Battle

Attacking is simple in Tangaria. If a monster gets close to your character – you will attack it automatically.

💡Experienced players often disable this behavior in the game’s options (active auto-retaliator) when playing ranged or magic classes from levels 1 to 30.

Alternatively you could move into a creature, then your character attacks the particular monster you moved into. You can attack from a distance by firing a missile or by magical means (such as aiming a wand). Creatures attack in the same way. If they move into you, they attack you. Some creatures can also cast spells from a distance, and others can use various breath weapons (such as fire) on you from a distance.

Creatures in walls cannot be attacked by wands or other magic attacks that are normally stopped by walls, nor can they be shot at with bows and arrows. Tunnelling into the wall (using the Tunnel command) will allow you to attack any creature in the wall with your main weapon. This applies to creatures which “pass through” walls: if they “bore through” walls, the wall is no longer there, and the creature can be targeted normally.

If you are wielding a weapon, the damage for the weapon is used when you hit a creature. Otherwise you get a single punch which does minimal damage.

You may wield one weapon for melee combat, and also one missile launcher (bow, crossbow or sling). You may also wear one amulet (around the one and only neck of the character), two rings (on the two “ring” fingers, i.e. the third finger of each hand: a magic ring does not function when worn on any other finger, nor may two be worn on the same finger), one light source, and a full set of armour – body armour, shield, helmet, gloves, boots and a cloak. Digging tools can be used from the tool slot. Any or all of these items may provide powers to the character in terms of bonuses to-hit, to-damage, to-armour class, or to other stats.

Firing a missile (while wielding the appropriate launcher) is the only way to get the “full” power out of the missile. You may of course throw an arrow at a monster without shooting it, but you will find the effects will not be what you had hoped.

Hits and misses are determined by ability to hit versus armour class. A hit is a strike that does some damage; a miss may in fact reach a target, but fails to do any damage. Higher armour classes make it harder to do damage, and so lead to more misses. Characters with higher armour classes also receive a damage reduction. This is not true for monsters, whose AC only affects the character’s difficulty to hit them.

If you wish to see how much damage your weapon will do, you can Inspect it. You will find the number of blows and how much damage you would do per round, including whether your weapon damages certain types of monsters differently.

Monster status effects

You will find some spells and items which can affect monsters in ways that do not involve directly dealing them damage. These are ‘status effects’. They are listed with their effects below. These status effects will either work on a monster type or they won’t; some monsters resist particular effects but not all do.

Hold Monster

  • paralyses a monster until you hit them;
  • increased chance of player getting a critical hit;
  • normal duration 3-8 turns.

Stun Monster

  • reduces the monster’s melee accuracy and damage by 25%;
  • 1 in 10 chance that the monster will miss the turn;
  • increased chance of player getting a critical hit;
  • normal duration 5-10 turns.

Confuse Monster

  • monster spells fail 50% more often;
  • monster 20% more likely to miss target with spells/ranged attacks;
  • monster aimed spells sometimes go in random direction;
  • 30% chance of erratic movement;
  • increased chance of critical hit;
  • normal duration 5-10 turns.

Slow Monster

  • -2 speed;
  • normal duration 10 or more turns.

Sleep Monster
Puts monsters to sleep, but they can wake up again quite easily.

Scare Monster

  • makes monsters run away;
  • monster spells fail 20% more often;
  • normal duration 10 or more turns.

Haste Monster (bad effect)
+10 speed (at the beginning of the game it means that monsters will do all actions at double speed – attack, move, cast spells twice faster.

Blind Monster

  • monsters cannot cast spells;
  • monsters move erratically;
  • increased chance of critical hit;
  • normal duration 5-10 turns.

Poison / bleeding:

  • prevents regeneration;
  • 1 hp loss per turn;
  • normal duration 5-10 turns.

Non-melee attacks and resistances

The player may at some time gain access to non-melee attacks, and many monsters also have them. Perhaps the most famous of this type of attack is dragon breath, but monsters may also cast spells at the player, and vice versa. This damage generally is not affected by armour class, and does not need a hit roll to hit the player or monster being aimed at.

