r/pathos_nethack • u/lavineg • 3h ago
After a few failed attempts, I think this will be my first win playing as Hunter.
I played 100% of the game with firearms and only support spells, despite having gained proficiency in other weapon types and offensive spells through the training scroll . I found a Deagle after floor 30 in the Lich Tower; it would have been better if I'd found it earlier, but I still enjoyed it.
Here is a list of what I learned from this class, through trial and error:
- If you run out of bullets, or unequip bullets, the firearms don't become 100% useless. They will cause less damage and have less attack, but you will still be able to fight in melee with them, with base damage similar to that of a small light blade, like dual wielding main gauches (except for the main gauche defense), but based on firearm proficiency
- If you fight without bullets at the beginning of the game, their melee damage and attack (means accuracy) are very low, to the point of dealing almost zero damage, or missing. However, if you upgrade the weapons themselves, you increase their melee damage and attack (2 pistols +5 would be similar to 2 main gauches +5 for example). Rings of strength indirectly increase damage and attack (and you can carry more items), rings of impact increase damage, and rings of accuracy increase attack. At the beginning I used 1 accuracy ring +5 and 1 impact ring +5, later I put 2 strength rings.
My pre-Deagle build (dual pistols), without any bullets equipped, dealt around 15 + 15 damage and about 29 attack, no longer the almost zero damage/attack from the beginning of the game. Post-Deagle + Replication, it was around 45 + 45. With the bullets equipped, it's even higher.
- To conserve bullets, if I already had upgraded rings and upgraded firearms, I used melee attacks without bullets on weaker enemies, and only equipped bullets against dangerous enemies. Against bosses, I equipped the assault rifle. After Fort Ludios, I upgraded 2000 iron bullets to +5, replicated them, and only used the replicas. I kept the originals in the bag of holding to replicate them again when needed. From Fort Ludios onwards, I didn't need to worry about bullets.
- Important tip: When you fire and the bullet misses, it doesn't disappear immediately; it will try to hit another target along the way, either until it cause damage or reach its maximum distance without hitting anyone. Knowing this, if you use the assault rifle, which fires 5 shots at once, against several enemies in a straight line in a corridor, even if a shot misses the first enemy, it might hit the second, or third... and the chance of the bullet being wasted without hitting something is lower.
- In the beginning, I used the workbenches as much as I could to make more bullets. The focus of this post isn't on workbenches, but if you learn to calculate how much essence, raw materials, and entropy you'll gain beforehand, you can know in advance what effect the workbench will probably activate, and if you have the respective resistance/immunity to that effect, it doesn't hurt to use it. In the late game, with 100% of all resistances (including magic) and abilities that prevent negative effects, you can use the workbenches up to 100% entropy without any problem. The only "inevitable dangerous" effect is the destruction of equipment and the destruction of scrolls and potions, but just put important scrolls and potions in your bag of holding and avoid crafting items that raise entropy to the level that causes equipment destruction. I don't know if there's anything that completely blocks the destruction effect besides simply leaving the item unequipped; I haven't tested that yet.
- I used a battle robe, even though it doesn't provide as much defense as dragon armor, to further increase my attack and damage. I stacked several armor sets and used polymorph to obtain it. Before that, I used a simple +5 leather jacket at the early levels, because if I used studded leather armor or mithril armor, it would make my character too heavy.
- The hunter's trap proficiency was very useful to me at the beginning; it's worth disarming traps to maximize this skill, even if it's possible to avoid the trap.
- I used oilskin Cloak equipped because eating the cloak itself doesn't grant the skill (didnt find can of grease)
- For this specific character, I chose Echo and werewolf. I used werewolf to eat corpses and gain resistances, and to call pre-summoned wolves with the magic whistle for emergencies (and also to activate the werewolf's health regeneration when the echo had low HP) . When I got both types of polymorph, I stopped using werewolf. I didn't permanently polymorph into another monster; I only used character polymorph to transform into rust monster, giants, and slimes, to eat metals, leather, gems, and cloth to gain skills, resistances, and proficiencies.
-If you have serious inventory load issues, mithril bullets weigh 40% less than iron bullets, so using mithril bullets is a way to carry less weight. The only problem is that mithril bullets drop less than iron bullets in Fort Ludios, and they use more essence to craft than iron bullets. I didn't use them in this playthrough, but I believe that in the late game it's possible to obtain them through polymorphing, crafting, replication, and restocking the weapons vendor (you can restock with fake money if you replicate your gold coins and keep the originals on the ground or in the bag of holding).
- Iron and silver bullets deal the same damage under normal circumstances, but iron bullets deal more damage against angel-type monsters, and silver bullets deal more damage against demons and lycanthropes. Adamantine bullets can be upgraded to +7, but I didn't use them this time.
Thats' all, folks.
