richreid
This guide has been updated and Revised for the current build on Fin Fort 5/31/18
–Step one - Character creation–
Create an elf, select the class as wizard, and put all points into intel. make sure to select the alignment as good. If you fail on either of these three points, delete the character and start again.
Once your character is logged into the game, eat and drink the two bottles of war/vegetables in your inventory. Trust me on this.
Upon leaving your house, you will find yourself at the East Lienster teleporter. Head right, into the wilds of ratling run.
Step two - Leveling (or creative murder for profit)
Once in ratling run, attack any black/brown ratling, or any orange bat. These are your primary targets. You will find that your light dart spell does 48 damage. You will also find that rats/bats can't get to you before you get two of these off. Murder. Murder them all. Until you hit level 3. Also pick up everything they drop, as you will need the money.
–Step two - Skills. Mad Skills–
Having reach level 3 head back to the East Lienster teleporter. Talk to them, and have them send you to Arimithor (Upper left hand side of the map, middle of the desert). Once in Arim, head up 1 screen, and enter the shop. Talk to the shop keeper, and sell your loot. Talk to him again, and buy Expert Thuamaturgy (400g). Read them. Head out of the shop, head 1 down and talk to the teleporter. Now we head to West Leinster (middle of the map east & west side by side). Once in West leinster, head right three screens and go into the magic shop. Buy mana. Now leave the shop, head left three screens back to the teleporter, and go back to East Leinster. Go one right, up four and then left. Welcome to North Havenwood.
–Step three - More murder–
Your light dart is now hitting for 80pts of damage per cast, so you should be murdering basically everything up here. A word to the wise, despite the bonus damage of 50% against undead, they have a nasty resurrection effect, so don't tackle any undead (usually Ghouls) with more than 120hp. Now murder. Kill everything that doesn't have wing, and loot the bodies. Some people will hunt for the higher hit point monsters to try and maximize xp per kill. At this stage in your homicidal rampage, I suggest just killing everything. You need the money anyways. Continue this trend until you reach level 10 - if you need to jump into town to sell your haul, do so - you can find adamantium and obsidianite weapons here, as well as master/grandmaster spell and skill books, all of which sell quite well and will fund your ongoing slaughter. Keep your eyes peeled for any spellbooks of unlock as those are drop only, and also for any rings/amulets you might run into.
—Step four - Murder by proxy—
Once you have reached 10 and cast the home spell, Head out the door to the East Leinster Teleporter. Teleport to Arimithor and head one up, where we shall purchase Master Thaumaturgy and Familiar Mysticism. Go 1 south to the Arim teleporter - teleport to Murias (bottom left hand side of the map). Once there, go one screen south and head into the magic shop. Purchase the thaumaturgy spells, Summon Nymph and Greater Shield., and the Mysticism spell, Hold Monster. Also purchase several potions of shifting. Leave the shop and head north, past the teleporter and into Wexfordshire Valley. Look for Bounty Hunters and Theives. Attack these things, and only these things. Nothing else here will jump you. DO NOT GO TOO FAR NORTH. There is forest full of evil creatures that will one shot you with spells before you can run away. Stay south, young man, stay south. Your tactics for these are fights are to always cast greater sheild on yourself before a fight, drink a potion of shifting, then start the fight. Cast hold, then summon Nymphs. The current implentation of Mysticism is that creatures have a chance to resist the spell initially, and then a chance to "Shrug" the spell off each round. So, you will want to cast hold until it "Sticks", in that it isn't resisted or shrugged at the end of the round and then start bringing out the Nymphs. Whenever the bounty hunter shrugs the spell, recast it. You will periodically have to sell loot and replenish your supply of shifting potions. Once you hit 30, cast home, head 1 south, teleport to Armithor (See a pattern here?), and buy Sorcery Prof, Expert, Master and GrandMaster skill books. Read them. Then head 1 south, and teleport to Drune (Right hand side of the screen, on the edge of the desert). Once in Drune, head 1 screen north and head into the shop. Purchase the Master level thuamaturgy spells Wrath of the Gods, If you don't have Greater Heal yet, purchase it. Also purchase the Proficient Thaumaturgy spell Empower. Purchase the Sorcery spells Cornucopia, Teleport, Shift, Multiblade and Greater Invisibility. Now I know what you are thinking - "Wooohooo!! Enchanting!". No. Not yours. Shift, extend, improved invisibility, teleport. These are why we bought sorcery. This will cost several thousand gold depending on if you had Greater heal already. Dump the rest of your cash into mana crystals. Leave the shop, head 2 screens south, and the start heading left. Go left 10 screens. You may be jumped by wolves on the way, just flee. Once you hit screen 10, you will see a hole in the ground, indicating the dungeoun you have longed for.
