Recall rod is slow. Find a good movement infusion/blink and run away if you get low.
Sometimes death can be unfair, keep experimenting.

Alright, so, the answer is simple. Never give up. Give Drybe's guides a shot if you are looking for info, or pay extra attention to every buff/debuff and item you receive and plan future runs accordingly. Towns refresh their shops every 10 levels, prioritise infusions and a shatter afflictions rune. The regeneration infusion takes a turn, so you might want to drop it a bit later on. Plenty of stuff can only be learned once you die, Once you get a grip on how tier 1 and tier 2 dungeons work and how the early punishing scaling functions, play on roguelike, it will make every mistake unforgettable and costly, improving your future runs.

And the most important part. Remember to have fun, dying can be entertaining, especially early on by a gunsnake or the occasional crazy unique. Find a class that suits your fantasy AND playstyle.

Why do you need a guide, play and learn yourself.

Originally posted by killtime101:

Where are the actual complete/up to date guides out there?

If you're looking for 'guides' you are looking for *cheats*. Say it as it is.

Playing the game is how you get better. It took me over a decade before I finished 1 full run of Nethack.

I seriously wish this side of gaming never took off.

Originally posted by Sneaky_Koala:

Originally posted by killtime101:

Where are the actual complete/up to date guides out there?

If you're looking for 'guides' you are looking for *cheats*. Say it as it is.

Playing the game is how you get better. It took me over a decade before I finished 1 full run of Nethack.

I seriously wish this side of gaming never took off.

Unrealistic in the extreme to think it would not. Worse to punish those just looking for help, who have zero clue what the "old days" were like, because they were born after 2000.

Originally posted by Ichthyic:

Originally posted by Sneaky_Koala:

If you're looking for 'guides' you are looking for *cheats*. Say it as it is.

Playing the game is how you get better. It took me over a decade before I finished 1 full run of Nethack.

I seriously wish this side of gaming never took off.

Unrealistic in the extreme to think it would not.

Nobody said it wouldn't.

If wishes were fishes. How's that for trite?

Are you searching "Berserker?" There will be many sources for any class but probably not just one super duper guide. If you keep reading and trying to get the theory you'll keep getting better. When your current character shows its weakness, adjust in your next. From what you mention, Track or similar skill lets you be aware of enemies before they see you, and a means of teleport will be needed. There is a 1.7.4 Berserker guide on TE4.

I usually ignore this kind of debate but geez... when someone asks politely for help the answer should never be "go figure it out yourself". If you dont want to help thats fine but there is absolutely no need to chastise new players for having trouble with the steep learning curve TOME provides particularly in the earliest stages of getting accustomed to its mechanics.

There, with that out of the way guides and mechanical advice exist but are rarely updated as the game evolves over the years. Class specific ones are hit or miss depending on wether the class in question has seen updates since the guide was released or not. Im not certain wether there are valid ones for the warrior classes around and since I rarely play those myself I can only add general advice that applies to everyone.

First order of the day is always survival. You cannot kill things when they kill you first. TOME offers a plethora of unique mechanics to defend yourself many of which dont appear in other games. Infusions and runes are the most obvious candidates but the game throws randomized loot at you with various degrees of usefulness. Plain damage is rarely the most dangerous threat, the various disabling effects like stun, poison, freezing and more is what usually will get you killed.

Always have a contingency plan. Aka "Oh ♥♥♥♥ Button". Teleport runes for example do that but they come with the risk of landing you somewhere even worse. Movement infusions dont run that risk but wont help you if you get surrounded. There is no perfect solution for every situation, weighting the risk against the benefit is part of the game.

Dont wait until your health is almost depleted before using heal runes or running away. If it looks like you are losing get the hell out and come back later. Enemies too are created randomly and sometimes depending on RNG and your class winning is objectively just not in the cards. Later you will learn to judge which sort of enemy you can defeat at your current level and which are still too tough. Knowing which fight not to pick is also part of the game.

And finally heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu. Not knowing your enemy is what will most frequently get you killed. If you see something you dont know, inspect it. Find out what it does to hurt you and what you can do to hurt it back. Many foes will have resistances to certain forms of damage. Dont ever assume that one trick will work against every target. Use a different weapon if its weak against the element of your favorite one. The game will usually give you the tools to deal with every obstacle but its not always very obvious which one you need to use. Playing a one-trick-pony style will sooner or later have you run into something that specifically resists your one trick and kill you.

