Victory

I'd like to humbly announce that I've finally beaten version 0.50. Prolly killed Elpuri a dozen times before, but always held out for a high priest win. Nothing about the game particularly stands out except that I found five bones files, with two levels each containing two different ghosts and the last one on Elpuri's level. Dumb luck really helped me out but that's just fine with me. Oh, also I used no wishes if that counts for anything (didn't receive any until it was too late to help.)

Congratulations! I see you've already added your win to the honor rolls.
Second highest score for vanilla IVAN too! Not too shabby.

Thats awesome. I am at that crossroads right now. I have a dead elpuri and monster stats/equipment . I am trying to decide weather to take on Petrus or Oree first.

Did you kill oree? I notice you arent wearing the shirt.

He would've had to. You can't trigger the High Priest ending without having the shirt, unless I have a horrendous memory.
Otherwise you have to settle with the Chaos/Noble ending (and thus lower score multiplier)

I did kill Oree, but took on Petrus first. Before Elpuri even. I decided against wearing the shirt for screenshot since once I got it all the fighting was over, and valpurium had higher AV. Petrus wasn't a hard fight at all compared to Elpuri this time since I'd been dragging tame monsters into town and charming guards with a pack full of lyres. With a solid front-line clone or two and a few casters in the back, all I had to do was finish off a limbless torso. I practically charmed all of Attnam before I felt safe starting the fight, but the Justifier definitely helped in the later game. PolyControl is required by Elpuri and having it through a weapon let me free up a ring slot for invisibility.

I think this is the way im leaning
I was going to ask about this. I have a LoC in my pack and was wondering if it was worth cloning for this very task

Is a mystic dark frog corpse worht a shot from a wand of ressurection?

why?

Congrats! Nice tactic taming everything first and cloning yourself.

Nice! Next up, high priest ending without pets or artificial limbs.

Did you sci-talk your way to 55 Int/Wis or was there ommel cerumen involved? Also, seconding Batman's question on the necessity of polycontrol for Elpuri. Is this against poly wands breaking or?

I mean by the time you reach Elpuri, there are casters trying to polymorph you but he did also break a lot of my wands even in a chest. I think he has some crushing bite attack? I think mystic frogs are the perfect use for resurrection, they give buffs like invisibility and haste to you and all your teammates and have ranged lightning spells. They're a pain in the ass to keep alive though so it might be best to bring the corpse to where you need it.
I found five cans of cerumen on a bones and cloned them a couple times, so it was involved but I think it was legit enough. I'm convinced that there are hidden stats that determine the rate you train str, dex/agi, int/wis and treasure finds. This character seemed to be good at learning and I made it to about 35 int/wis before messing with cerumen. Tamed master necromancers from the zombie level were also a good for science talking and they seem to be unlimited.

Hey congrats and well done, looks like a spectacular victory
Can you tell us whether you encountered NPC's like Sherry, Golgor Dan and Xinroch? If so then on which levels and how did you defeat them?

None of the spellcasters can actually cast a spell to polymorph you, the only way for that to happen is to get hit by a fireball or such and have that break a wand of polymorph.

I was disappointed not to see Sherry at all, I made a bunch of valpurium bear traps just for her. Saw all the rest I think, except maybe Guugzamesh. Sorry for few details, was tired and kind of in shock haha.
Spell casters really don't use polymorph? Don't really get that far often enough to be sure, but even if it's my wands breaking polycontrol is definitely essential for me. There's nothing more infuriating than having the best gear and stats and then dying because you turned into a spider.
Edit: sorry warheck, didn't really answer your question. Besides Rondol all the named monsters were pretty much right after I finished intelligence training and changing all my equipment and limbs. Izzy was first, he spawned on Ivan's level when it was generated. With ESP and telecontrol I just chased after him til I could land a good hit. Xinroch and Golgor Dan were plain old melee, maybe with one or two bear traps but I'm not sure.

I don't think I've ever actually defeated Izzy

The only time I "defeated" Izzy he teleported himself into the dwarven minefield with just about the expected result.

I like the way the game rewards perserverance by giving a chance that the bones of previous adventurers are made available to the next adventurer. In this way, it makes the permadeath feature more bearable. You could even say, the purpose of the game is to die a few times before playing right through.

