On 23.03.2023 18:53, Yosemite Sam wrote:
It's only my third or fourth time in Gehennom. A pickaxe sounds like a great idea. I had attempted using a wand of digging, but for some reason the
range is reduced. Not sure if it's the hardness of the walls or the venue.
Yes, a wand of digging cuts only one piece of wall in the mazes (and
similar with the rocky area in one of the mines-end levels, but
interestingly the Plane of Earth's rock is not that dense).
With a pick-axe you can shortcut quite easily. While I've seen some
folks digging out almost everything I mostly dig only when I've found
the pair of stairs. During exploration of a maze (in case I have no
magic mapping to spend) there are cases where an abbreviation is also advisable.
Additionally, I've been reading about Ascension Kits in the nethack wiki. This
may help me reduce carry weight because I can get it down to the essentials.
I think there's two different types of sets to consider. As "Ascension
Kit" I usually think of exactly those items _necessary_ for the final
Planes. Other items may be helpful earlier; you already mentioned the
wands of digging which are useful for fast advance also in Gehennom,
but once you are ready to enter the Planes just two fully charged
wands of digging should suffice for the Plane of Earth, and the rest
of these wands can be ditched. Scrolls of gold detection, OTOH, can
be deposited at the level 1 stash; they are most useful to detect
the portals at the Planes and there's rarely the need to carry them
through Gehennom.
(Of course, being a pack-rat, I am lugging far too many items through
Gehennom and also too much loot to the Astral altar. Others certainly
do a better stash-management job.)
Janis
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