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From: toma@fluke.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.rogue
Subject: How to Kill Dragons
Message-ID: <515@vax1.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Feb-84 00:05:09 EST
Article-I.D.: vax1.515
Posted: Tue Feb 28 00:05:09 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Feb-84 05:05:57 EST
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA
Lines: 130


	I was recently amazed at the number of people clamoring for hints
on playing the (highly addictive) game of rogue!  Perhaps the claim of the
manual is true - that few, if any, are widely known to have snared the Amulet
and staggered to freedom and glory.  Here at Fluke, such is not the case -
several people managed to win version 5.2 (the last to have floating eyes,
umber hulks, etc.).  Now that we have version 5.3 and 4.2bsd Unix,
the scores have been purged and the battle has begun anew.  While it is 
easily as difficult as the previous version, it still appears to be
conquerable.

	Having won version 5.2 twice (in not as many games), perhaps
I should reveal some secrets of the lower levels.  Those of you who wish
to earn your wings the hard way, read no further.   Here is some of the
wisdom culminating from the adventures of several Fluke wizards (notably
Dave Van Ess, Joe Murphy (no longer at Fluke, now at Sun, I think),
and myself):

		PART 1: HOW TO KILL DRAGONS

	Yes, dragons can be killed with brute strength and excellent
armor.  However, this is not a recommended practice unless you have 
achieved a very high experience level (> 11).  For those of you who have
never encountered one, dragons have one very annoying characteristic:
they have extremely bad breath.  So bad, in fact, that it withers the
skin.  This gives rise to rule #1 in dealing with dragons:

Rule #1:  Never try to run away from dragons in a hallway.  There are only
two exceptions to this rule, and that is when you are running in a hallway
that is two squares wide (a hallway that has wrapped back on itself),
or when you have zapped the beast with a staff/wand of cancellation.

	Dragons do not always move to keep up with you, so at first you
may think you are outrunning them.  Don't be fooled - they can breath on
you enough times before you are out of range to turn you into a potato 
chip.

	(Note:  Those of you with version 3.6 rogue will wonder what this
is all about.  (I don't know about versions between 3.6 and 5.2, if such
were ever distributed.)  Dragons in version 3.6 were shy, retiring creatures
with a propensity to hide in hallways just outside the doorway; rather
irritating in rooms with only one door.)

	Dragons can be quenched with a staff or wand of cancellation.
If you are lucky enough to have one of these, by all means use it.  They 
should then be treated much the same as you would treat a purple worm.
(If enough people are interested,  I'll follow up this little treatise
with a summary of effective techniques to use on purple worms and 
fire-proofed dragons.)

	Dragons are usually encountered in rooms.  Unlike the case with
umber hulks, this is exactly where you want them.  By the time you run
into one, you probably have sufficiently good armor and a potent enough
weapon to take one on.  If you are lucky, you can turn the dragon's flame
against it.  First, zigzag over to a wall by making a series of diagonal
moves until your back is up against the wall.  By moving diagonally away,
the dragon will be unable to flame you since it can only aim in the eight
cardinal directions.  If you want an "escape hatch", stop just outside a 
doorway, so that you can try to run for it if things get really grim.
Don't bother to try this unless you are really near death, since it won't
work anyway.  Your best bet is to just stand there and pound away. 
Eventually, the dragon is going to sneeze gasoline fumes.  While I can't
back this up with hard evidence, it always seems that the accuracy of 
a dragon's blowtorch is degraded by being too close - in any event, I
have frequently been missed in this position, whereupon the flame
bounces off the wall or doorway, misses again (you hope), bounces off the
dragon, and will continue bouncing off the doorway and the dragon until
it either hits you or runs out of range.  I have never had the flame miss
the dragon, which is the key to this whole maneuver - the flame has
rather ill effects on the dragon's health.

	If you win the encounter, the worst thing that can happen is that
the dragon actually kills itself; in that event, you don't get credited
with the mega-experience points that dragons accrue.  Otherwise, you 
get all those points for a joust that was probably little more difficult
than killing a xorn (as if those were easy).

	The above strategy is really your only choice when you are stuck
with a rather unfriendly dragon and no magic to speak of.  This scenario
becomes increasingly likely the longer you spend in the deeper recesses.
However, you may be fortunate enough to be in possession of a scroll of
scare monster.  This can be used to great advantage:

	First, it pays to know that scrolls of scare monster can be moved
back onto if you are carrying too much stuff to pick it up (turning it to
dust.  Version 5.3 removes the need to walk around like a carpet-bagger,
allowing you to move onto things without picking them up.)  So, if you
run into a dragon and know where the doorway is, don't drop the scroll.
First, zigzag over to the doorway (as above), and try a couple of hits.
You should already have some idea how tough a pretzel you are, and you'll
know even more after a few blows.  Never let yourself be taken down
to less than 35 to 40 hit points before dropping the scroll.  The general
idea is to save the scroll for later use if you can (after all, you're 
out to win the game, not just get past the dragon),  so drop the scroll
only if you haven't been able to weaken the dragon considerably before
he does the same to you.  (Count the number of times the flame bounces
off the dragon.)  Immediately after dropping the scroll, step out into
the hallway and rest up from the dance - the scroll is now acting as a
cork!  (Yes, dragons can still breathe down your neck while you're
perched on the scroll.) If you are careful, it's pretty hard to lose it
here.  And if something horrible wanders up from the other side, step
back into the room and kill the dragon first.

	The scroll cork technique once worked magnificently here at Fluke,
enabling a player to polish off two dragons and a vampire.  Without it,
doom was certain.

	It is impossible to list all the ways to kill dragons - imagination
is your greatest asset,  along with a general knowledge of the mechanics of
the game.  For example, it may actually be feasible to run from a dragon 
in a passageway possessing a tight kink if you have either a staff of slow
monster or a potion of haste self.  As you probably know, monsters cannot
negotiate kinked passageways that require them to move to a square that
is a greater geometric distance from you than the square they are currently
on.  Thus, it may be possible to trap a dragon while you dash for the 
passageway down.  Another possibility is to use a staff of `teleport to'
to bring a more palatable monster next to you to follow you around, in
the event you can see both a dragon and some other monster heading your
way in a lighted room (I've never tried this).

	If anybody else out there has a novel dragon-slaying method,
I'd love to hear about it.  Also, if anyone is interested in any of the
other rogue madness developed here, let me know and I'll put together
another essay.

				Tom Anderson
				John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
				Everett, Wa.
				... fluke!toma