Tag: The Saga of Urist Redbeard

EDIT: If you are reading this saga from the FUTURE, please note that Urist won on version 0.9 of the game, and it has changed significantly since. Older versions are all archived here, however, so you can try to replicate his feat if you like.

Urist Redbeard’s epic saga is complete! What I originally thought would be a single, very long post quickly ballooned into no less than seven extremely long posts. I was hoping to capture the complexity and the strategic decision-making required by a hardcore roguelike like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and I think I succeeded, but the end result is quite a read. It’s also full of spoilers, so be warned. Even with the spoilers, though, I’m sure you’ll find the game plenty enjoyable.

To make things easier I’ve collected links to each part of the saga here.

Part 1: The early Dungeon and the Ecumenical Temple.
Part 2: The Lair of Beasts.
Part 3: The Orcish Mines and a minotaur’s labyrinth.
Part 4: The Hive, the Snake Pit and the Shoals.
Part 5: The middle Dungeon, the Vaults, and the Crypt.
Part 6: The bottom of the Crypt, the Elven Halls, and the rest of the Dungeon.
Part 7: The Realm of Zot and Urist’s daring escape.

The Saga of Urist Redbeard is the story of my first win after roughly six years of playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. My hope is that it will give a sense of the complexity and appeal of hardcore roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl, but be warned that it is full of spoilers. Read the earlier parts here.

Urist Redbeard stands before the gateway to the Realm of Zot. His final challenge. Of the hundreds of adventurers who died in the Dungeon, the ones who have entered the Realm of Zot can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Urist has come far, fighting his way to the bottom of several dungeon branches and retrieving three Runes of Zot to open the gate, and looting a few other branches for good measure. He’s reached level 27, the highest possible, and he’s become a master with his flaming demon whip and shield. He’s better prepared than any of the other adventurers who dared enter the Realm of Zot. But still, the creatures who guard the Orb of Zot will be the most dangerous and deadly that Urist has encountered, and he’ll need to be very careful and very smart if he wants to complete his quest.

He’s as ready as he’ll ever be. Time to go.

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The Saga of Urist Redbeard is the story of my first win after roughly six years of playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. My hope is that it will give a sense of the complexity and appeal of hardcore roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl, but be warned that it is full of spoilers. Read the earlier parts here.

Urist Redbeard has just found the Silver Rune of Zot at the bottom of the Vaults. Along with the Serpentine Rune of Zot that he found in the Snake Pit and the Barnacled Rune of Zot that he found in the Shoals, this completes his set of three Runes. With them, he can open the way to the Realm of Zot at the bottom of the Dungeon, where the coveted Orb of Zot rests. It is the object of Urist’s quest, and now he holds the keys. Needless to say, getting the Orb will be extremely dangerous. So I intend to have Urist clear out a few more places first, in order to gain as much treasure, experience, and skills as possible before he faces the final challenge.

First up is the final floor of the Crypt. Urist explored the upper floors but deemed the deepest floor too dangerous, as it more than likely contains an ancient lich. One of the toughest enemies in the game, an ancient lich was responsible for the death of the greatest adventurer to ever explore the Dungeon, as he set foot inside the Orb’s chamber. I’m not excited about having to face one, but Urist is now level 25, and if he can’t defeat an ancient lich by now, then he probably doesn’t have any chance of retrieving the Orb anyway. Here goes nothing.

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The Saga of Urist Redbeard is the story of my first win after roughly six years of playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. My hope is that it will give a sense of the complexity and appeal of hardcore roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl, but be warned that it is full of spoilers. Read the earlier parts here.

Urist Redbeard is trying to retrieve the Orb of Zot from the deadly Dungeon, and to do that he will need to find at least three of the fifteen Runes of Zot. Fortunately, he has just found two of them, the first in the Snake Pit and the second in the Shoals. Of the hundreds of adventurers who died trying to retrieve the Orb, there are probably fewer than fifty who managed to get two Runes, so Urist is in good company. Of course, every one of those other adventurers died, so Urist still has his work cut out for him. He now has to do two things. First, he needs to retrieve a third Rune, which will be a lot harder than the first two were. Second, he needs to prepare himself for the Realm of Zot at the bottom of the Dungeon, which means raiding a lot of treasure hoards for better equipment, fighting a huge number of very tough monsters, and gaining a lot of levels.

Urist is off to a good start equipment-wise, having found a flaming demon whip in the Lair of Beasts and the +5 Armor of the Dragon King in a minotaur’s labyrinth. The demon whip is arguably the best one-handed weapon in the game, and the Armor of the Dragon King is a special artefact version of golden dragon armor, arguably the best armor in the game. So Urist mainly needs to work on increasing his skills and resistances. I’m feeling fairly confident as he starts his descent.

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The Saga of Urist Redbeard is the story of my first win after roughly six years of playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. My hope is that it will give a sense of the complexity and appeal of hardcore roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl, but be warned that it is full of spoilers. Read the first three parts here.

