DDwiki - User contributions [en]

Talk:D.E.R.P.

2015-08-17T21:11:46Z

MTaur:

Hey good job guys! I like all the changes to the original except the addition of the new mentioned altars. TT bears no special mentions unless in the context of XP maxing; and what's this about magic immune random bosses?

Anyway where do we link it? Main page and MainNav? [[User:Tinker|Tinker]] ([[User talk:Tinker|talk]]) 17:59, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Updated the main page. Meant to do that last night when I was editing, but I must have forgotten. Don't think there's a good place for it on mainnav. I fixed the reference to "physically immune" to "physically resistant" for Taurog. --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] ([[User talk:Darvin|talk]]) 23:24, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

I 100% was talking about the high-XP learderboard when I brought up TT. At the moment, that's where it fit in the best, but it could definitely fit better if "leaderboard strategies" had its own subcategory. I have no idea how most/least damage would work, though. [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Least damage is redundant with least XP in most scenarios; Monk and Vampire runs are pretty much the only cases where those two are going to deviate substantially. Getting most damage is about ramping up as quickly as possible to a high level, then continually damaging the same monsters and allowing them to heal. It's a bit of an odd-duck compared to the other metrics. --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] ([[User talk:Darvin|talk]]) 19:08, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

BTW I'm not sure if L1 bosskills should be mentioned, they're out of question for most dailies but possible for some (I did 2-3 already, though I'm admittedly a very cheeky player...). Just not sure if folks would die more if they go for it without having done, like, a dozen before... [[User:Tinker|Tinker]] ([[User talk:Tinker|talk]]) 20:12, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Probably talk in more general terms about low-level boss kills, and how it's a high-risk/high-gain strategy to get a very high score for experience. --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] ([[User talk:Darvin|talk]]) 20:17, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

It seems to me like L1 boss kills belongs on a totally separate page, like a shenanigans page of some sort linked from the main page. - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Hey Darvin, I see you went a bit nuts with all the calculus for lowest-possible XP, though is this really needed on the D.E.R.P. page, especially in such detail? If folks find this content useful, it might make sense to have a separate page - I kinda like the 'shenanigans' term, or call it 'random objectives' or something - and list stuff like this there. It can link from DERP etc., but I'd prefer to keep the DERP page tight and readily useful for all players who look it up because they want a bit of help just winning their dailies... [[User:Tinker|Tinker]] ([[User talk:Tinker|talk]]) 20:43, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Good point there; I did kinda go nuts and the section got expanded significantly. Feel free to migrate that off to a separate page if you like. --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] ([[User talk:Darvin|talk]]) 21:07, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I kind of simultaneously updated the page a bit, but I think the separate section somehow automatically didn't overwrite other changes that happened in the mean time. So that's nice. Also, there is an "other challenges" subsection that has been divorced from most of what would go there... - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Talk:D.E.R.P.

2015-08-17T21:09:46Z

MTaur:

D.E.R.P.

2015-08-17T21:05:37Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

The '''Daily Exploration Re-Enactment Program''' is a daily challenge complete with score metrics. It was introduced with the Enhanced Edition (beta testing began 10th March 2015, official release date 20th April 2015). The daily challenge resets at Midnight GMT.

== Accessing the D.E.R.P. ==

The D.E.R.P. becomes accessible by unlocking the [[Audit Zeppelin]] in a Kingdom. After the Audit Zeppelin is unlocked, it shows individual statistics, as well as allows access to the daily D.E.R.P. challenges and to the Leaderboard. The D.E.R.P. can also be accessed from the main splash screen without loading any of the kingdoms; any gold award received for completing the daily challenge will be added to the most recently played Kingdom's treasury. The daily challenge resets at midnight GMT, and although runs may be attempted even just before the cut-over, any run not finished and reported before midnight will mess up the results for the given day. Each D.E.R.P. can only be attempted once, and the game communicates with the Daily Servers when the daily is started; and when the daily is finished. If the connectivity fails, the server may not acknowledge completion of a given daily, or it may not allow the attempt altogether.

== D.E.R.P. Overview ==

D.E.R.P. selects a random map, and a random class/race combination; as well as offers four choices of preparations, each selectable from a set of three. The map can be any Normal or Hard map except for Tower of Gaan-Telet; the class/race combination can be anything (including monster classes; the Enhanced Edition Chemist and Rat Monarch classes; and the Goatperson is also playable this way, even though it is normally only available as part of the Goatperson DLC). The map The preparations can be almost anything that are available from fully upgraded kingdom buildings. What makes the preparations very unique is that some of the normal rules governing preparation choice do not apply. For example, it is often possible to prepare multiple preparations from the same building (that are mutually exclusive during normal dungeon runs). Items that are normally very rare in shops, such as {{i|Orb of Zot}}, are also significantly more common as daily preparations.

In addition to the level, class, race, and available preparations being seeded random, it is also the case that the random stores, glyphs, monsters, subdungeons, and altars are seeded random. This means that which gods you get is randomly decided for everyone once and for all when the D.E.R.P. is generated by the host server. If you read about someone else's run, your run will have the same gods, monsters, etc. The extra/removed glyph from more/fewer glyphs will be the same, the item swap from Quest/Elite Items will be the same, Conjunction will add the same god, and prepared altars will remove the same god (if the prepared god wasn't already present). A spoiler-free run will leave the player at a mild disadvantage, but every D.E.R.P. is winnable regardless and many players are eager to discuss their findings in the forums.

The D.E.R.P. resets at Midnight GMT. Any ongoing attempts that have not yet completed at this time are counted as losses.

== Preparation Effects unique to D.E.R.P.==
Because the D.E.R.P. allows combinations of preparations that are usually illegal, there are a number of unique interactions and approaches available to players here:

*Preparing both Extra Glyph and Fewer Glyphs will keep the number of glyphs at 5, however will increase their conversion value to 130 points. 
*Preparing multiple altars is possible, and each prepared altar will spawn relatively close to the starting location. Preparing four altars on a non-Crusader is possible; however, only three of the prepared altars will actually spawn in the dungeon. There is no way of knowing which one of the four prepared altars will not spawn. All prepared altars - even the one not showing up - will carry their normal preparations penalties. 
*The ability to prepare multiple altars means you can ensure there are more than one within close proximity to the dungeon entrance, allowing you to immediately desecrate one god to fuel another.
*Bet on Boss will work as normal; gold is carried out from the dungeon as normal, as well as the trophy values are awarded as normal. Note though that no items can be kept from a D.E.R.P. run. 
*It is sometimes possible to prepare non-lockerable items like the {{i|Dragon Heart}} or the {{i|Sticky Stick}}. 
*Individual potions are never available as preparations (though the Apothecary Bazaar preparation can be), however the Apothecary has an extended potion offering during the dailies, and it includes the three potions normally only available as preparations: {{i|Quicksilver Potion}}, {{i|Reflex Potion}} and {{i|Can of Whupaz}}. 

== Other Challenges ==

Attempting to build a long streak is only one of the ways to compete in the daily; many players pursue other challenges over and above merely winning the dungeon. Here are some common exploits:

* Fastest Time 
* Most Experience 
* Least Experience (it's harder than it sounds...) 
* Most Damage Dealt 
* Most Piety 
* No Preparations 

It's possible to pursue a combination of these, producing an overall impressive entry even if you're not the best in any one category. Sometimes players do unique things that don't appear on the score-screen. If you do something cool, why not [http://www.qcfdesign.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3253 share it with the Desktop Dungeons community?]

== Strategy ==

Each D.E.R.P. can only be attempted once. Since the primary overall player ranking metric is the current win streak, a lot of players lean towards the "safe" options when playing. Since the D.E.R.P. never selects vicious dungeons or Gaan-Telet, none of the dungeons in rotations require exceptional endurance. As a result, reliability is favored over power, and short-term boosts are favored over long-term boosts.

=== Infamous Classes ===

The preparations system for D.E.R.P. is extremely double-edged. While you might get multiple Elite items or rare gems like {{i|Dragon Heart}}, the choice of preparations lacks reliability. For example, the {{c|Rat Monarch}}'s crucial {{i|Bear Mace}} is highly unlikely to spawn as a prep, and the only other possible source is a subdungeon. {{c|Monk}} can't depend on having {{i|Martyr Wraps}}, etc. Practicing some Purist runs would serve a D.E.R.P. player well.

If you're looking to maintain a win streak, practice some of the trickier classes. You can also cancel out of a D.E.R.P. on the preparation select page and return later, allowing some time for practice runs.

{{c|Goatperson}} - No goat is ever safe! Pick as many early-game preps as possible, and thank your lucky stars if you get to start out with {{i|Amulet of Yendor}}. Kill popcorn early and often for food, and leave a glyph or three on the ground for CP. Pay attention to god rotations and avoid punishments.

{{c|Rat Monarch}} - Practice this class without {{i|Bear Mace}}. Be ready to use gods to the fullest.

{{c|Chemist}} - Aside from being one of the newest classes, Health Form and Mana Form are devilishly tricky and turn end-game planning on its head. Be on the lookout for gods with refills; if there are none, you will want to achieve the highest XP level manageable with a level-up heal and some blackspace left over. Always remember that potions are largely expendable.

{{c|Vampire}} - Another sophisticated class. He depends greatly on blood cows and defensive stats.

=== General ===

'''Altars''' 
*Despite his sometimes debilitating random punishments, {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} is perhaps the best altar preparation / early worship deity (if available). The free {{s|WEYTWUT}} glyph offers a reliable way to de-clog the map; and the sheer power offered by his Boost Health/Mana boons help a lot with leveling; and the extra refills granted by Chaos Avatar and Last Chance help a lot during the boss fights. 
* {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} is an acceptable alternative to Jehora on cramped maps, especially [[Shifting Passages]] and [[The Labyrinth]]. While {{s|PISORF}} solves many problems, farming up {{s|ENDISWAL}} early is the safest bet, and the piety will easily earn itself back. On maps like [[Havendale Bridge]] and [[Berserker Camp]], though, the main bottleneck is indestructible and [[PISORF]]/[[ENDISWAL]] is unreliable. 
*{{g|The Earthmother}}, while being an excellent deity overall, will make you want to petrify plants and/or opponents. Be very careful not to wall yourself off by being over-zealous in pursuit of Earthmother piety. On mazelike maps like The Labyrinth or Shifting Passages just stay clear of her if possible. The Earthmother's Entanglement and Clearance boons are particularly helpful. 
* Although he offers no free glyph, the {{g|Glowing Guardian}} offers boons to boost Health and Mana like Jehora, as well as boons to refill; and perhaps most importantly, Humility helps with leveling and often makes reaching Level 11 stats possible, and it is one of most crucial boons for players aiming for the top of the XP leaderboard. 
* {{g|Taurog}} is a risky deity to worship full-time, since maps with a random boss have a chance to be physically resistant. On the other hand, he's always a safe piety farm, and Taurog's Sword can easily jump start a run if desired. Additional boons should wait for knowledge of all bosses to be safe, though, as the inventory slot and max MP losses will double-nerf your casting potential. The mean time is also great for clearing out Magic and Mana Burn enemies before joining Mystera or Undead before joining Dracul. 

'''Items''' 
* {{i|Namtar's Ward}} is a very safe preparation if available, the death protection it offers goes beyond its normal utility, and also helps prevent accidental losses ('misclicks'). It is also worth 100 CP when converted, which often outclasses lesser preparations options on its own. 
* The {{i|Amulet of Yendor}} can be very useful, helping to out-level monsters and take a lot of pressure off the leveling; alternatively, it can be preserved until the boss fight to trigger an extra mid-fight level-up. 
*Items that give you {{t|Slow Strike}} - like the {{i|Platemail}} or the {{i|Really Big Sword}} - should generally be avoided unless absolutely necessary. A lot of extra hazards are opened up by losing the first strike against lower-level opponents. 
*{{i|Patches}} is almost never worth it during a Daily. It can teleport the character into a very tight spot, either between tough monsters or even into completely walled-off areas. 

'''Other Preparations''' 
*Apothecary is a strong preparation in the dailies because the extended potion assortment can make up for the non-customizable potion kit. 
*Elite Items may be worth it just for the shot at having an Amulet of Yendor in store. If you manage to pair this with {{i|Translocation Seal}}, the item gained will likely be worth two preparation slots, especially if the alternative preparations are mediocre. 
*The Fireball Magnet preparation is extremely useful in the daily, as accessibility of the glyphs can be highly variable

=== Fastest Time ===

The default sorting order of the daily leaderboard is fastest time, making it one of the more competitive metrics.

* Your score is based on the time that the ''server'' receives confirmation of your victory, not the moment you slay the boss. As a result, you should finish the run the instant you land the killing blow to avoid racking up unnecessary extra time.
* Try to ramp up quickly, even if it means attacking sub-optimal monsters or using a potion early. While bonus experience is valuable and conserving resources is important, you need to weigh that against the time you spent looking for ideal victims.
* Be the proverbial tortoise, not the hare. If you click too quickly you're just likely to misclick and die. It's far more important to keep a steady pace and never stop.
* Always think and plan ahead. If you know what you're going to do, you won't waste time planning down the road.
* Skip subdungeons such as the [[Vegetarian Vampire]] that require careful consideration and planning.
* On easier difficulty dailies, the prime determinant of a good time is often how quickly you find the boss. Exploring the map swiftly is very important in these cases.
* Knowing exactly when to begin the boss battle can be very tricky. If you start too early you might undershoot it and fail to kill the boss, but if you keep leveling up you might be spending time for powers and abilities you don't need.

=== Most Experience ===

One of the most common challenges, Most Experience has a very different playstyle than fastest time. Where the former requires rapid exploration and targeting non-ideal enemies to keep pace, Most Experience requires you to carefully take your time and find the ideal enemies to maximize bonus experience. As a result, fast times usually perform poorly in the experience category and vice-versa. If you are pursuing one of these, you should decide which one before you begin the dungeon run.

* Earning bonus experience and finishing every monster in the dungeon are obviously important. Take your time to ramp up sensibly and find the ideal enemies.
* Obviously you want to kill every monster in the dungeon, if possible.
* Deity choice can be paramount to raising your experience earnings. The {{g|Glowing Guardian}} offers the Humility boon, reducing your level and increasing bonus experience. Both {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} and {{g|The Earthmother}} offer you ways to get bonus experience, with slow and petrification. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} offers Tikki's Edge, which over the long-term allows for lots of bonus experience. GG is best early and TT is good late in the run as long as you can farm a lot of piety while saving lots of popcorn. 
* {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} offers the chaos avatar boon which increases your level by one. Interestingly, if you are level 9 or below this does not count as experience earned, but if you're level 10 when you activate it then the bonus ''does'' count as experience earned. This makes Jehora a very powerful capstone for for most experience if you can manage it!
* If it's available, the {{s|ENDISWAL}} glyph is unmatched for its ability to boost your experience gain
* The {{i|Amulet of Yendor}} is a very good item to begin with, but if you're going for most experience there is almost never a situation you can be without it when it's available.
* Similarly, the {{i|Elite Items}} preparation could end up making Amulet of Yendor available for you. While it's not possible to know for sure, the items it grants are often very useful anyways so it's not a bad prep.

=== Most Damage ===

The third column, damage, has the fewest number of competitors. However, there are still a few who compete in this category and produce impressive scores.

* Try to level up while exploring as little as possible. You need as much healing as possible, so conserve blackspace.
* Once you're a decent level, begin fighting monsters but '''don't kill them''', simply leave and let them heal. Even better, if it's a {{m|Shade}} it will teleport away and lifesteal you later for overheal. A {{m|Vampire}} can also be knocked back into the unexplored territory to heal it.

=== Least Experience ===

An unofficial challenge, sorting by least experience is difficult to read since losing runs may be sorted above winning runs (and obviously suiciding at the 1st level is unimpressive). However, there are a small number of players who sometimes do compete for this metric, and it's surprisingly difficult to get. Least experience requires absolute minimalism, taking down the boss at a low level. Because many of their approaches are similar, it is possible to pursue both low experience and fast time simultaneously. Least experience is usually regarded as redundant with least damage, since with few exceptions gaining experience requires dealing damage to monsters.

One of the biggest challenges with a least experience run is that the boss(es) will award a large amount of bonus experience for having killed them. Using deity boons to increase your level can counter-act this, as the level increase provided by {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} and {{g|Dracul}} ''do not'' count towards your total XP earned. This allows you to earn less bonus experience from killing the boss, making these gods absolutely mandatory for a lowest experience score.

Sometimes on particularly easy dailies players will achieve the absolute theoretical minimum possible experience. This, intriguingly, makes lowest experience the only metric where it's realistically possible to hit the theoretical "best" possible score. Below is a description of how to get the lowest possible experience in order to compete. The amount may vary depending on whether Dracul, Jehora Jeheyu, or both are present in the dungeon. The numbers are also slightly different for a {{c|Fighter}} due to the class having a modified XP table.

==== One Boss ====

This is the simplest case. You should always kill exactly 15 XP worth of monsters to reach 3rd level before slaying the boss. If Jehora Jeheyu and/or Dracul are available then activate Chaos Avatar and/or Blood Curse before killing the boss to reduce the bonus experience. If neither are available this results in a minimum value of 69. If only one is available you will end with 57 experience. If both are available you will end with 47 experience.

This approach is the same for the Fighter, but with slightly different values due to his different progression tables. You only require 13 experience rather than 15 to reach 3rd level, but you also gain 1 extra experience point when killing the boss. As a result, the Fighter's minimum experience is exactly 1 point lower than for the other classes in every case presented here.

==== Two Bosses ====

In this case, your approach differs slightly based on the deity availability.

If neither Dracul nor Jehora Jeheyu are present, then the lowest possible experience is 99. You must kill exactly 30 XP worth of monsters to reach 4th level before slaying the first boss. This earns you 42 experience for a total of 72, making you 5th level. Slay 3 XP worth of monsters to reach 75 experience and the 6th level, then slay the boss for 24 experience, totaling 99.

If either Dracul or Jehora Jeheyu are present, then the lowest possible experience is 86. Again, kill 30 XP worth of monsters to reach 4th level then activate your boon to reach 5th level. Slaying the boss will grant you 32 experience, raising you to 6th level with change. Then kill the second boss for 24 experience.

If both deities are present, then the lowest possible experience is 74. Kill exactly 5 XP worth of monsters to reach 2nd level, then activate both boons to promote to 4th level. Slaying the boss will grant you 42 experience, just shy of 6th level. Slay 3 XP worth of monsters to reach 6th level, then slay the boss for 24 experience. This sequence totals 74 experience.

The approach with the Fighter is very similar regardless of which deities are available. Gain 13 experience to reach 3rd level. Activate any boons available to increase your level prior to fighting the first boss. Regardless of which combination (if any) of boons you used you will end up as a 6th level character after killing the first boss and should proceed to immediately slay the second boss. If neither god is available then this results in a minimum possible experience of 93, if only one is available your minimum is 81, and if both are available and used the minimum is 71.

==== Three Bosses ====

If neither JJ nor Dracul are available, then the lowest possible experience is 123. This works almost identically to the 2-boss scenario. Slay 6 additional XP worth of monsters after killing the second boss (reaching 7th level) then slay the final boss for 18 experience, totally 123.

== Infamous D.E.R.P.'s ==

Every D.E.R.P. to date has been winnable, with at least some players winning. However, a few have been notorious for their high difficulty or deadly traps.

'''March 14th 2015 - Half-Dragon in Magma Mines'''
The Half-Dragon runs into a problem with the magic-immune boss in this dungeon. His regular attack deals magic damage, and his only way to deal physical damage is with knockback. Normally this is only an inconvenience, but if the boss happens to be cornered by impassible tiles he can't be knocked back into anything, and knocking things into him can't deal a killing blow! While people who prepared Taurog were able to force him to move due to his cowardly trait, and some people figured out that the WHUPAZ potion can be used to deliver 1 point of damage after he has been sufficiently weakened to finish him, most people were faced with a situation that couldn't be won by any conventional means.

'''May 14th 2015 - Rat Monarch in Shifting Passages'''
The highest mortality rate of any D.E.R.P. to date, only 8 players won this difficult dungeon. The randomized boss was Bleaty, which proved difficult for the Rat Monarch to actually land a hit against. Part of the difficulty was that the Enhanced Edition was relatively new, so players had not yet had much time to become accustomed to the Rat Monarch and Shifting Passages is one of the most difficult dungeons in rotation.

{{MainNav}}

D.E.R.P.

2015-08-17T20:42:31Z

MTaur: /* General */

The '''Daily Exploration Re-Enactment Program''' is a daily challenge complete with score metrics. It was introduced with the Enhanced Edition (beta testing began 10th March 2015, official release date 20th April 2015). The daily challenge resets at Midnight GMT.

== Accessing the D.E.R.P. ==

The D.E.R.P. becomes accessible by unlocking the [[Audit Zeppelin]] in a Kingdom. After the Audit Zeppelin is unlocked, it shows individual statistics, as well as allows access to the daily D.E.R.P. challenges and to the Leaderboard. The D.E.R.P. can also be accessed from the main splash screen without loading any of the kingdoms; any gold award received for completing the daily challenge will be added to the most recently played Kingdom's treasury. The daily challenge resets at midnight GMT, and although runs may be attempted even just before the cut-over, any run not finished and reported before midnight will mess up the results for the given day. Each D.E.R.P. can only be attempted once, and the game communicates with the Daily Servers when the daily is started; and when the daily is finished. If the connectivity fails, the server may not acknowledge completion of a given daily, or it may not allow the attempt altogether.

== D.E.R.P. Overview ==

D.E.R.P. selects a random map, and a random class/race combination; as well as offers four choices of preparations, each selectable from a set of three. The map can be any Normal or Hard map except for Tower of Gaan-Telet; the class/race combination can be anything (including monster classes; the Enhanced Edition Chemist and Rat Monarch classes; and the Goatperson is also playable this way, even though it is normally only available as part of the Goatperson DLC). The map The preparations can be almost anything that are available from fully upgraded kingdom buildings. What makes the preparations very unique is that some of the normal rules governing preparation choice do not apply. For example, it is often possible to prepare multiple preparations from the same building (that are mutually exclusive during normal dungeon runs). Items that are normally very rare in shops, such as {{i|Orb of Zot}}, are also significantly more common as daily preparations.

In addition to the level, class, race, and available preparations being seeded random, it is also the case that the random stores, glyphs, monsters, subdungeons, and altars are seeded random. This means that which gods you get is randomly decided for everyone once and for all when the D.E.R.P. is generated by the host server. If you read about someone else's run, your run will have the same gods, monsters, etc. The extra/removed glyph from more/fewer glyphs will be the same, the item swap from Quest/Elite Items will be the same, Conjunction will add the same god, and prepared altars will remove the same god (if the prepared god wasn't already present). A spoiler-free run will leave the player at a mild disadvantage, but every D.E.R.P. is winnable regardless and many players are eager to discuss their findings in the forums.

The D.E.R.P. resets at Midnight GMT. Any ongoing attempts that have not yet completed at this time are counted as losses.

== Preparation Effects unique to D.E.R.P.==
Because the D.E.R.P. allows combinations of preparations that are usually illegal, there are a number of unique interactions and approaches available to players here:

*Preparing both Extra Glyph and Fewer Glyphs will keep the number of glyphs at 5, however will increase their conversion value to 130 points. 
*Preparing multiple altars is possible, and each prepared altar will spawn relatively close to the starting location. Preparing four altars on a non-Crusader is possible; however, only three of the prepared altars will actually spawn in the dungeon. There is no way of knowing which one of the four prepared altars will not spawn. All prepared altars - even the one not showing up - will carry their normal preparations penalties. 
*The ability to prepare multiple altars means you can ensure there are more than one within close proximity to the dungeon entrance, allowing you to immediately desecrate one god to fuel another.
*Bet on Boss will work as normal; gold is carried out from the dungeon as normal, as well as the trophy values are awarded as normal. Note though that no items can be kept from a D.E.R.P. run. 
*It is sometimes possible to prepare non-lockerable items like the {{i|Dragon Heart}} or the {{i|Sticky Stick}}. 
*Individual potions are never available as preparations (though the Apothecary Bazaar preparation can be), however the Apothecary has an extended potion offering during the dailies, and it includes the three potions normally only available as preparations: {{i|Quicksilver Potion}}, {{i|Reflex Potion}} and {{i|Can of Whupaz}}. 

== Other Challenges ==

Attempting to build a long streak is only one of the ways to compete in the daily; many players pursue other challenges over and above merely winning the dungeon. Here are some common exploits:

* Fastest Time 
* Most Experience 
* Least Experience (it's harder than it sounds...) 
* Most Damage Dealt 
* Most Piety 
* No Preparations 

It's possible to pursue a combination of these, producing an overall impressive entry even if you're not the best in any one category. Sometimes players do unique things that don't appear on the score-screen. If you do something cool, why not [http://www.qcfdesign.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3253 share it with the Desktop Dungeons community?]

== Strategy ==

Each D.E.R.P. can only be attempted once. Since the primary overall player ranking metric is the current win streak, a lot of players lean towards the "safe" options when playing. Since the D.E.R.P. never selects vicious dungeons or Gaan-Telet, none of the dungeons in rotations require exceptional endurance. As a result, reliability is favored over power, and short-term boosts are favored over long-term boosts.

=== General ===

'''Altars''' 
*Despite his sometimes debilitating random punishments, {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} is perhaps the best altar preparation / early worship deity (if available). The free {{s|WEYTWUT}} glyph offers a reliable way to de-clog the map; and the sheer power offered by his Boost Health/Mana boons help a lot with leveling; and the extra refills granted by Chaos Avatar and Last Chance help a lot during the boss fights. 
* {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} is an acceptable alternative to Jehora on cramped maps, especially [[Shifting Passages]] and [[The Labyrinth]]. While {{s|PISORF}} solves many problems, farming up {{s|ENDISWAL}} early is the safest bet, and the piety will easily earn itself back. On maps like [[Havendale Bridge]] and [[Berserker Camp]], though, the main bottleneck is indestructible and [[PISORF]]/[[ENDISWAL]] is unreliable. 
*{{g|The Earthmother}}, while being an excellent deity overall, will make you want to petrify plants and/or opponents. Be very careful not to wall yourself off by being over-zealous in pursuit of Earthmother piety. On mazelike maps like The Labyrinth or Shifting Passages just stay clear of her if possible. The Earthmother's Entanglement and Clearance boons are particularly helpful. 
* Although he offers no free glyph, the {{g|Glowing Guardian}} offers boons to boost Health and Mana like Jehora, as well as boons to refill; and perhaps most importantly, Humility helps with leveling and often makes reaching Level 11 stats possible, and it is one of most crucial boons for players aiming for the top of the XP leaderboard. 
* {{g|Taurog}} is a risky deity to worship full-time, since maps with a random boss have a chance to be physically resistant. On the other hand, he's always a safe piety farm, and Taurog's Sword can easily jump start a run if desired. Additional boons should wait for knowledge of all bosses to be safe, though, as the inventory slot and max MP losses will double-nerf your casting potential. The mean time is also great for clearing out Magic and Mana Burn enemies before joining Mystera or Undead before joining Dracul. 

'''Items''' 
* {{i|Namtar's Ward}} is a very safe preparation if available, the death protection it offers goes beyond its normal utility, and also helps prevent accidental losses ('misclicks'). It is also worth 100 CP when converted, which often outclasses lesser preparations options on its own. 
* The {{i|Amulet of Yendor}} can be very useful, helping to out-level monsters and take a lot of pressure off the leveling; alternatively, it can be preserved until the boss fight to trigger an extra mid-fight level-up. 
*Items that give you {{t|Slow Strike}} - like the {{i|Platemail}} or the {{i|Really Big Sword}} - should generally be avoided unless absolutely necessary. A lot of extra hazards are opened up by losing the first strike against lower-level opponents. 
*{{i|Patches}} is almost never worth it during a Daily. It can teleport the character into a very tight spot, either between tough monsters or even into completely walled-off areas. 

'''Other Preparations''' 
*Apothecary is a strong preparation in the dailies because the extended potion assortment can make up for the non-customizable potion kit. 
*Elite Items may be worth it just for the shot at having an Amulet of Yendor in store. If you manage to pair this with {{i|Translocation Seal}}, the item gained will likely be worth two preparation slots, especially if the alternative preparations are mediocre. 
*The Fireball Magnet preparation is extremely useful in the daily, as accessibility of the glyphs can be highly variable

=== Fastest Time ===

The default sorting order of the daily leaderboard is fastest time, making it one of the more competitive metrics.

* Your score is based on the time that the ''server'' receives confirmation of your victory, not the moment you slay the boss. As a result, you should finish the run the instant you land the killing blow to avoid racking up unnecessary extra time.
* Try to ramp up quickly, even if it means attacking sub-optimal monsters or using a potion early. While bonus experience is valuable and conserving resources is important, you need to weigh that against the time you spent looking for ideal victims.
* Be the proverbial tortoise, not the hare. If you click too quickly you're just likely to misclick and die. It's far more important to keep a steady pace and never stop.
* Always think and plan ahead. If you know what you're going to do, you won't waste time planning down the road.
* Skip subdungeons such as the [[Vegetarian Vampire]] that require careful consideration and planning.
* On easier difficulty dailies, the prime determinant of a good time is often how quickly you find the boss. Exploring the map swiftly is very important in these cases.
* Knowing exactly when to begin the boss battle can be very tricky. If you start too early you might undershoot it and fail to kill the boss, but if you keep leveling up you might be spending time for powers and abilities you don't need.

=== Most Experience ===

One of the most common challenges, Most Experience has a very different playstyle than fastest time. Where the former requires rapid exploration and targeting non-ideal enemies to keep pace, Most Experience requires you to carefully take your time and find the ideal enemies to maximize bonus experience. As a result, fast times usually perform poorly in the experience category and vice-versa. If you are pursuing one of these, you should decide which one before you begin the dungeon run.

* Earning bonus experience and finishing every monster in the dungeon are obviously important. Take your time to ramp up sensibly and find the ideal enemies.
* Obviously you want to kill every monster in the dungeon, if possible.
* Deity choice can be paramount to raising your experience earnings. The {{g|Glowing Guardian}} offers the Humility boon, reducing your level and increasing bonus experience. Both {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} and {{g|The Earthmother}} offer you ways to get bonus experience, with slow and petrification. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} offers Tikki's Edge, which over the long-term allows for lots of bonus experience. GG is best early, Jehora grants the most XP when you use him to reach level 10, and TT is good late in the run as long as you can farm a lot of piety while saving lots of popcorn. 
* If it's available, the {{s|ENDISWAL}} glyph is unmatched for its ability to boost your experience gain
* The {{i|Amulet of Yendor}} is a very good item to begin with, but if you're going for most experience there is almost never a situation you can be without it when it's available.
* Similarly, the {{i|Elite Items}} preparation could end up making Amulet of Yendor available for you. While it's not possible to know for sure, the items it grants are often very useful anyways so it's not a bad prep.

=== Most Damage ===

The third column, damage, has the fewest number of competitors. However, there are still a few who compete in this category and produce impressive scores.

* Try to level up while exploring as little as possible. You need as much healing as possible, so conserve blackspace.
* Once you're a decent level, begin fighting monsters but '''don't kill them''', simply leave and let them heal. Even better, if it's a {{m|Shade}} it will teleport away and lifesteal you later for overheal. A {{m|Vampire}} can also be knocked back into the unexplored territory to heal it.

=== Least Experience ===

An unofficial challenge, sorting by least experience is difficult to read since losing runs may be sorted above winning runs (and obviously suiciding at the 1st level is unimpressive). However, there are a small number of players who sometimes do compete for this metric, and it's surprisingly difficult to get. Least experience requires absolute minimalism, taking down the boss at a low level. Because many of their approaches are similar, it is possible to pursue both low experience and fast time simultaneously. Least experience is usually regarded as redundant with least damage, since with few exceptions gaining experience requires dealing damage to monsters.

One of the biggest challenges with a least experience run is that the boss(es) will award a large amount of bonus experience for having killed them. Using deity boons to increase your level can counter-act this, as the level increase provided by {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} and {{g|Dracul}} ''do not'' count towards your total XP earned. This allows you to earn less bonus experience from killing the boss, making these gods absolutely mandatory for a lowest experience score.

Sometimes on particularly easy dailies players will achieve the absolute theoretical minimum possible experience. This, intriguingly, makes lowest experience the only metric where it's realistically possible to hit the theoretical "best" possible score. Below is a description of how to get the lowest possible experience in order to compete. The amount may vary depending on whether Dracul, Jehora Jeheyu, or both are present in the dungeon. The numbers are also slightly different for a {{c|Fighter}} due to the class having a modified XP table.

==== One Boss ====

This is the simplest case. You should always kill exactly 15 XP worth of monsters to reach 3rd level before slaying the boss. If Jehora Jeheyu and/or Dracul are available then activate Chaos Avatar and/or Blood Curse before killing the boss to reduce the bonus experience. If neither are available this results in a minimum value of 69. If only one is available you will end with 57 experience. If both are available you will end with 47 experience.

This approach is the same for the Fighter, but with slightly different values due to his different progression tables. You only require 13 experience rather than 15 to reach 3rd level, but you also gain 1 extra experience point when killing the boss. As a result, the Fighter's minimum experience is exactly 1 point lower than for the other classes in every case presented here.

