ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So i played a little off this game and i noticed that monsters i killed do not respawn this would be fine if not for the fact this takes away one of my favorite things about a RPG and that is grinding for loots and gold and all that good stuff.....What's that you hate grinding and you find it to be boring and a waste of time? I can respect that but we all like different things so plz be respectful to my opinion.

This game does not, except in certain rare circumstances, have respawning enemies. I would encourage you to re-consider your view about grinding things out on when playing roguelikes. The idea itself makes little "sense" in the context of this RPG sub-genre.

If you play on roguelike (I personally usually do adventure but w/e) keep in mind that the more you "grind" the more you are also taking a chance you may die and end the game entirely.

This game has a direction and a goal. Many roguelikes are like this. Most "achievements" in the game focus around this. Obtaining an "uber" character is usually not considered as much of an achievement as things such as winning the game in a small amount of time or levels or with a class few other have won with.

There are ways to farm out special gear (for example the Mercy Maurader build used to win Madness difficulty) but in general these are used for corner cases like trying to win Madness and using some sort of gimick gear for it.


If you do wish to farm/grind out for gear you will probably want to make sure you have access to the vault however I feel I must warn you the game can get pretty boring with an extremely powerful character when you play on difficulties below Insane.

It's totally fine to enjoy grinding-sometimes I'll load up a game that is much simpler, where one can grind and grind all day then laugh maniacally as you rip through hordes of "strong" enemies that are a thousand levels below you. (Yay Disgaea!)

However, ToME is a roguelike, and most roguelikes feature little to no respawning enemies. The game is one long campagin, and part of beating it is figuring out how to manage all resources wisely, including your level ups. (Note that no matter what you do in the main campaign, you can only go up to level 50. In the Infinite Dungeon, that level cap gets removed.) No respawning enemies is a fundamental part of ToME gameplay.

There is a place you can repeat-the Sher'Tul Farportal, in your fortress (it's after the Old Forest if you haven't gotten that far) can be done endlessly, so long as you have the energy, but it can be a very dangerous place. There's no safe grinding spot, so if you want to grind, be prepared for a challenge.

Really, if you like grinding, ToME just probably isn't the game for you. It's built around not grinding and simply working with what you're given. It's a shame for you to stop playing what's a very good game simply because you can't repeat the same dungeon on the same character, but if that's something you can't live without, then you'll just have to live without ToME.

If it's the constant dying that bothers you, we all went through it. (And probably still do.) I had well over 130 hours before I got my first win. ToME's a tough game, and a real fun part is finally getting that first win. If you'd like, there's a list of guides that could help you out.

Edit: Also, after a little though grinding would be useless anyway. Dungeons scale to your level, and while creature type is consistent and can account for parts of the dificulty, you'll be facing level 20 enemies if you enter a dungeon at level 20 and level 25 if you go in at level 25. (Actually, more like level 30 enemies for level 20 and level 40 for level 25, but that's part of the challenge.) While massive overleveling does make zones easier (I've ignored some early game dungeons until level 45, when I realized I was missing some escorts and level 45 snakes are simply not a threat on Normal) the zones that would be easiest with extra levels are the zones you do to start anyway. The more dangerous areas, like Dreadfell, have strong enough enemy types that they'll be a challenge no matter what level you go in due to scaling. The really dangerous areas, like High Peak, are late enough in the game that you're going to be at or near level 50 when you reach them anyway, so grinding won't help you there.

Hi just wanted to say thanks and yeah i thing maybe i should not be thinking of TOME as a rpg but more of a roguelike. So yeah i will try this game with that in mind but right now i have started to play this game called stranded 2 it's free and really fun if you like the idea of being stranded

Red wrote:It's totally fine to enjoy grinding-sometimes I'll load up a game that is much simpler, where one can grind and grind all day then laugh maniacally as you rip through hordes of "strong" enemies that are a thousand levels below you. (Yay Disgaea!)

However, ToME is a roguelike, and most roguelikes feature little to no respawning enemies. The game is one long campagin, and part of beating it is figuring out how to manage all resources wisely, including your level ups. (Note that no matter what you do in the main campaign, you can only go up to level 50. In the Infinite Dungeon, that level cap gets removed.) No respawning enemies is a fundamental part of ToME gameplay.

There is a place you can repeat-the Sher'Tul Farportal, in your fortress (it's after the Old Forest if you haven't gotten that far) can be done endlessly, so long as you have the energy, but it can be a very dangerous place. There's no safe grinding spot, so if you want to grind, be prepared for a challenge.

