ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery) Guide

Dealing with orb guardians for ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)

Dealing with orb guardians

Overview

Essential tips and tricks for dealing with five orb guardians. Guide contains heavy spoilers, so beware.

Intro

In order to win the game, character needs to obtain five elemental orbs, and that means penetrating five elemental temples and beating crap out of five orb guardians. This guide aims to help in these tasks.

Any elemental temple takes half a level (water and air takes left side, and the rest right) and generates special message related to its element.

Since temples disconnected and teleportation is not allowed on the level, some means of digging are needed (pick axe, wand of digging, Mystic shovel (Divine digger – for clerical casters), elementalist’s stone burrowing, and monk’s kicks (after lv13)).
It is possible to pray for your deity on temple level (at high piety levels) and receive pickaxe. This is possible only if player has neither wands of digging or pick axes with him. This costs a lot piety and can happen over the emergency healing. Whether healing or pickaxe happens depends on amount of health character has. If character has <25% HP healing is priority, otherwise a prayer might result in pick axe. So in general keeping some means of digging with character on elemental temple is not a bad idea.

In the most cases (except of mana temple) creatures within temple are chaos servants, grues and elementals of appropriate element. Orb guardian stands on chaotic altar, which should not be stepped on (due to risk of being sacrificed). If orb ends on altar, kick it and it will slide to another square.

Orb guardians have been changed in the latest versions, now they do not follow character down/upstairs and some disabling means like wands of paralyzation and potions of blindness have rather limited effect. Most reliable way remains cursed potion of invisibility (which works exactly like potion of blindness in 1.1.1) and phial of Caladriel for humanoids (Air and Mana guardians).

All orb guardians take heavy damage from blessed potions of cure corruption (and they corpses can be turned into next potion of cure corruption once you give them to druid). This is one time only effect, which removes corruption from their melee attacks. Killing with potion reduces experience gains significantly, but experience can be gained elsewherem while orbs are essential.

Water temple (Snake from Beyond)

Located at ~ D:19 or D:20 with a message “Water seems to be constantly dripping from the ceiling of this level.”.

General hazards
The temple’s inner part is surrounded by two square layer of water (essentially a moat).
Thus, character wants to get in needs to cross water by either making a bridge (preferably with Ice magic – although ice bridges support weights of <2000s, so dropping extra stuff might be needed) or swimming. Characters without swimming, might want tu put amulet/helm of water breathing or blessed ring of the fish (latter is autocursing so put it on and then dip into potion of holy water).

Alternatively you can lure the Snake to the right of level side (luring further is recommended in the case Snake panics and tries to run away). Since inner walls are diggable, the easiest way is just use uncursed wand of digging (if character is <lv10, will need to bless the wand) while standing in the outer corridor straight above or below the Snake and after obtain the view of her, either shoot or zap her with a spare wand.

Snake from beyond
It is the easiest of orb guardians. Melee attacks only (although corrupting and poisonous) no special abilities.

Since the Snake uses poison throwing potions of cure poison will stun her, which is an excellent way to disable her.

Fire temple (Ancient chaos wyrm)

Located at Tower of Eternal flames top floor.
General hazards
The whole Tower of Eternal flames has constant fire damage to both character and worn items or backpack.

In order to protect character you need four sources of fire resistance (intrinsic resistance counts as two) or fire immunity (red dragon scale mail, crown of fire, ring of elemental mastery, shield of raw shield etc.)
Obtaining shield of raw shield is probably the easiest way to install fire immunity, but since getting it involves killing druid in Terinyo, doing so can mess up the game (no more potions of cure corruption from corpses, no ultra-endings, no unicorn quest). However, benefits for a player looking for the first win quite likely outweigh any potential drawbacks.
Alternatively since fire resistance sources lessen damage ( with a single source 2 damage every turn, with 2 one damage every turn, with 3 one damage every other turn), character can choose to wear less sources of fire resistance.
Immune to pain talent suppresses one damage so two sources and this talent would be enough (although a lot annoying messages will be generated).
Rings/bracers/crown of regeneration (or any other source of regeneration like knife of endurance) also can cover elemental damage if at least 2 sources of fire resistance are present (or 1 source and two regeneration items). Some people opt to wish for red dragon scale mails (if they get wish early), but in my opinion wishing for rings of regeneration is better, since both ways you negate ToEF damage, but rings are way more useful in other parts of the game
Finally, character can simply use healing items or cast healing spells to cover lost HP (while hardly sustainable this can be used if character chooses to switch some equipment while facing Wyrm).

