Editing 40d:Adventurer mode

All the [[skill]]s you see '''can''' be improved through use in-game, so don't worry about spreading them out completely evenly. In general, pick the [[skill]]s you think you're going to use, which are pretty self-explanatory, but it's recommended that you put at least a few points into [[shield user]] and into a type of weapon. Be warned that [[weapon]] [[skill]]s generally take a while to level up, so placing a good deal of points into a single weapon may be to your advantage. Also keep in mind that your skills determine what kind of equipment you have in the beginning, i.e. high sword skill means you'll start with a sword. For information on the weapons and the other aspects of combat, please check the combat section. It is also a good idea to use a point or two for [[Swimming]], otherwise you might end up drowning in a puddle.

Depending on the race you chose while creating your character, you will have different starting locations to choose from (Humans may start in Villages, Dwarves in Fortresses etc.). Most all of the starting points are friendly places with different people to talk to.

Congratulations, you've created a character and are now about to embark on your fantastic adventure! For now, lets focus on the bare bones of staying alive, shall we? First things first, you need food and water. If you're a human you start with some, but barring that you may need to find a waterskin. These can be bought in human towns, specifically at the shop. DO NOT STEAL THESE OR ANYTHING ELSE. (which means, do not pick anything up and walk outside the store before you trade for it. Why? Because you are currently weak and your neck is currently arrow bait.) After getting the waterskin, simply find a water source and hit (Shift+I) to interact with the object. Press the letter of the waterskin and you should be able to fill it from the water source. After it's full, press {{key|e}} to open the Eat menu and select the water. Food can be acquired from stores eaten in the same way. Beware, you won't be able to swim if you are hungry, thirsty or if you haven't slept for a day or two. If you get drowsy, just find a bed in a city or just find a good place to sleep. Avoid sleeping in a hostile place, if you don't want to have too much [[fun]].

Now that you know how to work your mouth we can move on to miscellaneous tips for survival. Firstly, you are very tasty and chances are (unless you're an elf) the wildlife will soon be attempting to eat your face. A bear or cougar isn't too much of a problem because there's only one, but the real problem will be wolf packs (a single wolf is easy to dispatch, but a dozen or so can prove very problematic indeed). Beware large packs until you've gained a little experience. Secondly, do not anger the townsfolk, as they tend to have guards. Lastly, beware of taking quests or attempting things before you're ready, as you will more than likely have tons of [[fun]].

Adventurers are not picky eaters but care to eat food and drink clean water or booze. Uncooked meat counts as food. An adventurer will drink and eat just about anything: blood, vomit, worms, bugs, etc.

Elves live out in the forest, literally.  Although defined to specific regions on the map, they have no structural wealth whatsoever.  Prior to version 0.28.181.39b, each [[tree]]s within a forest retreat had a name.

Humans live in towns comprised of buildings and often a paved road.  Their villages are highly modular - the small 5x5 buildings are citizen houses and are marked with an "H" on the town auto-map.  Medium buildings are stores, marked with a symbol that indicates what they sell - weapons, armor, food, clothing, trinkets.  You typically start in the mead hall, which is marked with an "M" on the automap.  There are one or two apartment buildings which are two stories, with six rooms a story; they are also marked with an "H". There can also be a large "T"emple and a "K"eep. Temples tend to have two or three levels, and a pool of water, while "K"eeps are three or four floors high and are almost entirely empty (they will occasionally contain random smatterings of clothing though, if you're looking for things to sell.)

In towns you can find merchants inside some [[building]]s.  These merchants have the [[Shopkeeper]] profession and will trade only when they are in their respective shops. Talk to them to trade with them. After buying an item, you must pick it up manually from somewhere in the shop.  {{K|l}}ook around for an item without $ signs around it.  Due to these limitations, there are only "human town" [[shopkeeper]]s in a pre-fab Adventure mode civilization.

You can walk around the whole world tile by tile if you wish, but given its size, you might want to consider using another method. Pressing {{key|T}} will let you see a very zoomed out map of the surrounding area. Not only is moving about on this map much faster, it also heals your adventurer and keeps them from starving, dehydrating, or getting tired. To exit this screen and explore the area you've reached, press {{k|>}}.

