God progression: Lug to Makhleb
Ds is slightly bad at everything, very bad at -1 XP, but great at Invo +3. The obvious solution is to worship an Invo god with flexible utility. The question is, which god fits his early game?
- Good Gods are forbidden.
- Fedhas conflicts with +1 Necro
- Oka and Usk have no particular synergy
- Yred is for those too stupid to raise zombies themselves, which Ds isn't
This leaves a few solid candidates:
- Nem's card diversity mirrors Ds mutation diversity, but Nem's backfires are dangerous early.
- Makhleb is always strong, but far less synergistic early on than for DDAr and DrWp, who already have heals and escapes respectively, and thus need little besides Makhleb's brute force.
- Lugonu grants gear, damage, escapes, an MR-check, and solves a mid-game branch. Corrupt counters early progression blockages such as a camped Lair:1 upstair.
Most importantly, early Ds is desperate for a god due to having so much of his strength concentrated in Invo. So he should start as a Zealot, and Lugonu is the only Zealot background with an Invo god. AK allows Ds to quickly gain Banish, which scales with Invo. The only way to (sometimes) get Invo online sooner would be to start Monk and hope to find an Invo god's altar – but Ds is evil and thus can't worship the three Good Invo gods. Therefore Lug is the correct first god.
DsAK may Corrupt a Zot:5 lung before switching to a different god. Pick the lung closest to an upstair. Stand on the ideal escape path, next to the intervening stone wall, and Corrupt. Even an Invo of 0 will breach the wall.
Lugonu loses competitiveness in Extended after Abyss, prompting a god switch. But to whom?
The randomness of Ds mutation seems to fit Nemelex,. However, Ds mutations actually closely follow a theme that suits Makhleb:
Monstrous Ds prefer Makhleb to mitigate their fragility from reduced armor slots by regaining HP from killing with their aux attacks. Ignite Blood, Spiny, Powered by Pain and Passive Freeze also incentivize taking damage or melee attacks personally, and Makhleb enables taking more. Hurl Hellfire costs HP, which Makhleb supplies. Robust increases mHP, which is Makhleb's resource bar. Augmentation increases the value of staying topped off in battle, which Makhleb assists.
In fact, it's easier to say which Ds mutations favor Nemelex over Mahkleb: Thin Skeletal Structure and Nightstalker benefit from Nemelex' flexible decks, as stabbers are gamblers by nature. Antennae is a tossup, but also fits the stabber playstyle. But stabbers also benefit from Makhleb, who makes it easier to survive deep in enemy territory.
Makhleb is clearly superior in megazigs, and fits Ds' demonic ancestry theme. Thus Makhleb is the correct choice.
Starting weapon = falchion.
Fsim of XL1 DsAK vs kobold:
- falchion aed 1.6 maxdam 8
- spear aed 1.5 maxdam 7
Kobold AC is 2. The higher the AC and GDR, the more important falchion's high base damage.
Since riposte damage is about 17% of total, falchion mobility is 17% higher vs fast monsters.
Falchion does spiky damage. The early game is about resets and pillar dancing. Falchion variance facilitates that.
Spear's extra hit does 1.5 additional damage vs 10-speed monsters, but often only the first one in a pack. After 15 turns of melee, falchion is equal to spear's performance, even with an extra hit.
Thus spear is better for popcorn and falchion is better for critical battles. For example, falchion's riposte assists repositioning in the face of a Jackal pack by reducing the net AED loss per step.
Polearms crosstrains with Axes and Staves, neither of which are relevant to DsAK, which has Bend Space and no spells. Long Blades crosstrains with Short Blades, which are plentiful in early Dungeon, and include branded daggers, which AK can safely blind-wield once he has Remove Curse. Branded Short Blades help with early Ds' anemic melee performance due to poor apts. Focusing on the *Blades crosstraining group better suits low Ds apts.
Even Bend Space favors falchion over spear. Bend Space permits safe resets, and resets favor falchion variance. However, as a method of DsAK reach kiting, Bend Space is inferior, since each use costs 2.5 HP on average, which is too expensive for sometimes getting one free swing. It can even backfire, giving the foe a free hit. Bend Space is much more useful for choosing advantageous ground and for skirmisher kiting than for reach kiting, particularly in the early game. For DsAK this usually means Sling or Blowgun kiting.
