I have been keeping up a running dialog of Bait’s progress in email, but just realized it’s been awhile since I blogged.
Bait is now level 35. She has all intrinsic resistances except Fear and Nexus. Her stats are all maxed (except for Wisdom).
Equipment is starting to be a real tuning operation; finding a new item, seeing how it fits into the constellation of intrinsics and sustains, and replacing other bits and parts to shore up anything I’ve lost by taking off the old bit.
My biggest equipment gain was found in a vault at 1600′, a Moonstone Ring of Speed (+9).
With Speed, I am now less afraid of diving into the dungeon. I quickly found out that the “4” dungeon that I’ve been hanging out in for weeks (ironically, it’s the one that I first dove into to escape Death by Very Bad Sunburn earlier) bottoms out at 2750′. That’s plenty deep enough, compared to the 2350′ I was hovering at while looking for Gain Stat potions. But I have to say that I’m starting to get sick of fighting orcs and gnome mages.
With my newfound freedom to dive, I have started looking around for “5” dungeons. I am still hanging out at 2750′, but now I’m looking for a “fun” dungeon to turn into my favorite. I found one that’s full of hounds and undead; yuck. I’m still searching about, but I think I’ve found a nice new one. It’s still got some hounds and stuff, but there are some dragons in there, too.
My current favorite spell is Doom Bolt. The way it goes around corners is really just too fun. I can clear out big rooms of Trolls if I can get some of them to sleep and block up a hallway to keep the others out of the resting zone.
Ever since I got to the “4” dungeon, I haven’t been bringing home any weapons except *Slay* or better. Now that my stats are maxed, all those gain stat potions turn into 9500gp per, and rings of resistance (shard, chaos, sound, confusion) are really worth some dough, too. I’m carrying in excess of 150k gp on me, thinking that I was going to find another Ring of Speed in a shop. I found one. It was 680k. Ouch. I’ll keep saving up, but by the time I’ve saved $ like that, I’ll probably find one in the dungeon.
The Ring of Fate has been on my finger ever since I overpaid for it in the Bazaar in the original town. It has returned its original price over and over again.
I have now explored essentially all of the map. There’s a tiny bit in each corner that’s unexplored, but I have essentially walked the whole world, including most of the ocean. I have found 6 Homes (I think that might be all of them, but I hold out hope for just one more), and the ones that are in the same town as a Magetower (which is 3.5 of them) are by far my favorites.
I spent a little time recently teleporting and walking to all the houses to consolidate the items in them. They were all getting kind of full, and it turns out that the concept of having a full set of books/potions/scrolls in each one was just not working anymore. The moment I moved out of my original house (no magetower in that town) and into a nearby one with a magetower… it was a moment to remember.
At this point, my houses are set up as follows:
– home base, has books (many copies of first 4), potions (cures and restores), scrolls (hunger, teleport, remove curse)
– Defenders only (I’ve found about 10)
– Holy Avengers only (I’ve found about 15)
– Pattern (2), Trump (8), and Chaotic (7) only
– Unique Weapons/Armor of type The Thingy ‘Foo’
– Unique Weapons/Armor of type The Thingy of Foo
There are a couple of extra flotsam; anything that I’ve actually equipped doesn’t get sold if I have space to keep it, and there are a few staves and rods that I keep around for quick cash or if I feel I need them.
But I’ve had to add Westernesse weapons to the list of “just sell”, because they are worth big dough, and I had about a dozen of them and I was out of space.
Dragon Scale Mail is really good for money; it always sells for more than 15k per.
I think I’ve gotten my last 3 levels off of trap disarming. There are some gnarly traps.
Bait is wearing Balance Dragon Scale Mail, the best you can get that’s not named or Power DSM. Wielding Sting, Rings of Fate and Speed +9. Crown of the Magi. Amulet, Gloves, Boots, and Bow are all just there to add intrinsics. I’d like to find some Boots of Speed. Sting adds extra blows, so I’m whacking monsters about 5x per turn, and I usually get 2-turns-to-1 with the Speed ring. There are very few monsters who can go toe-to-toe while they have to eat Doom Bolts every step as they close.
I killed my first D, an Ancient White. That was satisfying.
2800′. Level 35. I’m about 2/3 of the way there, I think.