Larn Volcano Lottery and Becoming Creator

Spoiler alert! For a 30 year old obscure game!

What's the Larn Volcano Lottery?

Well, it's already described more than a decade ago here. My take is more about winning the easy level fast, whereas the advice on that blog post might be more generally useful for different difficulty levels.

The usefulness of this strategy and the values/costs of items may vary depending on the version of Larn. I tend to play only the online version at larn.org, which has been tweaked a bit, there the LVL works really well only on the easy level.

In short, the aim is to get to the Volcano and grab books and chests, as these sell for amazing prizes. After getting near to 100000, the money can be put into bank. Go through all the classes in the College of Larn and behold, you have enough money for the Lance of Death without having to go deeper than L1 in the dungeon.

It's not really about cheating or circumventing the game, the fun thing about the "lottery" is it is almost like another game inside the game of Larn.

Normally, you would get killed almost instantly in the Volcano, but the Scroll of Stealth prevents that from happening, as the monsters simply won't notice you. However, that scroll alone isn't so useful, as you probably can't find the exit before the scroll effect wears out. So, instead of crawling the dungeons, it becomes a more intense game of route-finding, invention, cleverness, business sense and luck.

The approach also gives a good shot at becoming a Creator, which I'll discuss further below.


Getting the initial funds

So you need to buy these three objects:

• Scroll of Stealth, because handily the monsters won't move or attack you at all.
• Scroll of Magic Mapping, because this gives the level map and you can plan your way in and out.
• Scroll of Pulverization, because a wall or a monster may block your way.

You need roughly 13000 gold to get this holy trinity. Clear the first dungeon level and bring back any scrolls and potions you might come across, never reading or drinking them. Chests and books are always sold, never opened or read, because they can be sold for money.

Don't do anything that might Aggravate Monsters or risk teleportation etc. Trying to get effects from random potions and scrolls is not a good idea with this strategy.

There's nearly always a book and a chest on the first dungeon level, or something that is equally valuable. After selling them you can buy the book from the DND store. This can be sold for good money. After that, buy the chest from the DND store and sell it. You should have above 13000.

If you find a really rare artefact, such as a Device of Theft Prevention, you are in luck as these often sell for more than 10000 and you can stop scavenging instantly. These are rarely very useful in itself.

The scrolls and potions are not brought home for money, as unidentified objects can't be sold. But there is a very rare chance that one of the scrolls turn out to be duplicates of the Three, which increases your chances in the Volcano. You'll identify the scroll types after buying them. Gems are also sold and this is necessary if you don't find anything else of value.

If you have enough surplus money for the Scroll of Identity, you can make sense of your scrolls and potions and perhaps sell them for more than the scroll was worth (fat chance). Not many of them are that useful in the Volcano Lottery anyway.

The Scroll of Hold Monsters is one that can be useful. Expanded Awareness, Enlightement, Object Detection and Treasure Finding might work as poor substitutes for the mapping spell should you need to explore further volcano levels.

Should you try to clear more than the first dungeon level? It takes a bit more time, there's a bigger chance of getting teleport-trapped further down, you might drop into a room full of monsters, and you may encounter monsters that sap your strength, and so on and on. So if you have enough gold, why risk it?


Inside the Volcano

The Scroll of Stealth should be read just before you enter the Volcano, otherwise it won't have any effect there. Immediately after entering, you should read the Scroll of Magic Mapping. Now, take a deep breath and look around for the V sign, which is the exit, and take note of any books (B) and chests (C) you might spot on the way.

My Volcano level V1

In this case, I've been fairly lucky: The volcano exit is near, the staircase to second level is near, and there's a statue (&) at the bottom. (These can be pulverized for the book inside)

I pulverized the Dragon guarding the book at the top, got the book from bottom, and returned, all well within the lifespan of the stealth scroll. I also came up with 10 levels of experience and 50000 gold, not too bad. The books on V1 are not especially valuable, though.

