As with many RPGs and roguelikes, there are a few different ways to achieve a win in ADOM, and many ways to lose. This page will list all known victory conditions, and at least most of the known loss conditions.
Ways to win ADOM[]
There are four known endings in ADOM (as of v. 1.1.1) where the PC triumphs to some sort of victory.
Ordinary ending[]
Basically, the PC must make their way to the bottom of the Caverns of Chaos (which will necessitate collecting the five Chaos Orbs), and close the Chaos Gate. The PC needs to keep the gate closed; since Fistanarius and his army of ten balors can reopen levers that the PC has closed, the PC may need to kill all of these or else destroy the levers. The PC must then leave the Caverns with the gate closed for good, and return home by exiting the Drakalor Chain from whence they entered.
More details can be found on the page Close the Chaos Gate.
Most stupid follower of ChAoS ending[]
This is a special ending available only to the Chaos Knight class. In practice, the requirements are no different from the ordinary ending, except the PC is not required to leave the Drakalor chain, and the ending text and final score calculations are somewhat different.
Chaos knights endings have been somewhat improved with non-chaotic knights being uplifted to Avatar status (after dying on D:50) and are listed as ultimate sacrifice. Most stupid follower ending is for Chaotic Chaos knights, who closed the gate.
Ordinary chaos god ending[]
Basically, the PC must collect and equip three artifacts of Chaos and enter the Chaos Gate, whilst being extremely corrupted and a Champion of Chaos. The PC must then slay Andor Drakon to become the new cHaOs GoD. More details can be found in the corresponding article.
Nihilist ending[]
The PC must enter the Chaos Gate (with either the Sceptre of Chaos or Trident of the Red Rooster) and read a scroll of entropy while standing next to Andor Drakon, which will instantly kill him and boot the PC back to D:50, where the Caverns of Chaos are now falling apart. The PC must then exit the Caverns of Chaos as fast as possible while avoiding being swallowed by the encroaching nothingness to receive the ending, in which they observe the destruction of the Drakalor chain. More details can be found in the corresponding article.
Ultra ending[]
A PC that is a Champion of any alignment must enter the Chaos Gate with the Trident of the Red Rooster equipped (instead of the Sceptre of Chaos), and slay Andor Drakon with the trident equipped in a melee slot to become an avatar of their alignment. More details can be found in the corresponding article.
Ways to Lose[]
Besides 'Q'uitting the game, the only way to lose in ADOM is for the PC to die. Though, as in many roguelikes, there are many different ways by which this can happen.
The following table lists many of the ways that a PC can die in ADOM, causing the player to lose. Potential causes of death marked as "Damaging" are any circumstance that will injure the PC, and will cause them to die only if their HP drops below 0. Causes of death marked as "Instant" will kill the PC right away regardless of how much HP they have left, and unless noted cannot be prevented with an amulet of life saving.
Some information has been lifted from this thread.
| Way to die | Type | Notes | Death message |
| Monster attacks (including melee, missiles/thrown weapons, damaging magic attacks and breath attacks) | Damaging | Various | |
| Starvation | Instant | An AoLS will resurrect the PC with normal satiation | " starved to death " |
| Poisoning | Damaging | Drinking a potion of poison, oil of rust removal or lamp oil gives a different message | " died of acute blood poisoning " |
| Blood loss | Damaging | " died of blood loss " | |
| Activating traps (besides alarms, and water, teleportation, light, and flashing door traps) | Damaging | It is also possible for a PC to be killed by the explosion from a monster activating a fireball or exploding door trap. | Various |
| The PC hitting themselves with their own magic (via wands, bolt spells, Improved Fireball, etc.) | Damaging | Various | |
| Transforming into a minion of chaos, by getting a full set of corruptions | Instant | " was transformed into a chaos being " | |
| Drowning | Damaging | " drowned " | |
| Having one last major fever attack (sometimes happens to sick PCs) | Damaging | " wasted away by the terrible black fever " | |
| Casting spells from HP (the PC may do this if they haven't enough PP to cast a spell) | Damaging | " exhausted himself/herself by casting too many spells " | |
| Mist elves having iron-based or steel-based items equipped (deals damage each turn such items are equipped) | Damaging | "was burned by the poisonous touch of impure metal" | |
| Sacrificed by an NPC to their gods (may occur when PC is standing on an altar of a humanoid's alignment, in their line of sight) | Instant | " was sacrificed by a -foo- to his/her gods " | |
| Petrification | Instant | If the PC has petrification resistance (from either an item or acquired via pools), petrification won't even hurt him/her. Curiously, an AoLS will resurrect the PC. | " was petrified by a -foo- " / " petrified him/herself by eating a -foo- corpse " .. |
| Hearing the Banshee's scream | Instant | An AoLS will resurrect the PC. If they're wearing an amulet of protection from undead, this becomes a (highly) damaging potential cause of death instead. | " killed by the unearthly wail of a banshee " |
| Being hit by a death ray | Instant | An AoLS will resurrect the PC. If they have death ray resistance, this becomes a (highly) damaging potential cause of death instead. |
" was extinguished by -foo- "..
