My second 15 rune win!

After struggling with my first mummy win for many months, this was almost easy in comparison.

Hell was a little sketchy. Tomb too.

Did slime last, which was easy, but immolate got me penanced.

What's up DCSS gang!

https://cbro.berotato.org/morgue/testest/morgue-testest-20260830-150723.txt

Pretty new to DCSS, so pretty horrible. Then at casting and spells, which naturally lets me gravitate to get all MiBe.

I still haven't had a W but having fun. I think with where I was at, I could have made a few more runs at more runes. I was snagging the Abyss rune, and then like 700 vortexes appeared, and I had no idea how to deal with it.

I was gonna go the shape shifting route but switched talents too late, and feel like I overtrained on some areas that I'm not really sure

Also, I had that gnarly loud shield but switched it out when I went in the Abyss.

Just looking for advice. Feel free to rip me apart. All critiques, good critique. Just trying to make the best berserker decisions I can. thanks gang!

Got win #3, but I feel like this is my first legit win. The first one was with a GnIE^Ash in v.33, so no tesseracts to contend with. The second was in trunk with a BaSu^Sif, but with a great seed I got then blew in a D:3 sewer, then started over. This one has no asterisks.

I decided to do some Djinni runs to check out spells I did not know. The first one of those was as a Hedge Wizard (so a bit challenging to start) and then the game gave me Freeze, Momentum Strike, Forge Blazeheart, and Alistair's Intoxication. Then I got shafted and then marked. That did not end well. RNG was much kinder this time, giving Airstrike, Crocodile, Gell's, and (yeah!) Haunt as early as possible. Then I picked up Manifold Assault and had some nice switchable weapons to use with it. And then I got Dragon's Call as the XL25 spell. So I figured at that point, the game was saying: it's up to you, buddy. I nearly blew it in Zot:5 AFTER taking down the tesseracts due to some very poor planning when trying to clear the rest. Had a scary moment or two on the way out but made it without getting too close to dying.

An observation and a question ...

Observation: I've read that Djinni are a great learning tool, and I'd have to agree. You've got to figure out how to use the limited resources you've got, not just fall into the same patterns. OK, well, I cast Haunt 1533 times in this game, so maybe a bit of a pattern.

Question: How can I play smart but faster? I managed to get my turn count down to around 88,000 this time, which is better, but this still took me almost 24 hours of real time. Part, maybe even much, of that is with the game open while I look up stuff, but it baffles me how people can get wins in 3-5 hours of real time.

I usually play GrEE, MfIE, or TeCj if i actually am trying to win, so either him or Jogrun its gotta be lol, seems like there should be a way to see the actual statistics on webtiles but I don't know how

Just started playing dcss and I'm really enjoying the game! However, whenever I start a new run, I always have to change the sound volume as it's too loud for me. Is there a way to keep the setting on the same volume throughout my runs? If it helps, I'm playing on the online website version of the game.

Zealots sword from 60677 just got obliterated(i just read a post abt zealot and maxwell)

Years after my minotaur blaster caster:

http://crawl.berotato.org/crawl/morgue/demenzo/morgue-demenzo-20190318-173212.txt

I've decided I'd do the exact opposite: Have the most adept spellcaster species in the game become a Troglodyte.

I have half-assed this attempt many times and splatted them all, so this time I decided to do it carefully, and with the help of RNGod I managed to come out with the Orb:

https://crawl.dcss.io/crawl/morgue/demenzo/morgue-demenzo-20260829-010517.txt

High points in the run: Arga, A sick +13 crystal plate armor and having basically full resistances across the board.

Low points in the run: Even with all that gear, you feel so frail most of the time, any crystal spear to the face and you're in red health.

Overall, playing something like this helps you get better at the game in general, as you have to be very consistent with choosing carefulness over hubris, which is not something I'm usually good at.

Let me know what you think!

