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» (0) Quickstart
» (1) Introduction
» (2) Installation & setup
» (3) Creating a character & starting to play
» (4) The world
» (4.5d) Dungeon bosses
» (5) Item and flag details, elements
» (6) Monster details
» (7) Character details
» (8) Tactics & strategy
» (9) Miscellanous

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(4.5c2) Example dungeon depth relations
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(4.6) Pits and vaults
(4.5d) Dungeon bosses                                                           
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Most dungeons have a dungeon boss (FINAL_GUARDIAN) at the final floor, which
in most cases has a chance to drop a specific artifact (FINAL_ARTIFACT) or
(in rare cases) a specific (non-artifact) item (FINAL_OBJECT).
If a boss cannot or will not drop a final artifact, a random stat potion is
dropped instead (in addition to the usual loot). For details on how bosses and
other monsters spawn also see (6.1a).

Morgoth and Zu-Aon always drop certain fixed artifacts.
All other dungeon bosses can only drop their specific artifact if it has not
already been found, and even then they only have a static 1/3 (1 in 3) chance
to drop it (this flat 1-in-3 chance overrides any 'rarity' that may be
specified in the artifact spoiler files - that rarity value only counts for
artifacts not dropped by dungeon bosses).

The bosses have different probabilities to appear, but none of them is overly
rare (Azog being one of the rarer ones), so just reset the level a couple of
times until you find the boss (by leaving the level, waiting for a little bit,
then entering it again).

Dungeon bosses ONLY appear at the final (deepest) floor of their respective
dungeon, and they can only spawn at level generation time, never "live" and
can never be summoned either (not even on the "correct" floor).
Last but not least unlike "normal" unique monsters, dungeon bosses will never
respawn for winners.

Dungeon bosses have especially high hit points and yield an extraordinary
amount of experience points when you defeat them. Apart from the specific
artifact drop the higher level ones also tend to drop great items in general.

Of course you can only find an artifact if it is currently not on the list of
known artifacts ie if noone else is currently in possession of it.
Even if you don't get an artifact, some of the dungeon bosses have 'DROP_GREAT'
flag, which means you will usually get especially good loot from them.

Dungeon bosses will bump the floor feeling up to at least 'special', same as
any other unique monsters do (see (4.8) for more info about floor feelings).
In the IDDC they will cause an additional floor feeling (that is displayed
together with any other floor feelings): "You feel a commanding presence.."

Here is a list of all dungeon bosses and the artifacts they are guarding:
(Some names have been shortened to fit.)

Dungeon, sorted by depth     |          Boss         | Artifact (or extra loot)
-----------------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------
The Training Tower    (A)    |  -                    | -
Barrow-Downs                 |  Wight-King           | Stone of Lore
Mordor                       |  -                    | -
The Paths of the Dead        |  Feagwath             | Doomcaller
Angband                      |  -  (B)               | -
------Non-town dungeons------+-----------------------+-------------------------
Death Fate                   |  -                    | -
The Halls of Mandos   (C)    |  -                    | -
The Orc Cave                 |  Azog                 | -
Mirkwood                     |  Saenathra            | - (A random chest)
The Old Forest               |  Old Man Willow       | Boomerang of Beor
The Helcaraxe                |  White Balrog         | Pike 'Til-i-arc'
The Sandworm lair            |  Sandworm Queen       | Armour of the Sandworm
The Heart of the Earth       |  Golgarach            | Space-time Anchor  (D)
The Maze                     |  Minotaur             | Helm of Hammerhand
Cirith Ungol                 |  Shelob               | Smallsword 'Sting'
The Land of Rhun             |  Ulfang the Black     | Sabre 'Careth Asdriag'
Moria                        |  Balrog of Moria      | Quarterstaff 'Ruyi Bang'
The Small Water Cave         |  Watcher in the Water | Trident of Wrath
Submerged Ruins              |  Ar-Pharazon          | Amulet 'Toris Mejistos'
The Illusory Castle          |  King in Yellow       | Helm of Knowledge
The Sacred Land of Mountains |  T'ron  (level 72!)   | Coat of T'ron
Erebor                       |  Smaug                | Arkenstone of Thrain
Dol Guldur            (E)    |  Shadow of Dol Guldur | Ring of Durin
Mount Doom            (E)    |  Sauron, the Sorceror | -
The Cloud Planes             |  The Living Lightning | - (Lightning items)
Nether Realm                 |  Zu-Aon  (F)          | Ring of Phasing

(A) In the Training Tower, you cannot die for real (except for PvP mode chars).

(B) Angband does not have a designated final boss, but the unique monster
Tik'srvzllat does not appear before depth 127. Since Angband ends at depth 127,
you can find him on the final floor (if he actually spawns).
In this light, Tik'srvzllat could be seen as Angband's final boss.

Also, Morgoth, the Lord of Darkness is encountered in Angband at -1700 ft or
deeper. See (1.3), (1.3a) and (1.3b) for more information.

(C) The Halls of Mandos are barred to ANY unique monsters!

(D) The space-time anchor is a special light source that can be activated to
create a temporary anti-teleportation field of radius 12 that will prevent all
teleportation from and to, and stall all Word of Recall attempts within.

(E) While Sauron, the Sorceror, boss of Mount Doom, does not drop any
specific artifact, he is still a required kill before you are able to encounter
Morgoth, the Lord of Darkness (compare (1.3), (1.3a) and (1.3b)).
When you kill Sauron, you will be able to recall out from that dungeon level!
(Usually you cannot recall into/out of Mt Doom.)
Note: If you kill Sauron, you will automatically also get kill credit for the
Shadow of Dol Guldur, meaning that the Shadow won't spawn for you anymore if
you didn't kill it before killing Sauron.
Also, you cannot find The One Ring anymore if you already killed Sauron.

(F) Zu-Aon's teleport-to attack has special transdimensional power and
actually defeats anti-teleportation, space-time anchors and cannot be mitigated
by saving throw or teleportation resistance either.
It can however be defeated regularly by holy martyr or by anti-magic fields
which -as usual- can prevent the spell from coming into existance in the first
place.

Last but not least there are rumours that some adventurers have encountered
their own mirror image that suddenly came alive and attacked them! As so often
with rumours, solid details are hard to get a hold of, but there were mentions
of nigh unsurpassable mountain chains that arose in the midst of forests.
While that sounds like a dangerous fight, according to reports of survivors a
win supposedly results in the equivalent effect of two potions of experience..
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(4.5c2) Example dungeon depth relations
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(4.6) Pits and vaults