The Dungeons
Although the game contains an extensive world featuring multiple towns
(most offering special town quests) as well as a large wilderness area,
the bulk of your adventuring will take place in the dungeons. Symbols
appearing on your screen will represent the dungeon's walls, floor,
objects, features, and creatures lurking about. In order to direct your
character through his adventure, you will enter single character
commands (see [a]).
Symbols on Your Map
Symbols on your map can be broken down into three categories: Features
of the dungeon such as walls, floor, doors, and traps; objects which
can be picked up such as treasure, weapons, magical devices, etc; and
creatures which may or may not move about the dungeon, but are mostly
harmful to your character's well-being.
Some symbols are used to represent more than one type of entity, and
some symbols are used to represent entities in more than one category.
The "@" symbol (by default) is used to represent the character.
It is not necessary to memorize all of the symbols and their meanings.
The "slash" command (/) will identify any character appearing on your
map, and the l look command and the * targetting command can also be
used to inspect the features you see. As you play a bit, the most
common symbols soon become familiar.
See [b] for town and wilderness symbols and [c] for monster symbols.
You can use user preference files or the % command to change symbols,
although that is quite advanced, and new players who do take that path
sometimes walk so deep into the forest of visuals that they forget to
play the game :) Most players just keep the default symbols.
Features that do not block line of sight
. Floor * A mirror
. A trap (hidden) ; A glyph of warding
^ A trap (known) ; An explosive rune
. Dirt ; Wet trout of punishment
~ Shallow water * Section of the Pattern
~ Deep water * Section of the Pattern
~ Shallow lava ' An open door
~ Deep lava ' A broken door
< A staircase up ' An open glass door
> A staircase down ' An open curtain
< A shaft up # A dark pit
> A shaft down ~ Shallow nukage pool
> Dungeon entrance ~ Deep nukage pool
Features that block line of sight
# A granite wall # A permanent wall
% A magma vein # A tree
% A quartz vein # A mountainside
# A secret door + A closed door
# A glass wall ' A closed curtain
* Treasure in wall : A pile of rubble
Within the Dungeon
Once your character is adequately supplied with food, light, armor,
weapons, and utility items, he is ready to enter the dungeon. Move on
top of the > symbol and use the Down command (>).
Your character will enter a maze of interconnecting staircases and
finally arrive somewhere on the first level of the dungeon. Each floor
of the dungeon is fifty feet high (thus dungeon level 1 is sometimes
called "50 ft"), and the explorable areas are surrounded by permanent,
unbreachable rock walls that separate them from other dungeon levels at
the same depth. The size of a dungeon level can vary, but they are
always rectangular and sometimes quite large, several times larger than
the screen.
In Beginner Mode and coffee-break mode, once you leave a level you
cannot ever return there, simply because up-stairs do not exist and
every dungeon level you enter will be deeper than the one before it. If
these modes (and the ironman option) are not selected, you can return
to levels you have left as long as you remain inside the dungeon;
although many different dungeon levels co-exist at the same depth,
taking the same staircase again will always lead you to the same level.
But as soon as you leave the dungeon, the levels you explored are lost
and you will never find them again; upon your return to the same depth
you will discover a completely new level. You might, however, run again
into some of the monsters you left behind!
In the dark depths of a dungeon, the need for sufficient illumination
soon becomes apparent. Some rooms have already been lit by nature or
magic, and need no further light; but most of the tunnels are pitch
dark, so it is a good idea to carry your own portable light source
around. If no light is present, the character will be unable to see.
This will affect searching, picking locks, disarming traps, reading
scrolls, casting spells, browsing books, seeing monsters, etc. So be
very careful not to run out of light!
A character must wield a torch, lantern or some other lamp in order to
supply his own light. Torches and lantern burn fuel as they are used,
and once out of fuel, they stop supplying light. You will be warned as
the light approaches this point. You may use the "Fuel" command ("F")
to refuel your lantern (with flasks of oil) or your torch (with other
torches), so it is a good idea to carry extra torches or flasks of oil,
as appropriate. There are rumors of objects of exceptional power which
glow with their own never-ending light.
Great treasures can be found in the dungeon, but your character must
survive many horrible and challenging encounters to find the treasure
lying about and take it safely back to the town to sell.
Objects in the Dungeon
The dungeons are full of objects just waiting to be picked up and used.
