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» (0.4) Typical slang/abbreviations
» (1) Introduction
» (2) Installation & setup
» (3) Creating a character & starting to play
» (4) The world
» (5) Item and flag details, elements
» (6) Monster details
» (7) Character details
» (8) Tactics & strategy
» (9) Miscellanous

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(0.4) Typical slang/abbreviations                                               
---------------------------------
Art         Artifact. Those can be 'Static arfifacts' from the a_info.txt
            file, also called 'True Arts'. Or they may be 'Randomly generated
            artifacts' also called 'Randarts'.
            In game you can press  ~ 6  to search for any static artifact.
            (See (8.4) for more info about spoiler files.)
            Winners who beat Morgoth, Lord of Darkness will usually not
            be able to use static artifacts, but rely on randarts instead.
            On winning, you might be able to keep your true artifacts, but they
            will time out at double speed (except for artifacts that have a
            native level of 100: The One Ring and the Power Dragon Scale Mail
            'Bladeturner') and if you ever drop one it will instantly vanish.
            There are a few exceptions: Winner-artifacts! These are meant to be
            used -only- by winners, and can be handled by them normally without
            disappearing.
            Depending on the server settings, fallen winners might also not be
            able to use static arts.
            See (5.9b) for more information about artifacts.

Auto-ID     A special ability of some items. If you equip an item that grants
            you 'Auto-ID' all items you touch will automatically be
            identified! Items who grant their wielder Auto-Identification are
            highly sought after. Randart helmets or gloves sometimes have it.
            See (5.7) for more information about identification.

BD          Barrow-Downs. The main starter dungeon in the town of Bree, located
            to the far left of the town.

BM          Black Market (Store '7').

BpR/SpR     Blows per round, shots per round. The number of attacks you get
            in melee (BpR) or with your ranged weapon (SpR).

            For melee characters BpR depends on weapon skills, magic buffs and
            items that give you 'Extra Attacks' and (unless you use Martial
            Arts) on your weapon weight vs your STR and DEX stats.
            You should pick the recommend STR/DEX values on character creation
            to ensure that you start with at least 2 BpR and if possible buy a
            lighter weapon right away to upgrade your BpR from 2 to 3.

            For martial arts or ranged weapons, STR and DEX stats (or any other
            stats) have no effect on BpR or SpR respectively.

Cheeze      Questionable action, not quite cheating but close to it.
            This can be transferring items from a high-level character to a
            low-level character to boost him and trivialize the beginning phase
            of the game for him. This is perfectly legal though, it's just
            "cheezy".
            Or it could be exploiting weaknesses in the game design instead of
            reporting them to the forum (which could have certain repercussions
            depending on the severity or if it's already going into "Cheating"
            territory).

Clairy      Nickname for clairvoyance/enlightenment spells that map and light
            the complete floor.

DEW         Dark-elven warlock. A very deadly monster that comes in packs and
            shoots high-damage mana bolts, glass cannon style.

Dive        A trip into the dungeon, usually quite deep compared to the
            diver's character level.

DS          Disruption shield. A must-have spell for istari (mages).

DSM         Dragon Scale Mail. Legendary pieces of armour, that actually has
            neutral water buoyancy. When mentioned, its meaning usually
            includes Dracolich Bone Armour, which works exactly the same.

Excellents  Items that pseudo-identified as 'excellent'.

EA          Extra Attacks. Rings, gloves or weapons which increase your number
            of blows per round (BpR) with melee weapons. Quite expensive.

EL          Everlasting. This refers to the character mode that the player
            chooses during character creation. For details see (3.1).

EoS         Essence of Speed, a haste spell in the temporal school.

ES          Elemental Shield, a multi-school-spanning protective spell.

ESP         Extrasensory perception. ESP is a telepathic power that allows you
            to sense monsters even though they aren't in your line of sight but
            far away. This is tremendously useful as you know what monsters are
            lurking on the dungeon floor and where they are, so you won't run
            into nasty surprises - except you cannot ESP monsters that don't
            have a mind! And there might be special monsters that can cloak
            their mind, also preventing detection.
            Monster flags regarding ESP are EMPTY_MIND (the monster does not
            have a mind) and WEIRD_MIND (the monster will flicker on ESP).

