Out of the jaws of defeat, a radiance bath!

[gridlore]

A few weeks ago I had a very good Samurai running the endgame in Nethack. He was wielding Sunsword (+5, RP) and a Silver Saber (+5) as a two-weapon combo, had good protection, and was already to kick elemental plane butt.

Until the Plane of Fire, when a wand of lightning vaporized my rings of levitation and conflict. Which are an important part of my endgame strategy.

Fearing yet another late game death, I put aside the game for a while. Just now, I decided to finish the damn thing.

Getting through the fire plane without levitation or conflict is tedious. You're mobbed by elementals who keep setting you on fire, but you're fire resistant (or better be at this point) so you keep scrolling through the endless messages after each attack. This is one reason why I like having Frost Brand as a primary weapon for Valkyries and Barbarians. Cleans out the fire elementals quickly. But I made it over to the portal, and blipped to the Plane of Water. Where, thanks to not having levitation, I had to work my way from air bubble to air bubble tracking down the portal which is floating in one of the bubbles! Takes forever, and in the meantime, you're fighting off giant eels, krakens, and water elementals. Find that portal. blip to the Astral Plane...

.. and luck out. Pestilence drinks a cursed potion of invisibility which shows me where he's hiding. So I decide to try the right-hand temple first. This is guarded by Death, weakest of the three riders. Having the Guardian Angel actually helped (usually I find the GA to be an annoyance at best, which is why I rely on conflict.) Having a half-dozen or so fully charged wands of death helped clear the priests, and I bust into the inner temple to find that I've chosen the right temple on the first try.

Here, God-dude, have an amulet.

I used 10 wishes (none for artifacts,) never changed form or polymorphed an object, and had no genocides.

Comments

[mikkop.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

I last played NetHack two or three years ago, and didn't get near ascension then. I play too fast and without thinking, so I usually get a YASD I could've prevented.

I've ascended enough Valkyries and Samurais, so I usually try to have a wishless game with them. I play random characters, which means I get them occasionally.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

and had no genocides

Man, I don't want to play a game where this is considered a good thing.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I generally use scrolls of genocide on things like Liches and Vampires.

so in short, what you're saying is:

[redc1c4.livejournal.com]

you don't want to talk about *the* baseball game..... %-)

/Vin Scully

Re: so in short, what you're saying is:

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Not really, no.

But wait until tonights game!! Hope springs eternal in the heart of a fool Giants fan.