How did they get there? Well, the main sources for useful items are all
the foolish adventurers that proceeded into the dungeon before you.
They get killed, and the helpful creatures scatter the various treasure
throughout the dungeon. Most cursed items are placed there by the
playful evil sorcerers, who enjoy a good joke when it gets you killed.
One item in particular will be discussed here. The scroll of "Word of
Recall" can be found within the dungeon, or bought at the Temple and
Alchemy Shop in towns. It acts in two manners, depending upon your
current location. If read within the dungeon, it will teleport you back
to the surface. In Beginner Mode, Word of Recall is the only way to
return to the town once you have left it, since Beginner Mode activates
coffee-break mode which disables all up-stairs. If read on the surface,
Word of Recall will teleport you back down to your recall point in any
dungeon of your choice that you have previously visited. This makes the
scroll very useful for getting back to the deeper levels. Once the
scroll has been read it takes a while for the spell to act, so don't
expect it to save you in a crisis. Reading a second scroll before the
first has had a chance to take effect will cancel both scrolls.
Your recall point in a dungeon is usually the deepest level you have
reached in that dungeon, but can be optionally set to a more shallow
level if you read Word of Recall on such a level. There are two reasons
it might be convenient not to have your recall point at the deepest
level. The first is if you are not truly comfortable yet at the deepest
level you visited; maybe you even fell there by accident through a trap
door. The second reason is that some dungeons are located close to
towns, so setting a recall point near the surface provides convenient
access to the town! This is often the fastest way to reach a town if
you are in the wilderness.
A more complete description of objects is found elsewhere in the
documentation (see [d]).
Mining
Much of the treasure within the dungeon can be found only by mining it
out of the walls. Many rich strikes exist within each level, but must
be found and mined. Quartz veins are the richest, yielding the most
metals and gems, but magma veins will also have some treasures hidden
within.
Mining is rather difficult without a pick or shovel, especially if your
Strength is low. Picks and shovels give a bonus to your Digging
ability, expressed as '(+2)', '(+3)' etc.; the higher the number, the
better the digging ability of the tool. A pick or shovel may also give
bonuses to your accuracy and damage, and can be used as a weapon.
Having found a vein of quartz or magma, the character may wield his
pick or shovel and begin digging out a section with the T or + command.
When that section is removed, you can move on to another section of the
vein and begin the process again. Since granite rock is much harder to
dig through, it is generally better to follow quartz and magma and
avoid the granite, even if it stands in your path. At a certain point,
it becomes more cumbersome to dig out treasure than to simply kill
monsters and discover items in the dungeon to sell (and many players
prefer to do this from the beginning). Nevertheless, treasure veins can
be a wonderful source of easy money, especially early in the game.
Some vein sections are obviously promising even to the untrained eye
(these are denoted on the map with the * symbol); but if your character
has a scroll, staff, or spell of Treasure Location, you can easily
locate the many further treasures likely to be hidden within the quartz
and magma nearby. This makes mining much easier and more profitable.
A character with high strength and/or a heavy weapon does not need a
shovel or a pick to dig. A number of enchanted weapons even give
magical bonuses to your Digging ability, making them highly effective
for digging through even the hardest rock. New players sometimes worry
they might break or harm their valuable melee weapons trying to tunnel
with them, but worry not, this will never happen! Some magical spells
and devices have the power to turn any stone, even granite, into mud in
a single turn; such spells and items make mining and digging faster and
more convenient, and generally remove the need for more mundane digging
tools.
Mining for treasure is not the only, or necessarily even the most
common, reason you might wish to dig a tunnel. Digging new corridors to
modify the terrain to your advantage is often a good idea when fighting
dangerous monsters, and sometimes you will wish to access an area
otherwise blocked off by walls or by monsters you would like to avoid.
So it is always a good idea to carry something you can dig with, even
if you are not planning on mining for treasure; but it does not always
need to be a shovel or a pick.
Staircases and Shafts
Staircases are the manner in which you get deeper or climb out of the
dungeon. The symbols for the up and down staircases are the same as the
commands you need to type to use them: a "<" represents an up staircase
and a ">" represents a down staircase. You must move your character
over the staircase before you can use it. A shaft ("<" or ">") is
basically a longer staircase; it will take you two levels up or down,
instead of just one, except in a few special situations. Some levels
might have no regular staircases, only shafts; in fact, in Beginner
Mode, all staircases generate as shafts.
