Me am Smart
Ascension Guide: the Intelligent Barbarian AKA Me am Smart
As many of you may have noticed, POWDER is a very difficult game. I've read a few other ascension guides on this wiki, most notably Mental_Mouse's, and they seemed reasonable. Upon trying the strategies, though, I died. Even when I did live to deeper levels, it seemed like too much work to juggle gods and curses while trying to kill dragons and cockatrices at the same time. H'ruth was particularly annoying, always cursing my flaming sword and disenchanting my armor. I decided to take the old adage to heart, and so next game I started as a follower of H'ruth. After all, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I soon developed a strategy I called the Intelligent Barbarian. With as much decision-making as a mage, and powerful enough to deal handily with dragons, daemons and the like; I found it by far the simplest and easiest way to dive to level 25 of the dungeon, slay Baezl'bub, and return to the surface with his black heart. Let's begin the guide with the ideal loadout:
Helm : Warning
Neck : Most necklaces are useful, but don't go trying them on until you're sure they won't strangle you (see Identifying Items for some good strategies).
Body: Splint, Banded, Chainmail. Nothing too heavy (to avoid Quizar-hate), but good AC for their noise level.
Rings: any resist is good, and fire will be essential.
Boots: Speed is useful, water walking is nearly essential and the whole build is based around jump, so prioritize IDing footwear.
Weapons: The ideal weapon is a +n named flaming long sword (I actually found one in one of my runs), however any multihit weapon (basic Flaming Long Sword, or named Mace/Rapier/Spear/etc.) is nice, since this build is focused on the guaranteed critical hits barbarian skills grant. I recommend flaming sword above all others because it comes with a built-in light radius, and you can't jump somewhere you can't see.
Off hand: Mirror Shield is ideal, but torch (to see far enough to jump) or generic shield are ok too.
Skills: All of them. This is no exaggeration. I once had a barbarian with every skill in the game. However, there is a priority list.
1 & 2. Leap Attack and Charge Take the one most immediately useful. This means Leap Attack if you have Jump, Charge if you don't.
3, 4 & 5. The skills for the weapon you have. Ideally Medium Weapons, Edged Attacks and Parry, but if you don't have a long sword get the other weapon's skills. Note: Mace/Rapier/Shortsword should be prioritized over other weapons, since they share skills with your (hopefully) eventual final weapon.
6+. Useful skills: Endure Hunger, Dodge, etc. The random semi-useful skills.
Forget for better: weapon skills that do not apply, other near-useless skills (Improvised Weapons?)
Spells: You know no spells!
All right. With that out of the way, we'll move to the walkthrough.
Floors 1-5: Getting established. Start with H'ruth. If you're willing to cheat a little, reset your character until you get a Book of H'ruth and Book of Blades. In the first levels you should play as normal, using Charge and Leap Attack to get easy crits. Also remember to save up potions, scrolls and other magic objects, IDing them when possible. Wands, too, are not a bad idea, despite H'ruth's dislike of them. Knowing the difference between a Wand of Slowness and Wand of Teleport can save you in sticky situations. Stockpile Wands of Ice and Mana Potions, using them as little as possible. The Early Game is a big help, and you should be knowledgeable about the Speed System.
Note on polymorph: Though it may seem like an easy and fun way to breeze through the early levels, polymorph (through ring or wand) will bite you in the end, leaving you under leveled and out of depth deeper into the dungeon. Wands of Polymorph are much better used to create good Boots, Wands of Ice, and Mana Potions. I know there are ways to abuse it for bonus spells, but you should leave that to the wizards.
Levels 5-10: You should be well on your way to obtaining the treasured Flaming Long Sword by shoving regular Long Swords into every potion you own (after testing for acid and poison, of course). Your prowess in battle should become evident, and most of the time you can just walk into foes until they disappear. Use your high-level "Jump Attack, jump away, Jump Attack" strategies to chip away at tough foes (Vampire Bats and Kobolds, mostly), keeping your eyes out for more pieces of The Ideal Set. Now is the time to ID your items (if you haven't already). Kill all you see for the EXP, and get a couple more levels before the midgame heats up.
Levels 10-15: These floors are when you really start hitting your stride. Jump-Critting Daemons, Dragons and Invisible Stalkers is the best way to make them go poof. You should be seeing Lizardmen, Trolls, and Dragons fairly regularly, and dispatch them for the lovely EXP. Continue ever downwards, keeping your eyes out for the last few pieces of The Ideal Set, and taking advantage of the Speed System (and the Speed Boots you found or made) to get rid of Cockatrices and Poison creatures.