I hope that helps a little. TOME does have a steep learning curve but its absolutely worth the effort to make it past the initial hurdles.

To add to above -- its easier to learn ToME (and rogue-likes in general) if you play a character who's main plan is to blast things from safe distance.
Then anything that did not die being a screen away is already worth pressing "oh ♥♥♥♥" buttons for.

I.e. something like Archmage is mechanically more difficult to pilot than Berserker, but much easier on decision making until you know which enemies are strong.

As for guides you can look at actual builds used by the game winners https://te4.org/characters-vault and try to figure out what skills they selected for which reason. Or just copy something and see what goes wrong.

Originally posted by Sneaky_Koala:

Originally posted by killtime101:

Where are the actual complete/up to date guides out there?

If you're looking for 'guides' you are looking for *cheats*. Say it as it is.

Playing the game is how you get better. It took me over a decade before I finished 1 full run of Nethack.

I seriously wish this side of gaming never took off.

You must be joking.
Literally no one on the EARTH can claim a GUIDE is the same thing as a cheat.
THere is literally no Guide that acts like the God mode IDDQD code from the original Doom.

Please tell me you're joking.
Because guides have been a thing for games for literally decades.
Before the freaking WORLD WIDE WEB happened, Nintendo Power existed.

You're the only person who thinks a HELPFUL guide for tips for a game is the exact same as cheating.
WTF?!

You also can't complain about the side of gaming never taking off because it came into existence before NETHACK did.
Good grief. THis statement makes no sense ever. Under any possible manner.

three basic tips

1) always have a teleport rune or a class ability for emergency escape.
use it way before its already too late.
if something is strange and not going your way,port away.
try to minmax every encounter into absurdity,
if you dont get your first hit opening on a boss/elite, port away and reset.
also try not rushing a room full of enemies, open the door diagonally
and kite back to pull them out, to never get into any situation,
where you have to use your emergency button.

2) items and the stats are complex, so you can get lost in them.
often times people wont know what item is actually better or an upgrade.
In early game every +hp item is worth gold.
it gets you above some dmg spikes.
you should always prefer +hp, lifereg, healmod, resistances and saves
over any dmg stats at first. later you can mix it up, depending what you skill or find.
but you can run around with ~1k HP and ~100 hp/turn in early game.
if you are fast enough or have few teleports you can kite around
and naturally regen endlessly.

3) learn to (ab)use runes and infusions.
having 2 shatter runes, teleports, stormshields etc..

Did you check the guides here on steam ? The game hasn't change drastically at a fundamental level so even older guides are useful but a few details might have changed so check the in game numbers and make sure it's still accurate for anything important.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=198654021

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=199282823

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=206811077

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=288552704

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=203450419

Play on easy , learn how stuff works , when you win one on easy try normal.

Make sure you have resistance on your gear , pin , stun , freeze resist helps too.

Shield rune or shield abilities and an escape method (movement infusion , teleport , leap whatever) you need something to break enemy line of sight so you can run and rest.

Do not fight in big open rooms , stay in the tight hallways where enemies can only come at you one by one , preferablly near some corners you can hide behind to avoid spells or ranged attacks. Waiting and letting the enemy walk into your ambush works well.

Don't fight until you are almost dead before trying to run , when your hp gets to half get away , rest , recover , return , revenge. If you are tanky you can stay in the fight longer but if you are struggling leave early.

Being able to rest and come back is what gives you an edge over the enemies , so use it.

Over leveling is over powered , once you have cleared your starter dungeon go clear the other start dungeons, then head to the next stage of dungeons and clear all of them.

I always open the vaults and treasure chests for loot but if you are getting killed by those bosses avoid them and come back after you are a five or more levels higher, the enemies will be fixed at whatever level you were when you entered so they get easier if you level up afterwards,

Some enemies might have much higher levels but usually they are balanced difficulty wise to your level even if the number is high they might be weak.

Meanwhile some enemies are just more difficult at all stages , like Horrors. Sometimes you just have to leave and come back later if you run into something you can't beat.

Back up your saves, to try out approaches. Analyse what works. Become consistent in low risk environment. This skyrocketed my progression through game.

Originally posted by BrUwU:

Back up your saves, to try out approaches. Analyse what works. Become consistent in low risk environment. This skyrocketed my progression through game.

wouldn't it be much easier to play on Exploration mode instead?