==== Two Bosses ====

In this case, your approach differs slightly based on the deity availability.

If neither Dracul nor Jehora Jeheyu are present, then the lowest possible experience is 99. You must kill exactly 30 XP worth of monsters to reach 4th level before slaying the first boss. This earns you 42 experience for a total of 72, making you 5th level. Slay 3 XP worth of monsters to reach 75 experience and the 6th level, then slay the boss for 24 experience, totaling 99.

If either Dracul or Jehora Jeheyu are present, then the lowest possible experience is 86. Again, kill 30 XP worth of monsters to reach 4th level then activate your boon to reach 5th level. Slaying the boss will grant you 32 experience, raising you to 6th level with change. Then kill the second boss for 24 experience.

If both deities are present, then the lowest possible experience is 74. Kill exactly 5 XP worth of monsters to reach 2nd level, then activate both boons to promote to 4th level. Slaying the boss will grant you 42 experience, just shy of 6th level. Slay 3 XP worth of monsters to reach 6th level, then slay the boss for 24 experience. This sequence totals 74 experience.

The approach with the Fighter is very similar regardless of which deities are available. Gain 13 experience to reach 3rd level. Activate any boons available to increase your level prior to fighting the first boss. Regardless of which combination (if any) of boons you used you will end up as a 6th level character after killing the first boss and should proceed to immediately slay the second boss. If neither god is available then this results in a minimum possible experience of 93, if only one is available your minimum is 81, and if both are available and used the minimum is 71.

==== Three Bosses ====

If neither JJ nor Dracul are available, then the lowest possible experience is 123. This works almost identically to the 2-boss scenario. Slay 6 additional XP worth of monsters after killing the second boss (reaching 7th level) then slay the final boss for 18 experience, totally 123.

== Infamous D.E.R.P.'s ==

Every D.E.R.P. to date has been winnable, with at least some players winning. However, a few have been notorious for their high difficulty or deadly traps.

'''March 14th 2015 - Half-Dragon in Magma Mines'''
The Half-Dragon runs into a problem with the magic-immune boss in this dungeon. His regular attack deals magic damage, and his only way to deal physical damage is with knockback. Normally this is only an inconvenience, but if the boss happens to be cornered by impassible tiles he can't be knocked back into anything, and knocking things into him can't deal a killing blow! While people who prepared Taurog were able to force him to move due to his cowardly trait, and some people figured out that the WHUPAZ potion can be used to deliver 1 point of damage after he has been sufficiently weakened to finish him, most people were faced with a situation that couldn't be won by any conventional means.

'''May 14th 2015 - Rat Monarch in Shifting Passages'''
The highest mortality rate of any D.E.R.P. to date, only 8 players won this difficult dungeon. The randomized boss was Bleaty, which proved difficult for the Rat Monarch to actually land a hit against. Part of the difficulty was that the Enhanced Edition was relatively new, so players had not yet had much time to become accustomed to the Rat Monarch and Shifting Passages is one of the most difficult dungeons in rotation.

{{MainNav}}

Ick Swamp

2015-08-15T09:48:32Z

MTaur: /* Deities */

[[File:Ick_Swamp.png|right|450px]]

Ick Swamp is a Hard difficulty dungeon filled with plants and other dangerous monsters. It is unlocked by completing the Southern Swamp.

== Overview ==

'''Monsters:''' Gorgons, Vampires, Warlocks, Naga, Meat Men, and Wraiths. Additionally, the dungeon is mostly filled with plants of all types, including barbing bushes. Monster difficulty is 120%.

'''Bosses:''' One random boss and Itsssama the Naga, with 318 hit points, 37 damage, 50% physical and magical resistance, and weakening blow.

'''Special Rules:''' All Warlocks killed drop Wisp Gems, small slot items that give a +5% attack bonus. Spoons also drop plentifully.

== Strategy ==
'''Recommended Classes:''' {{c|Rogue}}, {{c|Berserker}}, {{c|Bloodmage}}

You want to level up using gorgons, vampires, and sorcerers because they all have relatively low hp. Nagas are to be avoided unless they can be killed without incurring any weakening. The plants are very dangerous and hinder your movement, but avoid killing the poison and mana burn plants unless you're about to level up. If possible, before you level up, clear out all the poison and mana burn plants. Corrosion can not be removed easily, so it is recommended you avoid getting any. Before you begin the boss fight, make sure you have killed all sorcerers and pick up all wisp gems.

The boss, Itsssama, has very high resistances and weakens you, so a low damage character is not recommended. Additionally, you should decide in advance which boss to deal with first; if you rely mostly on physical damage and go after Itsssama first, you will want to pick up a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}} for after the fight. If you decide to go the spell casting route, it is highly recommended you bring the piercing wand to counteract his high resistances. Isssama's weakness is his damage - even a level 6 rogue can take a hit without dying, so this makes [[HALPMEH]] an incredibly valuable glyph. [[Berserker]] and [[Rogue]] are very good class choices. If you choose a [[Rogue]], you must either find [[HALPMEH]], [[CYDSTEPP]], or an altar to [[Taurog]], because health potions will not last you long enough. If you find a [[CYDSTEPP]] glyph, start killing sorcerers, gorgons, and vampires 2-3 levels above you. If you find [[HALPMEH]], it will be monsters 1-2 levels above you. If you find [[Taurog]], only pick up the sword, armor, and possibly shield, as you need the rest of the space for wisp gems. If you go the [[Berserker]] route it's Taurog time! Grab the sword, armor, and helmet first converting all glyphs and killing high level sorcerers with your new 65% magic resistance. The boss should be easily outlast-able with any of the 4 tactics.

== Special interactions with plants ==

The harmful plants of the Ick! swamp can be exploited as a resource under limited conditions. A worshiper of Glowing Guardian equipped with HALPMEH can and should poison himself whenever he is at full mana and about to explore, and at any point in time during a battle where he intends to cast HALPMEH. Whenever practical, you should also try to get poisoned and manaburned just before leveling up. A character following this strategy will actually want to conserve the plants rather than just cut them down.

It may not look like it, but the harmful plants apply their effects by making a zero-damage attack. This attack can be dodged like any other attack. Rogues following Tikki Tooki can gain very large amounts of piety by harvesting the plants right before level up. Taking the Dodge boon makes this even better.

Killing a plant, even the harmless green ones, still counts as a kill and still discharges IMAWAL. Be cautious that you don't waste your bonus experience on a 0 xp kill!

== Quests ==

There are 2 quests in ick swamp, Ick! and Way of the Open Fist (part 2). For completion of Ick! you gain 250 gold. All you have to do is beat the dungeon. Way of the Open Fist (part 2) requires you to beat the dungeon as a monk without preparations and grants you 350 gold. This requires quite a bit more luck than normal, as you must find an Altar to Taurog asap. Find Taurog and then convert all of the glyphs you've found so far for extra base damage and take the sword. Regen fight monsters (except naga) until you are level 8. Make sure you have extra tiles as you are going to need them. Start off with potions, then tiles until you can kill him in 3 shots (or 4 if you have 2 altars you can afford to desecrate), then use unstoppable furies for the kill. This will take many tires so try not to get frustrated.

== Deities ==

{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} is prep-worthy, even if the loss of an inventory slot hurts badly with all those Spoons and Wisp Gems. Chaos Avatar can be used to either wipe Weakness stacks or lower resistances before/after the fight with Itsssama, or mid-fight as a compromise with a nice level-up heal thrown in. However you choose to do it, you may as well kill all those nasty corrosive plants first and pick through the remains for any extra trinkets, if you have room for them.

{{g|Mystera Annur}} can also lower MR, and she can do the full 50% unlike Jehora given enough piety. One of the two gods or a {{i|Piercing Wand}} is almost mandatory for using caster strategies on Itsssama.

{{g|Glowing Guardian}} has already been mentioned because of the extra piety available from poison/mana burn plants. This god also burdens your inventory, though. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} has a novel interaction with plants to farm piety, discussed above.

{{g|The Earthmother}} is probably not worth it, all things considered, at best usable for a risky end-game spike. The last place Vine Form is going to be of much help is against a tanky boss like Itsssama who applies Weakening. Clearance, Greenblood, and Entanglement are somewhat better, but you will want to clear a large number of plants before converting in so that your Clearance will have a higher chance of removing the plants which are in your way. All things considered, Plantation is a risky move even then, except for maybe a [[Crusader]], who will have the fewest plants remaining thanks to his three immunities.

The others don't necessarily merit a special mention either way, though some specific strategies for [[Taurog]] are discussed above.

{{MainNav}}

Ick Swamp

2015-08-15T09:45:57Z

MTaur: /* Deities */

[[File:Ick_Swamp.png|right|450px]]

Ick Swamp is a Hard difficulty dungeon filled with plants and other dangerous monsters. It is unlocked by completing the Southern Swamp.

== Overview ==

'''Monsters:''' Gorgons, Vampires, Warlocks, Naga, Meat Men, and Wraiths. Additionally, the dungeon is mostly filled with plants of all types, including barbing bushes. Monster difficulty is 120%.

'''Bosses:''' One random boss and Itsssama the Naga, with 318 hit points, 37 damage, 50% physical and magical resistance, and weakening blow.

'''Special Rules:''' All Warlocks killed drop Wisp Gems, small slot items that give a +5% attack bonus. Spoons also drop plentifully.

== Strategy ==
'''Recommended Classes:''' {{c|Rogue}}, {{c|Berserker}}, {{c|Bloodmage}}

You want to level up using gorgons, vampires, and sorcerers because they all have relatively low hp. Nagas are to be avoided unless they can be killed without incurring any weakening. The plants are very dangerous and hinder your movement, but avoid killing the poison and mana burn plants unless you're about to level up. If possible, before you level up, clear out all the poison and mana burn plants. Corrosion can not be removed easily, so it is recommended you avoid getting any. Before you begin the boss fight, make sure you have killed all sorcerers and pick up all wisp gems.

The boss, Itsssama, has very high resistances and weakens you, so a low damage character is not recommended. Additionally, you should decide in advance which boss to deal with first; if you rely mostly on physical damage and go after Itsssama first, you will want to pick up a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}} for after the fight. If you decide to go the spell casting route, it is highly recommended you bring the piercing wand to counteract his high resistances. Isssama's weakness is his damage - even a level 6 rogue can take a hit without dying, so this makes [[HALPMEH]] an incredibly valuable glyph. [[Berserker]] and [[Rogue]] are very good class choices. If you choose a [[Rogue]], you must either find [[HALPMEH]], [[CYDSTEPP]], or an altar to [[Taurog]], because health potions will not last you long enough. If you find a [[CYDSTEPP]] glyph, start killing sorcerers, gorgons, and vampires 2-3 levels above you. If you find [[HALPMEH]], it will be monsters 1-2 levels above you. If you find [[Taurog]], only pick up the sword, armor, and possibly shield, as you need the rest of the space for wisp gems. If you go the [[Berserker]] route it's Taurog time! Grab the sword, armor, and helmet first converting all glyphs and killing high level sorcerers with your new 65% magic resistance. The boss should be easily outlast-able with any of the 4 tactics.

== Special interactions with plants ==

The harmful plants of the Ick! swamp can be exploited as a resource under limited conditions. A worshiper of Glowing Guardian equipped with HALPMEH can and should poison himself whenever he is at full mana and about to explore, and at any point in time during a battle where he intends to cast HALPMEH. Whenever practical, you should also try to get poisoned and manaburned just before leveling up. A character following this strategy will actually want to conserve the plants rather than just cut them down.

It may not look like it, but the harmful plants apply their effects by making a zero-damage attack. This attack can be dodged like any other attack. Rogues following Tikki Tooki can gain very large amounts of piety by harvesting the plants right before level up. Taking the Dodge boon makes this even better.

Killing a plant, even the harmless green ones, still counts as a kill and still discharges IMAWAL. Be cautious that you don't waste your bonus experience on a 0 xp kill!

== Quests ==

There are 2 quests in ick swamp, Ick! and Way of the Open Fist (part 2). For completion of Ick! you gain 250 gold. All you have to do is beat the dungeon. Way of the Open Fist (part 2) requires you to beat the dungeon as a monk without preparations and grants you 350 gold. This requires quite a bit more luck than normal, as you must find an Altar to Taurog asap. Find Taurog and then convert all of the glyphs you've found so far for extra base damage and take the sword. Regen fight monsters (except naga) until you are level 8. Make sure you have extra tiles as you are going to need them. Start off with potions, then tiles until you can kill him in 3 shots (or 4 if you have 2 altars you can afford to desecrate), then use unstoppable furies for the kill. This will take many tires so try not to get frustrated.

== Deities ==

{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} is prep-worthy, even if the loss of an inventory slot hurts badly with all those Spoons and Wisp Gems. Chaos Avatar can be used to either wipe Weakness stacks or lower resistances before/after the fight with Itsssama, or mid-fight as a compromise with a nice level-up heal thrown in. However you choose to do it, you may as well kill all those nasty corrosive plants first and pick through the remains for any extra trinkets, if you have room for them.

{{g|Mystera Annur}} can also lower MR, and she can do the full 50% unlike Jehora given enough piety. One of the two gods or a {{i|Piercing Wand}} is almost mandatory for using caster strategies on Itsssama.

{{g|Glowing Guardian}} has already been mentioned because of the extra piety available from poison/mana burn plants. This god also burdens your inventory, though. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} has a novel interaction with plants to farm piety, discussed above.

{{g|The Earthmother}} is probably not worth it, all things considered, at best usable for a risky end-game spike. Against a low-damage tanky boss who applies Weakening is the place where Vine Form is going to be of much help. Clearance, Greenblood, and Entanglement are somewhat better, but you will want to clear a large number of plants before converting in so that your Clearance will have a higher chance of removing the plants which are in your way. All things considered, Plantation is a risky move even then, except for maybe a [[Crusader]], who will have the fewest plants remaining thanks to his three immunities.

The others don't necessarily merit a special mention either way, though some specific strategies for [[Taurog]] are discussed above.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:D.E.R.P.

2015-08-15T09:41:18Z

MTaur:

Talk:Ick Swamp

2015-08-13T12:11:54Z

MTaur:

Is it just random luck, or are there a fairly large number of Wraiths as well? I noticed outdated information like the boss's name, "Ssseth". - MTaur

Itsssama was originally boss of a dungeon called Deep Swamp. The progression back then was Ick Swamp -> Hexx Ruins -> Deep Swamp -> Naga City. Eventually, Deep Swamp was eliminated, Itsssama took the place of boss of Ick Swamp, and Hexx Ruins and Ick Swamp swapped positions. True to the early beta, Itsssama's original stats were positively nuts, with 90% physical and magic resistance. You'll find a few pieces of ancient history here on the Wiki. A memorial to the forgotten dungeons: the Crypt, the Druid Grove, the Slime Mines, Deep Swamp, Spike Hazard, the Chokebox, and the Vanishing Oasis. --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 04:38, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

I wasn't really paying attention today, but I'm not sure that only Warlocks can drop Wisp Gems. I'm not sure what the rule for Spoons is, either. - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Ick Swamp

2015-08-13T12:10:07Z

MTaur: /* Deities */

[[File:Ick_Swamp.png|right|450px]]

Ick Swamp is a Hard difficulty dungeon filled with plants and other dangerous monsters. It is unlocked by completing the Southern Swamp.

== Overview ==

'''Monsters:''' Gorgons, Vampires, Warlocks, Naga, Meat Men, and Wraiths. Additionally, the dungeon is mostly filled with plants of all types, including barbing bushes. Monster difficulty is 120%.

'''Bosses:''' One random boss and Itsssama the Naga, with 318 hit points, 37 damage, 50% physical and magical resistance, and weakening blow.

'''Special Rules:''' All Warlocks killed drop Wisp Gems, small slot items that give a +5% attack bonus. Spoons also drop plentifully.

== Strategy ==
'''Recommended Classes:''' {{c|Rogue}}, {{c|Berserker}}, {{c|Bloodmage}}

You want to level up using gorgons, vampires, and sorcerers because they all have relatively low hp. Nagas are to be avoided unless they can be killed without incurring any weakening. The plants are very dangerous and hinder your movement, but avoid killing the poison and mana burn plants unless you're about to level up. If possible, before you level up, clear out all the poison and mana burn plants. Corrosion can not be removed easily, so it is recommended you avoid getting any. Before you begin the boss fight, make sure you have killed all sorcerers and pick up all wisp gems.

The boss, Itsssama, has very high resistances and weakens you, so a low damage character is not recommended. Additionally, you should decide in advance which boss to deal with first; if you rely mostly on physical damage and go after Itsssama first, you will want to pick up a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}} for after the fight. If you decide to go the spell casting route, it is highly recommended you bring the piercing wand to counteract his high resistances. Isssama's weakness is his damage - even a level 6 rogue can take a hit without dying, so this makes [[HALPMEH]] an incredibly valuable glyph. [[Berserker]] and [[Rogue]] are very good class choices. If you choose a [[Rogue]], you must either find [[HALPMEH]], [[CYDSTEPP]], or an altar to [[Taurog]], because health potions will not last you long enough. If you find a [[CYDSTEPP]] glyph, start killing sorcerers, gorgons, and vampires 2-3 levels above you. If you find [[HALPMEH]], it will be monsters 1-2 levels above you. If you find [[Taurog]], only pick up the sword, armor, and possibly shield, as you need the rest of the space for wisp gems. If you go the [[Berserker]] route it's Taurog time! Grab the sword, armor, and helmet first converting all glyphs and killing high level sorcerers with your new 65% magic resistance. The boss should be easily outlast-able with any of the 4 tactics.

== Special interactions with plants ==

The harmful plants of the Ick! swamp can be exploited as a resource under limited conditions. A worshiper of Glowing Guardian equipped with HALPMEH can and should poison himself whenever he is at full mana and about to explore, and at any point in time during a battle where he intends to cast HALPMEH. Whenever practical, you should also try to get poisoned and manaburned just before leveling up. A character following this strategy will actually want to conserve the plants rather than just cut them down.

It may not look like it, but the harmful plants apply their effects by making a zero-damage attack. This attack can be dodged like any other attack. Rogues following Tikki Tooki can gain very large amounts of piety by harvesting the plants right before level up. Taking the Dodge boon makes this even better.

Killing a plant, even the harmless green ones, still counts as a kill and still discharges IMAWAL. Be cautious that you don't waste your bonus experience on a 0 xp kill!

== Quests ==

There are 2 quests in ick swamp, Ick! and Way of the Open Fist (part 2). For completion of Ick! you gain 250 gold. All you have to do is beat the dungeon. Way of the Open Fist (part 2) requires you to beat the dungeon as a monk without preparations and grants you 350 gold. This requires quite a bit more luck than normal, as you must find an Altar to Taurog asap. Find Taurog and then convert all of the glyphs you've found so far for extra base damage and take the sword. Regen fight monsters (except naga) until you are level 8. Make sure you have extra tiles as you are going to need them. Start off with potions, then tiles until you can kill him in 3 shots (or 4 if you have 2 altars you can afford to desecrate), then use unstoppable furies for the kill. This will take many tires so try not to get frustrated.

== Deities ==

{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} is prep-worthy, even if the loss of an inventory slot hurts badly with all those Spoons and Wisp Gems. Chaos Avatar can be used to either wipe Weakness stacks or lower resistances before/after the fight with Itsssama, or mid-fight as a compromise with a nice level-up heal thrown in. However you choose to do it, you may as well kill all those nasty corrosive plants first and pick through the remains for any extra trinkets, if you have room for them.

{{g|Mystera Annur}} can also lower MR, and she can do the full 50% unlike Jehora given enough piety. One of the two gods or a {{i|Piercing Wand}} is almost mandatory for using caster strategies on Itsssama.

{{g|Glowing Guardian}} has already been mentioned because of the extra piety available from poison/mana burn plants. This god also burdens your inventory, though. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} has a novel interaction with plants to farm piety, discussed above.

{{g|The Earthmother}} is probably not worth it, all things considered, at best usable for a risky end-game spike. Against a low-damage tanky boss who applies Weakening is the last boss against which Vine Form is going to be of much help. Clearance, Greenblood, and Entanglement are somewhat better, but you will want to clear a large number of plants before converting in so that your Clearance will have a higher chance of removing the plants which are in your way. All things considered, Plantation is a risky move even then, except for maybe a [[Crusader]], who will the fewest plants remaining thanks to his three immunities.

The others don't necessarily merit a special mention either way, though some specific strategies for [[Taurog]] are discussed above.

{{MainNav}}

Ick Swamp

2015-08-13T12:09:39Z

MTaur: /* Deities */

[[File:Ick_Swamp.png|right|450px]]

Ick Swamp is a Hard difficulty dungeon filled with plants and other dangerous monsters. It is unlocked by completing the Southern Swamp.

== Overview ==

'''Monsters:''' Gorgons, Vampires, Warlocks, Naga, Meat Men, and Wraiths. Additionally, the dungeon is mostly filled with plants of all types, including barbing bushes. Monster difficulty is 120%.

'''Bosses:''' One random boss and Itsssama the Naga, with 318 hit points, 37 damage, 50% physical and magical resistance, and weakening blow.

'''Special Rules:''' All Warlocks killed drop Wisp Gems, small slot items that give a +5% attack bonus. Spoons also drop plentifully.

== Strategy ==
'''Recommended Classes:''' {{c|Rogue}}, {{c|Berserker}}, {{c|Bloodmage}}

You want to level up using gorgons, vampires, and sorcerers because they all have relatively low hp. Nagas are to be avoided unless they can be killed without incurring any weakening. The plants are very dangerous and hinder your movement, but avoid killing the poison and mana burn plants unless you're about to level up. If possible, before you level up, clear out all the poison and mana burn plants. Corrosion can not be removed easily, so it is recommended you avoid getting any. Before you begin the boss fight, make sure you have killed all sorcerers and pick up all wisp gems.

The boss, Itsssama, has very high resistances and weakens you, so a low damage character is not recommended. Additionally, you should decide in advance which boss to deal with first; if you rely mostly on physical damage and go after Itsssama first, you will want to pick up a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}} for after the fight. If you decide to go the spell casting route, it is highly recommended you bring the piercing wand to counteract his high resistances. Isssama's weakness is his damage - even a level 6 rogue can take a hit without dying, so this makes [[HALPMEH]] an incredibly valuable glyph. [[Berserker]] and [[Rogue]] are very good class choices. If you choose a [[Rogue]], you must either find [[HALPMEH]], [[CYDSTEPP]], or an altar to [[Taurog]], because health potions will not last you long enough. If you find a [[CYDSTEPP]] glyph, start killing sorcerers, gorgons, and vampires 2-3 levels above you. If you find [[HALPMEH]], it will be monsters 1-2 levels above you. If you find [[Taurog]], only pick up the sword, armor, and possibly shield, as you need the rest of the space for wisp gems. If you go the [[Berserker]] route it's Taurog time! Grab the sword, armor, and helmet first converting all glyphs and killing high level sorcerers with your new 65% magic resistance. The boss should be easily outlast-able with any of the 4 tactics.

== Special interactions with plants ==

The harmful plants of the Ick! swamp can be exploited as a resource under limited conditions. A worshiper of Glowing Guardian equipped with HALPMEH can and should poison himself whenever he is at full mana and about to explore, and at any point in time during a battle where he intends to cast HALPMEH. Whenever practical, you should also try to get poisoned and manaburned just before leveling up. A character following this strategy will actually want to conserve the plants rather than just cut them down.

It may not look like it, but the harmful plants apply their effects by making a zero-damage attack. This attack can be dodged like any other attack. Rogues following Tikki Tooki can gain very large amounts of piety by harvesting the plants right before level up. Taking the Dodge boon makes this even better.

Killing a plant, even the harmless green ones, still counts as a kill and still discharges IMAWAL. Be cautious that you don't waste your bonus experience on a 0 xp kill!

== Quests ==

There are 2 quests in ick swamp, Ick! and Way of the Open Fist (part 2). For completion of Ick! you gain 250 gold. All you have to do is beat the dungeon. Way of the Open Fist (part 2) requires you to beat the dungeon as a monk without preparations and grants you 350 gold. This requires quite a bit more luck than normal, as you must find an Altar to Taurog asap. Find Taurog and then convert all of the glyphs you've found so far for extra base damage and take the sword. Regen fight monsters (except naga) until you are level 8. Make sure you have extra tiles as you are going to need them. Start off with potions, then tiles until you can kill him in 3 shots (or 4 if you have 2 altars you can afford to desecrate), then use unstoppable furies for the kill. This will take many tires so try not to get frustrated.

== Deities ==

{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} is prep-worthy, even if the loss of an inventory slot hurts badly with all those Spoons and Wisp Gems. [[Chaos Avatar]] can be used to either wipe Weakness stacks or lower resistances before/after the fight with Itsssama, or mid-fight as a compromise with a nice level-up heal thrown in. However you choose to do it, you may as well kill all those nasty corrosive plants first and pick through the remains for any extra trinkets, if you have room for them.

{{g|Mystera Annur}} can also lower MR, and she can do the full 50% unlike Jehora given enough piety. One of the two gods or a {{i|Piercing Wand}} is almost mandatory for using caster strategies on Itsssama.

{{g|Glowing Guardian}} has already been mentioned because of the extra piety available from poison/mana burn plants. This god also burdens your inventory, though. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} has a novel interaction with plants to farm piety, discussed above.

{{g|The Earthmother}} is probably not worth it, all things considered, at best usable for a risky end-game spike. Against a low-damage tanky boss who applies Weakening is the last boss against which Vine Form is going to be of much help. Clearance, Greenblood, and Entanglement are somewhat better, but you will want to clear a large number of plants before converting in so that your Clearance will have a higher chance of removing the plants which are in your way. All things considered, Plantation is a risky move even then, except for maybe a [[Crusader]], who will the fewest plants remaining thanks to his three immunities.

The others don't necessarily merit a special mention either way, though some specific strategies for [[Taurog]] are discussed above.

{{MainNav}}

Ick Swamp

2015-08-13T12:08:45Z

MTaur:

[[File:Ick_Swamp.png|right|450px]]

Ick Swamp is a Hard difficulty dungeon filled with plants and other dangerous monsters. It is unlocked by completing the Southern Swamp.

== Overview ==

'''Monsters:''' Gorgons, Vampires, Warlocks, Naga, Meat Men, and Wraiths. Additionally, the dungeon is mostly filled with plants of all types, including barbing bushes. Monster difficulty is 120%.

'''Bosses:''' One random boss and Itsssama the Naga, with 318 hit points, 37 damage, 50% physical and magical resistance, and weakening blow.

'''Special Rules:''' All Warlocks killed drop Wisp Gems, small slot items that give a +5% attack bonus. Spoons also drop plentifully.

== Strategy ==
'''Recommended Classes:''' {{c|Rogue}}, {{c|Berserker}}, {{c|Bloodmage}}

You want to level up using gorgons, vampires, and sorcerers because they all have relatively low hp. Nagas are to be avoided unless they can be killed without incurring any weakening. The plants are very dangerous and hinder your movement, but avoid killing the poison and mana burn plants unless you're about to level up. If possible, before you level up, clear out all the poison and mana burn plants. Corrosion can not be removed easily, so it is recommended you avoid getting any. Before you begin the boss fight, make sure you have killed all sorcerers and pick up all wisp gems.

The boss, Itsssama, has very high resistances and weakens you, so a low damage character is not recommended. Additionally, you should decide in advance which boss to deal with first; if you rely mostly on physical damage and go after Itsssama first, you will want to pick up a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}} for after the fight. If you decide to go the spell casting route, it is highly recommended you bring the piercing wand to counteract his high resistances. Isssama's weakness is his damage - even a level 6 rogue can take a hit without dying, so this makes [[HALPMEH]] an incredibly valuable glyph. [[Berserker]] and [[Rogue]] are very good class choices. If you choose a [[Rogue]], you must either find [[HALPMEH]], [[CYDSTEPP]], or an altar to [[Taurog]], because health potions will not last you long enough. If you find a [[CYDSTEPP]] glyph, start killing sorcerers, gorgons, and vampires 2-3 levels above you. If you find [[HALPMEH]], it will be monsters 1-2 levels above you. If you find [[Taurog]], only pick up the sword, armor, and possibly shield, as you need the rest of the space for wisp gems. If you go the [[Berserker]] route it's Taurog time! Grab the sword, armor, and helmet first converting all glyphs and killing high level sorcerers with your new 65% magic resistance. The boss should be easily outlast-able with any of the 4 tactics.

== Special interactions with plants ==

The harmful plants of the Ick! swamp can be exploited as a resource under limited conditions. A worshiper of Glowing Guardian equipped with HALPMEH can and should poison himself whenever he is at full mana and about to explore, and at any point in time during a battle where he intends to cast HALPMEH. Whenever practical, you should also try to get poisoned and manaburned just before leveling up. A character following this strategy will actually want to conserve the plants rather than just cut them down.

It may not look like it, but the harmful plants apply their effects by making a zero-damage attack. This attack can be dodged like any other attack. Rogues following Tikki Tooki can gain very large amounts of piety by harvesting the plants right before level up. Taking the Dodge boon makes this even better.

Killing a plant, even the harmless green ones, still counts as a kill and still discharges IMAWAL. Be cautious that you don't waste your bonus experience on a 0 xp kill!

== Quests ==

There are 2 quests in ick swamp, Ick! and Way of the Open Fist (part 2). For completion of Ick! you gain 250 gold. All you have to do is beat the dungeon. Way of the Open Fist (part 2) requires you to beat the dungeon as a monk without preparations and grants you 350 gold. This requires quite a bit more luck than normal, as you must find an Altar to Taurog asap. Find Taurog and then convert all of the glyphs you've found so far for extra base damage and take the sword. Regen fight monsters (except naga) until you are level 8. Make sure you have extra tiles as you are going to need them. Start off with potions, then tiles until you can kill him in 3 shots (or 4 if you have 2 altars you can afford to desecrate), then use unstoppable furies for the kill. This will take many tires so try not to get frustrated.

== Deities ==

{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} is prep-worthy, even if the loss of an inventory slot hurts badly with all those Spoons and Wisp Gems. [[Chaos Avatar]] can be used to either wipe Weakness stacks or lower resistances before/after the fight with Itsssama, or mid-fight as a compromise with a nice level-up heal thrown in. However you choose to do it, you may as well kill all those nasty corrosive plants first and pick through the remains for any extra trinkets, if you have room for them.

{{g|Mystera Annur}} can also lower MR, and she can do the full 50% unlike Jehora given enough piety. One of the two gods or a {{g|Piercing Wand}} is almost mandatory for using caster strategies on Itsssama.

{{g|Glowing Guardian}} has already been mentioned because of the extra piety available from poison/mana burn plants. This god also burdens your inventory, though. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} has a novel interaction with plants to farm piety, discussed above.

{{g|The Earthmother}} is probably not worth it, all things considered, at best usable for a risky end-game spike. Against a low-damage tanky boss who applies Weakening is the last boss against which Vine Form is going to be of much help. Clearance, Greenblood, and Entanglement are somewhat better, but you will want to clear a large number of plants before converting in so that your Clearance will have a higher chance of removing the plants which are in your way. All things considered, Plantation is a risky move even then, except for maybe a [[Crusader]], who will the fewest plants remaining thanks to his three immunities.

The others don't necessarily merit a special mention either way, though some specific strategies for [[Taurog]] are discussed above.

{{MainNav}}

Ick Swamp

2015-08-13T11:50:59Z

MTaur: /* Special Interactions with Plants */

[[File:Ick_Swamp.png|right|450px]]

Ick Swamp is a Hard difficulty dungeon filled with plants and other dangerous monsters. It is unlocked by completing the Southern Swamp.

== Overview ==

'''Monsters:''' Gorgons, Vampires, Warlocks, Naga, Meat Men, and Wraiths. Additionally, the dungeon is mostly filled with plants of all types, including barbing bushes. Monster difficulty is 120%.

'''Bosses:''' One random boss and Itsssama the Naga, with 318 hit points, 37 damage, 50% physical and magical resistance, and weakening blow.

'''Special Rules:''' All Warlocks killed drop Wisp Gems, small slot items that give a +5% attack bonus.

== Strategy ==
'''Recommended Classes:''' {{c|Rogue}}, {{c|Berserker}}, {{c|Bloodmage}}

You want to level up using gorgons, vampires, and sorcerers because they all have relatively low hp. Nagas are to be avoided unless they can be killed without incurring any weakening. The plants are very dangerous and hinder your movement, but avoid killing the poison and mana burn plants unless you're about to level up. If possible, before you level up, clear out all the poison and mana burn plants. Corrosion can not be removed easily, so it is recommended you avoid getting any. Before you begin the boss fight, make sure you have killed all sorcerers and pick up all wisp gems.

The boss, Itsssama, has very high resistances and weakens you, so a low damage character is not recommended. Additionally, you should decide in advance which boss to deal with first; if you rely mostly on physical damage and go after Itsssama first, you will want to pick up a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}} for after the fight. If you decide to go the spell casting route, it is highly recommended you bring the piercing wand to counteract his high resistances. Isssama's weakness is his damage - even a level 6 rogue can take a hit without dying, so this makes [[HALPMEH]] an incredibly valuable glyph. [[Berserker]] and [[Rogue]] are very good class choices. If you choose a [[Rogue]], you must either find [[HALPMEH]], [[CYDSTEPP]], or an altar to [[Taurog]], because health potions will not last you long enough. If you find a [[CYDSTEPP]] glyph, start killing sorcerers, gorgons, and vampires 2-3 levels above you. If you find [[HALPMEH]], it will be monsters 1-2 levels above you. If you find [[Taurog]], only pick up the sword, armor, and possibly shield, as you need the rest of the space for wisp gems. If you go the [[Berserker]] route it's Taurog time! Grab the sword, armor, and helmet first converting all glyphs and killing high level sorcerers with your new 65% magic resistance. The boss should be easily outlast-able with any of the 4 tactics.

