Winning DCSS as a Minotaur Berserker

DCSS is not won by clearing every floor. It is won by leaving bad fights before they become fatal.

This guide follows a Minotaur Berserker of Trog through a standard three-rune win in our patched DCSS 0.34.1 build. It tells you what each part of the run is for, what to collect before moving on, and when to turn around. It is a route, not a promise: the dungeon is random, and the safer branch can change with the character and items you actually have.

The whole game has one simple objective:

1. Collect any three runes of Zot.
2. Use them to enter the Realm of Zot.
3. Take the Orb of Zot from Zot:5.
4. Carry it back to the exit on Dungeon:1.

For a first win, stop at three runes. The optional late-game branches can wait for another character.

Links throughout this guide open Ashenzari's Archive. Its pages display the DCSS version they were last checked against. If a page predates 0.34, use it for background and trust this guide's 0.34 notes or the current in-game description for mechanics that may have changed.

The dungeon in 90 seconds

The Dungeon is the main road of the game. Most other named places are branches growing from it or from one another. You move among them whenever the current branch becomes harder than the alternatives; you are not expected to finish each branch as soon as you find its entrance.

These zones make up the usual three-rune route:

You will also see zones that are optional for a first win:

Special entrances can also lead to one-off portals such as a Sewer, Ossuary, Bailey, Gauntlet, Ice Cave, Volcano, Bazaar, Trove, Desolation, or Necropolis. They are side trips for loot and experience, not steps in the main route. Some entrances disappear after a warning, so decide whether to enter when you find one; leaving a portal ends that visit.

The overview at Ctrl-O shows which branches exist, where their entrances are, and how far you have explored. Treat it as a map of choices, not a completion checklist.

The route at a glance

Use this as the default route:

Dungeon:1-10 or 11
  -> Lair:1-5
  -> finish Dungeon:15
  -> Orc:1-2
  -> both generated Lair rune branches
  -> Vaults:1-4
  -> optional Elf
  -> Depths:1-4
  -> third rune from Vaults:5 or the Abyss
  -> Zot:1-5
  -> Orb run to Dungeon:1

This order is deliberately conservative for a melee character. It leaves room to swap nearby stages when one branch produces an unusually bad entrance. For example, doing Orc before the bottom of the Dungeon is reasonable when Dungeon has become the obvious roadblock.

A few words the guide uses

• A branch is a connected side area such as Lair, Orc, or Vaults.
• A rune floor is the last and hardest floor of a branch that contains a rune.
• A resistance pip is one + on the character screen, such as rF+ for fire resistance.
• Willpower protects against many magical status effects. It does not reduce ordinary spell damage.
• Minimum delay, or mindelay, is the fastest a weapon can attack. The RC trains the weapon skill needed to reach it.
• Piety is Trog's approval, shown with stars. Strong divine abilities spend some of it; defeating enemies rebuilds it.

Numbers such as Fighting 5 refer to skill levels, not your character's overall experience level.

What the RC does with new gear

The RC handles the boring end of early equipment progression. When you pick up an identified, ordinary piece that is plainly better, it may equip it at the next safe moment. It waits until autoexplore has stopped and no enemy is threatening you.

• Ordinary armour: it can put on better body armour, helmets, gloves, boots, cloaks, and barding. A body change must improve both AC and the combined AC-plus-EV result, and its encumbrance cannot exceed Strength.
• Same-family weapons: it can wield a clearly better weapon that uses the same skill and number of hands. A mace-to-flail upgrade keeps Maces & Flails training and recalculates the correct speed target.
• Different-family weapons: a strong ordinary axe found by a mace user can produce a comparison prompt. Yes equips it and moves training to Axes. No or Escape keeps the mace and dismisses that item. No is the default.
• Strategic gear: shields, artefacts, Trog gifts, dragon scales, unusual brands, branded tradeoffs, and resistance choices remain yours.

Press F7 to pause or resume gear automation. Press F8 to control skill training. Both settings survive saving and reopening the character. The full rules are in the custom RC guide.

Five rules that matter more than the route

Fight fewer enemies at once

Back into a corridor, around a corner, or toward a known staircase. If three monsters can attack you, moving backward is usually better than swinging forward. An axe can cleave several enemies, but that does not make being surrounded safe.

Inspect anything unfamiliar

Press x, move the cursor onto the monster, then press v. Read its attacks, spells, speed, and threat level. A new monster is a question, not free XP.

Spend help while it can still help

Might, haste, resistance, Trog's Hand, and Brothers in Arms are strongest before a fight has collapsed. Teleportation and blinking are strongest while you still have enough HP to survive their delay or imperfect destination. Dying with a full inventory is not thrift.

