# Talk:Astral Plane
The following edit is misleading and was removed:
"If you do not have a Helm of opposite alignment, you may use a probability trick to increase the chance to ascend on the second high altar you visit. It works so: first choose an altar without exploring it (left, right, middle), go explore an altar you didn't choose, then, if the first altar you explore wasn't the right one, go explore the remaining altar (the one you did not choose). It has a 2/3 chance to be the right one."
This 'technique' does not help anything. The player has a 1/3 chance of picking the right altar on the first try. Whether or not you follow the above method the second altar you visit will have a 1/2 chance of being the right one (assuming the first one wasn't). The author of that method drew a mistaken parallel with the Monty Hall problem except there is no game show host to provide extra information about the alternatives that were not chosen thus the odds of picking the right one out of two is 1/2. DemonDoll 14:10, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Contents

1 Another tip
2 Prayer
3 Invisibility (yours)
4 scrolls of create monster
5 angels extinct
6 History Section Maybe?
7 Riders displacing monsters in 3.6
8 Another variant in 3.6.0
9 Locked door left/right asymmetry?

Another tip
I'm new, (only ascended once) but I used a technique that really helped me.
The priests use a spell that summons insects. What I did was just let the insects take over the place - I let the priests summon as many as possible, and just waded through their ineffectual attacks. This way, instead of having hordes of nasty priests who can do lots of damage, I simply engraved Elbereth, killed the giant ant occupying the next space I wanted to go, and repeated ad nauseam. With Elbereth, you get 1-2 attacks from the priests and nothing else.
A more experienced person can contradict me, which is why I'm putting this into the Talk page, rather than the actual article. Comments would be welcome. (Correction - just ascended twice with the same method) --Omegaham 01:59, October 3, 2009 (UTC)

I tend to use that method, too. The legendary problems start when creatures other than insects/snakes appear, which is why you want to be fast, jump, ... -Tjr 18:15, October 6, 2009 (UTC)

Confused non-cursed scroll of taming is a solid bonus to that tactic. I always try to have a few before I enter the Astral Plane. And before taming a horde of insects to just walk through once they're pets it's a nice bonus to cursed-genocide some purple worms and other funny pets-to-be. Kynde 10:13, March 30, 2010 (UTC)
Ok, I finally added this to the article itself. Not Kynde's taming part, but the basic idea of letting live insects surround you. Grahn (talk) 08:37, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Prayer
Does prayer work here?Newtkiller 22:32, June 22, 2010 (UTC)

Yes. Tjr 18:50, June 22, 2010 (UTC)
Invisibility (yours)
I've only been on Astral a few times but the one thing I've found helps the most is being invisible, either through the ring or zapping yourself with the wand of make invisible or whatever. You still get surrounded sometimes, but if you get out in the open, you can often make a mad dash for an altar unabated.

scrolls of create monster
if I want to kill the riders by filling up the plane with acid blobs roughly how many scrolls of create monster am I going to need?Ndwolfwood 01:38, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

38 scrolls are technically enough to fill every tile. You might want to bring a few spares in case some of your blobs get tamed and killed. Tjr 13:56, 16 December 2010 (UTC)
Just to give the exact number somewhere, the astral plane can hold a total of 596 monsters. -- Qazmlpok (talk) 17:00, 10 January 2016 (UTC)
angels extinct
If I have killed 120+ Angels in the dungeon will a)my god send me a Angel and B) will any Angels be generated on the Astral Plane.  I amnot sure whether it is a random generation or not. Ndwolfwood 22:39, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Actions That Don't Respect Extinction
Angels upon entrance to the Astral Plane
Angels created when you wear a ring of conflict with a pet Angel
If you meant the regular angels, that is random generation. As stated in the spoiler, The Astral Plane will contain Death, Famine, Pestilence, 30 aligned priests, 3 high priests, and up to 6 player monsters. -- Qazmlpok 23:02, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
History Section Maybe?
Could somebody who knows what the old version of Astral looked like do a history section on it? It might be cool to know the details of it. 75.58.126.183 18:40, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Riders displacing monsters in 3.6
I've noticed that in version 3.6 Riders can move other monsters out of the way to get to the hero. Not sure where this is handled in the code but should be added to the page somewhere. Funcrunch (talk) 17:49, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

I now see this has been discussed on the Riders talk page as well. Funcrunch (talk) 17:52, 10 January 2016 (UTC)
Another variant in 3.6.0
As of 3.6.0 there is another map variant where the corridors where the spawn spots are on boths sides are a lot bigger caverns, roughly 9 wide and 5 high. I've seen it twice now, one of which was on nao. I thought it was just a map change, but as I today just got up once more in 3.6.0 I was again faced with the old one depicted on the page, so it's a variant instead. Anyone seen any others? Kynde (talk) 18:03, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Locked door left/right asymmetry?
Are they different (locked/not locked) on the left and right? -Actual-nh (talk) 15:31, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Yes they are, according to the .des description:
DOOR:closed,(11,09)
DOOR:closed,(17,09)
DOOR:locked,(23,12)
DOOR:locked,(37,08)
DOOR:closed,(37,11)
DOOR:closed,(37,17)
DOOR:locked,(51,12)
DOOR:locked,(57,09)
DOOR:closed,(63,09)

These coordinates are column, then row, counting the top left as 0,0. --Darth l33t (talk) 16:38, 1 June 2021 (UTC)
Weird (bug?); thanks! -Actual-nh (talk) 17:19, 1 June 2021 (UTC)