gullwhacker: (Ascension)
[personal profile] gullwhacker
So, as some people may know, I play NetHack. Finished a game on alt.org earlier, and ascended. Dumplog here, a few thoughts on the run under the cut.


So, this was a Samurai run. Had a pretty slow start, but survived the Gnomish Mines right down to the luckstone at the bottom. I think I used the #name trick to ID it - a bit cheesy, but saved me a second trip. Stupid level teleport traps...

Anyway, things turned up after that. Left the mines, went down one floor, and bam. Long Sword. One fountain later, and I was happily wielding Excalibur - and, once I finished up that weapon skill, dual-wielded for the majority of the rest of the game.

Pretty straightforward run down from there, picking up resistances one at a time - didn't get Fire until the castle, oddly enough. Sokoban was a Bag of Holding this run, but I found reflection via amulet later on. I never did find a reliable source of levitation - burned my castle wishes on charging first (good, as the wand only had the one to start), then GDSM and, on a whim, Boots of Jumping.

Worth it.

Finally hit L14 in the Valley through EXP. Two wraiths left bodies immediately after that. Thank you, that will do nicely. Trekked back up, hit the quest, got annoyed at the ninjas there (stop using up all the good wands and the Amulets of Life Saving, dangit!) Got paranoid on the bottom level, and swapped out reflection for Life Saving. Got even more annoyed with the wands after that, and prepared to face the nemesis.

The nemesis. Whatever-his-name-was. Wielding the Tsurugi of Muramasa - a two-handed sword that could kill in a single blow.

I stepped forward, and was interrupted by a dramatic speech. Right. Time to...wait. Was that his death speech? What happened?

The death ray his minion behind him had fired whizzed by me. There are times that the NetHack AI makes one facepalm. Switched back out for Reflection, prepared to finish off the minion - and he started swinging the Tsurugi at me. Ack. Took him down at range, grabbed the artifacts, and trekked out of there.

Gehennom...Demon princes get a bit annoying, but nothing I couldn't handle. Jubilex actually got summoned by a Lich in the castle, and went down without doing, well, anything. Vlad's tower wasn't hard to find, and I went to bludgeon Vlad with a dead lizard. Three lost levels later, I switched out for Excalibur. New plan - terminate with prejudice. I managed to get the levels back eventually, but still rather annoying.

Wizard of Yendor - I blew his door open, zapped him with a wand of death. Actually racked up a collection of those in the Sanctum - lot of priests had them. Killed everything, met the Wizard again on my way out, and prepared for the slog through the mazes.

The Mysterious Force hated me that run. I think I went through Jubilex's level five times. As for the Wizard...He just kept coming back over, and over, and over. Post-game log shows twelve kills, and every one of those was earned. And that's without even getting into Double Trouble.

Still, once I got to the Dungeons, it was an easier run. Except for the Rogue level. Nearly got killed by the Wizard there - wand was dead, cockatrices don't drop bodies there, and Double Trouble paired with Trolls left me fumbling for #pray and several full healing potions. Still, I made it through somehow, and made sure to recharge the wand once I hit DL1. I'd thrown most of the dead wands away, but kept one just in case.

Finally, the planes - the Wizard finally left me alone after the plane of Earth. Wait, there might have been one on Air... Plane of Air, I tried going without levitating, discovered that that was a losing proposition, and quaffed a quick potion of Levitation - it ran out some time on the plane of fire. Fire was awesome - my first run without conflict, so everything was shooting at me. Found the portal, hit water, and just slogged - found three scrolls of Gold Detection, used confusion with them to try to find the portal there, and it still took a while. I'd annihilated sea creatures back at the Wizard's Tower, so it was pretty much snakes and Water Elementals.

Finally, Astral. Remember how I picked jumping over levitation or speed?

Worth it. So worth it. I skipped around half the enemies, blasted Pestilence, rogue priests, and enemy angels with a newly charged wand of death, backtracked without trouble, and blew past Famine to get to the correct altar.

I remember purposely turning around and taking Famine out even though he was pretty much in my dust. Jumping is awesome.

Took a few hits, pet angel was useless, but I hit the altar and pretty much just chose to win. Overall - Samurai are killing machines when dual-wielding - set up a normal sword of some sort, Excalibur or another artifact sword, and go wild. I found a silver saber at one point, but really didn't feel like getting the skill up in that. Might have been different if I'd gone for Greyswandir, maybe not. Another run, perhaps.

Wow, that was long. Game was spread over ten days, mind...

So, commentators. What should I go for next? I've succeeded with a Valkyrie, a Samurai, and a Tourist...


In other news, I've been watching Slayers Revolution and Avatar lately. The Avatar finale...I think I described it at the time as 'a constant stream of Crowning Moments of Awesome, and that's all I have to say on that subject.

As for Slayers Revolution - I'm enjoying it, a lot. And the ending is stuck in my head, now that I think of it.

Post about other elements of life later; I'm just on a geek high at the moment is all. *grin*

Nethack

Date: 2008-07-22 09:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arcomage.livejournal.com
I think you should try an Archaeologist next. That or a Wizard. I've tried the former and had quite a lot of fun with it, even if it's not exactly the most powerful class.

Date: 2008-08-11 09:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] patoshea.livejournal.com
I heard the Avatar ending was good; looks like its time to rally the paycheques and spring for the final season! As for Revolution...must find somewhere...

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