NetHack - Samurai Ascension

[damerell]

This is my first ascension in the 2005 Tournament - not the last, I hope.

This Samurai didn't have much trouble until the point where, worrying about the Quest, he found the bones of a Valkyrie with SDSM and a spare magic lamp for CoMR. I couldn't pick up the Orb of Weight but even that at that point I pretty well had it made; I WoDeathed the Nemesis, burned the Castle wand (0:1) and another magic lamp (and I had a 4th spare at the end) on some slightly unusual gear, since I already had the vital stuff.

I levteled down to the bottom with Asmodeus, but accidentally killed him a few levels up, so I did have to explore most of Gehennom. However, I found Vlad's stairs randomly, so didn't have to make an exhaustive search of the levels in range. I felt I had all the stuff I needed so didn't even bother, say, clearing out Orcus. The mysterious force was a bit of a pain but Gehennom was quite short, so even in spite of difficulty hitting Rodney I didn't run out of WoDeath zaps. Eventually I made it out - not without a nervous moment seeing a green slime on Jubilex and realising I'd forgotten to bring a wand of fire, but I just evaded contact (and could always have levelported to Vlad's and prayed).

None of the planes presented a serious problem, although I had tediously long walks on Earth and Fire; Air never got me down to less than half HP thanks to resting up in vortices, and since I had AoMB and an oilskin sack I could levitate across Water without worrying about evasion. I did Famine first - very quickly with the Plane not too full - but that was no good; I got into Death quickly, but decided it would be a shame not to bring the guardian angel (I wasn't under any threat) so went back for it.

Damerell the Kokushu St:25 Dx:18 Co:18 In:17 Wi:18 Ch:10 Lawful
Astral Plane $:0 HP:222(235) Pw:93(93) AC:-41 Xp:19/4128403 T:46346 Blind Burde

I started the final run with 312 HP but obviously was forced to fight Death over and over. Yes, I am Burdened; I took my spare AoLS out of my bag and forgot to drop some stuff to compensate. Fortunately I wasn't under any serious threat.

I made almost no use of spells except a burned-out early spell and magic missile for eel disposal. 46,346 turns and 1,886 kills are the lowest totals for any ascensions I have records for.

Stuff:

Amulets
q - an uncursed amulet of life saving
u - an uncursed amulet of life saving (being worn)
I - an uncursed amulet of life saving
N - an uncursed amulet of life saving
P - an uncursed amulet of life saving
W - an uncursed amulet of magical breathing

For much of the game I used an AoESP (which I IDed with the name-as-the-Eye) before wishing up a helm of telepathy at the Castle.

Weapons
a - the blessed +6 Tsurugi of Muramasa (weapon in hands)
d - the rustproof +6 Excalibur (alternate weapon; not wielded)
g - the cursed +6 Grayswandir

Yes, I did use the Tsurugi for most of the game. Yes, I know it's not as effective, but I can't bring myself not to. That said, I did use Excalibur for large masses of level-draining undead, and Grayswandir for large masses of demons. Early on I had Snickersnee, of course, but I got Excalibur off the dead Valkyrie (and Mjollnir) and used that. I also had Frosty from a sacrifice and Dragonbane.

Armor
A - a blessed +5 T-shirt (being worn)
B - a blessed +5 silver dragon scale mail (being worn)
C - a blessed fireproof +5 cloak of magic resistance (being worn)
D - a blessed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
E - a blessed rustproof +5 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
G - an uncursed rustproof +5 helm of telepathy (being worn)

Even with no shield my AC was obviously pretty good.

Comestibles
e - an uncursed lizard corpse named Lizzip
n - an uncursed lizard corpse named Lizzip
x - 2 uncursed K-rations
Scrolls
f - a blessed scroll of gold detection
Rings
y - an uncursed ring of free action (on right hand)
O - an uncursed ring of levitation
R - an uncursed ring of searching (on left hand)
X - an uncursed ring of teleport control

I got used to searching with Excalibur, although I might have traded it in for warning if I'd had one. The telecontrol is wished for at the Castle in order to use controlled levelport, which really is amazingly useful.

Wands
c - a very rusty wand of death (1:1)
j - a cursed wand of death (1:8)
r - a wand of teleportation (0:2)

I happened to find 2 scrolls of charging in Gehennom that I saved for keeping me in zaps. I had Orcus's wand as well in my bag - as it turns out, with some charges - but never IDed it. As well as teleportation I had a WoPoly but irritatingly I forgot the scroll of taming that would make it more useful - poly the priests and then you can use confused taming to get a mixed bag of pets.

