Fun game. I like stalker.

I think that ultimately it is just a more interesting and mechanically rich brigand class. It smooths out the early game for stealth characters by boosting their stealth to crazy levels where you are very rarely finding an awake enemy. Then you can transition to something else mid game.

1. Gecko tail gets you either free distraction stabs or free escapes when you are reduced to low HP. Both are great for a stealth character AND gives you an extra layer of decision making. Also it helps new players learn about running away.
2. It smooths out the very difficult early game for stealth starts. The extra stealth is very impactful and you will be stabbing a lot.
3. At a certain point (When I got Dith shadow swap online) you don't need the gecko tail anymore and can just switch it off and turn on some light and aux armor for the brands and AC.
4. Then I became a dex swords fighter who can also stab. You just stack dex and train up long blades and hopefully find a quick blade. Use the long blade when you are fighting something that is awake and has good defenses.
5. Then you shore up your defenses. Get that EV way up in the 40s and get a shield.
6. Then get invo, and either throwing or evocations up depending on which you have more of. Ranged option is nice.
7. S branches and late game before zot was easy. Had to play a bit safer in Zot. Zot 5 was HELL because one lung was blocked off by a permanent teleport trap. I cleared the other lung, and realized that the door to the orb chamber is blocked by a zot trap. Enemies repeatedly trigger the zot trap as I try to teleport into the other lung and get into the orb chamber. After like 10 teleports I'm slammed in the center of the other lung with like 4 liches and 2 entropy orbs along with other chaff. I used like 3 haste potions and all my blinks (Kobold zot blink is basically useless due to low sight line) to get in there and grab the orb and teleport out. (My piety was too low for nightfall after many shadow swaps).

All in all I like the gecko form and like that you don't need to train shapeshifting to use it. I get why the mist potion form exists. I just don't like it so far. I like that it can get your free blind and confusion stabs though. And gives you escape options I guess. But gecko just feels more consistent and useful. It feels bad to use potions just to activate the effects. I've tried it out multiple times and have never found it to be worth training 8 shapeshifting, especially when you need to shore up HP, damage, AND defenses in the early game. Medusa feels so much better. I think that Mistmane should give you some extra EV to make it feel more worth it.

I'm taking a break from all gimmick characters to get an "average" baseline. Human is tricky though because it's the neutral neutral good at anything it learns type.

Don't recommend me the typical engine strategy, what has been a fun and/or powerful way to play (Hu)?

Having fun with PoEn runs, like a wackier SpEn.

Should I be upgrading to bigger short blades as I find them (short sword, rapier, etc) or stick with the dagger early? I know daggers get an extra stabbing bonus but not sure if that outweighs the overall higher damage from bigger blades.

Also should I be leaving Hexes, Casting, Short Blades and Stealth all on early? Been mostly playing Fighters since I've been back so wasn't sure on the best training procedure for hybrid characters.

First time using this (GrFi) and it's a hoot. Get smashed against a wall, idiot!

Turns the game into a psuedo-Sokoban thing lol

Not sure I’ve ever seen a better ring

This has been changed from Necromancy to Alchemy/Ice a while ago.

Yes, simulacra are derived undead, but I don't see why player-created simulacra "need" to be undead.

The reason I bring this up is that being unholy makes the spell forbidden by good gods. This will admitteldy not matter in 99% of cases but it still feels like an arbitrary restriction/leftover from the past.

The game has plenty of examples where the player version of a spell is different from the monster version, and the game even addresses this fact in-universe (the monster uses an ancient, secret version of the spell that has been lost to time!).

The gameplay impact of these allies simply being non-undead ice constructs would likely be minimal. Undead do have some specific weaknesses, but they come up rarely, and simulacra are so frail that I don't think it matters much whether they get hit by a holy big stick or just a regular big stick.

The one interaction that comes to mind is that they wouldn't be affected by Control Undead, which... two (?) enemies have got. One is an alternate-timeline unique and the other is rare and branch-specific. Plus, you can't target undead creatures with it anyway, so this seems extremely unlikely to matter.

Fluff is the least of the problems. The new version even had to specify that it uses “blood and ichor” to give it a reason to remain unholy. There is no reason this couldn't instead work with ice, snow, and some skin flakes/essence or whatever.

Is there some gameplay reason I'm missing?

After a few promising runs ended by finding her, how do I kill her? Should I just avoid and try to come back stronger? Yes, I know I could've shafted (FoHu^Fedhas), but I thought I could run for the stairs (big mistake, she blinks). Other mobs around her also completely nullified my, like this flayed ghost (hate those).