Berserk needs an exit plan

Berserk gives more health, speed, and melee damage. It also prevents almost every action except moving and attacking, then leaves you slowed. Use it against a small, understood group when you know where the fight will end. Do not use it to discover what is around the next corner.

A staircase is permission to leave

You lose nothing by backing out of a branch and returning later. You do not have to kill a unique, clear a vault, or finish the floor you entered. If the first view below a staircase is bad, go back up before more monsters arrive.

Before every staircase

Ask these questions before descending:

• Is my HP full, and have dangerous temporary effects worn off?
• Do I know where the nearest upstairs is?
• Can I handle the monsters already visible without spending everything?
• Do I have at least one way to heal and one way to escape?
• Does my equipment cover the branch's obvious danger?
• If the arrival is bad, can I leave immediately?

A “no” does not always forbid the staircase. It tells you what the gamble is.

Stage 1: Dungeon:1-3 — learn to leave

Your goal is not to find perfect gear. It is to survive long enough for your basic strengths to come online.

Aim for:

• fighting enemies one at a time;
• discovering more than one staircase before exploring far from safety;
• a body armour upgrade and a shield if you use a one-handed weapon;
• the first weapon-speed checkpoint and Fighting 5 from the RC;
• identified healing or escape items when the game gives you the chance.

Berserk can solve many early one-on-one fights, but activate it before you are desperate. If another enemy appears during the rage, you may be unable to drink, read, or use an ability.

Leave a monster or part of a floor behind when it hits much harder than the surrounding enemies, moves faster than you, or arrives with a pack. Early characters have few answers; walking away is the main one.

Stage 2: Dungeon:4-11 — assemble an escape kit

Continue through the Dungeon until roughly D:10 or D:11. The Lair entrance can appear from D:8 to D:11; Orc can appear from D:9 to D:12. Finding an entrance does not mean you must use it immediately.

Aim for:

• a dependable weapon in the family you intend to train;
• body armour that improves survival without discarding needed resistances;
• a compatible shield if you are staying one-handed;
• curing, heal wounds, teleportation, and blinking when available;
• some ranged option: throwing weapons, wands, or both;
• enough Willpower that a single hex is not your only plan.

Use Trog's Hand proactively against enemies whose hexes could confuse, paralyse, or banish you. It grants strong regeneration and more Willpower. Use Brothers in Arms when a fight needs another durable body now, not after you are surrounded.

Uniques are optional. If an unfamiliar named monster appears, inspect it and mark the area with an exclusion if necessary. Come back with more levels or never come back at all.

Go to Lair after clearing about D:10 or D:11, or sooner if the next Dungeon floor is clearly worse than the Lair entrance. Do not force D:12-15 just because the stairs are available.

Stage 3: Lair:1-5 — become a complete melee character

Lair offers useful experience in a branch with fewer armed humanoids. Clear all five floors, but do not enter the rune branches yet. Their entrances on Lair:2 or Lair:3 are signposts for later.

Aim for:

• your main weapon approaching or reaching minimum delay;
• Fighting and applicable Armour around 10;
• a usable shield, throwing weapon, or wand so melee is not your only answer;
• poison resistance if it appears without ruining the rest of your equipment;
• a small reserve of Trog piety for Trog's Hand and Brothers in Arms.

The RC will usually be working through training band 2 here. That is a rough milestone, not an entrance requirement. A strong character can arrive earlier; a poorly equipped one may need to retreat.

Open spaces make packs dangerous. Pull animals back toward corridors or staircases instead of walking into the middle of them. If the Lair:5 ending is crowded, approach it from another direction or finish it after gaining more experience elsewhere.

Stage 4: finish Dungeon, then clear Orc

Return to the Dungeon and work toward D:15. Then clear Orc:1-2. This guide puts the bottom of the Dungeon first because Orc can combine large packs, ranged attacks, summons, and dangerous Willpower checks. The order is not sacred: if D:13 is awful and the Orc entrance is calm, try Orc.

Aim for:

• a weapon you would be comfortable enchanting and using through the rune branches;
• solid physical defence from armour, a shield, or both;
• at least one pip of the common elemental resistances across wearable swaps;
• improved Willpower;
• a healthy stock of escape and combat consumables;
• useful purchases from Orc:2 shops.

Trog may gift weapons. Inspect every gift, but do not switch weapon families for a shiny damage number alone. A same-family upgrade keeps all your training. A gift is never equipped automatically. If you wield a different-family gift manually, training pauses until you press F8 to adopt that family.

Orc:2 endings can be much harder than the rest of Orc. If staircases are covered by ranged enemies or summons, leave and try a different entrance. Shops are a reward, not a debt you must pay in lives.

