====== Strategy for Newbies Guide ======

New to Nilgiri? Never played a MUD before? This guide takes you from your first login to level 8, command by command, based on real play from SinMuseBot a Muse AI Robot.

===== What is a MUD? =====

A MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) is a text-based online world. There are no graphics — you read descriptions of rooms and type commands like ''north'' or ''look''. Other players are in the same world with you, right now. Nilgiri ("the Forgotten World") is one of the oldest MUDs still running, online since 1991.

You don't need fast reflexes. You need curiosity.

===== Connecting =====

See [[nilgiri:connect|Connecting to Nilgiri]]. In short: SSH to ''player@nilgiri.net'', answer the prompts, give your character's name (or create one), choose ''1'' at the menu to enter the game.

You start at the **Temple of Midgaard**. If you die, you wake up here — so learn the way back early.

===== Creating and rolling your character =====

When you connect and type a name that does not exist yet, the game walks you through creating a character. Take your time: your race, your homeland and your rolled statistics are permanent, and rerolling costs nothing but patience.

The order of the screens matters:

  * **Race comes before the roll**, and it is a real choice, not a formality. When you pick a race, the confirmation screen prints that race's exact bonuses and penalties BEFORE you commit: ability modifiers, plus the per-level gains for hit points, mana and movement. Read them before you confirm. (Measured example: a Dwarf gets +1 STR, -1 DEX, -1 INT, +1 CON, -1 CHA and no change to WIS, with +1 hit points, -3 mana and -1 movement per level.)
  * **Appearance choices are restricted by race**: the hair, eyes and build on offer are the ones your race allows. If the game keeps re-asking the same question, that choice is not available to your race; pick one that sticks.
  * **Homeland**: you are offered a short list (a character bound for Midgaard may be offered Jora or Argoceania, for example). Pick one; it is permanent.
  * **The roll**: each of your six statistics is rolled as 4d6 with the lowest die dropped, so every stat lands between 3 and 18 and the six stats are independent of each other. You may reroll as often as you like.
  * **The password**: the game emails a temporary password to the address you give during creation. Your character is saved when you accept that password at the prompt, so use an inbox you can open right away.

How to judge a roll: the roll screen shows no marker for a stat's maximum, so judge the numbers themselves, and know the shape of the dice: an average stat is about 12 and an average six-stat total is about 73. Hold out for a total well above average with your important stats high. For a solo character who fights in melee, the priority that the leveling-guide project measured is: CON first (it is your survival), then STR (it drives your fighting-skill caps), then DEX, then WIS, then INT, with CHA last (charisma only moves shop prices). Do not dump WIS to zero-ish levels even on a fighter: your catechism cap, and with it your healing spells, draw mostly on WIS. A keeper looks like the project dwarf Testudo's kept roll: STR 17, DEX 5, INT 13, WIS 15, CON 18, CHA 16. A weak stat is not fatal (that DEX 5 hurts at level 1, and he lives), but stats are forever, so be picky while rerolling is free. Your starting movement is part of the roll, too: of two dwarves rolled for this guide, the one with very low dexterity began with 85 movement and the one with middling dexterity with 94, while their hit points, on equal constitution, were identical.

One more thing creation may hand you: a **natural skill**. The game may announce at creation that you are a "natural" at one skill. That skill is picked at random from all skills - pure chance, nothing to do with your race or homeland - and it starts at nothing. You cannot practice it with a guildmaster and it costs no practices: instead it grows by itself each time you level, up to the general skill maximum. Run ''attributes'' to see which skill is your natural. Do not spend practices on it; just level. (How fast it grows varies from character to character — on the guide project's dwarf, his natural Protection From Evil had reached 22% by level 4, still without a single practice spent.)

When you first enter the world you arrive **already equipped**: a leather vest, shorts and boots, a wooden shield and a wielded staff, plus manna and the Nilgiri Guide in your pack. Check yourself with ''equipment'': your carried ''inventory'' does not list what you are wearing.
===== Moving around =====

The world is made of **rooms**. Each room has a name, a description, and **exits**.

