the lowdown on ..

ANGBAND

Angband is a MiddleEarth-inspired, combat-based RPG with (depending on what version you are playing)  graphics between very poor and nonexistent.

It is also very fun.

Angband is a small (10Meg) freeware game with a random map generator - you create your character, then head down in the dungeons beneath the city, where you find hundreds of different monsters and artifacts.

On level 99 lives Sauron, kill him, and you get to go down to level 100 to fight - perhaps prevail - Morgoth, the Ancient Enemy; kill Morgoth and you have won.

Dungeon creation is random each time you enter a level anew - irritating thought to old school dungeoneers like me who like to clean out everything, but as part of the game mechanics it works brilliantly. Limitless dungeons to explore - and although they might be very ripetitive in shape or colour, the stuff you find within them isn't.

Named mobs (from Tolkien lore - ringwraits, easterlings, uruk hai, great dragons..), artifacts, ego items, scrolls, potions, gems, wands, every item ever imagined in a classic RPG is here. Add to this the extereme complexity of the game system, that lets you do almost every immaginable action - spike doors, inscribe runes, throw items/weapons/nasty stuff, magic in every form or shape, sleeping monsters, sneaking, running madly from big monsters, and eating food - without which you die a YASD.

The Good:

Angband is fun, free, and will keep you busy for approximately one million hours. get it HERE.

http://rephial.org/

The Bad:

You have to be no less than a D&D fanatic to love it; Angband is hard and unforgiving - the really bad graphics makes you forget that every square you move is a action turn, and you tend to die often.

The Ugly:

YASD stands for Yet Another Stupid Death.

Unless you plan to really spend months on end playing it, you will make some mistakes, and generally wind up being punished for them. Mind you, there is always a reason why you died, and often that reason laughs in your face. Which is made worse by the fact that since this was designed to be a realistic game, you only get one life.. no save game reload. Once dead, you are dead.

If the one-shot game system ins't bad enough, the interface really needs a overhaul, with important ("you hear a door bust open!") messages getting lost in the keypresses, and you really need to survive this initial culture shock with Angband's ugliness and realism to get to like it.

A
nd finally, Angband wasn't made to be finished in the first place; It was a software that ran on a server at a university, with hundreds of people expected to be logged on, trying to kill Morgoth, all of them failing miserably one way or another. The fun would be in surviving a little longer, going a little deeper in the dungeons, and most of all, getting killed in the most unfair way.

In my three years in Angband, with cheats on, i have faced Morgoth but twice, and never killed him. I did though manage to kill Sauron, and Morgoth himself was brought down to half his hit points, and  i hear that - but it's just a rumor - Morgoth himself can be killed. Word around has it that Rangers work best ..

How to beat Angband

the old adage goes, Buy Lantern , Kill Morgoth.

And certainly a lantern is the most useful piece of equipment until you find an Elfstone or Glaradiel's Phial, for it makes far more light than a torch and in Angband, being able to see what is ahead is more important than a good sword. Which is also, very important. But the point is, knowing what that stuff in your inventory does is very important. Ignorance is death.

Although Angband characters tend to die very easily, all is not lost - you, as a player,(in a convenient .txt file that you can check while playing, just [r]ecall a monster) retain memories of your misadventures, and slowly get to know all the mobs in the game - expecially those whom you have killed or have been killed by, thus preparing you for what is ahead next. Many, many mobs are unfair and/or overpowered, and getting to know which ones are is the best way to stay alive. 
Even though it might seem easy to go deeper at first, you really need to do the first levels ten to twenty at least twice, as it is necessary to find a great deal of equipment before you can get to the better mobs/artefacts. Scrolls/Staves of Teleportation are essential to getting out of troublesome spots, but they both tend to be easily destroyed by fire breathing dragons and acid splashes. There are too many variables to list them here, but essentially until you know exactly what is going on, read the messages carefully and ponder on their significance(ctrl+P to see back messages). Too many times i have died stupidly having the very item that would save me in my own backpack.

Anyhow, should you survive the first impact with Angband's horrid UI, go to graphics/David Gervais Tiles and try those, they are quite nice. And if you should survive having your first few YASDs  without throwing out the folder with the game(no install required), and get deeper into the mysteries of the game, here is a few tips.

0)Tip number zero: the basics.. after learning the key commands, press shift-c and then [h], there is a list of your resistences, if you don't have one, mobs that use that attack type will mangle you in a wink.

1)Molds are the stupides, most irritating mobs in the game. They are worth almost zero XP and have horrid powers of stat drain/equipment damage/XP drain, so stay away. Also, they don't move. Another good reson to read the messages and see what is actually happening in the game.

2)Hounds are worth little XP, and extremely dangerous. Should you find a dungeon level packed with these mobs, just get out and back in again, we won't blame you for it.