Stage 5: collect the first two runes

Each game generates two of these four Lair branches: Swamp, Shoals, Snake, and Spider. Each has four floors and a rune on the last one.

First clear floors 1-3 of both generated branches. Then compare their fourth floors and take the easier-looking rune first. One bad rune vault does not make the other branch bad.

These are advantages, not admission tickets. Inspect the actual monsters. A resistance does not make their physical attacks harmless.

Aim for:

• your weapon at minimum delay;
• Fighting and applicable Armour moving from 10 toward 15;
• Shields, Dodging, Throwing, and Evocations developing when the RC finds them applicable;
• two runes, without spending your last escape consumable to obtain either.

The fourth floor is designed to be a difficulty spike. Clear outward from a known staircase, lure small groups, and retreat between fights. If taking the rune would require fighting the entire vault at once, leave it and gain more experience elsewhere.

Stage 6: Vaults:1-4 — gain power without taking the rune

After two Lair runes, clear Vaults:1-4. Stop before Vaults:5. The fifth floor is a separate third-rune decision, not the natural next floor.

Aim for:

• stronger armour and resistance swaps;
• high enough Willpower that hostile enchantments are manageable;
• consumables saved for Depths, the third rune, and Zot;
• training band 3: core defences around 15 and useful secondary skills around 10 when applicable.

Vault wardens can close doors and stairs. Ironbound convokers can call distant monsters to your position. Vault sentinels can inflict Sentinel's Mark, drawing enemies from across the level. When one of those threats appears, treat it as the centre of the fight: disable it, kill it, or leave before the crowd arrives.

Do not explore far from every staircase. Vaults becomes dangerous when one ordinary fight attracts the next three rooms.

Optional stage: Elf and Crypt

You do not need Elf or Crypt to win.

Elf can provide excellent equipment, but its fragile-looking enemies can deal large bursts of elemental or magical damage. Consider Elf after the two Lair runes or Vaults:1-4 if your Willpower and elemental resistances are good. Elf:3 is another branch-ending vault; leaving after Elf:1-2 is a complete and sensible decision.

Crypt offers more experience and a guaranteed end shop, but it also adds draining, torment, summons, and Doom threats. Consider it after Vaults:1-4 if you have negative-energy resistance and a reason to seek more power. Skip Tomb. Tomb is not part of a first-win route.

Optional branches are useful when they solve a problem. They are bad bargains when you enter them only because the overview shows unfinished floors.

Stage 7: Depths:1-4 — prepare for the final exam

Clear Depths after two runes and Vaults:1-4. DCSS 0.34 places threatening minivaults here more consistently, so a small decorated area can be more dangerous than the surrounding floor.

Aim for:

• excellent physical defence;
• fire and cold resistance, plus electricity and corrosion resistance when available;
• strong Willpower and See Invisible;
• several remaining uses of healing, teleportation, blinking, haste, might, and resistance;
• a reliable way to fight at range or place an ally between you and a threat;
• a third-rune plan before entering Zot.

Use Ctrl-O to check the Dungeon overview. In 0.34, Zot uses one of three orb monster types for the whole game: fire, winter, or entropy. Once revealed, the overview records which one awaits you. Begin arranging resistance swaps for that specific threat now.

Depths is not a victory lap. If a staircase lands inside a dangerous minivault, try another staircase or return after the third rune. You need experience and a path to Zot; you do not need every monster dead.

Stage 8: choose the third rune

The practical 0.34 choices are usually Vaults:5 or the Abyss. Experienced players disagree about which is safer because the answer depends on the character. Slime is not the beginner default in this release.

Vaults:5: the more readable MiBe plan

Vaults:5 suits a heavily armoured MiBe with good Willpower, strong area control, Brothers in Arms, and a deep consumable supply. Its danger is concentrated and predictable: you arrive near a large welcoming party, and wardens can seal the stairs.

Before descending, heal and apply any buffs you already know you will need. Have a plan for a mark, a sealed staircase, and enemies arriving from several directions. Do not assume repeated stair dancing will work. If you establish a safe edge of the floor, clear inward in small pieces and save an escape for the rune vault.

Abyss: the less predictable alternative

The Abyss can be the safer choice when you can keep moving, recover without long rests, and avoid unnecessary fights. In 0.34, entry depth scales with your experience level, and deeper rune searches can take longer than before.

Your goal is to find the rune or an exit, not clear the branch. Move away from bad groups, avoid fighting monsters that do not block progress, and leave if an exit appears while your position is deteriorating. The Abyss offers fewer guarantees than Vaults:5, which can make it harder for a first-time player to judge.

