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I wanted to see if the game was beatable with tier-3 equipment. The rule is simple: never equip any item whose description includes "tier-4" or "tier-5".

It turns out it's possible! I played with a gladiator, and the "swarm intelligence" challenge.

My weapon was a sword +1 (best tier-3 weapon that I could find), upgraded to +6 and augmented with a kinetic enchantment.

The armor was a chain mail +2 (again, best I could find), upgraded to +13 and with an anti-magic glyph.

I was lucky to find a good selection of rings. The RoF +3 was a gift from the imp in level 17 or 18, so I only had it for the final floors. The RoE was found at +0. The RoW helped in the first half of the game, and the RoM provided lots of bonus damage to my low-tier equipment.

I was also lucky to get a WoC +3 from the wizard. The WoF is always useful to slow down opponents.

The entire run was done without any help from artifacts. The ToF is the only artifact I found in the entire dungeon, and that was in level 19. Since I had stashed four or five Scrolls of Magic Mapping, I never used the Talisman.

In the end, it wasn't too difficult. What I missed most was the feeling of power from one-shotting mobs with a well-upgraded tier-5 weapon while feeling invulnerable with a plate armor.

I'm going to try a Tier-2 run next (with a similar rule), maybe without challenges. I haven't decided what class to use. Has anyone tried it before?

All my wins have been with tier-4 and tier-5 equipment. I want to see if I can win with only tier-3 items. My rules are never to equip anything above tier-3, not even thrown weapons. Playing with a gladiator, who is about to go down to level 13, with the swarm intelligence challenge.

Has anyone tried something similar? Do you think it's possible to win with only tier-2 or (gasp) tier-1 equipment?

Update: I'm about to start level 19, still with a sword +1, and with a mail +8 of anti-magic. It's amazing how far a tier-3 +1 weapon can take you!

Update 2: Run complete! See https://lemmy.world/post/18859193

It took me a long time to finally make it! Swarm intelligence + hostile champions + badder bosses, with a sniper.

I was lucky to get a projecting bow and a brimstone armor (plate). I don't know if I'd have survived the burning fist + dark fist combo without it.

Finished with 17 healing potions. What's the most others have finished with?

• Playing with a sniper.
• No challenges.
• The armor is scale +6 (there's been a lot of discussion about plate vs scale lately). The RoE and the shield help a lot, though.
• I got the RoS +4 from the imp in level 18 or thereabouts. A shuriken followed by a 3-shot volley killed everything before they even had a chance to reply.

My sniper was dominating level 23 with a tomahawk +8 and a speed-enhanced bow. Facing off three or four death eyes and scorpios (playing with swarm intelligence on), suddenly the tomahawk went spiraling down into the abyss! I think the sniper had lost line of sight to her target, and the tomahawk bounced off a wall and down it went. I thought the run was lost!

Fortunately, the tomahawk was somewhere in level 24! After sacrificing a few seeds to the gods of the forest in thanks, she went on to close Yog-Dzewa's eye forever.

Now my question: is it always the case that items that fall into the abyss will be found in the level below?

I'd been trying for a while to have a mage ascend with two challenges (swarm intelligence + hostile champions), but after reading the comments here I decided to go with a sniper. It turns out to be super fun! I was able to finally ascend on my third try.

This was a particularly good run:

• I got three stones of enchantment. I used the first two on my bow. The first one was blazing (actually a curse IMO), the second was elastic (yes!)

• I got a couple of boomerangs early on. Upgraded boomerangs are awesome! I had to use telekinesis only a handful of times.

• The bow was enhanced for speed. Almost nothing can survive a +8 boomerang plus three shots, and only bosses can survive two rounds.

• I got an anti-magic plate +1 early on, and then a greatsword +1. My third SoE resulted in a grim sword -- awesome!

• I got the talisman of foresight and, in level 22 or 23, the ethereal chains.

Overall it was a ton of fun. I recommend trying out the sniper if you haven't already! (The seed was CNY-XQY-ZPF).

This is my mage at the end of dungeon level 9. He's level 13, and he also has two potions of healing. Two challenges are active (badder bosses and swarm intelligence). The unidentified scroll is not "remove curse" (nor "identify"). There are no more spells nor potions in the level-6 shop. The scale armor has a curse of displacement. How would you continue?

Update: I thought this was an interesting scenario, with several different ways to proceed with no obvious winner. Thank you to all who posted ideas; I hadn't considered most of them! SPD is such a complex game.

As to what I did: since BB Tengu is a PITA, I decided to dump 3 SoU on the scale armor; in addition, I was lucky and got a glyph of affection. I used the other 3 SoU on the staff, leaving the magic missile wand imbued and relying on its magic charge ability to pump the lightning and prismatic light wands. It was a hard fight but Tengu was free at last!

Then I made it through the caves without too much trouble. This is the mage at the store in level 16. I still have two SoU which I will probably use on the staff. I'd like to attempt finishing the game with an imbued wand of primatic light, which I've never been able to do before. Suggestions welcome!

I was playing with the badder bosses challenge. Fortunately a couple of wand zaps finished Tengu off before the mage was carbonized!

This was level 21 -- I'm glad to report that the mage made it all the way to the amulet.

I was having a great run with a mage. Found a leather armor +2, whip of shocking +2, a couple of rings and a good selection of wands, some even upgraded.

I was dominating level 13 in the caves. There, I found a treasure room with the pool and the piranhas. I readily gulped down my only invisibility potion and went for the treasure, hoping for a scale armor. I had saved 2 or 3 scrolls of upgrade and a couple of arcane styli waiting for the right armor to appear.

As I was making my way to the treasure chest, a gnoll brute and a gnoll shaman both entered the room. Trying to avoid them, I took too long to get back. Through bad luck and miscalculation, the potion ran out one step from the door, which was blocked by the brute.

So, I found myself facing three giant piranhas and two gnolls. I didn't have a teleport spell, and my stones of blink were useless as I was surrounded. I tried everything I could think of, and downed 11 (!) potions of healing and shielding, but I was taking too much damage. In the end, the mage succumbed to his wounds and the game was over.

I exited the game in frustration and swore not to try again in at least a week (not for the first time).

Five minutes later, to my horror, I realized I forgot that I had a seed of fadeleaf that might have saved me :-(

The scale armor was augmented for evasion; not even the scorpions could hit me. I waltzed through the demon halls without worries.

I also had a RoW +1 and a robber's armband, and at some point had more than 10,000 gold. I had never had more than 3,000 before. Overall, I collected almost 21,000 gold; all my previous wins hovered around 14,000.

There are three (!) stones of enchantment, not even in hidden rooms. And five experience potions!

Ascended with a score of 242,000, my best yet.

Seed: BSC-DPD-VGR

I can't find the way down! Am I going blind? Can the stairs be behind a secret door? I don't have any mapping spells or clairvoyance stones. Level 7, seed KXK-ZML-VGR. The room at the bottom of the map is closed.

Update: backtracked to a store and sold some stuff to get a spell of magic mapping. There were two secret doors on the west room woth the two columns. This is the first time this happens!