            ESP powers can vary, from full telepathy (seeing all monsters that
            have a mind) to partial ESP that only detects specific kinds of
            monsters, such are:
            Animals, Spiders, Orcs, Trolls, Giants, Dragonriders, Undead (most
            lesser undead are mindless though and therefore undetectable by
            ESP), Demons, Dragons (includes Dragonriders), Good (all monsters
            that have the 'GOOD' flag), Evil (all monsters that have the 'EVIL'
            flag, which is quite a lot), Non-living (most of these don't have a
            mind though), Unique monsters.
            In the early game, obtaining ESP-Evil, often from a weapon of *slay
            evil*, is already a huge help, as it will cover a lot of monsters.

            ESP can be gained by magic or by items, typical items are:
             - Crowns of telepathy (full ESP, 'It gives telepathic powers.')
             - Weapons of *Slay Evil*, Aman, or Gondolin (ESP evil)
             - Weapons of Westernesse (ESP orcs/trolls/giants)
             - Dwarven Helmets (ESP dragons, rolls)
             - Weapons of *Slay Troll* (ESP trolls)
             The lower three are mainly listed for their troll-detection. While
             trolls are not a major threat, the ESP can be utilized for finding
             troll pits! These usually yield major amounts of experience in the
             early gameplay. Typically, the player would enter a dungeon floor
             and use Shift+L (CTRL+W for Roguelike keyset) to scan the whole
             floor for a possible troll pit.

            Note that the rogue ability 'Cloaking' overrides ESP, so a cloaked
            target cannot be spotted by ESP.

FA          Free Action (immunity to paralysis).

FF          1) Feather falling.
            2) Fireflash. A holy-fire spell, good against evil creatures.

GoI         Globe of invulnerability. This only exists as 'Stair GoI', see
            further below.

Gorth       Room in the dungeon, divided into 4 chambers, similar to a pit.
            Also see 'Room', 'Pit' and (4.6).

GV          Greater Vault. (See (4.6))

GCV         Greater Checkerboard Vault (looks remotely like a checkerboard).

Haste       Any kind of speed spell, can be a player or monster spell.

HP          Hit points, the amount of damage your character can take before it
            dies. Actually you are still alive at 0 HP. Death occurs when you
            drop below 0.
            The starter HP are different for each race and class and can be
            viewed in the tables in chapters (7.4) and (7.5) respectively;
            quick-access these tables by searching the guide for chapter key
            words (or "/?" command) "race tab" and "class tab" respectively.

ID          Identify and *Identify* magic respectively, which is used to
*ID*        reveal magic properties of unknown items. Scrolls of ID can be
            bought in store 5.
            See (5.7) for more information about identification.

Iron Team   A special type of party which can only be formed with newly
            created characters. Its members only gain experience if all
            members are online and on the same dungeon level.
            Also, members can only trade items and money with other members,
            or you will get the message "you cannot take items from outsiders."
            (same message as appears for IDDC trading restrictions actually).
            The owner can decide to 'close' an iron team in the party menu,
            which will permanently disallow addition of any further members.

Ironman     This typically describes a gameplay scenario where you cannot
            resurrect so death is permanent and often also where you cannot
            turn back and return to town either.
            There are basically 3 types of 'Ironman' in TomeNET:
            1) The Ironman server in the server list. You can return to towns
               here though. For details about its special ruleset see (9.6).
            2) The normal TomeNET server has a few Ironman dungeons too, which
               are just dubbed 'Wilderness' in the dungeon list when found.
               These dungeons can only be traversed one-way. To leave them you
               must reach the final floor and then use 'word of recall' there.
               There is one 'named' Ironman dungeon: 'The Halls of Mandos',
               which goes from level 1 to 100 and as a specialy (no other
               dungeon has this restriction) has no unique monsters in it.
            3) The IDDC dungeon (both, normal server and Ironman server
               actually have one of these each): 'Ironman Deep Dive Challenge'.
               In this dungeon, death is permanent and you cannot leave except
               under a few specific exceptions. Special trade rules apply too.
               This dungeon is recommended if you want to have an epic Ironman
               diving experience, be it solo or in a party.
               For details about its ruleset see (4.13).