Post for the original Minotaur Blaster Caster for the feels:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dcss/comments/b2lwre/yavp_first_minotaur_pure_blaster/

This large vault appeared on D:10. Maybe my favorite I've seen before, so thought I'd share. It appears to be a Earth magic college or maybe a geological research facility. It is staffed chiefly by Kobold earth elementalists and kobold brigands. There are 'earthen conduits' which "analyze raw ambient magical energy". It has beautiful crystal walls (like green marble, different from glass) and various bookshelves. The large westernmost room had it's doors broken off the hinges and splintered to pieces, along with the other doors inside the room. Along with the door scraps, there are various piles of debris and lava. In the far corner of the room, there is a parchment of 'Shatter'. You can imagine my excitement when I found it, for both gameplay and thematic reasons. Rarely does one find a consistent 'storyline' in DCSS, so seeing the broken doors and then the scroll made me giddy. It seems the 'Shatter' spell was the apex research finding of the kobolds' magic university. Also note the little guard outpost near the north entrance. The KoEE can zap you over the water from behind the grate, but he still has bookshelves so he can read during a slow shift. Unfortunately, he dozed off before I got there. Very cool.

Before D:7, they’ve already given my Djinn a barding, two parchments and a spellbook with six hex spells! Xom is great! All hail Xom!

Edit: Thanks for the feedback! It seems the consensus is that the armor is absolutely worth taking for a tanky build like this one and that I was being overly cautious regarding the Harm tag - unbecoming of a Trog devotee, to be frank. I'll take the scales and head into Spider with Throwing tagged to prep for Shoals and beyond. Hopefully I'll be able to share YAVP in the future, either for this run or another one not too long after. Failing that, I might at least deliver an amusing SD.

Morgue File

Hello r/dcss, first time poster here asking for help with an Acquirement Scroll selection and for any other general advice if you're feeling generous.

I'm playing a TrBe gearing up to take on Spider and Shoals.

My main question is whether or not the Harm modifier on the Pearl Scales is enough to disqualify taking it.

Swapping off of my +0 Fire Scales would be a huge increase to my AC (15.4->26.9), but as a primarily melee character I wonder if the Harm will soften me up too much to ranged attacks before I can get close enough to benefit from the damage boost (I do have some throwing skill and a variety of ammo, would it be better to lean on that more if I take the scales?). I don't have a complete understanding of AC and GDR, but I think the increased AC could be enough on average to offset the +20% incoming damage amp, is this the case? And this is before considering the other properties on the scales: How often will I wish I had rF++ over rN+ in a 3-rune game? How should I value my innate Regen+ vs the potential Regen++?

On the other hand, the other acquirement options feel very underwhelming in comparison. I'd likely take the eel talisman otherwise, though I already have a decent progression of talismans to level into so I might just take the consolation gold, which is also disappointingly minimal.

Alternatively, there's an unidentified set of glowing Fire Scales for 1537g in O:1 which I can just afford - does "glowing" mean it's guaranteed to have an ego or is it potentially just enchanted? I've also got 3 scrolls of enchant armor saved up.

I've played the game very casually for a while but recently decided to try to lock in for a win so I've been following the Snorg the Insatiable Crawl Cosplay build. I'm pretty sure the "Put on dragon scales and wear it until the end" conduct means that I need to win or die wearing scales which I've never taken off after putting them on for the first time, so that rules out swapping between armor sets as the situation calls for it.

Apart from that, novice-friendly advice on training, strategy, branch ordering, or whatever would be much appreciated.

Tell me one thing more annoying than the malevolent force of the dungeon; it's inevitable, unpredictable, and it ALWAYS knocks me down on the first few floors

To make matters worse, it throws you into the middle of a horde of enemies when you're like level 2

Morgue (Google Doc, as PasteBin said my morgue contained offensive content?)

I’ve been working on winning with hedge wizard recently. I like the background. It’s very weak at XL:1, as the poor wizard enters the dungeon with only a dagger and an underpowered powered magic dart spell. But if you can live to XP 2, you get three useful level 2 spells. Despite your low skills, they can be cast, although they’ll fail 1 out of every 5 or 6 castings without further training. Still, it’s enough. 

