Strategy

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This page is about the Full/Beta Version of the game, if you are looking for the Alpha/Free Version, see Alpha:Strategy

Race Selection

There are two ways to go about race selection: Picking a strategy in advance, or keeping open to whatever the dungeon presents. You should probably pick your race considering the boss, but Halflings and Gnomes are almost always helpful.

Game Phases

One strategy that can be effective is to play the game as if there were 3 distinct phases to it: Scouting, Preparation, and Boss Battling

  • Scouting: Levels 1 to 3. It's rarely possible to kill monsters of significantly higher level at this stage, but it can be useful to do some quick scouting around the dungeon and find what Gods and Runes are available, as well as what Boss spawned (If in a random boss dungeon). You can significantly speed this up if you Scout: Altar.
  • Preparation: Levels 3 to 7. It's possible to kill monsters of significantly higher level during this phase, to generate more exp by using the level-up steamroll and the experience catapult. The goal is to generate enough bonus experience to be able to reach levels 9 or 10.
  • Boss Battling: Levels 7 to 10. At this point, dungeon exploration likely stops (unless you're using a poison glyph against a boss or can out regen them), and the battle begins. It can be useful at this point to be almost at the next level, allowing the player to use the level-up steamroll to instantly heal to full health and mana, possibly even multiple times during the fight.

Character Builds

There are several different approaches to character builds which generally fall into one of the following categories:

Striker

Focusing heavily on attack damage and one-time buffs, Strikers are characters that attempt to end their fights quickly with a few powerful physical attacks. Strikers only use spellcasting to supplement their damage, primarily relying on physical attacks. Character classes such as the Class: Warlord Warlord, Class: Rogue Rogue, and Class: Crusader Crusader make strong strikers. Strikers tend to only want enough health and resistances to survive a single attack from enemies, and put no further effort into defenses, instead focusing on offense so they only need to survive that one attack. Temporary buffs that only last for one attack are very useful to striker builds, since their battles end shortly afterwards and they can then explore to recharge their mana and re-cast their buffs. Strikers benefit enormously from any item that increases their attack damage, and greatly enjoy the Glyph: CYDSTEPP CYDSTEPP, Glyph: ENDISWAL ENDISWAL, and Glyph: GETINDARE GETINDARE glyphs which allow them to tack on a few extra attacks with little additional effort. These characters prefer to fight low-health monsters such as Goats, Gorgons, and Warlocks.

The Race: Human Human and Race: Orc Orc are generally the best races for strikers, though strong striker strategies exist for every race except for the Race: dwarf dwarf]].

Brawler

The sister build of the Striker, the Brawler attempts to balance offense and defense to outlast opponents by sheer attrition. While they do not focus on ending battles quickly like the striker, attack damage is still the most important aspect for a brawler character. Permanent resistances are very useful to the Brawler, making deities that offer boons to that effect very valuable. Classes such as the Class: Berserker Berserker, Class: Monk Monk, and Class: Paladin Paladin make superb brawlers. Brawlers make exceptional poison fighters with the Glyph: APHEELSIK APHEELSIK glyph, and can often make great use of Glyph: HALPMEH HALPMEH and Glyph: BYSSEPS BYSSEPS. Glyphs that deal damage directly are poor choices for brawlers, which need to use more mana-efficient options to win battles of attrition. Brawlers prefer to fight low-damage monsters such as Meatmen or Golems, but are heavily penalized for fighting monsters with debuffs such as bandits.

In some cases, the line between Brawler and Striker may become blurred. Since both builds prioritize attack damage foremost, opportunity and necessity may cause strikers to play like brawlers and brawlers to play like strikers. This overlap means you can often enter the dungeon with preparations that would suit either a brawler or striker and then develop on the build that makes most sense based on the boss and the deities, items, and glyphs available to you.

The Race: Human Human and Race: Orc Orc make the best Brawlers, but specific brawler strategies exist for every race.