When moving you should take care, as monsters still appear from nowhere on your way and might block a passageway you thought was empty. This is one reason not to linger too long inside the volcano.

With the 50000 I could easily again buy stealth and magic mapping, and a Scroll of Hold Monsters. Greedy, I went to volcano level 2, and was rewarded. I saw a chest and a book for taking, and I didn't need to resort to teleporting at all.

My Volcano level V2

I accidentally hit a gnome king the way back, but luckily this turned out to be not fatal (My character was at level 11 after all) and I could flee. With the chest and book from V2 I became truly rich.

If there's no exit route at all, and the scroll of Pulverization is not enough to clear the way, you can kill a monster with the Pulverization just as in the example above. Make sure it's something that takes you immediately past level 10, as then you can use teleportation with shift+Z. After this it really becomes down to luck, as the teleport can easily take you to any of the three volcano levels, but hopefully it will take you near the exit.

Teleporting, you may find yourself stuck inside a rock and that's it, game over. Additional scrolls of stealth and magic mapping become more valuable here, as you can scan the levels below too.

You can also tickle the monsters with the magic missile spell you already have from the start. This will take the one monster out of the stealth status, and it will start chasing you. If you are clever and the floorplan permits it, you can get around a monster this way.

If the exit (V) can't be seen at all, it could be hidden under an array of monsters. This is nearly always a fatal outcome, but not all is totally lost. Pulverize a monster to get the character past level 10 for the teleport skill. Wait for the stealth effect to dissipate, the monsters begin to move and you might spot the exit and have a snowball's chance in hell of finding your way there. A scroll of Hold Monsters can be a lifesaver. Reading the Books might give you an useful spell, too.


Shopping

Even after getting a couple of books or chests out of the Volcano, you are rarely filthy rich. The money has to be invested.

The College of Larn does absolutely nothing to your stats, it is only for spending time so your money grows in the bank. I only recently understood that this is a satirical joke, probably tied to a very specific time, social class and locality in the history of US. Well, anyway, take all courses, and keep all the other money in the bank.

If even after the courses have run out you still don't have quite enough funds for the Lance of Death, you can walk around the surface to spend some more time. Walking 100 squares takes one mobul, the time unit in Larn. Each mobul spent increases your funds 1/250th. 125000 in the bank, and your funds increase by 500 each mobul. Note that running around with shift-key, won't spend mobuls faster, but will wear out your spells faster. (Larn's time is weird like that)

After you get the Lance of Death, if you can still buy another Scroll of Stealth you can return to the Volcano with a vengeance and simply kill everyone you meet without them knowing you hit them. If you didn't have money for the Stainless Steel Armor the first time, this stealthy rampage will ensure you'll get the funds.


How to become level 100, The Creator

This is something I bothered to do only very recently.

A combination of Stealth and Lance of Death is helpful to up your levels in the volcano. With the Lance, go through the dungeon levels. The only intent is to get your spellbook filled (shoot those statues) and any rings of protection & scrolls of Enchant Armor and Weapon.

If you wield your shield as a weapon, it can be improved with Enchant Weapon. When your AC is 40-50, the volcano monsters cease to pose a threat.

Ramp up your armor and keep any rings of protection and regeneration for the cumulative effect, eventually throwing away other types of rings if necessary. After a certain point energy rings will no longer be useful as your spell count never diminishes.

If you encounter the genocide (gen) spell early enough, it might be handy to wipe out all Spirit nagas (n) as they can still be missed and may produce some nasty random effect.

The end game: You can use Vaporize (vpr) to tease out a Demon Prince out of the altars, each time, preparing each kill with a Hold Monster (hld) or Stealth. But this route is stressful and slow as you have to take care not to step on the altar square.

There's so much junk and trinkets the larn.org reality begins to crack.

When you find a Permanence (per) spell, you can make your stealth and other effects permanent. Combined with Create Monster (cre) spell, you can generate masses of non-moving Demon Lords and Demon Princes at the bottom of the volcano, and then kill them for xp.