  * ''look'' — describe the room you're in. Read it. The description often mentions things the exit list doesn't.
  * ''exits'' — list the obvious exits. (Tip: ''environment exits_long on'' shows exits automatically with every ''look''.)
  * ''north'', ''south'', ''east'', ''west'', ''up'', ''down'' — move. Diagonal directions like ''northeast'' also exist.
  * **Try exits the description mentions, not just the obvious ones.** If a room says "the path continues northeast" but northeast isn't listed — try ''northeast'' anyway. Secret exits guard the best places.
  * ''where'' — shows your **zone** ("exploring the depths of …") and who's nearby. Use it in **every new room** so you always know what area you're in.

  * To find another player, type ''where <name>'' — the game tells you the room they are standing in. Navigate by the room's name. Type ''where'' on its own to see where everyone in your current zone is. It only answers for the zone you are standing in — from another zone you will just get the zone header, so use it once you are in the same area as the person you are looking for.
===== Talking =====

  * ''say hello'' — talk to the room you're in.
  * ''gossip hello'' — talk to the whole game. Use this to ask for help.
  * ''yell'' / ''shout'' — shorter ranges; gossip reaches everyone.
  * ''who'' — who's online.

Other players are your best resource. Ask questions.

===== Your character =====

  * ''score'' — your level, experience points (XP), hit points (HP), and hunger/thirst. Check it often.
  * ''inventory'' — what you're carrying. ''equipment'' — what you're wearing/wielding.
  * **You start equipped.** At your first entry the game dresses you: a leather vest, shorts and boots, a wooden shield, and a first weapon, plus food and the **Nilgiri Guide** — ''read guide'', it's a map of Midgaard. Note that ''inventory'' lists only what you CARRY; your worn kit shows under ''equipment''. And don't panic if ''score'' calls your armor "naked" — the starting leathers read that way; the description improves as your armor does.
  * **You have no practice sessions at level 1.** Practices arrive when you level up. Until then your weapon skill is 0 — see Fighting, below, for what that means.
  * ''eat <food>'' and ''drink'' — **never fight hungry or thirsty**; it weakens you badly. Buy food in city shops; drink from fountains.

**Levels:** L1 is 0–1001 XP, L2 1002–2032, L3 2033–3243, L4 at 3244. Measured further out: L5 at 5,025 XP, L6 at 8,126, L7 at 13,777, and L8 in the narrow band 23,795–23,846 XP. Each level makes you tougher and opens new prey. Level 1 is long — measured at roughly 100 XP an hour hunting city fidos, so expect several sessions in it.

===== Fighting (L1–L2) =====

Your first fights should be in **Midgaard** itself — the city streets have small game (fidos, pigeons). The golden rule:

  * ''consider <target>'' — **always do this before attacking.** It tells you how dangerous the fight looks. If it says the target looks too strong, believe it and walk away.

Then:

  * ''kill <target>'' — attack. The fight runs in rounds; watch your HP.
  * ''flee'' — run away if the fight goes badly. Don't be proud — live to hunt another day.
  * **Fleeing is random-direction** — near Market Square a flee can drop you down the open manhole into the storm drain. Avoid starting fights you might flee from in rooms whose random exits you would regret.
  * ''get all from corpse'' — loot what you killed. (Note the word "from" — ''get all corpse'' doesn't work.)

**Only fight animals and obvious creatures.** If something looks like a person, ''look'' at it first — never attack players or townsfolk.

**What L1 fighting really looks like (measured, not theory):**

  * Your weapon skill is 0, so your starting weapon will betray you: expect the message ''The weapon feels unwieldy in your hands causing you to miss'' — a lot. Early kills come mostly from occasional **critical hits**, barehanded or not. This is normal L1 life, not a bug.
  * ''consider'' rates you as you stand: the same fido reads easier with a weapon wielded than barehanded. Judge accordingly.
  * If a monster is **incapacitated** ("will slowly die if not aided"), it is NOT dead — keep hitting until it dies properly, or it will recover within seconds and the kill is lost.
  * Set autoflee (''set noflee'') so you flee at half health — but autoflee can **panic and fail**, several rounds in a row. If a fight turns, ''flee'' yourself; don't trust the automation.
  * Fido corpses usually carry **no gold at all**. Your first coins come slowly — don't budget purchases around street dogs.
  * You get hungry every 35–40 minutes. Bakery half loaves are the newbie's friend - they are free (the list shows "n/c" and the baker hands them over free), so a newbie's food costs nothing - carry several, and eat at the first growl.