Each dungeon level has two or more down staircases, except for quest
levels (which have none until the last quest monster on the level has
been killed) and the levels at the bottom of a dungeon (which never
have any downstairs because there's nowhere deeper to go!). All levels
also have at least one up staircase, unless you are playing in Beginner
Mode or coffee-break mode or have turned on the ironman_downward
option. Sometimes these staircases can be tricky to find; you might
have to go through some well-hidden secret doors, or dig through
obstructions to get there, but you can always locate the stairs
eventually if you look hard enough. Stairs, like permanent walls, and
the doors into shops, cannot be destroyed by any means.
Secret Doors
The dungeon has many secret doors to confuse and demoralize adventurers
foolish enough to enter. But with some luck, skill and concentration,
you can locate these doors; use the s or S searching commands to look
for a secret door. Secret doors sometimes hide rooms or corridors, or
even entire sections of that level of the dungeon. Sometimes they
simply hide small empty closets or a dead end. Secret doors always look
like granite walls, never quartz or magma. See [e] for some tips on
where secret doors might be found!
Characters with very low Searching skill may be completely unable to
discover the secret doors, no matter how meticulously they search. This
is generally only the case for Berserkers, who prefer to use their raw
power to create their own openings in the walls.
If a door turns out to be stuck, it can be broken down by bashing it.
This sometimes takes a while to work, especially if your Strength is
low. Once a door is bashed open, it is forever useless and cannot be
closed. Many monsters are very good at bashing down doors... Creatures
in the dungeon will generally know the locations of secret doors and
may use them, and can often be counted on to leave them open behind
them when they pass through.
Floor Traps
Secret doors are not the only things in the dungeon that are not quite
what they look like. Some floor tiles contain hidden traps, there to
harm or inconvenience you should you blunder into them. A few are even
trap doors, dropping you down to the next level just when it is least
convenient. Traps can be detected by Searching, just as secret doors,
or through magical means such as Scrolls of Trap Detection. (Since
traps could be anywhere and dungeon levels are often large, the
Searching option generally only makes sense if you have specific
reasons to expect a trap nearby.) Most traps in FrogComposband are
fairly benign, so it is not a big deal if you don't have any
trap-detection items; you'll be inconvenienced occasionally, maybe
suffer some item damage, but it will not cost you the game outright.
The spookiest traps are very rare and only appear in the late game,
when nearly all characters regularly use powerful magical detection
methods that reveal not only traps but also secret doors and much more
besides.
Known floor traps are indicated on the map with the ^ symbol. You can
use the l look command or the * targetting command to inspect a trap
more closely, telling you what kind of trap it is. You will quickly
notice traps are color-coded; the dark-green trap of this example is
one of four types of gas trap, and might briefly blind, poison, confuse
or paralyze you.
You can use the D disarm command to attempt to eliminate a known trap,
turning the square back into a regular floor tile. Disarming is not
guaranteed to work, though, and you might trigger the trap again in a
failed attempt... Usually, walking into a known trap automatically
attempts to disarm the trap (unless you are blind or confused); but
there are a few very rare situations where you might actually wish to
deliberately trigger a trap without any attempt to disarm it. This can
be accomplished with the - key.
Floor traps only affect you; monsters do not have to worry about
triggering them. This may seem patently unfair, but no one ever said
the forces of evil would give you a fair shake! A few classes, though,
have the ability to turn the tables and set their own floor traps for
monsters to walk into. Lawyers are notable for this, but the mightiest
traps of all are set by Burglary rogues.
Level Feelings
Once you have been on a particular dungeon level for a while, you will
receive a "level feeling" representing what your intuition tells you
about the quality of objects and the difficulty of the monsters found
on that level. You may check this message again at any time after
receiving it by pressing Ctrl-F.
The actual "feeling" message is generated based on a number of factors.
Things which increase the feeling level include the presence of unique
monsters, out-of-depth monsters and objects, large monster groups, and
unidentified artifacts and ego items (see [f]). A feeling is only
indicative of the level at the time you received the feeling, although
it may update later to reflect the presence of new monsters or items.
Note that high level feelings do not cause dangerous monsters or
quality loot; dangerous monsters and quality loot cause high feelings.