Kinging     The process of beating Morgoth, the game boss, and thereby
            acquiring a royal title (king/queen/emperor/empress).
            Such player characters are also referred to as 'winners'.
            A player must be at least level 40 to get credit for beating
            Morgoth.

klevel, olevel
            Somewhat more technical terms, these stand for the exact type of
            item level that is meant in a certain context:
            k-level is the 'object kind level', which is given in k_info.txt.
            This is the object's base level and describes from which minimum
            dungeon floor level or minimum monster level you can expect to
            start getting that item type.
            The o-level is the 'real' object level that you'll see on an item
            you pick up. This can vary from the klev, depending on the dungeon
            floor depth and monster level you got the item from.
            Example: According to k_info.txt an Amulet of the Serpents has a
            klev of 25, so you can expect to start seeing this drop on dungeon
            level 25 (1250ft) or from level 25 monsters respectively. However,
            when you find such an amulet on say a dungeon floor at 4000ft,
            which equals dungeon level 80, an actual amulet you find might have
            a level requirement (olev) of 30.
            (Note: This is similar to mlevel vs rlevel for monsters.)

Loot        Items that have been dropped by dead monsters or players and
            are waiting to be picked up by someone. :)

LV          Lesser Vault. (See (4.6))

mlevel, rlevel
            Somewhat more technical terms, these stand for the exact type of
            monster level that is meant in a certain context:
            m-level is the 'real' monster level that you'll also see when you
            have your character look at it. This level may actually be boosted
            and therefore be higher than you'd expect. This happens when you
            meet the monster on a floor that is far deeper than the level the
            monster usually starts to occur on.
            r-level is the base monster level (race level), which you can see
            in game if you press  ~ 7  and search for a particular monster.
            It describes the minimum floor level a monster is usually found on
            (although 'out-of-depth' occurances may be possible).

            Example: According to ~7, Ancient Red Dragons have a base level of
            41. That means you'll usually start seeing them on dungeon floors
            of level 41 (2050 ft) and deeper, although there's always a slim
            chance that you meet a monster earlier than its base level (called
            OoD encounter, "Out of Depth").
            So we know now that the r-level of Ancient Red Dragons is 41.
            However, if you meet an Ancient Red Dragon on a much deeper dungeon
            floor, say 2450 ft, which would be the equivalent to level 49, when
            you look at the dragon you'll see it says level 42 instead of the
            expected 41. This means the dragon's level was actually slightly
            boosted because the dungeon floor's level was that much higher than
            the dragon's. So while the rlev of this dragon is still 41, its
            real level, the mlev, is 42.

            Monsters that are on dungeon floors 8 levels or higher above their
            base level will get an increase in levels of +1 for every 3 floors,
            so +1 level at 8 dungeon levels above their r-level, +2 at 11,
            +3 at 14 etc..
            Monsters randomly gain hit points, speed, AC or damage dice/sides
            for their melee attacks on each level-up. To find out in what way a
            particular monster has been boosted you can use a rod of probing.

            Some formulas used by the game use mlev, some use rlev.
            (Note: This is similar to klevel vs olevel for items.)

Morgy       Morgoth, Lord of Darkness. Final boss enemy in TomeNET.
            See (1.3) for details.

MP          Mana points, the amount of magical energy you have at your disposal
            to cast spells or recite prayers.
            A class that cannot use any spells will '-' displayed instead of a
            numerical amount.
            The starter MP are different for each race and class and can be
            viewed in the tables in chapters (7.4) and (7.5) respectively;
            quick-access these tables by searching the guide for chapter key
            words (or "/?" command) "race tab" and "class tab" respectively.
            For an overview of all spells and prayers, see (7.8).

Nazgul weapon or RW weapon
            An artifact weapon that doesn't really excel, but since it's an
            artifact it can still be put to good use as a weapon for killing
            Nazgul (the nine ringwraiths, see (1.3a)).
            Since Nazgul still have a 1 in 1000 chance to destroy an artifact
            weapon on hit, you don't want to put your best weapons at risk.
            So using a mediocre artifact instead that you'd otherwise just sell
            to a store seems like a good idea, since it won't be much of a loss
            if it breaks, and it will usually still get the job done as long as
            its weapon class fits the type of your trained mastery skill.

Nest        Originally also just called 'pits', nests only differ from pits in
            the monsters in them being strewn around in a randomly mixed manner
            while pits contain 'organized' rings and circles of monsters.
            The monsters in a nest are not completely random but follow certain
            schemes. For example all monsters in a 'clones nest' are exactly
            the same type. Also see 'pits'.

non-EL      Not Everlasting. This refers to the character mode that the player
            chooses during character creation. For details see (3.1).

OC          The Orc Caves. A very commonly sought dungeon which is usually
            entered soon after having roamed Barrow-Downs a bit, or by some
            more daring adventurers even right away as their first dungeon.

olevel      see klevel.

