Awesome, thanks! I was missing the possibility of getting +2 for the wand and +1 for the staff from the troll.

How do you get the staff to +21? The most I can figure out is +18: get a wand of lightning +3, upgrade it to +18, and imbue it in the staff.

Because it takes a long time... but it's not a bad idea, I've done that in other runs.

Yes, just food drops, potions of healing and dew. This particular seed has an ample supply of food as well. In general, I used to struggle with food management, but lately I've improved this aspect of the game and seldom run out of food. Some ideas:

• Make sure to move diagonally when possible to save one turn.
• Convert all mistery meats to edible meat.
• Get the small rations from the shops.
• Imbue the blandfruit with a seed of icecap or firebloom. Besides serving as a thrown weapon, they leave some food behind. It lasts for a long time!
• Try not to go back and forth through a level -- minimize the amount of turns you spend moving.
• The potions of honeyed healing (healing potion + shattered honeypot) also provide a bit of satiety.

I couldn't find a hammer in level two using that seed (but level one has the sandals of nature!). However, I did find a stone gauntlet in the sewers a few games back. It is indeed possible to find tier-5 weapons in the early levels.

Has the DM-300 boss been buffed? I just fought it in 2.4.0. I remember being able to evade the toxic gas quite easily, but this time it was almost impossible not to get surrounded by it for at least two or three turns. This made the fight considerably more difficult.

I tried this with a wand of lightning. I got the staff to +12 before a succubus killed my mage. The wand's limited to ranged targets, and my scale armor +2 only made the demons laugh.

It might be interesting. The flow could be controlled with locked doors, sort of the way Doom/Quake do it.

Thanks all for the tips! I'll make sure to try them out.

Unfortunately I don't have it. I'll be sure to keep it next time it happens.

I intend to keep trying, since I think my strategies do improve over time. It's difficult, though, when it takes a few hours of play to get to level 16 only to die a few minutes later.

I'm just a beginner (~50 trips to the dungeon), but I almost always play with the huntress. I can get to level 16 pretty consistently, but I've never managed to get past level 18.