== Special interactions with plants ==

The harmful plants of the Ick! swamp can be exploited as a resource under limited conditions. A worshiper of Glowing Guardian equipped with HALPMEH can and should poison himself whenever he is at full mana and about to explore, and at any point in time during a battle where he intends to cast HALPMEH. Whenever practical, you should also try to get poisoned and manaburned just before leveling up. A character following this strategy will actually want to conserve the plants rather than just cut them down.

It may not look like it, but the harmful plants apply their effects by making a zero-damage attack. This attack can be dodged like any other attack. Rogues following Tikki Tooki can gain very large amounts of piety by harvesting the plants right before level up. Taking the Dodge boon makes this even better.

Killing a plant, even the harmless green ones, still counts as a kill and still discharges IMAWAL. Be cautious that you don't waste your bonus experience on a 0 xp kill!

== Quests ==

There are 2 quests in ick swamp, Ick! and Way of the Open Fist (part 2). For completion of Ick! you gain 250 gold. All you have to do is beat the dungeon. Way of the Open Fist (part 2) requires you to beat the dungeon as a monk without preparations and grants you 350 gold. This requires quite a bit more luck than normal, as you must find an Altar to Taurog asap. Find Taurog and then convert all of the glyphs you've found so far for extra base damage and take the sword. Regen fight monsters (except naga) until you are level 8. Make sure you have extra tiles as you are going to need them. Start off with potions, then tiles until you can kill him in 3 shots (or 4 if you have 2 altars you can afford to desecrate), then use unstoppable furies for the kill. This will take many tires so try not to get frustrated.

{{MainNav}}

Ick Swamp

2015-08-13T11:50:15Z

MTaur: Outdated information from beta changed

[[File:Ick_Swamp.png|right|450px]]

Ick Swamp is a Hard difficulty dungeon filled with plants and other dangerous monsters. It is unlocked by completing the Southern Swamp.

== Overview ==

'''Monsters:''' Gorgons, Vampires, Warlocks, Naga, Meat Men, and Wraiths. Additionally, the dungeon is mostly filled with plants of all types, including barbing bushes. Monster difficulty is 120%.

'''Bosses:''' One random boss and Itsssama the Naga, with 318 hit points, 37 damage, 50% physical and magical resistance, and weakening blow.

'''Special Rules:''' All Warlocks killed drop Wisp Gems, small slot items that give a +5% attack bonus.

== Strategy ==
'''Recommended Classes:''' {{c|Rogue}}, {{c|Berserker}}, {{c|Bloodmage}}

You want to level up using gorgons, vampires, and sorcerers because they all have relatively low hp. Nagas are to be avoided unless they can be killed without incurring any weakening. The plants are very dangerous and hinder your movement, but avoid killing the poison and mana burn plants unless you're about to level up. If possible, before you level up, clear out all the poison and mana burn plants. Corrosion can not be removed easily, so it is recommended you avoid getting any. Before you begin the boss fight, make sure you have killed all sorcerers and pick up all wisp gems.

The boss, Itsssama, has very high resistances and weakens you, so a low damage character is not recommended. Additionally, you should decide in advance which boss to deal with first; if you rely mostly on physical damage and go after Itsssama first, you will want to pick up a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}} for after the fight. If you decide to go the spell casting route, it is highly recommended you bring the piercing wand to counteract his high resistances. Isssama's weakness is his damage - even a level 6 rogue can take a hit without dying, so this makes [[HALPMEH]] an incredibly valuable glyph. [[Berserker]] and [[Rogue]] are very good class choices. If you choose a [[Rogue]], you must either find [[HALPMEH]], [[CYDSTEPP]], or an altar to [[Taurog]], because health potions will not last you long enough. If you find a [[CYDSTEPP]] glyph, start killing sorcerers, gorgons, and vampires 2-3 levels above you. If you find [[HALPMEH]], it will be monsters 1-2 levels above you. If you find [[Taurog]], only pick up the sword, armor, and possibly shield, as you need the rest of the space for wisp gems. If you go the [[Berserker]] route it's Taurog time! Grab the sword, armor, and helmet first converting all glyphs and killing high level sorcerers with your new 65% magic resistance. The boss should be easily outlast-able with any of the 4 tactics.

== Special Interactions with Plants ==

The harmful plants of the Ick! swamp can be exploited as a resource under limited conditions. A worshiper of Glowing Guardian equipped with HALPMEH can and should poison himself whenever he is at full mana and about to explore, and at any point in time during a battle where he intends to cast HALPMEH. Whenever practical, you should also try to get poisoned and manaburned just before leveling up. A character following this strategy will actually want to conserve the plants rather than just cut them down.

It may not look like it, but the harmful plants apply their effects by making a zero-damage attack. This attack can be dodged like any other attack. Rogues following Tikki Tooki can gain very large amounts of piety by harvesting the plants right before level up. Taking the Dodge boon makes this even better.

Killing a plant, even the harmless green ones, still counts as a kill and still discharges IMAWAL. Be cautious that you don't waste your bonus experience on a 0 xp kill!

== Quests ==

There are 2 quests in ick swamp, Ick! and Way of the Open Fist (part 2). For completion of Ick! you gain 250 gold. All you have to do is beat the dungeon. Way of the Open Fist (part 2) requires you to beat the dungeon as a monk without preparations and grants you 350 gold. This requires quite a bit more luck than normal, as you must find an Altar to Taurog asap. Find Taurog and then convert all of the glyphs you've found so far for extra base damage and take the sword. Regen fight monsters (except naga) until you are level 8. Make sure you have extra tiles as you are going to need them. Start off with potions, then tiles until you can kill him in 3 shots (or 4 if you have 2 altars you can afford to desecrate), then use unstoppable furies for the kill. This will take many tires so try not to get frustrated.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:D.E.R.P.

2015-08-12T09:50:04Z

MTaur:

D.E.R.P.

2015-08-11T01:34:18Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

D.E.R.P.

2015-08-11T01:33:25Z

MTaur: Reverted edits by MTaur (talk) to last revision by Darvin

D.E.R.P.

2015-08-11T00:15:03Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

D.E.R.P.

2015-08-10T23:12:58Z

MTaur: /* D.E.R.P. Overview */

D.E.R.P.

2015-08-10T23:01:20Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

User talk:MTaur

2015-07-27T18:38:32Z

MTaur: Blanked the page

Vegetarian Vampire

2015-07-11T15:03:46Z

MTaur:

[[File:VampireChef.png|right]]

'''Vegetarian Vampire''' is a normal random subdungeon found in the Southern region. It is a pre-explored 9x8 tile sub hosting a L1 Vampire and several plants unique to this sub.

Killing the Vampire will drop the {{i|Recipe Scroll}}. Clicking the scroll will read it to reveal the five recipes. As the recipes never change, you do not need to kill the vampire, you can ignore him and start cooking right away. After use the scroll serves little purpose, though it can be converted for a bit of extra cp.

To complete a recipe, simply hit the plants with melee attacks in the order they are written in your chosen recipe. As you do so, they will place themselves in the row at the top of the dungeon floor in the order they are killed. They will be consumed irrevocably whether you complete a valid recipe or not, and there is no way to kill a plant that blocks your way without putting it in the recipe. Therefore you need to plan ahead, immediately starting on a recipe that you will actually be able to complete without blockages.

The five plants each appear like red-tinted version of standard plants, but without their negative effects. They are as follows: 
[[File:Plant Monster Icon.png]] ''Blood Root'' 
[[File:Poisonous Pod Monster Icon.png]] ''Haemo Bush'' 
[[File:Barbing Bush Monster Icon.png]] ''Sang Vine'' 
[[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]] ''Crimson Pod'' 
[[File:Mysterious Murkshade Monster Icon.png]] ''Red Shrub'' 

'''The Recipes:'''
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|- style="background-color: #EEEEEE"
!Name
!Effect
!Recipe
!Visually
!BR [[File:Plant Monster Icon.png]]
!CP [[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]]
!HB [[File:Poisonous Pod Monster Icon.png]]
!RS [[File:Mysterious Murkshade Monster Icon.png]]
!SV [[File:Barbing Bush Monster Icon.png]]
!Conversion point value equivalence
|-
| Health Broth || +3 Health || BR - BR - SV - BR - SV || [[File:Plant Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Plant Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Barbing Bush Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Plant Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Barbing Bush Monster Icon.png]] || 3 || - || - || - || 2 || 240/(player level) CP, Dwarf
|-
| Magi Soup || +1 Mana || CP - CP - CP - HB - SV || [[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Poisonous Pod Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Barbing Bush Monster Icon.png]] || - || 3 || 1 || - || 1 || 70 CP, Elf
|-
| Strength Syrup || +1 Base Damage || SV - RS - SV - RS - BR || [[File:Barbing Bush Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Mysterious Murkshade Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Barbing Bush Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Mysterious Murkshade Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Plant Monster Icon.png]] || 1 || - || - || 2 || 2 || 40 CP, Orc
|-
| Caramel Conversions || 20 Conversion Points || HB - BR - RS - CP - RS || [[File:Poisonous Pod Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Plant Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Mysterious Murkshade Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Mysterious Murkshade Monster Icon.png]] || 1 || 1 || 1 || 2 || - || 20 CP
|-
| Cake of Attack Bonus || +5% Attack || HB - CP - CP - HB - RS || [[File:Poisonous Pod Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Corrosive Creeper Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Poisonous Pod Monster Icon.png]] [[File:Mysterious Murkshade Monster Icon.png]] || - || 2 || 2 || 1 || - || 50 CP, Human
|} 

'''Tips on Use:''' 
1. Take a glance at how many of each plant is available before starting any of the recipes. Usually 1-2 plants will become the bottlenecks for what recipes you can pick up, for example if you have only one Sang Vine available, you won't be able to pick up any Health Broth or Strength Syrup; and you will not be able to pick up more than one Magi Soup. 
2. Some recipes can seem generally better than others, for example if compared to racial conversion bonuses. The best value is the Magi Soup (70 Elf CP), and the worst is the Caramel Conversions (20 CP always). Since Dwarves get a level-scaling CP bonus, the relative CP value of a flat 3HP declines (rapidly at first) from 240 to 24 CP as you level up, but this always beats Caramel Conversions on paper (in reality, 20 CP may or may not help you hit a CP threshold). That said, different characters may need different bonuses, especially if the plants available lend easily to multiple shots of a less powerful bonus; in particular, Orc and Human covet each other's bonuses far more than they want to stack more of the same. In any case, your ability to choose which recipes you want is severely limited regardless, depending mostly on the plants. It's easier to work out what you can get and choose from there - you won't have many options. 
3. Sometimes the placement of the plants will prevent you from picking up a specific recipe immediately, while all other recipes require ingredients you cannot spare. What you can do in this case is to kill five surplus plants (i.e. ones you wouldn't want to use for your recipes anyway). The non-recipe they make up won't have any effect other than to clear the way for you to access the correct plants afterwards. 

{{MainNav}}

Glowing Guardian

2015-07-10T12:13:40Z

MTaur: +5 max MP and curse wipe not listed previously.

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|GodInfobox}}}
|Name=Glowing Guardian
|ShortHand=GG
|InitialWorship=
* +5 Piety per level
|Punishment=
* Removes all glyphs and items from your inventory
|RewardedActions=
;Gain a level: 3+3n piety (piety reward increases for each consecutive level-up without converting to another religion)
;Convert {{s|APHEELSIK}} or {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyphs: {{piety|+10}}
;Convert a large item or glyph: {{Piety|+5}}
;Convert a small item (including small glyphs): {{Piety|+2}}
;Suffer {{t|Poisoned}} or {{t|Mana burned}} status: {{Piety|+2}}
;Kill an XP-valuable undead monster: {{Piety|+1}}
;Burnt Offering (kill a monster that has {{t|Burning}} applied): {{Piety|+1}}
|PenalizedActions=
;Use a {{i|Health Potion}} or {{i|Mana Potion}}: {{Piety|-10}}
;Inflict {{t|Poisoned}} status on a monster: {{piety|-10}}
;Use {{t|Life steal}} or {{t|Sanguine}}: {{piety|-10}}
;Activate {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}}: {{piety|-20}} and activation of glyph fails
|Boons=
;Humility
:'''Cost''': {{piety|15}}
:'''Effect''': Lowers current level by 1; has no effect on base attack, maximum hit points, or experience
;Absolution (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|2+2n}}
:'''Effect''': Removes one monster of your level or lower from the game (exception: Undead, monsters on different dungeon levels, bosses), gain +4 Max HP and a Prayer Bead
;Cleansing (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10}}
:'''Effect''': Removes {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status, as well as 1 layer each of {{t|Weakened}} and {{t|Corrosion}} status, and your next attack is a {{t|Consecrated Strike|magical attack}}. Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Protection (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10 + 5n}}
:'''Effect''': Restores 35% of your maximum health and mana; has no effect on {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status; Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Enlightenment
:'''Cost''': {{piety|100}}
:'''Effect''': Enchants all Prayer Beads in inventory, and gain +1 Max HP, +1% bonus damage, +1 XP and +10 Conversion Points per bead converted. Also removes all Curse layers and grants +5 Max MP.
}}</onlyinclude>

The Glowing Guardian is a deity of justice, heroism, and an inordinate number of rules. He is one of the most powerful deities in the game, but he also has significant limitations that require conversion to use him effectively. The Glowing Guardian has been the subject of frequent updates recently, and has seen overhauls to how his piety gain and loss mechanisms work.

The Glowing Guardian is unlocked in a subdungeon to the East that will put you through several trials.

== Strategy ==
The Glowing Guardian is at his finest in two circumstances: at the very beginning of a dungeon run when you're a fresh 1st level character, and at the very end of the dungeon run when you've already spent all or your potions and need a last minute boost to pull off a win. Glowing Guardian is a significantly weaker option towards the middle of a dungeon run, where you will not be able to effectively leverage his long-term benefits but will still run into some of his late-game complications.

When joining the Glowing Guardian at early levels, you will want to maximize your long-term advantage from Humility and Absolution.

The '''Absolution''' boon allows you to convert weaker monsters into hit points. In the long run, this will only cost you a small amount of piety, but will grant you a considerable number of hit points. As a low-level character, this can easily give you a health total five to six times higher than what you'd normally have. Since you have to gain a Prayer Bead each time, the item slot efficiency for five Absolutions is twice as good as a {{i|Health Pendant}}, and you gain 5% magic resistance in the process.

Because your health regeneration rate does not increase, you will need to level-up to refill your health bar. Exploration will be ineffective for healing until you've gained several levels, and with your high hit point totals you should be able to fight powerful monsters for large amounts of bonus XP.

The '''Humility''' boon is one of the most powerful in the game. Lowering your current level will reduce your health regeneration speed and the effectiveness of some glyphs that are based on character level (such as {{s|HALPMEH}} or {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}}), but will not reduce any of your other abilities. When fighting monsters that are a higher level than yourself, this will increase the amount of bonus experience that you earn. In the long run, this extra bonus XP can be extremely beneficial. To look at it another way, when you have earned enough bonus experience to pay for your initial XP setback, you will have caught up with where you were before and essentially be sitting on top of one level's worth of bonus health and base damage - this is quite easily achieved if you manage to take Humility at level 2. For longer endurance challenges like Naga City or Gaan-Telet, the extra level's worth of bonus stats on a Level 10 character is invaluable.

The '''Cleansing''' boon is more niche, but can be invaluable for fighting physical-resist bosses or in situations where you are trying to get the specialist badge. Although it's an expensive method to clear status ailments, it's less painful than using a potion.

== Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) ==

Eventually, you will need to deal with the Glowing Guardian's one unavoidable hatred: drinking potions. At a punishment of 10 piety per sip, this can be catastrophic for anyone who needs this resource in their end-game fight. The most obvious option is to convert out. Given the large amount of piety the Glowing Guardian can generate if you begin worship early, this is a fairly straightforward approach. Another option is to desecrate other altars, which will grant you indulgences to ignore piety loss. A third option is to convert your potions for piety and rely on the Guardian's protection boon, but this is usually only sensible when pursuing the Feeling Parched badge.

Keep the above paragraph in mind before you consider performing '''Enlightenment'''. If you only manage to buy the boon just before the boss fight, you will have 0 piety and will hardly earn any more until your next level-up, if ever. In this moment, you can't use the Protection boon, and you can't drink potions. Is it really worth it? What do you really want - Mana? Magic resist? Damage? Are other gods able to help with this more easily? Enlightenment scales, but just when it's starting to scale into something good, it ruins your day by denying you refills. Don't fall for the Enlightenment trap. Instead, either budget for an Enlightenment that works for you, or simply convert out.

If you can desecrate a relatively harmless altar like Binlor's, then you will have some piety and three indulgences, which can go a long way. So using Enlightenment immediately before a desecration can be a good option, but sometimes this is not available.

When else can you use Enlightenment? You have some options for managing piety. One way is to be conservative on Absolutions, doing 2-3 of them instead of 4-5, taking Enlightenment a little earlier, and then continuing to level up for more piety. This takes a lot of planning, and you will likely end up having to convert potions you can't afford to drink.

The last option is to just farm that much piety - but only the longest dungeons make this feasible. The idea is to gain Enlightenment, gain 50 or more piety, spend the excess on Protections, and convert out so you can drink potions at your leisure. This won't really be feasible without either a very long dungeon or the presence of Pactmaker for the Consensus boon (immediately after you use the protections.) Even then, your new god won't do much for you unless it's the kind of god who awards piety for killing popcorn or using blood pools in some way, but the important thing is that you can use potions.

The perfect storm, then, is a long dungeon with Binlor and Pactmaker for pure Enlightenment shenanigans. The most likely way to pull this off is to prepare Binlor, since preparing Glowing Guardian himself incurs a penalty that defeats the purpose of full-time worship. In otherwords, extreme Enlightenment is a cool random opportunity you may stumble upon, but not a feasible strategy in general.

'''The TL;DR on Enlightenment is that it isn't always a strong option, and taking it at the wrong time can easily ruin your entire run. Converting out at 50-100 piety is often for the best.'''

The exception to the rule is {{c|Paladin}}. A Paladin can spam Absolutions, get Enlightenment on a discount, and then drink potions at her leisure, incurring no punishment for it. Aggressive use of Absolution and some Protections, saving just enough piety for an Enlightenment near the end, is actually viable in this case.

== Other deities ==

One of the best ways to use the Glowing Guardian is to convert into his religion after having expended all your potions in order to spend piety on Protection. This can be an effective last-minute boost, especially if you have plenty of items in your inventory that you can convert for more piety.

The Glowing Guardian works well with several deities. The most straightforward ways to convert into his religion are from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}. Both of these gods can generate large amounts of piety for 1st and 2nd level characters, allowing someone to arrive in the Guardian's religion with large amounts of piety (and perhaps a few boons already purchased) but still a low-level character. When converting out to other gods, there are two particularly powerful choices: {{g|Tikki Tooki}} and (perhaps surprisingly) {{g|Dracul}}.

Both Tikki and Dracul are powerful end-game gods that can empower a character who has been leverage the Glowing Guardian's long-term advantages. Both suffer somewhat from the use of absolution, since it removes weaker monsters that can be killed (and in the case of Dracul, harvested for blood) for piety. However, both of these gods can provide benefits that are extremely well-suited to a typical Glowing Guardian follower.

The Glowing Guardian does '''not''' work well with {{g|Taurog}}, {{g|Mystera Annur}} or {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}. Due to inventory constraints, it is very difficult to use the boons of both Taurog and the Glowing Guardian. Mystera offers no particular synergy with the Guardian, but they will at very least not interfere with each other. Jehora Jeheyu is generally not a god that favours conversion between religions to begin with, and given the windows of opportunity for optimal conversion are quite narrow with the Guardian it's seldom an option to jump between these two gods.

{{MainNav}}

Glowing Guardian

2015-07-02T08:38:58Z

MTaur: /* Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|GodInfobox}}}
|Name=Glowing Guardian
|ShortHand=GG
|InitialWorship=
* +5 Piety per level
|Punishment=
* Removes all glyphs and items from your inventory
|RewardedActions=
;Gain a level: 3+3n piety (piety reward increases for each consecutive level-up without converting to another religion)
;Convert {{s|APHEELSIK}} or {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyphs: {{piety|+10}}
;Convert a large item or glyph: {{Piety|+5}}
;Convert a small item (including small glyphs): {{Piety|+2}}
;Suffer {{t|Poisoned}} or {{t|Mana burned}} status: {{Piety|+2}}
;Kill an XP-valuable undead monster: {{Piety|+1}}
;Burnt Offering (kill a monster that has {{t|Burning}} applied): {{Piety|+1}}
|PenalizedActions=
;Use a {{i|Health Potion}} or {{i|Mana Potion}}: {{Piety|-10}}
;Inflict {{t|Poisoned}} status on a monster: {{piety|-10}}
;Use {{t|Life steal}} or {{t|Sanguine}}: {{piety|-10}}
;Activate {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}}: {{piety|-20}} and activation of glyph fails
|Boons=
;Humility
:'''Cost''': {{piety|15}}
:'''Effect''': Lowers current level by 1; has no effect on base attack, maximum hit points, or experience
;Absolution (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|2+2n}}
:'''Effect''': Removes one monster of your level or lower from the game (exception: Undead, monsters on different dungeon levels, bosses), gain +4 Max HP and a Prayer Bead
;Cleansing (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10}}
:'''Effect''': Removes {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status, as well as 1 layer each of {{t|Weakened}} and {{t|Corrosion}} status, and your next attack is a {{t|Consecrated Strike|magical attack}}. Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Protection (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10 + 5n}}
:'''Effect''': Restores 35% of your maximum health and mana; has no effect on {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status; Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Enlightenment
:'''Cost''': {{piety|100}}
:'''Effect''': Enchants all Prayer Beads in inventory, and gain +1 Max HP, +1% bonus damage, +1 XP and +10 Conversion Points per bead converted
}}</onlyinclude>

The Glowing Guardian is a deity of justice, heroism, and an inordinate number of rules. He is one of the most powerful deities in the game, but he also has significant limitations that require conversion to use him effectively. The Glowing Guardian has been the subject of frequent updates recently, and has seen overhauls to how his piety gain and loss mechanisms work.

The Glowing Guardian is unlocked in a subdungeon to the East that will put you through several trials.

== Strategy ==
The Glowing Guardian is at his finest in two circumstances: at the very beginning of a dungeon run when you're a fresh 1st level character, and at the very end of the dungeon run when you've already spent all or your potions and need a last minute boost to pull off a win. Glowing Guardian is a significantly weaker option towards the middle of a dungeon run, where you will not be able to effectively leverage his long-term benefits but will still run into some of his late-game complications.

When joining the Glowing Guardian at early levels, you will want to maximize your long-term advantage from Humility and Absolution.

The '''Absolution''' boon allows you to convert weaker monsters into hit points. In the long run, this will only cost you a small amount of piety, but will grant you a considerable number of hit points. As a low-level character, this can easily give you a health total five to six times higher than what you'd normally have. Since you have to gain a Prayer Bead each time, the item slot efficiency for five Absolutions is twice as good as a {{i|Health Pendant}}, and you gain 5% magic resistance in the process.

Because your health regeneration rate does not increase, you will need to level-up to refill your health bar. Exploration will be ineffective for healing until you've gained several levels, and with your high hit point totals you should be able to fight powerful monsters for large amounts of bonus XP.

The '''Humility''' boon is one of the most powerful in the game. Lowering your current level will reduce your health regeneration speed and the effectiveness of some glyphs that are based on character level (such as {{s|HALPMEH}} or {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}}), but will not reduce any of your other abilities. When fighting monsters that are a higher level than yourself, this will increase the amount of bonus experience that you earn. In the long run, this extra bonus XP can be extremely beneficial. To look at it another way, when you have earned enough bonus experience to pay for your initial XP setback, you will have caught up with where you were before and essentially be sitting on top of one level's worth of bonus health and base damage - this is quite easily achieved if you manage to take Humility at level 2. For longer endurance challenges like Naga City or Gaan-Telet, the extra level's worth of bonus stats on a Level 10 character is invaluable.

The '''Cleansing''' boon is more niche, but can be invaluable for fighting physical-resist bosses or in situations where you are trying to get the specialist badge. Although it's an expensive method to clear status ailments, it's less painful than using a potion.

== Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) ==

Eventually, you will need to deal with the Glowing Guardian's one unavoidable hatred: drinking potions. At a punishment of 10 piety per sip, this can be catastrophic for anyone who needs this resource in their end-game fight. The most obvious option is to convert out. Given the large amount of piety the Glowing Guardian can generate if you begin worship early, this is a fairly straightforward approach. Another option is to desecrate other altars, which will grant you indulgences to ignore piety loss. A third option is to convert your potions for piety and rely on the Guardian's protection boon, but this is usually only sensible when pursuing the Feeling Parched badge.

Keep the above paragraph in mind before you consider performing '''Enlightenment'''. If you only manage to buy the boon just before the boss fight, you will have 0 piety and will hardly earn any more until your next level-up, if ever. In this moment, you can't use the Protection boon, and you can't drink potions. Is it really worth it? What do you really want - Mana? Magic resist? Damage? Are other gods able to help with this more easily? Enlightenment scales, but just when it's starting to scale into something good, it ruins your day by denying you refills. Don't fall for the Enlightenment trap. Instead, either budget for an Enlightenment that works for you, or simply convert out.

If you can desecrate a relatively harmless altar like Binlor's, then you will have some piety and three indulgences, which can go a long way. So using Enlightenment immediately before a desecration can be a good option, but sometimes this is not available.

When else can you use Enlightenment? You have some options for managing piety. One way is to be conservative on Absolutions, doing 2-3 of them instead of 4-5, taking Enlightenment a little earlier, and then continuing to level up for more piety. This takes a lot of planning, and you will likely end up having to convert potions you can't afford to drink.

The last option is to just farm that much piety - but only the longest dungeons make this feasible. The idea is to gain Enlightenment, gain 50 or more piety, spend the excess on Protections, and convert out so you can drink potions at your leisure. This won't really be feasible without either a very long dungeon or the presence of Pactmaker for the Consensus boon (immediately after you use the protections.) Even then, your new god won't do much for you unless it's the kind of god who awards piety for killing popcorn or using blood pools in some way, but the important thing is that you can use potions.

The perfect storm, then, is a long dungeon with Binlor and Pactmaker for pure Enlightenment shenanigans. The most likely way to pull this off is to prepare Binlor, since preparing Glowing Guardian himself incurs a penalty that defeats the purpose of full-time worship. In otherwords, extreme Enlightenment is a cool random opportunity you may stumble upon, but not a feasible strategy in general.

'''The TL;DR on Enlightenment is that it isn't always a strong option, and taking it at the wrong time can easily ruin your entire run. Converting out at 50-100 piety is often for the best.'''

The exception to the rule is {{c|Paladin}}. A Paladin can spam Absolutions, get Enlightenment on a discount, and then drink potions at her leisure, incurring no punishment for it. Aggressive use of Absolution and some Protections, saving just enough piety for an Enlightenment near the end, is actually viable in this case.

== Other deities ==

One of the best ways to use the Glowing Guardian is to convert into his religion after having expended all your potions in order to spend piety on Protection. This can be an effective last-minute boost, especially if you have plenty of items in your inventory that you can convert for more piety.

The Glowing Guardian works well with several deities. The most straightforward ways to convert into his religion are from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}. Both of these gods can generate large amounts of piety for 1st and 2nd level characters, allowing someone to arrive in the Guardian's religion with large amounts of piety (and perhaps a few boons already purchased) but still a low-level character. When converting out to other gods, there are two particularly powerful choices: {{g|Tikki Tooki}} and (perhaps surprisingly) {{g|Dracul}}.

Both Tikki and Dracul are powerful end-game gods that can empower a character who has been leverage the Glowing Guardian's long-term advantages. Both suffer somewhat from the use of absolution, since it removes weaker monsters that can be killed (and in the case of Dracul, harvested for blood) for piety. However, both of these gods can provide benefits that are extremely well-suited to a typical Glowing Guardian follower.

The Glowing Guardian does '''not''' work well with {{g|Taurog}}, {{g|Mystera Annur}} or {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}. Due to inventory constraints, it is very difficult to use the boons of both Taurog and the Glowing Guardian. Mystera offers no particular synergy with the Guardian, but they will at very least not interfere with each other. Jehora Jeheyu is generally not a god that favours conversion between religions to begin with, and given the windows of opportunity for optimal conversion are quite narrow with the Guardian it's seldom an option to jump between these two gods.

{{MainNav}}

Glowing Guardian

2015-07-02T08:38:02Z

MTaur: /* Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) */ - Paladin

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|GodInfobox}}}
|Name=Glowing Guardian
|ShortHand=GG
|InitialWorship=
* +5 Piety per level
|Punishment=
* Removes all glyphs and items from your inventory
|RewardedActions=
;Gain a level: 3+3n piety (piety reward increases for each consecutive level-up without converting to another religion)
;Convert {{s|APHEELSIK}} or {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyphs: {{piety|+10}}
;Convert a large item or glyph: {{Piety|+5}}
;Convert a small item (including small glyphs): {{Piety|+2}}
;Suffer {{t|Poisoned}} or {{t|Mana burned}} status: {{Piety|+2}}
;Kill an XP-valuable undead monster: {{Piety|+1}}
;Burnt Offering (kill a monster that has {{t|Burning}} applied): {{Piety|+1}}
|PenalizedActions=
;Use a {{i|Health Potion}} or {{i|Mana Potion}}: {{Piety|-10}}
;Inflict {{t|Poisoned}} status on a monster: {{piety|-10}}
;Use {{t|Life steal}} or {{t|Sanguine}}: {{piety|-10}}
;Activate {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}}: {{piety|-20}} and activation of glyph fails
|Boons=
;Humility
:'''Cost''': {{piety|15}}
:'''Effect''': Lowers current level by 1; has no effect on base attack, maximum hit points, or experience
;Absolution (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|2+2n}}
:'''Effect''': Removes one monster of your level or lower from the game (exception: Undead, monsters on different dungeon levels, bosses), gain +4 Max HP and a Prayer Bead
;Cleansing (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10}}
:'''Effect''': Removes {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status, as well as 1 layer each of {{t|Weakened}} and {{t|Corrosion}} status, and your next attack is a {{t|Consecrated Strike|magical attack}}. Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Protection (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10 + 5n}}
:'''Effect''': Restores 35% of your maximum health and mana; has no effect on {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status; Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Enlightenment
:'''Cost''': {{piety|100}}
:'''Effect''': Enchants all Prayer Beads in inventory, and gain +1 Max HP, +1% bonus damage, +1 XP and +10 Conversion Points per bead converted
}}</onlyinclude>

The Glowing Guardian is a deity of justice, heroism, and an inordinate number of rules. He is one of the most powerful deities in the game, but he also has significant limitations that require conversion to use him effectively. The Glowing Guardian has been the subject of frequent updates recently, and has seen overhauls to how his piety gain and loss mechanisms work.

The Glowing Guardian is unlocked in a subdungeon to the East that will put you through several trials.

== Strategy ==
The Glowing Guardian is at his finest in two circumstances: at the very beginning of a dungeon run when you're a fresh 1st level character, and at the very end of the dungeon run when you've already spent all or your potions and need a last minute boost to pull off a win. Glowing Guardian is a significantly weaker option towards the middle of a dungeon run, where you will not be able to effectively leverage his long-term benefits but will still run into some of his late-game complications.

When joining the Glowing Guardian at early levels, you will want to maximize your long-term advantage from Humility and Absolution.

The '''Absolution''' boon allows you to convert weaker monsters into hit points. In the long run, this will only cost you a small amount of piety, but will grant you a considerable number of hit points. As a low-level character, this can easily give you a health total five to six times higher than what you'd normally have. Since you have to gain a Prayer Bead each time, the item slot efficiency for five Absolutions is twice as good as a {{i|Health Pendant}}, and you gain 5% magic resistance in the process.

Because your health regeneration rate does not increase, you will need to level-up to refill your health bar. Exploration will be ineffective for healing until you've gained several levels, and with your high hit point totals you should be able to fight powerful monsters for large amounts of bonus XP.

The '''Humility''' boon is one of the most powerful in the game. Lowering your current level will reduce your health regeneration speed and the effectiveness of some glyphs that are based on character level (such as {{s|HALPMEH}} or {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}}), but will not reduce any of your other abilities. When fighting monsters that are a higher level than yourself, this will increase the amount of bonus experience that you earn. In the long run, this extra bonus XP can be extremely beneficial. To look at it another way, when you have earned enough bonus experience to pay for your initial XP setback, you will have caught up with where you were before and essentially be sitting on top of one level's worth of bonus health and base damage - this is quite easily achieved if you manage to take Humility at level 2. For longer endurance challenges like Naga City or Gaan-Telet, the extra level's worth of bonus stats on a Level 10 character is invaluable.