**L1–L2 strategy:** stay in the city. Consider every pigeon, fido, and small street creature. Kill what ''consider'' rates easy, bank the gold, and don't chase anything rated dangerous. Rabbits are a trap — even a harmless-looking rabbit can be far stronger than you.

**Pond swans (Southern Residential):** A swan that survives a broken-off fight heals completely before the next one — if you start one, finish it or leave it alone entirely.

**Level 2 changes the game.** Crossing into level 2 grants your first block of practice sessions, plus hit points and movement. How much of each you get depends on your race and on the skills you hold — mana, for instance, only starts to grow once you hold mage- or cleric-family skills at strength, so a pure fighter may gain no mana at all at first. Spend the sessions with a teacher and raise martialism first. One correction from hard experience: do NOT rush to practice your starting weapon's skill (staves, for the starter staff). A master set the guide project's dwarf straight on this - kick, which martialism unlocks, pays off sooner; the weapon skill can wait until you carry a weapon worth keeping. And cure light wounds sits behind catechism: raise catechism first.

Level 3 brings the same shape of reward as level 2 — another block of practice sessions and another step of hit points and movement, sized by your race and your skills. Expect your own numbers to differ from anyone else's. Never fight in a gate room or beside a hole in the city wall. If panic or autoflee fires there it can throw you OUTSIDE the wall, where the ferocious rabbit hunts. If that happens, walk back in by deliberate moves - do not type ''flee'' again. Testudo took one rabbit bite learning this at level 2. Black crows still ''consider'' as far too strong at level 3 - leave them alone.

Level 4, same lesson: practice sessions, hit points and movement arrive with the level, in amounts your race and skills decide. Because gains are tied to the skills you hold when you cross, a teach session before a level-up can pay for itself in the crossing itself.

**How experience is paid.** Experience for hurting a creature is tallied as you fight and paid when the creature dies or leaves the room — a mortally wounded creature that wanders off still pays you for the damage you did. If you flee, you earn nothing from that fight.
===== Fighting (L3–L4) =====

Once ''consider'' starts rating city game as easy, head out the **West Gate** into the **Hills and Plains**: field mice, crickets, prairie dogs, black birds, ground hogs, jack rabbits. Good XP, fair fights.

  * Fight at **full HP**, fed and watered. Rest between fights (''rest'' or just wait) until your health is back.
  * Watch every round. If your health drops fast, ''flee'' early — don't wait until you're nearly dead.
  * Mosquitoes and rabbits deserve respect: weak one-on-one, deadly in groups or when they surprise you

  * A kick can finish an enemy who is mortally wounded outright. One who is merely incapacitated — "will slowly die if not aided" — is not dead yet: keep attacking until the kill is real, or the corpse and its loot never come.
===== Money and safety =====

  * Pick up **everything**: gold, notes, gems, gear on the ground.
  * **Bank it.** The Bank of Midgaard takes deposits (gold ''and'' valuables like gems). To open an account, stand in the Bank and type ''Initiate New Account'' as a command (saying it doesn't work). Gold deposits go one coin per ''deposit gold'' command — repeat it. (Opening an account also makes you a citizen of Midgaard; the banker mentions a 5% annual account tax.) Gold on your corpse when you die is gold lost. At the Bank, typing ''balance'' prints your exact total as "Amount: Ngc" plus a short statement of credits - check it any time. A third session's deposit brought one test account to 3 gold, still with no debits — the 5% tax is annual, not per visit.
  * **Bank BEFORE you rent.** Rent refuses valuables — even a single gold coin in your pocket will block it. And say your farewells before you rent: rent rooms are silent, and ''gossip'' inside one goes nowhere.
  * ''rent'' a room at an inn to save your character safely. The rent room also works as a vault for gear you can't use yet.
  * Dying costs XP and drops your corpse where you fell – you can go back for it with ''get all from corpse'', but never chase a corpse into a dangerous area. Gear is replaceable; levels aren't.
  * **What the bank accepts.** The bank only accepts money: coins, treasure items and notes. Ordinary armour and weapons have no bank value — if you are unsure about an item, check at the bank with: ''value <item>''. Handing over coins is quick: ''deposit gold'' hands over all the coins you are carrying at once.
  * **Depositing coin stacks.** Loose coins deposit all at once, but coins that exist as separate stacks — for example, stacks lifted out of a container — go in one stack per ''deposit gold'' command.

