User:Bluescreenofdeath/Branches
Compared to vanilla, SLEX's dungeon is quite a bit longer and also has many more additional sub-branches, some of which are essential to winning the game while others are optional but can provide potentially useful rewards when completed. The player may also obtain trophies for completing optional branches, which are useful mainly during Junethack.
Plot-critical areas
The main dungeon is 100 levels in length. Of these, the first 50 are the Dungeons of Doom, with the castle being on level 50; there may be a wand of wishing there, but it's not guaranteed as some castle variants lack the wand. Level 51 to 100 are Gehennom, where the player cannot pray and it's not possible to convert altars to Moloch. The Valley of the Dead is on level 51, the Wizard Tower spans levels 75-77 and is accessed via a fake tower on a random level below, and level 99 has the Vibrating Square and the Seven Deadly Sins who chase the player and resurrect after being killed while the player searches for the square. On dungeon level 100, Moloch's Sanctum houses the Amulet of Yendor in the possession of the High Priest, and can only be accessed if the player completes the invocation ritual on level 99.
In order to complete the invocation ritual, the player has to collect three items: the Bell of Opening, Candelabrum of Invocation and Book of the Dead. The bell can be found in the Quest, which is usually accessed via a magic portal on dungeon level 15-49, but in about 3% of all games the portal is on a random level in Gehennom instead. Entering the level that has the quest portal will give a message hinting at its presence. There are 7 levels in the Quest, with the last level forcing the player to battle their quest nemesis who has the bell. After obtaining it, the bell also has to be imbued: in order to do so, the player needs to find a magic portal somewhere on level 2-6 of the Quest and enter it, which leads to the new Subquest branch. If the quest nemesis has already been defeated, being on the level with the subquest portal will display periodic messages hinting at its presence. The Subquest branch is 10 levels in length, and on level 6-10 (placed randomly) there's a pink staircase that leads to the Bell Caves. Upon entering the Bell Caves, the player receives a full-screen message and a trophy, and the bell is imbued. However, the player then needs to make their way back out; level teleportation is not permitted within the Bell Caves or Subquest. Also, upon imbuing the bell, a clone of the quest nemesis is spawned along with some hostile quest-specific monsters. Trying to perform the invocation ritual with a non-imbued bell does not work.
Obtaining the Book of the Dead is similar to vanilla: the book is held by the Wizard of Yendor, who is always found in the center of level 75. Here, the player can either enter the tower from below by finding the fake tower with the portal, or wake him remotely via e.g. mind flayer psychic blasts or a drum of earthquake; killing the Wizard causes him to harass the player for the rest of the game, although the frequency of harassment is reduced compared to vanilla. The Candelabrum of Invocation is found in Vlad's Tower, but before the player can enter that, they first have to find the entrance stair to Sheol somewhere in Gehennom. Finding this stair can take a while, since there is no in-game hint pointing the player in the right direction, so unless the player randomly stumbles upon it during their Gehennom explorations, they may well have to look for it everywhere. Sheol itself is 25 levels in length, most of them ice-themed, and the stair to Vlad's Tower is on a random level in Sheol, once again potentially requiring the player to search everywhere. When the player enters Vlad's tower, they may stumble upon various doors that require specific artifact keys to unlock; two of the three alignment keys are needed to reach Vlad normally, although methods to wake him up remotely can be used too. In any case, Vlad holds the candelabrum and the player needs to fight him to obtain it.
With all three invocation tools in their possession and the Bell of Opening imbued, the player is now capable of performing the invocation on level 99. For this level, the player has to find the Vibrating Square, which is on a random floor square and can only be found by stepping on it, so the player has to walk everywhere; this is complicated by the fact that the Seven Deadly Sins are chasing the player. They resurrect like Riders and any attempt to get rid of their corpses just causes them to resurrect instantly; if the player tries to eat them, it's DYWYPI. When on the vibrating square, the player needs to ring the Bell of Opening, light the Candelabrum of Invocation (which needs to have seven candles attached; a bunch of them can be found in Vlad's Tower) and read the Book of the Dead. Compared to vanilla, the invocation tools stay primed for quite a bit longer after being used, and the bell has many more charges so a mishap is less disastrous. Also, while the invocation tools work best when noncursed, even a cursed one may still work occasionally (the player will have to try repeatedly if they are cursed).
After the invocation is complete, a downstair appears that leads to Moloch's sanctum. Here, the player needs to make it to the High Temple and defeat the High Priest who holds the Amulet of Yendor. The priest also has a sidekick named Amudor, who may be slightly annoying but shouldn't pose a big threat by this point. Once the player picks up the Amulet, it cannot be dropped any longer, and unlike vanilla it also cannot be named; care should be taken since fake amulets also exist, and those likewise cannot be dropped but weigh 500 units. With the amulet in their possession, the player now needs to find the portal to the Yendorian Tower; this portal is somewhere in the sanctum and can only be used after the player has already obtained the amulet. Simply walking back up the dungeon after obtaining the amulet is a bad idea and won't allow the player to win. Instead, the amulet needs to be imbued before the ascension run begins. While holding the amulet, the player cannot teleport, branchport or be banished at all. In order to imbue the amulet, it needs to be taken to three sub-branches of the Yendorian Tower: Ordered Chaos, Forging Chamber and Dead Grounds. After entering all three of them, the amulet is fully imbued and the player is transported back to the bottom of the Yendorian Tower, where they can now finally use the portal to go back to Gehennom and start the ascension run. If the player didn't defeat the bosses of the three alignment quests, the ones that are still alive will spawn in the three side dungeons in much stronger form.
To be continued...