Also, while traveling on the world map, there is a chance that your adventurer can get randomly ambushed by enemies.  When that happens, you must survive by either fighting them off or hiding from them.

Jumping off [[cliff]]s is not normally advisable; however, it is possible to do so by holding {{key|Alt}} while pressing the appropriate movement key. Once you land at the bottom, though, you might come to regret your decision when you are seriously injured (or possibly even dead).

Quests can only be taken from people of leadership in an organization.

Human Weapon Masters: No matter what time of the day, human weapon masters will be in the mead hall, where you appear. However, if it is late they will immediately head for their homes, so you may need to intercept them before they reach the door. The human capitals are not very different from the normal towns; humans have no central leadership so each weapon master is only a local leader of their own town, even at the capital the weapon master only rules the capital itself and not the other towns. Ignore the keeps; unless you're playing with a mod, no leaders hang out in the Keeps.

High Priests: Humans and Goblins will often suggest you ask the High Priest for quests, but all this will do is allow you to join their religion. If you want to join the religion, the High Priest, as long as it is a reasonable time of day, should be wandering around the temple. Worth a visit at least, as Temples are often the most interesting parts of a town/dark fortress, because there are so many different kinds.

Dwarven Mayors/Kings/Queens: You'll generally find them on the outside of the fort but sometimes they move around; some have been known to run out of the fort and become a migrant unable to give out quests. Both Mayors and Kings/Queens can be found and both will assign Quests, which is nice. If you can't find them outside the fort you shouldn't really bother, as mountainhomes take forever to search. As one might imagine, the Kings/Queens can only be found at the Capital.

Kobold Weaponmasters: Often hanging around the middle of a kobold cave camp; however, these guys cannot talk to you and as a result cannot give you a Quest (although you can use them to train your Sword skill).

Weapons are divided into axe, sword, spear, pike, mace, whip, bow and hammer, with various versions of these taking up the gray area.  Swords are your jack of all trades weapon, doing reasonable slashing damage. They come in short, long and two handed varieties, with the two handed doing the most damage and the short doing the least. Axes are similar to swords and do slashing damage as well. They come in 3 types, battle axe, great axe and halberd.  The battle axe does slightly less damage than the long sword while the halberd does the same damage as a two-handed sword. The Great axe is generally too large to use, but it does slightly more than the halberd in damage. The spear does piercing damage and is ideal for damaging internal organs and causing heavy bleeding and unconsciousness. It has no variations. The spear is much more likely to become stuck in its target, which can be a great benefit if used right and a curse if not. The Pike is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a spear. The mace and the hammer are generally the same thing, simply a big metal thing to club your enemies over the head.  As expected, they do high damage but their bludgeoning attacks tend to be slower and less effective, if more hilarious, ways to dispatch your foes. The Maul, a hammer, is the highest damaging weapon in the game. The last weapon is the whip, which does gore damage. It's relatively weak but has its uses. The bow shoots arrows, which act as tiny spears. Basically, a bow and crossbow is like having a very slow, long range spear.

* Sword: Once again, your general fallback weapon. It's good against almost everything, if not being that great against almost anything. Works well against both living and non-living enemies as it actively dismembers them.  

* Spear/Pike: Ok, here's where we get a little bit more advanced. The spear is most effective against organic creatures because of two abilities, pierce damage and stuck-ins. Piercing damage does major harm to internal organs, causing pain, bleeding, vomiting, unconsciousness and death. Stuck-ins are when the weapon becomes stuck in the target, allowing it to be twisted. Twisting increases bleeding and causes extreme pain. Because of these two factors spears and pikes are ideal for single combat against organic targets. The are less effective against multiple enemies (because of the stuck-ins lowering kill-to-turn ratios) and are even less effective against non-organic enemies (i.e. bronze colossus).

* Mace/hammer: These weapons rely on their ability to turn your opponent into a tasty pulp through repeated whacking. They break bones and bruise flesh, meaning that aside from a critical hit they generally are less likely to inflict mortal wounds quickly. They are great for crippling organics and non-organics alike, but when it comes to a swift, efficient death they are generally less than perfect. The exception to this is high strength and mace/hammer skill which allows for instant head crushing.   

