Advanced guide

Tips for when you know your way around: how to make your character stronger, level faster, earn gold and take on the hardest parts of the world.

Gear

Fighters want damage. Warriors, monks, rangers, paladins, thieves and barbarians hit harder with every +damage item they wear. It is the single biggest boost to a fighter, so take +damage wherever you can.

Resistances are the best gear in the game. Most monsters hit with blunt attacks ("hits"), so items that resist blunt are the most valuable there are, and they are rare and hard to get. Resist slash comes next, then resist pierce, which the stone skin spell also gives. See RESISTANCES.

Casters want mana. A pure mage or cleric is at its best with +mana and +mana regeneration items: they keep your mana up through a long fight, so you can keep the group healed and keep casting.

Find the right item. The Item Database (the link under the message of the day on your character list) searches every item in the world by class, level, alignment and what it does, and shows which monsters and shops have it.

Keep it in repair. Everything you wear wears down in fights, and falls apart at 0%. The repairman in Daleville's Repair Shop mends it for a price (see REPAIR).

Carry potions. Potions of heal, sanctuary, fireshield and more drop from monsters and are sold around the world. Stock up before a hard fight (see POTION).

Leveling

Group up at higher levels. The experience you get from one kill is capped at 150,000. In a group the cap rises (up to 50,000 more for each other member near your level), so at higher levels a group of two or more levels much faster than anyone alone. See GROUP and EXPERIENCE.

Classes

More classes, more power. Two or three classes take longer to level, but they are usually much stronger in the end. The exception is a half-giant warrior or barbarian, who can bash huge monsters such as dragons that others cannot knock down. See CLASSES.

Thieves backstab. At medium and high levels a thief, or a character with thief as one of its classes, backstabs for a great deal of damage. Backstab, flee, come back and backstab again: most monsters fall in one or two. See BACKSTAB.

Single-class mages shape-change. At high level a mage with no other class learns powerful forms through polymorph self, such as the werepanther at level 47: more hit points, and you can still cast and wear your equipment.

Druids are hard but strong. Keeping a druid's alignment neutral makes it slower to level, but druids get powerful elemental pets, and their creeping death can kill some monsters outright, whatever their hit points. See DRUID.

The hardest places

Bring friends. Some monsters, dragons among them, need a team of three to five to take down.

Look for secrets. High-level zones hide secret doors and traps. A thief finds them (see SEARCH and TRAP), and the room descriptions hint at the way: something to "lift trapdoor" or "push rock". Read them closely.

Farm gold. Some high-level items sell for a lot, and some zones have rich monsters that are not that hard to kill. When you need gold, go back for them.

See also: NEWBIE, GROUP, EXPERIENCE, CLASSES, RESISTANCES, ZONES