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From: wws@whuxlm.UUCP (Stoll W William)
Newsgroups: net.games.hack
Subject: Re: Endgame techniques (Questions + score SPOILERs)
Message-ID: <841@whuxlm.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Sep-85 09:59:56 EDT
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Posted: Sun Sep 15 09:59:56 1985
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re: Hack 1.0.3
A few comments (and SPOILERS):

> 
> The only way I handled it was to teleport to level 30, and then work my way up
> from there. As I came up each stairway, there was not a down stairway
> underneath but the next up stairway.
> 

If you want a big score, go to level 40 instead of 30 (40 is as low as
you can go).  Every level except the one on which the amulet first appeared
will have a wand of wishing somewhere.  In a minute I'll tell you a new way
I found to use the wands to (I think) maximum advantage.

>
> ...  when I started to whack the Wizard (with a two
> handed sword)  I got one chance, which hit him, and he disappeared.
> ...
> Is there any way to keep the Wizard from doing this?
> 

I find that wands of sleep and polymorph work nicely.

re: maximizing score (SPOILER!!):

I read on previous postings that zapping piles of rocks with wands of
polymorph turned them into gems.  Can we make use of this to escape the
dungeon with (dare I say it) over 1000 valuable gems?  First I'll say
what I hypothesize, then I'll tell what I actually did that led to the
hypothesis.

Some facts:
1) rock piles cannot be larger than 255 rocks (unsigned char, I think;
   at least that was true in 1.0.2, and my game was going so well I
   didn't try to make larger piles).  Zapping worthless gems can turn
   them into valuable gems.

2) Carrying all those gems and gold to level 0 is not possible -- unless
   you reserve a potion of confusion and teleportation (and ring of
   teleport control) to teleport yourself up.

Spend the pre-maze part of the game getting all the gold and gems
(and rocks) up to level 1 (any level should do).  Line up the rocks
in piles of 255 in a neat row in a big room.  Identify gems whenever
possible.  When you've got all the wands of wishing and gold and
gems and rocks, drop the gold, and drop all your food on top of it.
get rid of your weapon(s) and armor -- they will diminish your
carrying capacity.  Watch out for L's and D's -- if they swipe your 
$60000+ gold pile, it will be greatly diminished after you catch
up with and kill the monster.

Wish for 3 wands of polymorph (I never tried this; wishing for one
wand might be safer) and drop two of them.  Position yourself at the
end of the row of rock piles, and zap the wand into the piles.
Examine each rock pile by moving onto it and using the ":" command to
see if they turned into valuable gems.  Any rock piles with valuable
gems should be moved out of the line-of-sight of your next polymorph
zap.  When the polymorph charges run out, use the "extra" charge
(remember, every wand has one extra zap that takes several "nothing
happens" zaps to realize).  Then use the other polymorph wands you
wished for, one by one.

Repeat the above paragraph until all the rocks/gems are valuable,
then pick them up.  Move onto the pile of food and gold, thus
picking up the gold.  This will probably force you to collapse
under your load, so it would be helpful to have a tamed dog with
you at this point (or be standing on scare monster or Elbereth --
you don't need to fight anymore).  Use the remaining wishes (don't
forget the "extra" wishes!) to wish for "3 diamonds" per wish.
When all wishes are exhausted, get rid of the used-up wand.  When
all wands of wishing are exhausted, quaff confusion and teleport out.

In my game, I accidentally discovered that polymorph zaps could affect
more than one rock pile.  I managed to get two piles of 255 valuable
gems, and pick them up.  Most of my gold got "eaten" by an L, but I
still got over 2200000 points.  It didn't occur to me to wish for more
polymorph wands -- but that would have to be a worthwhile gamble.  I
left a lot of worthless gems on level 1 when I escaped.

Another idea, when you run out of rockpiles, try wishing for boulders
and turning them to rocks with your pick-axe (when I'm not a
Speliologist, I always wish for a pick-axe first).  If you can turn
60 rocks into valuable gems, that's better than using the wish for
3 diamonds!  BUT I never tried wishing for a boulder, so no guarantees
there.  Also, I don't know how many gems you can carry!  To really
maximize things, people might have to zap rock piles until they turn
into diamonds (reducing the endgame to luck?).

If anybody tries this stuff and beats my score, I'd appreciate the
gory details if you don't mind.  Maybe I will have to play some more
after all!

Bill Stoll, ..!whuxlm!wws