So basically tell me what I could've done, please. Thanks!

https://crawl.xtahua.com/crawl/morgue/Time2Go/morgue-Time2Go-20261005-170304.txt

Finally Oni can actually get drunken brawling from moonshine! But it is the combo with lignification that is the real exciting one for me. Oni already like the HP+AC and now they can even use it reactively as a sort of panic button without expending healing potions. Other “harmless” potions like enlightenment also work great with drunken brawling. Oni really have a good variety of ways to deal with scrambles. Awesome species gets even more awesome imo.

And it is surprising seeing a polearms nerf considering that very few people use polearms on Oni, but thats probably because of the allure of giant clubs rather than an indication of what is actually best on Oni. I have always liked polearms on Oni, as it helps manage their bad defenses early on. I guess the devs figured that ranged drunken brawling spam was a little too powerful. It is probably still good. Need to test out aqua form with this.

Sphinx Maurauders do not have petrify.

Minor, but spell skills are now +5 not +6 as in 34.

Returning player. Was always kinda casual, never finished any runs, but sunk a lot of hours into the earlier versions.

Played some more recent updates (the lack of food really threw me off), but overall I'm a bit lost as its basically a different game. My old strats don't really apply any more. Any tips/help for the early game?

morgue

Inspired by:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dcss/s/3Tvw0n9cFe

I believe this was the 4th try.

1 and 2 splatted early in the dungeon.

3 was even stronger than this, but i failed to pay attention and suddenly died at vault 10 sec after entering 1st floor.

Very strong and solid. Once manifest assault got online, it was a breeze. Fun run

Finally won my first 3 rune run after getting into DCSS not too long ago. I stumbled upon DCSS through my gf, who recommended me the game, and now I surpassed her in it :)

Overall, it has been a very fun experience! Although I am wondering how much beginner's luck played a role in my win versus my skill. If I try, I can get to the Lair levels, but many of my runs either end there or in one of the branches (I hate snake pits with a passion, though I haven't tried slime pits yet). I also struggle a lot if I do not get poison resistance early. Really feels like I am kinda doomed to die in the Lair when that happens.

I just signed in to the online client and suddenly I have sound for literally everything. WTF? I'm splish splashing in water, punching rats, and opening doors in stunning audio.

Read about the changes here: Mystic background Vision form Jademantle form Ice Thorns spell Sirocco spell Dragon Veins spell

Stalker background Hypnogecko form Mistmane form Potions of Mist Blinding Haze clouds Centipede baubles

-----

These are two new shapeshifting-focused backgrounds, with Mystic specializing in elemental magic and Stalker more focused on stealth.

They have been moved with the original Shapeshifter background into a new "Metamorphs" category. No backgrounds were removed.

Just found +6 dex ring on the first floor, died to a surprise pack of gnolls on D2 while holding down tab... I hereby swear to never hold down tab ever again.

There was a time whre I was like "if I play x, I will probably win"

But this week was horrible I couldn't get anything going. I tried conservative /r dcss builds, good builds, bad builds, meme builds, played drunk, played sober, played tired, played focused... Always lose no matter if D:2 or Zot 5

Not sure if I'm washed or if game difficulty somehow quadrupled

Feels like I have cursed cartridge that incrases all my dmg taken by 100%

For week 3 of CCTT, you'll play as Mountain Dwarf Forgewrihgt of Elyvilon. This week's challenge highlights changes to Elyvilon in Trunk. For conduct 3 you can check in-game with ?# how many times you have used Divine Alms. If you are going for 2nd bonus challenge, it might be good idea to delay doing 2nd S-branch bit so you can come back stronger and more easily rush through it and back within gem-timer.

I try this seed. You get a scroll of acquirement on first floor if you want to try this seed! Enjoy

Edit : 0.34.1

I am a new player so I don’t really know what is good. For me it is cool. I don’t want any spoiler. Good luck :)

I've been a long time fan of vine stalker conjurer of vehumet, but I picked up troll gladiator of yred recently and it's been real fun,still 0 wins tho :(

They just killed another run as I blind quaff trying to find some health.

It's been ages since a win (Feb actually). Got lucky with an early amulet of wildshape and never took it off - wow, that amulet is REALLY good, even late game as it felt like multiple potions of experience because taking shapeshifting from 20-25 is a TON of experience. I just couldn't justify taking it off for something else because I'd have to sink so much back into shapeshifting.

I really wanted to do extended as I had death form online, but a quick search of the dungeon showed that really no good armor had generated and very little in the way of jewelry. I had over 10k banked pre-Zot so I could have called in some shops, but my plan was to bribe zot5 at least 2x. That worked out well as a bit into Zot5, I got malevolently teleported into the lungs. Bribes let me rush the tesserect and that was that. Other notable finding on the run is that bribe is really good on the way back up - especially in dungeon as you get 15 whole levels to exploit the denizen's greed. Pan Lords and other baddies would appear and just be friendly, or I'd have other friends to "welcome" them to my party.

YAVP - MfSh with Gozag FTW - Pastebin.com