—Step five - Mass Murder—
Before entering the cave, go to http://realm.holtgard.com/map_thieves_hole.html - this is a map of the dungeon. Enter the dungeon. Start killing thieves - make sure you cast greater invisibility before each fight. Single thieves = Hold and light dart to death (your light darts do 112 damage now). If more than one, cast greater shield on yourself before the you start the fight. First round, summon Nymph. You are now utilizing an advanced form of the "Murder by Proxy" technique - if you are invisible, and you have a visible, summoned creature out, the monsters will target and attack that. Being as Nymphs and Faery Queens always cast shift, this is perfect for being a decoy while you do your best impression of Fat Man meeting Hiroshima. Second round summon another Nymph if there are a bunch of throwers or, cast Wrath of the Gods. Continue to cast wrath of the Gods until there is only one theif left then use light dart to finish them. Heal yourself between fights. Pick up any Mithril/Obsidian/Adamantium weapons. Leave tempered steel or lower to rot. Get used to casting empower on yourself in order to pick up loot. Once you clear the dungeon and loot both chests, cast home, head 1 south, and teleport back to drune. Head 1 north to the shop and sell everything except belts/rings/amulets/etc. Purchase some scrolls of Identify. Identify rings that cost 1250/1750. Sell those that dont. identify amulets. Belts that sell for 2250 are belts of strength, and belts that sell for 2750 are belts of carrying. At this point you are just going to keep going back and clearing Theives hole until your eyes bleed. Luckily you will hit level 37 very quickly, which takes us to our next step.
—Step six - I can has loot?—
Congratulations, you hit level 37. No, you aren't going anywhere else to murder. However, you are going to go back to Armithor one up, and purchase Grand Master Thaumaturgy. Then back to West Leinster (You remember West Leinster right?), where we go 3 up to the armor shop, where we buy ourselves a suit of troll leather armor, to keep those darn thieves from hitting us quite so hard. Next we go back down to the teleporter, head back to Drune, go 1 up, buy yourself the Grand Master Thaum spells Invuln, and Summon Fairy Queen. Then back to Thieves Hole. Keep going to thieves hole. You should at some point snag a ring or two, maybe an amulet even that is worth wearing. Yes, rings of str are worth wearing. At this stage you will begin to accumulate wealth. Once you break 5k mana, start leaving anything over 5k at home in your chest. We are saving up for enchantments. Keep murdering thieves, and once you hit 40, start skipping the low HP singles. Just keep chugging along, until you hit 58
—-Step seven - I hate thieves hole—
Ok, you hit level 58. Good job, you got your permanent house, and you have 21 build points. Go to Arimithor, one up, and buy all five necromancy books. learn them. Go back to drune, buy Summon Daemon, Death Touch, Death Wish, Drain life, Steal Life, and Mass Drain. Then back to thieves hole. You won't actually use these spells here, but you will need them later. And hey, you GM'd a school of magic! Go you. Sadly you are still stuck in thieves hole. But you get to leave again at 78, when you will go to Armithor again, buy books 2-5 for Mysticism, learn them, then head to Drune where you will buy basically all the mysticism spells.