* Whip: The whip inflicts gore damage, which is similar to a cross between slash and pierce. It can cut off limbs but is more likely to slice up organs and cause extreme pain and bleeding. A few hits will generally render an opponent unconscious and perhaps even badly injured enough to eventually bleed to death. However, the whip is a slow outright killer, sometimes needing dozens of blows to actually finish its target.

Throwing: Throwing is the skill of... well, basically throwing stuff. And vomit. And bugs and spears and rocks so on. Just about anything can be thrown, sometimes with devastating results. While it seems like weapons (and arrows) tend to be more reliable in their damage causing abilities when thrown, just about anything can potentially be lethal. Picking up a worm and hucking it right through a dragon's skull is not only possible, but has been done on multiple occasions. A warrior with a high throw skill is oftentimes more dangerous with an arrow than a trained archer is.

You or your enemy are going to get hurt in the course of your adventures and its pretty useful to know exactly what's happening when you are. Here's a quick guide to the various aspects of wounds.

Wounds come in several colors and are indicated on the status screen (press z to see your own status screen while pressing (l) to look at your enemy's). The status screen will list your body parts in different colors to indicate how damaged they are.

* White: unhurt and feeling fine

* Light gray: slightly damaged, think a nasty scrape or cut.

* Brown: moderately damaged, such as a mild sprain or the like

* Yellow: broken. Applied to joints it means literally broken, while applied to upper and lower body it generally means organ damage.

* Red: mangled. If you got this then chances are you're in bad shape. Severely broken bones or ruptured organs. If this status is affecting anything even remotely vital you're more than likely on your way to the grave.

* Gray: lopped off or cut out. This is when you completely lose a body part. Effects include massive pain and bleeding along with ruining your promising juggling career. For some body parts (noticeably the eyes) it will cause constant pain and unconsciousness. Should you lose an important body part, you may want to consider reverting to a previous save backup (or starting over entirely), as fast travelling will '''not''' heal injuries of this type.

Legs: Similar to feet, though often has increased bleeding and pain effects. Loss of one will usually result in death by bleeding out. Even if you survive, you're more than likely on your way to death. Severed legs do make a lovely club though.  

Head: Contains the brain, ears, mouth, nose, eyes and throat. Ears, nose and mouth are officially useless and can be cut off in an effort to appear cool. The brain, eyes and throat are however less disposable. Damage to the eyes results in loss of vision, permanent if the eyes are removed, and terrible pain. It's usually not possible to bleed to death from eye loss, though. The throat is highly sensitive and damage causes both extreme bleeding and suffocation effects. The brain is the most important thing you've got, and damage to it is an almost instant death. Any wound it receives will more than likely cause instant unconsciousness and severe bleeding.  

Upper body: Contains the heart, lungs, upper spine, liver and kidneys. Both the kidneys and liver have similar effects; namely, heavy bleeding and pain upon injury. Damage to the spine can leave you incapable of using your arms or legs even if they are otherwise intact. The lungs control breathing, so piercing them can cause suffocation. The heart is the main organ of the circulatory system and damage to it is almost always fatal through bleeding.  

Pierce: Dangerous to organic creatures, you included. Often, objects with the pierce effect will become lodged in their target. Removing the weapon from its lodged position causes both increased pain and bleeding but can alleviate certain symptoms the piercing has caused.

In adventure mode your wounds will heal if you travel (shift + t) and they'll recover just about anything except a lopped off limb. If you can't travel the best thing to do is try and run from battle if you're badly wounded, since running will give you time to stop bleeding and suppress the pain. Beware dropping your weapon and make sure to pick it up before you make a run for it. If an arrow strikes you in the chest its best to leave it there while an arrow to the extremities can be removed.  

To recruit someone into your party, press tal{{k|k}}, move the cursor over them, and press {{k|enter}}. Then in the conversation that follows, simply pick 'Join' from the list of options to ask them to accompany you. [[Children]], the Mayor, and [[Guard]]s don't want any part of this silly adventuring malarkey, but the occasional peasant might be bored enough to join you.

If the prospective meat shield considers himself more skilled than you are, he may rebuff you with, "Ha! Such enthusiasm from one such as yourself." This can be remedied by training your skills until he judges you a bit more skillful than he is.

Another reason for someone to refuse to die protecting you is that you already have the maximum of 12 companions, and they will rebuff you by asking, "With a band so large, what share of the glory would I have?" But look at it this way, at least your total party size is 13 when you count yourself! Now that's lucky!

