How long did it take you to beat the game the first time?

This. You cannot hoard. I had to break myself of this habit as well, and I'm still failing at it (my last character beat the game on Moderaton/Permadeath and had stacks of 8 of the 3 Elemental Potions and Grunge Ears and Azure Mob-bonnets). Especially on Going Rogue.

What I STRONGLY recommend is taking a Skill Tree that gives you a Movement or Teleport ability (Knightly Leap, Move in a Mysterious Way, Invisible Geometries, etc). Whenever you see something threatening - a named monster, a zoo, a room with 8 monsters crowded around the door - use your ability to back off, use a few Potions or Mushrooms, then pepper them with AoE Crossbow Bolts, AoE thrown weapons, Wands, or spells.

Do this constantly: the game gives you enough Zorkmids and Random Drops that you will have a hell of a time using up all the consumables the game drops for you (on DM at least, maybe GR is less generous).

To address the original question: a long time. Probably close to a hundred hours. And this was back when the game was much easier and any Mage with Promethian and Blood Magic could coast through the entire game, rarely (if ever) taking a single point of damage from anything but Dredmor himself. Nowadays you're in for a long haul if you're not playing on "No Time to Grind" mode.

 

54 hours in. On DMPD I made it to floor 9 again and things were looking good. I had the magic resist from Berserker and bushido. I had master of arms maxed and dual-wielding. On DL9 I quickly ran into a monster zoo and things were going good. I was thinking "maybe I'll make it past floor 9 this time". Then I see a named Diggle and think it's just a diggle, how dangerous can it be? Then it gets to me and hits me for around 25 damage each hit. He was hard to damage. I drink a healing potion, only to have that health gone again when it attacked again. Looking back, I should have ran, but the only place I could go would be upstairs and I heard that bugs the monster zoo completion. So I died and just sat there staring at the screen for a minute.

I suppose I could play without Permadeath on, but that doesn't feel as fun. To know all your hard work can be gone in an instant gives a gratifying sensation when you achieve a cool new item or make it further than you have before.

Some day I'll get to kill Dredmor on DWPD, but not today.

 

Rule number one: If its a new monster, dont try your luck. even if it looks like a little blond girl with cute pink hair. Just. Don't.

I recommend to shoot any new monster first to see its damage reduction and average life.

 

Had a bad experience with Arch Diggles back in the day, did we?

 

Yes

The now infamous count-crit-crit song.

 

I had many a Vampire Fencer die to Counter-Critting Arch Diggles myself.

Sort of OT: I still strongly suggest getting a Skill that lets you move, either by teleporting or blinking. It's never a good idea to rely on Spatial Instability Potions to get out of a tight spot - you could end up like my poor Emomancer, who used one of those - and it teleported her further into the Zoo, where she was even more surrounded than the situation she had been trying to escape.

 

IIRC, I killed Dredmor right around the 160 hour mark. DM w/ PD, RotDG. That build was 4 melee skills including dual wield and berserker, something with a teleport (probably artful dodger or burglary), viking wizardry for buffing, and something to fuel the mana for those buffs and the gargle-blasters I was swimming in (probably blood magic, but I'm not sure). I recall that even though I didn't have the staves skill, I was dual-wielding lirpas from evil-chests as they were doing twenty or thirty damage more than the bonus from wielding 2 of the right weapon.

Never seen him again. Usually the deaths are me getting too cocky with the third evil chest in an express post, or me underestimating a djinn fizz. Right now, three characters on my top ten list say "killed by a djinn fizz", and most of the rest are named monsters.

Even if you've got a winning build, you're not likely to get to Dredmor without 25 to 35 hours of play on that build alone. I read in another thread about someone who skips levels 11 to 14 (going down the first set of stairs they see, presumably) since there's no new loot on those floors. You might try that if you're getting impatient, at least until the 1.0.10 patch comes out. It should shave off 8 to 10 hours.

 

Yeah its damn long. I'd actually play in no time to grind if it wasnt so bad for crafting. I like crafting too much to abandon it. Would be nice if there was a patch to increase spawn of crafts component in that mod.

 

Of course, a lot of "how long does it take" depends on your playstyle. Personally, I have Map OCD and cannot rest until I've been to every room on every floor, regardless of whether or not the monsters are giving good XP anymore or whether I think I might be able to find gear upgrades laying about on the floor.

If I could just bring myself to say "OK, I've gained 2 levels on this floor, 60% of it is explored, I know where a shop is... time to descend!" I could maybe have a reasonable playthrough time. As it stands, going through 15 Floors at 30 to 45 minutes per floor = 7-9 hours per playthrough.

 

I could never do that. Even in gigantic games like Skyrim I have to search below every table, open every drawer, pick every coin ( and be amazed at the quantity of detail put by some of the level designers )... Always trying to get the maximum out of all the stuff.

 

lolwut?

 

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk707hxebK1qikf4xo1_500.png
Makes sense right ?

I actually wanted to type pink dress.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys I know what you mean about getting over confident, i've been doing that more recently as I've started to do mage builds more often, and rarley get hit in the first few floor but dying really stupidly on lower levels

Edit:

Fair enough, +

 

Phew. Google saves the day once again.

 

Google is Good.

 

my first and only victory over dredmor was on easy with PD.
Astrology/Necronomiconomics/Mathemagic/Archaeology/bloodmagic/psionic/magictraining

 

It took me around 65 hours to beat him. I think i'd died like 10 or 15 times before lol. I had made it to Floor 7 before dying after being hit with a Shrod of Darkness and Snow Baals hitting me from ever square lol

I beat him with a Melee build. He didnt seem to be as hard as i thought he was going to be, But that was only one Drarvish(sp?) difficulty

I think it was Berserker/Mace/Promehtean/Archaelogy/Psionics/Dual Weild/Assasination. I'm now upt 201 hours and havent beat him since Made it to Floor 9 once, but died from those damn Red guys!!!

 

It took me 120 hours to beat the game the first time. I was on medium w/ no permadeath, and I swear I loaded at least 200 times because I died so much on the later levels. I was actually kind of disappointed by how easy Dredmor fell to all of the squid bolts and such that I'd stocked up for him.

IIRC, I had: dual wielding/werediggle/archaeology/tinkering/promethean magic/some other melee or defense related skills. My melee power was so weak by the end, i was chomping down my diggle omlettes like mad.

My second victory was on easy, still no permadeath. This game is mean as hell if you intend to carry it all the way through to the end without dying.

 

Translation: This game is a roguelike.

 

ahaha. Yes.