—-Step eight - Taking stock—
Ok. Deep breaths. You are done with Thieves Hole. Woot. You should have 40-50k extra mana at home, plus whatever stuff you found. Hopefully you found an endurance amulet/ring. if you haven't beg/buy an amulet of endurance from the good folks on channel four. Gather up your mana. Hold it close to you. It is all about to disappear. Go ye forth to Usk, 2 up, 1 left, and in shop purchase a mithril helmet, bracers, and round shield. Come out. Go one right. Purchase robes/skirt, and the cheapest baldric. Now go ye forth down 3 (1 south of the teleporter) and 1 right. Go in the shop and buy a backpack. The next step is the hardest. Find a 189 enchanter. You might have to run TH again while you wait on four for some kind soul. Remember this kindness, for one day you will be a 189 enchanter, and some young wizard will need your help. Once you have found this enchanter, have them enchant Empower on EVERYTHING. Then have them put poison shield/acid shield on your baldric, fire shield/cold shield on your backpack, and lightning shield/missle resistance on your robes. For those counting this is 21 enchants, which is 21k mana, not counting failures/poofs. Figure another 6k for those, and then tip the chanter 3-5k mana. Now, I know what you are thinking - "But Jahx, what about dex?????". Well, if you have an extra 15k mana, get dex on everything except the baldric, backpack and robes. I didn't have the money. At this stage your carrying capacity should no longer be a bad joke, and you can finally stop casting empower on yourself all the time. Now eventually you want your enchant setup to look like this
Backpack Str Dex Regen Missile S.
Robe/Skirt Str Dex Regen Acid S.
Belt Str Dex Regen Cold S.
Amulet Str Dex Regen Fire S.
Ring 1 Str Dex Regen Poison S.
Ring 2 Str Dex Regen Lightning S.
Baldric Str Dex Regen Immo
Helm Imp. Arm. Str Dex Regen
Shirt Imp. Arm. Str Dex Regen
Pants Imp. Arm Str Dex Regen
Cowl Imp. Arm Str Dex Regen
Wrist Imp. Arm Str Dex Regen
Feet Imp. Arm Str Dex Regen
Shield Imp. Arm Str Dex Regen
Weapon Str Dex
But that is a future plan. For now, we gird ourselves for our new home - Festering Hate Pool.
—Step nine - Embracing your Hate.—
Oh Festering Hate Pool. Such joy. Here is the map. http://realm.holtgard.com/map_festering_hate_pool.html Ok, so before you go pick up half a dozen potions of shifting from our favorite magic shop 1 up from drune. On your way to FHP you will be jumped - just flee. Once you get there go inside, then go into the sarcophagus. When you come out, head up to the junction, then left one, and up to the two dark faries. Start the fight, cast Wrath of the Gods, collect your loot, then go up till the junction and head right. Once you reach the troll kings, cast greater invisibilty and invulnrability and start the fight. Cast mass drain (see, there was a reason we GM"d necro) over and over again until the fight is over. collect loot. head up one, ignore the trap door, then go 1 left and check the bone pile - you will find stuff here occasionally, remember high boots with an armor rating of 25 are magical. go one right, take the trap door down. Ignore the cyclops, hes a chump. head one left, cast greater invisibilty, invulnrability and down a potion of shifting. start the fight with the imp kings. cast mass drain till they are all dead, collect the loot. head one right, then up through the door. in this room go right down through the trap door. recast greater invis/invulnrability, then go one down (devils like to jump). Start fighting the devils. Cast Summon Faery Queen. wrath of gods until dead. collect loot. pull lever. recast invis/invulnrability, head two right, loot bone pile, start fighting devils. same strategy , summon Faery Queen, wog until dead. collect loot. head 3 left, then one up. this is the lever room. pull the top left lever. loot the sarcophagus. belts of carry happen here. now, without stopping go one left, and then two up. I know you saw those lichs. those lichs are not for you. not yet. you need an Amulet of Death Magic Protection and at least 1k HP to do those without a high chance of dying. Go through the door and up another two. These 5 furies are also not for you yet. go one right, one up, one right, one down, and then 4 right. you should be back where you killed the troll kings.. go one up and through the trap door. go back in the door. go back in the trap door. go down one and pull the lever twice. now go one up. you are back in the lever room! Now pull the bottom left lever. recast greater invisibility/invulnrability. go one right. attack the cyclops. Summon faery queen. mass drain till dead. loot. pull lever. go one up into the lever room. Pull middle right lever. go down two, left one, down one. cast greater invisilibility/invulnrability. start fight with medusas. summon faery queen. cast wog until dead. loot. go one left. kill devil + warrior by summoning faery queen/wog until dead. go one up. loot chest. come one done. pull lever. go one up. Yay back in the lever room! push both buttons on the floor. hit the top middle lever. you are back at the start. walk up through the door, then re-enter FHP and do it all over again.
12 years from now you will still remember this pattern as you will have done it so very, very many times. You are going to live in FHP for the next 100+ levels. All sorts of good loot here, and the fights get easier and quicker as you level up.
