New Player Advice

Jan 12, 2011, 10:49 am
#1
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Posts: 5
This game is awesome.

It is also super hard.

I read up on the wiki, but still have some unanswered questions.

Do weapon types (blunt, slashing) matter? Do armor types (leather, chain etc) do anything besides have different AR?

Also, any helpful tips for a total noob? Thanks!
Jan 12, 2011, 11:12 am
#2
Joined: Nov 22, 2008
Interests: IVAN
Posts: 1,170
nectarprim3 wrote
This game is awesome.

It is also super hard.

True, and true.

nectarprim3 wrote
I read up on the wiki, but still have some unanswered questions.

Do weapon types (blunt, slashing) matter? Do armor types (leather, chain etc) do anything besides have different AR?

The weapon type is used in Accuracy and Strength calculations, eg whips and daggers are very accurate. But they have no invsible secondary effect, at least not that I know of.

Same for armor types. They chance the weight, AR and penalty, but no hidden differences afaik.

nectarprim3 wrote
Also, any helpful tips for a total noob? Thanks!

Depends on how you die most of the time If you're not afraid of spoilers, you might want to check the "anything relating to ivan you're too lazy to create a new topic for" topic, it has a lot of helpfull little things.

Also, welcome to the forum!
Beware! 'tis EagleV, Hardcore Weaver of Baskets!
Jan 12, 2011, 11:16 am
#3
Joined: Dec 2, 2007
Location: New Attnam
Interests: bananas
Posts: 2,299
Eat perishable food right away. Save the canned stuff for when you're in danger of starving
Jan 12, 2011, 11:17 am
#4
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Posts: 5
Thanks for the welcome and the fast response! That thread seems to have a lot of great info. Can't wait to turn some of my friends on to this game!
Jan 12, 2011, 11:18 am
#5
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Posts: 5
capristo wrote
Eat perishable food right away. Save the canned stuff for when you're in danger of starving

I found this out the hard way yesterday ><
Jan 12, 2011, 11:26 am
#6
Joined: Jan 25, 2008
Occupation: Turns out I can't have a cool avatar, I'll just put crap in it.
Location: 48kg / 105 lbs
Interests: My name is Failbert
Posts: 697
nectarprim3 wrote
I found this out the hard way yesterday ><

Not starving in the Tunnels gets easy if you avoid being burdened and stressed - you can stash the stuff and come back for it later!

Also, really lvl1 hints are:
Just don't leave any good weapons too close to monsters.

Play around with the gods sometime to see what effects do prayers have and what are their replacement limbs made of.

I also think that a death of a far-gone character makes you pay attention and teaches you about ten times more details than a death of a young character would. So raise your fist, go forth, and conquer!
Well I assume that a bolt has a given, numeric, amouunt of perwer. (assi in enegri)... unless it's LAERSER SKISKLS POEWN PEWN!
Jan 12, 2011, 4:25 pm
#7
Ex-Tyrant of the IVANers


Joined: Dec 8, 2007
Occupation: Junior Scientist
Location: Not California
Interests: Physics and Astronomy, Exoplanets, Singing praise to Valpurus while smashing skulls with a bloody warhammer, Jogging
Posts: 2,920
Being burdened makes you get hungry a fair bit quicker. Being stressed ramps it up fast. This, along with the high dex and agi penalties, are the main reasons to avoid plate armor. (Doesn't stop me though!)

Using heavy weapons makes you stronger.

Lighter weapons swing faster, and usually more accurately. More accuracy / dexterity causes more limb strikes. This holds true for enemies too -- certain late-game enemies will decapitate you before you can say "Wut" if you aren't careful...

NEVER carry explosives.
"Put more stuff in the... thing where... more stuff goes in."
Jan 12, 2011, 5:51 pm
#8
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
Well, on armor types the only real difference between them outside of weight and AV is what they are made out of.
e.g. A chainmail found in a dungeon will always be made of a type of metal.
Therefore the "cloth material" armors (leather, troll hide, ommel hair, dragon skin etc.) are better than a run-of-the-mill chainmail because they are lighter and don't rust should they get liquids (especially acid) on them. (they get "destroyed" instead, but nowhere near as fast as an armor or chainmail of the materials equivalent metal)
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Jan 12, 2011, 6:27 pm
#9
kobold lord


Joined: Dec 15, 2010
Interests: mutant ass
Posts: 100
Be sure to get a belt of levitation. It is probably one of the most important items in the game.
Jan 12, 2011, 10:39 pm
#10
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
That, or an at least slightly enchanted cloak of fire resistance or you won't make it far in the Gloomy Cave.
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Jan 14, 2011, 11:42 am
#11
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Posts: 5
Thanks for all the help guys. Now, if you could clear up a couple things for me:

Limbs. What are all the ways of replacing them? If you are missing one do you just pray to a God that likes you and he takes care of it?