Caster

Specializing in either the Glyph: PISORF PISORF or Glyph: BURNDAYRAZ BURNDAYRAZ glyph, a dedicated caster eschews the normal focus on attack damage, instead diverting attention to max mana or other unconventional advantages. The caster will primarily rely on glyphs for damage, and survivability is largely a non-issue. This make utility glyphs that help your combat performance largely worthless, but makes the Glyph: BLUDTUPOWA BLUDTUPOWA glyph invaluable. The Item: Crystal Ball Crystal Ball item is by far the best selection for a caster. Casters can deal massive amounts of damage without ever taking retaliation from monsters, enabling them to casually ignore debuffs and massive damage that an enemy might otherwise have. The largest downside casters face is that they have trouble killing weaker monsters when performing level-up catapults, since their total focus on magic means their attack damage is going to be very low and they will either have to use mana or health resources to defeat weaker monsters that should be push-overs. This makes the swift hands class feature of the Class: Assassin Assassin very useful for caster characters. Other strong caster classes are the Class: Wizard Wizard and Class: Transmuter Transmuter.

Casters should almost always play as an Race: Elf Elf, Race: Gnome Gnome, or Race: Orc Orc. Elves and Gnomes grant additional spellcasting power, while the Orc's bonus to base attack greatly increases the damage he deals with PISORF. Orc Caster builds are very uncommon since there is no way to ensure PISORF will appear in the dungeon, and your entire character setup depends on that.

Hybrid

These characters, for whatever reason, do not have any particular attributes that make them well suited to one specific approach. Instead, they present a well-rounded character that alters his approach for different monsters and situations. Hybrids lack the specialization of other builds, and as a result are much weaker overall and will need to leverage their versatility to use their resources more efficiently. They also tend to suffer because they will want to keep a wider variety of glyphs, and will not gain benefits from having converted them until later in the dungeon. Classes such as the Class: Fighter Fighter, Class: Thief Thief, and Class: Sorcerer Sorcerer have the kind of versatility that makes for a good hybrid. Obviously your deity choice would be entirely based on your scenario.

Races that are back-loaded (that is to say, you benefit most by converting items and glyphs late), such as the Race: Halfling Halfling, Race: Gnome Gnome, and Race: Goblin Goblin make for excellent hybrids. The Race: Human Human and Race: Elf Elf are also sufficiently diverse to offer a strong option for hybrids.


God Selection

God selection is essential to victory. Nothing is worse than picking a god only to discover that the selection is going to prevent you from winning. On the other hand, getting a god early usually means more piety and access to better boons. Whether or not you should grab a god as soon as you see them is a factor of your race, class, level, items, glyphs and the state of the dungeon. Here are some general rules for each:

  • Binlor Ironshield: Stone Heart and stone fist are really the two reasons you'd take him. He grants a free ENDISWAL glyph on worship, so convert one if you have one. Worship him if you need to deal with resistance, or want some knockback, as that's all you'll really want. If you have the BLUDTUPOWA glyph then you can accumulate piety with Binlor faster than with any other deity.
  • Dracul: Dracul is a good selection for most melee classes, as you can gain a full heal or 2 if you worship him just after using your hp potions. Unfortunately, he HATES all holy magic (HALPMEH and CYDSTEPP) so if you rely on these he is not a good choice. The other reason he's useful is for if blood shield boon, which stacks extremely well with the dragon shield, but has a high piety cost. His blood hunger boon is very powerful if you have the BLUDTUPOWA glyph, allowing you to attack monsters to gain mana.
  • The Earthmother: A somewhat useful deity. The exp bonus from IMAWAL is great, and you gain piety from it! Unfortunately, most of her boons stink. Much better at lower levels, Vine form loses relevance later on for tough dungeons. She can be very useful on dungeons that involve plants, since you an invoke her boons to remove them for you. Her "plantation" boon can also be a great way to instantly generate piety, then convert to another deity to spend it.
  • Glowing Guardian: Excellent deity for every class except Bloodmage and Assassin. Always worship early on to grab humility and wait for the exp to some rolling in. Especially good for CYDSTEPPers, because CYDSTEPP is not affected by level. Absolution is deceptively powerful. Great overall, because everybody need exp, and the protection boon is a superb bonus for the boss fight. Unfortunately he hates potions, so most characters will need to find a way to convert out at some point.
  • Jehora Jeheyu: A very strange god. His boons can be very powerful, but will deplete your potions so they must be used carefully. Piety gain is random; if you get lucky, he can give you inordinate amounts of piety. However, punishments are also at random! Try to get the "petition" boon to end his punishments as soon as possible.
  • Mystera Annur: Rather awful, but she's the only good mp giver, besides Jehora. Her boons all have a double-edge which can be very dangerous. Never worship her as a melee or hybrid character, because the physical resistance on the monsters will crush you. She is good for collecting piety, however.
  • The Pactmaker: Not a real deity. The Pactmaker offers 5 pacts which decrease your piety, but give you god effects when certain things happen. If you cannot pay the piety because you have no other god, nothing happens. If you have a god, but cant pay the piety, you do not invoke the gods punishment.
  • Taurog: Okay deity, but the mana penalty can be crippling and his boons will fill your inventory and prevent you from purchasing other items from shops. When you first begin your kingdom he's a strong deity, but as you unlock more powerful spells and more powerful items for shops to sell he becomes very weak. Great for berserkers, as they don't particularly need spells, but also great with monks because it can help deal with their awful damage.
  • Tikki Tooki: Good choice as a later game deity, as he enjoys you slaying lower level monsters, but a big no for tanks. His best boon by far is poison, but dodging and his mixtures can be useful, at times. One strategy you might want to try late game as a CYDSTEPPer or tank, is joining, killing weak monsters, grabbing poison and converting off, without fighting anything your level or higher. Tribute is also an important part of this process if you can't kill enough low levels.

