacks you! 3 hd => 3+1 wnd
  909-headed chaos hydra attacks the 127-headed acid hydra! 127 - 11 + 13 = 129
  941-headed were-hydra attacks the 129-headed acid hydra! 129 - 11 + 6 = 124
  You are dead and cannot move!

Level 37! I was a naga, and if you look closely at the log, you could be able to deduce a tactic I used(apart from that ash double scythe, which got BS'd by mistake, should've been a 16-sized one). I like to compare it with binary clocks. The first three slots were kept for swords with sizes 1, 2 and 4, and as the game progressed I could add 8, 16 and at the end even 32 to my weaponry. The rest was handled by my eradicator and decimator.

# Naga healing power (from potions of ambidexterity) wanes after winning the big game (just to make sure that they are unable to go infinitely deep)

Wait, so there isn't an end to this game? I was waiting for some kind of second boss fight...
If I'd known that before I might've not taken those last risks in level 37.

I had some trouble with my "pet" zombie hydras as well. Sometimes they are just plain useless, like when they're waking stunned hydras up. It's a pity you can't take them along to next levels as well.

[Z]

Until I found it with my former naga I hoped to find green "extraterrestrial knuckle" which would reduce wounds by alien hydras.

I don't understand what you mean here, but if you want an "alien knuckle", you can transmute the ancient one.

Level 37! I was a naga, and if you look closely at the log, you could be able to deduce a tactic I used(apart from that ash double scythe, which got BS'd by mistake, should've been a 16-sized one). I like to compare it with binary clocks. The first three slots were kept for swords with sizes 1, 2 and 4, and as the game progressed I could add 8, 16 and at the end even 32 to my weaponry. The rest was handled by my eradicator and decimator.

A good idea, although there is still some place for improvement, I think.

Wait, so there isn't an end to this game? I was waiting for some kind of second boss fight...
If I'd known that before I might've not taken those last risks in level 37.

Yes, there *is* a second boss fight, and you can leave as a winner after it, but you are also allowed to go even deeper. (But probably nothing new will happen there, other than finding the rare weapons that happened not to be generated during the more official part of the game.)

I had some trouble with my "pet" zombie hydras as well. Sometimes they are just plain useless, like when they're waking stunned hydras up. It's a pity you can't take them along to next levels as well.

That's right, unfortunately the usefulness of zombies is very small, since they often eat less heads than the target regrows, and they cannot regrow themselves... Yeah, I think I'll allow taking zombies to the next level, although this won't make them much more useful.

Conflict is more useful, although it also sometimes has strange results. I have once found a level full of two-digit hydras, used conflict to make two of them battle, a four (or five?) digit winner emerged, and it still lost to one of the two-digits (who had a good resistance to that particular color).