3)Ignore the level feelings. The way they work is completely screwed up. You will find plenty of artefacts anyway if you manage to survive past a certain point.

4)If you are serious about beating this game, just take it easy, go slowly, and remember that the number one reason you die is because you have Recalled back into the dungeon at a level too deep for your character. When you are about to use a Recall scroll, go up about 2-5 levels through the stairs, and then select "reset recall depth?->yes".

5)To beat Angband you must kill Morgoth. In order to do so you must first kill Sauron, and him and Morgoth both have a really annoying power that you must counter in order to win: they can summon every named mob in the game. Therefore, even if you do manage to get to level 99 (it's not that hard after all), you have to spend a great deal of time just running around levels 50+ to make sure you have killed every single one of Morgoth's allies. Expecially the biggest ones, like the Queen of dragons or the Ringwraits (all nine of them). Killing Morgoth himself is just a hack&slash thing, though people have had the most success with Rangers who use Holy bolts and Runes to block him. Personally, i haven't got a good thing to say about magic, i never really had a lot of success with it, i like warriors for their simplicity.

6)Use the cheats. There is no easier way to actually learn what is going on that actually sticking your neck in it until you get your head chopped off by a mob who is ten levels out of depth. Of course, you can't win like that, and instead of WINNER you get the title of CHEATER if you do kill Morgoth, but it's the best way to go. And a bit of wisdom .. when you start the game go first to the weaponsmith. if you don't see [25000] as the maximum he pays... start again. Money isn't really important in Angband, but it can make your life easier around level 30+.

7)and last. or you could make a copy of your save game file... 

HOW I KILLED MORGOTH

well, actually morgoth turns out isn't so hard to beat, after all. here is my step-by-step, completely fool-proof method:

step one, stash at home all the potions of healing, *healing*, life that you can. killing morgy will take at least a dozen potions. actually, stashing potions will probably not be that hard at all.

stash at home as many scrolls of mass banishment as you can. simple banishment scrolls might work as well, if you are in a tight spot.

make sure you have enough speed for the beginning of the fight. a staff of haste or potion, plus a nice ring of speed (i have one that's +16) will do nicely.. looking for around +35 speed all in all.

go trough your equipment and have a setup where you have every resistance covered. obviously, chaos, nether, nexus and disenchantment are the most important.

make sure you have a weapon that has Slay Evil as a brand. ideally, a Mace of Distruption or Blade of  of Chaos of *Slay Evil* would be the best weapon, but any artefact weapon that has "slays evil creatures" will do.

plenty of potions of enlightment.

something that has teleport, like scrolls of teleportation, or staves. but scrolls are better.

that's it, you are ready. go down  to level 100, after you have killed just about every named mob in the game (atm 93 named listed, all killed), and ASAP drink a potion of enlightment. look around the dungeon, and see if there is a vault (the big rooms made of white marble, ie, made of that indestructable stone that makes up the edges of the map. if there is no vault, go back to town and try again.

if there is a vault (smaller is better), go in, and if morgoth hasn't spotted you yet, clear it/banish. if you can't, start again from town(vaults are plentyful at these levels).

when you have your small vault cleared, put your speed equipment on, and sloooowly go around the dungeon looking for Morgoth. When he spots you and proceeds to tunnel through granite to get to you, run to the vault. (once in, get your "fighting" equipment on)

lead Morgoth into the vault. essentially, what you want is a situation like so :

XXXXXXX

XXuM

XXXXXXX

where "u" is You, and M is obviously, Morgoth. X's are the white vault walls, that Morgy cannot destroy. 
This leaves you with a simple (hrmm..) one-on-one melee with Morgoth. If, or rather, when, Morgoth summons his many friends, just read a scroll of mass banishment. i had 9 at the beginning of the fight, used 6 to beat him. besides this, it's just attack morgoth .. press space bar several times...else you might attack him one time too many, and go too low on HP. if your HP are less than say, 600, then you need to drink a potion. my Dunedain warrior had 1144 HP, Anduril as main sword, 30+ potions of *healing*, AC 237 and all resists covered, plus a lucky Nenya and Vilya combo.. but these are not necessary, as a nice ring of damage will do.

o
h btw, you *do* tend to miss Morgoth quite a lot, so rings of slaying will do just as nicely, as a simple potion of heroism also. when meleeing him, simply never push your luck. if your HP are low, drink a potion. do not try "one more attack" as he can manastorm for 600dmg or so.   on a good round, i would use two moves to attack and the third to heal. didnt take me more than 15 potion of *healing* to kill him, so around 30-40 turns.. 


thinking about it, that must have been a solid two minutes of gameplay, not longer. but they sure were a tight two minutes.