You'll face many creatures on your travels, several mega and semi-mega beasts included if you're taking quests. Here's a quick look at the more dangerous beasts (sentient or not)  that you'll meet.

* Bronze Colossus: Probably one of the hardest beasts to combat due to its massive strength, impressive natural armor and complete ignorance of pain, fear and bleeding.  Bronze Colossuses are basically walking, dwarf crushing statues that will never stop unless beheaded or outright obliterated. They have no organs and do not bleed, making them impossible to knock unconscious. Their immense strength makes them unlikely to give in to wrestling moves (though if you can manage to lock and break a limb it will snap off rather than just becoming useless.) Because of these resistances all you can really do is hack / shoot and hope that it dies before you do.

* Hydra: a joke really, as it seems to lack the regenerative powers of its mythological cousin. It has 7 heads, but damage to one is as serious as damaging the head of a one headed beast. More than likely you'll have it unconscious in a few turns regardless of what you use due to the high probability of targeting one of its many heads.

* Elves: They have wooden equipment, making them laughable most of the time. Once again, the only real threat is their archers and even then they are less dangerous than humans. Elves are generally known for being annoying so it's recommended that you slaughter the lot. If you are an elf it's recommended that you have tons of [[fun]].  

* Dwarves: Their advantage is their steel weaponry and crossbows. Their disadvantage is that their mountain homes are generally so large that you'll only rarely fight more than one or two. Disable their weapon masters and archers then throw their own axes at them. Juggle their heads in front of their children.

* Antman: A half man half ant hybrid which lives in chasms. They have higher natural armor than a man, but rarely use tools. As long as you're armed they should pose no problem.

* Blizzard man: Frosty's brother. Blizzard men are creatures of pure ice that strangely still have organs. They can bite and punch, with biting doing the most damage. They will melt in normal temperatures so they are only found in freezing areas.

* Dark gnome: Mischievous mountain folk who enjoy hard liquor. They‘re basically dwarves but smaller and nowhere near as dangerous. Its rare that you'll even find them, but if you do they should pose no threat to you. They usually come in packs and make a beeline toward your alcohol reserves in order to drink as much as they can. They get scared off easily enough though, and their punch and bite attacks are rather weak. More annoying and a potential drain on resources than truly dangerous.

* Fire imp: Little gremlin-like things that are either constantly on fire or made of fire. They're found only in subterranean lava pits, meaning that you'll have to go searching for them if you're ever gonna see one. They only bite (does burn damage rather than gore), but their real danger comes from their ability to set you on fire. Ranged  combat is recommended, though darting forward, attacking and then jumping away might be effective if you have no other choice. They like to throw fireballs at you from a distance, which can be a big problem if you're fighting in a grassy environment

* Fire man: Like the fire imps, but better. They have the bronze colossus syndrome of having no organs, not bleeding, feeling pain or being able to have weapons stuck in them. They too can set you ablaze, but they're much harder to kill before they do it. Bludgeoning can break and hence sever their limbs. Recommended that you fight from a distance. Luckily these things only live in underground lava, so you'll never find them without going into very specific places.  

* Frogman: Half-man half-frogs that live in underground water. They can't equip weapons and are very small, making them almost completely non-threatening.  

* Magma man: A man made of pure magma. Everything about this guy is exactly the same as the fire man, with the exception that he can't breathe fire. This makes him less dangerous at a distance. Stay back and throw stuff at him.

* Merpersons: Tiny little mermaids and mermen. Not dangerous at all, and relatively rare to boot. They can equip items but you'll probably never see one anyway.

* Mountain gnome: The same as a dark gnome, but less evil. Same things apply here.

* Mud man: Like Ironman but made of mud. Can't equip items and only has a weak punch as a form of attack, making it about as threatening as a mudpie. Lives in underground water.

* Slugman: Do I even have to say? it's a slug man, do you think its dangerous? It's not. Just stab it in its deformed face.  

* Snail man: Think slug man, but with a shell that doesn't actually offer any protection.     

* Snakemen: The only real threat these guys pose is their ability to inject poison by biting. If it does bite you, your best bet to try and quickly kill the snake man before the poison takes effect. But even then it's easily cured by [T]raveling. If you're going to be on the local map for some time though don't worry too much, all it will do is temporarily render you stunned. If you get the opportunity to talk to one, it will speak with a "lissssssp".

