Slob's Walk-thru

Spoiler Warning: This page contains spoilers which may affect your IVAN experience negatively

Why am i doing this? I don't know, I haven't played IVAN in a long time and the community has dwindled but I think there are still some of you out there who haven't won yet or haven't won with no artificial limbs so this is for you.

This is more a set of strategies that can be applied than an actual walkthru due to the randomness of IVAN. My style of playing is "no artificial limbs, no ommel cerumen cheats". Other than that I'll try to structure this somewhat chronologically and somewhat categorically by strategies (i.e. stat building, weapons choice, combat, gods, scroll and wand use).

Walk thru (Slob style)

(I'll start small and just make this a walkthru to deliver the scroll)

First the super short version

1. explore UT until you find a bunch of mushrooms
2. kill them and carry their corpses to the UT1 up stairs
3. eat them and hope for levitation
4. drinking from fountains works too
5. go up the stairs
6. use the look command to locate Attnam
7. fly towards it
8. deliver the scroll!

Now the not so super short version

New Attnam

1. grab a lantern
2. go up the stairs
3. enter New Attnam
4. tell Kenny not to follow you (he eats things and interferes with sci-talking)
5. go down and chat to banana growers as they pass moving towards the BG encourager (requires 10 Wis)
6. chat to BG encourager when not chatting to banana growers
7. when a BG goes up to drop of food for Huang Ming Pong block his door with BG inside
8. now you can just hold c to chat
9. chat until another BG comes then allow them to change places
10. do this until you get 2 wis and one intelligence boost
11. if this takes less than 1000 turns then you are smart and will always gain Int and wis quickly
12. if this takes more than 2500 turns then you are a moron
13. grab piles of banana peels when HMP finishes eating they come in handy later
14. leave town and enter the underwater tunnel

UT1 (again)

Exploration

• you are naked! Be very careful especially of hedgehogs
• go one step at a time, holding down a direction key leads to death
• don't waste time somewhere on the level a carrot is rotting or a hedgehog is eating a can of ommel cerumen

Assorted tips

Weapons

• grab the first weapon you find and equip it provided it is not super crappy
• upgrade weapon as you find better ones, weapon class does ot matter at this point- survival matters

Armour

• grab and equip the any armour you
• upgrade armour as you find better stuff - i prefer armour that doesn't slow me down

Food

• eat all uncanned food you find as you find it until you have a safe food source
• save canned food for emergencies
• troll blood/healing potions can be used as food in emergencies
• save school food for later

Inventory management

• pick up everything you find until you are burdened and then drop a cache of the heaviest/least valuable items
• when possible drop dangerous/valuable items in chests (sure you can't use that steel plate mail or iron scimitar +1 if you are too weak but do you really want a kobold or zombie to use them)
• keep important items with you at all times once you find them

Important items

• any form of teleportation (wand is best, scroll is second, ring third)
• healing potions
• any rings especially don't leave rings of polymorph laying around unless you want to fight mammoths or mistress warladys on UT1
• a strongbox or small chest to keep wands in

Combat

• avoid non mobile enemies- come back and kill them later
• use the run command as soon as you are 2 squares away from enemy
• always use the look command to examine humanoid enemies
• if that zombie/kobold has a dangerous weapon then run (until you are well equipped)
• use the trap strategy with you banana peels until you are well equipped
• it is safe to fight hedgehogs once you have gauntlets
• run away if you get hurt.

Healing

• go up to NA to scitalk and build CHA while you heal

Trap strategy

• when fighting or running from an enemy traps can give you a slight to huge advantage
• set trap (banana peel, broken bottle, bear trap), move so that enemy walks into trap to get a slight to huge advantage advantage. I once faced a kobold with a vermis when unarmed and unarmoured - I ran a dropped banana peels as he chased me. He slipped on a peel severed his vermis arm panicked and ran away :)
• don set bear traps if you are running awayscientific

Chests

• use chests to store valuables in to keep yourself unburdened
• carry a small chest or better yet a strongbox to store breakable burnable valuables in

I might never finish this.....

slob