getting started

I die on the 2nd or at best 3rd level of the first tunnel at best. I can't figure out what to do. I see notes about 'go down' and then go back up. I am not sure I have gone down low enough to go back up. Everything just gets too hard. I am playing Ivanx. I am not really sure what to do.

Hard to say. What usually causes your death?

If you're frequently dying from hedgehogs, for example, be careful what weapons you are using. I used to always play with halberds, because they do a lot of damage and look awesome. But when you first start your arms are too weak to wield one, which means your attacks will be very inaccurate, especially on small monsters. That makes it very easy for them to finish you off.

Another general advice is, whenever you get badly hurt, go back up to the world map where you can heal without being disturbed.

• Always put on some sort of armor when you find it. Even if it is negatively enchanted, a layer between you and your opponent still helps to reduce damage. You can always replace it with something better later.
  
• If you're hurt in a dungeon, find a nice little room and rest with "h". Lock the door if you can too by applying the correct key, if you have it. This will give you the best chance of recovering from injury without being eaten alive.
  
• Shields are kind of crap. Dual wielding will always be better if you can manage it. Try to pick two weapons that fall under the same skill (blunt = hammers, maces | short sword = dagger, short sword | long sword = bastard sword, long sword etc.)
  
• As above, once you've chosen a weapon, stick with it! You have a separate skill for a weapon you have gotten used to that means you can fight better with it. Worst comes to worst, you've still been training up your skill in that weapon category so if your weapon breaks or disappears you can simply transition to another of its class and move on without getting your ass handed to you.
  
• DON'T BURDEN YOURSELF. It reduces your combat stats a little, and that can be enough to get yourself killed. Don't stockpile things - you won't be needing them if you're dead. Or at least only carry what you can without being burdened. For me this is usually potions, scrolls, wands, food, and any valuables (gold rocks etc).
  
• Keep things in a chest to help prevent them from catching fire or breaking. A small chest is good for this and they're reasonably common. Strongboxes are even better.
  
• Don't forget the gods! They can save you in a pinch. Pick one you like the look of and pray to them every now and then (at least 3 in-game hours between to not annoy them). Once you're in good with one god they'll spread your favor to others in the same alignment so you can use their stuff too.
  

If you're getting lost trying to find the exit of the tunnel (which is what it sounds like) then you might not have noticed that there's two separate staircases on UT2. One that you came down from UT1, and one that goes upward to UT3, the plant level. You'll know you came to the right place soon enough...
Usually the second staircase is to the right end of the map, as the Underwater Tunnel is rectangular in shape rather than square like some of the later dungeons.

i always die on the plant level. and i dont get to a point where i can pray before i die. ut3 is the last level before i can get out of the tunnel right? how do i survive the plant level?

are there any uses for a skull or bones?

also should i worry about training early at all? going burdened trains leg strength, but makes it more likely for me to die. I have never made it past the plant level. doesnt seem to be a way to grind early sinces mobs respawn very slow. I know i can go back to the first village and kick bananas to get food. so grinding is possible. not sure if there is a good way to do it before UT3. I just seem to be too weak when i get there.

Gods can really make a difference when facing certain death. It all depends on the god. For instance, you can get a limb back, teleported away, get an ally, etc.

Throw a bone at your dog and it will catch it and eat. :3

The way I survive that lvl is to ignore everything else and look for the exit room as soon as I can coz the more you take, the harder it gets. When the character is getting too tired for all the fighting, I gather all the food from killing them plants and run back towards the previous lvl to rest. If there's a fountain in one of the cleared lvls, it's a good idea to fill bottles with water, since liquids can help you recover from the tiredness.

Ah the plant level. Yes this is the last level before exiting UT. Hmm..

- armor is a huge help as 4zb4 mentioned. Even if something is "beneath" you - "psh, leather gloves, I can do better than that", just equip them because they'll help.
- if you have any healing liquid dip it into empty cans so that it lasts twice as long (with half the healing power, but this early in the game you don't need the full bottle)
- I agree with Chiko, go find Genetrix as soon as possible. if you want to train dexterity on the plants then find her and teleport her away, otherwise find her and kill her. The longer you stay on the level the more powerful the plants she summons gets.
- whenever you're hurt, go back to UT2 and heal. That not only keeps you safe from the plants, but as I said the more time you spend on the level including healing, the stronger they'll get

Re: leg strength
- it's good to start training early. However, when facing a known enemy like this I usually unload as much weight as I can on the previous level. Just drop things right on top of the stair case before going to UT3. That way you're not burdened, and as soon as you finish off Genetrix you can go back and collect your things again. They won't disappear while you're gone.