* Troll: There's no real difference between this thing and an ogre. Kill them both the same way.  

Here's the rundown of all the mundane beasties that you'll run into.

* Beak dog: Basically what happens when a parrot gets combined with a velociraptor. They're a little smaller than a man but quick and use their beaks and claws effectively. Try not to get caught in the center of a group of them, backpedal and cut them down as they give chase.

* Black Bear: These will only ambush you one on one, and given their relative small size and forgettable strength they should pose little threat unless you're completely unskilled and unarmed. Because there's only one they can be useful for wrestling practice since you can focus all your attention on them.

* Bonobo: Ape like things of dubious certainty. Considering their squishy organs it would be best to stab them in the groin.

* Camel: It's... a camel. You'll probably never see one.  

* Carp: Carp aren't too dangerous in adventure mode. They are often found in the river and the only way they have a real chance of killing you is if you have not trained in swimming and you wind up dodging one of their attacks and land in the river, which can not be climbed back out of.

* Deer: You might see these running away from you in the woods. They're harmless but good wrestling practice if you feel like strangling a defenseless animal.  

* Donkey: Pulls wagons and things like that. You might see one but it's not really worth attacking them.  

* Elephants: In prior versions, elephants were murderous berserkers, but thankfully they've been made a little more realistic. They're just as big and strong as you'd expect, but won't bother you unless you walk up and stab'em a few times. Reasonably dangerous, so don't poke them unless you're ready.

* Fox: Another small animal that you'll most likely never see.

* Giant bat: Bigger than a minotaur and more dangerous at times. Often encountered in low visibility areas where they can take you by surprise. Its best to avoid caves until you're confident in your blocking and combat skills.  

* Giant Cave Spiders: You'll only rarely encounter these, because of their limited environment. You'll know they're near from the webs which hang around their homes. They are NOT to be meddled with. First and foremost, they do not feel pain and will never stop unless killed. Their high number of legs makes it likely that you'll pointlessly hack away at the limbs while the mouth bites your head in half. Beyond these aspects the spider uses poison and sticky webs to ensnare you. Your best bet is to throw/shoot at it from a distance. If you can't do that, use other piercing or goring weapons to damage its organs. Despite its ignorance toward pain, it still bleeds like any other animal, so a pierced heart is very effective.

* Giant cave swallow: Like the giant bat, they can be deceptively dangerous, so try and knock it out of the air via throwing so it'll suffer falling damage before you close the distance.

* Giant Desert Scorpion: These great beasts are a special terror, not only because of their chitinous exoskeleton and poison sting, but also for their ability to pull a stuck battle axe from their own bodies, and begin hacking you to death with it.

* Grizzly Bear: A little bigger than the Black Bear, though basically the same. Good for both wrestle and shield points. If they're really giving you a hard time try catching both hands and its throat. This should not only make it impossible for it to attack, but also give you wrestle points.  

* Groundhog: Little rodent thingies. Zombie ground hogs are useful to strangle for wrestling experience. Besides that they're only really good as golf balls for your putter.

* Horse: A beast of burden sometimes seen in human towns. They have an odd habit of going rogue and kicking children to death. Not to mention they're some how smart enough to pull crossbow bolts out of their own legs. May cause random insanity if they attack an influential citizen.

* Mountain Goat: It's a goat, that lives in the mountains.

* Pike: The fish, not the weapon. They're nothing close to the carp and should be little more than particularly squishy speed bumps to you.

* Rhesus Macaque: A nettlesome trickster in fortress mode, they are almost never seen in adventure mode. Even if you see them they're very skittish and a single blow will send them running. Give'em a good strangle if you can catch one.

* Unicorn: The random homicidal tendencies of the horse mixed with a dash of magic and a horn. They're very aggressive for some reason, though not too hard to bring down. Watch out for that horn and stay away until you're at least competent.  

