ADOM Guidebook


The Arena

Click here for a color map of the Arena.

The Arena level is found around D: 4. As might be expected at a huge attraction like the Arena, there are vendors selling items on this level. The other guaranteed monster on the level is the Arena Master, who 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."

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 nineteen times in the Arena before descending to deeper levels of the CoC. This is because he will encounter an NPC later who assigns a quest to win the 20th Arena fight. The 20th fight will be against a named former champion. These opponents are more difficult than the standard Arena opponents. There are four possibilities:

Li-Hon-Kay: ogre magus, uses invisibility and Frost Bolt, alternate name Li-Han-Kay
Spardakius: minotaur, brute force
Ripclaw: troll, brute force
Bonk: hill giant, brute force

Li-Hon-Kay can be particularly annoying and dangerous. 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 (see section 2.9). 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.

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.

Timofei Shatrov has recently (May 4th, 2002) determined the possible opponents the PC will face in the Arena. There are five possible opponents in each fight, although some of them are duplicates. The table below shows the possible opponents, with cats in bold capitals and duplicates in parentheses:

POSSIBLE ARENA MONSTERS:

 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 CAT       wolf          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 shaman  dwarf            orc chieftain  ankheg        giant spider
13 - kobold shaman  dwarf            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
2.2.1 Ratling traders

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 or cooked roaches. They have a negative nutrition value, even for trolls, who can eat almost anything.

2.2.2 Cats in the Arena

Cats in the Arena are a special problem. If the PC wants the Ring of the Master Cat, directly killing cats must be avoided (see 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. Wands of trap creation create traps which a cat can be led over until it is killed or turned into a writhing mass of primal chaos. 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.


Updated May 4th, 2002
© Copyright Andrew Williams 2000-2002