ADOM - tips & strategies

[Anvilfolk]

Hey, so even though I'm Crawling a fair bit recently, I thought I'd post a couple of tips that have helped me finish up the quests in Terinyo, at least - with fighter blokes.

A very important thing: whatever class you pick, if you haven't got the healing skill, then choose the Mayor's quest in favour of the Druid's. Go into the Dungeon, and when you find the crazy lumberjack (or whatever he is) down in the last level, instead of killing him, set yourself on Coward tactics and make him follow you all the way to the Healer, about halfway or two-thirds down the dungeon. Let them get next to each other, and the healer'll heal him, and teach you the Healing skill if you ask him to.

The Druid quest is pretty hard because he's immunce to most magic, so I usually just go on that quest if I've got healing AND I'm a fighter.

For the doggie quest, skip the past few levels as fast as you can, especially the cave. It's got a very big monster spawn-rate. Don't forget the doggie will die if you take more than 3 days! You can come back later for more experience.

And finally (and most important, for me), here's the melee combo that's worked best for me: spear + shield.

The polearm skill, if you manage to train it enough, grants you a great DV bonus. Up to 22, if I'm not mistaken. You'll start getting DV at the first or second level of the skill. At the 5th or 6th, that rate increases, I think. If I remember correctly, the only weapon skill that gives you more DV is Staves (quarterstaff), but those are two-handed, and you can't get a shield then.

The shield skill works exactly the same way (increasing lots of DV every skill-level). Plus, if you're a regular fighter, your base class DV should be also getting higher every level. If you manage to survive, you'll easilly get around 40-50 DV after finishing up the quests.

Another good thing is that spears are not that hard to find, and because they're used in traps, you can get some for backup in case of rust or corrosion. Crude spears are orc spears, and they usually have a couple of bonuses, so don't be afraid to switch just because they're "crude".

And finally, if you find an altar with your alignment, you can simply drop stuff on it and it'll let you know whether it's cursed or not. This is extremely useful - so you know which rings you can try out safely, and experiment with weapons/armour to see which has the greatest bonus!


This is what has worked out for me a few times. I currently have severe problems with slugs, which corrode me into nothingness, and the dungeon on the northwest, where the enemies are much, much more experienced. I always die in the first few levels, mostly out of carelessness, I guess. There aren't many healing potions, so it's hard.

Someone else's turn now

[Slash]

The Dungeon of the Northwest? You mean that hellish place in which monsters get exponentially thougher everytime???

I think you are not supposed to hang around there if you are level 5 or higher it is a special dungeon designed as a challenge

[Anvilfolk]

Oooooooooh. That might explain it.

See, now there's a good tip! Heheheh! So, after Terinyo, where to next?

[Slash]

A short trip to the infinity dungeon (south of the druid/carpenter dungeons)? Dive 10 levels or so... then back to the surface, go west, pray not to be caught in the swamp...

From there straight to the source of chaos itself (to the north, past the river, around the middle of the map IIRC)... for some training...probably down to the arena to get da sword....

Then you can choose... the pyramid or the tower of eternal flames. You will die either way

That's what I remember, long time no play.. I won't play any roguelike until I get the Amulet of Yendor

[corremn]

From there straight to the source of chaos itself (to the north, past the river, around the middle of the map IIRC)... for some training...probably down to the arena to get da sword....

IIRC the arena is a quest from the dwarfen leader, so you should not win until you get the quest, or other wise you will get another random monster kill, that will take forever to find

That's what I remember, long time no play.. I won't play any roguelike until I get the Amulet of Yendor

Go Slash!

[AgingMinotaur]

Last part of post contains minor spoiler about altars (about the same spoiliness as leading the mad carpenter to the healer). Rest is just stray thoughts.

If I play a healing class, I´ll usually do the doggie quest and then head west to the caverns of chaos (a truly forboding place), where the real action is at. For non-healers, I go to help the insane lumberjack. I´ll usually try to descend as quickly as possible, to get the healing skill at a low level (and with some luck even have time to go raider hunting afterwards). If I feel adventurous, I´ll skip all the quests in Terinyo and enter the dangerous cave north west of the village while I´m still level 1, hoping to find the stairs down before I get slaughtered. Usually, though, I´ll wait with that particular dungeon until I have some means of invisibility. Magic mapping and teleportation doesn´t hurt, either. Same with the evil druid quest; since he is a pretty tough opponent, I´ll usually wait until I´m pretty powerful. I´ve never found the pyramid particularily hard (but I almost always play magic users, and mummies don´t like fire). The tower of eternal flames, on the other hand... has left me dead every time so far.

