Forum:Inventory Management
Ok, so I'm a new player. Bottom line, I'm looking for tips on inventory management. I just finished Sokoban and then went back to the Gnomish Mines where I cleared out OrcTown. C'mon, this is crazy. I have entirely too much stuff. I can't even lug around the 5k in gold/Zorkmids. I have the GoP, but even trying to put stuff into a bag doesn't really help and I still end up Burdened.
What's the ideal strategy here? I'm playing a Val so I'm dropping all spell books. I'm ID'ing scrolls and potions as much as possible. I'm carrying a good amount of food, but nothing obscene.
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide, or any links to articles (here or elsewhere) that my provide some strategy.
Best,
-Ryan
Well, the answer is, shortly, that you're going to have to hide some of your stuff. If OrcTown is totally clear of hostiles, find a room, put anything you don't imminently need inside, then close it and lock it from the outside. If you find yourself needing any of it, you can always go back, since OrcTown should be pretty easy to get to once you clear out the upper mines.
Drop all but about 500 gold in there too, using the command "dX$," where X is the number of gold pieces you want to drop.
I'd say write Elbereth on the square you drop the stuff on, but the new devteam messed up Elbereth, so you don't have that trick anymore. Grumble grumble...
You should find out what the best armor in your inventory is... for Valks I recommend mithril, of which you may have found none, or as many as three or four. If you have none, use chain mail, which you should also have found. It's the best compromise between AC and weight barring mithril. Scale mail, plate mail are too heavy and ring mail is too weak, but if you only have one of those, run with it.
If you have a functioning weapons store, armor store or general store, you can price-ID all your armor to see roughly how enchanted it is. Just drop each piece, see what price the clerk offers, and then refuse to sell it. Go with the most enchanted mithril, or failing that, the most enchanted chain mail.
Wear the best cloak you've found, helmet, hard shoes (the most enchanted piece of each), and keep your starting shield. Put a dwarvish helmet, shield, the second-best piece of body armor and some hard shoes in your stash for backup and sell the rest.
After you've settled on your armor, here's the hard part: if you can't carry it with your armor and still be un-encumbered, you don't need it. Gems should be in your stash rather than your inventory, any unidentified scrolls, potions, amulets and rings (if you're not about to ID them). Keep two food rations if you can, and any rings you're actively wearing. One offensive wand is good if you can carry it, maybe two, but any other wands need to be in your stash.
If you're still encumbered, your Valkyrie might have the lowest possible strength stat, in which case you're going to have real problems...
I hope that helps! --Ms. J. Marie Stanton, Professional Valkyrie (talk) 16:23, 20 October 2017 (UTC)
YES! That helps alot. Thank you.
Some final questions:
1. Does the armor enchantment not 'take effect' or 'count' unless you've price ID'd it? Or is this a strategy just so you know you have the best possible loadout?
2. Once you BUC identify scrolls and potions, and maybe some approximately price ID'ing (some are easy, some are questionable with that method IMO), do you try to identify more-or-less on the spot? Like start quaffing without armor on and away from a pet kind of thing?
3. How do I interpret the stats when I push ctrl+X? So, for example, Strength. It'll say something like '25 (current, base: 14, max: 18/01)'. Now I've read the Wiki page several times and I can't for the life of me figure out how to interpret it. I think from what I wrote means that you currently have STR 25. The base with no extrinsics is 14. The 01 after 18 makes no sense to me. I read that it's a percentage between 18 and 19, but that doesn't make sense. Maybe you could shed some insight?
Thanks again! I very much appreciate your help!
It's no problem!
In answer to your questions: 1: No, you don't have to identify armor to benefit from it's enchantment status. It's there whether you know it is or not. However, it is wise to identify armor fully before putting it on, because cursed armor is not only sticky, it also usually has a negative enchantment, sometimes even -4. There's also a lot of difference in terms of protection between armor with +0 and armor with +2 enchantment, so it's good to have the best armor you can get. Why waste two uncursed scrolls of enchant armor getting your armor to +2 when you can use them to get a +2 piece of armor to +4? Also, low armor counts are better, confusingly enough, if you didn't know. It took me forever to figure that out.
2: No, unless you've identified all the potentially harmful scrolls, I wouldn't try to identify scrolls by using them unless you feel like gambling. There's old hackers and bold hackers, but no old bold hackers, so to speak. If you must read an unidentified scroll, take off and drop your armor (in case of fire or destroy armor), drop all your other scrolls (in case of fire) and hope to God it's not cursed create monster. It's also best to be in Sokoban for scroll ID'ing, since scrolls of teleport won't fling you far from your armor. Find out what the shop-keepers are willing to pay for them, then consult this wiki. Also, don't read scrolls when confused.
Potions are slightly safer, but there's still the chance you might be paralyzed, damaged by acid, sickened, or made permanently invisible. You also might get polymorphed into a helpless form, destroying your body armor in the process. If you have a ring of polymorph control, you might be able to take the other risk factors. Maybe. Price ID'ing works here too.
Rings and amulets are the absolute worst about this. Cursed invisibility? Not pleasant. Cursed teleport? Game-ending, unless you get lucky and manage to uncurse it. The same goes for cursed polymorph. There's an amulet of strangulation, and it's usually cursed. And I don't think Price ID'ing is usually as helpful here.
Scrolls of identify are usually 26 gold, and they're the only ones that are. Make it a high priority to buy every one you find.
3: Stats? These aren't actually that interesting on a regular basis. It might be interesting to know if your character is pathetically weak in one stat or another, but most characters are playable, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm going to be totally honest, I didn't know the game would let you just check your stats. I had no idea that was a feature.
---Ms. J. Marie Stanton, Professional Valkyrie (talk) 00:53, 21 October 2017 (UTC)
You are very helpful! Thank you again for your time and insight. It all makes sense to me.
Absolutely! --Ms. J. Marie Stanton, Professional Valkyrie (talk) 16:14, 23 October 2017 (UTC)