OoD         1) Out-of-depth. Means a monster or an item encounter that happened
            at a surprisingly shallow level, opposed to the base level for that
            monster (shown in ~7) or item (given in k_info.txt) where
            you would usually start expecting to find it.
            Vaults often containing OoD monsters and items, increasing threat
            and reward for the brave.
            Note: OoD is limited to at most +40 levels (happens in high-level
            vaults); unique monsters can actually only be up to 20 levels OoD
            (even in vaults) and, as a specialty, Great Wyrms of Power can only
            ever occur up to 10 levels OoD.

            2) Orb of Draining. A powerful holy spell, especially against evil.

Party       A group of players who fight together and share experience.
            In a party you will share experience points if you are within 7
            character levels to each other and on the same dungeon/tower level
            respectively the same worldmap/wilderness sector.
            You can invoke the party menu with shift+p key. See (7.9).

Pit         Pits contain monsters of a certain type, for example 'demon pits'
            or 'orc pits', with the monsters in them being placed in a somewhat
            'organized' manner of rings and circles. Also see 'Nest' or 'Room'.
            Pits are often confused with special rooms. See (4.6) for details.

Post-King   The life of a character within the level range above level 50.
Pre-King    The life of a character within the level range 1 to 50.

Prob        Probability Travel. A magic spell for fast movement over obstacles
Probtravel  as well as floating upwards or downwards.

Pseudo-ID   If a player keeps an unidentified item for a longer time he might
            'feel' if the item is average, good, cursed or special. The item
            will automatically receive a 'pseudo-ID inscription' then.
            Pseudo-ID intensity and speed depend on various skills in regards
            to the type of item: 'Combat', 'Archery', 'Magic' or 'Trapping'.
            It does not matter whether the player is acting, afk or idle.
            See (5.7) for more information about identification.

PvE         Player vs environment. This is the main game style of TomeNET:
            You fight against the computer-controlled environment, usually not
            against any fellow players. Instead, cooperative gameplay is very
            rewarding.

PvP         Player vs player. Describes the act of player characters fighting
            each other. If you want to fight other players to death, create a
            new 'PvP mode' character. It's an option during the character
            creation process, much like 'everlasting mode' or 'normal mode'.
            For more information about pvp mode, see (7.13).
            Any player characters can have a friendly pvp-duel without any
            consequences by utilizing scrolls of blood bond (see (5.9)).

Randart     Randomly generated artifact. As opposed to 'Truearts' which are
 Randy      also called 'Static arts' from the file a_info.txt (you can search
            static arts by pressing  ~ 6  in game). See 'Art' at the top of
            this section for more information.
            See (5.9b) for more information about artifacts.

RC          Remove Curses and *Remove Curses* (for heavy curses) respectively.
*RC*        Available as scrolls or spells.

Rekinging   Fallen winners, ie players who beat Morgoth but later on died and
            thereby lost their royal title again, can attempt to regain it by
            teaming up with someone who has not yet defeated Morgoth.
            The player who has NOT yet killed Morgoth (check ~ 3 b to verify)
            has to land the final killing blow! Then everyone in her/his party
            on the same floor will gain winner status again, even fallen kings.
            A player must be at least level 40 to get credit for beating
            Morgoth.
            A new (experimental) way to obtain a lost royal title again is to
            donate and pray in 'The Mirror' in Lothlorien, see (4.5a) for
            details. (Also see 'kinging'.)

Res         1) Resistance. Will reduce damage and/or prevent status effects
            from a particular element when hit by it.

            2) Resurrection. A spell to revive player ghosts, also available
            as 'Scroll of Life' or temple service in town.

RFE         A request for enhancement, ie a suggestion, that players can send
            to the game admins using the "/rfe" command.

RLL         Restore Life Levels. A potion (can be bought in the temple) or
            magic that will restore drained experience points. (If drained xp
            can be restored this will be indicated by a yellow XP bar/value).

rlevel      See mlevel.

Room        The dungeon contains many rooms connected by passages. Some of the
            rooms are of special shape. Especially rooms containing a further,
            inner room similarly to pits are thereby often confused with those,
            mostly 'Gorths' (rooms divided into four chambers containing a
            lot of monsters), 'Checkerboard-Rooms' (rooms containing a
            checkerboard-like maze structure and a lot of monsters).

RoP         Ring of Power. While these also includes the true artifact rings of
            power, this expression is usually only used to refer to the randart
            rings of power that are dropped by Nazgul (level 0, ie soulbound).
            See (1.3a) for more information on Nazgul and their rings.

