Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

About the game

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is a roguelike: a turn-based dungeon crawl where every level is generated anew each game and death is permanent. Your goal is to go down through the Dungeon, find at least three magic runes in its branches, enter the Realm of Zot at the bottom and come back up with the Orb of Zot. Few characters make it, and that is part of the appeal: each game teaches something.

Before descending you build a character from 27 species, from humans and elves to minotaurs, nagas, octopodes and the cat-like felids, and 26 backgrounds such as fighter, berserker, hunter, necromancer or fire elementalist. Species and background shape your skills, but the game lets any character learn anything: experience goes into the skills you choose to train. Along the way you meet gods that offer powers in exchange for devotion, each with its own rules, and branches with their own monsters and treasures: the Lair, the Orcish Mines, the Elven Halls, the Vaults, the Swamp and the Shoals, and further down Hell and Pandemonium.

Stone Soup began in 2006 as a continuation of Linley's Dungeon Crawl, the 1997 game by Linley Henzell, and is still developed by a volunteer team with a new version every few months. It is known for avoiding tedium: there is no hunger to manage in the newer versions, automatic exploration and travel do the walking, and searching for hidden items is not needed.

Playing it here

This is version 0.34.1, the console (text) version, compiled for the browser from the official source release. The map is drawn in letters and symbols: @ is you, letters are monsters, # are walls and > and < are stairs. The download is about 31 MB uncompressed. The first start also builds the description database, which takes a few extra seconds once.

Saved games, character records (morgue files) and options stay in this browser. The game only saves when you press Ctrl+S, which saves and returns to the start menu; enter the same name there to continue. Closing the tab without saving loses what you did since the last save. The game is in English.

Controls

Key	Action
Arrow keys or h j k l y u b n	move (diagonals with y u b n); moving into a monster attacks it
Shift + direction	move until something interesting happens
Tab	attack the nearest monster
o	explore automatically
5 or s	wait a turn (5 rests until healed)
g or ,	pick up items
i	inventory
w, W, P	wield a weapon, wear armour, put on jewellery
q, r	quaff a potion, read a scroll
z, a	cast a spell, use an ability
< and >	go up and down stairs
G	travel to a place, such as a branch or a level
x	look around
Ctrl+S	save and return to the start menu
?	help and the list of commands

Getting started

Try the tutorial. The start menu offers a Tutorial and a Hints mode for the main game. Both explain the screen and the basic commands as you play.

Start simple. A Minotaur Berserker, a Gargoyle Fighter or a Mountain Dwarf Fighter is forgiving for a first game. The species screen marks the recommended choices with +.

Let the game walk. Press o to explore the level automatically; it stops when a monster comes into view or something needs your attention. When the level is done, > on the stairs takes you down, and G travels to any place you have seen.

Read the messages. The lines at the bottom say what happened. Ctrl+P shows earlier messages.

Tips

Rest before going on. After a fight, press 5 to rest until your health and magic are back. Most deaths come from taking on the next fight hurt.

Fight in corridors. Groups of monsters are much weaker when only one can reach you at a time.

Use your consumables. Unknown potions and scrolls are safer to try when nothing is around, and an emergency is the reason they exist: don't die with a full inventory.

Pick a god. Altars appear on the first levels. Praying on one (p) describes the god; joining gives powers that can carry a character through the middle game.

Know when to run. If a monster is clearly too strong, go back up the stairs. Monsters next to you follow, but the rest stay behind.