Preparation

The preparation phase for the boss battles is highly significant, as it requires maximizing exp gain, minimizing resource usage, and choosing an appropriate strategy. It's worthwhile to note that while dungeon exploration is itself technically a limited resource, it is often desirable or even necessary to exhaust all dungeon exploration during this phase to maximize exp gain, unless intending to use a APHEELSIK glyph or regen tactics to defeat the boss(es). In dungeons where there are two bosses, it can be helpful to try to leave a corridor, corner, or area unexplored to allow for regeneration between boss battles.

When reaching level 6 to 7, it's often beneficial to have explored most if not all of the dungeon, and begin creating an "exp farm." By weakening several lower level monsters to within a single hit from death, they can be finished later to gain exp for further level steamrolling. Note, it is less useful or even dangerous to leave creatures with the First Strike ability weakened as a part of an exp farm, as they will deal still deal damage to you when you come back to finish them off.

Combat Techniques

These values are with no damage powerups, and often times the disparities can be bridged with glyphs / race / class / deity bonuses, or by fighting monsters with less than the standard 100% health for their level (Gorgons, imps, wraiths, ...). The three most basic combos are the two-one, the two-two and the four-one. Some race/class/deity setups are capable of doing far more advanced combos, but these are the basic underlying methods available to all.

As a note, monsters with lower starting health can often be killed at even lower levels than the charts suggest. The example of a level 8 gorgon falling to a level 4-5 four-one attack comes to mind.

The "two-one" attack: Two fireballs, followed up by a melee blow. Damage dealt is calculated by (4 x 2 x player level) for the fireball damage, and (5 x player level) for melee damage. This technique is most effective early-game.

Player Level Damage Dealt Monster Level Monster Health (100%)
1 13 2 15
2 26 3 26
3 39 4 39
4 52 5 54
5 65 6 71
6 78 7 90
7 91 8 111
8 104 9 134

As the chart shows, at most early levels it's possible to kill monsters of one higher level with a simple two-one attack. An early item such as a Fine Sword can make this tactic effective well into level 5.

The "two-two" attack: This technique is similar to the one-two attack, but requires First Strike, CYDSTEPP, healing, or enough health to survive two attacks from the monster. When successful, however, it allows for easily killing monsters two levels higher. This technique is most effective mid-game, although coupled with a level-up, it can be chained into a four-two or even a four-four attack for slaying extremely high level monsters.

Player Level Damage Dealt Monster Level Monster Health (100%)
1 18 3 26
2 36 4 39
3 59 5 54
4 72 6 71
5 90 7 90
6 108 8 111
7 126 9 134

The "four-one" attack: By leveling up mid-combat, the player can use 4 fireballs in a single battle against a monster (even 6 or 8, through gear / deity / race / class / etc.). This technique is highly effective, but often harder to use.

Player Level (start/end) Damage Dealt Monster Level Monster Health (100%)
1-2 34 4 39
2-3 55 5 54
3-4 76 6 71
4-5 97 7 90
5-6 118 8 111
6-7 139 9 134

Boss Battling

The ideal position to be in when starting a boss battle is at Level 7 with 34 / 35 experience, with proper runes, and all health / mana potions remaining, and an exp farm containing 96 experience worth of monsters (enough for level 10) although this is very hard to do,. The first phase of the boss battle involves the player, using all available health and mana points (but not potions) against the boss before killing weakened monsters to gain a level. This phase ends when the player no longer has enough weakened non-boss creatures to gain another level, or has reached level 10.

