Sokoban problem

"Ryan Hefferan" <cjhefferan.DeleteThis@optusnet.com.au> writes:

> Once, i played sokoban because i could not find the staircase down,

One of the oddest reasons for doing sokoban I've heard of .
The staircase can visually be hidden behind other objects;
running around and reading descriptions carefully helps to
find it. If that's not working, search for hidden doors
(n20s usually suffices; you search all adjacent squares).

> even
> with searching, so i went up to sokoban instead, i got past the first few
> ok, then i screwed up and i had no scrolls of earth again, so i could not
> complete it, and i could not go down in dungeon so i got stuck..any
> suggestions on how to avoid this?

1) Don't screw up at Sokoban . No, seriously, try to think
ahead a bit before pushing boulders. You might even use some
props like bread crumbs on a paper map to envisage what's going
on if that's helping.

2) Until you're confident to solve Sokoban, don't go there without
some backup which helps you out (useful tools include wands of
striking and teleport, pickaxes and mallocks).

3) If you blocked the exit or are stuck somehow, check if

(a) teleporting a boulder is helpful (if possible),
(b) it's worth to destroy a boulder (be careful with
the range of striking wands/spells, however).

If both options are not possible, there is a last chance: Strip
down naked and squeeze under the boulder. Your stuff is not
necessarily lost; you can throw it.

Best,
Jakob
 >> Stay informed about: Sokoban problem 

Ryan Hefferan wrote:
> Once, i played sokoban because i could not find the staircase down, even
> with searching, so i went up to sokoban instead [snip]

This happens to all new players eventually. It may be useful to go
over ways to get out of this situation.

1. Search for secret doors. Every press of the 's' key searches all
eight spaces around you for secret doors, traps and invisible monsters,
although no message is printed unless you find something (you can
satisfy yourself that something is happening by noticing the turn
counter increase).

There is always an unbroken path of rooms and corridors between
staircases, and there is always a corridor leading into each normal
room. There is NEVER a corridor leading to vaults, however, and there
can be small "closets" with no door (not even a secret one), but it is
never impossible to find the way to the down staircase if you can also
find your way to the upstair, and vice versa. Searching requires no
special equipment, although it does increase your food consumption (by
virtue of expending extra turns not looking for eatables), and of
course monsters can happen upon you while you search. Players who have
played Rogue will probably already have the best search pattern worked
out: search for four of five times in a corner, then walk three spaces
forward and search three more times. Searching fails frequently, and
once in a while the random number generator will be against you, so
don't be quick to give up!

So, where to search? You search adjacent to walls that are not too
close to one side of the screen/board. It takes practice to get a
sense of how close a room can be to the edge of the world before you
can assume there's no passage there, but once you get that sense you'll
find it's rarely wrong. Note that shops never contain a staircase, so
if monster or item detection shows a likely shop you can probably
exclude that from your search, although usually it's a good idea to
stop by anyway.

2. There may be times when searching is less effective at finding a
secret passage than others. If your luck is negative (which is fairly
likely if you've had a go at Sokoban recently and have done some
cheating at it: creating boulders, slipping between boulders and
breaking boulders all incur a luck penalty while in Sokoban!) then
searching is less likely to be successful, proportionate to the amount
of negative luck you have.

If magic mapping reveals a likely location for a secret door, you can
try kicking that spot. Doors can be broken down even if you can't see
them, although if you're wrong you stand a good chance of hurting your
leg. A zap from a wand of striking or a spell of force bolt will also
break secret doors. Wands of secret door detection, of course, are
best.

3. It happens surprisingly rarely, but sometimes the thing that messes
you up is a boulder that's gotten pushed into a passage so that it gets
stuck behind another boulder, preventing you from getting by. In these
cases, wands of striking/spells of force bolt will shatter the boulder,
or if you can polymorph into a giant you can pick up the boulder then
move it somewhere else. If such means aren't available, first try
searching the other rooms (boulders making it impossible to advance are
really not that common), then try going up to the boulder, dropping all
your stuff, and walking into it. If you're carrying nothing (or maybe
just very little), you'll be able to slip into the crack between the
boulder and the wall. From that spot, you'll probably be able to move
the other boulder away and into the corner of a corridor, where you can
get past it by moving diagonally. Make sure to go back and get your
stuff before continuing!

4. This may sound stupid, but it's actually quite common: check
underneath various object in the dungeon for the staircase. It's
surprisingly easy to miss the "There is a staircase down here" message
since the player's eye will naturally be drawn to the list of stuff
resting on that spot. It is also possible for the staircase to be
underneath a chest, or a statue, and you can also push hide it with a
boulder.

5. If all else fails and you still can't find the stair down, try using
a pick-axe or a wand of digging to dig downward (when asked for a
direction, type > instead of a direction key). A pick-axe will have to
be used twice, once to make a pit and again to cut through to the next
level, but a wand of digging will almost always make a hole. Once
you're below, you can then search for the upstair. Sometimes you'll
fall more than one level, but if you keep looking you'll probably be
able to work your way back up... if the harder monsters down there
don't kill you first, of course.

Note that digging down won't work if you're at the very bottom of a
dungeon branch, so you can't do it to get past the end of the Mines,
the Home dungeon or Genhennom.

- John H.
 >> Stay informed about: Sokoban problem