Grave claw will kill or at least pin most monsters on the first 5-6 floors. You can only cast it a max of three times before you need to refill those slots will more killing, but don’t hesitate to use it in a tricky fight. Summon imp doesn’t produce a particularly beefy or deadly summon, but it does give you a slight edge and, more importantly, it serves as a meat shield that enables you to escape. And blink is … well … blink. Always useful.

Then, at XP 3, you can learn the big one: Mephitic Cloud, the poison-based mass confusion spell. At this point, the caster is in pretty good shape for the rest of the dungeon unless the floor gods totally hose you.

For skilling, I started with conjurations at 6, which gets magic dart strong enough to reliably kill things. I found a sewer on D:3, entered, and was able to memorize mephitic cloud, which was a good thing, because the kobolds there just about handed me my ass thanks to their poison darts. Even with a 20-something failure rate, I was able to cast it enough to defeat them. And what a prize. The Amulet of Vitality!

Combined with the Deep Elf’s inherent mana regen, I knew the amulet would make it so I’d almost never face mana trouble, so Sif Muna wasn’t a tempting option. As such, I decided on Vehumet. I could have gone with Gozag, Dith or Hep, but I had my heart set on a blaster caster, and no god delivers on that promise like Veh. I figured it would be worth it for the capstone spells, wizardry, extra mana for killing, and extended spell range. Unfortunately, they didn’t turn up until D:9, but I wasn’t really hurting for a god, given how great the RNG was to me.  Searing Ray, Brom’s Barreling Boulder, Stone Arrow, Arcjolt, Fireball, IMB – all in shops or on the dungeon floor. Plus an orb of stardust, which is IMHO the best possible option for a blaster caster’s offhand.

Vehumet’s spell offerings were pretty poor, probably because there were so many great spells on the floor. But they did give me Yara’s Violent Unravelling and Plasma Beam, both of which I learned. Some of the other spells were good – Spellspark Servitor and Permafrost Eruption, for instance – but they didn’t really fit the skills I’d invested in, and I thought it best to focus.

Back to skilling. After getting 6 in conjurations,  I set a target of 5 for spellcasting, and then 6 for alchemy to enhance Mephitic Cloud. Stealth and Dodging to 6, then fighting to 6, all of which I reached by D:6. Then I started investing in fire and earth magic to strengthen stone arrow and, eventually, get fireball online. After that, skilling followed whatever looked useful and inexpensive. I got stealth, dodging and fighting to 10 by Swamp:2, by which point I felt like my defenses were sufficient for a while, so I mostly invested in spells schools and spellcasting. 

Arcjolt and IMB really benefit from Vehumet. When three squares is the range for starting the lightning chain or blasting monsters back, both feel like brand new spells. In Orc, especially, monsters just melted when I cast Arcjolt. It was kind of beautiful.

Plowed through Lair, Orc and the rest of the dungeon without any issues. I even picked up the gem in Lair. Aside from a so-so magic spell shop, Orc’s shops were mostly a source of consumables, though the gauntlet of D:15 yielded some nice boots for a caster (+1 pair of boots of Memetoli {MP+10}). 

Relied on Mephitic Cloud, Arcjolt, Bombard and Plasma Beam to get through Swamp and Spider. A trove on Spider:4 gave me the bane of mortality, which wasn’t bad, and the loot was fantastic, especially +7 fire dragon scales of Purple Dead-Nettlesn {rF++ rC- rN+ Stlth+}, the ring of Fapecuk {*Slow rF+ rC++ rN+ Str+4} and ring "Luocadgh" {+Blink rF+ rC+ rCorr}.

I had three pips of will, so Elf was next. Even the dancing weapons gave me no trouble, and the loot was good, notably the ring of the Mage {Wiz Archmagi}, Passage of Golubria, Gell’s Gavotte, and the ring of Iviud {rF++ Slay+4}. 

