Complete N00b's Journey Character #4: Itat Quao

Introduction: This is the fourth and final character in progress in the series called the "Complete N00b's Journey", where I attempt to see how far I get each time despite my n00bish mistakes. This character has finished the first two levels of the underwater tunnels, so I am now starting a thread for this character as a celebration and to track his further progress. As a reminder for this series, the number before the hyphen signifies the attempt that I am playing, and the number after the hyphen signifies the goal that I have finished. With that, I bring you:

Complete N00b's Journey: Part 4-1

I nearly lose my life to a kobold’s critical hit on the first floor of the underwater tunnels, but manage to retreat and heal up. I manage to make it to the second floor of the underwater tunnels, where I find an altar to Infuscor, an amulet of ESP, a verdigris chain mail, and a malachite helmet of attractivity. A veteran dark knight (which is polymorphed) spoils the fun and forces me to use a potion of healing to survive the encounter. I then find a wand of mirroring and get myself blown by a booby-trapped door, which causes my scrolls of teleportation to catch on fire. I finish the level without too much trouble, although magic mushrooms are a large annoyance to deal with.

The next goal is to just clear the underwater tunnels. I'm forgoing Huang Ming Pong since I somehow can't get the exploity tricks for beating him to work.

Should I stick to Infuscor as my god to pray, or wait until I find another god's altar?

I heard that a whip of thievery is a good weapon. Should I equip it, and how long should I keep it for?

Which is better: My pig iron gauntlets or the pair of leather gauntlets?

I left a leather armor (av 2) in a stash somewhere in this level … is that a better armor to put on?

The attached pictures show the character's current status and inventory.

Any tips to improve this character's survival on the journey to Attam are appreciated.

[quote="wizard44"]
Should I stick to Infuscor as my god to pray, or wait until I find another god's altar?
[quote="wizard44"]

Infuscor will give you ESP (which you already have), teleport control, and may set nearby enemies on fire. Seges will heal you if you're injured, cure poison or leprosy, and feed you if you're hungry. It might be better to go with Seges, IMHO. Remember that you should only pray about once every three hours, or she'll get annoyed.


Personal preference, but I'd switch the iron gauntlets for the leather ones (to decrease Dex penalty) and dual wield the dagger and the whip. You can keep the shield in case you're taking too much damage, but you'll be fighting many carnivorous plants and dual wielding should let you kill them faster.

Agreed with red_kangaroo's points. To further elaborate on the choice between the gauntlets, limb armor values are not super important in UT before you start running into things like wolves and other fast & agile things. The vast majority of the damage you actually need to mitigate in the early levels will be to your torso from greater carnivorous plants, Genetrix and the random kobold picking up an iron mace +2. It's very rare for any of these to target your limbs. For the ones that do, the damage is mostly negligible and can just be tanked through even without armor.

This also applies to the chain mail vs leather armor. The difference between 2 AV and 5 AV is huge in UT, where you will struggle fighting Genetrix in melee with 3 AV while easily breezing through with 5 AV. Even greater carnivorous plants get somewhat dangerous with only 2 torso AV. Definitely keep the chain mail even though it's heavy and has a big hit to stats.


Make sure the bait you're leaving outside is fresh, he's not going to go after even slightly spoiled food. The bananas you can buy from the town shop rot too quickly to be properly used as the bait. Hold onto whatever food you find down in UT and use that instead.

Thanks for the input everyone. Unfortunately, I get killed due to a snowballing series of unlucky events, which brings my journey here to an end.

YASD #4: Hunger, stupidity and losing my limbs bring an end to my experience.

Read the large and mysterious saga of the pantheon, changed my gauntlets to the leather ones, and dual wielded the dagger and the whip. I then went down to the third floor of the underwater tunnels, where a door trap destroys my holy book of Seges (stupid me for not putting it away) and I suddenly get very hungry, forcing me to use all my remaining gold at the New Attnam shop to satisfy my hunger. I then find a wolf, who chops off my left arm and left leg. With no gold to reattach my limbs, I find myself a sitting duck and quickly die to a giant frog. So this ends my IVAN experience. I will shortly be providing a review in the main thread.