more luck than skill, actually. got an unupgraded ring of wealth in the sewers, waited until the completion of the troll blacksmith quest to upgrade the ring to +2, and dumped all scrolls of upgrade to it. with a high level of RoW, highly upgraded weapon drops are guaranteed, although the farming was slow.
what allowed me to survive until the mines without upgrading anything was the +3 mail armor i got in the prisons.
here’s the seed if anyone wants it!
LWP-JXS-VVC
ugh i take psychic damage whenever i hear that song