Shifting Passages

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Shifting Passages

When you begin playing this dungeon, the Shifting Passages have a few walls but you generally have full freedom of movement. Every time you slay a monster, however, additional walls will appear, eventually forming a long and winding maze that can trap you. Once the maze is fully-formed, additional walls will not appear. Combined with the fact that the boss can teleport, this can easily leave you blocked.

Changelings

The Changeling enemy is unique to the Shifting Passages. They have a different special ability depending on your chosen class.

  • Fighter - 1 death protection
  • Warlord - 1 death protection per level (this is by far the most dangerous type of Changeling)
  • Rogue - First Strike
  • Assassin - Poisonous
  • Monk - fast regeneration
  • Paladin - 50% physical resist
  • Wizard - magic attack
  • Sorcerer - retaliates fireball
  • Bloodmage - bloodless

The Changeling has no special abilities if you pick any of the other classes.

Evolvia

The boss of the Shifting Passages is Evolvia (there is also another random boss). Every time Evolvia is struck, his special abilities change randomly to one of the following:

  • Counters Fireball
  • Physical Resist 80%
  • Death Gaze 100%
  • Undead
  • Poisonous

Evolvia always has first strike and blink.

Strategy

Like most of the maze levels, Shifting Passages will force you to find some way to avoid being trapped. Use of the IMAWAL glyph is highly discouraged as there is a virtually 100% chance this will block you off. Unless you have the ENDISWAL glyph, you should convert IMAWAL on sight. Likewise, this means worshipping the Earthmother is a terrible idea. Finding the ENDISWAL glyph or using any form of knockback is highly advisable to make the dungeon more porous and easier to move around. Because Evolvia teleports, you will need to make many holes in the way in order to chase him unless you can kill virtually every other monster.

Because Evolvia teleports, has retaliate fireball in one of his forms, and has a reasonably high number of hit points a pure caster strategy is almost certainly suicide. You will need to be either a melee specialist or a hybrid in order to fight him effectively. Similarly, his death gaze and 80% physical resist form means that melee specialists still want to carry the BURNDAYRAZ glyph. If at all possible, try to kill the other boss before exploration is complete, allowing you to focus on Evolvia alone after you've completely explored the dungeon.

Recommended Classes

Assassin

With the ability to kill weaker monsters with Swift Hands, the Assassin is well-equipped to navigate through the Shifting Passages and chase after the teleporting Evolvia. Using his poison, he can usually kill the first boss before exploration is complete which will allow him to focus his remaining efforts on Evolvia. Recommended races are Elf, Goblin, or Human.

Rogue

The Rogue will need to find a way to boost his hit points to survive attacks from Evolvia, but his massive damage output means that he can easily cleave through weaker monsters to chase after him. Being able to kill Evolvia with fewer blows means there's a lower chance of getting stuck or having to waste mana on a fireball to make him change to a more favourable form. You will probably need either Jehora Jeheyu or the Glowing Guardian in order to increase your hit points if you are not playing as a dwarf. Recommended races are Orc and Dwarf.

Warlord

Although changelings will have an absolutely devastating special effect, the Warlord's CYDSTEPP ability is largely unaffected by any of Evolvia's specials; only his 80% physical resist form is of any real consequence to a Warlord. Like a Rogue, the high-damage Warlord can usually clean up Evolvia before he's had a chance to run around too much. The Warlord will need to find some way to break walls to move around Changelings, as he has effectively no way to kill higher-level ones. Recommended races are Orc or Gnome.

Bloodmage

With the BLUDTUPOWA glyph, the Bloodmage is well-equipped to kill the first boss with pure caster tactics and also bore some holes into the walls with ENDISWAL if he can find it. Once he's finished with the first boss, the Bloodmage can then start fighting as a primarily melee character and use his blood pools to support his fighting. Be careful not to get cut off from your blood pools. Recommended races are Human, Elf, Gnome, or Orc.