Urist Redbeard is on a quest to retrieve the Orb of Zot from the bottom of the Dungeon, and he just got very lucky. After clearing out the Orcish Mines, he found the entrance to a minotaur’s labyrinth, and in the center of that labyrinth, he found the +5 Armor of the Dragon King. This is one of very few pre-set items in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and it’s one of the best. Based on a golden dragon armor, the best type of armor in the game, it provides resistance to poison, fire and cold, in addition to excellent physical protection. The Armor of the Dragon King also provides magic resistance, a property not found in normal golden dragon armors. The only downside is that, as an artefact, it cannot be further enchanted, so +5 is as high of an armor bonus as it will ever get. But this is nitpicking; Urist Redbeard is only level 15. To find an item like this, this early in the game, is almost unthinkable. In fact, for all the hundreds upon hundreds of adventurers that I’ve guided through the Dungeon to their eventual deaths, I’ve never seen the Armor of the Dragon King even once. So I’m not complaining.

With this, Urist is ready to go after his first Rune. To retrieve the Orb of Zot, adventurers must find at least three of the fifteen Runes of Zot, and I happen to know the best place to get the first one: the Snake Pit. With a small, satisfied smile, Urist climbs the ladder out of the labyrinth and the hatch closes, sealing the way back forever.

He’s ready.

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The Saga of Urist Redbeard is the story of my first win after roughly six years of playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. My hope is that it will give a sense of the complexity and appeal of hardcore roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl, but be warned that it is full of spoilers. Read the first two parts here.

Urist Redbeard is trying to find the Orb of Zot, which unfortunately is hidden at the bottom of the deadly Dungeon. Hundreds and hundreds of other adventurers have tried to retrieve the Orb, and every one of them died in the attempt. But I, acting as their guide, have been learning with each of their deaths, which will hopefully give Urist a slightly better chance at success. Because if he dies, I’ve got to start all over with a new adventurer.

So far, though, Urist has been doing fairly well. He made it to the Ecumenical Temple, which is farther than a few hundred other adventurers managed to get. Dedicating himself to Okawaru the Warmaster, one of the 18 gods in the game, he found the Lair of Beasts and managed to clear it out all the way to the bottom. That feat puts him past another few hundred of his less fortunate brethren. Plus, he found a powerful demon whip of flaming in the bargain, a weapon which could very well serve him until the end of the game.

But it’s too early to start getting cocky. Urist still needs to find at least three of the fifteen Runes of Zot if he wants to retrieve the Orb from the bottom of the Dungeon, and getting any of those Runes is extremely dangerous. There are still hundreds of former adventurers who made it farther than this, and all of them died. They died facing the deeper floors of the Dungeon, after the Lair of Beasts, when things start to get really dangerous.

I just hope Urist can handle it.

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The Saga of Urist Redbeard is the story of my first win after roughly six years of playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. My hope is that it will give a sense of the complexity and appeal of hardcore roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl, but be warned that it is full of spoilers. Read part one here.

Urist Redbeard, like all the other adventurers before him, was on a quest to retrieve the Orb of Zot from the bottom of the Dungeon. He had descended through the first few floors of the dungeon, and come within an inch of death on the business end of Pikel the slavedriver’s whip of electrocution. Urist fled, then returned after gaining a little more experience and managed to kill Pikel, taking the whip for himself. When we left him, he had just found the Ecumenical Temple on the seventh floor of the Dungeon and pledged himself to Okawaru the Warmaster, one of the 18 gods in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. He was level 9.

Urist had done well to make it to the Temple, and Okawaru could provide great aid in battle, but only if Urist proves himself by dedicating his kills and sacrificing fresh corpses. Many others had been this far and farther, some even rising to become Okawaru’s champion, but still all had fallen. Urist has a long way to go yet, and things are only going to get harder. And if Urist is killed, that’s it. There’s no checkpoint, no saved game to restore. Urist can’t cheat death. I would have to start all over with a new adventurer, and a freshly generated Dungeon.

I’m going to try to keep Urist alive.

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It finally happened. After playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup off and on for about six years, I have finally managed my first win.

If you’ve missed my posts about roguelikes, you might want to take a look at them here, especially the introduction. I also specifically wrote about Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (and some of the other hardcore roguelikes) here. For those who don’t want to read through another long post right now, the basic idea is this: roguelikes are games (typically fantasy RPGs involving large dungeons) that you can easily play for your entire life. They are procedurally generated, extremely conplex and difficult to win, and if you die you must start all over with a fresh character and a fresh dungeon. Finally getting your first win is a momentous occasion that only the most dedicated players will achieve.

I’d like to tell you the story of Urist Redbeard, my mountain dwarf fighter who, against all odds, managed to retrieve the Orb of Zot from the bottom of the Dungeon and escape. Hundreds, probably thousands of other adventurers had tried before him, guided my my hand, and all had fallen. But with each of their deaths I was slowly learning, honing my strategies so I would not repeat the same mistakes. And it paid off. On November 25, 2011, Urist, heavily wounded, stumbled out of the dungeon and into the sunlight with his prize.

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