After creating 9 monsters around you, you can move down and across to destroy the whole bunch. With Wall-Walk (wtw) you can move inside a solid wall and create the demons alongside the wall as you move slowly within it. Then you come out of the wall, hold the move key to kill a whole row of demons, which I believe is the most time-effective way of gaining xp at this point.

After a mind-numbing repetition and time (watch those mobuls), you'll eventually climb up to level 100. The experience limits do not raise exponentially after a certain level which makes this more bearable.

To me there was no apparent advantage of being The Creator, it seems to be just a title. After all you need to "create" a bunch of stuff to achieve this level, so it's apt. Ha, ha. I did not check if there are any special commands for that status, though.

The character is quite un-killable around level 25 anyway, and especially after the permanence spell almost nothing can threaten you anymore. Funnily enough you as The Creator can still get hit by traps, you can slip when exiting the volcano, fall into the infinite pit, your spells can still fail etc.

Larn, Larn, Larn

I've sung Larn's praises before. Recently, I have been playing Larn more now that a version is available online at larn.org. I have found it to be the most enjoyable of all Rogue-likes, for not being too pedantic about items, character development, eating and stuff. The caverns are rich, diverse yet compact. For such a game-like approach, Larn is still surprisingly "deep" and well-balanced.

The new version balances the game a bit and brings together some command and interface options you'd expect from other rogue-likes. Playing the game from a browser works very smoothly and as a bonus there are DOS and Amiga visuals to choose from. Now that I saw the Amiga graphics I had a bit of a flashback: It is possible my very first games of Larn were played on an Amiga, before moving on to the Atari ST version where I learned to play it properly.

Amigaaah... except, the font is modern.

One of the changes concern balancing the game in relation to the Volcano, which was a source of some "exploitative" approaches towards the game.

The basic idea of the Volcano is very clever: you can climb down there anytime although it is a highly dangerous place. Even with a weak character, you could enter the Volcano Bilbo Baggins-style, and with some cleverness come back up with highly valuable treasures. This is all fine, and it adds spice and variety to the game.

However, a set of "standard items" emerged that nearly guaranteed a safe way to explore the Volcano to the point you could buy the Lance of Death very early in the game. Now, this version of Larn has been tweaked a little so that although this "historical" approach has been preserved, it is only quickly doable on the easiest levels.

Below are the main keys and some collected some tips for beginners.

Main keys:

hjklubn keys-move player, as in Rogue-likes
h-help screen (more keys etc)
E-Enter dungeon/building
,-Pick up item
i-Display inventory
I-Show known spells&items
c-Cast spell (three-letter combo)
w-wield weapon
W-Wear armor
q-Quaff potion
r-Read book/scroll
o-Open chest/door

Beginner tips:

• Don't enter the Volcano unless you know what you are doing, or have pretty much destroyed the dungeon first.
• The very beginning: Sweep clean the first dungeon level before bothering to go down. There are no really dangerous monsters on level 1, just be a bit careful around hobgoblins (H), gnomes (G) and multiple enemies.
• Remember, you have the magic missile spell ("mle") from the beginning, but don't trust it to work every time. Protect 2 ("pro") is also useful to cast as it's a significant addition to a poor or no armor.
• Low level characters: Don't open any chests, avoid the altars, don't wash yourselves in a fountain, don't pry off any jewels off thrones and don't open any doors if possible. You'll live longer.
• Go down only when you are at least level 3. Hopefully you can afford some weapon and armor, too. There you need to start using your "mle" spell actively, because letting some monster types close on you is never very wise.
• Armor is generally more important than the weapon. A large amount of hit points or a super-weapon doesn't really protect you if you have poor armor.
• All rings and magic items carried bring a cumulative effect and work automatically without you having to "wear" them. 
• Energy rings and rings of regeneration are highly desirable, the former brings back spells and the latter returns hit points faster.
• Scrolls and potions can be a mixed bag for the low-level player. One nice strategy is to collect as many potions and scrolls as you can, and when you have 3400 gold, buy and read the Scroll of Identity and see what you have in your inventory.
• Never open a door repeatedly without looking what the effect is. When you get a spell good enough to blast the doors apart, always use it.
• Chests and books give good prices, but can be more useful to open or read. It's a hard call to make. If you can bring a chest or books from the volcano early on, sell them!

