I'm too dumb to beat a normal Dungeon?

[dustinandrews]

The easy dungeons are just that. The Normal dungeons are just kicking my butt. Can someone please post an annotated game of (say) Venture cave with one of the level one characters? all I have to prep right now is the sword. Even when I think I am off to a good start the boss has so many hit points I have no idea how to go about beating them, even though I read the wiki and think I (mostly) understand the concept of power leveling and using my potions wisely.

Here is a typical example. Have I already lost this game, or do I just not know what do to next? (I haven't peek in the sub-dungeon yet.)

[Lujo]

I thik in this situation I would do my best to fireball the boss for all it's worth, and make sure I get at least one lvl catapult set up (get really close to lvling of a safe target before I start), so I could refill my mana. All the fireballing would also give me some Mysterea piety (I think), but I can't remember her boons right now. If the death rotection is still on, I'd use that for the last hit with burning built up. I'd also check the subdungeon before all that, and convert the ENDISWALL. If I founf enough gold to buy a potion I'd take mana.

There's probbably better ways to go about it, I'd go for a second oppinion.

[Nandrew]

It's also helpful to understand that unless you're REALLY a top-tier player you're still going to lose the occasional dungeon setup at this point in the game (though we are steadily making some things easier).

We'll also be pointing new players towards "recommended" item setups early on. I suggest you grab the Slayer Wand the next time you're able: it's one of the cheapest things to take into the dungeon, it's accessible early on and it continues to be useful through to late game.

[Sidestepper]

The problem you're having is that you ran out of low level monsters before dealing with the high level ones. I think this could be salvaged with a fireball heavy attack on Aequitas. Bring yourself to the edge of level 8, using health potions if you must. Worship Mystera, who will give you a pile of starting piety if you've been using glyphs regularly up to until now. You want the Refreshment boon. Fireball the boss, level up, and then fireball him some more. Convert glyphs to get more mana from Refreshment and keep fireballing.

[The Avatar]

Only kill a lower level enemy if you NEED to. (Probably because it is blocking your way.

[dustinandrews]

Thanks for all the Advice!

@Nandrew, I have only beat a normal dungeon once out of about 20 tries and I got absurdly lucky with a fireball when I walked in. How do I get the slayer wand? Like I said, the only upgrades I have seen at this point is the sword and the spoon. Should I be grinding the easy dungeons for more money?

@Sidestepper, I used up the lower level monsters getting two mid fight boosts to get this far. I would have been stuck without them.

@Luju I did the math on what I could see on screen. I could fireball the boss for about 1/10th of his health if I used up my potions and then I don't have enough resources to level up without regenerating him.

It seems like I am not taking on hard enough monsters to level up fast enough, but I ran out of wraiths really fast. It also seems like hunting for the next appropriate target uses up the black squares faster then is wise.

I just know I am not "getting" something fundamental here that other players are taking for granted. That's why I am hoping to see an annotated game. Maybe I will post an annotated failure (as painful as that will be) for others to critique.

@Nandrew (again) The difficulty seems to ramp up really high between easy and normal.

[dustinandrews]

[Sidestepper]

You've seen this this, right?

[dustinandrews]

Yep! I read the whole thread and all the annotated runs on the wiki. It was helpful, but there is just your one incomplete "normal" dungeon. It seems the rest are on hard or better or using preps I don't have (which is now all of them).

I just ran through the danger den myself and took 45 screenshots. I didn't want to load 45 images to the wiki, so I just put them in a photo album here with some notes: http://www.authenticinvention.com/images/dd/den/album/

I won but I feel it was only because I found BURNDARAZ and a mana pendant early.

[Sidestepper]

You actually could have beaten that Goblin-2 at the beginning. With burning damage, you would have ended up doing 16 damage, not 13. I don't have time to look through the whole thing, but maybe later.