Newbie Guide
Posted: Thu 24.07.2008, 00:05
Hi. I'm Zal.
Some know me, some don't. Point is... I've played/started ALOT of characters.
This is a starting guide for some of the character-classes I know the best, and how hard/easy they are to start up. If you don’t know your MAngband-commands, press ? in game to learn. This guide isn’t for that.
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Complete newbie bogus stuff:
You walk using the numeric keypad (num lock off) or arrows keys on a laptop and the “Home”, “PgUp”, PgDn” and “End” keys to move diagonally. (Hold down SHIFT and press move-key to RUN).
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The shops are numbered 1 to 8. You start in shop 8. Worry about shop 1 to 5 your first trip into the dungeon. Visit the rest after your first dive.
Here’s what to buy at start-up for all classes (later in this document will be specifics)
UBER TIPS: - Be prepared to die a lot!
- No matter race/class… Go to SHOP 1. Sell your torches, buy a lantern.
- If you’re lazy like me, and plan to go deep into the dungeon, get a SCROLL OF WORD OF RECALL. It teleports you from the dungeon up to town and vice versa.
- Always try to carry potions that heal (Cure light wounds ARE NOT WORTH IT!)
- Always try to carry some sort of escape tools (scrolls of phase door at first. Later other tools will be required. Learn from other players advice or the “Strategy against bad moves” post on the forum)
Specific start-up tips. If you don’t know what a macro is: Make a warrior. If you want to learn about macros, read the posts here on the forum or ask a friendly player to help you, but be prepared it might take you 10 minutes or more without instant action to learn this…
You need to buy/sell in shops 1 to 5.
Shop 1 has lanterns
Shop 2 has armour
Shop 3 has weapons
Shop 4 has healing potions (and priest weapons)
Shop 5 has potions and scrolls.
WARRIOR (easy and fast start): Make a Dunadan warrior with the following starting stats: STR, CON, DEX, CHA, WIS, INT.
- Sell: potion of berserk strength, torches, chain mail, broad sword.
- Buy: Lantern, 2 potions of cure serious wounds, a scroll of phase door, a scroll of word of recall, 2 scrolls of enchant weapon to damage, a main gauche (weapon sold in shop 3). EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)
- Strategy: Read your scrolls of enchant weapon on your Main Gauche so it becomes (+0,+2) hopefully. And then go to 50 feet (level 1) in the dungeon. If you don’t see any stairs leading further down, go up and down again till you land in a room with stair further down. Proceed with this process at will (down till about 300 feet is safe) (experienced players use this to get all the way down to 1000feet) and kill what you can (up/down/up/down/up/down). You will level up quickly, and when your inventory is loaded with valuables, read word of recall to get back to town. Sell your scrolls and potions (maybe even armour too) unidentified, but try to get enough cash to ID all wands/staves and weapons to sell (most of the time you earn from ID’ing unless you are at a very shallow depth). Then buy 2-3 word of recall scrolls, some more cure serious wounds potions and more scrolls of enchant weapon to damage if you have spare cash.
PRIEST (medium/hard, somewhat slow): Make a dwarf priest with the following stats: WIS, CON, STR, CHA, DEX, INT.
- Sell: Potion of cure critical wounds, torches
- Buy: Lantern, scroll of word of recall, cure serious wounds or heroism potions if you can afford either. EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)
- Strategy: Avoid all townsfolk. Beware monsters with the letter p, o, j and S. Try fighting them on stairs.
Go to 50 feet (level 1) in the dungeon. If you don’t see any stairs leading further down, go up and down again till you land in a room with stair further down. Proceed with this process at will (down till about 150 feet is “safe”) (experienced players use this to get all the way down to 500feet) and kill what you can with melee (up/down/up/down/up/down).
As a level 2-5, you can proceed on down till about 300 feet. STAY CLOSE TO THE STAIRS. Use them as escapes. When you have 2-4 wands/staves (or other money source) and is lvl 5+, recall to town.
Get the next book of prayers (words of Wisdom) and learn spells from it till you get Portal and Cure serious wounds. Set up macros to use them quickly. And save your macros as priest.prf (then they auto-load next time you start the client, even if you die). Get new recall scroll. Get if you can afford: Priest book 3 (Chants and Blessings) and some Cure serious wounds potions (these cure blindness and confusion also).
Recall or walk back into the dungeon whichever you prefer. The “Portal”-spell combined with potions is your escape, so have mana for it. At level 9 you get “Orb of Draining” it’s powerful but mana intensive escape is more important than killing. As soon as you can afford an amulet of Wisdom +3 or better, get it, as orb will be your primary weapon rather than melee. Also a helmet of regeneration or elven gloves help you recover mana faster both while fighting and resting.