Some attacks are purely magical: attack spells which blind, confuse, slow, scare or paralyze the target. These attacks are resisted by monsters of higher level (native to deeper dungeon depths) and characters with a high saving throw – saving throws being dependent on class, level and wisdom.

Unique monsters are immune to all forms of magical status effects such as fear, sleep or paralysis, regardless of the player’s spells or effects.

There are also available resistances to fear, blindness, confusion and stunning, and the power of “free action” prevents magical paralysis and most slowing attacks (the player may still be paralyzed by being “knocked out” in melee or by a stunning attack, but this is very rare and can be prevented with protection from stunning). There are monsters that can cause status effects such as blindness, paralysis or confusion through their melee attack. Since this is a physical effect and not a mental one, the player will not get a saving throw. However, having resistance to that effect will prevent the negative status in all cases. It should also be noticed that most unique monsters automatically pass their saving throws, and some monsters are naturally resistant to confusion, fear and sleep. Some monsters may have spells that ’cause wounds’ that can be deadly if successful but do no damage if the saving throw is passed.

Some melee attacks by monsters may drain a stat, as can some traps: this is prevented by having that stat sustained. Drained stats are temporary and can be restored on gaining a new character level or consuming rare items found in the dungeon.

Some monsters may cast spells that teleport the player character. There is no saving throw, except to those that would actually teleport him up or down one dungeon level. Having resistance to nexus will also prevent being level-teleported, but will not help against normal teleportation spell attacks. The player may teleport monsters in the same way, with a spell, wand or rod. No monsters, even Morgoth himself, can resist this teleportation.
Yet…

Other attacks are usually element-based, including the aforementioned example of dragon breath. Many monsters can breathe various attacks or cast bolt or ball spells, and the player may also have access to bolt and ball spells (or breathe like a dragon, in some rare circumstances). The player, and the monsters, may be resistant to these forms of attack: resistance is handled in different ways for the player and the monster, and for different
attack forms.

Bolt spells will hit the first monster (or the player) in the line of fire: ball spells may centre on a target which may be hiding behind other targets. Ball spells and breath weapons affect an area: other monsters caught in the blast take reduced damage depending on their distance from the centre of the blast. Monster’s breath is proportional to a fraction of the monster’s current hit points and drop off in power with distance from the monster, with a maximum cap on the damage (which is higher for the most common of such attacks, owing to the fact that the resistances are also easier to find). Bolt and ball spell damage are calculated differently – often (but not always) relative to character or monster level. See more detailed information about resistances in next chapter of the guide.

In the case of fire, cold, lightning, acid and poison, if the monster has resistance to a player attack of this kind it will take almost no damage.

Elemental attacks also have a chance to damage wielded equipment or destroy items in the character’s inventory. Fire attacks destroy scrolls, staves, magic books and arrows. Acid attacks destroy scrolls, staves, arrows, bolts and can damage armour. Electricity attacks can destroy wands, rods, rings and amulets, but equipped rings and amulets are immune. Cold attacks can destroy potions. Items in your inventory get a saving throw, and they are unharmed if they pass it. Having resistance to the element will make an item less likely to be destroyed. Dual resistance (permanent and temporary) may reduce the chance of item destruction, but won’t guarantee it. Items on the floor that get caught in an elemental ball or breath are automatically destroyed without a saving throw. Weapons, armour and chests can also be destroyed if they are lying on the floor, but cannot be harmed if they are in your pack. Only immunity offers full protection to your gear.

The character may also gain immunity to fire, cold, lightning and acid if he is fortunate to find any of the few items that provide these immunities: immunity means that no damage is taken, and the character’s equipment is also totally protected. Immunities are EXTREMELY rare.

