Video Review of Desktop Dungeons and a Let's Play!

[JayPlaysIndieGames]

I just posted a video review of Desktop Dungeons on my youtube channel, and I am starting a let's play that will last throughout the beta. I hope for daily uploads so if you are interested check it out

[dislekcia]

I think it might be a little weird how much I enjoy watching people play DD... Thanks for the nice review!

Also, that replacement crash is fixed this side, it'll be part of the new release on friday. Sorry about that.

[JayPlaysIndieGames]

It never caused me a big problem. I think it is normal to have bugs in a beta yeah? I actually wanted to show off how well the game crashes were handled with almost zero loss of progress and time.
Unfortunately I didn't have the gold lol

[Darvin]

Couple remarks:

The berserker isn't as bad with spells as he first appears. Spells that you cast during fights (like fireball) are ill-suited to him, but stuff that you cast between fights work very well for him. WONAFYT and PISORF are particularly nice, since they allow you to unclog the hallways (by moving monsters around) so you don't have to kill them to get past.

Ying and Yang don't need to be killed in one hit. You just need to ensure you kill them with two consecutive attacks (meaning if you damage both of them and then finish them sequentially, you've got them down).

One good strategy with bosses is to start fighting just before you level-up. Kill a weaker monster in battle, and then get a full heal and mana restore to boost you up.

If you like your "direct-attack" type characters, then the Monk is probably a good one for you.

[JayPlaysIndieGames]

wow thanks for the advice Darvin.

I haven't actually gotten to playing any of the harder dungeons and since I am restarting for the let's play it will be awhile before I do. But, I feel like I am going to need a lot of advice from vets like you if I am going to make it through the tougher parts. The normal dungeons already give me quite a hard time typically. I was actually lucky to win during my review.

BTW that boss strategy is something I would never have come up with.

And thanks for the suggestion on the monk. I haven't tried him out yet, but he will be the first class I unlock on my new save, I love trying out new things

[Lujo]

Two glyphs that have been really good on a berserker for me were CYDSTEP and GETINDARE. Sounds strange, I know, because CYDSTEP costs a whooping 12 mana - but it's a free hit on a hard hitting, upwards fighting guy. Which you "refresh" before you explore. GETINDARE works pretty much the same way except you cast it in the middle of a fight.

If you find both (and 2 mana boosters), precast cydstep, esxplore, find something to fight, hit once or twice (untill you expend the death protection) and first strike FTW. Fun times.

[Darvin]

But, I feel like I am going to need a lot of advice from vets like you if I am going to make it through the tougher parts. The normal dungeons already give me quite a hard time typically. I was actually lucky to win during my review.

I saw you running out of exploration there, and especially having blown a potion early it was getting close to the wire.

BTW that boss strategy is something I would never have come up with.

Works against any difficult monster, really. If you leave enough low-level monsters on the field, you might even be able to do it twice in one battle. Assassins or Goblins can often manage three level-ups in a boss fight, and Goblin Assassins (which turn this strategy into an exquisite art form) can often hit four level-ups throughout the boss fight.

Two glyphs that have been really good on a berserker for me were CYDSTEP and GETINDARE. Sounds strange, I know, because CYDSTEP costs a whooping 12 mana - but it's a free hit on a hard hitting, upwards fighting guy

Totally in agreement, but to be fair GETINDARE is great for any melee-oriented character (possible exception for Rogue and Assassin, whose class features partially duplicate its effects). Free hits are awesome for the berserker.

However, he doesn't have CYDSTEPP unlocked yet, so let's not spoil the advanced glyphs before he finds 'em.

[The Avatar]

Besides, I've always thought of CYDSTEPP as the worse version of GETINDARE. Well, enough on that.

Yeah, the three main keys to winning are getting as much bonus exp as possible, saving as much exploration as possible, and saving as much popcorn as possible. The key to winning is balancing these 3 points to best suit your strategy (i.e. should you explore to find a higher level monster for bonus exp or waste popcorn and potential bonus exp to save exploration).

[Lujo]

That's a completely true and right way to look at things, and yet I got this weird urge to say I don't really look at it that way. Allthough I probably should.

Because there is always 2 more things to work on a more advanced level - cheeze (leveraging really particular stuff to create a sort of ridiculous advantage), and critical mass (using gold, piety, potions, and anything not nailed down to gain a sort of ridiculous advantage). I'm not a huge fan of traditional cheeze, but I love me critical mass as long as it's not the old trisword.

Which is to say I'm, for example, more prone to focus on my piety, gold and CP management then XP. XP's the most powerfull, to be sure, but cheeze + critical mass is can do really weird things - lvl1 boss kills among other things.

[Darvin]

Besides, I've always thought of CYDSTEPP as the worse version of GETINDARE.

Advantage of CYDSTEPP is that you can apply it as a prebuff ahead of time. The game's selection of true pre-buffs is limited, and most of them will discharge on a hair-trigger. CYDSTEPP is the only prebuff that's actually possible to carry through the entire game.

Which is to say I'm, for example, more prone to focus on my piety, gold and CP management then XP. XP's the most powerfull, to be sure, but cheeze + critical mass is can do really weird things - lvl1 boss kills among other things.

Devs made a point of swatting those down. No more strength stacking, poison now times out, old trisword is gone forever... are there even any left? I know low-level boss kills are still possible, but the level 1 variety seems to be out of reach these days.