Bones. Is this like the remains of a previous save?

Thanks again!
Jan 14, 2011, 11:56 am
#12
Joined: Jan 11, 2008
Posts: 1,019
Bones are the result of a previous game. They come with everything that was on the level right before you died; this means all monsters (including the one that killed you, which might mean you wind up seriously boned), all loot (including the loot you had been carrying when you died), and all terrain is the same.

Limbs can be replaced by: healing fluid, troll blood, Seges, New Attnam priest (who charges gold for that). Also several other gods if you don't care that the limb they give you is not an authentic human limb. This list not guaranteed to be exhaustive, only fairly close. Note - if you lose a limb without something like a mine, beartrap, or rabid hedgehog providing a good reason for it you likely have leprosy and so does your arm; if you become leprosy-free and then get your arm reattached at the NA priest's house you will get leprosy again - instead, refuse leprosy treatment, have your arm reattached and then get cured of leprosy. The surgeon general has noted that limb loss is a leading indicator and cause of early death, don't make it a habit!
Jan 14, 2011, 11:59 am
#13
Ex-Tyrant of the IVANers


Joined: Dec 8, 2007
Occupation: Junior Scientist
Location: Not California
Interests: Physics and Astronomy, Exoplanets, Singing praise to Valpurus while smashing skulls with a bloody warhammer, Jogging
Posts: 2,920
BDR wrote
(including the one that killed you, which might mean you wind up seriously boned),

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE
"Put more stuff in the... thing where... more stuff goes in."
Jan 16, 2011, 11:13 pm
#14
Joined: Dec 2, 2007
Occupation: Big Daddy
Location: Under a pile of my own offspring
Interests: Caves
Posts: 612
Choose your gods wisely. The gods you pray to make a huge difference in your playing style and abilities. It is possible to pray to a range of gods two allignment levels around your central god. As you get more wisdom this can be increased. For example. I choose Silva (Neutral +) as a central god and then I can pray to Mellis (N-) Loricatus (N), Silva, Sophos (Lawful -), Dulcis (L) and Seges (L) this allows me to do the following:
Mellis: 1) fill 5 empty cans/bottles/broken bottles/banana peels with random contents (except peels which always fill with banana) this generates food, Ommel fluids, potions, acid, booze, school food (gives a good endurance boost eat cans the pray to Seges) 2) Get gifts of expensives stones, copies of Petrus' left nut 3) get limbs
Loricatus 1) harden iron series items (weapons, armour etc.) sometimes to adamantine - a meteoric steel pick axe lets you mine crystals in UT4, hardened bear traps destroy powerful enemies. 2) get metal limbs
Silva 1) generate wolf packs for food or pets 2) earthquakes to reveal gems in GC levels, spring traps, explode mines, kill enemies, find hidden rooms, move Genetrix
3) get limbs some are kick ass eg. phoenix feather, ommel hair is god early
Sophos 1) last ditch escape random teleport (most not be missing a limb), 2) Gift of vermis, wand teleport, 3) best limbs ever - ommel cerumen
Dulcis 1) tame monsters for fun and profit, useful for Science talking to raise intelligence, tame guards and sell their equipment and or use as pets, 2) angel hair limbs, 3) best gift is lyre of charm, awesome for scitalking, taming kamikaze dwarves, giant dark frogs, mages
Seges 1) human limbs, 2) get filled with food, 3) cure poison or leprosy 4) gift of armour of great health, stethoscope

if i find valpurus or atavus early game i will often pray to them, atavus give an awesome gift of arcanite platemail and valpurus give valpurium shield or sword (I prefer the shield because there are better weapons int he game than the sword). you can then carefully drop these gods and add more neutral ones.
Apr 7, 2012, 8:51 am
#15
Joined: Apr 7, 2012
Posts: 2
Hello!

I have a few questions about game. Its my first roguelike game, so dont be strict=)

There is some sort of crafting in the game? Can my character produce wands, weapons or scrolls?

When I use harden material scroll how it works? It automatically harden item to next possible step or it determined by Int of character?

How density and flexiblity of material affects to item?

There is a command for run?

Articifal limbs is better than "default" ones?

ps. sorry for my english
Apr 7, 2012, 10:24 am
#16
Joined: Jan 11, 2008
Posts: 1,019
Lupus wrote
Hello!