The simplest way to stay alive: don't take unnecessary risks. This is the single most important piece of advice for IVAN and pretty much any roguelike in general. Torso red with your opponent almost dead? Back out, heal up, try again. Can't take on an NPC in straight melee? Use wands, throw weapons, avoid it or skip it until you can. Patience gets you far, think your every step through if you must.

Knowing which actions are risky is of course the harder part, especially in IVAN. In general you won't find anything capable of one-shotting you without a "You sense danger" notification, so as long as you pay attention to the damage you are taking in any fight you should catch on the general power levels of the NPCs rather quickly. The Dwarf Fortress mentality of "losing is fun" goes a long way as well.

For specific hints and tips, there's plenty of material hidden in the topics in this subforum. The wiki is sadly rather lacking for the most part.

Also if you really need to rest on the plant level and taking the stairs back down isn't an option, find a corner somewhere in the map where there's only one free tile adjacent to you. This way you can rest and only have to fight a single plant when it spawns, which should result in net HP gain. Dead ends don't spawn in the game so these will always be the end of a hallway with a room with a door you can close to shut off the second free tile.

Try this with hostile canines

1. what do you do with skulls and bones?
2. i occassionalyl find a scroll of taming early. what is good to use it on?
3. i can get unlimited bannanas from the village. is there a good way to train up stats before UT3? mobs dont seem to respawn real fast.
4. so its better to dual wield? over 2 handed weapons. ok.
5. i read about a strategy of losing a limb. i can get a limb replaced in the village. is it a good idea to lose a leg or an arm and then bring a zombie leg or arm or some low level mob up to the town? will they attach that or just attach my old arm? its the guy you pay 20 gold too?
6. any tricks for thingsi should do in the starter village? I experimented a few times with dropping lots of bannana peels and trying to get guys to die on them. but didn't see much in the way of items?
7. sometimes i find wands of lightning. but this bounces off walls and hits me. is there a trick to this? what is the range?
8. sometimes i find a wand of necromancy. when i use this this becomes my pet right?
9. wand of ressurrection. i should use that on kenny when he dies right? he usually doesn't last too long. does kenny get stronger if he fights?
10. genetrix is the boss mob on UT3 right? that spawns all the plants?
11. on UT2, I can use a pickaxe to dig into a wall tht gets me to UT4. I should not do that right? there is an up stairs in ut3 that takes me to the surface but i have to kill genetrix to get to it right?
12. what do i do with empty bottles?
13. fountains: this can help, but after a few drinks i always end up on another level. is it worth using these after i clear the first too levels? eventualyl when i gamble i die.
14. how do i trian agility on plants? someone said you can do that? what do plants have to do with agility
15. armor... heavier ones lower stats. is there a good rule of thumb about trade off? say 3 levels of armor for 1 point of dex or agility or something like that?

generally what seems to be a good idea. is clear level 1. go back to town and kick bannanas and get a bunch. bannanas dont seem to fill me beyond normal hunger. i usually grab 8-10. i can clear level 2 at burdned or stressed most of the time which makes me hungry. after that i go back and restock bannanas. then drop items at stairs so unburdened and go down. if i find an altar, i offer everything. i also read all books.

any tips to use traps or mines that i find on level 3?

5. Good question, never thought about them reattaching a different monster's limb.

7. Aim at an angle

9. Save it for later. Kenny will never get very strong. You can resurrect much more powerful monsters in the future, this is equivalent to taming them

11. Yes, that is how you get to UT4. But I would not go there until you've gotten down to GC6 or 7 at least. Looots of powerful monsters in there including golems. You can also teleport Genetrix away and climb the staircase without killing her.

12. If you are in good favor with Mellis and pray to him, he will fill them with different liquids. You might get lucky with an ommel fluid

Bones, as mentioned before can be thrown at canines. Skulls aren't useful really, but you can offer them to Mortifer as he likes bone items.
I guess you could also keep them to throw at enemies, but they won't do very much.

Go back to New Attnam and tame one of the rookie guards. Unless something really strong like a stone golem or something appears in the tunnel, then use it on that before it creams you.

To be completely honest, you don't need to train stats at all this early in the game.
If you insist though, all you can really do in New Attnam is run around a lot and eat bananas to increase your AGI.
Do remember that the higher your stats, the worse the monsters get and this is particularly problematic in the Underwater Tunnel where good equipment will not usually spawn.

Yes. We looked into it a while ago, and there's no penalty for dual wielding if you can wield both weapons one-handed (i.e. no "you have trouble wielding this weapon with one hand") and weapons eventually get a lot better at blocking attacks than shields do.

No no, the idea is to lose a limb and then pray to a god to get one back - if they like you enough they'll give you a limb made of a really strong artificial material!