MAGE (Very hard to the inexperienced, know your monsters, then it’s ok. SLOW): (a lot of other people know way more about mages than I do. Please refer to their guides for different kinds of mages). Make a gnome mage with the following stats: INT, CON, STR, CHA, WIS, DEX.
- Sell: Torches. (maybe dagger if you prefer a spear)
- Buy: Lantern, cure serious wounds or heroism potions. (maybe a spear, if you sold dagger) EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)
- Strategy: Avoid all townsfolk Learn macro to auto-target/fire magic missile. And learn the spell. Macro your healing potions or heroism potions also, as you will need them. Also learn the phase door macro and be prepared to hit your macro keys.
NEVER MELEE
NEVER FIGHT the following monsters until you are lvl 4+. p, o, j, S. And even at level 4, never fight groups of those, only 1 on 1.
ALWAYS Rest up after each fight to regain your mana.
Be prepared for some failed attempts with this strategy: Go to 50 feet (level 1) in the dungeon. If you don’t see any stairs leading further down, go up and down again till you land in a room with stair further down. Proceed with this process at will (down till about 150 feet is “safe”) (experienced players use this to get all the way down to 500 feet) and kill what you can (up/down/up/down/up/down, maybe stay on stairs). At level 2, learn phase door. Your main attack remains magic missile, keep using that. DON’T learn all your spells. Just the ones you REALLY need (detect monsters, call light, detect doors/stairs).
When you hit lvl 8 or 9. Then recall to town with your loots. You then sell all potions/scroll unidentified, and buy Book 2 and 3 ( if you can’t afford, buy an identify scroll, and ID a wand or staff then sell that. Then get into shop 8 where there’s no townies around. Learn the following spells and cast each once in town for the XP: (book2) Lightning bolt, Teleport Self, Spear of Light, Frost Bolt, (book3) Satisfy Hunger, Lesser Recharging, Turn Stone to Mud (you should be lvl 10 now…), Fire Bolt (then you’re lvl 11) learn Identify and identify all your remaining stuff for free. Sell everything.
Buy: 2-3 Word of recall scrolls, Rings of INT +3 or better if you can afford, 10 cure serious wounds potions. Then good luck ;)
Feel free to edit, use, misuse and/or rewrite this guide, and please post strategies for other classes. But we all know warrior = (paladin, rogue, ranger) with a twist. *evil giggle*
Don’t kill me if there’s splelling or grammer mistaks. Its intensional.
Hope the guide helps someone make a good guide, haha.
ZAL
Some know me, some don't. Point is... I've played/started ALOT of characters.
This is a starting guide for some of the character-classes I know the best, and how hard/easy they are to start up. If you don’t know your MAngband-commands, press ? in game to learn. This guide isn’t for that.
--------
Complete newbie bogus stuff:
You walk using the numeric keypad (num lock off) or arrows keys on a laptop and the “Home”, “PgUp”, PgDn” and “End” keys to move diagonally. (Hold down SHIFT and press move-key to RUN).
--------
The shops are numbered 1 to 8. You start in shop 8. Worry about shop 1 to 5 your first trip into the dungeon. Visit the rest after your first dive.
Here’s what to buy at start-up for all classes (later in this document will be specifics)
UBER TIPS: - Be prepared to die a lot!
- No matter race/class… Go to SHOP 1. Sell your torches, buy a lantern.
- If you’re lazy like me, and plan to go deep into the dungeon, get a SCROLL OF WORD OF RECALL. It teleports you from the dungeon up to town and vice versa.
- Always try to carry potions that heal (Cure light wounds ARE NOT WORTH IT!)
- Always try to carry some sort of escape tools (scrolls of phase door at first. Later other tools will be required. Learn from other players advice or the “Strategy against bad moves” post on the forum)
Specific start-up tips. If you don’t know what a macro is: Make a warrior. If you want to learn about macros, read the posts here on the forum or ask a friendly player to help you, but be prepared it might take you 10 minutes or more without instant action to learn this…
You need to buy/sell in shops 1 to 5.
Shop 1 has lanterns
Shop 2 has armour
Shop 3 has weapons
Shop 4 has healing potions (and priest weapons)
Shop 5 has potions and scrolls.
WARRIOR (easy and fast start): Make a Dunadan warrior with the following starting stats: STR, CON, DEX, CHA, WIS, INT.
- Sell: potion of berserk strength, torches, chain mail, broad sword.