Drakelings and characters with cold blood corruption get bonus speed, but also take periodic damage due to “being dizzy with speed”. There is no other counters to this, except of healing, but drastic increase of speed more than compensates for any HP losses.

In order to protect items character needs either ring of ice or fireproof blankets. Alternatively he can limit his worn and carried stuff to fireproof stuff.
Ring of ice should be blessed as uncursed ones are highly unreliable. In the latest versions of the game ring of ice is guaranteed if you talk with dwarven mystic while being neutral. And I highly recommend to get it this way. Even blessed ring is not 100% safe (about 95%, maybe more with good luck modifiers). Rings protect both worn and carried stuff.
Fireproof blankets protect only carried stuff (means of healing, digging, etc.). Some classes get them as reward for being Arena champion from Thrundarr. These serve longer if blessed. If character is cursed or doomed ifire blanket’s survival length is reduced.
Finally character can wear fire proof stuff which includes – higher metal gear, artifacts, rings hidden under fireproof gauntlets and stuff which grants fire resistance/immunity [like crown of fire]. Blessed iron items are somewhat resistant to fir damage but will melt eventually (pick axes are made from wood in Adom). Obvious problem with this approach is digging, thus some recommend to do first scouting run, mapping the area and access to ToEF:4 and when bring digging material and hope it survives long enough. Healing cab be accessed via water orb (and elemental gauntlets to halve drawback).
In general it is best to grab guaranteed ring of ice and bless it. If you get some blankets bless them too.

Ancient chaos wyrm
First of all, you must reach it, charging into temple head on is rather stupid as there is a lot of high level enemies (although spellcasters with good willpower and Ice ball might want to charge in). For more cautious approach, player should dig in between elemental bubbles (thus, not needing to fight them), unless there is problems with digging in, in which case you should tunnel to upper bubble as it has two times less elementals (but with ring of ice and pick axe from Pyramid digging should not be a problem). Ideal is to dig in on Wyrm’s line (using ‘l’ook command eighth line from the bottom), while making few niches in the tunnel (in case char wants to avoid some Wyrm’s attacks). Before digging in put on some item with confusion resistance (rings/helmets of mental stability, ring of clear mind ), and do it even if it lowers number of resistance sources below four.

Once the temple is breached, I would recommend applying invisibility as only the Wyrm and chaos sevants can see invisible. This allows bypass a lot of unneeded fighting and experience can be gained in some other areas which are safer. Now, Wyrm is surrounded by drakes, who do not see invisible, but also have rather limited line of sight anyway. Since I recommend drawing Wyrm out to the left side (away from that minion horde), these need to be made aware of character’s presence. If you dug on Wyrm’s line you can just zap nonfire based elemental wand [front drake is like 9 tiles away, uncursed attack wand like magic missiles/acid/lightning/ice/far slaying should reach it]. After that step back into left side and wait for Wyrm to appear (niches should help in this step too, in case clueless fire demon gets stuck in corridor, they should allow for Wyrm to find path towards the character within reasonable time).