The '''Cleansing''' boon is more niche, but can be invaluable for fighting physical-resist bosses or in situations where you are trying to get the specialist badge. Although it's an expensive method to clear status ailments, it's less painful than using a potion.

== Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) ==

Eventually, you will need to deal with the Glowing Guardian's one unavoidable hatred: drinking potions. At a punishment of 10 piety per sip, this can be catastrophic for anyone who needs this resource in their end-game fight. The most obvious option is to convert out. Given the large amount of piety the Glowing Guardian can generate if you begin worship early, this is a fairly straightforward approach. Another option is to desecrate other altars, which will grant you indulgences to ignore piety loss. A third option is to convert your potions for piety and rely on the Guardian's protection boon, but this is usually only sensible when pursuing the Feeling Parched badge.

Keep the above paragraph in mind before you consider performing '''Enlightenment'''. If you only manage to buy the boon just before the boss fight, you will have 0 piety and will hardly earn any more until your next level-up, if ever. In this moment, you can't use the Protection boon, and you can't drink potions. Is it really worth it? What do you really want - Mana? Magic resist? Damage? Are other gods able to help with this more easily? Enlightenment scales, but just when it's starting to scale into something good, it ruins your day by denying you refills. Don't fall for the Enlightenment trap. Instead, either budget for an Enlightenment that works for you, or simply convert out.

If you can desecrate a relatively harmless altar like Binlor's, then you will have some piety and three indulgences, which can go a long way. So using Enlightenment immediately before a desecration can be a good option, but sometimes this is not available.

When else can you use Enlightenment? You have some options for managing piety. One way is to be conservative on Absolutions, doing 2-3 of them instead of 4-5, taking Enlightenment a little earlier, and then continuing to level up for more piety. This takes a lot of planning, and you will likely end up having to convert potions you can't afford to drink.

The last option is to just farm that much piety - but only the longest dungeons make this feasible. The idea is to gain Enlightenment, gain 50 or more piety, spend the excess on Protections, and convert out so you can drink potions at your leisure. This won't really be feasible without either a very long dungeon or the presence of Pactmaker for the Consensus boon (immediately after you use the protections.) Even then, your new god won't do much for you unless it's the kind of god who awards piety for killing popcorn or using blood pools in some way, but the important thing is that you can use potions.

The perfect storm, then, is a long dungeon with Binlor and Pactmaker for pure Enlightenment shenanigans. The most likely way to pull this off is to prepare Binlor, since preparing Glowing Guardian himself incurs a penalty that defeats the purpose of full-time worship. In otherwords, extreme Enlightenment is a cool random opportunity you may stumble upon, but not a feasible strategy in general.

'''The TL;DR on Enlightenment is that it isn't always a strong option, and taking it at the wrong time can easily ruin your entire run. Converting out at 50-100 piety is often for the best.'''

The exception to the rule is {{c|Paladin}}. A {{c|Paladin}} can spam Absolutions, get Enlightenment on a discount, and then drink potions at her leisure, incurring no punishment for it. Aggressive use of Absolution and some Protections, saving just enough piety for an Enlightenment near the end, is actually viable in this case.

== Other deities ==

One of the best ways to use the Glowing Guardian is to convert into his religion after having expended all your potions in order to spend piety on Protection. This can be an effective last-minute boost, especially if you have plenty of items in your inventory that you can convert for more piety.

The Glowing Guardian works well with several deities. The most straightforward ways to convert into his religion are from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}. Both of these gods can generate large amounts of piety for 1st and 2nd level characters, allowing someone to arrive in the Guardian's religion with large amounts of piety (and perhaps a few boons already purchased) but still a low-level character. When converting out to other gods, there are two particularly powerful choices: {{g|Tikki Tooki}} and (perhaps surprisingly) {{g|Dracul}}.

Both Tikki and Dracul are powerful end-game gods that can empower a character who has been leverage the Glowing Guardian's long-term advantages. Both suffer somewhat from the use of absolution, since it removes weaker monsters that can be killed (and in the case of Dracul, harvested for blood) for piety. However, both of these gods can provide benefits that are extremely well-suited to a typical Glowing Guardian follower.

The Glowing Guardian does '''not''' work well with {{g|Taurog}}, {{g|Mystera Annur}} or {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}. Due to inventory constraints, it is very difficult to use the boons of both Taurog and the Glowing Guardian. Mystera offers no particular synergy with the Guardian, but they will at very least not interfere with each other. Jehora Jeheyu is generally not a god that favours conversion between religions to begin with, and given the windows of opportunity for optimal conversion are quite narrow with the Guardian it's seldom an option to jump between these two gods.

{{MainNav}}

Glowing Guardian

2015-07-02T08:33:52Z

MTaur: /* Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|GodInfobox}}}
|Name=Glowing Guardian
|ShortHand=GG
|InitialWorship=
* +5 Piety per level
|Punishment=
* Removes all glyphs and items from your inventory
|RewardedActions=
;Gain a level: 3+3n piety (piety reward increases for each consecutive level-up without converting to another religion)
;Convert {{s|APHEELSIK}} or {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyphs: {{piety|+10}}
;Convert a large item or glyph: {{Piety|+5}}
;Convert a small item (including small glyphs): {{Piety|+2}}
;Suffer {{t|Poisoned}} or {{t|Mana burned}} status: {{Piety|+2}}
;Kill an XP-valuable undead monster: {{Piety|+1}}
;Burnt Offering (kill a monster that has {{t|Burning}} applied): {{Piety|+1}}
|PenalizedActions=
;Use a {{i|Health Potion}} or {{i|Mana Potion}}: {{Piety|-10}}
;Inflict {{t|Poisoned}} status on a monster: {{piety|-10}}
;Use {{t|Life steal}} or {{t|Sanguine}}: {{piety|-10}}
;Activate {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}}: {{piety|-20}} and activation of glyph fails
|Boons=
;Humility
:'''Cost''': {{piety|15}}
:'''Effect''': Lowers current level by 1; has no effect on base attack, maximum hit points, or experience
;Absolution (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|2+2n}}
:'''Effect''': Removes one monster of your level or lower from the game (exception: Undead, monsters on different dungeon levels, bosses), gain +4 Max HP and a Prayer Bead
;Cleansing (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10}}
:'''Effect''': Removes {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status, as well as 1 layer each of {{t|Weakened}} and {{t|Corrosion}} status, and your next attack is a {{t|Consecrated Strike|magical attack}}. Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Protection (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10 + 5n}}
:'''Effect''': Restores 35% of your maximum health and mana; has no effect on {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status; Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Enlightenment
:'''Cost''': {{piety|100}}
:'''Effect''': Enchants all Prayer Beads in inventory, and gain +1 Max HP, +1% bonus damage, +1 XP and +10 Conversion Points per bead converted
}}</onlyinclude>

The Glowing Guardian is a deity of justice, heroism, and an inordinate number of rules. He is one of the most powerful deities in the game, but he also has significant limitations that require conversion to use him effectively. The Glowing Guardian has been the subject of frequent updates recently, and has seen overhauls to how his piety gain and loss mechanisms work.

The Glowing Guardian is unlocked in a subdungeon to the East that will put you through several trials.

== Strategy ==
The Glowing Guardian is at his finest in two circumstances: at the very beginning of a dungeon run when you're a fresh 1st level character, and at the very end of the dungeon run when you've already spent all or your potions and need a last minute boost to pull off a win. Glowing Guardian is a significantly weaker option towards the middle of a dungeon run, where you will not be able to effectively leverage his long-term benefits but will still run into some of his late-game complications.

When joining the Glowing Guardian at early levels, you will want to maximize your long-term advantage from Humility and Absolution.

The '''Absolution''' boon allows you to convert weaker monsters into hit points. In the long run, this will only cost you a small amount of piety, but will grant you a considerable number of hit points. As a low-level character, this can easily give you a health total five to six times higher than what you'd normally have. Since you have to gain a Prayer Bead each time, the item slot efficiency for five Absolutions is twice as good as a {{i|Health Pendant}}, and you gain 5% magic resistance in the process.

Because your health regeneration rate does not increase, you will need to level-up to refill your health bar. Exploration will be ineffective for healing until you've gained several levels, and with your high hit point totals you should be able to fight powerful monsters for large amounts of bonus XP.

The '''Humility''' boon is one of the most powerful in the game. Lowering your current level will reduce your health regeneration speed and the effectiveness of some glyphs that are based on character level (such as {{s|HALPMEH}} or {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}}), but will not reduce any of your other abilities. When fighting monsters that are a higher level than yourself, this will increase the amount of bonus experience that you earn. In the long run, this extra bonus XP can be extremely beneficial. To look at it another way, when you have earned enough bonus experience to pay for your initial XP setback, you will have caught up with where you were before and essentially be sitting on top of one level's worth of bonus health and base damage - this is quite easily achieved if you manage to take Humility at level 2. For longer endurance challenges like Naga City or Gaan-Telet, the extra level's worth of bonus stats on a Level 10 character is invaluable.

The '''Cleansing''' boon is more niche, but can be invaluable for fighting physical-resist bosses or in situations where you are trying to get the specialist badge. Although it's an expensive method to clear status ailments, it's less painful than using a potion.

== Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) ==

Eventually, you will need to deal with the Glowing Guardian's one unavoidable hatred: drinking potions. At a punishment of 10 piety per sip, this can be catastrophic for anyone who needs this resource in their end-game fight. The most obvious option is to convert out. Given the large amount of piety the Glowing Guardian can generate if you begin worship early, this is a fairly straightforward approach. Another option is to desecrate other altars, which will grant you indulgences to ignore piety loss. A third option is to convert your potions for piety and rely on the Guardian's protection boon, but this is usually only sensible when pursuing the Feeling Parched badge.

Keep the above paragraph in mind before you consider performing '''Enlightenment'''. If you only manage to buy the boon just before the boss fight, you will have 0 piety and will hardly earn any more until your next level-up, if ever. In this moment, you can't use the Protection boon, and you can't drink potions. Is it really worth it? What do you really want - Mana? Magic resist? Damage? Are other gods able to help with this more easily? Enlightenment scales, but just when it's starting to scale into something good, it ruins your day by denying you refills. Don't fall for the Enlightenment trap. Instead, either budget for an Enlightenment that works for you, or simply convert out.

If you can desecrate a relatively harmless altar like Binlor's, then you will have some piety and three indulgences, which can go a long way. So using Enlightenment immediately before a desecration can be a good option, but sometimes this is not available.

When else can you use Enlightenment? You have some options for managing piety. One way is to be conservative on Absolutions, doing 2-3 of them instead of 4-5, taking Enlightenment a little earlier, and then continuing to level up for more piety. This takes a lot of planning, and you will likely end up having to convert potions you can't afford to drink.

The last option is to just farm that much piety - but only the longest dungeons make this feasible. The idea is to gain Enlightenment, gain 50 or more piety, spend the excess on Protections, and convert out so you can drink potions at your leisure. This won't really be feasible without either a very long dungeon or the presence of Pactmaker for the Consensus boon (immediately after you use the protections.) Even then, your new god won't do much for you unless it's the kind of god who awards piety for killing popcorn or using blood pools in some way, but the important thing is that you can use potions.

The perfect storm, then, is a long dungeon with Binlor and Pactmaker for pure Enlightenment shenanigans. The most likely way to pull this off is to prepare Binlor, since preparing Glowing Guardian himself incurs a penalty that defeats the purpose of full-time worship. In otherwords, extreme Enlightenment is a cool random opportunity you may stumble upon, but not a feasible strategy in general.

'''The TL;DR on Enlightenment is that it isn't always a strong option, and taking it at the wrong time can easily ruin your entire run. Converting out at 50-100 piety is often for the best.'''

== Other deities ==

One of the best ways to use the Glowing Guardian is to convert into his religion after having expended all your potions in order to spend piety on Protection. This can be an effective last-minute boost, especially if you have plenty of items in your inventory that you can convert for more piety.

The Glowing Guardian works well with several deities. The most straightforward ways to convert into his religion are from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}. Both of these gods can generate large amounts of piety for 1st and 2nd level characters, allowing someone to arrive in the Guardian's religion with large amounts of piety (and perhaps a few boons already purchased) but still a low-level character. When converting out to other gods, there are two particularly powerful choices: {{g|Tikki Tooki}} and (perhaps surprisingly) {{g|Dracul}}.

Both Tikki and Dracul are powerful end-game gods that can empower a character who has been leverage the Glowing Guardian's long-term advantages. Both suffer somewhat from the use of absolution, since it removes weaker monsters that can be killed (and in the case of Dracul, harvested for blood) for piety. However, both of these gods can provide benefits that are extremely well-suited to a typical Glowing Guardian follower.

The Glowing Guardian does '''not''' work well with {{g|Taurog}}, {{g|Mystera Annur}} or {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}. Due to inventory constraints, it is very difficult to use the boons of both Taurog and the Glowing Guardian. Mystera offers no particular synergy with the Guardian, but they will at very least not interfere with each other. Jehora Jeheyu is generally not a god that favours conversion between religions to begin with, and given the windows of opportunity for optimal conversion are quite narrow with the Guardian it's seldom an option to jump between these two gods.

{{MainNav}}

Glowing Guardian

2015-07-02T08:32:07Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|GodInfobox}}}
|Name=Glowing Guardian
|ShortHand=GG
|InitialWorship=
* +5 Piety per level
|Punishment=
* Removes all glyphs and items from your inventory
|RewardedActions=
;Gain a level: 3+3n piety (piety reward increases for each consecutive level-up without converting to another religion)
;Convert {{s|APHEELSIK}} or {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyphs: {{piety|+10}}
;Convert a large item or glyph: {{Piety|+5}}
;Convert a small item (including small glyphs): {{Piety|+2}}
;Suffer {{t|Poisoned}} or {{t|Mana burned}} status: {{Piety|+2}}
;Kill an XP-valuable undead monster: {{Piety|+1}}
;Burnt Offering (kill a monster that has {{t|Burning}} applied): {{Piety|+1}}
|PenalizedActions=
;Use a {{i|Health Potion}} or {{i|Mana Potion}}: {{Piety|-10}}
;Inflict {{t|Poisoned}} status on a monster: {{piety|-10}}
;Use {{t|Life steal}} or {{t|Sanguine}}: {{piety|-10}}
;Activate {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}}: {{piety|-20}} and activation of glyph fails
|Boons=
;Humility
:'''Cost''': {{piety|15}}
:'''Effect''': Lowers current level by 1; has no effect on base attack, maximum hit points, or experience
;Absolution (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|2+2n}}
:'''Effect''': Removes one monster of your level or lower from the game (exception: Undead, monsters on different dungeon levels, bosses), gain +4 Max HP and a Prayer Bead
;Cleansing (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10}}
:'''Effect''': Removes {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status, as well as 1 layer each of {{t|Weakened}} and {{t|Corrosion}} status, and your next attack is a {{t|Consecrated Strike|magical attack}}. Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Protection (Repeatable)
:'''Cost''': {{piety|10 + 5n}}
:'''Effect''': Restores 35% of your maximum health and mana; has no effect on {{t|Mana Burned}} and {{t|Poisoned}} status; Also receive a Prayer Bead.
;Enlightenment
:'''Cost''': {{piety|100}}
:'''Effect''': Enchants all Prayer Beads in inventory, and gain +1 Max HP, +1% bonus damage, +1 XP and +10 Conversion Points per bead converted
}}</onlyinclude>

The Glowing Guardian is a deity of justice, heroism, and an inordinate number of rules. He is one of the most powerful deities in the game, but he also has significant limitations that require conversion to use him effectively. The Glowing Guardian has been the subject of frequent updates recently, and has seen overhauls to how his piety gain and loss mechanisms work.

The Glowing Guardian is unlocked in a subdungeon to the East that will put you through several trials.

== Strategy ==
The Glowing Guardian is at his finest in two circumstances: at the very beginning of a dungeon run when you're a fresh 1st level character, and at the very end of the dungeon run when you've already spent all or your potions and need a last minute boost to pull off a win. Glowing Guardian is a significantly weaker option towards the middle of a dungeon run, where you will not be able to effectively leverage his long-term benefits but will still run into some of his late-game complications.

When joining the Glowing Guardian at early levels, you will want to maximize your long-term advantage from Humility and Absolution.

The '''Absolution''' boon allows you to convert weaker monsters into hit points. In the long run, this will only cost you a small amount of piety, but will grant you a considerable number of hit points. As a low-level character, this can easily give you a health total five to six times higher than what you'd normally have. Since you have to gain a Prayer Bead each time, the item slot efficiency for five Absolutions is twice as good as a {{i|Health Pendant}}, and you gain 5% magic resistance in the process.

Because your health regeneration rate does not increase, you will need to level-up to refill your health bar. Exploration will be ineffective for healing until you've gained several levels, and with your high hit point totals you should be able to fight powerful monsters for large amounts of bonus XP.

The '''Humility''' boon is one of the most powerful in the game. Lowering your current level will reduce your health regeneration speed and the effectiveness of some glyphs that are based on character level (such as {{s|HALPMEH}} or {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}}), but will not reduce any of your other abilities. When fighting monsters that are a higher level than yourself, this will increase the amount of bonus experience that you earn. In the long run, this extra bonus XP can be extremely beneficial. To look at it another way, when you have earned enough bonus experience to pay for your initial XP setback, you will have caught up with where you were before and essentially be sitting on top of one level's worth of bonus health and base damage - this is quite easily achieved if you manage to take Humility at level 2. For longer endurance challenges like Naga City or Gaan-Telet, the extra level's worth of bonus stats on a Level 10 character is invaluable.

The '''Cleansing''' boon is more niche, but can be invaluable for fighting physical-resist bosses or in situations where you are trying to get the specialist badge. Although it's an expensive method to clear status ailments, it's less painful than using a potion.

== Full-time worship - Enlightenment (or not?) ==

Eventually, you will need to deal with the Glowing Guardian's one unavoidable hatred: drinking potions. At a punishment of 10 piety per sip, this can be catastrophic for anyone who needs this resource in their end-game fight. The most obvious option is to convert out. Given the large amount of piety the Glowing Guardian can generate if you begin worship early, this is a fairly straightforward approach. Another option is to desecrate other altars, which will grant you indulgences to ignore piety loss. A third option is to convert your potions for piety and rely on the Guardian's protection boon, but this is usually only sensible when pursuing the Feeling Parched badge.

Keep the above paragraph in mind before you consider performing '''Enlightenment'''. If you only manage to buy the boon just before the boss fight, you will have 0 piety and will hardly earn any more until your next level-up, if ever. In this moment, you can't use the Protection boon, and you can't drink potions. Is it really worth it? What do you really want - Mana? Magic resist? Damage? Are other gods able to help with this more easily? Enlightenment scales, but just when it's starting to scale into something good, it ruins your day by denying you refills. Don't fall for the Enlightenment trap. Instead, either budget for an Enlightenment that works for you, or simply convert out.

If you can desecrate a relatively harmless altar like Binlor's, then you will have some piety and three indulgences, which can go a long way. So using Enlightenment immediately before a desecration can be a good option, but sometimes this is not available.

When else can you use Enlightenment? You have some options for managing piety. One way is to be conservative on Absolutions, doing 2-3 of them instead of 4-5, taking Enlightenment a little earlier, and then continuing to level up for more piety. This takes a lot of planning, and you will likely end up having to convert potions you can't afford to drink.

The last option is to just farm that much piety - but only the longest dungeons make this feasible. The idea is to gain Enlightenment, gain 50 or more piety, spend the excess on Protections, and convert out so you can drink potions at your leisure. This won't really be feasible without either a very long dungeon or the presence of Pactmaker for the Consensus boon (immediately after you use the protections.) Even then, your new god won't do much for you unless it's the kind of god who awards piety for killing popcorn or using blood pools in some way, but the important thing is that you can use potions.

The perfect storm, then, is a long dungeon with Binlor and Pactmaker for pure Enlightenment shenanigans. The most likely way to pull this off is to prepare Binlor, since preparing Glowing Guardian himself incurs a penalty that defeats the purpose of full-time worship. In otherwords, extreme Enlightenment is a cool random opportunity you may stumble upon, but not a feasible strategy in general.

'''The TL;DR on Enlightenment is that it isn't always a strong option. Converting out at 50-100 piety is often for the best.'''

== Other deities ==

One of the best ways to use the Glowing Guardian is to convert into his religion after having expended all your potions in order to spend piety on Protection. This can be an effective last-minute boost, especially if you have plenty of items in your inventory that you can convert for more piety.

The Glowing Guardian works well with several deities. The most straightforward ways to convert into his religion are from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}. Both of these gods can generate large amounts of piety for 1st and 2nd level characters, allowing someone to arrive in the Guardian's religion with large amounts of piety (and perhaps a few boons already purchased) but still a low-level character. When converting out to other gods, there are two particularly powerful choices: {{g|Tikki Tooki}} and (perhaps surprisingly) {{g|Dracul}}.

Both Tikki and Dracul are powerful end-game gods that can empower a character who has been leverage the Glowing Guardian's long-term advantages. Both suffer somewhat from the use of absolution, since it removes weaker monsters that can be killed (and in the case of Dracul, harvested for blood) for piety. However, both of these gods can provide benefits that are extremely well-suited to a typical Glowing Guardian follower.

The Glowing Guardian does '''not''' work well with {{g|Taurog}}, {{g|Mystera Annur}} or {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}. Due to inventory constraints, it is very difficult to use the boons of both Taurog and the Glowing Guardian. Mystera offers no particular synergy with the Guardian, but they will at very least not interfere with each other. Jehora Jeheyu is generally not a god that favours conversion between religions to begin with, and given the windows of opportunity for optimal conversion are quite narrow with the Guardian it's seldom an option to jump between these two gods.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:Scoring

2015-06-24T20:10:22Z

MTaur:

@MTaur: Sorry, thought you were done and went through with my editor's pen. I apologize if I overwrote anything you added --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 16:08, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

I don't see anything off at a glance. Also, Warmonger probably deserves the detail, but my stuff about Feeling Parched might be overkill. Not sure. - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

I think you lose out on Miser if you use Translocation Seal. Is the information in page outdated? - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Bloodmage

2015-06-24T01:41:10Z

MTaur: Formatting error last edit

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|ClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Bloodmage
|ShortHand=Bl
|Traits=
;INSANE: Start with the BLUDTUPOWA glyph, - 3 Mana
;SANGUINE: Walking over a BloodPool restores 20% of maximum health
;POWER-HUNGRY: Mana potions 60% effective and boost Sanguine, drinking blood restores 1 mana
|SuggestedRaces=
{{HuBl}},{{DwBl}},{{GnBl}}
|Unlock=
Level 3 [[Mage Tower]]
|Group=Tier 3
}}</onlyinclude>

''Bloodmages are the mad scientists of the magic-using world: essentially the Sorcerer gone a little bit rotten. Not rotten enough to be considered un-heroic, but still not the sort of person you'd want to meet in a shadowy alchemy lab. The magic that has fused with their bodies typically gets put to slightly more horrific uses than expected, at great cost to themselves as well as their foes.''

== Class Features ==

*{{t|Insane}}: Start with the BLUDTUPOWA glyph, -3 Mana
*{{t|Sanguine}}: Walking over a BloodPool restores 20% of maximum health
*{{t|Power-hungry}}: Mana potions 60% effective and boost Sanguine by 2%, drinking blood restores 1 mana

== Races ==

Every race is perfectly viable as a Bloodmage. The sophisticated interplay between blood, health, and mana leaves every race with something to offer.

=== Orc ===

With the Bloodmage's low mana pool and need to kill monsters during the fight, they tend to work better with [[PISORF]] strategies than Burndayraz ones. Pissorf damage scales with your base damage and Orcs convert for base damage. The extra base damage also helps them kill monsters while they fight.

=== Human ===

As always, easily compared to Orc. A Human is in less of a rush to convert, has no special preference for [[PISORF]], and has an even easier time clearing out a large popcorn bowl. Since a Bloodmage often uses a lot of blackspace on individual higher-level monsters, the ability to easily spike your popcorn for level-ups and blood pools is highly valuable. This benefit is somewhat indirect, and making use of all the blood pools requires either a brawling set-up or enough blackspace to leverage the blood pools into mana.

=== Gnome ===

The Bloodmage loves mana potions, making the Gnome a natural choice. However, you will need to improve your maximum mana somehow to get the most out of them. [[Jehora Jeheyu]]'s boost boons work especially well with the Bloodmage's scaling mana potion buffs.

=== Halfling ===

As long as you can boost your health pool, you can get more B2P out of healing potions and level ups, especially at early levels. Doesn't work without health boosts, but works exceptionally well with them.

=== Elf ===

The Elf's racial ability can be used to compensate for the Bloodmage's starting mana penalty, making your mana potions extremely powerful. You will want to obtain as many mana potions as you can, such as with a Keg of Mana.

=== Dwarf ===

Dwarf is the obvious choice if you want to maximise your health pool.

=== Goblin ===

Bloodmages use up both health and mana in a very predictable way. The ability to both conserve and leverage blackspace is greatly enhanced by having timed level-ups more readily available.

== The Class Explained ==

The bloodmage has two defining features - a guaranteed B2P glyph, and the ability to regenerate health by drinking blood pools. The guaranteed B2P is the more defining feature of the bloodmage, as it makes him a spellcaster who can use his health to cast Burndayraz and/or Pissorff, and allows him to prep for runs and plan a strategy with this in mind.

His other ability, Sanguine, allows him to transition into a melle build later on, once most of the exploration has been depleted and the Sanguine has been aditionally boosted by having used up his mana potions. This is becuse you can regain health through bloodpools even on a fully explored map.

Because the Bloodmage starts with no combat glyphs and unexceptional Melee ability, you should probably choose to always pick up either the Magnet:Fireball preparation or the altar of Binlor (for the free Pissorf glyph it provides). Otherwise you will most likely waste a lot of exploration looking for either of them which lowers the potential power of your starting glyph. The Bloodtopowa glyph lets you explore while you fight, which is why it's preferable to start a run ready to use it.

Since the Bloodmage can use his health to cast spells as long as there is exploration available to fuel B2P, you have more resources at your disposal for glyph use. A bloodmage can use his (smallish) mana pool + health pool + health potions + any other heals + any mana restores + bloodpools to cast an immense amount of spells. Since all the B2P invovled also reveals parts of the map for you, any revealed low level monster can be killed for a bloodpool if needed, and any potion revealed can be used without bothering to look for it before the fight, and with Gnomes or Halflings, unimportant glyphs can be converted for more refills.

This huge burst of fireballs or pisorffs can often be enough to kill enemies as high as bossess at comparatively low levels (once you get the hang of it).

After blackspace has been mostly depleted (and the map sufficiently explored), you can use your remaining bloodpools to transition into a powerful melee build, particularly if you've used your mana potions to boost your sanguine. If you've boosted your health to get more out of B2P this helps your build get more out of Sanguine and any damage resistance you may have acquired, and if you've chosen an Orc for the Pisorff approach, you will also probably have boosted damage.

== Preps ==

Either Magnet:Fireball or Binlor's Altar for Pisorff is highly recommended (other preps chage depending on which of those two approaches you take). The Thieves Den (Extra Subdungeon) is also highly recomended for the extra exploration and a guaranteed mana booster right at the entrance.

If you want to save yourself the hassle of having a low mana pool, Elven Boots will certainly help with that, and if you prep Mystera Annur's altar, Elven Boots and the subdungeon, you'll have 12 mana right off the bat, while also worshiping a deity which rewards your copious spellcasting. Just remember to prep Magnet: Fireball.

If you're going for a pissorf or a more health based approach, prepping a Health Pendant (immediate health boost sinergizes a lot with B2P) is probably the best option. Jehora Jeheyu (with a compression seal and magnet: fireball) will work well with the health based Halflings for a fireball strategy. Perpping Dracul is also an option for Halflings, but it's such an extreme option that it takes a bit of practice. Dracul is always a good Bloodmage option later in the run, though. The benefit of joining into Dracul after you've depleted most of your Health potions with the Halfling is that you can use health potions and conserve bloodpools for when you boost your Sanguine if you decide to take it to the late game (and you can also convert remaining health potions for Dacul piety).

Probably the most balanced option is Jehora Jeheyu with Gnomes. You don't care about most of his debuffs since you'll rarely melee early on, and he can boost both your health and your mana immensly. JJ Gnome Bloodmages benefit from health, mana and levelup refills and the most versatile, while Mystera bloodmages with Mystic balance can be really efficient as well. A JJ Goblin can also work really well, because JJ solves the mana problem somewhat effortlessly, which then makes Goblins an ok choice.

== Saving Bloodpools vs. Spending Bloodpools ==

While some people try to maximize their Sanguine in order to get a lot of refills late game, or spend a lot of time trying to "solve the mana issue" with elves, this restricts the damage you can get out of your B2P early on. However, forcing B2P means you will run out of fuel. What is the best approach is dependent on the run and the race - long endurance runs where you won't get cut off from your bloodpools benefit from saving them, runs where you will get cut off from your bloodpools require you to get the most out of them while they're there, and runs where you can burst down both bossess at lvl 3 or 4 make anything else a needless complication (those runs are the most common ones).

Orc Pissorf runs don't require you to do much - get enough Binlor piety to swap to a more spellcasting firendly deity if there is one (you only really prep him for Pissorff), get up to level 2 or 3, find the bossess and line them up one against the other, and just spam pissorff off B2P and bloodpools until they're both dead. Convert unnecessary stuff beforehand for damage, and any unnecessary stuff B2P reveals too. On these runs you just want to find the bosses and manouver them next to each other quickly, and bloodpools just fuel B2P and glyph use.

Halfling runs with boosted health play much the same way, because health boosts benefit B2P at earlier levels. You have the option of saving either bloodpools or health potions for later - or you simply throw it all into B2P. If it kills all the bossess you don't need an end game.

Gnome runs can go either way, but since they don't have a way to boost pissorf damage early, and they need to boost mana to get more out of thier potions AND they need to use a lot of potions to boost sanguine sufficiently, they're best for either really long runs or runs where you're shooting for the endgame. Gnomes can get the best of both worlds by conserving B2P blackspace in subdungeons while exploring the map.

Elves and Dwarves also play for the late game, because they require either levels or exploration or both to get the most out of their conversion bonus.

== Importance of First Strike and positioning glyphs ==

Having the Getindare glyph on a Bloodmage is very powerful (especially on an Orc Bloodmage). If you cast it before combat begins, and the monster you are spiking with spells doesn't have first strike, this sets the threshold to how low you need to bring thier health before you can kill them. Since most of your health is going to go into B2P, you'll probably not be able to get any other melee hits in.

As with any Pissorf caster, if you're playing the Bloodmage as one, don't convert Wonnafyt or Wheytwut (or Endiswal) untill you're sure you can Pissorff the boss into another monster or another boss. If possible try to have two additional targets because once the first one is low on health you can kill it for XP and then slam the boss into the next one. Using Wheytwut to put the bossess next to each other in a convenient way is ideal, but you can also use Wonnafyt to summon a low level monster and use them as an anvil, or you can use Pissorff itself several times to move something over to a more convenient spot if possible. Endiswal can also occasionaly solve tricky corner situations.

{{MainNav}}

Bloodmage

2015-06-24T01:39:39Z

MTaur: /* Races */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|ClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Bloodmage
|ShortHand=Bl
|Traits=
;INSANE: Start with the BLUDTUPOWA glyph, - 3 Mana
;SANGUINE: Walking over a BloodPool restores 20% of maximum health
;POWER-HUNGRY: Mana potions 60% effective and boost Sanguine, drinking blood restores 1 mana
|SuggestedRaces=
{{HuBl}},{{DwBl}},{{GnBl}}
|Unlock=
Level 3 [[Mage Tower]]
|Group=Tier 3
}}</onlyinclude>

''Bloodmages are the mad scientists of the magic-using world: essentially the Sorcerer gone a little bit rotten. Not rotten enough to be considered un-heroic, but still not the sort of person you'd want to meet in a shadowy alchemy lab. The magic that has fused with their bodies typically gets put to slightly more horrific uses than expected, at great cost to themselves as well as their foes.''

== Class Features ==

*{{t|Insane}}: Start with the BLUDTUPOWA glyph, -3 Mana
*{{t|Sanguine}}: Walking over a BloodPool restores 20% of maximum health
*{{t|Power-hungry}}: Mana potions 60% effective and boost Sanguine by 2%, drinking blood restores 1 mana

== Races ==

Every race is perfectly viable as a Bloodmage. The sophisticated interplay between blood, health, and mana leaves every race with something to offer.

=== Orc ===

With the Bloodmage's low mana pool and need to kill monsters during the fight, they tend to work better with [[PISORF]] strategies than Burndayraz ones. Pissorf damage scales with your base damage and Orcs convert for base damage. The extra base damage also helps them kill monsters while they fight.

== Human ==

As always, easily compared to Orc. A Human is in less of a rush to convert, has no special preference for [[PISORF]], and has an even easier time clearing out a large popcorn bowl. Since a Bloodmage often uses a lot of blackspace on individual higher-level monsters, the ability to easily spike your popcorn for level-ups and blood pools is highly valuable. This benefit is somewhat indirect, and making use of all the blood pools requires either a brawling set-up or enough blackspace to leverage the blood pools into mana.

=== Gnome ===

The Bloodmage loves mana potions, making the Gnome a natural choice. However, you will need to improve your maximum mana somehow to get the most out of them. [[Jehora Jeheyu]]'s boost boons work especially well with the Bloodmage's scaling mana potion buffs.