The bank also charges a tax on accounts, about five percent, which is debited from your balance when it falls due, so a balance quietly shrinks a little over time; check it now and then.
===== Exploring =====

  * Move one step at a time in new areas; ''look'' after every step.
  * ''where'' in every new room — know your zone.
  * Map as you go (paper, a text file, anything). Note room names and which exits you verified.
  * The [[https://github.com/nilgirian/Nilgiri-Muse-Bot/tree/main/maps|community maps]] in the Nilgiri-Muse-Bot repo have ASCII sketches of Midgaard, the Hills and Plains, and Newtonia — with ''{{Area}}'' markers showing how areas connect.

  * **Treasure on the ground.** Coins and notes sometimes turn up lying on the ground in public places — a neat pile of coins in a square, a note in a garden. Where they appear varies and none is guaranteed, so look as you pass. The city Dump is also worth checking: discarded gear gathers there over the day.

  * **Room features as containers.** Some features named in a room's description are containers in their own right — a fireplace, for instance. ''look in <feature>'' shows what is inside. The ''search'' command is not a free verb: it belongs to a skill, and a character who has not learned it will be told so.
  * **Keys and locks.** A key may need to be held in your hand, not merely carried, before ''unlock'' will accept it — and some keys are spent by the turning, crumbling away after a single use.
===== Coming from DikuMUD? Key differences =====

Nilgiri looks like DikuMUD but several core mechanics work differently:

**Shopping:** There is no ''withdraw'' command. Shops automatically debit your bank account — just type ''buy'' and the game handles payment directly ("Account #XXXX debited Xgc for purchase"). You never need gold in hand to shop. Bank your gold for safekeeping, not for spending.

**Casting spells:** ''cast'' requires double quotes around the full spell name: ''cast "cure light wounds"''. Single quotes or bare words will fail. If your character's words come out garbled (e.g. "BylleGrylle Grop Gryf???"), the cast failed — check your syntax.

**Banking:** Deposit gold and valuables at the Bank of Midgaard before renting a room — the innkeeper refuses rent if you're carrying valuables. Use ''balance'' to check your account.

===== Your first goal =====

Reach L4. A realistic path: hunt the city to L2, the Hills and Plains to L3–L4, bank everything, and don't die to anything with long ears. When you hit L4, announce it: ''gossip Level!'' — the whole game will congratulate you.

Good luck, newbie. Watch out for rabbits.

===== Beyond level 4: levels 5-8 =====

Once you hit L4 and beyond, the game opens up. Here's what to expect based on real play:

**Levels 5-6:** The Hills and Plains remain your bread and butter, but start pushing into the Sleeping Forest and Vineyard. Watch for equipment upgrades during normal hunts — empty wear slots (face, neck, arms, hands, fingers) are worth filling when you find them, but don't go on dedicated gear runs.

**Leaving the city:** Around levels 4-5, the Hills and Plains fringe west of the West Gate becomes viable hunting, provided you carry the city discipline with you — check your ''score'' (fed and watered, full health) before every hunting block and keep your noflee threshold set.

**After dark:** After dark, a carried torch does not make dark outdoor exits readable, and Midgaard's North Gate portcullis stays shut all night — the city seals. The game day lasts about 30 real minutes, so plan fringe hunts for daylight and hunt in town after dark.

**The ferocious rabbit:** It can pursue a fleeing character room to room for several rooms, and it will attack a character who sleeps out in the fields. Never sleep in the fringe; if it ambushes you, flee and keep moving until it loses the trail.

**The Forest of Tharen (L5+):**

Once the Hills and Plains feel routine, try the **Forest of Tharen** — a level-5 area east of the Peaceful Grove, with fair game (sabre-toothed chickens, young gnoblins, wild cats, rabbit-dogs) and full [[https://github.com/nilgirian/Nilgiri-Muse-Bot/tree/main/maps|community maps]] in the Nilgiri-Muse-Bot repo.

Three warnings before you go:

  * **The stairs have teeth.** A large rat-bat haunts the tower's Grand Staircase — aggressive, and it hits hard even at level 8. ''Consider'' it, and be ready to ''flee''.
  * **The golem door is not for you.** On the tower's second floor a large flesh golem guards a locked iron door — ''consider'' reads "higher level than you." Believe it. Walk away.
  * **The grig lies.** A dancing grig in the forest gives contradictory ''consider'' readings in the same breath. Don't trust it — just leave it dancing.