Also flesh limbs no matter where they came from will not boost your stats at all if you somehow managed to get them attached. If you find yourself down an arm or something and need one back it's faster to drink a healing potion and grow one back than go into town and ask the priestess to re-attach or grow you a new one.

There's nothing worth getting in the village really. If you were intent on killing off people though you can kill the wandering town elder and the tourists by dropping broken glass and banana peels around them. Will take a LONG time though.
The elder has a book of Silva, so you can use that to gain a god early I guess.

There isn't really a trick to this really. They bounce semi-randomly and are really not worth the trouble as more often than not you'll end up blasting yourself with it instead.
Use only when you have a LONG open space behind an enemy, or you have some decent lightning resistance.

Correct. Note you can't resurrect something that doesn't have its head. You can find its head and put it back on its corpse though.

Kenny is a waste of that wand, but yes he does get stronger - just likely not fast enough to be worth the trouble.
Anything you resurrect becomes friendly so long as it isn't a boss of some variety, so it's useful to gain some powerful pets as you go. As far as UT goes you're probably not going to find anything worth it unless kamikaze dwarves start spawning. They're pretty strong when they're not blowing themselves up.

Yep. She lives in a distinctive 5x5 square room, and it's in your interest to get there and finish her as fast as possible.

UT4 is a bonus level filled with guaranteed spawns of some horrible creatures you almost certainly won't be able to deal with until way later on in the game. If you want to chance it though, there's some good loot down there if you want to smash n' grab.

To exit the tunnel you need to either beat or teleport Genetrix Vesana, yes.

Dip (!) them into full potions to gain a half measure so you don't drink the whole thing at once. You can also dip them into water tiles or fountains.
Drinking water gets rid of the "exhausted" status.

If you're feeling lucky, sure! Sometimes they can give you buffs or items, but yes they are a real gamble, especially in the later dungeon where they can teleport you down like 7 floors.

Smack them with a cloak for little to no damage. Trains AGI somehow.
Alveradok wrote up a little guide over here.

Eh, not really. However, different armors will affect your playstyle.
So for example if you're wearing something heavy like steel plate mail you can afford to take a few hits, so the lowered DEX and AGI are not going to be too much of an issue. Ideally if you're using heavy armor like this you should also be using a big weapon - one that scales better with ASTR than DEX obviously. (Warhammer, two-handed swords etc)

If you're going to wear cloth (leather, ommel hair tree), you'll want to be dodging things more than taking hits - which is good because cloth won't reduce your stats (usually). The tradeoff is you take a lot more damage when you do get hit. Cloth is also good because it's light, so that combined with the lack of penalty for stats means you can use just about any weapon you want.

Chainmail is an interesting balance in between, and pretty good all around once you get strong enough to wear it without being burdened. If you're lucky, bronze chainmail has a chance to spawn in the underwater tunnel and with it equipped Genetrix will do very little damage to you. Well, to your torso at least...
Chainmail upgrades get lighter and lighter as they go, similar to plate mail but chainmail weighs a lot less. If you can, hardening it to iron will probably make it just light enough for a new character to wear without being burdened.

What's the difference between necromancy and resurrection? Wands of necromancy never seem to do anything for me, so I assumed they were only used on zombies or something

Wands of necromancy turn humanoid corpses into zombies with reduced stats rather than reviving them. Both result in friendly new pets, so long as the target isn't tame-proof (i.e. uniques)

Zombies won't die when beheaded but will eventually rot away... at least they can use equipment, pick up limbs and reattach them themselves, including heads.

Interestingly they can attach limbs they already have. No idea whether this increases their HP or defence though.
"The zombie picks up the zombie head and attaches it to its chest"

Wand of resurrection is best used as a chancey amulet of life saving. If you get hit by a blast strong enough to kill you, there's a good chance it'll break and revive you immediately.

Quick question about UT4. In UT2, where should I dig to find it?

In the circular shaped room in the middle of this rock formation:

__#__
_###_
##=##
_###_
__#__

Where:
_ is empty terrain
# is rock
= is stairs down

If you don't find a pickaxe, alternatives are wands of striking/fireballs/acid rain/door creation, sulphuric acid and landmines.

oh my goddddddddddddddd there's something in the middle there?!!

I knew about the meteoric steel chest room but this.. this changes everything. Thank you, can't wait to leave work and try this, probably getting hopelessly slaughtered down there.

UT4 has the highest spawn rate of any floor. If you're not prepared you'll be overcome.

Not to mention certain guaranteed spawns that will also squish you sometimes even if you are prepared.

I like to go down there invisible, and make a quick hit & run if I can... The place is way too dangerous for staying long, and later on it's usually not worth the effort to go back...

I still die in UT4 often, but a good percentage of those who enter gets out alive.