Guide for student assassins
Before you read this guide, please read this page: Assassin Guilds
As well, read the wiki page belonging to your assassin guild or the guild you want to join, as there is usually important information on there:
Contents
Before you join an assassin guild
Each assassin guild, despite having similar primary skills, have varying playstyles and are very much different from each other.
Sometimes, guildhouses belonging to other assassin guilds do not allow assassins of other guilds to enter certain rooms upon threat of death due to guild politics and feuds, usually you can find the rules for this at the entrance of each guildhouse. This can make trying to advance skills at a different assassin guild impossible and thus feuding assassin guilds do tend to keep to themselves. Each assassin guild itself however tends to be very tight-knit and united.
Thus it is very important for a player to choose the right assassin guild that is based on what they see as their playstyle (more hack-and-slash, etc.), how much time they want to dedicate to the MUD and overall representative of what kind of skills they want to focus on.
Each assassin guild also has a varying difficulty for the tests needed as part of an assassin's graduation, with the Mano Rossa being the easiest to "graduate", the Guild of Assassins after that, the Ninja is probably the second most difficult/dangerous with even advancing skills being quite tedious and the Hashishim is the most difficult/time-consuming with even joining and exploring the Hashishim caves being difficult tasks that may require help. Only after "graduating" can an assassin advance beyond level 75 on most of their primaries.
The assassin guilds' graduation test(s) are:
- The Mano Rossa Oath which only requires swearing an oath
- The Guild of Assassins Run which is a knowledge and physical test that involves acrobatics, disabling traps and can be fatal.
- The Ninja Chunin Test and the Ninja Ru Noperi which are two separate tests, the Chunin is not deadly but can be time-consuming to study for while the Ru Noperi can be dangerous and fatal.
- The Hashishim Trials which are numerous and can be dangerous and fatal.
Which guild should you join?
- The Mano Rossa is recommended for pure beginners who still want to learn about the game or players who do not want to consume too much time and not to be restricted by the graduation "requirements" as the Mano Rossa Oath just requires you to be guild level 50. The Mano Rossa is also located within the major city of Genua, a location with many things to do for a new assassin.
- The Guild of Assassins and the Ninja tend to be popular choices as both are located in major cities (Ankh-Morpork and Bes Pelargic respectively) that are friendly to new players and plenty of easy quests to do as well as also having plenty of helpful guild facilities. The Ninja and the Guild of Assassins also usually tend to be the most active assassin communities on Discworld. The Guild of Assassins in Ankh-Morpork also has many senior positions that may interest players. Both guilds can be good for new players if they read up on all the details or for players who have had experience before.
- The Hashishim is recommended for players who have played before and want to explore new things and challenge themselves. The location of the Hashishim caves are a bit isolated but assassins can still wander around and do quests at the major cities of Djelibeybi and Ephebe.
- These above are just recommendations and not rules, please join the assassin guild you feel you will enjoy and connect with the most!
Starting Out
- Get a talker
- You can also join the Discworld MUD Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/discworldmud/), Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2232821724/) or Discord (https://discord.gg/fw4Z6MY).
- If you are on Windows or Linux, you should download Quow's configured MUSHClient which has minimaps and speedwalking functions, see: https://quow.co.uk/mushclient.php
- Start doing easy quests that do not require much skills or any combat as shown in Unofficial Quest Solutions, each quest level will give a certain amount of experience reward but higher quest levels tend to be more difficult or complex
- Sometimes player shops sell items that are needed to complete quests so check out player shops if you can
- Do missions as well for some extra cash and experience
- Reading up on Making money is very important for a new assassin, you will often find yourself needing cash to advance to prepare for your tests and to buy items.
- Easiest way to get some money is to wander around Sto Lat and take the loot lying around from dead brawlers/thieves getting killed off by other vagrant NPCs and then sell it to a general store
- Get some equipment:
- You can obtain some donated equipment from your guild's newbie chest if there is stuff in there
- A yellow stone ring to light up in the dark and/or night
- Get a pair of stilettos if you are Mano Rossa or Guild of Assassins
- Get a pair of short swords if you are Ninja or Hashishim
- Get some scabbards for holding these weapons
- Try to get a sword belt for swords
- Try to get black soft-soled boots with sheaths for daggers
- Get a large backpack or a black backpack for holding items
- Stock up on healing tea or blue water, you only need to drink 1/100 bottle at a time when consuming tea/blue water
- Buying a blackened canteen if you have money is recommended for holding and keeping your healing tea/blue water accessible, remember to close the canteen so water does not get in
- Senior assassins will also sometimes gift you weapons to help you so make sure to introduce yourself on the assassins or assassin guild talker channels
- As assassins primarily dodge, it is not recommended to wear heavy armour or any armour at all, however you can use some basic leather armour items such as:
- Set your default response to dodge by typing tactics response dodge, also read up on tactics
- Read up on Combat and this section too
- Read up on Assassin commands
- Read up on Alias and use the kill alias and General aliases
- As being an assassin can be a fatal profession, reading up on Death and Buying Lives is highly recommended
- Focus on advancing your adventuring.health to level 25, advancing your melee and defence skills, relevant covert skills as well as climbing and acrobatics skills.
- If you are interested in idlechasing aliases, it is recommended to idle in guild training rooms and use those facilities too
- If you're not as active or just want to stay in one spot for a while, check out Idlechasing for new characters as well
- Take advantage of the numerous training rooms at each assassin guild to TM skills at your and other assassin guilds' facilities.
- Make sure it is a room you are allowed to enter and use if it is another assassin guild, entering the wrong rooms can be fatal
- Usually there are signs/scrolls at the guild entrance which will show which rooms can be entered and which can not.