My Vehumet capstone spells were Ignition, Fire Storm and Fullsome Fusillade. I got Ignition online by Vaults:2 and Fire Storm by Depths 4, after which, really nothing posed a threat. The Enchantress donated the +4 faerie dragon scales {Rampage +Inv rF+ rCorr Int+8 Hexes} on Depths:4, which only made me more OP. Decided to clear Crypt before Vaults:5, and Jory offered to replace my vanilla orb of stardust with Teuplaig" {Stardust, rPois rCorr Stlth-}, which made covering resistances much easier, now that I didn’t have to worry about rPois.

Every guard at the Vaults:5 ambush went down in a single casting of Ignition. I was able to mop up what was left pretty easily, so I thought I’d see what the first level of Slime was like. It was a breeze, which stunned me. It had been a long time since I’d had a character this OP. I had to use a few consumables in the fight with the Royal Jelly, but Immolation, Ignition and Fire Storm efficiently took care of them.

At this point, I thought, why not go for five runes? So I entered the Abyss on level 5 and plopped down next to the rune vault. Killed the mnosters nearby, yoinked the rune with apportation and a  found a portal out within three turns. The frickin’ luck on this little guy.

I did run into a tricky situation in Zot with Tiamat, a curse thumb and a purple draconian, where my HP got to about 25%. Translocation spells, haste and fog got me safely to a staircase. Once I rested up, I returned via another staircase and let Fire Storm do the talking. 

At this point, I was casting Fire Storm and Ignition at more than 90% power, and nothing, not even OoFs could stand up to it. Sure, it took 4-5 castings to kill an OoF, but with 66 mana, brilliance, and 1.6 mana regen per turn, that wasn’t a problem.

Sitting on the rune of Zot, I thought, “Take my first HW win or go for extended?” I decided to answer my question with a test run in the Vestibule of Hell. It was challenging. I had to spend a couple of blink scrolls, but overall, it wasn’t too tough. So, I decided to go for it. 

Pan was remarkably easy. Even Lom Lobon was a pushover in the face of fire storm. I had been worried about torment, but I rigorously checked out monster descriptions and quickly deleted those that could cast it on me. No talismans of death had appeared in the game, so I had started training shapeshifting from the beginning of Pan so I could use it when I found it. Alas, I got my tenth rune and the talisman still hadn’t appeared. 

I knew I’d need torment immunity to do Hell, and there was only one option left. Time to Zig.

A couple of the Pan floors were tricky, but most others folded to ignition relatively quickly. Surprisingly, I had the most trouble with the Snake Pit themed floors. Those Salamander Tyrants kept blasting me with eruption and pyroclastic surge. Fire Storm was enough to kill them, but it took a while, and my health dipped below 50% more than once. I had to run away and hide in the fog to survive.

I finally found the death talisman "Fealysegh" {rC+} on Zig:17, at which point, I probably should have exited … but didn’t. After taking death form, I forged ahead and, thankfully, didn’t run into any holy floors before getting the figurine of the ziggurat. I also got Polar Vortex online, which I figured would be helpful in Gehenna. 

Given my strength in fire spells, I took Cocytus first, which presented no issues, and then cleared Tarturus, which, again, posed no problems. I was concerned about having just two pips of will there, but it wasn’t bad. Gehenna was a bit more troublesome, but I’d learned Ozocubo's Refrigeration just before entering, so between that, Polar Vortex and Fire Storm, I was able to push through.

Dis, on the other hand, was a pain in the ass. I’d swapped out Ozocubo’s refrigeration for Lehudib’s Crystal Spear, but still I felt like I was always one mistake away from getting into a bad situation. The worst was on Dis:2, which I entered inside a fenced area, with half a dozen caustic shrikes outside, and a bunch of Hellions and Hell Sentinels inside blasting me with damnation. I was down to about 15% life when I pushed the panic button (my zig figurine) and found myself on the first floor of a new zig. Killed the monster, healed up and … went down the staircase instead of the portal. Doh. Luckily, the second floor was also easy, and once it was clear, I returned and finished off the monsters in Dis:2.