|
| Dying of old age | Instant | Death will appear and talk to the PC in this case. | " died of old age " (natural) / " aged to death by a -foo- " (unnatural) |
| Dying of old age as a level 50 necromancer | Instant | " was transformed into a demi-lich and got lost..." | |
| Chaos piranha attack (attempting to swim through the red lake in the Tomb of the High Kings) | Damaging | " was shredded by chaos piranhas " | |
| Fire damage in the Tower of Eternal Flames | Damaging | Risk can be reduced by fire resistance, and eliminated by either having four counts of resistance or fire immunity | " was roasted " |
| Drakeling overheating in the Tower of Eternal Flames | Damaging | Cannot be prevented by fire resistance/immunity | " was killed due to system overheating " |
| Electrical damage from the Air Temple | Damaging | " was electrocuted " | |
| Suffering a feverish fit (during sickness) whilst paralyzed or asleep | Instant | " choked on his/her own vomit while paralyzed/asleep " | |
| Using mindcraft on an undead monster | Damaging | " was killed by a psychic backlash " | |
| Causing an explosion by improper use of Alchemy | Damaging | Damage can be prevented with fire immunity | " blasted himself/herself into the afterworld with an alchemical experiment " |
| Falling whilst climbing (due to a cursed climbing set) | Damaging | " broke his/her neck by using inadequate climbing equipment " | |
| Falling down The Rift | Damaging | " was killed by falling down a deep rift " | |
| Being blasted by a deity after severely angering him/her | Damaging | " was annihilated by divine wrath " | |
| A spellbook bursting into flames upon an unsuccessful attempt to learn the spell | Damaging | " was ripped apart by an exploding spellbook " | |
| A spellbook draining Toughness upon an unsuccessful attempt to learn the spell | Damaging | " was drained of his/her life force by strong magic " | |
| Wearing charged armor | Damaging | " was electrocuted by a magically charged armor " | |
| Chaotic PC wearing an armor or amulet of order or lawful PC wearing an armor or amulet of chaos | Damaging | " was killed by an unaligned amulet/piece of armor " | |
| HP drain from zapping a wand of destruction | Damaging | " was drained by a wand of destruction " | |
| Electrocution from zapping a rusty wand of lightning or wand of ball lightning | Damaging | " electrocuted him/herself with a faulty wand of lightning " | |
| The PC falling in a hole he/she created himself/herself (e.g. by a pick axe, wand of digging or failing to read a spellbook) | Damaging | " broke his/her neck in a magically created pit/self-made hole " | |
| HP drain occurring when trying to write a scroll | Damaging | " was killed by trying too hard to be a great writer " | |
| Falling down the stairs (occurs when the PC descends a staircase whilst "Strained!") | Damaging | " broke his/her neck while falling down some narrow stairway " | |
| The PC becoming crushed by carrying more items than their upper "Overburdened!" limit | Instant | This will usually occur either by the PC's strength and/or carrying capacity falling harshly, or items being magically placed back in the PC's backpack (e.g. piles of sis dropped in the Infinite Dungeon). An AoLS will resurrect the PC and give 1 turn to drop everything, lest they get crushed once again. | " was crushed by tons of luggage " |
| Kicking a wall, forge, statue, anvil, or altar | Damaging | " broke his/her leg on a wall/an altar/when kicking a tree/kicking a forge " / " terminally broke his/her leg by kicking an anvil/a statue " | |
| Straining a leg by kicking the air | Damaging | Considering the damage is 1 or 2 per kick, the PC would have to be very careless to die doing this unintentionally. | " broke his/her leg while kicking at the air " |
| Explosion of the ring of the master cat after killing a cat whilst wearing it | Damaging | The only way to destroy an artifact besides sacrificing it | " shredded by an exploding artifact " |
| Entering the Chaos Gate without meeting all of the requirements for a Ordinary Chaos God or Ultra Ending | Instant | A worn AoLS will disappear upon entry |
" was devoured after failing the final test " |
| Entering the Chaos Gate with the Trident of the Red Rooster, but killing Andor Drakon whilst not wielding it | Instant | Since this involves actually defeating the ultimate boss in the game, this is technically a separate loss condition rather than a way to die. | " was transformed into a chaos wretch " |