Wyrm is capable of performing multiple actions per round (although not multiple of the same, so he can’t energy ray you twice, but can cast confusion, heal himself and go offensive). Possible actions are confusing (we got that covered), fire breath (should be covered by fire resistance anyway), healing (only when severely injured, mighty annoying) and energy ray.
Latter is rather fearsome as it is essentially monster version of magic missile, meaning no resistances. It can do up to 120ish damage (there is persistent rumor that Wyrm overall does +25% on Darknight and -25% on Silvernigt – but that is not tested), so with anything less than 130 character risks to be killed on spot.
Stuff like high DV, Alertness, Dodge can help to avoid these attacks, but character must be ready for healing (blessed potions of extra/ultra healing or/and prayers). Energy rays can be avoided if Wyrm is disabled (seems to be immune to paralyzation in some versions, so the best bet is cursed invisibility potions), not in the straight line (thus luring to the left side, there is plenty of space and no/little extra monsters is recommended) or there is monster in the line between Wyrm and character. Latter can be abused in the corridor using fire demons as meat shields and non cold, non fire offensive wands (fire demons shrug higher percentage of wands/bolts than Wyrm but are susceptible to cold while Wyrm is not). Obviously allowing Wyrm to have higher speed than characters can be lethal as he can energy ray char few times in a row, without a chance of doing anything.
The easiest option to kill him is to lure to the left side, and not in the straight line and shoot with blessed proper slaying missiles (he is dragon demon by monster types). In case of any doubt, toss blessed potion of cure corruption (check intro part for details) t finish him off. You loose some xp by finishing him with potion, but it’s not game braking.
Alternatively you can read scroll of familiar summoning on ToEF4 and unleash your (hopefully powerful enough) pet/companion on him.
Or you can charge up magic missile, lightning wands and bounce them into him through upper/lower wall, while avoiding being in the same line (should take about 10 with reasonable luck, since he will shrug some).
As the last resort you can try melee. Although he has three attacks of up to 80 damage, so even with some decent PV melee retaliation might be worse than energy ray (and he can score criticals).

Fire temple (summary)

Short version for people who got bored reading previuos section.

Prioritize fire resistance intrinsic (sell some fire creature corpses in shops before pool rinking).
Grab ring of ice from dwarven mystic and bless it.
Dig into temple on eighth line while being invisible.
Zap offensive wand into drakes around Wyrm and drag him out of Temple.
Attack with missiles/wands while avoiding being in the direct line with him. (bounce wands of the walls).
Finish him with potion of cure corruption (don’t start with since he will heal).
Grab fire orb and get the hell out of Tower of Eternal Flames.

Air temple (Master summoner)

Located below Casino at ~ D:38 or D:39.

General hazards
Electricity damage to character and worn/carried stuff (left side only). Resistance to shock is recommended, equipemnt damage can not be negated, thus it is best to open up inner temple (wand of knocking sadly does not work on hidden doors, but walls are diggable, thus can be zapped from afar with wand of digging), while wearing equipment of higher metals (blessed iron things should survive too, pick axes are made from wood).

Master summoner
Not too tough himself, but can summon literally anything up to Wyrms, diamond golems and balors.
He counts as humanoid (not demon) for slaying purposes, which means phial of Caladriel can be used for blinding. If you can isolate him, he can’t put much of the fight. In some versions he is allowed to teleport within Air temple, so players could lure him by reading scroll of monster aggravation or using alarm trap. This behavior was fixed in the latest versions.

In my opinion, there are two options. Either go in very aggressive with ball spells (fireball wands are too valuable to bring due to item destruction), or lure him out.
I would recommend being invsible since it helps to losoe some summons, but prior to opening inner temple you can just kill as much of vapor rats, air demons and chaos servants as needed.
So for proper luring you want to dig two square wide tunnel (for pathfinding — less time guardian has to summon something the better the outcome), clear mobs between inner temple and your tunnel (basically kill anything that has started moving), make sure you are invisible. Then zap wand of digging to open temple, zap some offensive wand to wake up summoner and retreat towards stairs.
Get your gear back and wait for Summoner to show up. Between invisibility and monster IQ values, summoner should show up first and being mostly exhausted. Toss phial on him to disable and kill in your preferred way. I would recommend sealing tunnel with locked doors too since they slow monsters left inside and you will need to cross this level few times.

Earth temple (Ancient stone beast)

Located below Casino at ~ D: 42 -D:46.

General hazards
Some seemingly random squares are undiggable and must be identified by trial and error.
Everyone in the temple sees invisible, grues and elementals (and guardian) goes through walls, so character will end up being swarmed.
Since temple monsters no longer follow character upstairs, the best approach is charge well fireball wand (scrolls of charging, potion of boost mana and booze), put on willpower increasing gear (water orb, etc) and go nuts with fireballs. This allows to clear the area fast and without too much risk.