=== Halfling ===

As long as you can boost your health pool, you can get more B2P out of healing potions and level ups, especially at early levels. Doesn't work without health boosts, but works exceptionally well with them.

=== Elf ===

The Elf's racial ability can be used to compensate for the Bloodmage's starting mana penalty, making your mana potions extremely powerful. You will want to obtain as many mana potions as you can, such as with a Keg of Mana.

=== Dwarf ===

Dwarf is the obvious choice if you want to maximise your health pool.

== Goblin ==

Bloodmages use up both health and mana in a very predictable way. The ability to both conserve and leverage blackspace is greatly enhanced by having timed level-ups more readily available.

== The Class Explained ==

The bloodmage has two defining features - a guaranteed B2P glyph, and the ability to regenerate health by drinking blood pools. The guaranteed B2P is the more defining feature of the bloodmage, as it makes him a spellcaster who can use his health to cast Burndayraz and/or Pissorff, and allows him to prep for runs and plan a strategy with this in mind.

His other ability, Sanguine, allows him to transition into a melle build later on, once most of the exploration has been depleted and the Sanguine has been aditionally boosted by having used up his mana potions. This is becuse you can regain health through bloodpools even on a fully explored map.

Because the Bloodmage starts with no combat glyphs and unexceptional Melee ability, you should probably choose to always pick up either the Magnet:Fireball preparation or the altar of Binlor (for the free Pissorf glyph it provides). Otherwise you will most likely waste a lot of exploration looking for either of them which lowers the potential power of your starting glyph. The Bloodtopowa glyph lets you explore while you fight, which is why it's preferable to start a run ready to use it.

Since the Bloodmage can use his health to cast spells as long as there is exploration available to fuel B2P, you have more resources at your disposal for glyph use. A bloodmage can use his (smallish) mana pool + health pool + health potions + any other heals + any mana restores + bloodpools to cast an immense amount of spells. Since all the B2P invovled also reveals parts of the map for you, any revealed low level monster can be killed for a bloodpool if needed, and any potion revealed can be used without bothering to look for it before the fight, and with Gnomes or Halflings, unimportant glyphs can be converted for more refills.

This huge burst of fireballs or pisorffs can often be enough to kill enemies as high as bossess at comparatively low levels (once you get the hang of it).

After blackspace has been mostly depleted (and the map sufficiently explored), you can use your remaining bloodpools to transition into a powerful melee build, particularly if you've used your mana potions to boost your sanguine. If you've boosted your health to get more out of B2P this helps your build get more out of Sanguine and any damage resistance you may have acquired, and if you've chosen an Orc for the Pisorff approach, you will also probably have boosted damage.

== Preps ==

Either Magnet:Fireball or Binlor's Altar for Pisorff is highly recommended (other preps chage depending on which of those two approaches you take). The Thieves Den (Extra Subdungeon) is also highly recomended for the extra exploration and a guaranteed mana booster right at the entrance.

If you want to save yourself the hassle of having a low mana pool, Elven Boots will certainly help with that, and if you prep Mystera Annur's altar, Elven Boots and the subdungeon, you'll have 12 mana right off the bat, while also worshiping a deity which rewards your copious spellcasting. Just remember to prep Magnet: Fireball.

If you're going for a pissorf or a more health based approach, prepping a Health Pendant (immediate health boost sinergizes a lot with B2P) is probably the best option. Jehora Jeheyu (with a compression seal and magnet: fireball) will work well with the health based Halflings for a fireball strategy. Perpping Dracul is also an option for Halflings, but it's such an extreme option that it takes a bit of practice. Dracul is always a good Bloodmage option later in the run, though. The benefit of joining into Dracul after you've depleted most of your Health potions with the Halfling is that you can use health potions and conserve bloodpools for when you boost your Sanguine if you decide to take it to the late game (and you can also convert remaining health potions for Dacul piety).

Probably the most balanced option is Jehora Jeheyu with Gnomes. You don't care about most of his debuffs since you'll rarely melee early on, and he can boost both your health and your mana immensly. JJ Gnome Bloodmages benefit from health, mana and levelup refills and the most versatile, while Mystera bloodmages with Mystic balance can be really efficient as well. A JJ Goblin can also work really well, because JJ solves the mana problem somewhat effortlessly, which then makes Goblins an ok choice.

== Saving Bloodpools vs. Spending Bloodpools ==

While some people try to maximize their Sanguine in order to get a lot of refills late game, or spend a lot of time trying to "solve the mana issue" with elves, this restricts the damage you can get out of your B2P early on. However, forcing B2P means you will run out of fuel. What is the best approach is dependent on the run and the race - long endurance runs where you won't get cut off from your bloodpools benefit from saving them, runs where you will get cut off from your bloodpools require you to get the most out of them while they're there, and runs where you can burst down both bossess at lvl 3 or 4 make anything else a needless complication (those runs are the most common ones).

Orc Pissorf runs don't require you to do much - get enough Binlor piety to swap to a more spellcasting firendly deity if there is one (you only really prep him for Pissorff), get up to level 2 or 3, find the bossess and line them up one against the other, and just spam pissorff off B2P and bloodpools until they're both dead. Convert unnecessary stuff beforehand for damage, and any unnecessary stuff B2P reveals too. On these runs you just want to find the bosses and manouver them next to each other quickly, and bloodpools just fuel B2P and glyph use.

Halfling runs with boosted health play much the same way, because health boosts benefit B2P at earlier levels. You have the option of saving either bloodpools or health potions for later - or you simply throw it all into B2P. If it kills all the bossess you don't need an end game.

Gnome runs can go either way, but since they don't have a way to boost pissorf damage early, and they need to boost mana to get more out of thier potions AND they need to use a lot of potions to boost sanguine sufficiently, they're best for either really long runs or runs where you're shooting for the endgame. Gnomes can get the best of both worlds by conserving B2P blackspace in subdungeons while exploring the map.

Elves and Dwarves also play for the late game, because they require either levels or exploration or both to get the most out of their conversion bonus.

== Importance of First Strike and positioning glyphs ==

Having the Getindare glyph on a Bloodmage is very powerful (especially on an Orc Bloodmage). If you cast it before combat begins, and the monster you are spiking with spells doesn't have first strike, this sets the threshold to how low you need to bring thier health before you can kill them. Since most of your health is going to go into B2P, you'll probably not be able to get any other melee hits in.

As with any Pissorf caster, if you're playing the Bloodmage as one, don't convert Wonnafyt or Wheytwut (or Endiswal) untill you're sure you can Pissorff the boss into another monster or another boss. If possible try to have two additional targets because once the first one is low on health you can kill it for XP and then slam the boss into the next one. Using Wheytwut to put the bossess next to each other in a convenient way is ideal, but you can also use Wonnafyt to summon a low level monster and use them as an anvil, or you can use Pissorff itself several times to move something over to a more convenient spot if possible. Endiswal can also occasionaly solve tricky corner situations.

{{MainNav}}

Gorgon (Class)

2015-06-17T06:25:44Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|MonsterClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Gorgon
|ShortHand=
|Traits=
;AZURE BODY: +25% to starting Physical resist
;SAPPHIRE LOCKS: Naturally poisonous strike, petrifies enemies, starts with ENDISWAL glyph
;AMETHYST GAZE: Deathgaze effect deals unresistable damage upon attacking enemies with low health
|Conversion=5% Deathgaze per 100 Conversion Points
|Unlock=
Complete [[Naga City]] with 3 [[Class]]es
|Group=Monster
}}</onlyinclude>
{{Stub}}

== Class Features ==
*'''AZURE BODY''': +25% to starting {{t|Physical resist}}, {{t|Death Gaze Immune}}
*'''SAPPHIRE LOCKS''': Natural {{t|Poisonous}} strike, petrifies enemies, starts with {{s|ENDISWAL}} glyph, -50% attack bonus
*'''AMETHYST GAZE''': Deathgaze effect deals unresistable damage upon attacking enemies with low health, starts with 10% Deathgaze

== Strategy ==
The Gorgon is a very bizarre class. Gorgons play sort of like monks, in that they both rely on the "regen fight" strategy, and they both have naturally bad damage. Gorgons don't have reduced base damage, but unfortunately raising bonus damage is harder to accomplish. However, with the right items the Gorgon should negate their bonus damage penalty and then some.

The most powerful part about Gorgons are their intrinsic poison attacks. Combined with their natural physical resistance, Gorgons are able to tackle higher level enemies, using poison to come out ahead in trades. Combining this with their death gaze immunity means enemy Gorgons are easy prey (as ironic as that might be for a mirror match).

Confusingly, the Gorgon class's Deathgaze skill differs from the one that enemy monsters have. Both versions trigger when the enemy is below the Deathgaze% threshold at the start of the attack, but the player's Deathgaze does not instantly kill. Instead, the player's Deathgaze is a free attack that inflicts damage equal to the player's base attack before the enemy strikes. This often finishes them off, preventing retaliation. This is NOT affected by {{i|Platemail}}, making it a great item buy or even preparation candidate that has great synergy with poison and stoneskin.

The Deathgaze skill doesn't scale quite as well as the other monster class's CP bonuses do, but the CP investment can make a difference all the same - it's just one option, where a Vampire or Rat Monarch would be crazy not to go conversion-heavy. At 10% Deathgaze, the skill is strictly a finishing attack for edge cases. With some CP investment, Deathgaze becomes a much more reliable First Strike alternative. It takes a moderate-to-large CP investment to be able to use Deathgaze two or more times in a single fight, and the scaling pays off especially well against Super Meat Man, who can be brought into Deathgaze range with {{i|Can of Whupaz}} and other potions before you continue, regen-fighting for the rest.

The biggest handicap that Gorgons have to face is that they petrify enemies on kill. This includes kills with [[BURNDAYRAZ]], but not bosses. The Gorgon does begin with {{s|ENDISWAL}}, but the net effect is that the Gorgon often has to spend 6 mana to progress further. This means the Gorgon needs to conserve mana and/or blackspace when playing in cramped areas, which is sometimes easier said than done. The glyph makes it easier to reach hidden subdungeons, and the Gorgon does well with [[Binlor Ironshield]] on levels such as Shifting Passages, Rock Garden, and The Labyrinth where you would want to destroy a large number of walls regardless. Petrified enemies do leave blood pools, but they're only accessible after the statue is destroyed, so this means Gorgons have poor synergy with {{g|The Earthmother}} and {{g|Dracul}}. Gorgons also fare poorly against maps with lots of undead enemies, because poison doesn't work against them. Depending on your worship plans, you may wish to break statues for blood pools mid-game. Barring that, you should break walls that either make additional blackspace accessible in the late game, or that help you get past blockages.

== Enemies ==

Gorgons are a bit complicated. Several considerations need to be made when sorting out monster difficulty. Very few monsters are at one extreme or the other.

Enemies should be non-undead (so that poison works), deal physical damage, and have irrelevant perks compensating for lowered stats. Magic resist is a minor consideration, while physical resistance is often a larger concern. Status ailments are to be avoided. Some of the most common foes are listed below in roughly increasing order of difficulty by paragraph.

{{m|Gorgon}} is the easiest monster to kill for bonus experience. Deathgaze immunity and your own Deathgaze negates their Deathgaze and First Strike skills. {{m|Meat Man}} is about equally attractive as a target, as well as {{m|Goat}}, whose moderate magic resistance keeps it from being even easier. Whenever you have [[HALPMEH]] to clear out poison, {{m|Serpent}} joins this tier.

{{m|Goblin}}'s First Strike is bypassed by Deathgaze, so they are also decent regen-fighting targets, but not quite top-tier due to their good damage. Similarly, {{m|Golem}} has enough magic resistance to be of a similar tier, unless you have [[PISORF]] or [[HALPMEH]] to make the fight easier.

A high-level {{m|Bandit}} is weak enough to regen-fight easily, but requires a large amount of popcorn to remove the curses. This can be done once or maybe twice in a run with proper planning after better targets are gone. A high-level {{m|Goo Blob}} is doable, but will cost a ton of blackspace, and [[BURNDAYRAZ]] is needed to leverage the poison strike into a winning damage trade - don't forget to leave a stack of Burning on while you explore.

No single enemy is a perfect storm of troubling traits, but several are mostly bad targets. {{m|Dragon Spawn}} does magic damage and is tanky, but can be poisoned. {{m|Zombie}} is a powerful brawler and undead, but deals physical damage. These two are probably the worst threats. {{m|Wraith}}s are undead and magical, but are susceptible to fireballs+Deathgaze at a certain point, making Mana Burn irrelevant. {{m|Warlocks}} are slightly harder - poison susceptibility doesn't make up for their increased damage and higher health compared to a [[Wraith]], but they still die to fireballs more easily than a [[Dragon Spawn]].

== Glyphs ==

Certain glyphs are a blessing to Gorgons. {{s|IMAWAL}} synergizes with the Gorgon very well because of their playstyle depending on facing higher level enemies - popping an [[IMAWAL]] before killing a high-level Goblin or Gorgon will be well worth the 5 mana. An early {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} is an important tool for Gorgons, since it maximizes their damage and varies the damage type, and also gives her something to do with mana when fighting against magic enemies (though you are still not making any use of your base 25% physical resistance and should prioritize something else for high-level kills regardless). Adding a few fireballs after poisoning will take down high-level enemies faster and stretch the poison duration a bit longer with burn stacks. {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} can be useful for Gorgons if it costs less life than the damage prevented by ENDISWAL, or if it enables a BURNDAYRAZ/Deathgaze finishing combo. {{s|HALPMEH}} tends to be more combat-efficient than [[ENDISWAL]], and it can negate poison, turning [[Serpent]]s into easy experience similar to [[Gorgon]]s. It is more efficient than [[BURNDAYRAZ]] for fighting low-damage physical enemies like Meat Man or magic-resistant enemies like [[Golem]]s.

Some glyphs come out a bit flat. {{s|GETINDARE}} is somewhat eclipsed by Deathgaze, so first strike only occasionally makes a difference - the dodge chance is of some benefit, but has to be weighed against glyph's inventory space and CP value. Similarly, {{s|PISORF}} is semi-redundant with [[ENDISWAL]], functioning only as a physical damage source when you would typically prefer to regen fight using mana for fireballs and stoneskin anyway - only 2-for-1 PISORF billiards enthusiasts need apply here. {{s|APHEELSIK}} isn't useless, but is probably outclassed by [[HALPMEH]] or [[BURNDAYRAZ]]; it can occasionally optimize your resources mid-fight if you have the extra inventory for it. [[CYDSTEPP]]'s ability to buy a single attack with low bonus damage isn't much of a winning proposition, either, unless you have a high enough CP total to chain two Deategazes back-to-back. The glyph itself holds much of the CP that you need to accomplish this in the first place, though. Cast-and-convert is a strong option here.

== Deities ==

{{g|Binlor Ironshield}} is one of the best gods for a Gorgon to worship. Since you'll be casting ENDISWAL many, many times as a Gorgon, Stone Form is the best boon a Gorgon could ever ask for. There is never a shortage of ways to break walls as a Gorgon, so gaining piety is no sweat. You can even pop tons of statues with Stone Heart to aid a late conversion to Dracul or Earthmother.

{{g|Mystera Annur}} has useful boons and can easily be fueled by the always-spamable ENDISWAL. Whether you rely on stoneskin, fireballs, or a combination, Mystic Balance and Refreshment are welcome aid (but Flames is niche at best and Weakening is only occasionally worth the piety).

{{g|Taurog}} helps with the Gorgon's low damage and his armor synergizes well with the Gorgon's innate physical resistance. Constant casting of ENDISWAL means you'll be losing a lot of piety for long-term worship, so consider converting out after acquiring one or two items. Alternatively, a late-game death protection spike is possible if you spend your mana, convert to Taurog, clear out the popcorn, convert glyphs for piety and CP, and then proceed to land multiple Deathgaze attacks on the last boss.

{{g|The Earthmother}} can work well, despite the smaller numbers of blood pools for Plantation, as the Gorgon's starting [[ENDISWAL]] ensures she won't find herself stuck, and Greenblood and Vine Form are strong with the Gorgon's slant towards fireballs and regen fighting, and her end-game piety and mana spike can be significant if you've been prioritizing statue-breaking mid-game.

Similarly, {{g|Dracul}} can be worth it for Blood Shield alone, making even one stack of Stone Skin go the extra mile, and Sanguine is useful to the extent that you can access the pools. Lifesteal is a mixed bag, since you deal low damage, but apply poison to your blood cows.

The only really unusable deity is {{g|Glowing Guardian}}, due to his hatred for poison. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} is also problematic, since he is not a huge fan of regen fighter strategies.

== Items ==

Gorgons need bonus damage badly, so that means that the {{i|Perseverance Badge}} and {{i|Dwarven Gauntlets}} are excellent items for Gorgons. The {{i|Battlemage Ring}} is a good option for a caster strategy. {{i|Whurrgarbl}} synergizes with poison strike, and {{i|Platemail}} synergizes with the entire regen fighting scheme while not interfering at all with Deathgaze in its function as a first-strike finishing move. {{i|Witchalok Pendant}} lets you regen-fight non-magical monsters much more efficiently. {{i|Martyr Wraps}} are also decent, even if the Monk uses them better.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:Glowing Guardian

2015-06-17T03:55:30Z

MTaur:

Does anyone know whether Absolution chooses completely at random among all valid enemies? - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Goatperson

2015-06-16T23:51:11Z

MTaur: /* Prototype */ - Orb of Zot

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|MonsterClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Goatperson
|ShortHand=
|Traits=
;SCAPEGOAT: Randomly worships a new god per level, no conversion or desecration
;PROTOTYPE: No restoration effects on level-up, gold instead of trophies
;HERBIVORE: Eats food while exploring. Killing enemies yields more food
|Conversion=Refills HP and MP for 100 (+10 cumulative) CP
|SuggestedRaces=
Any [[Race]]
|Unlock=
Find at least 6 gods (enough that two altars will spawn in dungeons), and pay 3000 gold at the Goat Glade.
|Group=Special
}}</onlyinclude>

''"The accurate and persistent balancing of this class isn’t guaranteed."''

The Goatperson is the secret monster class, acquired by unlocking the [[Goat Glade]] (available to early supporters or as DLC on Steam). It is a dangerously experimental class, based on short-term and sometimes ''extremely'' short-term decisions.

== Class Features ==

=== Herbivore ===

Exploring a tile costs food, which takes up a small inventory space for your whole supply. Killing an enemy gives 9 food, and, more to the point, exploring without food damages you until you GET FOOD or DIE. Each tile uncovered will deplete 1 food. As you might be able to tell, this adds up ''really quick''. This obviously is meant to limit exploration, as no food is consumed by going back over uncovered tiles.

=== Scapegoat ===

The Goatperson will randomly worship a new god out of the 3 that have altars in the dungeon (or 2, if you haven't unlocked enough gods yet) upon level up. The no-desecration aspect is simply done so that you can't escape this change by destroying the other altars.

This trait is designed to severely limit the strategies that one can implement, as it is impossible to be sure when you will be forced to worship one god instead of another. The Goatperson will always change to a different deity on each level-up, and will never remain with the same deity.

=== Prototype ===

The fact that the Goatperson does not heal upon level up completely torpedoes mid-fight level-up strategies, and makes progression much, much more difficult. While you can still heal mid-fight by converting, the increasing conversion cost makes this rather costly, and severely limits supply. The exploration phase is also much more difficult, because you cannot rely on leveling up to heal you. Therefore, the ''only'' ways for your character to heal at all are by exploring (which is limited by your food supply, which is only replenished by killing monsters), using glyphs, converting items, using potions, and taking god boons. All of these are in limited supply. Exploring becomes extremely conservative, as you will be forced to heal every wound by using consumables. By the time you reach the boss, it's likely that you won't have any way left to heal yourself.

{{t|Poisoned}} and {{t|Mana Burn}} are far more dangerous afflictions to the Goatperson than to usual classes, since he does not recover from them when he levels up!

The last feature (gold instead of boss trophies) merely ensures that you cannot use the Goatperson for quest progression. It remains to be seen if the amount of money dropped is equal to the value of the trophy that would've dropped instead. If so, this could be useful, as it would allow one to get around that fact that a trophy's price drops the more that you collect that particular trophy. Don't forget to buy any items you want to locker on the way out. Most notably, {{i|Amulet of Yendor}} and {{i|Orb of Zot}} are highly expensive and consumable, making each of them a very lucky find if you were looking to locker it.

== Strategy ==
Simply put, this class was carefully balanced to stack the deck against the player as much as physically possible without making it completely impossible to win. This is a challenge class. If you can beat a dungeon with this class, then you're either inordinately lucky or an absolute master at this game.

The food system turns the conventional wisdom about popcorn on its head. Very often, you will have to burn through popcorn just to stay fed. You may also choose to kill popcorn enemies to please your current god, or to avoid angering another god. Only with exceptional luck will you be able to save popcorn to the extent that most other classes get to take for granted. However, where other classes get level-up heals, a Goatperson instead refills from hitting conversion point thresholds. This greatly lessens the damage done by having a half-empty popcorn bowl in the late game. It is still good to leave some popcorn when you can, however. By killing popcorn early, you reduce the total amount of bonus experience gained from mid-level monsters, and therefore it becomes harder to reach high levels.

The closest thing to the Goatperson conversion bonus is the bonus for {{r|Goblin}}s. Because the Goatperson refill does not depend on experience points, it is easier to hit a refill spike, compared to the Goblin who often needs popcorn to make up an experience gap, especially at high levels.

== Preparations ==

Goatperson has a hard time surviving to the late game due to starvation and due to how his bonuses cost CP or piety. While leveraging piety in the late game affords him some flexibility, his early game is so fragile that your preparations should be at least moderately front-loaded.

Preparing the fireball magnet to begin with {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} is highly recommended. You might also prepare {{i|Elven Boots}} and Smuggler's Den. By having an enlarged mana pool, a {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} glyph, and quick access to level 1 monsters, you can be sure to hit the ground running, greatly reducing the very real danger of starving. Another great thing about {{i|Elven Boots}} is that it continues to be a strong item in the late game, and it synergizes with all the refills you'll be getting from your conversion points.

Items that can be used as general-purpose "get out of jail free" cards (such as {{i|Namtar's Ward}}, which grants you an emergency death protection each level) are exceptionally good preparation choices as well. A Goatperson who likes variety can get a lot of mileage out of preparing a fourth altar, though a safe piety farm like {{g|Mystera Annur}} might be more palatable to a more conservative play style. Due to his vulnerability to afflictions, the Goatperson should ''never'' prepare {{i|Patches the Teddy}}. The {{i|Slaying Wand}} is a reliable last resort to gain a little food when stuck with only too-high level monsters, and is probably the best Blacksmith preparation for most dungeons. While you can prepare a specific Altar, and it will normally spawn closer to you, there is no guarantee that you will actually worship that deity.

== Glyphs ==

Leveraging the goat's conversion bonus is a sensitive matter of timing. Since every glyph conversion will grant a full refill (or at least come close), you will have to think twice before picking them up or converting them. Only [[BURNDAYRAZ]] should be picked up every time. Other glyphs can often be left on the ground as insurance. In particular, {{s|LEMMISI}} can't just be spammed and then converted. If you find it early, you might want to cast it occasionally when you need to heal, but if you find it when you already know the map layout, you probably should leave it on the ground. {{s|APHEELSIK}} should probably be left on the ground most of the time, but it might actually be useful if you hit a food surplus at some point. It is weak overall and highly situational.

The {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyph is an excellent early find for the Goatperson. Because it reveals 3 tiles, but only costs 1 food, it allows you to effectively explore at a reduced cost. If used repeatedly over the course of the dungeon, the Goatperson can save up enough food that he doesn't need to worry about his exploration limitations anymore. If enough food is saved, he can even convert some in the end-game for extra heals. Be mindful that the Glowing Guardian does not like this glyph.

{{s|GETINDARE}} is fairly strong at any time, but needs a little damage to back it up. Any time you would normally need to eat potions or conversions, there is a chance that the stacking dodge chance will save you valuable resources.

{{s|WONAFYT}} is a nice safety glyph that will keep you from starving. If your food is low, it can be a life-saver. You will want to create a good opportunity to convert it for a refill in the mid-game, though.

{{s|PISORF}} is great for multiple boss fights. Because a Goatperson can convert glyphs for several refills over the course of a fight, it can pay off quite well if the bosses can be lined up without too much trouble. This can also be combined with {{s|WEYTWUT}}. [[WEYTWUT]] by itself can be used to get past a nasty obstacle, but can be left on the ground as insurance otherwise.

== Deity Guide ==

'''{{g|Glowing Guardian}}'''
The Glowing Guardian is an above-average draw for the Goatperson. Most of his piety comes from persistent worship, which is not possible due to the forced conversion on every level-up. His humility boon will reduce your health regeneration and fireball damage, which is dangerous for this character. However, his cleansing boon helps alleviate the Goatperson's weakness to afflictions, and the Goatperson is free to drink potions whenever he "bounces" out of this religion which allows him to avoid the primary downsides of Glowing Guardian Worship. Converting food is an effective way of earning piety with the Glowing Guardian. Due to his dislike of poison and lifesteal, it is important to be mindful of which boons you select from Dracul or Tikki Tooki.

'''{{g|Tikki Tooki}}'''
Potentially game-ending if you are assigned to him at the 1st level. It is very difficult to earn piety with Tikki Tooki as a 1st level character, and his punishment must be avoided at all costs. However, for a higher-level Goatperson he is an excellent source of piety, and his Dodging and Tikki's Edge boons offer superb long-term value. Be mindful not to pick the poison attack boon if the Glowing Guardian is present.

'''{{g|Taurog}}'''
Similar to Tikki Tooki, this god can be problematic if you are assigned at the 1st level. Because the Goatperson is often reliant on his fireball glyph for his first kill (particularly if boxed in on a hard or higher difficulty scenario) this can immediately invoke Taurog's punishment, which can be game-ending. However, Taurog is otherwise an invaluable source of piety to fuel your other deities. If you have either Dracul or Pactmaker in addition to Taurog, stacking resistances can be a very effective approach.

'''{{g|The Earthmother}}'''
A mediocre draw for the Goatperson. Because you will not receive the free {{s|IMAWAL}} glyph on worship, earning piety with her is far more difficult than usual. You will need to rely on other deities to fuel her, or else use her plantation boon. Because of her limited piety generation with the Goatperson, Vine Form and Greenblood have less value than usual, but Plantation, Clearance, and Entanglement remain top-notch boons. It's also easier than normal to clear out plants, as you get free conversions out of her religion at regular intervals.

'''{{g|Mystera Annur}}'''
Mystera is a variable deity for the Goatperson. Fully utilising her can require some forethought and a bit of luck. To take advantage of her "Refreshment" boon, you need to make sure you don't hit the conversion threshold when you convert a glyph, as otherwise her 50% mana restore is wasted when your 100% health and mana restore kick in. This means you should trigger your first conversion with items, then ensure that every time you convert a glyph subsequently it doesn't take you over the next conversion threshold. For full effect you must be worshiping Mystera when you convert your glyphs, but since the Goatperson cannot control his deity selection the power of refreshment could be halved at not fault of your own. Given that setting up mid-battle level-ups are not a favorable approach for the Goatperson, this can make it a gamble as to whether you will land on Mystera for key boss fights or not.

On the piety front, Mystera is a double-edged sword. If you're well-stocked with food she's remarkably easy to generate piety with and can be used to fuel boons from deities better suited to the Goatperson. However, if you're low on food you may often be forced to kill magic-user monsters that you might otherwise have avoided. She can heavily tax your piety in such situations. As a result, it's a very good idea to remove magic damage monsters from the field between level-ups.

'''{{g|Binlor Ironshield}}'''
Similar to Earthmother, you do not receive the free {{s|PISORF}} glyph as a Goatperson. This makes earning piety with Binlor somewhat difficult if you don't have the right equipment. However, if you can accrue 35 piety with another deity you can purchase his Stone Soup boon to get a free {{s|ENDISWAL}} glyph. Because the Goatperson can purchase boons between three deities, he will rarely run into the issue of depleting all the walls on the level.

'''{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}'''
A very dangerous, but potentially rewarding, draw for the Goatperson. The vulnerability to mana burn and poison mean getting the Petition boon ''immediately'' is a top priority, and his inability to desecrate other altars can make this difficult if you get stuck with Jehora at the 1st level. If you are transferred to his religion with 50+ piety, however, picking up petition is easy and you can completely skip over his normal limits. Jehora's boons are quite powerful for the Goatperson. Note that Chaos Avatar will not automatically heal the Goatperson when used, but since it grants 100 conversion points it will often trigger the Goatperson's conversion bonus; however, it will cause you to convert due to the level-up. Converting food is a superb way to earn piety with Jehora Jeheyu.

'''{{g|Dracul}}'''
By far the most powerful deity for the Goatperson, all of Dracul's boons are exceptionally useful for him. Because the Goatperson has no inherent resistances, Blood Hunger's penalty is meaningless to him. His focus on end-game spiking makes Blood Tithe and Blood Swell incredibly worthwhile. When combined with other resistance-granting deities, Blood Shield is incredibly potent. When using Dracul's boons, be mindful of potential conflict with the Earthmother and Glowing Guardian, both of which dislike lifesteal. You should avoid the Blood Hunger boon if those deities are present. The Earthmother does not have a problem with Blood Tithe, but the Glowing Guardian does. This doesn't preclude you from picking the boon, but you must make sure not to tread on the bloodstains when under his religion. Make sure you drink your healing potions and slay any undead when you are worshiping a different deity.

'''{{g|The Pactmaker}}'''
Another deceptively great find for the Goatperson. You cannot actually "worship" the Pactmaker, but some of his pacts are extremely useful. The Body Pact works quite well when combined with other resistance-granting deities, but the real secret is the Scholar's Pact. This cancels out the normal Goatperson penalty that prevents him from healing on level-up, allowing him to gain far more value from this pact than other classes would normally. This is well worth 10 piety on each level-up.

==== Deity Interactions ====

Being able to tap into several dieties during a single run may be a huge blessing in disguise. For example, you can cast spells while worshipping Mystera, level up with an empty Mana bar, then kill off the low-level magic-using monsters worshiping Taurog. You can slow low-level monsters worshipping Jehora, killing a couple of higher-level foes to level up, then switch to Tikki Tooki and kill off the slowed low-level monsters. You can build walls worshiping Mystera, then destroy them after switching to Binlor. You can fight the boss, using up your potions, then level up and switch to Glowing Guardian and convert stuff to gain restorations and piety that can fuel Protection. However, the Goatperson's food requirement and lack of control over conversion means that he's often forced into making unfavorable plays. Being able to handle bad situations is just as important as being able to leverage good ones.

If The Pactmaker is one of your three altars, then you will have certainty on your level-up conversion. If The Pactmaker is not present, or you prepared Extra Altar, the conversion will be less predictable, so it may be that one particular Deity almost never comes up. This requires a bit of thought about what a potential conversion would do, and may make you play more conservatively.

As you cannot desecrate, you have no access to Indulgences or the quick Piety gain. However, as you should be able to avoid most Diety punishments thanks to the conversions, and you do not lose Piety for converting, you should be able to come out even ahead versus other classes.

{{MainNav}}

Goatperson

2015-06-16T22:01:39Z

MTaur: /* Prototype */ - Lockering and Amulet of Yendor

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|MonsterClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Goatperson
|ShortHand=
|Traits=
;SCAPEGOAT: Randomly worships a new god per level, no conversion or desecration
;PROTOTYPE: No restoration effects on level-up, gold instead of trophies
;HERBIVORE: Eats food while exploring. Killing enemies yields more food
|Conversion=Refills HP and MP for 100 (+10 cumulative) CP
|SuggestedRaces=
Any [[Race]]
|Unlock=
Find at least 6 gods (enough that two altars will spawn in dungeons), and pay 3000 gold at the Goat Glade.
|Group=Special
}}</onlyinclude>

''"The accurate and persistent balancing of this class isn’t guaranteed."''

The Goatperson is the secret monster class, acquired by unlocking the [[Goat Glade]] (available to early supporters or as DLC on Steam). It is a dangerously experimental class, based on short-term and sometimes ''extremely'' short-term decisions.

== Class Features ==

=== Herbivore ===

Exploring a tile costs food, which takes up a small inventory space for your whole supply. Killing an enemy gives 9 food, and, more to the point, exploring without food damages you until you GET FOOD or DIE. Each tile uncovered will deplete 1 food. As you might be able to tell, this adds up ''really quick''. This obviously is meant to limit exploration, as no food is consumed by going back over uncovered tiles.

=== Scapegoat ===

The Goatperson will randomly worship a new god out of the 3 that have altars in the dungeon (or 2, if you haven't unlocked enough gods yet) upon level up. The no-desecration aspect is simply done so that you can't escape this change by destroying the other altars.

This trait is designed to severely limit the strategies that one can implement, as it is impossible to be sure when you will be forced to worship one god instead of another. The Goatperson will always change to a different deity on each level-up, and will never remain with the same deity.