- Good choices for training rooms are:
- During combat, you can try to TM special attacks by using them mid-fight and gain some extra experience as well
- Kill around in newbie areas for more exp and money
- Try to spend as much exp and money towards guildmaxing your primaries and adventuring.health to prepare yourself for the graduation test(s).
Secrecy, Subterfuge & Smarts
Assassins love secrecy and hiding secrets in plain view. Thieves to a lesser degree.
You will find that constant theme as you explore your guildhouses and locations associated with assassins (or thieves).
Usually there are plenty of hidden doors/exits or rugs that you have to move to reveal trapdoors. Or just items stored where you have to open up furniture or look closely or things you have to figure out on your own. This is part of an assassin's fun. Playing the detective constantly and always staying alert and vigilant.
Most of all this tests your patience, perception (not the skill but your ability and willingness to look) and your smarts for deducing info based on the info you can look at.
Usually you end up first looking at the room description, then looking at an object/furniture mentioned in the room description and work it out from there.
Everything can seem like a chore or a test, this probably setting you up for your Graduation test(s) and the assassins' way of life. Players who do not enjoy this or want something more straightforward will have to change how they think and learn to look at everything and look at it again.
On Graduation Test(s)
Graduation tests can be stressful affairs, make sure you are well-prepared and have asked for some advice as well from other assassins who recently passed. Older assassins have passed their tests a long time ago and can forget many details.
Usually passing this test will give you the inhume command.
Mano Rossa
To read the information about the Mano Rossa graduation test see Mano Rossa#The Oath.
Guild of Assassins
To read full spoilers about their graduation tests see Guild of Assassins spoilers.
Ninja
To read full spoilers about their graduation tests see Ninja spoilers.
Hashishim
To read full spoilers about their graduation tests see Hashishim spoilers.
Joining a Faith
Joining a faith will grant useful follower rituals to assassins. Also note its very hard to leave and join another faith so make sure to make a good choice.
The most useful Faiths that one can join are Gufnork, Hat, Sandelfon and Gapp.
Gufnork can be the most useful as you can gain Cure Light Wounds which can heal you for up to 300 hp at a time.
Hat will grant Dark Sight and allow you to see in the dark and negates having to carry around a light which can reduce your stealthiness.
Sandelfon will grant calm and you can perform backstab, calm your enemy, then backstab again, allowing two backstabs in a row. However in a group, the enemy will not stop fighting your group members.
Gapp grants mend which can be useful as assassins mainly wear clothing which can get damaged in fights, however needlework can also be utilized to mend clothing and this is probably the least useful Faith to join out of the the four.
Note that you need to be in the right alignment, good faith skills bonuses and likely have ritual bonuses as well to successfully attempt follower rituals and thus advancing faith skills is more recommended after passing your graduation tests.
On Rearranging
Dexterity tends to be the most important stat for an assassin as it covers covert as well as relevant adventuring and fighting skills.
Example Rearranges
Guild of Assassins
Giuseppe
Constitution ... 12 Strength ....... 14 Dexterity ...... 17 Wisdom ......... 8 Intelligence ... 14 This rearrange made it much easier for Giuseppe to pass the Guild of Assassins Run and also it enhances his covert and certain adventuring.climbing skills while also improving his fighting.melee.dagger and other combat skills related to an assassin.
Ninja
Kimo
Constitution ... 8 Strength ....... 17 Dexterity ...... 14 Wisdom ......... 13 Intelligence ... 13 This rearrange was done by Kimo not to optimize her unarmed fighting skills so much as to compromise between a variety of needs. She supplements this rearrange with charged prayer beads.
Tips after you graduate
- Advance skills so you can get backstab, abscond and ambush and incorporate these into your attacks
- Advance relevant skills needed for your inhumes once you are able to learn the inhume command and go out to inhume some contracts as a way to earn money
- Thrown and fired weapons are generally useless for combat but can do cool inhumes
- Advance covert.points to guildmax and use idling aliases that involve assassin guild training rooms to help TM skills, the rooms are pretty useful even if you have high skill bonuses
Aliases
Slipping weapons into scabbards, I'm using a belt to store swords. This is so not to break hiding, can also be used as idle alias
alias shs slip weapon into belt; slip weapon into belt
Palming weapons from scabbards. This is so not to break hiding, can also be used as idle alias
alias unshs palm weapon from belt to my left hand; palm weapon from belt to my right hand;
Idling alias to try to TM covert skills
alias idle search; shs; sneak high; hide; unshs; shs; peek $*$; unhide; sneak off;
Hiding and backstabbing
alias bs hide; backstab $*$
Absconding and ambushing
alias am ambush $*$ alias abh abscond $*$ and hide alias abs abscond $*$ and sneak high alias aba abscond $*$ and am
For hurling throwing knifes
alias hu hurl throwing knife from scabbards at $*$; wait; alias tk take knife; sheathe knives;
Training Room Aliases
Ninja
Training with sword dummy
alias trainsw take swords; hold swords; slice dummy 2 with sword; slice dummy 2 with sword
Training with balancing beam
alias bab balance on beam
Training with unarmed dummy
alias str strike dummy 3
Training with unarmed dummy
alias kid kick dummy 3
Training with throwing dummy
alias thr hold dart☆ throw dart&star at dummy;take dart☆
Training in the dojo with above aliases
alias dojo search; unshs; trainsw; trainsw; shs; str; kid; str; kid; thr; thr; bab; bab; sneak high; hide; unhide; sneak off;
Training with a senssu fan to TM people.culture.agatean, bought from Samurai Dojo
alias fan palm fan from pack; hold fan; snap fan; snap fan; slip fan into pack
Other Useful Aliases from Players
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