Chapter 7 - Hints on Playing Crossfire
This section amounts to spoilers for the game. If you don't like that kind of information, don't read any further in this chapter!
7.1 Beginning players
I'm on the starting map, what do I do now?
You should be in a city square with a few sign posts in the middle. Move over
the signs and apply them ("A") to read what
they say.
For beginners, there are several maps designed for them. Find these areas and clear them out. All throughout these levels, a player can find signs and books which they can read by stepping onto them and hitting "A" to apply the book/sign. These messages will help the player to learn the system. Probably the first, best area for a beginning player to start out in is "Beginners." This area is a small house located southwest of your starting location.
Flailing about with spells
Some items are perishable. If you shoot a fireball into a room full of scrolls, you will notice them going up in smoke! So be careful not to destroy valuable items.
Tips on surviving
Crossfire is populated with a wealth of different monsters. These monsters can have varying immunities and attacktypes. In addition, some of them can be quite a bit smarter than others. It will be important for new players to learn the abilities of different monsters and learn just how much it will take to kill them.
Most monsters in the game are out to mindlessly kill and destroy the players. Killing monsters will help boost a player's score. When fighting a large amount of monsters in a single room, attempt to find a narrower hallway so that you are not being attacked from all sides. Charging into a room full of Beholders would not be wise, instead, open the door and fight them one at a time.
More advice can be found in the Survival Guide
7.2 Priorities for low-level characters
The priority for characters below about 5th level is to gain some basic items. In this regard, better armour and better spells are best. Look for a quest among the various islands that will allow you to obtain mithril mail. Whenever you scrape together ~100-200 platinum pieces go shopping for armour and weapons (or spells). If you are a fighter type, try to have at least a +2 weapon, +2 helmet, +2 suit of armour, and +2 shield before you reach 5th level. For wizards, attempt to recover enough treasure to be able to buy up good attack spells. For priests, first thing to do is worship a god! Try to get the holy word prayer as soon as possible. Make sure your current god allows good potential use of this spell.
For all classes, get access to the detect magic incantation as soon as possible. This will allow you to sort through the treasure you find while you're in the dungeon, and will save you time and money at the shops.
7.3 Diseases
Diseases are, well, diseases. They can be contageous or not, and can be contracted in a number of ways, and they vary greatly in their symptoms and dangerousness.
Diseases have "levels". If you contract a disease and recover naturally, you're immune to that disease forever, provided the instance of the disease is of equal or lower level than your immunity.
For example, you get a case of the flu cast by yourself at level 15. When you get over it, you're immune to any flu of level less than 16. When you become level 16 and cast the flu again, you are NOT immune.
Spells such as "cure disease" or "restoration" will remove a disease, but will not grant immunity.
When cast as a spell, diseases's severity is level dependent. A 30th level cold is a LOT more severe than a level 2 cold.
Undead are NEVER affected by any disease.
Any priest player who is not PATH_DENIED_WOUNDING may learn and cast: cold, flu, typhoid, anthrax, leprosy
Any priest with a high enough Wis and with a religion PATH_ATTUNED_WOUNDING may learn: smallpox, white death, red death by praying at his altar.
Black death is currently disabled. (which is odd, since it is less powerful than White Death).
Also, diseases were recently modified so that the DAMAGE caused each round varied between 0 and the maximum listed. So you can inflict a MILD case of ebola, which would NOT kill a monster, or a severe one capable of killing it.
Mostly harmless diseases:
| Athlete's Foot | |
| Symptom: | Your feet itch, burn. |
| Result: | Dex -1 |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle only, or close contact (next square) with someone infected |
| Cured in: | 10 disease rounds. |
| Contagious Range: | 1 square |
| Contagiousness: | very, very low |
| Egg Laying Disease | |
| Symptom: | You lay an egg. |
| Result: | |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle only |
| Cured in: | 5 disease rounds |
| Contagious Range: | |
| Contagiousness: | |
| Flaming Fart Disease | |
| Symptom: | You blow a great fart, which ignites and stinks. |
| Result: | |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle only |
| Cured in: | 10 disease rounds |
| Contagious Range: | |
| Contagiousness: | |
| Incontinence | |
| Symptom: | "you have a messy accident", a stinking puddle of urine |
| Result: | |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle only |
| Cured in: | 10 disease rounds. |
| Contagious Range: | |
| Contagiousness: | |
| Scurvy | |
| Symptom: | tooth falls out along with a message about vitamin C |
| Result: | Con -1 |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle only |
| Cured in: | 15 disease rounds |
| Contagious Range: | |
| Contagiousness: | |
| Diarrhea | |
| Symptom: | "you can't control your sphincter", a stinking puddle of diahhrea |
| Result: | |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle only |
| Cured in: | 10 disease rounds |
| Contagious Range: | |
| Contagiousness: | |
| Tapeworms | |
| Symptom: | "You feel more hungry than usual. You also feel an urge to refer to yourself in the plural." |
| Result: | food use is increased |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle, close contact with infected host |
| Cured in: | Requires "cure disease". No immunity. |
| Contagious Range: | 1 |
| Contagiousness: | very, very low |
| Warts | |