=== Prototype ===

The fact that the Goatperson does not heal upon level up completely torpedoes mid-fight level-up strategies, and makes progression much, much more difficult. While you can still heal mid-fight by converting, the increasing conversion cost makes this rather costly, and severely limits supply. The exploration phase is also much more difficult, because you cannot rely on leveling up to heal you. Therefore, the ''only'' ways for your character to heal at all are by exploring (which is limited by your food supply, which is only replenished by killing monsters), using glyphs, converting items, using potions, and taking god boons. All of these are in limited supply. Exploring becomes extremely conservative, as you will be forced to heal every wound by using consumables. By the time you reach the boss, it's likely that you won't have any way left to heal yourself.

{{t|Poisoned}} and {{t|Mana Burn}} are far more dangerous afflictions to the Goatperson than to usual classes, since he does not recover from them when he levels up!

The last feature (gold instead of boss trophies) merely ensures that you cannot use the Goatperson for quest progression. It remains to be seen if the amount of money dropped is equal to the value of the trophy that would've dropped instead. If so, this could be useful, as it would allow one to get around that fact that a trophy's price drops the more that you collect that particular trophy. Don't forget to buy any items you want to locker on the way out. Most notably, {{i|Amulet of Yendor}} is highly expensive and consumable, making it a very lucky find if you find one during your Goatperson runs if you were looking to acquire one.

== Strategy ==
Simply put, this class was carefully balanced to stack the deck against the player as much as physically possible without making it completely impossible to win. This is a challenge class. If you can beat a dungeon with this class, then you're either inordinately lucky or an absolute master at this game.

The food system turns the conventional wisdom about popcorn on its head. Very often, you will have to burn through popcorn just to stay fed. You may also choose to kill popcorn enemies to please your current god, or to avoid angering another god. Only with exceptional luck will you be able to save popcorn to the extent that most other classes get to take for granted. However, where other classes get level-up heals, a Goatperson instead refills from hitting conversion point thresholds. This greatly lessens the damage done by having a half-empty popcorn bowl in the late game. It is still good to leave some popcorn when you can, however. By killing popcorn early, you reduce the total amount of bonus experience gained from mid-level monsters, and therefore it becomes harder to reach high levels.

The closest thing to the Goatperson conversion bonus is the bonus for {{r|Goblin}}s. Because the Goatperson refill does not depend on experience points, it is easier to hit a refill spike, compared to the Goblin who often needs popcorn to make up an experience gap, especially at high levels.

== Preparations ==

Goatperson has a hard time surviving to the late game due to starvation and due to how his bonuses cost CP or piety. While leveraging piety in the late game affords him some flexibility, his early game is so fragile that your preparations should be at least moderately front-loaded.

Preparing the fireball magnet to begin with {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} is highly recommended. You might also prepare {{i|Elven Boots}} and Smuggler's Den. By having an enlarged mana pool, a {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} glyph, and quick access to level 1 monsters, you can be sure to hit the ground running, greatly reducing the very real danger of starving. Another great thing about {{i|Elven Boots}} is that it continues to be a strong item in the late game, and it synergizes with all the refills you'll be getting from your conversion points.

Items that can be used as general-purpose "get out of jail free" cards (such as {{i|Namtar's Ward}}, which grants you an emergency death protection each level) are exceptionally good preparation choices as well. A Goatperson who likes variety can get a lot of mileage out of preparing a fourth altar, though a safe piety farm like {{g|Mystera Annur}} might be more palatable to a more conservative play style. Due to his vulnerability to afflictions, the Goatperson should ''never'' prepare {{i|Patches the Teddy}}. The {{i|Slaying Wand}} is a reliable last resort to gain a little food when stuck with only too-high level monsters, and is probably the best Blacksmith preparation for most dungeons. While you can prepare a specific Altar, and it will normally spawn closer to you, there is no guarantee that you will actually worship that deity.

== Glyphs ==

Leveraging the goat's conversion bonus is a sensitive matter of timing. Since every glyph conversion will grant a full refill (or at least come close), you will have to think twice before picking them up or converting them. Only [[BURNDAYRAZ]] should be picked up every time. Other glyphs can often be left on the ground as insurance. In particular, {{s|LEMMISI}} can't just be spammed and then converted. If you find it early, you might want to cast it occasionally when you need to heal, but if you find it when you already know the map layout, you probably should leave it on the ground. {{s|APHEELSIK}} should probably be left on the ground most of the time, but it might actually be useful if you hit a food surplus at some point. It is weak overall and highly situational.

The {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyph is an excellent early find for the Goatperson. Because it reveals 3 tiles, but only costs 1 food, it allows you to effectively explore at a reduced cost. If used repeatedly over the course of the dungeon, the Goatperson can save up enough food that he doesn't need to worry about his exploration limitations anymore. If enough food is saved, he can even convert some in the end-game for extra heals. Be mindful that the Glowing Guardian does not like this glyph.

{{s|GETINDARE}} is fairly strong at any time, but needs a little damage to back it up. Any time you would normally need to eat potions or conversions, there is a chance that the stacking dodge chance will save you valuable resources.

{{s|WONAFYT}} is a nice safety glyph that will keep you from starving. If your food is low, it can be a life-saver. You will want to create a good opportunity to convert it for a refill in the mid-game, though.

{{s|PISORF}} is great for multiple boss fights. Because a Goatperson can convert glyphs for several refills over the course of a fight, it can pay off quite well if the bosses can be lined up without too much trouble. This can also be combined with {{s|WEYTWUT}}. [[WEYTWUT]] by itself can be used to get past a nasty obstacle, but can be left on the ground as insurance otherwise.

== Deity Guide ==

'''{{g|Glowing Guardian}}'''
The Glowing Guardian is an above-average draw for the Goatperson. Most of his piety comes from persistent worship, which is not possible due to the forced conversion on every level-up. His humility boon will reduce your health regeneration and fireball damage, which is dangerous for this character. However, his cleansing boon helps alleviate the Goatperson's weakness to afflictions, and the Goatperson is free to drink potions whenever he "bounces" out of this religion which allows him to avoid the primary downsides of Glowing Guardian Worship. Converting food is an effective way of earning piety with the Glowing Guardian. Due to his dislike of poison and lifesteal, it is important to be mindful of which boons you select from Dracul or Tikki Tooki.

'''{{g|Tikki Tooki}}'''
Potentially game-ending if you are assigned to him at the 1st level. It is very difficult to earn piety with Tikki Tooki as a 1st level character, and his punishment must be avoided at all costs. However, for a higher-level Goatperson he is an excellent source of piety, and his Dodging and Tikki's Edge boons offer superb long-term value. Be mindful not to pick the poison attack boon if the Glowing Guardian is present.

'''{{g|Taurog}}'''
Similar to Tikki Tooki, this god can be problematic if you are assigned at the 1st level. Because the Goatperson is often reliant on his fireball glyph for his first kill (particularly if boxed in on a hard or higher difficulty scenario) this can immediately invoke Taurog's punishment, which can be game-ending. However, Taurog is otherwise an invaluable source of piety to fuel your other deities. If you have either Dracul or Pactmaker in addition to Taurog, stacking resistances can be a very effective approach.

'''{{g|The Earthmother}}'''
A mediocre draw for the Goatperson. Because you will not receive the free {{s|IMAWAL}} glyph on worship, earning piety with her is far more difficult than usual. You will need to rely on other deities to fuel her, or else use her plantation boon. Because of her limited piety generation with the Goatperson, Vine Form and Greenblood have less value than usual, but Plantation, Clearance, and Entanglement remain top-notch boons. It's also easier than normal to clear out plants, as you get free conversions out of her religion at regular intervals.

'''{{g|Mystera Annur}}'''
Mystera is a variable deity for the Goatperson. Fully utilising her can require some forethought and a bit of luck. To take advantage of her "Refreshment" boon, you need to make sure you don't hit the conversion threshold when you convert a glyph, as otherwise her 50% mana restore is wasted when your 100% health and mana restore kick in. This means you should trigger your first conversion with items, then ensure that every time you convert a glyph subsequently it doesn't take you over the next conversion threshold. For full effect you must be worshiping Mystera when you convert your glyphs, but since the Goatperson cannot control his deity selection the power of refreshment could be halved at not fault of your own. Given that setting up mid-battle level-ups are not a favorable approach for the Goatperson, this can make it a gamble as to whether you will land on Mystera for key boss fights or not.

On the piety front, Mystera is a double-edged sword. If you're well-stocked with food she's remarkably easy to generate piety with and can be used to fuel boons from deities better suited to the Goatperson. However, if you're low on food you may often be forced to kill magic-user monsters that you might otherwise have avoided. She can heavily tax your piety in such situations. As a result, it's a very good idea to remove magic damage monsters from the field between level-ups.

'''{{g|Binlor Ironshield}}'''
Similar to Earthmother, you do not receive the free {{s|PISORF}} glyph as a Goatperson. This makes earning piety with Binlor somewhat difficult if you don't have the right equipment. However, if you can accrue 35 piety with another deity you can purchase his Stone Soup boon to get a free {{s|ENDISWAL}} glyph. Because the Goatperson can purchase boons between three deities, he will rarely run into the issue of depleting all the walls on the level.

'''{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}'''
A very dangerous, but potentially rewarding, draw for the Goatperson. The vulnerability to mana burn and poison mean getting the Petition boon ''immediately'' is a top priority, and his inability to desecrate other altars can make this difficult if you get stuck with Jehora at the 1st level. If you are transferred to his religion with 50+ piety, however, picking up petition is easy and you can completely skip over his normal limits. Jehora's boons are quite powerful for the Goatperson. Note that Chaos Avatar will not automatically heal the Goatperson when used, but since it grants 100 conversion points it will often trigger the Goatperson's conversion bonus; however, it will cause you to convert due to the level-up. Converting food is a superb way to earn piety with Jehora Jeheyu.

'''{{g|Dracul}}'''
By far the most powerful deity for the Goatperson, all of Dracul's boons are exceptionally useful for him. Because the Goatperson has no inherent resistances, Blood Hunger's penalty is meaningless to him. His focus on end-game spiking makes Blood Tithe and Blood Swell incredibly worthwhile. When combined with other resistance-granting deities, Blood Shield is incredibly potent. When using Dracul's boons, be mindful of potential conflict with the Earthmother and Glowing Guardian, both of which dislike lifesteal. You should avoid the Blood Hunger boon if those deities are present. The Earthmother does not have a problem with Blood Tithe, but the Glowing Guardian does. This doesn't preclude you from picking the boon, but you must make sure not to tread on the bloodstains when under his religion. Make sure you drink your healing potions and slay any undead when you are worshiping a different deity.

'''{{g|The Pactmaker}}'''
Another deceptively great find for the Goatperson. You cannot actually "worship" the Pactmaker, but some of his pacts are extremely useful. The Body Pact works quite well when combined with other resistance-granting deities, but the real secret is the Scholar's Pact. This cancels out the normal Goatperson penalty that prevents him from healing on level-up, allowing him to gain far more value from this pact than other classes would normally. This is well worth 10 piety on each level-up.

==== Deity Interactions ====

Being able to tap into several dieties during a single run may be a huge blessing in disguise. For example, you can cast spells while worshipping Mystera, level up with an empty Mana bar, then kill off the low-level magic-using monsters worshiping Taurog. You can slow low-level monsters worshipping Jehora, killing a couple of higher-level foes to level up, then switch to Tikki Tooki and kill off the slowed low-level monsters. You can build walls worshiping Mystera, then destroy them after switching to Binlor. You can fight the boss, using up your potions, then level up and switch to Glowing Guardian and convert stuff to gain restorations and piety that can fuel Protection. However, the Goatperson's food requirement and lack of control over conversion means that he's often forced into making unfavorable plays. Being able to handle bad situations is just as important as being able to leverage good ones.

If The Pactmaker is one of your three altars, then you will have certainty on your level-up conversion. If The Pactmaker is not present, or you prepared Extra Altar, the conversion will be less predictable, so it may be that one particular Deity almost never comes up. This requires a bit of thought about what a potential conversion would do, and may make you play more conservatively.

As you cannot desecrate, you have no access to Indulgences or the quick Piety gain. However, as you should be able to avoid most Diety punishments thanks to the conversions, and you do not lose Piety for converting, you should be able to come out even ahead versus other classes.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:Goatperson

2015-06-16T21:55:23Z

MTaur:

Tinker, I notice we have very different opinions on Mystera's viability for the Goatperson. While I agree that his conversion threshold change has made Mystera viable (whereas back when he had a flat 100 conversion threshold she was garbage for him) I disagree with your assessment of her being above-average. Refreshment is just too unreliable, and even in the best of cases isn't even in the same league as what Pactmaker, Dracul, and Glowing Guardian offer. I'd think even "average" would be pushing it when TT and Taurog have powerful synergy potentials with the rest of the pantheon. --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 19:11, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Has anyone checked whether Goatperson gets the full gold value of a trophy pre-Horatio? - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Talk:Ick Swamp

2015-06-07T02:23:49Z

MTaur: Created page with "Is it just random luck, or are there a fairly large number of Wraiths as well? I noticed outdated information like the boss's name, "Ssseth". - MTaur"

Is it just random luck, or are there a fairly large number of Wraiths as well? I noticed outdated information like the boss's name, "Ssseth". - MTaur

Goatperson

2015-06-01T07:12:48Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|MonsterClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Goatperson
|ShortHand=
|Traits=
;SCAPEGOAT: Randomly worships a new god per level, no conversion or desecration
;PROTOTYPE: No restoration effects on level-up, gold instead of trophies
;HERBIVORE: Eats food while exploring. Killing enemies yields more food
|Conversion=Refills HP and MP for 100 (+10 cumulative) CP
|SuggestedRaces=
Any [[Race]]
|Unlock=
Find at least 6 gods (enough that two altars will spawn in dungeons), and pay 3000 gold at the Goat Glade.
|Group=Special
}}</onlyinclude>

''"The accurate and persistent balancing of this class isn’t guaranteed."''

The Goatperson is the secret monster class, acquired by unlocking the [[Goat Glade]] (available to early supporters or as DLC on Steam). It is a dangerously experimental class, based on short-term and sometimes ''extremely'' short-term decisions.

== Class Features ==

=== Herbivore ===

Exploring a tile costs food, which takes up a small inventory space for your whole supply. Killing an enemy gives 9 food, and, more to the point, exploring without food damages you until you GET FOOD or DIE. Each tile uncovered will deplete 1 food. As you might be able to tell, this adds up ''really quick''. This obviously is meant to limit exploration, as no food is consumed by going back over uncovered tiles.

=== Scapegoat ===

The Goatperson will randomly worship a new god out of the 3 that have altars in the dungeon (or 2, if you haven't unlocked enough gods yet) upon level up. The no-desecration aspect is simply done so that you can't escape this change by destroying the other altars.

This trait is designed to severely limit the strategies that one can implement, as it is impossible to be sure when you will be forced to worship one god instead of another. The Goatperson will always change to a different deity on each level-up, and will never remain with the same deity.

=== Prototype ===

The fact that the Goatperson does not heal upon level up completely torpedoes mid-fight level-up strategies, and makes progression much, much more difficult. While you can still heal mid-fight by converting, the increasing conversion cost makes this rather costly, and severely limits supply. The exploration phase is also much more difficult, because you cannot rely on leveling up to heal you. Therefore, the ''only'' ways for your character to heal at all are by exploring (which is limited by your food supply, which is only replenished by killing monsters), using glyphs, converting items, using potions, and taking god boons. All of these are in limited supply. Exploring becomes extremely conservative, as you will be forced to heal every wound by using consumables. By the time you reach the boss, it's likely that you won't have any way left to heal yourself.

{{t|Poisoned}} and {{t|Mana Burn}} are far more dangerous afflictions to the Goatperson than to usual classes, since he does not recover from them when he levels up!

The last feature (gold instead of boss trophies) merely ensures that you cannot use the Goatperson for quest progression. It remains to be seen if the amount of money dropped is equal to the value of the trophy that would've dropped instead. If so, this could be useful, as it would allow one to get around that fact that a trophy's price drops the more that you collect that particular trophy.

== Strategy ==
Simply put, this class was carefully balanced to stack the deck against the player as much as physically possible without making it completely impossible to win. This is a challenge class. If you can beat a dungeon with this class, then you're either inordinately lucky or an absolute master at this game.

The food system turns the conventional wisdom about popcorn on its head. Very often, you will have to burn through popcorn just to stay fed. You may also choose to kill popcorn enemies to please your current god, or to avoid angering another god. Only with exceptional luck will you be able to save popcorn to the extent that most other classes get to take for granted. However, where other classes get level-up heals, a Goatperson instead refills from hitting conversion point thresholds. This greatly lessens the damage done by having a half-empty popcorn bowl in the late game. It is still good to leave some popcorn when you can, however. By killing popcorn early, you reduce the total amount of bonus experience gained from mid-level monsters, and therefore it becomes harder to reach high levels.

The closest thing to the Goatperson conversion bonus is the bonus for {{r|Goblin}}s. Because the Goatperson refill does not depend on experience points, it is easier to hit a refill spike, compared to the Goblin who often needs popcorn to make up an experience gap, especially at high levels.

== Preparations ==

Goatperson has a hard time surviving to the late game due to starvation and due to how his bonuses cost CP or piety. While leveraging piety in the late game affords him some flexibility, his early game is so fragile that your preparations should be at least moderately front-loaded.

Preparing the fireball magnet to begin with {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} is highly recommended. You might also prepare {{i|Elven Boots}} and Smuggler's Den. By having an enlarged mana pool, a {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} glyph, and quick access to level 1 monsters, you can be sure to hit the ground running, greatly reducing the very real danger of starving. Another great thing about {{i|Elven Boots}} is that it continues to be a strong item in the late game, and it synergizes with all the refills you'll be getting from your conversion points.

Items that can be used as general-purpose "get out of jail free" cards (such as {{i|Namtar's Ward}}, which grants you an emergency death protection each level) are exceptionally good preparation choices as well. A Goatperson who likes variety can get a lot of mileage out of preparing a fourth altar, though a safe piety farm like {{g|Mystera Annur}} might be more palatable to a more conservative play style. Due to his vulnerability to afflictions, the Goatperson should ''never'' prepare {{i|Patches the Teddy}}. The {{i|Slaying Wand}} is a reliable last resort to gain a little food when stuck with only too-high level monsters, and is probably the best Blacksmith preparation for most dungeons. While you can prepare a specific Altar, and it will normally spawn closer to you, there is no guarantee that you will actually worship that deity.

== Glyphs ==

Leveraging the goat's conversion bonus is a sensitive matter of timing. Since every glyph conversion will grant a full refill (or at least come close), you will have to think twice before picking them up or converting them. Only [[BURNDAYRAZ]] should be picked up every time. Other glyphs can often be left on the ground as insurance. In particular, {{s|LEMMISI}} can't just be spammed and then converted. If you find it early, you might want to cast it occasionally when you need to heal, but if you find it when you already know the map layout, you probably should leave it on the ground. {{s|APHEELSIK}} should probably be left on the ground most of the time, but it might actually be useful if you hit a food surplus at some point. It is weak overall and highly situational.

The {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyph is an excellent early find for the Goatperson. Because it reveals 3 tiles, but only costs 1 food, it allows you to effectively explore at a reduced cost. If used repeatedly over the course of the dungeon, the Goatperson can save up enough food that he doesn't need to worry about his exploration limitations anymore. If enough food is saved, he can even convert some in the end-game for extra heals. Be mindful that the Glowing Guardian does not like this glyph.

{{s|GETINDARE}} is fairly strong at any time, but needs a little damage to back it up. Any time you would normally need to eat potions or conversions, there is a chance that the stacking dodge chance will save you valuable resources.

{{s|WONAFYT}} is a nice safety glyph that will keep you from starving. If your food is low, it can be a life-saver. You will want to create a good opportunity to convert it for a refill in the mid-game, though.

{{s|PISORF}} is great for multiple boss fights. Because a Goatperson can convert glyphs for several refills over the course of a fight, it can pay off quite well if the bosses can be lined up without too much trouble. This can also be combined with {{s|WEYTWUT}}. [[WEYTWUT]] by itself can be used to get past a nasty obstacle, but can be left on the ground as insurance otherwise.

== Deity Guide ==

'''{{g|Glowing Guardian}}'''
The Glowing Guardian is an above-average draw for the Goatperson. Most of his piety comes from persistent worship, which is not possible due to the forced conversion on every level-up. His humility boon will reduce your health regeneration and fireball damage, which is dangerous for this character. However, his cleansing boon helps alleviate the Goatperson's weakness to afflictions, and the Goatperson is free to drink potions whenever he "bounces" out of this religion which allows him to avoid the primary downsides of Glowing Guardian Worship. Converting food is an effective way of earning piety with the Glowing Guardian. Due to his dislike of poison and lifesteal, it is important to be mindful of which boons you select from Dracul or Tikki Tooki.

'''{{g|Tikki Tooki}}'''
Potentially game-ending if you are assigned to him at the 1st level. It is very difficult to earn piety with Tikki Tooki as a 1st level character, and his punishment must be avoided at all costs. However, for a higher-level Goatperson he is an excellent source of piety, and his Dodging and Tikki's Edge boons offer superb long-term value. Be mindful not to pick the poison attack boon if the Glowing Guardian is present.

'''{{g|Taurog}}'''
Similar to Tikki Tooki, this god can be problematic if you are assigned at the 1st level. Because the Goatperson is often reliant on his fireball glyph for his first kill (particularly if boxed in on a hard or higher difficulty scenario) this can immediately invoke Taurog's punishment, which can be game-ending. However, Taurog is otherwise an invaluable source of piety to fuel your other deities. If you have either Dracul or Pactmaker in addition to Taurog, stacking resistances can be a very effective approach.

'''{{g|The Earthmother}}'''
A mediocre draw for the Goatperson. Because you will not receive the free {{s|IMAWAL}} glyph on worship, earning piety with her is far more difficult than usual. You will need to rely on other deities to fuel her, or else use her plantation boon. Because of her limited piety generation with the Goatperson, Vine Form and Greenblood have less value than usual, but Plantation, Clearance, and Entanglement remain top-notch boons. It's also easier than normal to clear out plants, as you get free conversions out of her religion at regular intervals.

'''{{g|Mystera Annur}}'''
Mystera is a variable deity for the Goatperson. Fully utilising her can require some forethought and a bit of luck. To take advantage of her "Refreshment" boon, you need to make sure you don't hit the conversion threshold when you convert a glyph, as otherwise her 50% mana restore is wasted when your 100% health and mana restore kick in. This means you should trigger your first conversion with items, then ensure that every time you convert a glyph subsequently it doesn't take you over the next conversion threshold. For full effect you must be worshiping Mystera when you convert your glyphs, but since the Goatperson cannot control his deity selection the power of refreshment could be halved at not fault of your own. Given that setting up mid-battle level-ups are not a favorable approach for the Goatperson, this can make it a gamble as to whether you will land on Mystera for key boss fights or not.

On the piety front, Mystera is a double-edged sword. If you're well-stocked with food she's remarkably easy to generate piety with and can be used to fuel boons from deities better suited to the Goatperson. However, if you're low on food you may often be forced to kill magic-user monsters that you might otherwise have avoided. She can heavily tax your piety in such situations. As a result, it's a very good idea to remove magic damage monsters from the field between level-ups.

'''{{g|Binlor Ironshield}}'''
Similar to Earthmother, you do not receive the free {{s|PISORF}} glyph as a Goatperson. This makes earning piety with Binlor somewhat difficult if you don't have the right equipment. However, if you can accrue 35 piety with another deity you can purchase his Stone Soup boon to get a free {{s|ENDISWAL}} glyph. Because the Goatperson can purchase boons between three deities, he will rarely run into the issue of depleting all the walls on the level.

'''{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}'''
A very dangerous, but potentially rewarding, draw for the Goatperson. The vulnerability to mana burn and poison mean getting the Petition boon ''immediately'' is a top priority, and his inability to desecrate other altars can make this difficult if you get stuck with Jehora at the 1st level. If you are transferred to his religion with 50+ piety, however, picking up petition is easy and you can completely skip over his normal limits. Jehora's boons are quite powerful for the Goatperson. Note that Chaos Avatar will not automatically heal the Goatperson when used, but since it grants 100 conversion points it will often trigger the Goatperson's conversion bonus; however, it will cause you to convert due to the level-up. Converting food is a superb way to earn piety with Jehora Jeheyu.

'''{{g|Dracul}}'''
By far the most powerful deity for the Goatperson, all of Dracul's boons are exceptionally useful for him. Because the Goatperson has no inherent resistances, Blood Hunger's penalty is meaningless to him. His focus on end-game spiking makes Blood Tithe and Blood Swell incredibly worthwhile. When combined with other resistance-granting deities, Blood Shield is incredibly potent. When using Dracul's boons, be mindful of potential conflict with the Earthmother and Glowing Guardian, both of which dislike lifesteal. You should avoid the Blood Hunger boon if those deities are present. The Earthmother does not have a problem with Blood Tithe, but the Glowing Guardian does. This doesn't preclude you from picking the boon, but you must make sure not to tread on the bloodstains when under his religion. Make sure you drink your healing potions and slay any undead when you are worshiping a different deity.

'''{{g|The Pactmaker}}'''
Another deceptively great find for the Goatperson. You cannot actually "worship" the Pactmaker, but some of his pacts are extremely useful. The Body Pact works quite well when combined with other resistance-granting deities, but the real secret is the Scholar's Pact. This cancels out the normal Goatperson penalty that prevents him from healing on level-up, allowing him to gain far more value from this pact than other classes would normally. This is well worth 10 piety on each level-up.

==== Deity Interactions ====

Being able to tap into several dieties during a single run may be a huge blessing in disguise. For example, you can cast spells while worshipping Mystera, level up with an empty Mana bar, then kill off the low-level magic-using monsters worshiping Taurog. You can slow low-level monsters worshipping Jehora, killing a couple of higher-level foes to level up, then switch to Tikki Tooki and kill off the slowed low-level monsters. You can build walls worshiping Mystera, then destroy them after switching to Binlor. You can fight the boss, using up your potions, then level up and switch to Glowing Guardian and convert stuff to gain restorations and piety that can fuel Protection. However, the Goatperson's food requirement and lack of control over conversion means that he's often forced into making unfavorable plays. Being able to handle bad situations is just as important as being able to leverage good ones.

If The Pactmaker is one of your three altars, then you will have certainty on your level-up conversion. If The Pactmaker is not present, or you prepared Extra Altar, the conversion will be less predictable, so it may be that one particular Deity almost never comes up. This requires a bit of thought about what a potential conversion would do, and may make you play more conservatively.

As you cannot desecrate, you have no access to Indulgences or the quick Piety gain. However, as you should be able to avoid most Diety punishments thanks to the conversions, and you do not lose Piety for converting, you should be able to come out even ahead versus other classes.

{{MainNav}}

Goatperson

2015-05-31T23:17:18Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|MonsterClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Goatperson
|ShortHand=
|Traits=
;SCAPEGOAT: Randomly worships a new god per level, no conversion or desecration
;PROTOTYPE: No restoration effects on level-up, gold instead of trophies
;HERBIVORE: Eats food while exploring. Killing enemies yields more food
|Conversion=Refills HP and MP for 100 (+10 cumulative) CP
|SuggestedRaces=
Any [[Race]]
|Unlock=
Find at least 6 gods (enough that two altars will spawn in dungeons), and pay 3000 gold at the Goat Glade.
|Group=Special
}}</onlyinclude>

''"The accurate and persistent balancing of this class isn’t guaranteed."''

The Goatperson is the secret monster class, acquired by unlocking the [[Goat Glade]] (available to early supporters or as DLC on Steam). It is a dangerously experimental class, based on short-term and sometimes ''extremely'' short-term decisions.

== Class Features ==

=== Herbivore ===

Exploring a tile costs food, which takes up a small inventory space for your whole supply. Killing an enemy gives 9 food, and, more to the point, exploring without food damages you until you GET FOOD or DIE. Each tile uncovered will deplete 1 food. As you might be able to tell, this adds up ''really quick''. This obviously is meant to limit exploration, as no food is consumed by going back over uncovered tiles.

=== Scapegoat ===

The Goatperson will randomly worship a new god out of the 3 that have altars in the dungeon (or 2, if you haven't unlocked enough gods yet) upon level up. The no-desecration aspect is simply done so that you can't escape this change by destroying the other altars.

This trait is designed to severely limit the strategies that one can implement, as it is impossible to be sure when you will be forced to worship one god instead of another. The Goatperson will always change to a different deity on each level-up, and will never remain with the same deity.

=== Prototype ===

The fact that the Goatperson does not heal upon level up completely torpedoes mid-fight level-up strategies, and makes progression much, much more difficult. While you can still heal mid-fight by converting, the increasing conversion cost makes this rather costly, and severely limits supply. The exploration phase is also much more difficult, because you cannot rely on leveling up to heal you. Therefore, the ''only'' ways for your character to heal at all are by exploring (which is limited by your food supply, which is only replenished by killing monsters), using glyphs, converting items, using potions, and taking god boons. All of these are in limited supply. Exploring becomes extremely conservative, as you will be forced to heal every wound by using consumables. By the time you reach the boss, it's likely that you won't have any way left to heal yourself.

{{t|Poisoned}} and {{t|Mana Burn}} are far more dangerous afflictions to the Goatperson than to usual classes, since he does not recover from them when he levels up!

The last feature (gold instead of boss trophies) merely ensures that you cannot use the Goatperson for quest progression. It remains to be seen if the amount of money dropped is equal to the value of the trophy that would've dropped instead. If so, this could be useful, as it would allow one to get around that fact that a trophy's price drops the more that you collect that particular trophy.

== Strategy ==
Simply put, this class was carefully balanced to stack the deck against the player as much as physically possible without making it completely impossible to win. This is a challenge class. If you can beat a dungeon with this class, then you're either inordinately lucky or an absolute master at this game.

On the other hand, the food system turns the conventional wisdom about popcorn on its head. Very often, you will have to burn through popcorn just to stay fed. Planning ahead, you may also choose to kill popcorn enemies to please your current god, or to avoid angering another god. You may not reach high levels as rapidly as most classes, but you will hold on to your level-up heals, which instead come from hitting conversion point thresholds. Only with exceptional luck will you be able to save popcorn to the extent that most other classes get to take for granted.

== Preparations ==

Goatperson has a hard time surviving to the late game due to starvation and due to how his bonuses cost CP or piety. While leveraging piety in the late game affords him some flexibility, his early game is so fragile that your preparations should be at least moderately front-loaded.

Preparing the fireball magnet to begin with {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} is highly recommended. You might also prepare {{i|Elven Boots}} and Smuggler's Den. By having an enlarged mana pool, a {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} glyph, and quick access to level 1 monsters, you can be sure to hit the ground running, greatly reducing the very real danger of starving. Another great thing about {{i|Elven Boots}} is that it continues to be a strong item in the late game, and it synergizes with all the refills you'll be getting from your conversion points.

Items that can be used as general-purpose "get out of jail free" cards (such as {{i|Namtar's Ward}}, which grants you an emergency death protection each level) are exceptionally good preparation choices as well. A Goatperson who likes variety can get a lot of mileage out of preparing a fourth altar, though a safe piety farm like {{g|Mystera Annur}} might be more palatable to a more conservative play style. Due to his vulnerability to afflictions, the Goatperson should ''never'' prepare {{i|Patches the Teddy}}. The {{i|Slaying Wand}} is a reliable last resort to gain a little food when stuck with only too-high level monsters, and is probably the best Blacksmith preparation for most dungeons. While you can prepare a specific Altar, and it will normally spawn closer to you, there is no guarantee that you will actually worship that deity.

== Glyphs ==

Leveraging the goat's conversion bonus is a sensitive matter of timing. Since every glyph conversion will grant a full refill (or at least come close), you will have to think twice before picking them up or converting them. Only [[BURNDAYRAZ]] should be picked up every time. Other glyphs can often be left on the ground as insurance. In particular, {{s|LEMMISI}} can't just be spammed and then converted. If you find it early, you might want to cast it occasionally when you need to heal, but if you find it when you already know the map layout, you probably should leave it on the ground. {{s|APHEELSIK}} should probably be left on the ground most of the time, but it might actually be useful if you hit a food surplus at some point. It is weak overall and highly situational.

The {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} glyph is an excellent early find for the Goatperson. Because it reveals 3 tiles, but only costs 1 food, it allows you to effectively explore at a reduced cost. If used repeatedly over the course of the dungeon, the Goatperson can save up enough food that he doesn't need to worry about his exploration limitations anymore. If enough food is saved, he can even convert some in the end-game for extra heals. Be mindful that the Glowing Guardian does not like this glyph.

{{s|GETINDARE}} is fairly strong at any time, but needs a little damage to back it up. Any time you would normally need to eat potions or conversions, there is a chance that the stacking dodge chance will save you valuable resources.

{{s|WONAFYT}} is a nice safety glyph that will keep you from starving. If your food is low, it can be a life-saver. You will want to create a good opportunity to convert it for a refill in the mid-game, though.

{{s|PISORF}} is great for multiple boss fights. Because a Goatperson can convert glyphs for several refills over the course of a fight, it can pay off quite well if the bosses can be lined up without too much trouble. This can also be combined with {{s|WEYTWUT}}. [[WEYTWUT]] by itself can be used to get past a nasty obstacle, but can be left on the ground as insurance otherwise.