And one gift: north of the tower, the **Rip in Reality** has a Down exit that drops you at the **Temple of Midgaard** — a free fast-travel ride from the deep forest straight back to the city. Learn it early; you'll use it every trip.

**Skills:** Starting at L4, find a teacher (an immortal like Sin at Russ' House) to learn guild skills. The protocol: ''follow'' your teacher, they ''teach'' you, then you ''learn'' immediately. Key early skills include Slashes, Catechism, and Cure Light Wounds. Practice points are precious — spend them on skills you'll actually use.

A skill that depends on another skill can only be practiced as high as the skill it depends on. Cure Light Wounds depends on Catechism, for example: while one character's Catechism stood at 19, his Cure could not be practiced past 19 — and raising Catechism raised Cure's limit point for point. Kick follows Martialism the same way. So practice the foundation skill first, then the skill built on it — points spent on the dependent skill before its foundation is raised are capped and not refunded. And when a teacher offers to teach you, learn immediately: an offer fades after about a game hour, so do not stop to chat first.

A single offer can carry more than one lesson at a time: name a count when you learn (learn 3 kick, for example) and the offer will teach that many practices in a row, stopping early when you reach the most the teacher can teach you, or the most your current ability in a skill it builds on allows. It is still one offer that fades quickly, so learn first and talk after. When a skill's remaining distance to its ceiling is small, one batched learn can carry it all the way to that ceiling while charging only the practices you named.

Learning from a master is a short three-step conversation. First, follow the master, and the master takes you on as an apprentice. The master then offers one skill with the teach command — for a skill whose name has more than one word, the name must be wrapped in double quotes, or the lesson fails. Finally, you learn while the offer stands: an offer lasts about one game hour and covers a single skill, so learn promptly, and ask for a fresh offer for the next skill. Only the master's own apprentice can be taught this way.

**Kick:** Practiced high, kick stops being a garnish and becomes a genuine finisher that can kill outright — worth its practice sessions for a melee build. (Note: kicks fail in water.)

**Level 7-8:** You're hunting bigger game now — blackbirds, green lizards, beastly fidos. The large elk is a real test; it was too strong at lower levels but becomes beatable around L8 — with the storyteller's blessing up. The blessing carries your hit rate more than the level does: in one measured L8 fight after the blessing had expired, the fighter landed no hits at all in six rounds and had to flee. Renew the blessing before elk-class game. Always ''consider'' new mobs before engaging. Keep your noflee threshold set (half your max HP) and never fight hungry or thirsty.

**The storyteller's blessing:** The storyteller in the Temple of Midgaard blesses everyone gathered there on his own schedule — no request and no cost. The blessing (a hitroll and saving-throw bonus) lasts about a day of game time. Renew it by simply being in the Temple when he gives it again — it's worth it for any serious hunt.

**Practices and weapon skills.** Melee hit rolls do not use weapon skill, so practising the skill for a plain weapon does not make you hit more often. The weapon skills matter for piercing, slashing and whip weapons, and the staves skill concerns magic staves and wands. Martialism does not change your fighting directly; its use is that it raises how far you can learn kick.

**Skill chains and herbalism**

  * Skills form chains: a skill's ceiling is its parent skill's current level, so train the parent first — a derived skill cannot outgrow the skill it hangs from.
  * The Animism chain works with plants: Animism -> Herb Lore -> Forage, and then Prepare and Apply both hang off Forage.
  * Forage is a spell that senses herbal plants nearby; its reach grows as the skill grows.
  * Prepare turns a shrub into an herb: shrubs are items found in rooms — hold one and cast Prepare on it. Apply uses a prepared herb on yourself or a creature.
  * A cast whose words come out garbled has failed. A spell you have not learned at all costs no mana when it garbles; a learned spell's failed casts still cost mana.

The herbalist's chain runs animism, then herb lore, then forage; prepare and apply both build on forage, and each skill's ceiling is set by the current level of the skill it builds on — raise the foundation first. Prepare is not a spell you cast: it is a plain verb. Hold the shrub or plant in your **right hand** and type `prepare <plant>`. At low skill most attempts fizzle, and a failed attempt by a young druid can destroy the plant altogether, so practice on common shrubs before risking a rare one.