I have a few questions about game. Its my first roguelike game, so dont be strict=)

Hi! I'll answer them as best I can.

Lupus wrote
There is some sort of crafting in the game? Can my character produce wands, weapons or scrolls?

No. It'd be pretty sweet if there was, though.

Lupus wrote
When I use harden material scroll how it works? It automatically harden item to next possible step or it determined by Int of character?

Success or failure is entirely determined by your character's intelligence, and there are higher intelligence breakpoints for success depending on what you're trying to turn an item's material into. Harden material scrolls have a hard-coded progression of materials, but their intelligence breakpoints are five points lower than those of change material scrolls (which are free of restriction in that way). As far as reading the wiki goes, if you are, say, trying to determine how much intelligence you need to harden ommel hair, you have to note that it hardens into phoenix feather, then look up the intelligence requirement number for that material (it's not terribly intuitive IMO, but I don't think there's much in the way of a better solution). The materials you can't get with scrolls of harden material have their scroll of change material requirements listed instead.

Lupus wrote
How density and flexiblity of material affects to item?

General info: For armor, high density equals more weight, and more weight equals higher agility and dexterity penalties; lower density equals lower weight and lower penalties; flexibility is the opposite, but both are big factors in whether you'll have penalties and how bad they'll be. Strength is the factor of choice if you only care about AC, but you won't last long with low agility in the dungeon. As for weapons that aren't a whip, strength is clearly linked to damage, while density probably is as well to a lesser degree, but it does make the weapon heavier and thus have higher AStr requirements to use effectively. Whips, on the other hand, are best with low density and high flexibility materials that are also strong.

Lupus wrote
There is a command for run?

Press g to 'go'. Very peculiar key choice for a roguelike, but it could be worse.

Lupus wrote
Articifal limbs is better than "default" ones?

Artificial limbs let you run like the wind and wield weapons heavier than the dungeon itself*, since you're taking those strength, density, and flex modifiers and applying them straight to your stats. They do not naturally heal and their stats do not grow over time like natural limbs, though. Generally speaking, they are good for making up natural stat deficiencies and making you more awesome than you ever could be with 'normal' dungeon experience.

*certain materials may be more equal than others for these purposes
Apr 7, 2012, 4:36 pm
#17
Joined: Dec 3, 2007
Occupation: Chaos Weaver
Location: Standing between all life and death
Posts: 2,888
Well answered BDR, but you left out one thing.

You can indeed r"u"n in IVAN. It works as a toggle. You'll get tired much quicker, but you'll also move a lot faster.
Uchuudonge wrote
creating stable chaos
making patterns where there should be none
sewing order into the chaos
you spit in the face of random numbers, of chaos
Apr 7, 2012, 4:44 pm
#18
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
Lupus wrote
There is some sort of crafting in the game? Can my character produce wands, weapons or scrolls?

Not as such. The closest you can get is wishing for them with a scroll of wishing, or zapping a wand of polymorph on a pile of miscellaneous items.

Lupus wrote
When I use harden material scroll how it works? It automatically harden item to next possible step or it determined by Int of character?

What BDR said above. So to harden a material to the next level you would require the amount of intelligence needed to change to that material -5. For example, Ommel Hair requires and INT of 15 to change an item to it, meaning you could harden something made of Troll Hide to Ommel Hair with an INT of only 10.
Material list and their INT requirements can be found here.
That list displays the INT required to harden a lesser material to that material, so to find out how much INT you'd need to use a Scroll of Change Material to change an item to a certain material, add 5 to its intelligence requirement on that sheet.

Lupus wrote
How density and flexiblity of material affects to item?

Also what BDR said. Generally speaking, the higher the density, the heavier and stronger the weapon will be. Flexibility reduces the AGI and DEX penalties iirc, but I can't be certain. A flexible two-handed sword is pretty useless.

Lupus wrote
There is a command for run?

The "u" key is what makes your character run (i.e. take more turns in less time) but it'll make your character exhausted pretty quickly, which can be very dangerous if you suddenly need to start fighting things.

Lupus wrote
Articifal limbs is better than "default" ones?

They're bittersweet. Whilst they are generally much more powerful than normal limbs, they do not heal naturally and as such you'll need a scroll of repair or one of the smiths/tailors around the world to help repair any damage they take. Of course if your artificial limbs do get broken/cut off, you can always drink a bottle of healing liquid or troll blood to get some natural limbs back, or pray to a god to see if they'll give you another artificial limb of a material they control.
If you're going to be using artificial limbs, I would highly recommend changing your limbs to a material in the Cloth family (Troll Hide, Ommel Hair, Phoenix Feather etc.) as they have high AGI or DEX which is much more important than the lower boosts you get to your ASTR or LSTR.