In general, the nastier the feeling message, the better (or nastier)
the level. From least to most interesting, the messages are as follows:
'What a boring place...'
'This level looks reasonably safe.'
'You don't like the look of this place.'
'You feel your luck is turning...'
'You feel nervous.'
'You have a bad feeling...'
'You have a very bad feeling...'
'This level looks very dangerous.'
'You nearly faint as horrible visions of death fill your mind!'
If you selected the Lucky personality or have otherwise acquired the
"White Aura" good-luck mutation, the messages will appear in a more
optimistic form:
'What a boring place...'
'This level can't be all bad...'
'You like the look of this place...'
'You feel your luck is turning...'
'You feel strangely lucky...'
'You have a good feeling...'
'You have a very good feeling...'
'You have an excellent feeling...'
'You have a superb feeling about this level.'
There are also two other feeling messages to denote special things. If
you have not yet been on a level long enough to develop a feeling when
you press Ctrl-F, you will be given the prompt:
'Looks like any other level.'
You may also occasionally be lucky enough to receive the following
message:
'You feel there is something special about this level.'
A special feeling means one of two things, there is either an
undiscovered special item (artifact) on the level or your racial boss
is on the level. Most player races do not even have a boss, so it's
usually the former! As you get deeper on the dungeon, special feelings
become increasingly common as you encounter more artifacts.
Thoroughly check the object list (]) if you think you have fully
explored a level but have failed to find the promised artifact. Often,
the artifact will be an item you already detected but forgot to
identify. If you mysteriously lose the special feeling, the opposite
might have happened - some very absent-minded players have been known
to identify valuable artifacts without noticing...
Note that it is possible for a level to have more than one artifact,
maybe even an entire treasure vault full of artifacts. So you should
never leave a special level without fully exploring it unless you've
lost that special feeling or your character's continued survival is in
question.
Random Quests
Every character will encounter ten random quests in the dungeon of
Angband (unless they die first). By default, each quest is to kill a
certain out-of-depth unique monster, though you may change this to kill
a certain number of a random type of monster with a birth option [g].
Be warned: unique monsters are generally powerful even at their native
depths, so fighting them out of depth is especially difficult!
On random quest levels, no down staircases are generated until the last
quest monster is killed, which means that you cannot continue further
into the dungeon until you have completed your quest. When you kill the
quest monster, the down staircase will be created and the monster will
drop one or more bonus items of 'excellent' quality or above. This is
true even of monsters who normally drop nothing at all.
The random quests in Angband will occur at random depths, so you won't
be able to guess exactly when you might encounter one, although you are
guaranteed to run into quests during all phases of the game and can
therefore expect another quest to appear soon if you have gone a long
time without seeing any.
Should a given quest prove too difficult for you, you may retreat to
safety (recall to town, or take an up staircase) until you are more
powerful. In Beginner Mode and coffee-break mode, this automatically
fails the quest; outside these modes, the quest monster will patiently
await your return unless you deliberately choose to fail the quest. To
abandon the quest is to shame oneself, but it is better to know your
own limits than to die (even with full honor) in a foolhardy attempt at
completion. If you choose to fail a quest, your fame will be greatly
diminished, but at least you are alive and can continue your descent
deeper into the pits of Angband.
Fixed Quests
Several additional quests also appear in the dungeon that are always at
the same depth for everybody and involve the same monsters. One of
these you probably already know - kill the Serpent of Chaos on level
100 of Angband! Another is to kill Oberon, King of Amber, on level 99
of Angband; these two quests are assigned to you at birth, and must be
completed to win the game.
Other such quests are received from towns; although town buildings
generally offer town quests, occasionally you will get a dungeon quest
instead. One such quest you should know about is Pest Control, also
known as the Warg Quest - a quest to kill eight Wargs on level 5 of
Warrens, or on level 5 of Angband if the wilderness is off (as is the
case in Beginner Mode). Killing eight Wargs will give you quite a lot
of experience, so completing this quest really speeds up the early
game! Note, though, that you must request and complete the Thieves'
Hideout town quest in Outpost before you can receive the Warg Quest.
Fixed dungeon quests obey the same rules as the random ones, except
that for fixed quests received from a town the reward will be given to
you by the quest-giver instead of being dropped by a monster; also,
leaving the level of a fixed quest received from a town will fail the
quest. The quests to kill the Serpent of Chaos and Oberon cannot be
failed; you can leave them as many times as you wish, although in
coffee-break mode (and especially instant-coffee mode) this is unwise
and aventually makes them harder to complete.