| Being squeezed to death by True Strength (committing a chaotic act whilst wearing the girdle) | Damaging | The PC also loses 1 point of Dexterity each time they're squeezed | " was squished by the mark of the failed paragon " |
| Being accidentally struck by an deity's bolt attack that was aimed at a moloch (happens if a doomed PC stands next to an altar that a moloch just smashed, and the deity tries to exert divine retribution on the moloch) | Damaging | Certainly one of the more odd ways to die in ADOM. | " was doomed to be killed by a misfired divine energy bolt " |
| Breaking the stairs by kicking them | Instant | This is generally very rare. | " was crushed by a collapsing dungeon " |
| Being eaten by a grue (being in darkness whilst doomed) | Instant | Also very rare. Curiously, an AoLS will resurrect the PC. | " was eaten by a slavering grue " |
| Hit by an exploding frog (occurs if a frog pops up out of a pool and attempts to talk to a deaf male PC) | Damaging | Possibly the most amusing way to die in ADOM. | " was killed by an exploding frog" |
| Cold damage from D: 49 | Damaging | Very rare, as most PCs will have high amounts of HP and cold resistance/immunity at this point. | " died of pneumonia " |
| Fire damage from closing the fire anomaly in D: 48 | Damaging | Very rare, as most PCs will have high amounts of HP and fire resistance/immunity at this point. | " was toasted when opening the lock of elemental fire " |
| Overcharging a wand with the Wizard level 32 class power | Damaging | More likely to happen prior to 1.2.0, as the game assumed 100 charges were desired if no figure was specified. | " was shredded by an overloaded wand of -foo- " |
| Death when starting a PC with extremely low HP on a Monday | Damaging | Extremely rare but intended possibility. | " died of exhaustion on a bad day " |
| Fire damage from reading a scroll of charging with no wands | Damaging | Very rare. | " was scorched by a scroll of charging " |
| Fire damage from using Burning Hands while stuck in webs | Damaging | Only possible in 1.1.1 and below by casting the spell from a wand of wonder, virtually impossible to do in a normal game. | " got roasted while trying to scorch webs in his/her vicinity " |
| Having an item dipped in a potion of raw chaos explode | Damaging | Happens when an item would have transformed into itself; also corrupts massively | " was killed by believing in the promises of Chaos " |
| Having a scroll of corruption removal dipped in a potion of raw chaos explode | Damaging | A very unwise action, by all means. | " was ripped apart when confronting Order and Chaos " |
| Self-sacrificing | Instant | An AoLS is rumored to resurrect the PC only under certain circumstances. | " sacrificed him/herself to -deity- " |
| Self-flagellation | Damaging | " whipped him/herself to death " | |
| Fighting certain jellies unarmed without gloves or boots | Damaging | Acid resistance negates damage | " was burned by the acidic skin of a -foo- " |
| Eating burb roots | Damaging | Acid resistance negates damage; immunity does not as of 1.2.0 | " was burned from within by acidic herbs " |
| Being bolted by a deity after falling from champion status | Damaging | " was blasted into oblivion by an angry deity " | |
| Eating spider bread | Damaging | Dark elves and trolls are immune | " poisoned him/herself with spider-filled bread " |
| Stat-draining melee attacks | Damaging | " was drained of all substance/coherence " / " was transformed into a -foo- " | |
| Damage from spider swarms while stuck in webs | Damaging | Dark elves are immune | " was eaten alive by a spider swarm " |
| "Shattering mirrors" room effect | Damaging | Very rare | " was killed by shattering mirrors " |
| Wetting fluff balls when there's no room for the resulting gremlins to appear | Damaging | Very rare; will crash the game prior to 1.2.0 | " was extinguished by an exploding fluff ball " |
| Spawning a worm with maggot corruption | Damaging | Very rare | " was killed by a maggot erupting from his/her skin " |
| Acquiring the thorny hands corruption | Damaging | Very rare | " was killed by thorns growing from his/her hands " |
| Being hit by falling rocks from an earthquake | Damaging | " was killed by an earthquake " | |
| Toughness bonus from a potion of boost toughness wearing off with its corresponding HP decrease | Damaging | " died due to physical exhaustion " | |
| Moving away from the stairs in a weekly challenge that requires you to descend immediately. | Damaging | " was killed by stair withdrawal " |