When you have a INT of 35, Angel Hair is a nice material available to you by hardening something made of ordinary Cloth.
Kevlar has identical stats to Angel Hair, but is ruled over by Loricatus instead of Dulcis, and is only available through a Scroll of Change Material at level 40 INT.
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Apr 11, 2012, 11:38 am
#19
Joined: Apr 7, 2012
Posts: 2
Thanks for answers, its help me a lot=)

4zb4 wrote

What BDR said above. So to harden a material to the next level you would require the amount of intelligence needed to change to that material -5. For example, Ommel Hair requires and INT of 15 to change an item to it, meaning you could harden something made of Troll Hide to Ommel Hair with an INT of only 10.
Material list and their INT requirements can be found here.

If character have INT40 can I with just one scroll harden copper to adamant? Or I need 6 scrolls anyway?


And for what gold and silver stones? What I can do with them?
Apr 11, 2012, 1:05 pm
#20
Joined: Dec 4, 2007
Occupation: Perfect Soldier
Location: Astragius Galaxy
Interests: Fiana, Peace, Melons
Posts: 1,057
Lupus wrote
If character have INT40 can I with just one scroll harden copper to adamant? Or I need 6 scrolls anyway?

No, it is a step by step, scroll by scroll process.


Lupus wrote
And for what gold and silver stones? What I can do with them?

Sell them, really.
Proudly bringing disaster and mental scarring to Attnam since '05!

"You have a rather pleasant chat about finite superarmpits with Sanae the shrine maiden."

You hear distant shuffling.

The Enner Beast tells you to COOL IT!!
Apr 11, 2012, 6:23 pm
#21
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
Lupus wrote
And for what gold and silver stones? What I can do with them?

Well, yes you could sell them but here are some other uses (some more questionable than others):

1) Use them with a Scroll of Golem Creation to make a decent companion.
2) Throw them at fleeing magpies.
3) Throw them at just about anything before it gets to you.
4) Remotely break open doors.
5) Stack them up in piles of 5 in a 5 tile line and zap with a wand of polymorph.
6) Harden them to a better material and then sell them/make a better golem.
7) Use them to keep magpies away (they'll steal them and flee).
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Jul 9, 2012, 5:02 pm
#22
Joined: Jul 9, 2012
Posts: 7
Hi everyone, I just discovered this gem in a roguelike thread on a forum and I've been enjoying it for hours already.

I've finally made it past Geneatrix (the first 8 tries or so it didn't occur to me to use the wands and scrolls in my backpack when I fought her) and into Attnam.

I've now gone into that next dungeon south of Attnam, and on my fiirst trip back up to sell some stuff I suddenly started losing stats. First my arm strength went down, then my leg strength, and then I realized my hp had dropped from 44 to 36.

Can anybody tell me what the causes might be?
Also, I'd been poisoned some time before and gone hungry for some time as a result because I was low on food. However, at the time I lost the stats, I was not suffering from any negative effects.
Jul 9, 2012, 5:39 pm
#23
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
Hmm, whilst I've never experienced a loss of endurance, arm and leg strength can be reduced through lack of practice with those limbs. It could be that wandering about the map for so long resulted in you losing your levels. Hunger and vomiting also abuses those stats, and it's possible that it reduced their values by just enough to not have resulted in a level drop but enough to result in a drop on your trip back to Attnam.
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Jul 9, 2012, 8:57 pm
#24
Ex-Tyrant of the IVANers


Joined: Dec 8, 2007
Occupation: Junior Scientist
Location: Not California
Interests: Physics and Astronomy, Exoplanets, Singing praise to Valpurus while smashing skulls with a bloody warhammer, Jogging
Posts: 2,920
My suspicion is that you contracted leprosy, and your limbs started dropping off. That would result in both lost HP and lost strength (as well as dexterity/agility). Were the stat losses dramatic, or was it just a point or two.
"Put more stuff in the... thing where... more stuff goes in."
Jul 10, 2012, 12:55 am
#25
Joined: Dec 3, 2007
Occupation: Chaos Weaver
Location: Standing between all life and death
Posts: 2,888
If it's not leprosy, it has to be school food.
Uchuudonge wrote
creating stable chaos
making patterns where there should be none
sewing order into the chaos
you spit in the face of random numbers, of chaos
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