Ancient stone beast
It has around 60PV, 1000Hp and regenerates, for slaying purposes it is demon. Since magic ignores PV and there will be grues, elementals around when char meets guardian, it is best to keep going nuts with fireballs. If you low on charges or minions are dead, using weapon of penetration or phase dagger might be an appealing option, but I would recommend using magic as it is faster.

ASB however will reflect/absorb bolt spells. Most inhabitants of the temple (except elementals) are suceptible to pick axes/Hamerhead (pick axes will always crit them).

Mana temple (chaos archmage)

Located at the bottom of unreal caves (marked as MT on thes creen)
General hazards
Trapped tunnel has undiggable walls so player has to dig tunnel at the bottom. Teleport traps are replaced by ceiling ones [high damaging] and whole layout in the recent eversion are randomized. Boosting vision range (necklace of the eye, multiple torches) and using wand of trap detection is the easiest way, but character can detect traps by pallying Detect traps skill or just plow through the traps (later not recommended).

‘e’ on the map represent, mana draining eyes, which will start their thing once character enter tunnel. for spellcaster the ebest approach is probably to ball them through the walls [with willpower >32] as he will be drained of all PP before reaching other end of the tunnel.

C on right side are chaos wizards, and they will summon crapton of chaos folk (servants/warriors/etc), and they all see invisible. Oh, and initially there is quite some annihilators (who love to grab and annihilate your gear) are present. For melee character that is fun as it sounds. In 1.2.0 this is somewhat better as monsters swap a lot so it is easier to reach chaos wizards by melee or get the in line for wands ( or bolts if you have PP).

Chaos archmage
For start he is invisible and can cast Death ray, so equipping Ancient mummy wrapping instead of some fancy eternium armor is a good idea.
Zap some elemental wand at his direction from entance to woke him up, that will fasten process slightly..
Features and possible actions of archmage are

  • confusion (gets through high willpower and resistance items (they still reduce length of confusion), thus charging is not really an option, unless you know what you are doing),
  • darkness (he does that a lot, thus source of light is needed – amulet of light or torch).
  • death ray – needs direct line, still does very high damage if hits character with death resistance
  • frost bolt – I recommended AMW so that is covered, that one does not need to be in direct line, can freeze drakelings or characters affected by cold blood corruption
  • energy ray – no resistance, but by that time character should have decent amount of HP.
  • glowing balls [essentially fire arrow like spell] and lightning bolts have been spoken about too,
  • stat draining – melee range
  • bolt shrugging – probably highest in the game (I once casted darkness (dark lowers shrugging) got him into small 3×3 corridor and put on AoLS and got 400PP into wand of far slaying, he survived quite nicely)
  • immune to cold/fire/lightning (acid still works)

For slaying purposes he is a humanoid (not a demon).

So the classicel way is to get him into corridor, disable with phial/cursed potsof invisibility and shoot/melee him to death. I suggest you thro in potion of cure corruption for start as he does not seem to be fond of healing.
Less classical approaches:
Get him out of trap tunnels and step out of direct line. Most of the time he will cast Frost bolt (put AMW on seriously) allowing to be shot repeatedly. Downside is he will have lots of time to slice through char with magic in that tunnel and he has lots of range on death ray.
Disable one of traps in tunnel and create door on that square, lure archmage into tunnel, close the door and lock it. Make sure Willpower is >32, refresh power points with blessed scrolls of power or prayers and nuke him with Acid ball through the door (apparently Knock spell is beyond archmage capabilities). Drawback might panic, although corridor should be jammed with remains of chaos wizard summons. Might need few zaps of wand of monster detection to be sure he did not run away.

Final words

Map images came from Adom guidebook[www.adomgb.info]. It is public domain now, no more copyright nonsense.

If you are unsure what on Earth phial of Caladriel is or need further details, please consult the wiki.[http//wwwhttp].

Some class gudies can be found at this blog[http//wwwhttp]. Most are outdated and some have been removed, still they are reasonable reading often providing different view than one in the guidebook.

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