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 its 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)
- With a guaranteed unaligned (anyone can use it) altar in the Gnomish Mines, or a pet, there really is no need to try anything out "blindly." Always know before you try --- it makes the game much, much easier! I usually do not even quaff a potion unless it is blessed, even with the risk of permanent invisibility (the main issue with this is easily bypassed with a mummy wrapping). --User (talk) 20:57, 10 January 2018 (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)
Hi, I was hoping I could shed some light on your STR stat. You said they were "25 (current, base: 14, max: 18/01)" I'm pretty sure that means that you are wearing Gauntlets of Strength, and therefore have a current value of 25. Without the Gauntlets your STR would be your base (14) and if you took off your Gauntlets and tried to naturally raise STR as high as you could, you would only be able to achieve 18/01. As for your inventory woes, my strategy is to set up a "stash" - one or two containers in a safe location. Different players have different requirements for their stash locations. Some like it on the Sokoban levels where boulders are abundant and where teleporting is not allowed. I like to set it up on a higher level, usually near the downstairs somewhere near levels 3 or 4 so that it is easy to reach from OrcTown and Sokoban while setting up the early game. Tips: A wand or spell of Locking is great because you can seal up your room and leave it unreachable to most monsters. You can inscribe Elbereth, or use a scroll of scare monster under your containers to keep monsters off of them. I also drop a cursed junk item on the same space as my containers to keep my pets from stepping on them, because if they're strong enough they will pick it up and relocate it for you. --Crazyteeth the Everdying
Thanks Crazyteeth, that is helpful. I still don't understand the actual STR stat, though. I have read the Wiki like 100 times and I can't make heads or tails of it. So, STR 18/01 means 18 and 1% towards 19? I can't even begin to explain what I think it is because I have no idea. I know STR caps at 25, but I never get numbers between 18 and 24.
--Ryan Dorkoski (talk) 15:43, 25 October 2017 (UTC)Ryan Dorkoski
This game is HEAVILY influenced from the D&D rules at the time (2.0?). The STR system comes directly from D&D. In D&D a stat jump from 18 to 19 is huge and normally 19+ stats were reserved for non-player monsters or characters. It was possible for PCs (player characters) to obtain 19 in a couple of stats depending on their race and initial stat roll, but this was somewhat rare, and no baseline rules included a possibility to obtain a 19+ STR (originally). So I think this was a way to reward a STR-based character that rolled a natural 18 for STR by allowing him to roll again with percentile dice and get his new adjusted STR of 18/**. Which would be a higher number and give better bonuses as such, but would not reach the level of 19 (demi-god stats), even at 18/00. It is not a percentage of advancement towards 19, just an added bonus that improves based on a scale of 1-100.
For instance a Wizard that rolled a STR of 18 could never get 18/01 or higher at creation because he is not a STR-based class, but later in the game if he were to get a STR increase, it wouldn't even touch the /** scale, he would jump right into 19 from 18 (IE super stick of STR +1)
The new stat is treated, on a list, just as you would treat any other incremental advancement of a stat: don't get hung up on the /**. You just treat the next set of /** ranges as you would a regular increase of numbers in a chart. so your bonuses grow with each new step up the /** chart.
Also, the stat blocks are the same until you hit the next block. meaning 18/01 is the same at 18/50 and everything in between. The next magical number you would want to hit would be 18/51 for the next increase in bonuses.
Man I hope this helps, after proof-reading this, now I'm confused! Crazyteeth (talk) 19:52, 25 October 2017 (UTC)Crazyteeth the Illithid-Licker
Wow. Okay.
1. Your explanation helped greatly, and I highly encourage you to put what you just said (or some version of it) on the Wiki here.
2. Why oh why is this so needlessly complicated. And arbitrary. I do understand the way you explain the increments, but they are just so arbitrary.
Anyways, thank you so very much for breaking that down for me. I pretty much get it now. --Ryan Dorkoski (talk) 19:58, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
I agree. Blame Gary Gygax! :P
I can't tell you how many times I or a friend would hit 18 with a warrior or knight and just start drooling at the percentile dice we were about to roll, hoping for that elusive /00. All that buildup, then comes the roll!.... and it usually ended up being something like /03. Keep the tissues at-hand.
In retrospect, as I write this, I think it makes more sense when you look at it from a new D&D player's perspective. You aren't aware of all the stats, and that giants have up to 25 STR and that gods and monsters can have inflated stats and all that. You just want to have a good time rolling your character and that dude called the DM over there said your stats can range from 3 to 18. So when you get all excited for hitting the cap 18 STR on your warrior and then the DM says, nice now roll percentile dice, it just becomes "how it works". All you know is that your 18/23 STR is better than the rogue's 18 STR. (Suck it rogue!)
And then not long after, you get spoiled and know the stats of every monster and how every magic item works and what bonuses they give, and the 18/** scale never comes into conflict with the up-to-25 scale because that's how you first learned - what's better than 18.
--Crazyteeth the NymphWedgieGiver
Crazyteeth (talk) 20:12, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
Yeah you are right that it makes more sense in that context. It's a deeper rule; a rule set on top of another rule. The problem with NetHack is how they throw it at you right out of the starting gate.
Thanks again,
--Ryan Dorkoski (talk) 20:35, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
I like putting a stash of items next to the downstairs of the level before I am currently on, if items make me burdened. Especially while exploring the Mines. It makes it so there is almost no way a monster can grab that wand of death you stashed. Sell what you can in Minetown (if OrcTown was not generated) and return your stash(es) to sell/Price ID the next batch. --User (talk) 20:57, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