| Symptom: | "You have warts. They are ugly and annoying." |
| Result: | Cha -1 |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | diseased needle, close contact with infected host |
| Cured in: | 50 disease rounds |
| Contagious Range: | 1 |
| Contagiousness: | very, very low |
Nasty diseases that players can cause:
| Cold | |
| Symptom: | "You develep a sniffle" |
| Result: | Con -1, Cha -1, one hp of damage, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1, reduce speed by 50% |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | infliction by player, proximity to something infected or a region where something infected died. |
| Cured in: | 6 disease rounds |
| Contagious Range: | 3 |
| Contagiousness: | High |
| Flu | |
| Symptom: | "You have aches and fever, and you feel nauseous." |
| Result: | Con -1, Cha -1, Str -1, Dex -1, Wis -1, Int -1, one hp of damage, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1, reduce speed by 50% |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | infliction by player, proximity to something infected or a region where something infected died. |
| Cured in: | 6 disease rounds |
| Contagious Range: | 3 |
| Contagiousness: | High |
| Leprosy | |
| Symptom: | "Splotches are spreading around your body. You feel disgusted with yourself. A piece of skin flakes off and falls to the ground." |
| Result: | Con -1, Cha -2, Str -1, Dex -1, one hp of damage, reduce hp regen
by 1, reduce sp regen by 1. This disease progresses in severity until cure or death. |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | Touch of a lich or spell infliction |
| Cured in: | by cure disease only |
| Contagious Range: | by touch or infliction by player only |
| Contagiousness: | Touch or spell only |
| Anthrax | |
| Symptom: | "You feel feverish. Your muscles spasm oddly.... Breathing is difficult." |
| Result: | Con -4, Str -3, Dex -3, up to 5% of a creatures hitpoints each disease move, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1, reduce speed by 50% |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | animals only |
| Contracted by: | spell, or close contact with contaminated ground or diseased |
| Cured in: | 23 disease rounds (i.e., if the animal doesn't regen, it'll die.) |
| Contagious Range: | 1 square |
| Contagiousness: | very low |
| Red Death (Ebola) | |
| Symptom: | "Blood leaks out of your eyes and your pores!" |
| Result: | Str -3, Con -4, Dex -2, Wis -2, Int -4, Cha -7, up to 10% of a creatures hitpoints each disease move, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1, reduce speed by 50% |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | anything |
| Contracted by: | spell, or close contact with contaminated ground or diseased victim |
| Cured in: | 15 disease rounds (i.e., if the animal doesn't regen, it'll die.) |
| Contagious Range: | 1 square |
| Contagiousness: | fairly high, however, each generation is less contageous |
| Black Death (Plague) | |
| Symptom: | You have aches and fever, and you feel nauseous. |
| Result: | Str -3, Con -4, Dex -3, Cha -4, up to 11% of a creatures hitpoints each disease move, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1, reduce speed by 50% |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | human, goblin, giant, troll, animal, insect |
| Contracted by: | spell, or close contact with contaminated ground or diseased victim |
| Cured in: | 10 disease rounds (i.e., if the victim doesn't regen, it'll die.) |
| Contagious Range: | 1 square |
| Contagiousness: | fairly high |
| White Death (Pneumonic Plague) | |
| Symptom: | You cough up some nasty green phlegm. |
| Result: | Str -3, Con -4, Dex -3, Cha -4, up to 11% of a creatures hitpoints each disease move, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1, reduce speed by 50% |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | spell, or close contact with contaminated ground or diseased victim |
| Cured in: | 15 disease rounds (i.e., if the victim doesn't regen, it'll die.) |
| Contagious Range: | 4 square |
| Contagiousness: | fairly high |
| Smallpox | |
| Symptom: | "You have a nasty rash all over you. Are those pustules?" |
| Result: | Str -1, Con -4, Dex -1, up to 10% of a creatures hitpoints each disease move, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1 |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | human, dwarf, goblin, giant, troll |
| Contracted by: | spell, or close contact with contaminated ground or diseased victim |
| Cured in: | 12 disease rounds (i.e., if the victim doesn't regen, it'll die.) |
| Contagious Range: | 3 square |
| Contagiousness: | fairly high |
| typhoid | |
| Symptom: | "You feel feverish. Your muscles spasm oddly.... Breathing is difficult." |
| Result: | Str -3, Con -4, Dex -3, up to 7% of a creatures hitpoints each disease move, reduce hp regen by 1, reduce sp regen by 1, reduce speed by 30% |
| Attacktype: | Godpower |
| Affects: | human, dwarf, goblin, giant, troll |
| Contracted by: | spell, or close contact with contaminated ground or diseased victim |
| Cured in: | 16 disease rounds (i.e., if the victim doesn't regen, it'll die.) |
| Contagious Range: | 3 square |
| Contagiousness: | fairly high |
Other diseases:
| Arthritis | |
| Symptom: | "Your joints are swollen. You feel less dextrous and weaker." |
| Result: | Str -1, Dex -2 THIS DISEASE WILL PROGRESS IF NOT CURED. I.e., Str -2, Dex -4.... |
| Attacktype: | stat depletion only |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | physical attack of a spectre only |
| Cured in: | cured by spell only |
| Contagious Range: | |
| Contagiousness: | |
| Insanity | |
| Symptom: | "You start gibbering incoherently. You forget where you are and what you were doing." |
| Result: | Wis -1, Int -1, 1 hp damage |
| Attacktype: | confusion. The victim may suffer a bout of madness every time symptoms recur |
| Affects: | anyone |
| Contracted by: | physical attack of a demilich only |
| Cured in: | cured ONLY by spell |
| Contagious Range: | |
| Contagiousness: | |
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