Improved ADOM Guidebook

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Opponents - 20th opponent - After 20th - Dak - Ratling traders - Ratling Rebel - Cats - Nak An'Dwar

Arena

Color map

The Arena level is found on D: 3-5. It can be immediately recognized by repeated messages saying "You hear the ecstatic cries of a large crowd!" As might be expected at a huge attraction like the Arena, there are vendors selling food on this level. It is home to several ratling traders, ratling rebel, the dwarf Nak An'Dwar, and Dak, the arena master.

The Arena itself is for combat practice, with the rewards for a successful fight being gold pieces. The rewards get larger as the PC wins more fights. A PC should not fight more than 19 times in the Arena before descending to deeper levels of the CoC. This is because she will encounter an NPC later (see 3.5.3.1) who assigns a quest to win the 20th Arena fight.

3.2.1 Arena opponents

Credit Timofei Shatrov. There are five possible opponents in each fight, although some of them are duplicates. Note that all Arena opponents have their HP increased by 5*PC's Level, but their other stats are unchanged, so it just takes a little longer to kill them. The table below shows the possible opponents, with cats in bold capitals and duplicates in parentheses:

Possible arena opponents
RoundPossible opponents
1 giant rat kobold rat goblin (giant rat)
2 giant rat kobold orc goblin (giant rat)
3 gnoll hobgoblin orc rabid dog (hobgoblin)
4 gnoll orc scorcher hobgoblin skeleton zombie
5 gnoll orc scorcher lizard man fire beetle giant bat
6 ghul black hurthling WILD CATwolf giant bat
7 ghul black hurthling hyena large kobold jackal
8 ghul orc scorcher large gnoll large kobold bugbear
9 ogre large orc large gnoll shadow wererat
10 ogre large orc kobold chief shadow werewolf
11 large spider cave fisher orc chieftain ankheg gnoll chief
12 kobold shamandwarf orc chieftain ankheg giant spider
13 kobold shamandwarf orc chieftain ankheg giant spider
14 imp displacer beast orc chieftain quasit CAVE LION
15 cave bear displacer beast minotaur hippogriff jackalwere
16 cave bear displacer beast minotaur hippogriff jackalwere
17 cave bear dire wolf minotaur harpy giant lizard
18 cave bear dark sage tarantula fire lizard hell hound
19 cave bear dark sage tarantula fire lizard dark elven warrior
20 Li-Hon-Kai Spardakius Ripclaw Bonk (Li-Han-Kai)

3.2.2 20th Arena opponent

The 20th fight will be against a named former champion, who will feature +40 Speed. These opponents are more difficult than the standard Arena opponents. There are four possibilities:

Li-Hon-Kay Spardakius Ripclaw Bonk
Possible 20th arena opponent
Opponent Race ASCII Remarks
Li-Hon-Kay ogre magus Ouses Invisibility and Frost Bolt, regenerates; alternate name Li-Han-Kay
Spardakius minotaur Mbrute force
Ripclaw troll Tbrute force
Bonk hill giant Hbrute force

Li-Hon-Kay (2/5 chance to appear) can be particularly annoying and dangerous. He regenerates health, casts invisibility, and attacks with frost bolts. PCs without cold resistance and the ability to see invisible will probably not survive a fight with Li-Hon-Kay. Fortunately, cold immunity and the ability to see invisible are granted by the Ancient Mummy Wrapping, an artifact armor held by Rehetep, the mummy lord (section 2.9.2.1). Players who want to be conservative and maximize the chances of survival in the 20th Arena fight will tackle the Pyramid first. Note also that although ogre magi are somewhat resistant to confusion, if one is successfully confused using Mindcraft, they are unable to become invisible. This works for Li-Hon-Kay as well as ordinary ogre magi. The other 20th fight Arena opponents will fall to offensive magic or simple brute force bashing.

3.2.2.1 Golden gladius "Death's Sting" (

ds The reward for winning the 20th Arena fight is an artifact sword, the Golden Gladius. It's needed to get Backstabbing, Two weapon combat, and especially the much desired Tactics skill from Bart, or it can be used for the Demented Ratling in Dwarftown.

------- golden gladius "Death's Sting" (+2, 2d5+2) [+3, +3] (+7 spd) -------

Weight: 30s

When worn it modifies DV by +3 and PV by +3.

When used in melee combat it grants a +2 bonus to hit and causes 2d5+2 points of damage.
When used as a missile it grants a -4 bonus to hit and causes 1d3 points of damage.

It modifies your speed by +7.

3.2.3 After the 20th fight

There are a limited number of fights available after the 20th fight, but beware: anything can be generated as an opponent in such fights. It is quite possible to be faced with an emperor lich or ancient karmic dragon. The monetary rewards for such fights are about 1000 gold pieces each, not worth it if the PC has to face a difficult opponent. Furthermore, the experience gains from these fights are dependent on the experience level of the PC. Those who have difficulty gaining experience (Trolls, Raven-born Athletic Monks, etc.) should leave these fights for when they are at a high experience level.

