A way to deal with them is to have them follow you to a door. Once you go through the door and they enter it, you're guaranteed to hit. They usually die on the first hit. Just make sure you know what's behind the door :-)

Knowing this, I was able to find the gold I needed fairly quickly. Thanks!

I think @GWLexx meant that you mentioned having a "great seed", but didn't share it :-)

Rogues are super fun to play! Invisibility on demand is so powerful.

When not upgraded, armor blocks between 0 and X, but blocking increases with upgrades as +1/+tier. In addition, evasion means a hit can be avoided entirely.

Congratulations! It does feel good to keep improving every game.

To add to other comments:

• This wand is much more useful when upgraded, since you get more powerful wards/sentries.
• The first three zaps produce wards, which shoot a specific number of times.
• The next three zaps produce sentries, which will zap once every two turns until killed.
• You can place wards anywhere you have vision, even across walls.

I've tried playing with a staff of warding once or twice, but I don't think I've managed to win yet. It's a fun wand but it requires planning and careful management of charges. One thing I enjoyed doing was placing a couple of sentries in a spot that mob patrols would frequent. No more random mobs to worry about!

One thing I'd add to all the good advice here: positioning is crucial. You should avoid facing more than one mob at a time. Use doors to your advantage: when a mob enters a door square, you will surprise it and get a guaranteed hit. Use hallways to force mobs to get to you one at a time. Be careful when you're in an open, large room, since a ranged mob can kill you very quickly.

LOL, that's a good one :-)

I love (in a weird way) how unforgiving SPD can be. I've died more times due to my own mistakes than to the game beating me.

Recently I was trying to win the game with five challenges. I was having a great run, near the end of the caves, going swimmingly. Having "on diet" on, I was at about 20% HP. I found a wand of corrosion, and I said, it's quite unlikely to be cursed, I'm just gonna zap that DM-200 over there.

Needless to say, the wand was cursed, it created some sort of huge lightning bolt, I was dead and my great run was over. All because I was unwilling to wait to verify the wand was not cursed.

Luckily, there was a hallway (behind the mage in the picture) that allowed me to take the mobs one at a time. I was also able to position them so that the evil eyes in the back targeted multiple enemies.

BTW, the loot in that room was 300 gp :-)

Yes, that was the case. I was surprised because it had never happened before that the stairs were behind a secret door.l

Blazing is super powerful, but I tend to avoid it (unless I also get brimstone) because (1) my hero always ends up burning at least 2-3 times per game, always at the worst times, and (2) fire reduces dew drop opportunities and burns scrolls that you haven't picked up. This is also why I tend to about the wand of fireblast. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, though!

It might be interesting. The flow could be controlled with locked doors, sort of the way Doom/Quake do it.

Funny, this happened with a wand of corruption as well. At least SPD saved the game before crashing, and the wand worked fine after restarting the game.

It's also useful to know that the well will identify the cursed/non-cursed status of all equipment you're carrying. Non-cursed equipment will get a blue background.

Thanks! I'll try to improve my seed placement. Using stormvine next to a chasm is a great idea.

Once I was in a room and a couple of enemies were coming from a corridor. I planted a firebloom right next to the corridor door, but the baddies just moved diagonally into the room!

Also, is it correct to say that flying enemies (such as fly swarms) don't activate the plants?

It is surprisingly addictive. It's so easy to just try one more time before doing what I actually need to do...

Has the DM-300 boss been buffed? I just fought it in 2.4.0. I remember being able to evade the toxic gas quite easily, but this time it was almost impossible not to get surrounded by it for at least two or three turns. This made the fight considerably more difficult.

Yes, just food drops, potions of healing and dew. This particular seed has an ample supply of food as well. In general, I used to struggle with food management, but lately I've improved this aspect of the game and seldom run out of food. Some ideas:

• Make sure to move diagonally when possible to save one turn.
• Convert all mistery meats to edible meat.
• Get the small rations from the shops.
• Imbue the blandfruit with a seed of icecap or firebloom. Besides serving as a thrown weapon, they leave some food behind. It lasts for a long time!
• Try not to go back and forth through a level -- minimize the amount of turns you spend moving.
• The potions of honeyed healing (healing potion + shattered honeypot) also provide a bit of satiety.

Thanks again. I need to start thinking more creatively! It didn't occur to me to throw things at plants to activate them.