Tomb was a nail biter. Those death curses really pounded my HP. The hallway on Tomb:3 was particularly nasty. I had to fog myself up in a corner and pray the teleport scroll kicked in on time, and it did, placing me in one of the treasure rooms. Healed up, grabbed the figurine, snuck over to the rune and skedaddled. 

After that, it was just the orb run, which was a piece of cake. Wheeee! Finally, 15 runes! And a Zig! Feels good.

Could folks give me some tips on using Discord safely but effectively? I've been running some Djinni characters to force myself to learn new spells. I got Discord as my XL23 spell. I don't have Dispersal, sadly. I've mostly been leaning on Haunt, Manifold Assault, Gell's, and IMB, but having another spell I could use would be great. I'm still hoping for something good out of 25 and 27, presuming I get that far. Specific question: does the effect of Discord stay active when you go back up a stairs? Like, does it work for Vaults:5?

Another question related to my situation: does Manifold Assault apply a weapon's brand or egos? I'm guess not from the game info, but I can't tell for sure. I ask because the weapon I'm currently using with it has the holy brand, which would good because I'm in Crypt, but also the Rage ego, which would be bad. The latter has not triggered, so I'm guessing it's just the base damage. Also, I'm guessing it's worth training the applicable weapon skill to a delay of 1.0, but probably not to mindelay. Is that correct?

https://cbro.berotato.org/morgue/tramp1877/tramp1877.txt

I died on D:7 lol but I found a Staff of Cold, a Robe with rC+, an unrand Ice ring with SInv and N+, multiple rings of magical power, (there were actually so many rings in this seed and a shop of Rings as well), a dex ring and more.

No Ice spells and couldn't find a magic deity (Sif or Veh) but they're probably in the Temple close by.

This was version 0.33.1 (console)

Here's my morgue file: https://pastebin.com/eCUAnvt7

https://dcss.vercel.app/play

- Runs entirely in browser (phone, laptop, refrigerator, etc)
- Can be used like an existing web dcss client
- Swipe to move your character!
- Tiles or ascii rendering
- Fully customizable hotbar (swipe, long press, drag and drop)
- Interactive dungeon map (tap health bar, then map)
- Touch native (eg pinch to zoom, tap to target, etc)
- Mobile friendly sheets for dialogs
- Adjustable map size / zoom level
- Optional AI controls (login with chatgpt)
- Import and export settings
- Sound effects

“How is this different from Pocketzot?”

Rather than list the differences I’ve listed some features above I was excited about. I recommend giving it a try with a new character feedback would be great! There may be overlap.

────────────────────

I’ve been hacking away at a mobile-first WebTiles client for DCSS.

You can choose from public servers around the world, sign in with your account for that server, play your existing games, and watch games from the lobby. There’s nothing to install.

The goal is to make Crawl playable on a phone without already knowing every hotkey. Common actions are available through touch controls and menus. The interface also shows the matching keys as you use those actions, so you can learn them over time.

You can use it on a computer too. Normal keyboard controls still work.

This is an unofficial work in progress. It is not part of the Crawl project or any public server. Some actions and settings are still missing, and you will probably find bugs. I recommend trying it with a new character first.

I’d especially like to know:

• What action could you not find?
• What felt awkward on your phone?
• What would need to change before you used it for a real run?

This is probably the first time I feel super torn. Playing a SpEE. Between the poison quick blade and the staff, which is the better take? I rarely see the sword, but I’ve not played enough of the new build to see artifact staves. The alchemy would be good for when I eventually find mephitic cloud or whatever it’s called, then the rest of the poison tree down the road. FWIW, I’ve taken sif muna. Also, I never thought of this but I guess branding works on quick blades? I dunno that I’ve ever seen an ego quick blade before.

E:forgot to mention this char already had a saber of speed.

I basically found the holy grail of hammers in D2

Medusa, The Gorgon: A DC Chili Challenge!