Phase two of the boss battle involves the player using other available resources (health & mana potions, etc.) to defeat the boss.

In dungeons with two bosses, it can often be effective to kill the "hard hitting" boss with magic attacks during phase one, as they usually have lower max health. This allows the player to save as many health and mana potions as possible for the "tank" boss, who generally doesn't retaliate as powerfully.

First Strike Finisher

First strike will often allow you to kill a monster you couldn't otherwise beat. Cast it just before the final blow, and the monster gets no retaliation hit.

  • Keep in mind that you still take a retaliation hit if the monster has first strike as well.

Fireball Softener

Hitting a monster with fireball before combat will often reduce the number of hits it takes to kill it. Can be used with first strike to take on otherwise dangerous foes without taking any damage.

Level-up Steamroll

With very few experience needed to gain the next level, you can fight a tough monster, and then when you can't fight any more, kill a low-level monster in order to level up. This will restore your health and mana without healing the tough monster. You can then go back to killing the tougher monster with full strength. It is possible to level up more than once during a single fight. This usually requires the player utilizing the "Experience Catapult" strategy first (see below) so that he has a lot of low-level monsters to kill. Nonetheless, keeping track of how many experience you can get from the available monsters is always a wise thing to do.

Battle of Attrition

If you have enough attack to do more damage in one hit than your enemy is able to regenerate in the time it takes you to regenerate the damage that he does with a single hit, you can heal between attacks and still be able to have a net effect of his health decreasing.

  • Even if you heal slower than the enemy does, sometimes exploring one or a few blocks mid-battle can regenerate your HP/MP for additional hit/spell so that you can deal enough damage to kill the enemy.

Slow Poison

Attacking an enemy and then poisoning it and exploring (or using the LEMMISI glyph) allows you to take on enemies that would otherwise outlast you in a fight. If attacking with magic you can use this technique to beat a foe that would otherwise kill you with one hit.

  • This technique relies on either of two abilities. You can last as long as you can survive a single hit, so if your HP or resistance are as high as possible, you will be able to outlast harder hits.

Death of a Dozen Flames

  1. Cast BURNDAYRAZ.
  2. Cast APHEELSIK.
  3. Explore until you have enough mana to cast both again.
  4. Repeat as needed.

Persistent Martyr

  1. Cast CYDSTEPP.
  2. Explore until you have enough mana to cast APHEELSIK.
  3. Attack monster until CYDSTEPP protects you from a fatal blow.
  4. Cast APHEELSIK.
  5. Explore until you have enough mana to cast CYDSTEPP.
  6. Repeat as needed.

Double Deadly Blow

Used mainly on high level monsters that are barely killable. First Strike encouraged.

  1. Cast CYDSTEPP.
  2. Explore until you have enough mana to cast another CYDSTEPP.
  3. Attack monster until CYDSTEPP protects you from a fatal blow.
  4. Cast the second CYDSTEPP and attack again.
  5. Finish with First Strike.

Experience Catapult

Depending upon the hero's class and which glyphs and items are available, there are different ways that a low-level character might be able to take out a quite high level character. When such an opportunity arises, it is beneficial to follow through when your hero is at the lowest possible level. The experience formula greatly rewards going after creatures above your level.

  • For example, a level 1 hero killing a level 9 monster gets 81 experience, and will suddenly catapult to level 6.
  • A level 2 hero killing the same level 9 monster gets "only" 65 experience, and will wind up at level 5.

Single-Use Glyphs

If you know early on in the game that you will be worshipping Taurog, you can still get limited use from some glyphs. The effects of CYDSTEPP, BYSSEPS, and GETINDARE will persist after you convert them, and those effects activating will not anger Taurog (or Binlor, for that matter), so it can be very beneficial to pick up and activate these glyphs (especially CYDSTEPP for non-Fighters), before beginning worship, then convert them afterwards for piety and the racial effect.

Gold-Farming

If your vault is near empty, but you know where to kill the IN DEMAND trophy, take the bet on boss preparation, and you can score 1050 gold off the boss kill.

Prior to unlocking IN DEMAND trophies, Transmutation Seals can be used on boss trophies to convert them to their full gold value. Again, the "Bet on the Boss" preparation increases the cash gained.