- Buy: Lantern, 2 potions of cure serious wounds, a scroll of phase door, a scroll of word of recall, 2 scrolls of enchant weapon to damage, a main gauche (weapon sold in shop 3). EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)
- Strategy: Read your scrolls of enchant weapon on your Main Gauche so it becomes (+0,+2) hopefully. And then go to 50 feet (level 1) in the dungeon. If you don’t see any stairs leading further down, go up and down again till you land in a room with stair further down. Proceed with this process at will (down till about 300 feet is safe) (experienced players use this to get all the way down to 1000feet) and kill what you can (up/down/up/down/up/down). You will level up quickly, and when your inventory is loaded with valuables, read word of recall to get back to town. Sell your scrolls and potions (maybe even armour too) unidentified, but try to get enough cash to ID all wands/staves and weapons to sell (most of the time you earn from ID’ing unless you are at a very shallow depth). Then buy 2-3 word of recall scrolls, some more cure serious wounds potions and more scrolls of enchant weapon to damage if you have spare cash.
PRIEST (medium/hard, somewhat slow): Make a dwarf priest with the following stats: WIS, CON, STR, CHA, DEX, INT.
- Sell: Potion of cure critical wounds, torches
- Buy: Lantern, scroll of word of recall, cure serious wounds or heroism potions if you can afford either. EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)
- Strategy: Avoid all townsfolk. Beware monsters with the letter p, o, j and S. Try fighting them on stairs.
Go to 50 feet (level 1) in the dungeon. If you don’t see any stairs leading further down, go up and down again till you land in a room with stair further down. Proceed with this process at will (down till about 150 feet is “safe”) (experienced players use this to get all the way down to 500feet) and kill what you can with melee (up/down/up/down/up/down).
As a level 2-5, you can proceed on down till about 300 feet. STAY CLOSE TO THE STAIRS. Use them as escapes. When you have 2-4 wands/staves (or other money source) and is lvl 5+, recall to town.
Get the next book of prayers (words of Wisdom) and learn spells from it till you get Portal and Cure serious wounds. Set up macros to use them quickly. And save your macros as priest.prf (then they auto-load next time you start the client, even if you die). Get new recall scroll. Get if you can afford: Priest book 3 (Chants and Blessings) and some Cure serious wounds potions (these cure blindness and confusion also).
Recall or walk back into the dungeon whichever you prefer. The “Portal”-spell combined with potions is your escape, so have mana for it. At level 9 you get “Orb of Draining” it’s powerful but mana intensive escape is more important than killing. As soon as you can afford an amulet of Wisdom +3 or better, get it, as orb will be your primary weapon rather than melee. Also a helmet of regeneration or elven gloves help you recover mana faster both while fighting and resting.
MAGE (Very hard to the inexperienced, know your monsters, then it’s ok. SLOW): (a lot of other people know way more about mages than I do. Please refer to their guides for different kinds of mages). Make a gnome mage with the following stats: INT, CON, STR, CHA, WIS, DEX.
- Sell: Torches. (maybe dagger if you prefer a spear)
- Buy: Lantern, cure serious wounds or heroism potions. (maybe a spear, if you sold dagger) EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)
- Strategy: Avoid all townsfolk Learn macro to auto-target/fire magic missile. And learn the spell. Macro your healing potions or heroism potions also, as you will need them. Also learn the phase door macro and be prepared to hit your macro keys.
NEVER MELEE
NEVER FIGHT the following monsters until you are lvl 4+. p, o, j, S. And even at level 4, never fight groups of those, only 1 on 1.
ALWAYS Rest up after each fight to regain your mana.
Be prepared for some failed attempts with this strategy: Go to 50 feet (level 1) in the dungeon. If you don’t see any stairs leading further down, go up and down again till you land in a room with stair further down. Proceed with this process at will (down till about 150 feet is “safe”) (experienced players use this to get all the way down to 500 feet) and kill what you can (up/down/up/down/up/down, maybe stay on stairs). At level 2, learn phase door. Your main attack remains magic missile, keep using that. DON’T learn all your spells. Just the ones you REALLY need (detect monsters, call light, detect doors/stairs).
When you hit lvl 8 or 9. Then recall to town with your loots. You then sell all potions/scroll unidentified, and buy Book 2 and 3 ( if you can’t afford, buy an identify scroll, and ID a wand or staff then sell that. Then get into shop 8 where there’s no townies around. Learn the following spells and cast each once in town for the XP: (book2) Lightning bolt, Teleport Self, Spear of Light, Frost Bolt, (book3) Satisfy Hunger, Lesser Recharging, Turn Stone to Mud (you should be lvl 10 now…), Fire Bolt (then you’re lvl 11) learn Identify and identify all your remaining stuff for free. Sell everything.
Buy: 2-3 Word of recall scrolls, Rings of INT +3 or better if you can afford, 10 cure serious wounds potions. Then good luck ;)
Feel free to edit, use, misuse and/or rewrite this guide, and please post strategies for other classes. But we all know warrior = (paladin, rogue, ranger) with a twist. *evil giggle*
Don’t kill me if there’s splelling or grammer mistaks. Its intensional.
Hope the guide helps someone make a good guide, haha.
ZAL