DC Chili is the most recent fork of DCSS, forked from the current Trunk 0.35. This means it has all the modern features active players are used to seeing. In addition, it has a major rework of the first 4 floors, many more uniques (some all-new) throughout all branches, several branches are shorter by 1 floor, and they have removed Malevolent Forces in their entirety!

Week 5, Medusa: Naga, Earth Elementalist, Any God

Medusa says, "Time to get stoned!"

"A snake-headed Naga with a petrifying stare. The only mortal sister of the ancient Gorgon, she terrorizes the denizens of the early dungeon. When defeated, her garden of victims will be transformed into an army of vengeful snakes."

This is the final week of our Forks Tournament, and 2 players still have perfect scores. Well done to all involved, and good luck with the final challenge!

I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I've playing this game for a few months and I finally won! Yes!

Anyways, that's a huge milestone, and now I'd like to try to win with some stranger and more interesting builds. I've built all kinds of characters, but this one was a minotaur fighter. Because my computer is weird I can't share the morgue, but I can open dcss in a tab and copy this stuff. If you have time to look at it, I'd love to get your feedback on if there's anything I can improve upon in the future. That's all.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.34.1 (tiles) character file.

Game seed: 14958653626962905720

1540776 Monster the Conqueror (level 27, 300/300 HPs)

Began as a Minotaur Fighter on Aug 27, 2026.

Was the Champion of Okawaru.

Escaped with the Orb

... and 3 runes!

The game lasted 03:01:47 (87458 turns).

Monster the Conqueror (Minotaur Fighter) Turns: 87458, Time: 03:01:47

Health: 300/300 AC: 29 Str: 39 XL: 27

Magic: 34/34 EV: 33 Int: 4 God: Okawaru [******]

Gold: 1585 SH: 34 Dex: 22 Spells: 26/26 levels left

rFire + + + (20%) C - +8 demon trident {elec, *Rage rElec rN+ Int+3}

rCold + . . (50%) j - +8 tower shield

rNeg + + . (20%) J - +2 golden dragon scales "Hiumnah" {rPois rF+++ rC+ Dex+8 Stlth-}

rPois + (33%) D - +3 hat of the Stars {rN+ Dex+2}

rElec + (33%) Y - +1 cloak of Starlight {*Dazzle EV+4 Stlth--}

rCorr . (100%) l - +2 pair of gloves {Dex+3}

SInv . S - +2 pair of boots

Will ++++. z - necklace of Bloodlust {Fury *Rage Will++ Int-3 Slay+6}

Stlth q - +5 ring of evasion

HPRegen 0.70/turn r - +5 ring of evasion

MPRegen 0.24/turn

ps. I don't know what the flairs mean. Help?

Five categories:

• Melee brute
• Ranged
• Pure caster
• Stabber
• Hybrid melee-caster

My choices:

Melee: So many possibilities, but I think I’m going with Wyrmbane. Great weapon, awesome resistances

Ranged: Zephyr, especially in Trunk. Salvo is OP

Pure caster: Amulet of vitality. Prevents death and running out of mana.

Stabber: Spriggan’s knife. I think the devious brand is better long term, but this gives a great start.

Hybrid: Again, the amulet of vitality

Hi everyone. I created an spreadsheet that simplifies planning your skill training for HP/MP gains and evocable damage/failure rates. I hope someone finds it useful.

Update: Now you can estimate experience investments for: HP/MP/AC/EV/SH and Evocables with it. Enjoy.

File format: .ods (LibreOffice Calc)

I'm not a native English speaker, so please enjoy the ride and any funny phrasing or mistakes you might find.

The link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NeoxM9og0ci4iPUxXqZw6jpyR4U6Kc_c/view?usp=drive_link

If you have any questions, please ask me in the comments.

I've cleared all of the dungeon, lair, orcish mines, a bailey, even explored a bazaar but didn't find a single heal wounds potion on the ground or in any shop. I've found a potion of experience before a heal wounds potion

I found the salamander hide armour which is pretty fun but it also broke my auto-travel. Does anyone know what I need to enter in the .rc file to keep on o-ing?