Tools
b - a cursed towel
h - a blessed +0 unicorn horn
k - a cursed very rusty skeleton key
l - an uncursed magic lamp (lit)
s - a blessed bag of holding
S - an uncursed thoroughly rusty stethoscope
T - an uncursed oilskin sack
Y - the Bell of Opening named The BELL (0:2)

I forgot to ditch the Bell.

Gems
H - a blessed luckstone

Contents of the bag of holding:

6 uncursed K-rations
7 uncursed gunyoki
a blessed potion of speed
an uncursed potion of levitation

I was going to use this to get across Air while Very Fast, but then I found the ring of levitation.

an uncursed +1 pair of levitation boots
an uncursed fireproof +4 small shield

I might have found myself using a one-handed weapon for a length of time.

a cursed scroll of teleportation
an uncursed scroll of teleportation
a cursed magic lamp
2 uncursed scrolls of earth
a rustproof +0 pick-axe

2 uncursed potions of full healing
4 blessed diluted potions of full healing
5 blessed potions of full healing
a cursed potion of full healing
32 potions of holy water
4 blessed scrolls of remove curse

What do you mean, overprepare?

3 blessed scrolls of blank paper
a magic marker (1:18)

Can't squeeze much out of 18 charges, but why not?

a cursed wand of secret door detection (0:12)
a thoroughly rusty wand of digging (0:7)
a wand of speed monster (0:7)
a rusty wand of polymorph (0:5)
a very rusty wand of opening (0:2)
a wand of polymorph (0:8)
a wand of death (0:7)
a wand of teleportation (0:6)
a wand of locking (0:2)

Plenty of joy here for any annoying fellows on Astral. The WoSDD is very useful in the Sanctum; I stealthed the graveyard, teleported away the initial priest cluster, detected the door, and cPoGLed out - I don't think I spent more than 100 moves there.

a blessed amulet of ESP
an uncursed ring of conflict

I never used conflict but hey, why not bring it?

Contents of the oilskin sack:

2 potions of holy water
a blessed scroll of remove curse

Just some emergency gear.

Final Attributes:

You were the Hand of Elbereth.
You were piously aligned.
You were fire resistant.
You were cold resistant.
You were sleep resistant.
You were disintegration-resistant.
You were shock resistant.
You were poison resistant.
You were magic-protected.
You were blinded.
You saw invisible.
You were telepathic.
You had automatic searching.
You were invisible to others.
You were stealthy.
You were protected.
You were very fast.
You had reflection.
You had free action.
Your life would have been saved.
You were extremely lucky.
You had extra luck.
Good luck did not time out for you.
You survived.

It took me ages to get crowned, but it also took me ages to get resistances; even being crowned after the Castle, I got cold resistance from crowning (and I only had sleep resistance from an orange dragon at the Castle).

The Wizard of Yendor (6 times)
Death (5 times)
Famine
1886 creatures vanquished.

I genocided L, R, and master mind flayers - the last from the Castle throne.

Voluntary challenges:

You genocided 7 types of monsters.
You never polymorphed an object.
You used 7 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.

You and the guardian Angel of Amaterasu Omikami
went to your reward with 2675410 points,
The Tsurugi of Muramasa (worth 4500 zorkmids and 11250 points)
Excalibur (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points)
Grayswandir (worth 8000 zorkmids and 20000 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
5 amulets of life saving (worth 750 zorkmids),
1 amulet of ESP (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of magical breathing (worth 150 zorkmids),
and 0 pieces of gold, after 46346 moves.
You were level 19 with a maximum of 235 hit points when you ascended.

11 2675410 damerell-Sam-Hum-Mal-Law ascended to demigod-hood. 222 [235]

Not many points, but that's what you get for not messing around.

Comments

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's incredible :-)

I played NetHack a bit a few years ago but I never managed to get very far at all (only a few levels down). I stand in awe :-)

How long did all this take (real time)?

[damerell.livejournal.com]

All day yesterday, really. It seems to take me longer these days (even though this game involved few moves); I've ascended in an all-nighter before now.

[jinxcw.livejournal.com]

Blimey - I'm with robhu on this one. I just thought that NH was a pleasant diversion for the odd hour here or there, not a full-blown quest!

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Trust me, it can be done. Most notably in the 2004 Tournament marvin - a mad German - won 12 of 13 consecutive games.

[jinxcw.livejournal.com]

How long does this take - in terms of hours of gameplay? Not that it would translate well to my case since I've obviously got loooooooads to learn if I ever wanted to complete the game!

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Well, I reckon my samurai was an all-day job, albeit with breaks for food and suchlike. marvin reckons 4-6 hours to win a game but he plays very fast both in terms of game turns per game and real clock seconds per game turn.

This samurai was my shortest yet in terms of game turns, which implies I was playing quite slowly real-time.