Picking falchion over spear can mean the difference between victory and defeat when fighting a heavily armored meleeist with GDR, such as Edmund and Orc Warriors.
MRG has strenuously argued for spears over falchions, and the community generally agrees. Both are wrong.
Early game
If you see an Abyss exit, take it to keep your piety. Else the large piety cost of Exit Abyss drops AK's piety from 38 to 24, a 14 point cost! This delays Bend Space and Banish.
Train Stealth first. Dodging SL1 won't increase EV to 12, so delay training it.
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Lore: Whence Protagonist?
Demons can breed with a variety of mortal races. However, the protagist clearly had a human parent, judging by his apts. They follow the pattern of human strengths and weaknesses, with many apts shifted down by 1 and XP shifted by -2, and Invo by +2 due to supernatural affinity.
So how does the spawn of a human and a demon wind up poorly-equipped in the Abyss, on a mission from Lugonu?
Do demons abduct human women to the Abyss to breed Demonspawn? No such farms have been spotted, and keeping them alive would be challenging.
Do demons rape or seduce human women in Prime, who then give birth to the Ds knowingly or not? Does the baby's true nature remain camouflaged until it grows mature enough to make its escape? Sounds like poor odds for the child's survival.
Demonspawn clearly form a breeding population in Pan, which exits into the Abyss. Perhaps they send their juveniles out from Pan into the Abyss, to grow strong by raiding Prime. Pan is no place for the weak.
The most likely source of Ds babies on Prime is from cultists deliberately breeding them. If the protagonist had originated from such a place, he'd be better equipped. Raising Demonspawn on Prime is a lot of trouble, and anyone who bothers with it will train and equip the resulting soldiers.
Alternatively, if the protagonist was born an incubus' cuckoo's egg, then how did he reach the Abyss? Altars of Lugonu are rare on Prime, especially in human lands. The XL1 protagonist isn't strong enough to have plausibly found one on his own.
That leaves protag's likely origin as Pan. He is the child of human-descended Demonspawn parents. They or someone else bothered to raise him, at least doing the bare minimum to give him a chance at survival fighting rats and goblins in Prime before kicking him out of Pan. Probably Ds make extremely obnoxious teenagers.
Lugonu's Orphans
Your total uncertainty about what demonic mutations you may manifest indicates that Dad didn't exactly stick around. In fact, Mom should've at least been able to tell what he was like. Apparently she wasn't too sure who the father is, herself. Not that she visited much. Demonspawn children are raised in orphanages sponsored by Lugonu, who enjoys the mayhem caused by infiltrating demonic teenagers who can pass for human into the Prime realm.
So you're a bastard. You knew that already.
It's graduation day. The headmaster grabs a battered weapon off the rack and throws it through the Abyss gate, impatiently motioning you to follow. Not that you were hesitating, but you felt a definite shove at your back on the way through. You'll repay the old pervert for that, and more, one day.
Meeting a god is less shocking when you're accustomed to the denizens of Pan, but still very impressive. Lugonu's voice is a howling thunder, but He seems happy to have a recruit who isn't a mindlessly monster. He adds a +1 blessing to your pathetic falchion, and orders you to take as many mortals as possible with you to the grave. Then He's gone.
You try poking around the alien landscape for a bit, but the god's noise has attracted visitors. After nearly getting your head bitten off, you decide to follow directions just this once, and gate into Prime, draining most of your powers in the process.
No way back. At least you managed to pocket a few baubles first, things Uncle Lug likely won't miss. You can't imagine they have accountants down there. They're all morosely clinking in the count-houses of Dis.
Chuckling, you look around the mine antechamber. The blue sky and green foliage visible through the tunnel exit inform you that you are most certainly on Prime, that suitably sissy nursery for weaklings such as yourself. You resolve to put off facing the Sun as long as possible, and head deeper into the galleries.
If your beatings at the orphanage taught you anything, it's that strong beats weak – and often buggers him afterwards. Towards the end, you were often the one delivering that lesson, at least to your fellows. You swing the falchion appreciatively, watching its blue-blurred after-image. Perhaps here you can finally enjoy being on top.
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