Level 15: Being a melee class, you don't have very good chances against the Cretan Minotaur, and should honestly avoid him. If the temptation of named loot is too strong, though, I advise dekeing him with your mad hops, and snatching the loot from his den without coming into direct conflict with him. His melee is just too good to fight directly.
Levels 15-20 Should be a repeat of 10-15, but keep cautious around large groups of monsters. A Ghast/Cockatrice combo could end your game instantly.
Levels 20-25: The fun floors! Seriously, though, watch out. The monsters here are overwhelming, and huge lakes will force you to switch out Jump Boots for Water-Walking. Just remember, you can (and sometimes will) die to the most unlikely combination of events. I had a character who was invincible right up until a Kobold Assassin Tracked him, bled him, and poisoned him. He led a mob of monsters halfway across the cavern before an Earth Elemental dropped him in a hole, and the mob caught up. RIP Hars.
Level 20: ><0|\/|'s Spaceship Dock. If you took my advice and ignored the Minotaur earlier, you will have no way of getting in the interdimensional portal. Good. The tridudes will tear you apart if you hop through (especially the purple ones). In other words, treat this as floor 19, and stay out of the portal!
Level 21: Belweir's library. Generally not worth your time or resources, but if you have a lot of unused skill points it might be useful to crack the library's code. Info on how to do so is here. If you get super-lucky with scroll spawns you could even CREATE a named Flaming Long Sword, which is usually pretty sweet. Or your shiny new artifact grants Blind, in which case you cry. That said, the knowledge inside isn't worth sacrificing Wands of Ice or Mana Potions. Once you're done with the library, carry on to...
Level 22: Quizar's Maze. Extremely dangerous. Be cautious around Earth Elementals, Water Elementals, and Acid Dragons. Prudent use of resist and water walking will get you through, and if you are skilled (overlevelled) enough to 1v1 named Elementals feel free to try for the artifacts in the corners of the level. Otherwise, don't bother. Many a promising run has ended with an adventurer encased in stone or struggling to breathe.
Level 23: H'ruth's Arena. Take your time, use the Speed System and your awesome Leap Attack, and this place will give you no trouble. One room to watch for is the one full of Kobold Assassins. I find a wand of fire quite useful, and once the trees go up you can just shut the door and listen to them burn. Free EXP!
Level 24: Klaskov's Village. There are two strategies to defeating Klaskov's Village. One is to crash through, Leap Attacking everyone in your way until you reach the ladder, then slide on down into hell. This is fast but dangerous, and the chance that some Orc will hold the perfect random item to absolutely demolish you is a significant reason to avoid this strategy.
Strategy two is slow and safe. Stand in the intersection between the houses, moving forward enough to aggro one or two orcs, then retreating back further to leap attack them to death. Wait to regen your lost hp, then repeat. This takes much longer, but you are far less likely to get blasted by a random Potion of Blindness and clubbed to death in a horde of orcs. Occasionally an Orc will wander out of the woods and try to fight you, but any lone Orc should be easy pickings.
Side note!
Did you know you can't jump while blind? The potion -> clubbing scenario happened to me on one of my runs. Turns out that without room to charge, or eyes to jump with, this build dies a gruesome death! The more you know, right?
Floor 25: The pits of Hell! This is the climax of the run. The first step to obtaining Barzlebbub's heart is to find the guy. I recommend using some of those wands you've been hoarding to dig around in the walls a bit. This way you can't get mobbed by imps and daemons. Bazelebeb likes to Fetch you over a pit of lava, so be sure to have on your fire-resistance ring and water walking boots.
Once you locate him, killing him should prove simple. The Wands of Ice you found earlier are the (somewhat cowardly) tool of execution. Simply point, click, and freeze. If he fetches you, walk around him and back into your homemade grotto, or simply dig into another nearby wall. You have enough God Points with H'ruth at this point to fill an ocean, so the wands shouldn't cost you much.
Is Barzelebub an ice sculpture? Good. Waltz out to his heart, pocket it, and hop back up to the surface, avoiding cockatrices and green dragons (since that's about all that can kill you now). If you're not too careless, you can now easily jump back to the very first ladder, where I leave you with one last tip:
Don't freeze the old woman. She wouldn't take it kindly.
And now I take my leave. Happy leaping!
-Wobbaduck