* Wolf: And last but not least, the humble and numerous wolf. This is an all too common ambush predator and you'll ALWAYS fight them by the pack. They can be dangerous in the first few ambushes if you let them surround you, however, with a few brothers-in-arms and personal experience they can quickly become trivial. Great for training up armor and shield, as they attack in packs and hence hit you many times, often with no effect. Early on, just be careful not to get caught in the middle of a pack and you'll be fine.  They have a random chance to rip your throat out. The most dangerous aspect about them is that when they ambush you, you have a fairly decent chance of being caught in the middle of the pack.

* Zombie: Zombie animals are just like their normal counterparts, with a few major exceptions. Firstly, they are no longer affected by pain or bleeding and their organs no longer matter. They are also much slower. This combination of increased difficulty in killing and decreased speed about evens out their threat level. Not too dangerous, unless the creature they're based on is already strong. (Note: Since they do not perish by strangling, breaking all of the limbs of a zombie and throttling it constantly is a great way to gain wrestling experience.)

=== [[wikipedia:Shelob|Shelob]]'s in-laws, aka Giant Cave Spiders ===

''Note'': If absolutely required they ARE killable, but you need luck, and lots of it. Adept swordsman + Proficient [[shield]] user + Skilled ambusher manages to sneak up on it and then counterstrike + block does the job, but you might still get unlucky.

''To conclude'': Basically, as long as your shield wielding hand is intact (and shield skill is high of course) you have pretty good chances of survival in 1 on 1, otherwise you're dead. Any extra armor also helps in glancing off their bites.

Don't take on quests where you need to kill elite bow-/crossbowmen! Generally, avoid flying arrows! Why? Because bow/crossbowmen have the tendency to see farther than you can. They are therefore able to fire at you from beyond your sight, making it hard to see where the arrow(s) are coming from. You may therefore end up chasing the shooter in the wrong direction, giving the shooter even MORE time to turn you into a pin-cushion. Of course, this is only the case if you manage to survive the first 3-4 arrows, because arrows are BAD for anyone but the shooter's health. Piercing hits like arrows are much more likely to damage internal organs, and while you might shrug off a moderate blunt hit to the chest a similar piercing hit could directly damage one or both lungs or your heart and instantly kill you.

For best efficiency, drop all of your gear (including held but not worn items) and empty out your backpack near your throwing location. This is done in order to keep your inventory simple for the rock-throwing portion. Then pick up a ton of rocks by pressing {{k|g}}-{{k|a}} over and over - ideally one would pick up 600 rocks at a single time, but you will probably get bored before then. Then, mash {{k|t}}-{{k|a}}-{{k|enter}} over and over until all of your rocks are thrown back at the floor. If you are not a legendary Thrower after this, repeat. Afterwards, remember to pick up your gear and re-fill your backpack.

You can also throw other stuff you find, like flies, beetles, worms, and even [[vomit]] or [[sand]]. If you have a tendency to chop off enemy limbs, you can even throw these limbs. Killing zombies with their companions' severed heads and feet is always good for a laugh. [[iron man|Iron men]] are fun, because they leave behind a nice [[statue]] for the taking which can be thrown. Arrows and weapons seem to be particularly deadly when thrown because they deal the same damage as they would in melee, including piercing or slashing damage type, but even the most innocuous or silly items can come up with a kill.

A good way to train wrestling is to find an undead region on the map, preferably Sinister if you remember the map layout from Fortress Mode. Locate a pack of zombie herbivores therein, preferably of small size (do not attempt this with zombie [[elephant]]s). Slaughter every zombie in the vicinity of this pack of herbivores but the one that you think is the most crippled, making sure to pick one with a throat to leave alive.

When your character becomes tired, break off from strangling and walk it off - you become less tired by ambling about aimlessly. If you become too hungry or thirsty to continue, just run away or destroy the zombie, {{k|T}}ravel, and then repeat after moving a square and back.

Yet another alternative is presented by fish.  No harmful wrestling moves can be performed on them so cornering a carp, tigerfish, or milkfish will raise wrestling quickly, while training swimming.  Avoid [[hippo]]-infested waters.

You can crosstrain Ambushing while Swimming to save time - if you start with no Ambushing and Novice Swimming, you will be an Accomplished or Expert Ambusher, give or take, by the time you are a Legendary Swimmer. For more on Ambushing, see below. You can also crosstrain melee skills with swimming by picking a river and swimming down it, training Ambush when it's quiet and training melee when it's not. Some rivers have very high densities of fish, giving you lots of targets to hit. They will tend to gather up, bumping into and slowing each other down ahead of you for you to kill and an adventurer will be all but invincible against non-sturgeons after a few statgains. Just remember that Hippos have the right of way.