Conquering Dungeons
If you are playing with the wilderness off (as is the case in Beginner
Mode), the game only has one dungeon: Angband. But with wilderness on,
there are dungeons all over the place - about thirty fixed ones, plus
random one-level dungeons that occasionally appear in the wilderness.
Most of these dungeons have their own monster theme and level
generation rules, setting them apart from the others.
High-level dungeons often have a special entrance guardian: a dangerous
monster who will try to prevent you from getting in. Nearly all fixed
dungeons have a final guardian, or dungeon boss - a powerful unique you
can rely on to appear on the last level of the dungeon (and never
anywhere else). Kill the boss, and you conquer the dungeon and will
receive a free stat-up as your reward. Many dungeon bosses also drop a
valuable fixed item.
Dungeon bosses are not quest monsters, and there is no absolute need to
kill any of them; you can win the game without conquering any dungeons
besides Angband. Even apart from the rewards, though, there is a good
reason to kill at least some of them - but we wouldn't want to spoil it
for you :)
This source of extra stat-ups is not available in no-wilderness play.
To compensate for this, completing a random Angband quest gives a
stat-up if the wilderness is off.
See [h] for more details on wilderness dungeons.
Wilderness Dungeons and Where to Find Them
This is a full list of the standard wilderness dungeons... or is it?
Dungeons are ordered by shallowest depth; and to avoid spoilers (only
the shallowest depth is visible on the overworld map) this is the only
depth indicated.
Note that you will never find all of these dungeons in a single game!
Some will always be shuffled out of existence to limit the number of
dungeons or the number of pantheons; but play the game enough times,
and you will eventually conquer all of them.
Warrens Level 1 Accessed from Outpost.
Angband Level 1 Northeast of Morivant, must be conquered
to win. Contains random quests.
Hideout Level 8 Accessed from Outpost.
Icky Cave Level 10 Accessed from Thalos.
Tidal Cave Level 15 South of Morivant.
Orc Cave Level 15 North of Outpost.
Troll Cave Level 18 North of Outpost.
Plains of Oz Level 18 Southeast of Morivant.
Labyrinth Level 20 West of Outpost.
Camelot Level 20 West of Outpost.
Often visited together with Labyrinth.
Witch Wood Level 25 Southeast of Morivant.
Battlefield Level 30 Southeast of Morivant.
Often visited en route to Telmora.
Lonely Mountain Level 30 Mountains southwest of Morivant.
Access requires levitation.
Chameleon Cave Level 30 Southeast of Telmora.
Giant's Hall Level 30 Mountains southeast of Angband.
Access requires levitation.
Snow Castle Level 30 Mountains southeast of Angband.
Levitation recommended.
Eyrie Level 40 Mountains west of Telmora.
Access requires levitation.
Castle Level 40 East of the road from Telmora to Angwil.
Crystal Castle Level 40 Northwest of Morivant.
Guarded by dangerous Ethereal Dragon.
Anti-melee Cave Level 40 North of Morivant.
Anti-magic Cave Level 40 East of Zul.
Arena Level 50 West of Zul.
Graveyard Level 50 East of Angwil.
Volcano Level 50 West of Outpost. Entrance in lava field.
Numenor Level 55 Deep sea north of Anambar.
Atlantis Level 55 Deep sea north of Anambar.
Dark Cave Level 55 Northwest of Angwil.
Disaster Area Level 60 Northwest of Angwil.
Dragon's Lair Level 60 South of Angwil.
Asgard Level 64 Swampy coast northeast of Graveyard.
Pyramidal Mound Level 64 Northwest of Telmora, north of Eyrie.
Mount Meru Level 72 Mountains south of Eyrie.
Access requires levitation.
Mine Level 75 Island northeast of Anambar.
R'lyeh Level 80 Deep sea northwest of the Dark Cave.
Mount Olympus Level 80 Island northwest of Thalos.
Mystery Cave Level ? ??????
--
Original : (??)
Updated : (??)
Updated : Zangband DevTeam
Updated : Hengband 1.0.11
Updated : PosChengband 4.0.0
Updated : FrogComposband 7.1.liquorice