Scumming    Repeatedly using staircases up/downwards to make a level become
            recreated. Usually in hope of finding a specific monster on that
            depth. ('I scum 450..500 ft for Wormy'.)
            Use 'locate' (SHIFT+L or CTRL+W depending on keyset) to quickly
            'scan' the floor for your desired monsters, provided you have the
            required type of ESP to see them.

SI          See invisible. (See (5.14) for details about invisibility.)

Specials    Items that pseudo-identify as 'special'. These are true arts or
            randarts.

ST          Stamina, which you can spend to use certain special techniques that
            are usually either fighting techniques (close combat) or shooting
            techniques (ranged combat), see (7.12) for a complete list.
            A class that cannot use any techniques will '-' displayed instead
            of a numerical amount.
            Maximum stamina is always 10, its regeneration is slow. It can be
            sped up by resting (SHIFT+R), and by having a higher Constitution
            attribute (CON) or by training the 'Health' skill.

Static      A level that is static will not change if you leave it but stay
            the same, permanently until it is unstaticed.
            All levels remain static for a short period of time after the
            last player leaves them to prevent scumming.
            Also, levels remain static if a player ghost-died (meaning he died
            ultimatively without possibility of resurrection) for a longer
            while depending on the dungeon level, see (3.11) for details about
            static-by-death levels.

Static Art  See 'Art' at the top of this section.

Stair GoI   Stair-GoI is a very short-lasting globe of semi-invulnerability
            (3 turns), 'GoI' meaning 'Globe of Invulnerability'.
            It is a magical protection effect that any player who takes a
            staircase up or down or uses Word of Recall will automatically
            receive:
            A temporary buff of +100 armour class and 40% chance to deflect
            any attacks that hit him. Attacks that aren't deflected still get
            their damage halved.
            When an attack is deflected, you get a message saying:
            "The attack is fully deflected by a magic shield."

True Art    See 'Art' at the top of this section. Synonymous with 'Static Art'.

TT          The Training Tower. The easiest (but also smallest and least
            rewarding) dungeon in the game, located right in Bree, along the
            south-eastern path away from the Inn.

Unique      A monster that is named and exists only once. Although it can
            respawn for another player who hasn't defeated it yet, each player
            will receive loot only once from it. So if you engage a unique
            monster while playing together with a team mate, check if you have
            already killed it and if so let your team mate inflict the killing
            blow, so he will get the kill credited and the monster will drop
            loot accordingly.
            To verify whether you have already killed a unique, you may..
            -check the unique monster list in '~' menu.
            -'l'ook at the monster, the name will be shown in dark grey if you
             already got kill credit for it.
            -watch the damage messages when you attack it, they will be shown
             in dark grey if you already killed it.
            -turn on the option 'unique_kill_credit' in '=' menu: It will beep
             if you hit a unique monster that you have already killed.
            It is good etiquette that you don't touch the (inscribed) loot a
            unique monster drops if it wasn't you who killed it in the end.
            That's precisely because every player can only get kill credit for
            each unique monster once.
            Uniques often have large escorts.

            Note that a unique monster cannot occur in two or more different
            places in the whole game world at the _same time_ - with the only
            exception being the IDDC (Ironman Deep Dive Challenge) which is a
            closed ecosystem and has unique monsters spawn independently from
            the rest of the game world.
            So if you are desperately looking for a unique monster and can't
            seem to make it spawn, ask in chat if someone else sees that
            particular monster on his current dungeon level. Then wait till
            they have left that level or killed the unique so it will be ready
            to spawn again for you, or maybe they will tell you that you can
            come over to kill it there in place.

            Unique monsters will randomly respawn for winners, ie Kings,
            Queens, Emperors and Empresses. That means: The game will "forget"
            that you already defeated them, allowing you to defeat them once
            more. There are some exceptions though, the following monsters
            will never respawn: All dungeon bosses, te Nazgul, Sauron, Michael,
            Morgoth, and all super-uniques that come after Morgoth, starting
            with Tik'srvzllat.

            This respawning happens (albeit very slowly) while you are logged
            on with your winner character, except while you're in town or in
            the area around a town (housing zone). When a unique monster
            respawns for you, you will see a purple message:
            "XYZ rises from the dead!" where XYZ is the unique monster name.
            The higher level a unique is the less frequently will it respawn.

WoR         Word of Recall (teleports you into the dungeon and back or on the
            world map). See "(0.3) Important inscriptions, Word of Recall" for
            more info.

Wormy       Wormtongue, Agent of Saruman. He drops great items.
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