Another attack that the player will come into contact with all too often is the soul-chilling nature of the undead, which can drain the character’s life experience. Some monsters have a life-draining melee attack, others may cast ball or bolt spells or, in extreme cases, breathe the very force of the netherworld (shortened by the game to “nether”.) There are two powers which are of assistance in this case: that of “hold life” will prevent 90% of all experience drains, and in the other 10% of cases, the amount of experience lost will be reduced by 90%. That of “resistance to nether forces” will provide resistance to nether bolts, balls and breaths, reducing the damage and preventing any experience drains from these attacks, but has no effect on melee “hits to drain experience”. Monsters caught in the blast from a nether ball or breath will take damage proportional to distance from the centre of the attack, except for undead who are totally immune. The player may find wands or rods of Drain Life, which similarly are ineffective on those undead creatures which have no life to drain: however, the real player equivalent attack spell is the priest/paladin spell of “Orb of Draining”, a ball spell which does damage to all monsters, double damage to evil monsters, and is resisted by none.

Other attack forms are rarer, but may include:

Other attack forms are rarer, but may include:

  • Disenchantment – can be inflicted via melee or monster breath; besides doing damage, it removes magical enchantments from your items, reducing their bonuses to hit, damage, or armor class. It affects even artifacts.
  • Chaos – via breath or melee; if unresisted, it can cause hallucinations, confusion, and may drain life experience.
  • Nexus – may teleport the player to the monster, away from the monster, up or down a dungeon level, or temporarily swap two of the player’s internal stats.
  • Light / Darkness – blinds the player unless they have resistance to light/dark or blindness immunity.
  • Sound – stuns the character if they lack sound resistance or protection from stunning, and can also destroy potions.
  • Shards – cuts the player if unresisted and can also destroy potions.
  • Inertia – slows the character regardless of free action or anti-paralysis protection.
  • Gravity – causes slowing, stunning, and short-range teleportation (“blinking”).
  • Force – stuns the character.
  • Plasma – stuns the character and can burn items vulnerable to fire or lightning.
  • Time – may drain experience regardless of “hold life,” and may reduce one or all player stats even if they are sustained.
  • Water bolts and balls – may confuse and stun the player, and deal significant damage from high-level monsters.
  • Ice bolts – may cut and stun the character, and can destroy potions.
  • Mana bolts and balls – the ball version is known as a Mana Storm, which destroys all items on the ground in its area of effect. Magic missiles from either monsters or the player are also considered mana-based attacks, though much weaker.

In addition items on the ground are especially vulnerable to elemental effects. Potions on the ground will always be destroyed by cold, shards, sound and force. Scrolls, staves, books, and non-metal gear will always get destroyed by fire or plasma. Scrolls, staves, and all non-mithril gear will be destroyed by acid. Rings, amulets, wands and rods will be destroyed by lightning and plasma. And finally nearly everything will be destroyed by a mana storm if left on the ground.

Some attacks may stun or cut the player. These can either be spells or breath attacks (sound, water balls) or from melee. A stunned character receives a penalty to hit and is much more likely to fail a spell or activation. If a character gets very stunned, they may be knocked out and at the mercy of the enemies. A cut character will slowly lose life until healed either by potions, spells or natural regeneration. Both stunning and cut status are displayed at the bottom of the screen. There are resistances available to chaos, disenchantment, confusion, nexus, sound, shards, light and darkness: all of these will reduce the damage and prevent side-effects other than physical damage. With these resistances, as with nether resistance, damage is a random fraction between 1/2 and 2/3.

It should be noted that not all of these are actually vital to completing the game: indeed, of the above list, only fire, cold, acid, lightning, poison and confusion resists are regarded as truly vital, with blindness, chaos and nether the next most desirable. Some attack forms are not resistible, but thankfully these are rare: resist shards will prevent all other magical attacks which cut (namely ice bolts), and confusion resistance will prevent confusion by a water bolt or ball, but there is no resistance to the physical damage caused by these following attacks: inertia, force, gravity, plasma, time, ice, water, mana. There is no resistance to any of the side-effects of a time attack, or indeed to anything but the stunning effects of a gravity attack.

A note on speed

Speed is one of the most important stats for your character. For example, increasing your speed from +0 (the default at the start of the game) to +10 (say, by drinking a potion of speed) will double your movement, melee and ranged attack rate, as well as your casting speed. You simply have more time to act — for example, to drink potions or read scrolls during combat. If you used to make two melee attacks per round at +0 speed, after increasing your speed to +10, you’ll make four — effectively doubling your combat power. Even small differences in speed matter. For instance, if your speed is +1 and a monster’s is +0, you will act slightly earlier and, over a long fight, you’ll end up performing about 10% more actions. You can think of the game as running at 60 game ticks per second — a 10% speed advantage gives you six extra ticks of energy.