I like playing magic users, since they get it easier from the middle game onwards. Elven archers are also nice in that regard. Elves are good with magic, and archers have the concentration skill, which means they can become reasonable magic wielders later on. Lately I´ve played some gnomish weapon smiths, hoping for a similar result (with not so much luck, but I had some interesting characters, and some who developed a small repertoire of spells (Strength of Atlas is nice with weapon smiths)). I also like to play hurthling barbarians, but that´s just silly, I guess. My current character, with which I´ve had the luck to get pretty high up in the levels, is a hurthling wizard. It´s working out pretty well, but I´m preparing for the tower of eternal flames now, so I´m sure he´ll soon be french fried potatoes.

Altars are very handy -- if I find an altar not of my alignment, I seriously consider switching world view. Making repeated small donations (10 gp or so) slowly changes your alignment towards that of the god.

Kind regards from the aging minotaur

[kazookazoo]

I always play Grey Elf Wizard (normal finished once, cleared all temples except mana a few times), and here's my starting recipe:

A.  Talents:  Potent Aura, Strong Aura, Mighty Aura, Charged, then whatever else suits, usually Miser, Porter, depending on situation.
B.  Skills to raise, in this order:  Concentration, Herbalism, First Aid, then whatever.
1.  Obviously go to Terinyo, equip, learn spells, and buy as much food as you can carry (up to strained, not strained! for max strength training)
2.  Get the Druid's quest.  Make sure you don't talk to the town elder first -_-, and get the other two obvious quests.
3.  Fire your offensive spell a couple of times and regenerate your mana as you walk to the dungeon to the NW (yes, the evil one).  This has the effect of allowing you to raise Concentrate to 100 by level 3.  If you encounter the raiders at any point, take them on.  Wizards rock.  It's preferable to enter that dungeon at level 1, because then all the monsters initially generated are only level 2.
4.  Your goal here is to find the down stairs but then leave, although if you've explored a lot of it and get to level 4/5, leave so you don't get killed and so you can still kill the raiders.  Get the guaranteed blanket and the sometimes-eternium-2H-sword.
5.  Kill the raiders and get your cash.  Buy iron rations if possible.
6.  Decisions decisions.  If my character is kick-ass (possible but rare), I'll go to the ID and get the dog corpse. (getting the dog back alive is a huge waste of time, just don't bother).   If not, I'll go and do a bit of levelling in the Infinite Dungeon.
7.  By the time you've cleared the doggy dungeon, you'll be able to take on the Dark Druid, get your shiny prizes, then go back to that horrible, horrible dungeon from step 3 and 4.  Clear the dungeon and come out the other end.  Be sure to spend some time harvesting stomafillia.
8.  Check out the shop in the town, and sell your stuff, then leave.  There's a hidden staircase in the town if you didn't know that pops you out in the middle of the world map.
9.  If you're super-kickass, you might get away with jumping down the main dungeon (sw from here where the mountains sort of jut out), but I'll usually head back to the starting town to kill Hotzenplotz (pretty easy) and level a bit more.
10.  Take out the pyramid, then head into the main dungeon.  Enjoy...

[Gamer_2k4]

Then you can choose... the pyramid or the tower of eternal flames. You will die either way

The pyramid is MUCH easier than the ToEF.  There are just a lot of traps.

[mpa]

I am also a big fan of Gray Elven Wizards but my strats are quite different. I usually use talents that maximize my chance of surviving, magical talents are for the most part useless, get Treasure Hunter (need Miser and Alert) instead and aim for Quick->Very Quick->Greased Lightning.

1. Go to Terinyo, equip, learn spell (and cast them from the book to waste PP) and get quests.

2. If you have weak spell like Magic Missile, you might also want to cast it against the wall so you get hurt a bit by the spell, regenerating health trains Healing skill.

3. Go to outlaw village south of Terinyo. Learn pick pocket from the thief. Check if the shop has anything good that will also be affordable once you get the 3000 gold from raider lord quest.

4. Go to SMC (dungeon NW of Terinyo), explore it a little bit to level up but dont stray too far away from the exit stair, this is a special dungeon where monsters are generated at twice your level it quickly gets very dangerous. Get level 4-5 and get out.