Armor User lets you wear heavy armor without slowing down, and it also improves the passive block rate of armor - a very useful skill, because it controls how often your shiny full plate suit will actually work.  

Normally, you gain 10 Shield User XP per time you block an attack with a shield, and 2 Armor User XP per time you are attacked while wearing armor. This means that to gain the 18,000 XP necessary for legendary, you must block 1800 strikes, and be attacked at least 9000 times. Naturally, this could take some time, during which a low-skill adventurer may die from attacks by worthy opponents.

However, a useful shortcut exists: if you find a small zombie herbivore to strangle in the above wrestling training method, you can also (if it is a small and non-dangerous animal such as a zombie [[groundhog]]) {{k|s}}it down next to it (to minimize your own speed and thus get attacked more often) and hold {{k|5}} to sit down next to the animal and block its attacks over and over. This is still slow, but leagues faster than waiting to train while fighting - it also means that you are probably not in any danger assuming you picked a sufficiently pathetic type of animal. Another option is to beat an (preferably weak) opponent up with your shield. I.e. a troglodyte can be clobbered for ages, and can bring you 2-3 levels.

Warnings: Make sure that you have your {{k|c}}ombat preference set to Close Combat, otherwise you may counterstrike and kill the zombie. This way, you will wrestle it during a counterstrike instead of doing something that may actually hurt it such as counterstriking with your weapon.

It is probably also preferable to start with a modicum of skill in Armor and Shield using to make sure you don't accidentally get instakilled or crippled and are good at blocking with your shield to gain XP fast. You'll also want to have non-crappy armor and a good shield or two (dual wielding shields can dramatically increase your ability to block) to maximize your ability to block and to make sure you are taking as little as possible damage, if any at all, during training.

When traveling it's a good idea to avoid evil areas until you're reasonably powerful, as they tend to contain stronger enemies. Also avoid caves for this same reason, you never know when a dragon is lurking in the shadows. Remember that only human towns have shops, so don't die of hunger wandering the dwarves mountain homes looking for that elusive Applebees. Water can be had from rivers and stagnant pools, though fast traveling (shift + t) makes thirst and hunger go away.  If you are exploring caves, make sure to have some water and food with you, as some can be quite deep.

If you've abandoned a fortress in the world and you're now adventuring, you can find that same fortress on the map. Ask townsfolk about the surroundings and eventually they'll mention the fortress and its direction. From there you need only to follow the directions till the fortress shows up on your map.  

If your fortress was abandoned or destroyed there's more than likely a reason why. Be it magma overflows, flooding, goblin sieges or perhaps digging a little too greedily and too deep there are likely to be remnants of your downfall somewhere in the remains. Wild beasts and sentient invaders alike will more than likely be slugging it out in your once grand halls. Beyond this there is the danger of forgetting what lever does what and accidentally flooding the room with lava or collapsing the entrance.

Whatever destroyed your fortress is what is going to be squatting in it now.  If a goblin siege took you down, then prepare to fight some gobbies. If the horrors of the deep beat your little dwarven ass then prepare to fight those. If they drowned then find some waterwings etc. Make sure you're fully stocked on arrows (if you use them) as well as water and food. Leaving anything you don't need back in the tavern in town is a good idea too, as it lets you carry more loot.

While wandering the halls of your old fortress, it's best to secure each floor one by one, to avoid being ambushed. Explore one entire floor, then move on to the next. This isn't a requirement but it can help in finding the best loot as well as insuring against surprise attacks from that hidden monster or monsters you managed to overlook. If you start to get overburdened with all the loot, climb to a secure floor and dump it in a pile. You can come back for it after you've finished exploring. Also note that, while traps no longer work, their components (giants blades, spiked balls etc.) remain just as lethal in your hands. Also note that you can pick up and throw ballista arrows.

Not much, unfortunately. While masterwork adamantine weapons are very useful and the raw chunks of adamantine are extremely valuable, there's nothing to really buy with them. The adamantine weapons you find are the strongest in the game and shops will never sell anything above iron, so once you've got the weapons there's pretty much nothing more you need.