Protection racket
The protection racket is a strategy for reaching Minetown at experience level 1 with lots of gold and purchasing a large amount of divine protection for a small amount.
Strategy
Use of your starting pet is essential, as killing monsters yourself will soon raise your level, and not killing them will result in your swift death. Healers are widely considered best for this task, as the healing spell can be used to keep your pet alive while they do the fighting. Gnomish Healers have an extra advantage: more of the monsters in the mines will be peaceful.
The stairs to the Gnomish Mines can be found on dungeon level 2, 3, or 4. On dungeon level 1, take the down staircase as soon as you find it. If you make it to dungeon level 5 without finding the mines, you've gone to far and must go back.
Getting the gold
There are many ways to get the gold you need:
- Start as a healer. Healers start with a large amount of gold to donate to the Minetown priest.
- Credit clone. That might not be a viable option if you don't have enough food, and some might consider it cheating.
- Loot vaults. You'll need some means of digging and maybe a scroll of magic mapping or two. Other means of finding a vault can be found on the vault page.
- Sell junk to shopkeepers. This requires extensive knowledge of item values since you don't want to carry 20 items to a shop just to find out they are only worth 1 gold each.
What to do after
- It might be a good idea to make your way back to the top of the dungeon and explore the rooms you haven't been in yet. You never know what you might find.
- Sokoban is also a good choice as the next step.
No matter what you choose to do, the extra AC you got from protection will be a big help in keeping you alive through the rest of the game.
- This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"What else would be a good idea to do after you bought as much protection as you could?"
Other information
For characters other than gnomish Healers, the chances of surviving the protection racket are slim, and hence it is a metastrategy. Conversely, it is arguable that the protection racket is actually the best strategy for gnomish Healers.
- This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"There is a lot more to be said about this strategy. A detailed howto, some of its dangers, what to do after, etc."