== Deity Guide ==

'''{{g|Glowing Guardian}}'''
The Glowing Guardian is an above-average draw for the Goatperson. Most of his piety comes from persistent worship, which is not possible due to the forced conversion on every level-up. His humility boon will reduce your health regeneration and fireball damage, which is dangerous for this character. However, his cleansing boon helps alleviate the Goatperson's weakness to afflictions, and the Goatperson is free to drink potions whenever he "bounces" out of this religion which allows him to avoid the primary downsides of Glowing Guardian Worship. Converting food is an effective way of earning piety with the Glowing Guardian. Due to his dislike of poison and lifesteal, it is important to be mindful of which boons you select from Dracul or Tikki Tooki.

'''{{g|Tikki Tooki}}'''
Potentially game-ending if you are assigned to him at the 1st level. It is very difficult to earn piety with Tikki Tooki as a 1st level character, and his punishment must be avoided at all costs. However, for a higher-level Goatperson he is an excellent source of piety, and his Dodging and Tikki's Edge boons offer superb long-term value. Be mindful not to pick the poison attack boon if the Glowing Guardian is present.

'''{{g|Taurog}}'''
Similar to Tikki Tooki, this god can be problematic if you are assigned at the 1st level. Because the Goatperson is often reliant on his fireball glyph for his first kill (particularly if boxed in on a hard or higher difficulty scenario) this can immediately invoke Taurog's punishment, which can be game-ending. However, Taurog is otherwise an invaluable source of piety to fuel your other deities. If you have either Dracul or Pactmaker in addition to Taurog, stacking resistances can be a very effective approach.

'''{{g|The Earthmother}}'''
A mediocre draw for the Goatperson. Because you will not receive the free {{s|IMAWAL}} glyph on worship, earning piety with her is far more difficult than usual. You will need to rely on other deities to fuel her, or else use her plantation boon. Because of her limited piety generation with the Goatperson, Vine Form and Greenblood have less value than usual, but Plantation, Clearance, and Entanglement remain top-notch boons. It's also easier than normal to clear out plants, as you get free conversions out of her religion at regular intervals.

'''{{g|Mystera Annur}}'''
Mystera is a variable deity for the Goatperson. Fully utilising her can require some forethought and a bit of luck. To take advantage of her "Refreshment" boon, you need to make sure you don't hit the conversion threshold when you convert a glyph, as otherwise her 50% mana restore is wasted when your 100% health and mana restore kick in. This means you should trigger your first conversion with items, then ensure that every time you convert a glyph subsequently it doesn't take you over the next conversion threshold. For full effect you must be worshiping Mystera when you convert your glyphs, but since the Goatperson cannot control his deity selection the power of refreshment could be halved at not fault of your own. Given that setting up mid-battle level-ups are not a favorable approach for the Goatperson, this can make it a gamble as to whether you will land on Mystera for key boss fights or not.

On the piety front, Mystera is a double-edged sword. If you're well-stocked with food she's remarkably easy to generate piety with and can be used to fuel boons from deities better suited to the Goatperson. However, if you're low on food you may often be forced to kill magic-user monsters that you might otherwise have avoided. She can heavily tax your piety in such situations. As a result, it's a very good idea to remove magic damage monsters from the field between level-ups.

'''{{g|Binlor Ironshield}}'''
Similar to Earthmother, you do not receive the free {{s|PISORF}} glyph as a Goatperson. This makes earning piety with Binlor somewhat difficult if you don't have the right equipment. However, if you can accrue 35 piety with another deity you can purchase his Stone Soup boon to get a free {{s|ENDISWAL}} glyph. Because the Goatperson can purchase boons between three deities, he will rarely run into the issue of depleting all the walls on the level.

'''{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}}'''
A very dangerous, but potentially rewarding, draw for the Goatperson. The vulnerability to mana burn and poison mean getting the Petition boon ''immediately'' is a top priority, and his inability to desecrate other altars can make this difficult if you get stuck with Jehora at the 1st level. If you are transferred to his religion with 50+ piety, however, picking up petition is easy and you can completely skip over his normal limits. Jehora's boons are quite powerful for the Goatperson. Note that Chaos Avatar will not automatically heal the Goatperson when used, but since it grants 100 conversion points it will often trigger the Goatperson's conversion bonus; however, it will cause you to convert due to the level-up. Converting food is a superb way to earn piety with Jehora Jeheyu.

'''{{g|Dracul}}'''
By far the most powerful deity for the Goatperson, all of Dracul's boons are exceptionally useful for him. Because the Goatperson has no inherent resistances, Blood Hunger's penalty is meaningless to him. His focus on end-game spiking makes Blood Tithe and Blood Swell incredibly worthwhile. When combined with other resistance-granting deities, Blood Shield is incredibly potent. When using Dracul's boons, be mindful of potential conflict with the Earthmother and Glowing Guardian, both of which dislike lifesteal. You should avoid the Blood Hunger boon if those deities are present. The Earthmother does not have a problem with Blood Tithe, but the Glowing Guardian does. This doesn't preclude you from picking the boon, but you must make sure not to tread on the bloodstains when under his religion. Make sure you drink your healing potions and slay any undead when you are worshiping a different deity.

'''{{g|The Pactmaker}}'''
Another deceptively great find for the Goatperson. You cannot actually "worship" the Pactmaker, but some of his pacts are extremely useful. The Body Pact works quite well when combined with other resistance-granting deities, but the real secret is the Scholar's Pact. This cancels out the normal Goatperson penalty that prevents him from healing on level-up, allowing him to gain far more value from this pact than other classes would normally. This is well worth 10 piety on each level-up.

==== Deity Interactions ====

Being able to tap into several dieties during a single run may be a huge blessing in disguise. For example, you can cast spells while worshipping Mystera, level up with an empty Mana bar, then kill off the low-level magic-using monsters worshiping Taurog. You can slow low-level monsters worshipping Jehora, killing a couple of higher-level foes to level up, then switch to Tikki Tooki and kill off the slowed low-level monsters. You can build walls worshiping Mystera, then destroy them after switching to Binlor. You can fight the boss, using up your potions, then level up and switch to Glowing Guardian and convert stuff to gain restorations and piety that can fuel Protection. However, the Goatperson's food requirement and lack of control over conversion means that he's often forced into making unfavorable plays. Being able to handle bad situations is just as important as being able to leverage good ones.

If The Pactmaker is one of your three altars, then you will have certainty on your level-up conversion. If The Pactmaker is not present, or you prepared Extra Altar, the conversion will be less predictable, so it may be that one particular Deity almost never comes up. This requires a bit of thought about what a potential conversion would do, and may make you play more conservatively.

As you cannot desecrate, you have no access to Indulgences or the quick Piety gain. However, as you should be able to avoid most Diety punishments thanks to the conversions, and you do not lose Piety for converting, you should be able to come out even ahead versus other classes.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:WEYTWUT

2015-05-28T21:33:16Z

MTaur: Created page with "Is it salt or butter? "Salt" has a reputation for leaving you parched, while butter has a reputation for providing extra calories. :-D - MTaur"

Is it salt or butter? "Salt" has a reputation for leaving you parched, while butter has a reputation for providing extra calories. :-D - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Talk:Items

2015-05-28T19:13:31Z

MTaur:

Need to differentiate between "Preparation Cost" (before you enter the dungeon) and the In-dungeon cost.

Agreed, though to be fair I've made a forum post asking the devs just to get rid of the discrepancy altogether. The rule of thumb appears to be that elite items are double the in-dungeon cost, regular items are equal to in-dungeon cost --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 12:34, 21 August 2012 (CDT)

The Crystal Ball seems to increase its conversion value as it gets charged. When prepped or bought, it has 10 charges but only 1 conversion value; however, after receiving additional charges, the conversion value seems to change to 10 points per charge received (up to maximum 50 points). After discharge this also resets back to 1. I haven't tested the Fire Heart if it uses the same logic.

Layout Test...
== In-dungeon Items ==
{| class ="wikitable sortable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" style="border-collapse:collapse;width:82.3%"
|- style="background-color: #EEEEEE"
!Icon
!width=15%|Item
!Description
!width=20%|Method of Obtaining
!width=10%|Lockerable?
!width=10%|Available in Shops?
!width=5%|Cost
!width=5%|CP
|-
|[[File:Sword.png]]
|{{va|Sword}}
| +2 base damage
| [[Blacksmith]] level 1
| No
| No
| 25
| 35
|-
|[[File:Shield.png]]
|{{va|Shield}}
| -2 damage reduction
| [[Blacksmith]] level 1
| No
| No
| 15
| 35
|-
|[[File:Bear Mace.png]]
|{{va|Bear Mace}}
| Your regular attack causes Knockback; +25% knockback damage
| [[Blacksmith]] level 1
| No
| No
| 12
| 35
|}

--------
Missing items (feel free to add to this list -- [[User:Berzee|Berzee]] 12 December 2014)
Essence Potion (from Metal Spider Temple)
Jadetooth's Potion

Should there be a page somewhere for discussing individual items strategically? For example, Troll Heart vs Health Pendant - the Heart only sort of wins out eventually, until you consider the fact that you get to keep the bonus after converting it. Since converting the item later on is half the point, it becomes a bit problematic to prep the item as a new player gold-wise, which is unfortunate, gold is harder to come by at this stage and fewer options are available for the locker.

It is true that you eventually get all of the information from reading about classes and dungeons, but there isn't a way to do it that's sorted by items themselves. And if something were implemented, it would probably be spotty and incomplete for a long time. - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Talk:Scoring

2015-05-28T18:44:33Z

MTaur:

Scoring

2015-05-28T15:54:11Z

MTaur: /* Badge Acquisition Strategy */

There are ten [[Badge|badges]] (plus one bonus badge) in Desktop Dungeons, each earned by completing the dungeon in a certain way. You must win the dungeon to earn badges; if you retire before defeating all the dungeon bosses you will never earn a badge.

*'''Cheeky''': The first monster you kill must be a higher level than you (easy)
*'''Ding! Max''': Reach level 10 (easy)
*'''Faithless''': Do not worship any gods (medium)
*'''Feeling Parched''': Do not drink health or mana potions (other potions are okay; medium)
*'''Hoarder''': Never convert any item (using Wizard.exe subdungeon is okay; hard)
*'''Miser''': Do not purchase items from shops (the Translocation seal is okay; medium)
*'''Purist''': Do not use any preparations except basic potion loadout, or the Vicious Token (hard)
*'''Specialist''': Kill the last boss using either magical or physical damage, but not both (medium)
*'''Unstoppable''': Kill all main dungeon monsters (level 8 or higher) without using petrification (medium)
*'''Warmonger''': Never use a glyph skill (converting is okay; very hard)
*'''Vicious''': Complete the dungeon run with the Vicious Token prepared (very hard)

Some badges may be more difficult or less difficult on certain levels. For instance, it's nearly impossible to complete the Naga City dungeon without reaching level 10 and earning the Ding! Max badge, while achieving a specialist victory against the wide array of bosses present on that level will be exceptionally challenging.

On most scenarios, every single badge is attainable. You will earn a small amount of gold when you first obtain a badge on a dungeon, and there are also several quests which can only be completed if your run is worthy of a particular badge (regardless of whether or not you have earned this badge before on the given dungeon). Apart from this, aren't worth anything except the personal pride of having overcome the dungeon with accolades.

== Badge Acquisition Strategy ==

Most of the badges require a specialised playstyle, so they are easiest to obtain with a class that works well with that strategy.

'''Ding! Max:''' Ironically, this badge is harder to earn on Hobbler's Hold than it is on most maps. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} on a {{GoFi}} is almost required, though {{g|Dracul}} and {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} also offer ways to level up at the last second. On other maps, it isn't necessary to go to extremes, though some aspects of this strategy can be used if you would otherwise come up short.

''' Feeling Parched:''' Most gods have end-game spike benefits which help in situations where you would otherwise desire potions, and these can play a crucial role. Altar preparations aren't really necessary to earn this achievement, but the option is there, and they are worth considering if you are using a specialized strategy. {{g|Glowing Guardian}} is a great prep. By turning your potions into piety, you can get health and mana refills from your potions through GG as a middleman. {{g|Dracul}} only rewards {{i|Health Potion}} conversions, but he might fit better into your overall strategy. You can get mana refills from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Mystera Annur}}. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} lets you turn your health potions into different potions which do not invalidate the achievement. [[Jehora Jeheyu]] also has ways of taking your useless potions off your hands, and you will want to be able to use Chaos Avatar during the boss fight. {{g|Taurog}}'s death protections are great for glass cannon bosses, but are sorely lacking against tank bosses. {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} would otherwise synergize with potions. He does well if you can regen-fight the boss, but he could easily come up short if the boss has poison, curse, or mana burn.

'''Hoarder:''' No conversion means no racial bonuses, and you must be very careful about picking up items. The {{c|Wizard}}'s ability to hold glyphs as small items is a huge advantage.

'''Miser:''' [[Taurog]] is an option - what else will you do with that inventory space? You might even go for Warmonger in the same run, such as with an {{OrBe}}; otherwise, {{i|Compression Seal}} can be used to make space for more glyphs.

'''Purist:''' As you do not have any special items to get you off the ground, you will want a class with a strong early game and the ability to adapt to whatever items happen to be available. The {{c|Sorcerer}}, {{c|Fighter}} and {{c|Thief}} can all play this role. With a more developed Kingdom, the {{c|Tinker}} can also do well without preparations, as he is well-equipped to obtain the items he needs from shops.

'''Unstoppable:''' {{c|Assassin}}s (notably, {{GoAs}})s can automatically earn this achievement any time they earn '''Ding! Max'''. For any other class, {{r|Human}}s tend to be able to clean up high-level enemies with minimal health loss. If you still have unexplored tiles or an easy level-up on the map after finishing the boss(es), it should be that much easier.

'''Warmonger:''' Most classes find it hard to abstain completely from glyph casting, but the {{c|Berserker}}, the {{c|Crusader}} and the {{c|Rogue}} (with strong items) all have enough muscle to power through under the right circumstances. Strength potions are highly recommended, as you have no other use for mana. Keep an eye out for deities who can grant you glyph-like effects without actually using glyphs, such as [[Taurog]] (death protection), [[Tikki Tooki]] (free hits) and [[The Earthmother]] (slowing).

Physical resistance bosses are a special concern. {{c|Half-Dragon}} is the only exception to that rule, but he has to rely on knockback for physical damage (for example, in [[Rock Garden]], where physical resistance and magical resistance bosses spawn). Everyone else can get some help with [[Glowing Guardian]]'s Consecrated Strike buff, which will be that much better with a {{i|Strength Potion}}; your first hit should use {{i|Can of Whupaz}} without consecration. With some effort, the player can prepare {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} and Bearmace, gaining the Might effect to shred resistances for bosses like the unavoidable Tower of Goo in [[Ick Swamp]]; don't forget about {{g|The Pactmaker}} if his altar spawns, either - each Might click on the boss is precious. Really Big Sword can be prepared, in which case you may as well make the most of the situation by throwing in a {{i|Platemail}}. {{i|Martyr Wraps}} on a Monk is also good with this approach. {{c|Rat Monarch}} doesn't care about resistances at all, but has a hard time getting by without direct damage glyphs. In this case, it's mandatory to leverage Bear Mace and boost survival in every way available.

{{MainNav}}

Scoring

2015-05-28T15:52:40Z

MTaur: /* Badge Acquisition Strategy */

There are ten [[Badge|badges]] (plus one bonus badge) in Desktop Dungeons, each earned by completing the dungeon in a certain way. You must win the dungeon to earn badges; if you retire before defeating all the dungeon bosses you will never earn a badge.

*'''Cheeky''': The first monster you kill must be a higher level than you (easy)
*'''Ding! Max''': Reach level 10 (easy)
*'''Faithless''': Do not worship any gods (medium)
*'''Feeling Parched''': Do not drink health or mana potions (other potions are okay; medium)
*'''Hoarder''': Never convert any item (using Wizard.exe subdungeon is okay; hard)
*'''Miser''': Do not purchase items from shops (the Translocation seal is okay; medium)
*'''Purist''': Do not use any preparations except basic potion loadout, or the Vicious Token (hard)
*'''Specialist''': Kill the last boss using either magical or physical damage, but not both (medium)
*'''Unstoppable''': Kill all main dungeon monsters (level 8 or higher) without using petrification (medium)
*'''Warmonger''': Never use a glyph skill (converting is okay; very hard)
*'''Vicious''': Complete the dungeon run with the Vicious Token prepared (very hard)

Some badges may be more difficult or less difficult on certain levels. For instance, it's nearly impossible to complete the Naga City dungeon without reaching level 10 and earning the Ding! Max badge, while achieving a specialist victory against the wide array of bosses present on that level will be exceptionally challenging.

On most scenarios, every single badge is attainable. You will earn a small amount of gold when you first obtain a badge on a dungeon, and there are also several quests which can only be completed if your run is worthy of a particular badge (regardless of whether or not you have earned this badge before on the given dungeon). Apart from this, aren't worth anything except the personal pride of having overcome the dungeon with accolades.

== Badge Acquisition Strategy ==

Most of the badges require a specialised playstyle, so they are easiest to obtain with a class that works well with that strategy.

'''Ding! Max:''' Ironically, this badge is harder to earn on Hobbler's Hold than it is on most maps. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} on a {{GoFi}} is almost required, though {{g|Dracul}} and {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} also offer ways to level up at the last second. On other maps, it isn't necessary to go to extremes, though some aspects of this strategy can be used if you would otherwise come up short.

''' Feeling Parched:''' Most gods have end-game spike benefits which help in situations where you would otherwise desire potions, and these can play a crucial role. Altar preparations aren't really necessary to earn this achievement, but the option is there, and they are worth considering if you are using a specialized strategy. {{g|Glowing Guardian}} is a great prep. By turning your potions into piety, you can get health and mana refills from your potions through GG as a middleman. {{g|Dracul}} only rewards {{i|Health Potion}} conversions, but he might fit better into your overall strategy. You can get mana refills from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Mystera Annur}}. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} lets you turn your health potions into different potions which do not invalidate the achievement. [[Jehora Jeheyu]] also has ways of taking your useless potions off your hands, and you will want to be able to use Chaos Avatar during the boss fight. {{g|Taurog}}'s death protections are great for glass cannon bosses, but are sorely lacking against tank bosses. {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} would otherwise synergize with potions. He does well if you can regen-fight the boss, but he could easily come up short if the boss has poison, curse, or mana burn.

'''Hoarder:''' No conversion means no racial bonuses, and you must be very careful about picking up items. The {{c|Wizard}}'s ability to hold glyphs as small items is a huge advantage.

'''Miser:''' [[Taurog]] is an option - what else will you do with that inventory space? You might even go for Warmonger in the same run, such as with an {{OrBe}}; otherwise, {{i|Compression Seal}} can be used to make space for more glyphs.

'''Purist:''' As you do not have any special items to get you off the ground, you will want a class with a strong early game and the ability to adapt to whatever items happen to be available. The {{c|Sorcerer}}, {{c|Fighter}} and {{c|Thief}} can all play this role. With a more developed Kingdom, the {{c|Tinker}} can also do well without preparations, as he is well-equipped to obtain the items he needs from shops.

'''Unstoppable:''' {{c|Assassain}}s (notably, {{GoAs}})s can automatically earn this achievement any time they earn '''Ding! Max'''. For any other class, {{r|Human}}s tend to be able to clean up high-level enemies with minimal health loss. If you still have unexplored tiles or an easy level-up on the map after finishing the boss(es), it should be that much easier.

'''Warmonger:''' Most classes find it hard to abstain completely from glyph casting, but the {{c|Berserker}}, the {{c|Crusader}} and the {{c|Rogue}} (with strong items) all have enough muscle to power through under the right circumstances. Strength potions are highly recommended, as you have no other use for mana. Keep an eye out for deities who can grant you glyph-like effects without actually using glyphs, such as [[Taurog]] (death protection), [[Tikki Tooki]] (free hits) and [[The Earthmother]] (slowing).

Physical resistance bosses are a special concern. {{c|Half-Dragon}} is the only exception to that rule, but he has to rely on knockback for physical damage (for example, in [[Rock Garden]], where physical resistance and magical resistance bosses spawn). Everyone else can get some help with [[Glowing Guardian]]'s Consecrated Strike buff, which will be that much better with a {{i|Strength Potion}}; your first hit should use {{i|Can of Whupaz}} without consecration. With some effort, the player can prepare {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} and Bearmace, gaining the Might effect to shred resistances for bosses like the unavoidable Tower of Goo in [[Ick Swamp]]; don't forget about {{g|The Pactmaker}} if his altar spawns, either - each Might click on the boss is precious. Really Big Sword can be prepared, in which case you may as well make the most of the situation by throwing in a {{i|Platemail}}. {{i|Martyr Wraps}} on a Monk is also good with this approach. {{c|Rat Monarch}} doesn't care about resistances at all, but has a hard time getting by without direct damage glyphs. In this case, it's mandatory to leverage Bear Mace and boost survival in every way available.

{{MainNav}}

Scoring

2015-05-28T15:38:13Z

MTaur: /* Badge Acquisition Strategy */

There are ten [[Badge|badges]] (plus one bonus badge) in Desktop Dungeons, each earned by completing the dungeon in a certain way. You must win the dungeon to earn badges; if you retire before defeating all the dungeon bosses you will never earn a badge.

*'''Cheeky''': The first monster you kill must be a higher level than you (easy)
*'''Ding! Max''': Reach level 10 (easy)
*'''Faithless''': Do not worship any gods (medium)
*'''Feeling Parched''': Do not drink health or mana potions (other potions are okay; medium)
*'''Hoarder''': Never convert any item (using Wizard.exe subdungeon is okay; hard)
*'''Miser''': Do not purchase items from shops (the Translocation seal is okay; medium)
*'''Purist''': Do not use any preparations except basic potion loadout, or the Vicious Token (hard)
*'''Specialist''': Kill the last boss using either magical or physical damage, but not both (medium)
*'''Unstoppable''': Kill all main dungeon monsters (level 8 or higher) without using petrification (medium)
*'''Warmonger''': Never use a glyph skill (converting is okay; very hard)
*'''Vicious''': Complete the dungeon run with the Vicious Token prepared (very hard)

Some badges may be more difficult or less difficult on certain levels. For instance, it's nearly impossible to complete the Naga City dungeon without reaching level 10 and earning the Ding! Max badge, while achieving a specialist victory against the wide array of bosses present on that level will be exceptionally challenging.

On most scenarios, every single badge is attainable. You will earn a small amount of gold when you first obtain a badge on a dungeon, and there are also several quests which can only be completed if your run is worthy of a particular badge (regardless of whether or not you have earned this badge before on the given dungeon). Apart from this, aren't worth anything except the personal pride of having overcome the dungeon with accolades.

== Badge Acquisition Strategy ==

Most of the badges require a specialised playstyle, so they are easiest to obtain with a class that works well with that strategy.

'''Ding! Max:''' Ironically, this badge is harder to earn on Hobbler's Hold than it is on most maps. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} on a {{GoFi}} is almost required, though {{g|Dracul}} and {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} also offer ways to level up at the last second. On other maps, it isn't necessary to go to extremes, though some aspects of this strategy can be used if you would otherwise come up short.

''' Feeling Parched:''' Most gods have end-game spike benefits which help in situations where you would otherwise desire potions, and these can play a crucial role. Altar preparations aren't really necessary to earn this achievement, but the option is there, and they are worth considering if you are using a specialized strategy. {{g|Glowing Guardian}} is a great prep. By turning your potions into piety, you can get health and mana refills from your potions through GG as a middleman. {{g|Dracul}} only rewards {{i|Health Potion}} conversions, but he might fit better into your overall strategy. You can get mana refills from {{g|The Earthmother}} or {{g|Mystera Annur}}. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} lets you turn your health potions into different potions which do not invalidate the achievement. [[Jehora Jeheyu]] also has ways of taking your useless potions off your hands, and you will want to be able to use Chaos Avatar during the boss fight. {{g|Taurog}}'s death protections are great for glass cannon bosses, but are sorely lacking against tank bosses. {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} would otherwise synergize with potions. He does well if you can regen-fight the boss, but he could easily come up short if the boss has poison, curse, or mana burn.

'''Hoarder:''' No conversion means no racial bonuses, and you must be very careful about picking up items. The {{c|Wizard}}'s ability to hold glyphs as small items is a huge advantage.

'''Miser:''' [[Taurog]] is an option - what else will you do with that inventory space? You might even go for Warmonger in the same run, such as with an {{OrBe}}; otherwise, {{i|Compression Seal}} can be used to make space for more glyphs.

'''Purist:''' As you do not have any special items to get you off the ground, you will want a class with a strong early game and the ability to adapt to whatever items happen to be available. The {{c|Sorcerer}}, {{c|Fighter}} and {{c|Thief}} can all play this role. With a more developed Kingdom, the {{c|Tinker}} can also do well without preparations, as he is well-equipped to obtain the items he needs from shops.

'''Warmonger:''' Most classes find it hard to abstain completely from glyph casting, but the {{c|Berserker}}, the {{c|Crusader}} and the {{c|Rogue}} (with strong items) all have enough muscle to power through under the right circumstances. Strength potions are highly recommended, as you have no other use for mana. Keep an eye out for deities who can grant you glyph-like effects without actually using glyphs, such as [[Taurog]] (death protection), [[Tikki Tooki]] (free hits) and [[The Earthmother]] (slowing).

Physical resistance bosses are a special concern. {{c|Half-Dragon}} is the only exception to that rule, but he has to rely on knockback for physical damage (for example, in [[Rock Garden]], where physical resistance and magical resistance bosses spawn). Everyone else can get some help with [[Glowing Guardian]]'s Consecrated Strike buff, which will be that much better with a {{i|Strength Potion}}; your first hit should use {{i|Can of Whupaz}} without consecration. With some effort, the player can prepare {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} and Bearmace, gaining the Might effect to shred resistances for bosses like the unavoidable Tower of Goo in [[Ick Swamp]]; don't forget about {{g|The Pactmaker}} if his altar spawns, either - each Might click on the boss is precious. Really Big Sword can be prepared, in which case you may as well make the most of the situation by throwing in a {{i|Platemail}}. {{i|Martyr Wraps}} on a Monk is also good with this approach. {{c|Rat Monarch}} doesn't care about resistances at all, but has a hard time getting by without direct damage glyphs. In this case, it's mandatory to leverage Bear Mace and boost survival in every way available.

{{MainNav}}

Scoring

2015-05-28T15:05:59Z

MTaur: /* Badge Acquisition Strategy */

There are ten [[Badge|badges]] (plus one bonus badge) in Desktop Dungeons, each earned by completing the dungeon in a certain way. You must win the dungeon to earn badges; if you retire before defeating all the dungeon bosses you will never earn a badge.

*'''Cheeky''': The first monster you kill must be a higher level than you (easy)
*'''Ding! Max''': Reach level 10 (easy)
*'''Faithless''': Do not worship any gods (medium)
*'''Feeling Parched''': Do not drink health or mana potions (other potions are okay; medium)
*'''Hoarder''': Never convert any item (using Wizard.exe subdungeon is okay; hard)
*'''Miser''': Do not purchase items from shops (the Translocation seal is okay; medium)
*'''Purist''': Do not use any preparations except basic potion loadout, or the Vicious Token (hard)
*'''Specialist''': Kill the last boss using either magical or physical damage, but not both (medium)
*'''Unstoppable''': Kill all main dungeon monsters (level 8 or higher) without using petrification (medium)
*'''Warmonger''': Never use a glyph skill (converting is okay; very hard)
*'''Vicious''': Complete the dungeon run with the Vicious Token prepared (very hard)

Some badges may be more difficult or less difficult on certain levels. For instance, it's nearly impossible to complete the Naga City dungeon without reaching level 10 and earning the Ding! Max badge, while achieving a specialist victory against the wide array of bosses present on that level will be exceptionally challenging.

On most scenarios, every single badge is attainable. You will earn a small amount of gold when you first obtain a badge on a dungeon, and there are also several quests which can only be completed if your run is worthy of a particular badge (regardless of whether or not you have earned this badge before on the given dungeon). Apart from this, aren't worth anything except the personal pride of having overcome the dungeon with accolades.

== Badge Acquisition Strategy ==

Most of the badges require a specialised playstyle, so they are easiest to obtain with a class that works well with that strategy.

'''Ding! Max:''' Ironically, this badge is harder to earn on Hobbler's Hold than it is on most maps. {{g|Tikki Tooki}} on a {{GoFi}} is almost required, thought {{g|Dracul}} and {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} also offer ways to level up at the last second. On other maps, it isn't necessary to go to extremes, though some aspects of this strategy can be used if you would otherwise come up short.

'''Hoarder:''' No conversion means no racial bonuses, and you must be very careful about picking up items. The {{c|Wizard}}'s ability to hold glyphs as small items is a huge advantage.

'''Purist:''' As you do not have any special items to get you off the ground, you will want a class with a strong early game and the ability to adapt to whatever items happen to be available. The {{c|Sorcerer}}, {{c|Fighter}} and {{c|Thief}} can all play this role. With a more developed Kingdom, the {{c|Tinker}} can also do well without preparations, as he is well-equipped to obtain the items he needs from shops.

'''Warmonger:''' Most classes find it hard to abstain completely from glyph casting, but the {{c|Berserker}}, the {{c|Crusader}} and the {{c|Rogue}} (with strong items) all have enough muscle to power through under the right circumstances. Strength potions are highly recommended, as you have no other use for mana. Keep an eye out for deities who can grant you glyph-like effects without actually using glyphs, such as {{g|Taurog}} (death protection), {{g|Tikki Tooki}} (free hits) and {{g|The Earthmother}} (slowing).

Physical resistance bosses are a special concern. {{c|Half-Dragon}} is the only exception to that rule, but he has to rely on knockback for physical damage (for example, in [[Rock Garden]], where physical resistance and magical resistance bosses spawn). Everyone else can get some help with {{g|Glowing Guardian}}'s Consecrated Strike buff, which will be that much better with a {{i|Strength Potion}}; your first hit should use {{i|Can of Whupaz}} without consecration. With some effort, the player can prepare {{g|Binlor Ironshield}} and Bearmace, gaining the Might effect to shred resistances for bosses like the unavoidable Tower of Goo in [[Ick Swamp]]; don't forget about {{g|The Pactmaker}} if his altar spawns, either - each Might click on the boss is precious. Really Big Sword can be prepared, in which case you may as well make the most of the situation by throwing in a {{i|Platemail}}. {{i|Martyr Wraps}} on a Monk is also good with this approach. {{c|Rat Monarch}} doesn't care about resistances at all, but has a hard time getting by without direct damage glyphs. In this case, it's mandatory to leverage Bear Mace and boost survival in every way available.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:Assassin

2015-05-28T05:02:59Z

MTaur: /* Orc vs Human */

==Orc vs Human==
I noticed that Human Assassin got swapped for Orc Assassin. Seeing as the page hadn't been revisited since before the Assassin got his attack bonus interaction with poison, an update to the reasoning for human versus orc assassin is probably needed. I disagree, however, that Orc is preferable to human. After running the math, it looks like the preferred race depends on the dungeon and prep loadout.

First, you can't always get the poison damage bonus against the boss. Creeplight Ruins, Havensdale Bridge, Magma Mines, Cursed Oasis, Vicious Halls of Steel, Gaan-Telet and Naga City all have preset bosses or unavoidable enemies that are either undead or completely magic immune. These enemies will, virtually by definition, be your biggest challenge as a melee-oriented Assassin. In addition, there's always the chance that Frank will spawn on any dungeon with a random loadout. This means that we need to consider both the case with and without the poison damage boost. It will surprise nobody that human is a lot more preferable without it.

Secondly, let's look at the variation in preparation. Assassins can have a lot of different builds, and virtually any general-purpose prep combo is viable with them. You could go for extra attack boosters, bear mace, and dwarven gauntlets which would cause you to cap out at 75% before poison bonus. On the opposite extreme, you could go only with perseverance badge for 20% before poison. While obviously that would be stupid to do with Orcs (who want to combo with attack bonus) it's a perfectly viable setup with humans who ''love'' the poison/burning combo at 1st level and don't care too much about the lost boosters. The other extra booster preps, and even fewer glyphs, are all viable for Assassins.

Given the low-end of the attack bonus spectrum (20% +40% from poison) the break-even between human and orc is level 6 without poison and level 8 with. While level 9 is a little late for human to pull ahead, Assassin's easy leveling curve means that the extra utility against the boss is preferable to the early power. So with caster-oriented preps human is slightly better than orc, and against undead bosses it completely outclasses orc. On the high-end of the spectrum, 75% attack bonus gives a break-even of about level 9. So unless you're in a dungeon where most of your challenges occur after hitting 10th level ''and'' the boss cannot be poisoned then Orc would completely outclass human with dedicated melee preps.