5. Kill Kranach the raider lord if the shop in Lawlitonel has something good.

6. After this the best bet is usually to scum the Infinite Dungeon a little bit to collect spellbooks and get a few level up. Otherwise you can try to kill the evil druid but it's usually too risky for wizards since he's immune to elemental spell and quite deadly both in melee and ranged combat (have at least level 10 before tackling him).

7. Go straight to main dungeon (CoC), the first 7-8 levels are pretty easy, ideal for leveling.

[Archaalen]

I love playing ADOM, but I don't usually get very far.  This is probably because I play as rather difficult characters (I like playing as a Troll, and only occasionally play as an elf or gnome).  My typical strategy is to go straight to the Small Cave (the one that gets harder exponentially as you level) to retrieve the one non-randomized item in there: a waterproof blanket, to protect my hard-won swag from rust or destruction by water.  Once I have the blanket, I run out of there as fast as I can, and head to Terinyo to stock up on food and get the puppy quest from the little girl, and hurry up to save it before it dies.  After that, I take one of the two other jobs in Terinyo.  I get bored with grinding through the Infinite Dungeon, so I usually avoid it and end up dying because my character is too low-level. 

[Rabiat]

I used to play lots of trolls; they're the easiest race to play in the early game. Their high food consumption and low intelligence/experience gain is a problem, but not before the middle game. The Small Cave isn't too hard if you avoid unnecessary killing, but this doesn't get you any experience. The Puppy Cave can be dangerous to any low level character, even a troll. If you don't like Infinite Dungeon grinding, try taking the Yrrigs quest first. The Village Dungeon is a safe place to level up and get Healing, before going to the Small Cave or the Puppy Cave. An advantage to grinding the Infinite Dungeon though, is that there's a probable source of Literacy. The upper levels of the Caverns of Chaos are also good for initial levelling, but I've lost more than a few low level characters to wilderness encounters on the way there.

The lesson I've learned from playing trolls is not to play trolls, if you want to get anywhere near the late game. They're great for getting the hang of survival, and for the occasional reckless beastfighter hooliganism.

[Archaalen]

What's the "probable source of Literacy"?  Are there a lot of Dark Sages to eat in there?  However, it is fun to play as a Troll Bard, since you'll usually be literate already and you get a bear to do your killing for you in the Small Cave (since their xp doesn't cause the monster's level to rise).

[Rabiat]

What's the "probable source of Literacy"?  Are there a lot of Dark Sages to eat in there?

Yep. They occasionally pop up between ID:10 - 15. They're not very common though. I used to train Food Preservation early to increase the odds of a Dark Sage leaving a corpse.

However, it is fun to play as a Troll Bard, since you'll usually be literate already and you get a bear to do your killing for you in the Small Cave (since their xp doesn't cause the monster's level to rise).

I never played a bard of any race, but this is a silly enough reason to give it a try.

[Archaalen]

Bards are entertaining because you get a free animal companion, the ability to get more using the Music skill, a high Learning score which is good for anyone but especially for the dumber races (orcs and trolls), and a large number of randomized skills which makes every bard different (Only Music is guaranteed for Bards).  Even a Troll will usually start literate as a Bard, and if you get Concentration as a skill you set yourself up well for being a magic user later.

[Vanguard]

I haven't played ADOM very much.  The early game is such a meatgrinder, and there are so many spoilers you need to know to have a chance.

Anyway, when I did try to play it, I thought mindcrafters sounded like the coolest class, so I spent most of the time trying those.

My one piece of advice is this: Do not play as a mindcrafter.


Edit: While I'm here, I may as well ask for some advice.

Supposing I try to get into the game again (as a non-gimped class this time) in the future, what would you recommend I play?  I prefer having a wide variety of abilities over just sheer power (so I usually like to play wizards instead of fighters), but I don't like to grind or farm, which, from what I can understand of ADOM's magic system, you need to keep getting new spell books as you cast spells, or you'll forget the ones you know, and it sounds pretty lame to have to farm those.

I also pick human as my race in every game where they're even remotely viable.  Is playing as a human a bad idea in ADOM, or are they as good as anyone else?

So does anyone have something that might fit those guidelines to recommend for me?  I don't need something totally newbie friendly, just something interesting and versatile without being worthless like mindcrafters.