next »

[Nillo]

My contest character is dead. Burned to death on level 19, with 14461 total points. I'll post more about it later and upload my recording after the end of the contest.

[Nillo]

Well, I just got to depth 26 with a conjuration build and died to a tentacle horror. I guess that proves it is at least viable, though harder to play than the regeneration build I frequently use.

I find that conjuration is best if you also have access to firebolt, poison and/or discord staves. The spectral blades have trouble against regenerating enemies, and large groups of enemies, so you need to have some way of dealing with those two things. I also started having trouble with food near the end of the game because it takes so long for spectral blades to kill end-game monsters like golems and dragons.

[ortoslon]

How often do the best Brogue players win? I know in Nethack you can win like 80-90% of games if you're good enough, but I'm sure that involves using a lot of boring exploits, like pudding farming or polypiling.

Roughly equal to Spelunky's win ratio, IIRC.

95%?

brogue is so pretty that it makes me sad that it's not a better roguelike

opposite problem here: i want to play brogue from david ploog's recommendation but i can't stand these mosaic/punctuation gradients

btw: theres at least one popular roguelike (IVAN namely) without any item identification stuff.

doomrl too. imagine if you picked up a thing and didn't know if it's a shotgun, a rocket launcher or a thermonuclear bomb until you used it

[baconman]

How often do the best Brogue players win? I know in Nethack you can win like 80-90% of games if you're good enough, but I'm sure that involves using a lot of boring exploits, like pudding farming or polypiling.

Roughly equal to Spelunky's win ratio, IIRC.

95%?

If you're lucky in your layouts, and know what you're doing, I'd imagine the answer is yes. But not the first month or so you're playing it. There's valid structure and level design to that mapgen, and while there's the occasional enemy you're meant to circumvent, rather than encounter, there's almost certainly ways of going about that. Levitation potions (combined with terrain) and teleportation scrolls are always valid options too; or you can flee through a flammable area and ignite it with a potion of inflammation.

Don't forget your Pepto.

[baconman]

Version 1.6.2 is out, although personally, I prefer 1.6 still.

Seems like the cursing rate on good drops is absurdly high in this version, and they've taken some creative misleading stuff into consideration, like going up a floor and using a "potion of decent" to reach a door key; kind of unexpected, but smart. There's good and bad about it, but it's a very different monster than 1.6 was; and in a considerably more assholey way.

Give it a go if you haven't already, but I'd conserve your 1.6 release, just in case.

[Nillo]

This version is primarily harder than the previous ones because of its tendency to generate out-of-depth monsters, like vampire bats on depths 2-3. I don't think the number of cursed items has changed and the log does not mention this.

Also, using potions of descent to get door keys seems like a neat trick, but it's never necessary except for in the portcullis rooms (and then you use it to escape, not to reach the key itself). For keys that seem unreachable, the game generates potions of levitation and potions of fire immunity.

[baconman]

I thought so too, and it had been consistent until one game I idiotically didn't save/record or note the seed to, where that was the only place left to turn. And yeah, I had noticed that too, which was kind of strange, especially early on.

The cursed items thing could just be the RNG hating me, but it's strange to think that I'd have that issue ten games in a row. Even my usual misfortune isn't THAT bad!

[C.D Buckmaster]

I've recently started playing this game as I thought it was about time I tried out a proper rogue-like.

Despite a lot of embarrassing deaths, it's very addictive and fun, although I'm feeling a bit overpowered on my latest playthrough due to having an insanely enchanted spear that has about a 60% chance to paralyse an opponent for 7 turns.

[Nillo]

I'm feeling a bit overpowered on my latest playthrough due to having an insanely enchanted spear that has about a 60% chance to paralyse an opponent for 7 turns.

Let me know how that works out once you reach the level where dragons start to be generated.

I've played this game for such a long time now that dragons are the only thing I think about. When estimating the power of an item, I think to myself, "will this help if I fight a dragon?" If something doesn't work against dragons I consider it a worthless target for enchanting, because my PC is doomed to lose the lategame if he can't handle dragons. That's why I hardly ever use staves of firebolt except as a utility in the early-game for burning barricades etc. and I dislike melee weapons because they force me to get up close and personal with a monster that very well might cut my health in half in just one attack.

[Waltorious]

That's why I hardly ever use staves of firebolt except as a utility in the early-game for burning barricades etc. and I dislike melee weapons because they force me to get up close and personal with a monster that very well might cut my health in half in just one attack.

So what DO you use?  Other types of staves?

My best character ever was actually a fighter, and I found that the dragons' fire breathing was far deadlier than their melee attack.  If I used a potion of fire immunity I didn't have much trouble fighting dragons, although I had heavily enchanted both my weapons and armor.  Of course, the problem is running out of fire immunity potions.  Wands of cancellation also worked well on dragons.

[Nillo]

So what DO you use?  Other types of staves?

Short answer: Yes.

The long answer is that a combination of staves of poison, obstruction and tunneling (or alternatively, poison and conjuration) will reliably kill almost anything. Poison may need enchanting up to 10/10 to be able to one-shot dragons but you can get away with enchanting it to around 8/8 and just poisoning some enemies twice to kill them. It is also nice to have a ring of light or a clairvoyance so you can see the dragon before it sees you.

Now here's the little detail that makes my build tick: "Wandering" monsters can be poisoned without alerting them. This means that you can often poison a foe and just let it wander off, and it will die eventually. If the enemy spots you, you can use obstruction on it. Usually, the obstruction will be enough to kill it before it is set free. If the enemy still lives after the obstruction ends, it's likely that it has reverted to the "Wandering" state, which makes it harmless unless you alert it again.

The staff of tunneling serves two important purposes. One, it lets you destroy inanimate objects such as the flame turret, which poses a special threat to poison-based builds. Two, it lets you get out if you accidentally or deliberately put yourself in an obstruction.

Admittedly, you can't find all of these staves in every game. It's simply the ideal scenario for my strategy. I can live with just poison and obstruction; the tunneling helps, but it is not essential. If I get to the amulet with these three staves in my possession, I will definitely make a lumenstone dive.

[Nillo]

New patch is up. You can find it and the changelog here:

http://brogue.createforumhosting.com/updated-announcing-brogue-v1-6-4-t384.html

It looks like a fairly straightforward improvement. Seems like the game is getting a little easier too (or less unfair, in other words). No more depth 2 vampire bats!

[baconman]

Yeah. I get the feeling that they gained the ability to go up stairs, and their sleep timer started when the game did, not when you reached that level. That and a couple things made me prefer 1.6.1 over 1.6.2 by a long shot.

[s0]

just tried the new version and the free search every turn is a pretty nice feature. also idk but level gen seems to generate a lot more water than previousl