Monsters which do not move at normal speed generally move “slowly” (-10 to speed), “fairly quickly” (+5), “quickly” (+10), “very quickly” (+20) or “incredibly quickly” (+30). (It will surprise nobody that Morgoth is one of the few monsters in the last category.) This is further adjusted by the fact that any non-unique monster may have a random adjustment from (-2) to (+2) to its own speed.

Generally, (+10) is exactly double normal speed, and (-10) exactly half. (+20) is about three times normal speed, but after that there is less noticeable improvement as speed goes higher – for instance, (+30) is not quite four times normal speed. Speed bonuses become less effective beyond +30. So the speed scale is non-linear — pushing speed from +37 to +40 has almost no impact, while going from +0 to +1 can make a noticeable difference. The player may find items which can be worn or wielded that provide speed bonuses: these may include boots of speed, rings of speed and a few very rare artifacts. Boots will provide a random 1d10 to speed: rings of speed may be bigger than that – generally the best that the player will get is two just over (+10), but individual rings of up to (+23) speed have been known.

Separate from the question of permanent speed (as determined by the player’s speed items and the monster’s natural speed) is that of temporary speed. The player may cast a spell of haste-self, or use a potion, staff or rod of speed or use an artifact activation to speed him temporarily: or a monster may cast a haste-self spell, or be affected by another monster “shrieking for help” or the player reading a Scroll of Aggravate Monster. In all cases, (+10) speed is added temporarily to the affected monster or player. Using two or more sources of temporary speed is cumulative only in duration – one cannot get from normal speed to (+20) using a potion and a spell of speed. Spells of temporary slowing (including monsters breathing inertia or gravity) are handled the same way, with exactly (-10) being subtracted from the player or monster’s speed temporarily, for the duration of the spell or breath’s effect. There are cursed items too — for example, rings of speed with penalties as harsh as (-56) have been known to exist. Your speed may also be reduced by certain status effects — for example, if you overeat, your character will become slowed.

Keep in mind that the overall game speed slows down as you descend to deeper levels — this is done to prevent the game from becoming too fast and to give you enough time to react, since high-level monsters move extremely quickly. For example, at dungeon level 35, the overall game speed will be twice as slow as it is on the surface.

Monster’s status bar

In bottom left corner you could see HP bar of a monster. Some of its values (not everything implemented yet):

[*********] Monster is invulnerable
[*********] Monster is paralyzed or sleeping
[*********] Monster is confused
[*********] Monster is stunned
[*********] Monster is afraid
[*————] Monster is below 10% health
[**———-] Monster is below 25% health
[*****——] Monster is below 60% health
[*********] Monster is below 100% health
[*********] Monster is at full health
[————-] Monster’s status and location are unknown

Monster Memories

There are hundreds of different creatures in the dungeons. It may be difficult to keep track of the capabilities of various creatures. Luckily, Tangaria automatically keeps track of your experiences with a particular creature. This feature is called the monster memory. To check it press the / key and enter the monster’s name (you may enter just a partial name). Your monster memory recalls the particular attacks of each creature (whether or not technically a monster) which you have suffered, as well as recalling if you have observed them to multiply or move erratically, or drop treasure, etc. Otherwise you would simply have to take notes, which is an unnecessary bother.

If you have killed enough of a particular creature, or suffered enough attacks, recalling the monster memory may also provide you with information not otherwise available, such as armour class, hit dice, spell types, spell-casting frequency, or the amount of damage from breaths or spells. These attacks will be colour coded to inform you of whether or not you currently resist a specific attack. Red or orange means you do not resist it, yellow means you partially resist it, and green means you resist it or are immune. If you attack a monster with specific elemental attacks you will learn if the monster resists that element or if they are immune. There are other magical means to learn about a monster’s abilities that don’t require you to actually experience the attacks.

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