Really, if you like grinding, ToME just probably isn't the game for you. It's built around not grinding and simply working with what you're given. It's a shame for you to stop playing what's a very good game simply because you can't repeat the same dungeon on the same character, but if that's something you can't live without, then you'll just have to live without ToME.

If it's the constant dying that bothers you, we all went through it. (And probably still do.) I had well over 130 hours before I got my first win. ToME's a tough game, and a real fun part is finally getting that first win. If you'd like, there's a list of guides that could help you out.

Edit: Also, after a little though grinding would be useless anyway. Dungeons scale to your level, and while creature type is consistent and can account for parts of the dificulty, you'll be facing level 20 enemies if you enter a dungeon at level 20 and level 25 if you go in at level 25. (Actually, more like level 30 enemies for level 20 and level 40 for level 25, but that's part of the challenge.) While massive overleveling does make zones easier (I've ignored some early game dungeons until level 45, when I realized I was missing some escorts and level 45 snakes are simply not a threat on Normal) the zones that would be easiest with extra levels are the zones you do to start anyway. The more dangerous areas, like Dreadfell, have strong enough enemy types that they'll be a challenge no matter what level you go in due to scaling. The really dangerous areas, like High Peak, are late enough in the game that you're going to be at or near level 50 when you reach them anyway, so grinding won't help you there.

Grinding levels would be fairly pointless, but grinding or twinking of gear can be very powerful (in a relative sense of comparing a "vanilla" playthrough with a "twinked" playthrough). Madness difficulty is always hard no matter what and to some extent you kind of should twink every single angle you can for that. For some classes the same can be said for Insane (sort of).

Although if you want a roguelike with grinding, Elona's a pretty good choice. Tons of different skills, lots of monsters, all sorts of things to grind and grind to your heart's content. Not as user friendly as ToME, but a good deal more advanced in the UI department than something like NetHack or ADOM.

ToME4 does have a lot of content in it. You get so much loot by the time you finish that you don't notice you weren't grinding for loot.
And then you can always hop into the (near) infinite dungeon.
The Exploratory Farportal gives you access to near infinite grinding as well if you want it.
However, since the game level scales everything you aren't really ever grinding.

You just pointed out your own flaws in your arguement, HousePet. You're always facing a challenge, and grinding isn't a challenge-it's going up against things just strong enough to be rewarding, but much too weak to be an actual challenge. Disgaea, what with being able to oneshot entire maps for XP, is a perfect example of a grinding game. (The 9999 level cap helps too. And the 128000 total levels for optimal stats.) ToME just never lets it get that easy, short of cheesing the endgame with whatever OP Adventurer you're running.

Sorry? What was I arguing?

That ToME has enough content to be considered grinding, but it's interesting and difficult enough to not be grinding?

Red wrote:However, ToME is a roguelike, and most roguelikes feature little to no respawning enemies.

I've... got some T2 characters partway through Moria who would like to have a word with you on that point.

Red wrote:The more dangerous areas, like Dreadfell, have strong enough enemy types that they'll be a challenge no matter what level you go in due to scaling.

Dreadfell actually stops scaling up at level 26 IINM (and the T1 zones stop at level 10). On which point, I've recently discovered that Dreadfell is a lot more fun at level 40 than it was at level 20 (for one thing, at level 40 I can actually do the vaults). I've always said I should be level 35 going into Dreadfell, and frankly, this just supports me on that.

I think everything Moria derived except ToME4 has the possibility of grinding. Probably Rogue as well since persistent dungeons would have been expensive in the era it was created. The NetHack side of the family has persistent dungeons and may not have respawning, but ToME's the aberration among Angband variants to the point I'd say T4 is no longer a *band at all, precisely because all levels are persistent.

I speak from my own experience with Roguelikes, but that's obviously not enough to be correct on that. And admittedly, less RPGlike Roguelikes, like Risk of Rain, have plenty of respawning enemies.

As for Dreadfell scaling, I didn't know it stopped. I've had T1 dungeons scale to level 45, so I assumed Dreadfell wouldn't stop either.

If you want to grind, it is possible in Tome4. Mind you it won't be very efficient and there is a fair chance of death as things scale...but play a magic character and run around the world map finding zigur patrols. Or there is a level that can infinitely spawn enemies but you can locate that eventually. . The game isn't meant for grinding, but hey, to each their own.

Atarlost wrote:I think everything Moria derived except ToME4 has the possibility of grinding. Probably Rogue as well since persistent dungeons would have been expensive in the era it was created. The NetHack side of the family has persistent dungeons and may not have respawning, but ToME's the aberration among Angband variants to the point I'd say T4 is no longer a *band at all, precisely because all levels are persistent.

Lol ToME4 has never been, nor tried to be an angband variant, neither in code nor spirit