Newbie Guide

Guides, tutorials and useful facts created or collected by MAngband players.
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serina
Crystal Ooze
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Joined: Sat 15.09.2007, 18:42

Newbie Guide

Post by serina » 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

serina
Crystal Ooze
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat 15.09.2007, 18:42

Re: Newbie Guide

Post by serina » Thu 24.07.2008, 00:10

PS... Someone should write a guide for missile weapons (rangers) copy my format please, or repost my post in your format if that's better ;)

ZAL

Jug
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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by Jug » Thu 24.07.2008, 13:24

Some know me, some don't. Point is... I've played/started ALOT of characters.
382 characters (not including those still alive) since 1st April, to be exact :-)

serina
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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by serina » Thu 24.07.2008, 19:10

HAHA! Evil counting Jug.

ZAL

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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by Warrior » Sat 26.07.2008, 16:57

Everyone should read this guide (not only the newbies) because it also provides some fine overall low level diving strategies, which will make it easier and faster to start a new character also for more experienced players.
-- Mangband Project Team Member

serina
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Posts: 373
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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by serina » Tue 12.08.2008, 01:10

I have to add a type of character that's fun to start out...

RANGER (easy and fast start): Make a Hobbit Ranger with the following starting stats: DEX, INT, CON, STR, CHR, WIS.

- Sell: torches, broad sword. (maybe a ration of food or 2 if you lack 2-4 coins)
- Buy: Lantern, 1 potions of cure serious wounds, a scroll of word of recall, 99-198 arrows +0+0 (weapon sold in shop 3). EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)

- Strategy: Make a macro that says \ef1*t. Inscribe all your arrows with @f1, and you're ready. You have no melee-weapon, so be sure to always fire your arrows, even if in melee. 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 some scrolls of enchant weapon to hit/damage if you have spare cash. (Bonus to hit on ranged weapons is WAY more important than on melee weps). Equip a melee weapon if you feel like it, it's always handy just in case you run out of arrows. Save your mana for emergency phase door, detect monsters and Find Doors/stairs/traps spells. Once your longbow hits +9+9, you'll rock all but some AC-heavy uniques. Should you encounter those hard orcs, try getting a ring of accuracy or 2, and gun them down ;)

ZAL

serina
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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by serina » Thu 02.10.2008, 02:02

I have a confession to make...

Recently I've been playing hobbit mages, and I simply love them. Same strategy as the gnome mage (except that you need Free Action at some point), but the innate Hold Life is truly amazing when diving too deep... Hellow nether hounds! (I guess that isn't considered newbie strategy, but it does make you level quickly)

ZAL

Maegdae
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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by Maegdae » Mon 15.12.2008, 09:00

ROGUE: (good for the impatient, powerful): Make a Half-Troll Rogue with the following starting stats: STR, CON, DEX, INT, CHA, WIS
- Sell: Torches, Small sword.
- Buy: Lantern, a scroll of word of recall, a main gauche (weapon sold in shop 3). EQUIP YOUR GEAR! (key w)

- Strategy: You're going to be following an imitation of Zal's Warrior guide. However, once you buy your main gauche you'll have to kill townies until you can get enough money for a Word of Recall. Once you get level 5, you'll get a speed point, which makes life much easier - and more fun. You'll also be able to learn the Detect Monster spell (which you should use whenever you enter a level.) Don't go far from stairs, since you can avoid unique monsters or groups by going up or down. However, you can kill groups of orcs as long as you have a clear path of retreat to stairs. Weapons and armor will pseudo-id - wear any uncursed armor, drop weapons unless they're good or better. When your inventory is full of wands, staffs, rods and weapons, recall up, buy another word of recall, two Cure Serious Wounds potions, five or so Phase Door scrolls, and as many scrolls of "enchant weapon to damage" as you can afford. Cheap, light armor and maybe some identify scrolls are good, too. Repeat the scum downward. To fight uniques, abuse your faster speed: every few rounds, you get a free move on them. If you run from a monster (especially around a pillar), notice how long it takes before you move an extra space - get into the rhythm of attacking instead of running that round. The third time down, you can recall downward - but be sure to get free action before you go under 900 feet or so. Once you've got twin rings of damage and can reliably cast detect traps and objects, the dungeon is yours!
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Ace
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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by Ace » Wed 07.01.2009, 09:32

Still you see often in the death dumps of the past that people drink potions probably due to them not having realized yet that they have been overwhelmed already.

The reasons can be:
- Fighting an unknown monster and the surprise effect causes death
- Not reacting fast enough
- Being too risky

Counter the above by:
1) Go only prepared into fights even if it takes a few more seconds.
- Check the monsterlist, to get information on the "unknown" monster in question
- (Re)Cast buffs like shield, resistance or read scrolls protection of evil etc. where applicable
- Think already of your way out in case things go wrong like (bad summons, stuns)
- Check your amount of potions, staves (charged?) and SP
- Rest up

2) If you fight a summoner or you did a mistake (running into Q ==> summoned lots of stuff) you might have only one turn left if at all to react. Do not try to analyze the new sitation, press the panic button to "destruct" the surrounds or teleport away, do not try to fight unknown opposition, you can come back later and better prepared :)

3) Have a look on your Health warning. Do not fight to a 1, 2 or 3... If you need to escape and end up in another "hot" situation, you might be dead meat. Worship "CON" rings so you can fight longer :)



rgds

Michailski
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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by Michailski » Fri 20.03.2009, 15:48

Paladin (easy-medium, fast-medium): After your choice Male/Female press ffdeacfb to make a dwarf paladin with the following stats: DEX, CON, STR, WIS, CHR, INT.

