April 29, 1999
Guide To Sucessful Combing-By Remn
A problem for most people when it comes to multiclassing or getting
practice points or egging equipment is getting eggs from the catacombs.
Many people don't know how to comb sucessfully (walk out with more than
2 eggs). Here are some tips and advice for combing.
-Classes/Level-
First off hand, if you aren't a thief or a mage, you are going to have
one hell of a time in catacombs. Clerics can heal and warriors can bash
and kick, but that isn't good enough to survive combs. You don't have
farsee, sneak, invis., shield room, peek, etc. Also another factor is
your level. If you aren't above lvl 27, you are dead. Multiclasser's
should be good enough to do it at lvl 25ish, but I should warn you to
have gate spell. You can comb if you don't meet these requirements, but
I HIGHLY don't recommend it, because you will get slaughtered.
-Taking Caution-
When you are combing, you need to be able to live to get much done,
right? First of all, if you are a thief and/or mage, ALWAYS invis/sneak
after a fight. Last thing you want to do is walk into a room with 3
chimeras and 2 mind flayers without sneaking. Another thing I would
recommend once you get lower into the combs, is to cast phantasmal
images. If you are a unsuspecting unsneaking mage and walk into a room
with a sludge mephit, the mephit will ice (kill you in one backstab)
you. Images are also useful for when you fail to sneak.
-Getting To The Right Spot-
When you first walk into the combs, the first level has easy mobs and
all, and some eggs, but people will come and completely cover all of
level one and two very fast. So the first thing you should do is find a
dream-weaver and sleep. Hopefully you will be transported way lower into
the combs, and this is where you must CONSTANTLY sneak/invis. The mobs
are very difficult and move in large forms, but you should be able to
get a lot of eggs here if you play your cards right.
-Mobs To Kill And Ones To Avoid-
Mobs with 15 eggs are tempting to kill. But make sure you can kill that
mob. Like I said before, the mobs get very hard as you go down lower.
Some mobs are very easy, like sprites and lichens, and are no trouble at
all. Blood weeds and bears are also very easy, they don't hit hard/often
and don't have many hps. Mud Men are fairly hard hitters and have kind
of a lot of hps. Vampire bats, sludge mephits, and tornado golems are
hard hitting mobs, but they have very low hps. If you have lots of hps
and can take a beating, then they will be no trouble. Eels are
underwater mobs, they have lots of hps but don't hit hard, and shockwave
will kill them fast, but have breathe water. Octopuses and black
serpents have enormous amounts of hps, but they don't hit to hard, take
a while to kill. Banshees and mind flayers are VERY hard, they cast and
they hurt, avoid them as best you can. Maelbreths are decent hitters
with decent hps, but they can kill you easily. Fire wolves are
permanently fireshielded mobs, but have no hps and barely hit you.
Chimeras have LOTS of hps and hit -REALLY- hard, AVOID them. Hermits are
non-aggressive, and you shouldn't kill them, since they will probibly
kill you. Metamorphs and white dragons are the hardest mobs in the
combs. They are not aggressive, but don't try killing them without a
form of heroes (no joke, I learned the hard way :)). Spiders have lots
of hps, and hit kinda hard, take causion fighting them. Dragon of the
Deep are fair hitters, and massive hps, if you wanna kill them, try to
trap them first. Mists and blackness don't hit to hard, but have WAY to
many hps to even bother with, and mists are unaffected by hits, try to
avoid both (they don't have detect invis, but are aggressive).
-Traps To Avoid-
Watch out for coral rooms, the rooms with the name a room with strange
shapes, or something. If you walk in with a light on or without roots,
then it will shoot darts at you when you move, and its not cool, and
will kill you easily. Rooms with slugs are the same way, but you are
allowed to move. ONLY move, don't talk, look, examine, fight, etc., or
they will tear your brain out, and it hurts a lot. How can you avoid
this fate? If you have steal, then you can steal roots from the wise
hermits. If not, you can try killing them, but you will probibly get
smoked.
-Killing Mobs-
Ok, so now you know some things about the combs. Now how to kill mobs.
Weeds and bears are easy, and you don't need to do much. Many mobs, you
should probibly try to trap, since they require you to flee once or
twice, and most mobs will track you down. Sludge mephits, dragon of the
deep, spiders, vampire bats, tornado golems, chimeras, banshees,
maelbreths, and mind flayers are some of the mobs that you most likely
should trap. When you are in the lower parts of the combs, shield room
before engaging in a fight with a mob. Scan/farsee and make sure the
other exits are clear, or if there are mobs, make sure they can't enter
the room and kick your butt while fighting the mob you already are. Take
MUCH caution when you are fighting, because you don't want to wind up
dead when you could have gotten way more eggs then you did get. Trust
me, I have been careless in combs before and I ended up banging my head
on the wall when I couldn't get back to the spot I was at.
-Forming-
I HIGHLY don't recommend forming in combs. You can do the first few
levels for exp, but don't even THINK about going lower than that if
everyone in your form can't sneak. If all of you have sneak, then
forming would be fine, but other than that, no. If you are forming for
eggs, then you'd have to share all your eggs and it won't be good for
anyone. Getting 300 eggs with 5 people, and you get 60 eggs. But if you
all split up and you know combs well, you could each get 100+ eggs,
EACH. So unless your exping or looking for metamorph, don't form.
-Final Word-
Ok, so now you know enough about combs to do a run. It may take some
practice and personal experiance before you can get 300 eggs every time
it crashes, but you should eventually get there. Try things to, like
killing tougher mobs like chimeras, just be careful and make sure you
won't get your butt kicked if you do try them.
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