Fort Ludios

Fort Ludios
Location	Level 1 of Fort Ludios
Bones	No
Mappable	Yes
Teleportable	No
Diggable floor	No
Diggable walls	No

Fort Ludios is a branch of the Mazes of Menace in NetHack, consisting of a single special level. The code internally refers to the level as Fort Knox. Fort Ludios is ineligible to leave bones files, and is a no-teleport level.

The branch is accessed through a magic portal found in a vault between dungeon level 10 and Medusa's Island. Any vault generated in this range has a ¹⁄₃ chance of containing the portal to Ludios, if it has not already been generated - the Rogue level and the Big Room cannot contain vaults, and a vault on the quest portal level will never contain a portal to Ludios. As such, it is accessible in 74.9% of all games.

Within Fort Ludios lies the riches of Croesus, who guards them zealously with a series of traps and hordes of monsters, including many Yendorian army fighters.

Map

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Entering Fort Ludios through the magic portal will place you on the other end at the bottom-left of the map, which is also used to exit the level. The zoo (with inhabitants marked "z"), fort, and barracks are lit; the other areas are unlit. All walls and floors are undiggable, but all walls and the solid rock at the outside of the level are phaseable. As soon as you enter the floor, an alarm will sound, waking up all monsters on the floor - this will continue to happen every time you enter until Croesus is dead.

The barracks and zoo have typical monster and item generation for those room types, as does the central throne room - the inhabitants are marked with "t", and Croesus himself sits atop the opulent throne. There is a secret passage between the zoo in the southwest and the room in the northwest, which contains a single stone giant. Additionally, 16 soldiers and one lieutenant are generated in the courtyard around the fort; four dragons are around the moat; and four giant eels are in the moat.

The secret door into the throne room, Croesus on his throne, and the secret door to the treasure room each have an independent 50% chance of being shifted up one square. The four corner rooms of the fort contain precious gems: rubies, diamonds, emeralds, and amethysts. The left half of the fort is filled with gold (600–899 zorkmids per square), but also with traps. Each square has a ¹⁄₃ chance of containing a trap; of those that do, ²⁄₃ are land mines and ¹⁄₃ are spiked pits. There are no other traps anywhere on the level.

Strategy

Using the door to your advantage (DECgraphics are enabled)

It may be prudent to obtain reflection before entering in order to better handle the hordes of monsters, particularly the dragons and the Yendorian Army fighters armed with wands. If you have a strong pet, such as a vampire lord, you may choose to whistle it across walls to have it fight the zoo monsters and soldiers without exposing yourself to them - monsters will not use their wands or other ranged attacks against your pet, preserving the wands' charges, though doing this will also make it difficult to monitor their health.

You can also use a source of conflict to have the zoo monsters and/or soldiers thin their own ranks - be careful not to get your pet caught in the crossfire, and mind your own health as well. A scroll of stinking cloud is also quite useful from a reasonable distance. Leftover wands from clearing out the soldiers can then be used against the giant eels in the moat, as can any leftover polearms and lances. See also Movement tactics § Doors for other general crowd-control tactics.

The fort has no drawbridge, so you will need some means of crossing water:

• Fill the moat with boulders using a spare scroll of earth. The guaranteed giant in the stone passage also has a 50% chance of generating with a boulder, though you will want to draw them away from the north wall if you plan to push it into the main area.
• If you are jumping across, you can blast through the door from afar with a force bolt from the spell or a wand of striking, or raze the door with the spell or wand of digging. Additionally, if you detect the door with a wand of secret door detection or the detect unseen spell, one of the throne room inhabitants will open it shortly after.
• Use a wand of cold to freeze the surrounding water. The soldiers are likely to have at least one spare wand, though it may prove difficult to obtain them before all the charges are used up.
• Levitation or flight (e.g., using a flying steed) can carry you across fairly easily - in the former case, be mindful of any remaining giant eels and potential rays of lightning if using the ring of levitation.

Croesus can be a difficult opponent, especially if you are not unencumbered: he hits hard in melee combat and moves at 15 speed, and the throne room monsters accompanying him can be quite dangerous and tough themselves - depending on when they were generated, the horde can include powerful trolls and dragons. The tactics mentioned above can be useful in clearing out the throne room, and Croesus himself can be dispatched with ranged attacks via wands or polearms from across the moat, as indicated by the map to the upper right. Alternatively, you can use a wand of cold to form a bridge, then melt it with a source of fire, e.g., a wand of fire, as he crosses to attack you - beware that his speed may allow him to cross the ice before you can melt it.

Come with a bag of holding if you plan on leaving with all of the gold. Fort Ludios contains around 50,000zm on average, which is about half of a strong character's total carrying capacity. Levitation will allow you to locate the traps with relative safety; otherwise, it is recommended to search all squares before moving in that area.

History

Fort Ludios first appears in NetHack 3.1.0. The secret passage and the stone giant dwelling in the room on its other end are added in NetHack 3.6.1.

The level was subject to a bug where entering with a lit candle lit up the entire entry room except for a corner spot beyond the candle radius; other spots further away than this corner were lit up as well. This was fixed in NetHack 3.6.2.

Messages

You have penetrated a high security area!
An alarm sounds!

You entered Fort Ludios while Croesus was present. The message will no longer print once he is killed.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the four dragons generated can also include baby dragons as well as any of the newly added species, such as the life-draining deep dragons - drain resistance can prove quite important for those entering this branch. The building containing the barracks is made into a graveyard with headstones, though there are no undead and the soldiers are still generated inside as normal; the tombs have no loot, but generate a corpse or an undead monster as normal if you dig them up.

Additionally, soldiers in SLASH'EM carry firearms and throw frag and gas grenades, making them quite a bit more dangerous and likely making fire resistance and poison resistance necessary. The grenades can also set off other grenades on the ground or in other soldiers' inventories, causing a chain reaction that can destroy both the enemy soldiers and potential loot. While much of the strategy used in vanilla NetHack also applies here, those looking to maximize their gains from Ludios pick up and throw armed grenades far from groups of soldiers and/or their loot.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the portal is much more likely to generate starting in version 5.1.0 - the portal will always in the first vault below level 10, on a floor that does not contain the Quest portal. As of UnNetHack 6, a portal to the branch will generate on Medusa's Island if it does not appear in the main dungeon branch.

From version 3.5.1, there are two new possible maps for the level:

• Winterly Fort Ludios
• Minas Tirith?

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The first new map has a near-identical structure on the western end of the level to that of the original NetHack map, including the zoo, portal room and passage to the stone giant's chamber. The courtyard of the level is now divided by a river of water that is partially frozen, with the ice forming a small bridge across the water that leads to the fort. The barracks have been relocated to the southeastern portion of the map, with the fort being north of it.

In addition to the standard 16 soldiers and lieutenant in the courtyard, there is a second lieutenant placed in front of the icy river, with a wand of fire placed on their square; one of the four dragons stationed around the fort is instead placed next to the river near the northern end.

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The second new map also has the near-identical western structure, though this one opens up into a courtyard split by a pair of ringwalls filled with iron bars and drawbridges. The fort beyond the ringwalls is redesigned as well, with the barracks leading into the fort proper and the throne room set in the southern end - both it and the treasure room in the north are more trapezoidal in shape. There are also six rooms instead of four spread between the north and south portions, though only the outer four will contain valuable gems.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, the portal to Fort Ludios is also placed in the first available vault below level 10, similar to UnNetHack. EvilHack also uses the same selection of maps for the level as UnNetHack.