Overall, this paints a picture of rough parity between Human and Orc, with race preference depending on what dungeon you're playing and which preps you intend to take. Feel free to discuss further, but I'll probably rewrite the article to include both human and orc in the near future unless someone indicates a good reason otherwise.
--[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 18:36, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Whoops, didn't see the comment at the end that you were strongly considering doing a rewrite yourself. I incorporated the discussion already. -[[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

I consider Human strictly superior to Orc for standard APHEELSIK-using builds. If APHEELSIK doesn't work (i.e. undead boss), Human is better; if APHEELSIK works, it generally won't matter, because the Assassin is at its best when it can use poison. So I'd rather recommend the build that is more resilient. -[[User:Tinker|Tinker]]

@Tinker: I'd agree; I strictly use Human over Orc myself. I really like the fireball magnet prep on Assassins for the guaranteed burning/poison combo in your opening game, which favors humans. @MTaur: no harm done, I'll add a few addendums --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 20:34, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

@MTaur: great edits there; keep up the good work --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 16:03, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Do we want to mention the specific interaction of Elf Assassin and Tikki Tooki? It's one of the strongest spellcaster builds. -[[User:Tinker|Tinker]]

Tikki Tooki works well with Assassins in general, not just spellcasting specialists, so I'd say cover him generally rather than in the context of a specific race. --[[User:Darvin|Darvin]] 18:53, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the compliments, Darvin. Some of the edits to Orc were things that I said in the Human section before you edited it. Initially I was just going to clean up some grammar, but by the time I was done, I had reworked some of the stuff that got cut previously from Human. It fits better there anyway. - [[User:MTaur|MTaur]]

Assassin

2015-05-26T00:26:27Z

MTaur: /* Strategy */ Added gods section

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|ClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Assassin
|ShortHand=As
|Traits=
;POISONED BLADE: Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, deals 40% bonus damage to poisoned enemies. Starts with -20% bonus damage.
;LIGHT FOOT: Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike
;SWIFT HAND: attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.
|SuggestedRaces=
{{HuAs}},{{ElAs}},{{GoAs}}
|Unlock=
Level 3 [[Thief Den]]
|Group=Tier 3
}}</onlyinclude>

''Sinister, quiet and deadly. Assassins lack the charisma, social etiquette and basic regard for sentient life that the lower-tier sneaks possess, but they are no less cunning, stealthy or resourceful. Death may come quickly. Death may come slowly. Death may be silent, bloody, or fiery. But death will always come.''

== Class Features ==

*'''POISONED BLADE''': Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, gains 40% bonus damage against poisoned monsters. Starts with -20% bonus damage.
*'''LIGHT FOOT''': Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike.
*'''SWIFT HAND''': attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.

Note that spaces that fall off the edge of the board count as "revealed" for the purpose of light foot, so you can gain first strike against edge-hugging monsters in this manner. The swift hands ability ignores abilities such as first strike and death protection, meaning you face no risks when attacking monsters like gorgons or animated armors as a higher-level assassin. In rare scenarios where the boss is lower than level 10, it's entirely possible to kill him with swift hands.

== Races ==

=== Orc ===

With an emphasis on attack damage, the {{OrAs}} makes for a more combat-oriented assassin. He is great at [[regen-fighting]] monsters and has a strong early-game. The Orc Assassin benefits more from fighting poisoned enemies than a Human, but is less efficient in dealing with the undead. Against bosses this is a serious consideration, but for regular enemies, it is a more than fair trade-off for the orc, since he excels at taking down his chosen targets and can deal with the others later using Swift Hands. His highly efficient regen-fighting allows him to conserve black space for the late game while setting aside higher-level popcorn than most class/race combinations can manage. The Orc Assassin must strive to raise his attack bonus; if you are not bringing preparations that raise attack bonus then the Human is generally superior.

One problem melee assassins face is that their lack of resistances gets in the way of regen-fighting very high level monsters. This can be solved by worshiping {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}, one of the favorite deities of every Orc in general.

=== Human ===

{{HuAs}} is a strong alternative to the Orc who trades away some raw power and an easy leveling phase in exchange for being more reliable against bosses. Because his racial bonus cancels out the Assassin's natural attack bonus penalty he functions better than the Orc in situations where you cannot deliver poison (for instance, magic immune or undead foes). While orcs can achieve higher damage than the human with the poisoned blade attack bonus, they require preparations to increase their attack bonus to do so at higher levels. The Human Assassin requires no melee-oriented preparations to function effectively, freeing slots for caster-based items and bonuses to build a better hybrid or to play purist.

The Human Assassin provides a more reliable baseline than the Orc Assassin, and is better equipped to pursue a hybrid melee/spellcasting approach than any other race. The Orc Assassin deals more damage, but requires more extensive preparation and dedication to do so.

=== Elf ===

One of the most powerful spellcasting combinations in the game is the {{ElAs}}. With vastly expanded mana, the elf assassin makes a potent spellcaster. The biggest difficulty that dedicated spellcasters face is that they often neglect their attack damage and have difficulty fighting lower-level monsters that ''should'' be easy. Using '''swift hands''', this is not an issue for the assassin, allowing him to focus totally on spellcasting in a way that even the {{c|Wizard}} cannot. Other races can still make potent spellcaster assassins, but they won't be as good as the elf.

=== Goblin ===

The {{GoAs}} is the ultimate class/race combo for level-up catapults. By using swift hands to kill weaker monsters and converting items and glyphs for extra experience, a goblin can gain as many as five levels over the course of a boss battle, fully regenerating his health and mana each time. Very few bosses outside of vicious difficulty can survive this sort of persistent onslaught, and even those in vicious difficulty will often fall to it. Since you can begin the boss battle very early with this character it's likely you'll be able to use poison antics as well. The Goblin Assassin is one of the best ways to obtain badges in most dungeons, including the coveted vicious badge.

== Strategy ==

The Assassin is one of the game's most potent classes, and is well-suited to a wide variety of approaches. At low levels, he has a strong and reliable opener with the {{s|APHEELSIK}} glyph, and at high levels he can cleave through strong monsters to gain a few extra levels that can make the difference. His greatest weakness is that he has very few class features to improve his combat abilities, and capitalizing on his situational {{t|First strike}} is very important. Because he has no bonus to regeneration or resistances and his initial attack bonus against poisoned monsters is only 20% (net), the Assassin actually makes a sub-par regen-fighter without additional items or boons. The assassin is most similar to the {{c|Fighter}} in this respect, and he can build towards almost any type of character by using the right combination of bonuses.

Although at first glance it may not be apparent, the Assassin is actually a very strong class for spellcaster strategies. One of the biggest problems dedicated spellcasters face is that they neglect their attack damage, and may be easily worn down by low-level monsters. An assassin will never face this problem, even on vicious-difficulty levels, and can therefor focus all his attention on the boss.

Because the assassin can easily 1-hit-kill monsters that are lower-level than him, he should ''never'' fight a monster that is equal-level to him unless he has no other choice. There is no bonus XP given for defeating a monster of equal level to yourself, and once you gain a level you can kill him effortless. Always focus your efforts on fighting stronger monsters to earn bonus XP.

Assassins can leverage an early Amulet of Yendor to great effect. The 50 bonus experience is enough to reach level 5, which puts most of the dungeon monsters at lower level (and thus subject to Swift Hands). This frees up the player to select a race other than Goblin and still be able to reach Level 10 only having to fight a handful of monsters to do so. The drawback is that after using up the prepped Amulet, you will need to reclaim it for an additional 50 Gold cost if you want to use it again.

== Gods ==

The Assassin works well with a broad range of [[Gods|deities]] due to his personal flexibility. A couple deserve warnings, though: {{g|Glowing Guardian}} severely limits the ability to use poison until you can convert out. {{g|Taurog}} dislikes all glyphs, but with moderation, it is very easy to go positive on piety for part-time or even full-time worship.

{{g|Tikki Tooki}} can be high-maintenance during the leveling phase, since he doesn't like it when you take damage, but he likes poison. It is particularly easy to earn a late-game piety spike by converting in, using Swift Hands and Learning to reap massive XP benefits with piety left over for Reflexes. Full-time worshipers just need more caution and discretion when choosing to accept piety penalties, and can rely on fireballs and first strike a bit more to make it work.

With {{g|Dracul}}, an assassin is hilariously inept at keeping blood cows alive for lifesteal, but he can effortlessly create the maximum number of blood pools for Sanguine refills or for {{g|The Earthmother}}'s Plantation boon.

Casters and hybrids will find that {{g|Mystera Annur}} and {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} have a lot to offer, while your standard regen-fighter will get good help from {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}.

{{MainNav}}

Assassin

2015-05-26T00:05:07Z

MTaur: /* Orc */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|ClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Assassin
|ShortHand=As
|Traits=
;POISONED BLADE: Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, deals 40% bonus damage to poisoned enemies. Starts with -20% bonus damage.
;LIGHT FOOT: Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike
;SWIFT HAND: attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.
|SuggestedRaces=
{{HuAs}},{{ElAs}},{{GoAs}}
|Unlock=
Level 3 [[Thief Den]]
|Group=Tier 3
}}</onlyinclude>

''Sinister, quiet and deadly. Assassins lack the charisma, social etiquette and basic regard for sentient life that the lower-tier sneaks possess, but they are no less cunning, stealthy or resourceful. Death may come quickly. Death may come slowly. Death may be silent, bloody, or fiery. But death will always come.''

== Class Features ==

*'''POISONED BLADE''': Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, gains 40% bonus damage against poisoned monsters. Starts with -20% bonus damage.
*'''LIGHT FOOT''': Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike.
*'''SWIFT HAND''': attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.

Note that spaces that fall off the edge of the board count as "revealed" for the purpose of light foot, so you can gain first strike against edge-hugging monsters in this manner. The swift hands ability ignores abilities such as first strike and death protection, meaning you face no risks when attacking monsters like gorgons or animated armors as a higher-level assassin. In rare scenarios where the boss is lower than level 10, it's entirely possible to kill him with swift hands.

== Races ==

=== Orc ===

With an emphasis on attack damage, the {{OrAs}} makes for a more combat-oriented assassin. He is great at [[regen-fighting]] monsters and has a strong early-game. The Orc Assassin benefits more from fighting poisoned enemies than a Human, but is less efficient in dealing with the undead. Against bosses this is a serious consideration, but for regular enemies, it is a more than fair trade-off for the orc, since he excels at taking down his chosen targets and can deal with the others later using Swift Hands. His highly efficient regen-fighting allows him to conserve black space for the late game while setting aside higher-level popcorn than most class/race combinations can manage. The Orc Assassin must strive to raise his attack bonus; if you are not bringing preparations that raise attack bonus then the Human is generally superior.

One problem melee assassins face is that their lack of resistances gets in the way of regen-fighting very high level monsters. This can be solved by worshiping {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}, one of the favorite deities of every Orc in general.

=== Human ===

{{HuAs}} is a strong alternative to the Orc who trades away some raw power and an easy leveling phase in exchange for being more reliable against bosses. Because his racial bonus cancels out the Assassin's natural attack bonus penalty he functions better than the Orc in situations where you cannot deliver poison (for instance, magic immune or undead foes). While orcs can achieve higher damage than the human with the poisoned blade attack bonus, they require preparations to increase their attack bonus to do so at higher levels. The Human Assassin requires no melee-oriented preparations to function effectively, freeing slots for caster-based items and bonuses to build a better hybrid or to play purist.

The Human Assassin provides a more reliable baseline than the Orc Assassin, and is better equipped to pursue a hybrid melee/spellcasting approach than any other race. The Orc Assassin deals more damage, but requires more extensive preparation and dedication to do so.

=== Elf ===

One of the most powerful spellcasting combinations in the game is the {{ElAs}}. With vastly expanded mana, the elf assassin makes a potent spellcaster. The biggest difficulty that dedicated spellcasters face is that they often neglect their attack damage and have difficulty fighting lower-level monsters that ''should'' be easy. Using '''swift hands''', this is not an issue for the assassin, allowing him to focus totally on spellcasting in a way that even the {{c|Wizard}} cannot. Other races can still make potent spellcaster assassins, but they won't be as good as the elf.

=== Goblin ===

The {{GoAs}} is the ultimate class/race combo for level-up catapults. By using swift hands to kill weaker monsters and converting items and glyphs for extra experience, a goblin can gain as many as five levels over the course of a boss battle, fully regenerating his health and mana each time. Very few bosses outside of vicious difficulty can survive this sort of persistent onslaught, and even those in vicious difficulty will often fall to it. Since you can begin the boss battle very early with this character it's likely you'll be able to use poison antics as well. The Goblin Assassin is one of the best ways to obtain badges in most dungeons, including the coveted vicious badge.

== Strategy ==

The Assassin is one of the game's most potent classes, and is well-suited to a wide variety of approaches. At low levels, he has a strong and reliable opener with the {{s|APHEELSIK}} glyph, and at high levels he can cleave through strong monsters to gain a few extra levels that can make the difference. His greatest weakness is that he has very few class features to improve his combat abilities, and capitalizing on his situational {{t|First strike}} is very important. Because he has no bonus to regeneration or resistances and his initial attack bonus against poisoned monsters is only 20% (net), the Assassin actually makes a sub-par regen-fighter without additional items or boons. The assassin is most similar to the {{c|Fighter}} in this respect, and he can build towards almost any type of character by using the right combination of bonuses.

Although at first glance it may not be apparent, the Assassin is actually a very strong class for spellcaster strategies. One of the biggest problems dedicated spellcasters face is that they neglect their attack damage, and may be easily worn down by low-level monsters. An assassin will never face this problem, even on vicious-difficulty levels, and can therefor focus all his attention on the boss.

Because the assassin can easily 1-hit-kill monsters that are lower-level than him, he should ''never'' fight a monster that is equal-level to him unless he has no other choice. There is no bonus XP given for defeating a monster of equal level to yourself, and once you gain a level you can kill him effortless. Always focus your efforts on fighting stronger monsters to earn bonus XP.

Assassins can leverage an early Amulet of Yendor to great effect. The 50 bonus experience is enough to reach level 5, which puts most of the dungeon monsters at lower level (and thus subject to Swift Hands). This frees up the player to select a race other than Goblin and still be able to reach Level 10 only having to fight a handful of monsters to do so. The drawback is that after using up the prepped Amulet, you will need to reclaim it for an additional 50 Gold cost if you want to use it again.

The Assassin works well with a broad range of [[Gods|deities]] due to his personal flexibility. Unless you're willing to eschew the poison glyph, you will probably want to '''avoid''' {{g|Taurog}} and the {{g|Glowing Guardian}}. Otherwise the Assassin will work flawlessly with '''any''' other [[Gods|deity]].

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Rat Monarch

2015-05-25T19:24:56Z

MTaur: /* Items */

== Class Features ==

'''REGAL HYGIENE''': Rat bites corrode enemies. Gains one stack of Corrosive Strike per level.

'''REGAL PERKS''': Sensitive whiskers detect deals. All shops are scouted. Buying an item regenerates 50% health and mana (may overheal).

'''REGAL SIZE''': Rats are the CORRECT size: Small. Lower maximum health and mana, all items are large.

'''CONVERSION''': The Rat Monarch gains +1 Corrosive Strike for every 80 Conversion Points.

== Unlocking ==

The Rat Monarch requires the Enhanced Edition of Desktop Dungeons, and can be unlocked via the Moving of the Cheese quest in the [[Demonic Library]]. Once unlocked they move to the [[Audit Zepplin]].

== Strategy ==

Not mentioned in the Class Features is that rats gain precisely 1 base damage per level as opposed to 5. Whether this is a bug or intentional, this means their individual hits deal little damage, even [[Popcorn]] usually takes multiple hits to kill for them. However, stacks of Corrosion don't go away, and while only physical attacks stack more Corrosion the damage applies to both further physical attacks and to {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}}.

The biggest problem for rats is a low health pool, lack of resistances, and needing to survive hits from enemies to stack their corrosion. They're regen fighters that are squishy, and mages who have low mana. Their strength is that enemies can fully heal without losing their corrosion stacks, and against enemies that require a lot of hits to take down anyway (such as certain bosses) Rats are perhaps the strongest class. If they can take a hit from a high level enemy, they can take it down eventually, black space permitting. It is technically possible for a rat with {{s|CYDSTEPP}}, [[BURNDAYRAZ]]/{{s|PISORF}}, and some conversion fodder to take down any level 9 enemy (without Mana Burn or Poison) at level 2 or 3, though it is not necessarily recommended since that will consume a lot of blackspace to get enough hits in.

In less extreme cases, the Rat tends toward regen fighting and mage builds, even with the rat's decreased health pool and lack of resistance. Rats benefit greatly from conversions first of all, but need to be careful with their inventory, both because their items are all large and because they need to time their shopping trips to make the most of the refills. Because their base damage is so low, items that increase base damage tend to do very little for their damage output. They are best served by items that increase their durability, allowing them to stack several hits worth of Corrosion then finish enemies off with fireballs that deal increased damage. [[BURNDAYRAZ]] will deal full damage, although their low mana pool can be a limiting factor, and corrosion does NOT apply to damage caused by the burn debuff. Corrosive damage DOES apply to knockback (separately from the initial hit when knockback is applied as an on-hit affect), so [[PISORF]] and the {{i|Bear Mace}} are welcome additions to a Rat's arsenal. Generally, fireballs are good and reliable way to leverage corrosion for regen fighting purposes, but knockback is an extremely mana-efficient and health-efficient way to dish out damage to corroded enemies when positioning permits it.

Regal Perks provides some map scouting early game, revealing 3 by 3 portions of the map, turning the blackspace transparent without removing it. This frequently reveals other features, such as the occasional altar, glyph, and so on without revealing details about them, although the altars can often be identified by closely examining the piety sparkles around them. More importantly, buying items heals both health and mana. Since there are obviously limited shops and gold is limited, this turns shops into another healing resource to save for a late game spike, requiring an empty item slot as well. The Apothecary preparation at the Bazaar can be helpful as it increases the number of shops.

The biggest drawbacks are the limited potion inventory and need to hit a monster many times to stack Corrosive Strike. This combined with popcorn not popping as easily makes it more difficult to preserve blackspace, when the Corrosive Strike lends itself to regen fighting and [[BURNDAYRAZ]].

== Knockback and corrosion ==

Knockback's mechanics interact with corrosion in a somewhat unexpected way. If you knock two monsters together, the first monster is dealt physical damage equal to your base damage times knockback%. The damage after resistances is computed, and this amount of damage is applied as typeless damage to the second monster.

This means that, for example, you can apply corrosion stacks to Super Meat Man (the boss who does the least damage), and then use [[PISORF]] to knock him into Bleaty (the boss who does the most damage). Both monsters will take damage based on the Super Meat Man's corrosion stacks. Only the "cue ball" monster can be killed by this, while the secondary target can be reduced to 1HP for a quick [[PISORF]] or [[BURNDAYRAZ]] kill afterward. Be mindful that if you use Stone Fist or [[Bear Mace]] for knockback, you will be doing corrosion damage twice as often to the cue ball, which may or may not leave it at risk for dying first. In some cases, allowing the cue ball to heal before using [[PISORF]] to take them both down may be the efficient choice.

Leveraging the corrosion/knockback mechanic to get twice the mileage out of corrosion stacks is an extremely powerful tool for a Rat Monarch, but it is far from the only way to win. When the luck of the draw lines a suitable pair of monsters close enough together, it is a useful tactic to consider.

== Preparations ==

Extra Mana Boosters is recommended as a preparation. Without it, the Rat will end up with 11 mana after finding all boosters on the map, which is just one shy of casting [[BURNDAYRAZ]] twice or [[PISORF]] three times. The {{i|Transmutation Seal}} is a good preparation choice as well, due to their trait of healing from buying items and because it can let a rat pick and choose battles by taking detours on occasion.

Of special note is that potions take up a full slot and the {{i|Compression Seal}} does not work for them. This severely limits potion use. Potion preps are of reduced value, since a full set of 4 is likely to be drank or converted too early to help much. It is often advisable to replace the {{i|Health Potion}} and {{i|Mana Potion}} with {{i|Reflex Potion}} and {{i|Quicksilver Potion}}, which allows the player to get two free hits on the boss to get the corrosion stacks going. {{i|Alchemist's Scroll}} is a unique way of getting around the inventory limitations within just the first few levels while getting a much-needed health boost. One of the few small items that may still be preparation-worthy is the {{i|Balanced Dagger}}, especially for harder dungeons where it is already difficult to take down higher-level enemies in large numbers. {{i|Shop Scroll}} also deserves a brief mention, since it can be used immediately to make room for other things.

While [[Bear Mace]] is probably the ideal Blacksmith preparation, {{i|Shield}} is good at early levels. Perhaps [[Shield]] only wins out if you take {{i|Whurrgarbl}}, in which case holding on to burn stacks is a priority and [[Bear Mace]] becomes a double-edged prep at best.

== Items ==

{{i|Elven Boots}} is a good prep item, increasing both magic resistance and mana. The {{i|Platemail}} is possibly better, negating significant amounts of damage from lower level monsters, thus making popcorn monsters easier to use. The {{i|Dragon Shield}} can be stronger against high level monsters and some bosses, but is weaker against low level enemies. Because it boosts important stats and becomes conversion fodder when you need it to, {{i|Troll Heart}} could be a decent preparation, but it's hard to justify the locker space. Just be warned that if you buy the {{i|Troll Heart}} early enough in a run to stack it up, then you're probably not making good use of your Regal Perks skill. {{i|Bloody Sigil}} also is better-than-usual on a Rat and a good level 1 buy, but again it's an early-game item and it's hard to justify the locker space for it.

There are also some non-tanky options, but these may need to be offset with +2 health booster if used as a preparation. One unusual synergy is the {{i|Gloves of Midas}} item, due to the Rat's healing when buying items. This can lead to a larger end-game spike, but you will need to ration an inventory slot for rotating out junk items; also, longer dungeons where gold is already plentiful will not see this item achieve much usefulness. [[Whurrgarbl]] greatly accelerates the pace when fighting monsters 0-2 levels above you, allowing you to seamlessly blend between the corrosion-building and killing phases - you should probably prep [[Mystera Annur]], though, since [[BURNDAYRAZ]] will be the star gylph while [[PISORF]] will disrupt the burning stacks. A [[Whurrgarbl]] run plays out much differently than defensive prep runs, allowing you to smoothly burn through a larger number of similar-level enemies at the expense of your ability to apply corrosion stacks early to a select few high-level enemies.

== Glyphs ==

Glyph wise, [[BURNDAYRAZ]] or [[PISORF]] is nearly required. [[PISORF]] quickly becomes the most mana-efficient direct damage spell with just a few corrosion stacks, making it highly profitable to line monsters up together. The downside is that you will lose burn stacks, but most builds should cope well with the trade-off.

Besides those two, many other glyphs will compete for inventory space while also struggling to justify postponing the benefit of converting them. Most glyphs will not be automatically converted on sight in all situations, however, and a good idea of what challenges your current dungeon and boss(es) present will help you make intelligent strategic choices.

{{s|BYSSEPS}} does little to help - at best, you can use it to remove magic resistance. {{s|GETINDARE}} is somewhat less useful than usual due to how much more damage [[BURNDAYRAZ]] would do with 3 extra mana, and the value a rat would have gotten from the CP in the first place - but [[GETINDARE]] still wins in some edge cases and can save a lot of health with the occasional dodge. {{s|HALPMEH}} is fairly useful, but cuts into mana for [[BURNDAYRAZ]] - the former is useful for building corrosion stacks, but the latter is more efficient when you're ready to go for the kill. {{s|APHEELSIK}} has good interplay with [[BURNDAYRAZ]] thanks to burning lowering regeneration; if you can poison a monster for more than 5 turns, then you will build up surplus mana for the occasional fireball. {{s|BLUDTUPOWA}} is also useful for finalizing kills with fireball spikes, but you are limited by the rat's inferior health total. {{s|CYDSTEPP}} can be extremely helpful, allowing you to build corrosion stacks on much higher-level enemies despite having a reduced health pool. {{s|WEYTWUT}} is hard to justify putting in your coveted inventory space, but given how picky a Rat needs to be about her fights, you may want to leave this glyph on the ground for later just in case - you don't want your progress blocked by a Level 9 monster with Curse or Mana Burn. {{s|LEMMISI}} seems like a good thing to spam and then convert, and {{s|WONAFYT}} can be useful early-to-mid-game with proper corrosion stack management, creating a zoo of stunned low-level monsters who can be one-shotted at will, though it is not so easy to continue this into levels 4-6 as it would be for other classes. {{s|ENDISWAL}} combines some mobility benefits of [[WEYTWUT]] and survival benefits of [[CYDSTEPP]] in a single package, and in less extreme cases than when you'd need [[CYDSTEPP]], it can still function like a poor man's [[HALPMEH]]. Finally, {{s|IMAWAL}} can reward a dive for big prey in spades, even if you only use the bonus once or twice.

== Deities ==

Deity wise, deities that improve survivability or glyph use are recommended. The unique play style of the rat makes some gods more difficult to piety farm than others. Gods who reward glyph spam are the easiest, while gods who demand kills or blood pools are troublesome.

'''The Great'''

{{g|Binlor Ironshield}} is a good choice for resistances, and is a good first god or even altar prep because of the free [[PISORF]] glyph, and can be used as a piety farm regardless. You can prepare Bear Mace and use it for conversion fodder after you obtain Stone Fist - the extra Corrosion proc on-hit is all that matters in either case. Depending on the boss, you can either stack magic resistance or store piety for Stone Skin boons. You might consider buying {{s|ENDISWAL}} if you want to take on high-level physical damage monsters early, but if inventory is a limiting factor, you might do better (and save coveted mana) through calculated use of the Stone Skin boon. At the bottom of the barrel, Stone Form is only useful if you're up against magic resistance, but then again, you might be better served by lining up [[PISORF]] shots anyway.

{{g|Mystera Annur}} is a great deity. The Rat's base damage is terrible anyway, so her Flames boon is all carrot and no stick for a Rat. Mystic Balance favors [[CYDSTEPP]] or [[BURNDAYRAZ]] while punishing [[PISORF]]. Refreshment can compensate somewhat for the rat's poor inventory size in some circumstances, giving you more options as to whether and when you convert glyphs.

{{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} may actually be a better deal for them than most other classes, giving them more mileage out of their potions as well as buffing their low health and mana per level. An early punishment can be dire, and the prep penalty is harsh for a rat - but this god is sure to be a great second deity at the very least, if he spawns.

'''The Good'''

{{g|The Earthmother}} has a lot to offer. Vine Form helps the Rat's small health pool and provides some damage reduction, in addition to Clearance providing mana for more fireballs or knockbacks. [[IMAWAL]] is a good leveling tool, but it will be difficult to farm enough blood pools for an end-game spike with Plantation.

{{g|Dracul}} helps with survivability, his boons granting Lifesteal and increasing resistances, although with an already decreased health pool Sanguine can be more troubling than for most other classes to use. It is also difficult to farm up enough blood pools for an endgame spike, much as it is with [[The Earthmother]].

{{g|Glowing Guardian}} is problematic, but definitely a strong choice for a first religion. Humility is even more amazing than usual, since the Rat often prefers to kill a small number of high-level enemies, causing the scaling XP bonus to be that much larger. However, all other boons require taking a large(!) Prayer Bead into your inventory, which is completely out of the question, and you will want to convert out at some point - which is especially difficult to do if you prep his altar. This god is a viable choice if you find his altar at level 1, though.

'''The Bad'''

{{g|Tikki Tooki}} is nearly useless, as rats need to take a few hits before taking much of anything down. This is a pity, since more Reflex potions would work well with stacking Corrosive Strike quickly. Shenanigans with [[GETINDARE]], pre-stacked corrosion, and a plan for converting out of the religion might be possible, but spending gold for piety would cut into your regeneration spike from Regal Perks.

{{g|Taurog}} punishes glyph use and so can be challenging to use, but the armor is good. Skullpicker is nearly useless like other base damage increases however, and the hit to mana is a bad deal generally. Also, it can be difficult to farm piety until the late game, given how almost all popcorn will take more than one hit without careful budgeting of corrosion stacks mid-game.

{{MainNav}}

Talk:Assassin

2015-05-25T19:21:12Z

MTaur: /* Orc vs Human */

Assassin

2015-05-25T19:19:07Z

MTaur: /* Human */

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|ClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Assassin
|ShortHand=As
|Traits=
;POISONED BLADE: Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, deals 40% bonus damage to poisoned enemies. Starts with -20% bonus damage.
;LIGHT FOOT: Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike
;SWIFT HAND: attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.
|SuggestedRaces=
{{HuAs}},{{ElAs}},{{GoAs}}
|Unlock=
Level 3 [[Thief Den]]
|Group=Tier 3
}}</onlyinclude>

''Sinister, quiet and deadly. Assassins lack the charisma, social etiquette and basic regard for sentient life that the lower-tier sneaks possess, but they are no less cunning, stealthy or resourceful. Death may come quickly. Death may come slowly. Death may be silent, bloody, or fiery. But death will always come.''

== Class Features ==

*'''POISONED BLADE''': Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, gains 40% bonus damage against poisoned monsters.
*'''LIGHT FOOT''': Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike.
*'''SWIFT HAND''': attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.

Note that spaces that fall off the edge of the board count as "revealed" for the purpose of light foot, so you can gain first strike against edge-hugging monsters in this manner. The swift hands ability ignores abilities such as first strike and death protection, meaning you face no risks when attacking monsters like gorgons or animated armors as a higher-level assassin. In rare scenarios where the boss is lower than level 10, it's entirely possible to kill him with swift hands.

== Races ==

=== Orc ===

With an emphasis on attack damage, the {{OrAs}} makes for a more combat-oriented assassin. He is better at [[regen-fighting]] monsters and has a strong early-game. The Orc Assassin benefits more of fighting poisoned enemies than a Human, but is less efficient in dealing with undeads. Orcs will benefit more from the situational first strike too, which let's them save some blackspace for later use. By mid-late game APHEELSIK matures into a very powerful glyph, as you will be regenfighting your targets first strike becomes less relevant.

One problem melee assassins face is that their lack of resistances gets in the way of regenfighting very high level monsters. This can be solved by worshiping {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}, one of the favorite deity of every Orc in general.

=== Human ===

{{HuAs}} is a strong alternative to the Orc who trades away some raw power and an easy leveling phase in exchange for being more reliable against bosses. Magic immune and undead bosses are a special problem for the Orc, but not for the Human, who doesn't lose sleep over not being able to use Poisoned Blade. Aside from this consideration, the combination is at least passably strong, since the ability to earn first strike is a pretty good synergy with Human all on its own, and the free [[APHEELSIK]] and attack bonus remains welcome despite the Orc using it better.

Whenever poisoning the boss is possible, Human has trouble outscaling Orc in a reasonable amount of time. Against a magic immune or undead boss, the Orc can only hope to make up for the handicap with a better leveling phase and a potentially richer popcorn zoo left over for Swift Hands during the boss fight.

=== Elf ===

One of the most powerful spellcasting combinations in the game is the {{ElAs}}. With vastly expanded mana, the elf assassin makes a potent spellcaster. The biggest difficulty that dedicated spellcasters face is that they often neglect their attack damage and have difficulty fighting lower-level monsters that ''should'' be easy. Using '''swift hands''', this is not an issue for the assassin, allowing him to focus totally on spellcasting in a way that even the {{c|Wizard}} cannot. Other races can still make potent spellcaster assassins, but they won't be as good as the elf.

=== Goblin ===

The {{GoAs}} is the ultimate class/race combo for level-up catapults. By using swift hands to kill weaker monsters and converting items and glyphs for extra experience, a goblin can gain as many as five levels over the course of a boss battle, fully regenerating his health and mana each time. Very few bosses outside of vicious difficulty can survive this sort of persistent onslaught, and even those in vicious difficulty will often fall to it. Since you can begin the boss battle very early with this character it's likely you'll be able to use poison antics as well. The Goblin Assassin is one of the best ways to obtain badges in most dungeons, including the coveted vicious badge.

== Strategy ==

The Assassin is one of the game's most potent classes, and is well-suited to a wide variety of approaches. At low levels, he has a strong and reliable opener with the {{s|APHEELSIK}} glyph, and at high levels he can cleave through strong monsters to gain a few extra levels that can make the difference. His greatest weakness is that he has very few class features to improve his combat abilities, and capitalizing on his situational {{t|First strike}} is very important. Because he has no bonus to regeneration or resistances and his initial attack bonus against poisoned monsters is only 20% (net), the Assassin actually makes a sub-par regen-fighter without additional items or boons. The assassin is most similar to the {{c|Fighter}} in this respect, and he can build towards almost any type of character by using the right combination of bonuses.

Although at first glance it may not be apparent, the Assassin is actually a very strong class for spellcaster strategies. One of the biggest problems dedicated spellcasters face is that they neglect their attack damage, and may be easily worn down by low-level monsters. An assassin will never face this problem, even on vicious-difficulty levels, and can therefor focus all his attention on the boss.

Because the assassin can easily 1-hit-kill monsters that are lower-level than him, he should ''never'' fight a monster that is equal-level to him unless he has no other choice. There is no bonus XP given for defeating a monster of equal level to yourself, and once you gain a level you can kill him effortless. Always focus your efforts on fighting stronger monsters to earn bonus XP.

Assassins can leverage an early Amulet of Yendor to great effect. The 50 bonus experience is enough to reach level 5, which puts most of the dungeon monsters at lower level (and thus subject to Swift Hands). This frees up the player to select a race other than Goblin and still be able to reach Level 10 only having to fight a handful of monsters to do so. The drawback is that after using up the prepped Amulet, you will need to reclaim it for an additional 50 Gold cost if you want to use it again.

The Assassin works well with a broad range of [[Gods|deities]] due to his personal flexibility. Unless you're willing to eschew the poison glyph, you will probably want to '''avoid''' {{g|Taurog}} and the {{g|Glowing Guardian}}. Otherwise the Assassin will work flawlessly with '''any''' other [[Gods|deity]].

{{MainNav}}