3.2.4 Dak, the arena master @

Dak, the arena master
Level: 1, DV: 22, PV: 12, Hits: 108, Attacks: 2, Damage: 1d8+12, Speed: 100.
Dak provides access to the Arena. Note that he will not admit invisible PCs to the Arena, whether or not they have fought in the Arena before. He responds with "Sorry, we've hired more than enough invisible stalkers. Look for a job elsewhere or come back when some of yer pals are used up." Player with permanent invisibility obtained from a pool or invisible stalker corpse can only enter the Arena under the influence of a potion of visibility or wearing regular mummy wrapping. For this reason it may be wise to at least finish 19 arena fights, if not become a champion altogether, before the PC drinks from any pools. If the PC teleports out of the Arena without killing the opponent and returns to Dak, he tries to stun, then confuse, then paralyze the PC before teleporting them back into the Arena.

Note that it is possible to unintentionally cause Dak to become hostile during an arena fight, eg. if he is hit by a ball spell that reaches outside the front entrance of the Arena. Doing so will end the fight after a certain amount of turns, and cause the Arena Master to attack without giving a reward for the completed fight (and, of course, forfeit the possibility of any future fights and rewards).

Also, if you create a closed door on the tile the PC is teleported to after winning a fight, it will be opened and the message "You hear a short clapping sound." is displayed upon winning again. This is the only way to teleport on top of a door in ADOM, and according to the old bug tracker, said effect was intentionally coded for this sole possibility.

3.2.5 Ratling traders r

ratling traderfemale ratling trader
Level: 1, DV: 16, PV: 0, Hits: 10, Attacks: 1, Damage: 1d6+1, Speed: 100.
There are several ratling traders on the Arena level who sell food. The best food source is cooked lizards, which weigh only 3 stones each and are very nutritious. Also available are fried bats, which are less nutritious, but still acceptable. It is not worth buying rat tails, fat worms, and cooked roaches. They have very low nutrition value, even for Trolls, who can eat almost anything. See Appendix G for details.

Ratling traders typically have more stock if their stock is uncursed or cursed – blessed stock seems to number at the low end of the range. In contrast to shops, which restock dependent on total game time passed, the ratling traders seem to restock dependent on game passed on the Arena level only. Thus a PC may go off adventuring for many days, return to the Arena and find no new food available. Wait or run around on the level for a while and the traders should eventually restock.

It is worthwhile to name the ratling traders according to the wares they sell. This prevents aimless searching for the traders who sell worthwhile food. They can also be slowed down with the Slow Monster spell, which will not turn them hostile.

3.2.6 Ratling Rebel r

ratling rebel
Level: 1, DV: 19, PV: 4, Hits: 18, Attacks: 1, Damage: 1d6+1, Speed: 100.
The Ratling Rebel provides scrolls denouncing arena fights. He seems to have an infinite number of these scrolls, as it is possible to get several hundred of them by repeatedly Chatting. They can be sold for small amount of cash, used for training Literacy, cleared with a potion of water for use with a magical writing set, or polymorphed with blessed potion of exchange or potion of raw chaos to turn them into a more useful scroll. Note there is no danger of explosion, as the pamphlets are never generated randomly. The Ratling Rebel will attack PCs wearing furs when chatted with. Another way to make him hostile is to give him back his pamphlet. He rewards PCs that kill Dak the Arena Master with a scroll of peace, and alignment shift towards N=. After obtaining the scroll of peace from him, he will not give pamphlets anymore. Note that 'he' might also be generated female.

3.2.7 Cats in the Arena f

wild cat cave lion cave tiger Cats in the Arena are a special problem. If the PC wants the Ring of the Master Cat, directly killing cats must be avoided (section 0.9.2). There are several ways to deal with cats in the Arena. Teleportation is one, from a wand or spell. Potions of exchange thrown at a cat will turn it into another monster. A cat can be led over a trap until it is killed, teleported or turned into a writhing mass of primal chaos. However, if the PC sets off a trap which kills a cat, she is charged with killing the cat. For this reason, as well as general tactical information, it is useful to know the layout of traps in the Arena when they are created. A map showing the traps produced when the Arena is generated on D: 3 is shown below:

  ###############.###############
  #0123456789AB0###456789AB01234#
  #123456789AB0123456789AB012345#
  #23456789AB0123456789AB0123456#
  #3456789AB0123456789AB01234567#
  ###############################

    0 - fireball      6 - arrow
    1 - pit           7 - acid
    2 - light         8 - pit (vipers)
    3 - corruption    9 - spear
    4 - stone block   A - teleport
    5 - alarm         B - water

The pattern shifts, but otherwise remains the same, and can therefore be worked out by creating a single trap, when the Arena is generated on other levels.

Trap table has been removed in R+, all traps are random.

3.2.8 Nak An'Dwar, the dwarven gladiator @

dwarven gladiator
Level: 1, DV: 15, PV: 9, Hits: 210, Attacks: 3, Damage: 2d8+8, Speed: 120.
Nak An'Dwar possesses an Antediluvian Dwarven Map Fragment, and will give it to non-Orc and non-Troll PCs who Chat to him with Rolf's Companion and Rolf's Savior equipped. He drops the fragment when killed, in addition to a mithril battle axe. He drops them also after being turned into a creature of chaos. He has a penetrating melee attack and is immune to confusion.

Updated September 8th, 2019