-Prepare your macros. http://www.mangband.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1500
You NEED one to quaff your "Healpot" (\eq1) and one to pray "CLW" (\ep1b).
You will like another one for pots you will find (Speed/Heroism/Berserk..), one for such scrolls (Phase Door/Teleport) and maybe one or two for such staffs (CLW/Teleport/Speed...)
You are allready on the work. Why not prepare for your best friend "Portal" \ep2b (you can get it at lvl 9) and maybe for partydiving \e(p1B (must be capital B) to heal other.
Allways check early if your macros work. Cheapest way to check macros for staffs, pots and scrolls is to check them without insciption. BUT make shure to inscribe them than and make shure to do it correct !
If your macros work save them as paladin.prf they will load with each Paladin you start or load.

- Sell: Sword, scroll, torches
- Buy: Lantern, maingauche (EQUIP IT ! key w), scroll of word of recall, cure serious wounds (if you can`t afford all search at town and 50 feet for trash and money.
Enter > 50ft collect around the stairs. Leave and repeat.)

->
- Strategy: Avoid all townsfolk. Beware monsters with the letter p, o, j and S. Try fighting them on stairs. NEVER touch rot or red yelly ! The stat pots which you need than are expensive.
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. Kill what you can with melee and collect all what you find. Proceed with this until your inventory is full. Try to identify wands by casting at a wall. Down till about 300 feet is “safe” but you are a Hero and badly, you are a poor Hero. So get all the way down to 500 feet if you don`t find earlier enough to pay for your next dive. (up/down/up/down/up/down).
STAY CLOSE TO THE STAIRS. Use them as escapes. And never follow your enemys into the Dungeon without a escape like Phase Door. If you are woundet you can rest a little bit. A little bit because they HATE it if you regenate and will almost come back than. So watch out and awake before they get the first attack.
Back in town sell the pots first but don`t sell the white one, its a Speedpot. Buy a new Recall and if you can afford buy a Perceptionstaff if not buy some identifyscrolls for your "pre identified" wands and sell the remaining stuff unidentyfied. Get the next book of prayers (words of Wisdom) and some Cure serious wounds potions (these cure blindness and confusion also).
Enter 8 and Gain some prayers. Try them and rest for new Spellpoints.
Repeat the procedure starting at ->
Detect evil now and if you can detect stairs. Kill all enemys you know that you can kill them but don`t forget you detect only the evil. Stay close to the Stairs. If you have a perceptionstaff identify the armor and weapons. Select the best items and destroy all cursed stuff. Wear the best armorparts you find. Drop the average armor and daggers first they are worth nothing.
Back in Town you can get Priest book 3 (Chants and Blessings) but the first prayer is at lvl 15.
You should now be able to get 10 CSW or CCW, 10 or more Phase Door (if you havent got the Prayer), 3 or more Word of Recall, and a few Magic Mapping. So you have the choice now. You can repeat again but stair a lot deeper or you start at 300 - 400 to explore the Level and enter the next if you have done there. On each way you take only Items which are good or better than good. Or items with special abilitys like Elvengloves. And on each of the both ways your dive is finished if you run out of pots or escapes.
All what give you more Damage, Blows, Con, Wis, Str, Dex is your friend. You like to wear anything what gives you regen and you would kill everything for Godly Insights ! And you know you are a Paladin. Detection is your Job and the Monsterspoiler http://www.mangband.org/Main/Info is your Library !

Have Fun. =)

[Edit]
Since i play a lot on Ironman i change the Stats from deacfb / DEX, CON, STR, WIS, CHR, INT to eadcfb / CON, STR, DEX, WIS, CHR, INT.
I do it because it is a long way to 1000 feet and allmost your Stats will be reduced from Ghosts or Traps. One time i reached 1k with 15 Str. but thats allready a lot of luck for a melee Char.
With eadcfb you should get more Str and Con (30/30) and still 3 bpr with a Maingauche but it may happen that your bpr are down to 2. You may restart for a luckier Char than or if you got luck
on Money or the other Stats you can start over with 2 bpr. Your best Weapon will be mostly that heavy that only one blow remains and if you reach 1k you have only 500 feet to get Statpots.

Good Luck on Ironman. ;)
Last edited by Michailski on Tue 14.04.2009, 01:39, edited 1 time in total.
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My english isnt bad. I am ahead of time. I use the spelling reform of the english language starting 2010.

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Re: Newbie Guide

Post by Warrior » Tue 24.03.2009, 19:18

Excellent stuff guys :)
-- Mangband Project Team Member

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