Absolutely - I have never gotten a charecter to gc8 without a decent bones find. the part i find best about bones is when you come across a really old one. I found a bones in my current (and stalled) game that was left in 2009. It actually forced me to recall the horror of losing a late game player like that.

How do you know when the bones file is from?

Mostly I Dont, but there are some where as soon as I enter the level i remeber the player. mostly on the ones in the lower dungeon. I have found ones on GC 7 and * and I always remember losing a charecter that late in the game.

I fired up this guy after ignoring him for months. I was just worried about what i had to do next (kill petrus and they either leave with his nut or take on oree). I have 3 lyres of charm and am now running around taming the whole town, at which point i will (hopefully) kille petrus and have to make a descision. wish me luck

Question: does ?oCM'ing your wands to a stronger material make it harder ot break? I am worried about the nasties on the lower GC and orees level blasting me with spells and breaking my wands. is it worth it to change them to diamond or adamant?

No. I've tried (for shits 'n' giggles) a wizard run in, you guessed it, wizard mode. Weapon of choice: valpurium wand. They still break.

i have 3 octiron beartraps - I am going to pile wands/mines/backpacks on top of one and try and trap him and zap him. do exploding wands of lighting do damage to him?

Oh yes, very much so.

About the taming - does your Cha affect the chance of charming in any way? Or is it based only on luck and taming difficulty?

Cha was planned to have an effect, but it hasn't been implemented.

Perhaps not in 0.50 (which lacks the taming difficulty system entirely), but in CVS (and any derivatives) Charisma does have an affect on taming.

Dulcis taming is based on WIS/CHA (as well as the player's and monster's alignment with Dulcis), scroll taming is based on INT/CHA, and lyre taming is just based on CHA.

In essence, it's

Dulcis:

 3*TamingDifficulty vs (CHA+WIS)+(DulcisRelation/20)

Scroll:

 5*TamingDifficulty vs (4*INT)+CHA

Lyre:

 TamingDifficulty vs CHA

char.cpp

truth character::CanTameWithDulcis(const character* Tamer) const
{
  int TamingDifficulty = GetTamingDifficulty();

  if(TamingDifficulty == NO_TAMING) // can't be tamed
    return false;

  if(GetAttachedGod() == DULCIS) // monster is aligned with Dulcis == Free taming!
    return true;

  int Modifier = Tamer->GetAttribute(WISDOM) + Tamer->GetAttribute(CHARISMA); //initial Modifier is WIS+CHA

  if(Tamer->IsPlayer())
    Modifier += game::GetGod(DULCIS)->GetRelation() / 20; // add (relation with Dulcis)/20 to Modifier
  else if(Tamer->GetAttachedGod() == DULCIS)
    Modifier += 50; 

  if(TamingDifficulty == 0)
    if(!IgnoreDanger())
      TamingDifficulty = int(10 * GetRelativeDanger(Tamer));
    else
      TamingDifficulty = 10 * GetHPRequirementForGeneration()
			 / Max(Tamer->GetHP(), 1);

  return Modifier >= TamingDifficulty * 3; // Player's taming Modifer versus 3*TamingDifficulty
}


truth character::CanTameWithLyre(const character* Tamer) const
{
  int TamingDifficulty = GetTamingDifficulty();

  if(TamingDifficulty == NO_TAMING) // can't be tamed
    return false;

  if(TamingDifficulty == 0)
    if(!IgnoreDanger())
      TamingDifficulty = int(10 * GetRelativeDanger(Tamer));
    else
      TamingDifficulty = 10 * GetHPRequirementForGeneration()
			 / Max(Tamer->GetHP(), 1);

  return Tamer->GetAttribute(CHARISMA) >= TamingDifficulty; //Player's Charisma stat vs monster's TamingDifficulty
}


truth character::CanTameWithScroll(const character* Tamer) const
{
  int TamingDifficulty = GetTamingDifficulty();
  return (TamingDifficulty != NO_TAMING
	  && (TamingDifficulty == 0
	      || Tamer->GetAttribute(INTELLIGENCE) * 4
	      + Tamer->GetAttribute(CHARISMA)
	      >= TamingDifficulty * 5));   // (4*INT + CHA) vs (5*TamingDifficulty)
}