Caverns of Larn on Linux?

I'm a bit surprised that Noah Morgan's Larn from 1986 is not directly available from Linux repositories. (I can get it for mac from Macports, for example.)

Yet, Larn can be compiled from the sources here. Extract the archive, then off to the /src directory and as they say sudo make and then sudo make install. Then run the ./larn.sh from directory above.

The compiler may miss the curses.h library, which can be installed with these helpful instructions.

For example,

$ sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev

The Larn version seems to be the real deal content-wise, though it plays slightly different to one I'm used to. Usually the game gives suggestions for descending staircases, entering buildings, opening doors, chests, praying on altars etc, here you have to use keys. I'm not sure if this can be configured from the command line or if it is defined or absent altogether in this source. More crucially, the version seems to be a bit more explicit about certain potion and scroll effects, which may have been silent in other versions.

Sadly I've found the Linux game to halt occasionally with no helpful output as to why. This has happened when dealing damage to a monster or falling into a pit.

Edit: This might be an adaptation of the DOS version of Larn. I'm more familiar with the Atari ST and Macintosh versions.


Some Larn hints for beginners

The game works with the typical hjklyubn direction keys. Use w to wield weapons, W to wear armour, T to take off armor. Comma key picks up objects, d drops them. Use q to quaff potions and r to read scrolls/books. The key c casts spells, which are three-letter combinations. You learn the spells from books. Casting spells reduces your "spell" count, but it will replenish automatically.

(In some versions you also need: E key to enter, < > climb stairs, O open doors/chests.)

Home, LRS office, DND store, College of Larn, Bank of Larn, Volcano, Dungeon Entrance, Trading Post and DND store.

From the top world you can enter various places. There are two dungeons, the dungeon proper and the Volcano. Don't enter the Volcano unless you know what you are doing, or have pretty much destroyed the dungeon first.

The very beginning: Sweep clean the first dungeon level before bothering to go down. There are no really dangerous monsters on level 1, just be a bit careful with slow hobgoblins (H) and multiple enemies. Remember, you have the magic missile spell ("mle") from the beginning, but don't trust it to work every time.

Low level characters: Don't open any chests, avoid the altars, don't wash yourselves in a fountain, don't pry off any jewels off thrones and don't open any doors if possible. You'll live longer. Go down only when you are at least level 3. Hopefully you can afford some weapon and armor, too. There you need to start using your "mle" spell actively, because letting the monsters close on you is never very wise.

Potions (!), Scrolls (?), Chest (C), Altar (A), Statue (&), Jewel (<), Staircase (%), Trap (^)

Still, it is sometimes unavoidable that you fall into a pit and soon after into a teleport trap, together these can easily drop you down 3 dungeon levels lower than you intended. A hellhound or a white dragon can easily kill a low-level or poorly equipped character. Then your prime imperative is to find the stairways up.


Later on...

Something that can mess your life early on are the potion and scroll effects, which you desperately need but are unknown to you. One viable strategy is to collect as many potions and scrolls as you can, and when you have 3400 gold, buy and read the Scroll of Identity and see what you have.

All rings and magic items carried bring a cumulative effect and work automatically without you having to "wear" them. Energy rings and rings of regeneration are highly desirable, the former brings back spells and the latter returns hit points faster.

Finding every trick for fund-raising and monster-killing is part of the game so I won't tell everything. Let's just say that visibility-enhancements are also desirable whereas powerful long range spells will give an enormous advantage.

And really, never open a door repeatedly without looking what the effect is.

Play Larn online at http://larn.org. My views on the online version and some further gameplay notes here.

A later, more spoilerific post about the Larn Volcano Lottery here.