Why not Slime?

In 0.34, every staircase inside Slime is slimy and cannot be climbed upward until the Royal Jelly is dead, unless you worship Jiyva. Entering commits a Trog worshipper to a branch full of corrosion and new dangerous slime monsters. That is poor follow-along advice for a first win.

If neither Vaults:5 nor the Abyss looks survivable, the answer is not to force one. Revisit optional Elf or Crypt floors, improve equipment, and reassess.

Stage 9: Zot:1-4 — stop playing on autopilot

Three runes open Zot. Before entering, make sure you have resistance for the orb type shown on Ctrl-O, strong general defences, and supplies reserved for Zot:5 and the escape.

Aim for:

• full HP before opening new territory;
• one dangerous enemy in sight at a time;
• known routes back to multiple staircases;
• Trog piety available for the fights where one body is not enough;
• mutation potions saved for unwanted mutations rather than ordinary wounds;
• haste, might, resistance, healing, teleportation, and blinking still in the inventory when you reach Zot:5.

Lure enemies toward cleared ground. Do not chase a retreating monster into an unseen room. The RC can stop autofight at low HP; it cannot know that the next swing will expose another pack.

Scrolls of blinking are less precise in Zot. The Orb status can shift their destination by up to two spaces, so leave margin around lethal terrain and crowds.

Stage 10: Zot:5 — stop the tesseracts

Clear the outer part of Zot:5 and establish a retreat route before entering the Orb vault. The first Orb Guardian you kill wakes two Boundless Tesseracts. They then create more monsters across the floor, including while you are elsewhere. Their spawns give no experience, so fighting an endless stream only spends your resources.

Once the tesseracts wake:

1. Do not stand still farming their monsters.
2. Locate the automatically revealed tesseracts.
3. Reach one with buffs, allies, and an escape plan.
4. Destroy it. Doing so destroys both, dismisses their spawned monsters, and briefly dazes other monsters in the tesseract's sight.

This creates urgency, not permission to charge through every visible enemy. Retreat, heal, and approach from a better direction when needed. Use Brothers in Arms before the decisive fight so its ally can split attention immediately.

Take the Orb only after you know your path back to the stairs and have healed. Picking it up begins the last stage; remaining Zot loot no longer matters.

Stage 11: the Orb run — go home

The Orb run reverses the objective. Experience and treasure have almost no value. Distance to the next upstairs is what matters.

• Follow known routes toward Dungeon:1.
• Use haste, teleportation, blinking, fog, healing, and Trog abilities to keep moving.
• Fight only when a monster prevents escape or would make the next move lethal.
• Heal before climbing when you can do so safely.
• Do not explore side rooms, shops, or unfinished branches.

New pursuers, including powerful demons, can appear. You are not expected to defeat all of them. Break line of sight, change floors, and keep the Orb moving. On Dungeon:1, climb the exit staircase and win.

How the RC's training bands fit this route

The training bands are character-development milestones, not branch gates. Their rough relationship to the run is:

Random equipment and experience can move these milestones earlier or later. The RC reacting to a new band means “these are the next efficient skills,” not “the next branch is safe.” See the custom RC guide for the exact policy, including the separate F7 gear and F8 training switches.

A final readiness test

Before a rune floor, Depths, or Zot, answer four questions:

1. What can kill me here? Inspect the branch's monsters and name the actual threat: paralysis, corrosion, fire, a sealed stair, or being surrounded.
2. What is my first answer? Choose the resistance, Trog ability, consumable, or retreat route before the threat appears.
3. What is my second answer? The first plan can fail. Keep another escape.
4. What would make me leave? Decide while calm: a mark, two dangerous monsters at once, half HP, a blocked stair, or the last blink spent.

The point is not to make the run predictable. It is to notice when the dungeon has stopped following your plan while you still have time to change it.

Sources and version scope

This guide targets the workbench's pinned DCSS 0.34.1 build. Branch depths and entry ranges come from the official branch-data.h. The behaviour of Berserk, Trog's Hand, and Brothers in Arms comes from the official ability.txt. The x, then v inspection command comes from the official quickstart.md.

The Slime staircase redesign, Depths minivault change, rotating Zot orb types, Zot:5 tesseracts, Abyss entry scaling, and imprecise Zot blinking come from the official DCSS 0.34.0 release notes.

The baseline route and third-rune discussion also consider a current community debate about 0.34 branch order. That discussion contains real disagreement, so this guide presents a default and decision points rather than calling one order universally correct. Two recent 0.34 MiBe wins— RainAtDawn's three-rune run and WindyKirby's three-rune run— serve as examples of successful end states, not required skill or equipment checklists.