DDwiki - User contributions [en]

Alpha:Half-dragon

2010-09-22T00:04:08Z

Eversmith: /* General Strategy */

===Skills===
* 200% Max Health at start
* Magical Attack
* Increased Sight Radius (same effect as [[Items|Scouting Orb]], all tiles touching an explored tile will be partially uncovered, allowing you to see what type of object lies there)
* BURNDAYRAZ glyph costs 99 Mana, preventing its use
* 20% Knockback, gains an additional 20% for every glyph converted

===General Strategy===
Knockback causes enemies to go flying one square in the direction you hit them when you use a melee attack, unless another enemy is in the way. If they land on a wall, they will destroy it. If they move onto a tile you have not yet explored, but will have seen due to your increased sight radius, the monster icon will have a lifebar until it reaches its maximum health. Knockback is calculated from your Base Damage and applies damage when an enemy destroys a wall or hits another enemy, ignoring resistances. When knocked back into another enemy, Knockback damage is halved and applied to both enemies. Finally, the enemy you knocked your target into will never die from the Knockback: they will be left at 1 HP minimum and lose a level of Death Protection if they have one.

Since they can't use BURNDAYRAZ, it's best converted as soon as you see it. Knockback is a good way of breaking walls past high-level enemies or even dealing early damage to them by knocking enemies into them. Knockback damage is also left unaffected by [[Gods|Mystera]]'s restriction and is not affected by damage resists. Be wary of enemies with Magical Resist, as Knockback is the only solid way you have of dealing damage to them. And note that if you deal more damage to a particular enemy if you knock them into a wall instead of another enemy. Finally, although they have high max health, remember that they still have the same health regeneration as standard classes.

Easiest and quickiest way to win is poison - either Venom Blade or APHEELSICK. High health will let you smack big enemies.

===Deity Choice===
Half-dragons work well with [[Gods|Binlor Ironshield]], as they collect piety easily by knocking monsters into walls. For the same reason, he also can work well with Jehora Jeheyu. The Glowing Guardian can be used for refilling a Half-dragon's large maximum hp, and Dracul's maximum hp reduction isn't as bad due to the large maximum hp as well. As usual, The Pactmaker is a solid choice. Due to a lack of ability to use BURNDAYRAZ, Taurog is often also a good choice. The Earthmother and Mysteria Annur should almost certainly be avoided as a Half-dragon, and Tikki Tooki's dislike of those who get hit too much doesn't work well with the Half Dragon's high maximum health.

===Challenge Modes===

Alpha:Sorcerer

2010-09-21T23:59:46Z

Eversmith: /* Race and Deity Choices */

[[File:HeroWizard.png]]

===Skills===
*Essence Transit - Every mana point spent regenerates 2 health
*Arcane Knowledge - Starting mana increased by 5
*Mana Shield - Deals 1 damage per level whenever opponent hits you

===General Strategy===
This class offers a surprisingly effective combination of hand-to-hand combat and spell casting. The healing ability of the Sorcerer's spells makes it possible to tackle monsters of a higher level than you, much like the Assassin strategy. You should usually take a swing at a monster before fireballing it to heal yourself - just beware mana burn!

=== Race and Deity Choices ===
Taking Human, Elf, or Gnome is an option, as the healing power of his spells lets you stay in combat longer, making human a good choice. Because you will be casting spells (sometimes just to heal), Elf and Gnome are good choices as well.

When using the power leveling strategy, consider Pactmaker for the extra xp from monsters. Glowing Guardian is especially good in the crypt as you will be doing hand-to-hand combat with this character. Taking Mystera Annur will severely limit the capabilities of this character, and is not recommended. Binlor and Tikki Tooki are always solid choices, so is Jehora, unless you're depending on CYDSTEPP.

The best deity choice for non-Crypt challenge dungeons is Dracul. For relatively small price he will boost your mana (synergy with starting bonus), melee ability, reistances and will add lifesteal. A 8-lvl Sorcerer with Dracul and Platemail can kill Super Meat Man without poison - the boss regenerates health slowly, than you do.

===Challenge Modes===

====Snake Pit====

Nothing special here. Bring down high level enemies as soon as possible, while balancing your attacks between physical attacks and fireballs, to heal yourself effectively. Avoid being poisoned or weakened. Use midfight leveling to make Medusa easier to handle so you can preserve your potions for Nidhogg.

====Library====

Not that difficult. Since there is nothing to poison or weaken you, you can easily take on higher level Dragon Spawns and Warlocks. Just attack until you're on the brink of death and then use fireballs to heal yourself again. Just make sure to conserve some potions for the bosses and have a level up or two midfight..

====Factory====

The Sorcerer has a special advantage against animated armor. Each time the sorcerer attacks one their Mana Shield ability will remove an additional rank of death prot. from the animated armor. Consider trying a Dwarf so that you can survive hits from higher-leveled armors sooner.
But still, the quickest way to level is fireballing 9-lvl armors. Also a decent race is halfling, because you will get a load of health potions to kill Iron Man.

Alpha:Sorcerer

2010-09-21T23:54:21Z

Eversmith: /* Factory */

[[File:HeroWizard.png]]

===Skills===
*Essence Transit - Every mana point spent regenerates 2 health
*Arcane Knowledge - Starting mana increased by 5
*Mana Shield - Deals 1 damage per level whenever opponent hits you

===General Strategy===
This class offers a surprisingly effective combination of hand-to-hand combat and spell casting. The healing ability of the Sorcerer's spells makes it possible to tackle monsters of a higher level than you, much like the Assassin strategy. You should usually take a swing at a monster before fireballing it to heal yourself - just beware mana burn!

=== Race and Deity Choices ===
Taking Human, Elf, or Gnome is an option, as the healing power of his spells lets you stay in combat longer, making human a good choice. Because you will be casting spells (sometimes just to heal), Elf and Gnome are good choices as well.

When using the power leveling strategy, consider Pactmaker for the extra xp from monsters. Glowing Guardian is especially good in the crypt as you will be doing hand-to-hand combat with this character. Taking Mystera Annur will severely limit the capabilities of this character, and is not recommended. Binlor and Tikki Tooki are always solid choices, so is Jehora, unless you're depending on CYDSTEPP.

===Challenge Modes===

====Snake Pit====

Nothing special here. Bring down high level enemies as soon as possible, while balancing your attacks between physical attacks and fireballs, to heal yourself effectively. Avoid being poisoned or weakened. Use midfight leveling to make Medusa easier to handle so you can preserve your potions for Nidhogg.

====Library====

Not that difficult. Since there is nothing to poison or weaken you, you can easily take on higher level Dragon Spawns and Warlocks. Just attack until you're on the brink of death and then use fireballs to heal yourself again. Just make sure to conserve some potions for the bosses and have a level up or two midfight..

====Factory====

The Sorcerer has a special advantage against animated armor. Each time the sorcerer attacks one their Mana Shield ability will remove an additional rank of death prot. from the animated armor. Consider trying a Dwarf so that you can survive hits from higher-leveled armors sooner.
But still, the quickest way to level is fireballing 9-lvl armors. Also a decent race is halfling, because you will get a load of health potions to kill Iron Man.

Alpha:Transmuter

2010-09-20T19:09:41Z

Eversmith: /* Race and Deity Choices */

[[File:HeroWizard.png]]

===Skills===
*Stone Worker - start with the ENDISWAL glyph
*Stone Armour - recover health from wall blasting (2 per level)
*Stone Heart - 1 mana cost for ENDISWAL, no natural health regeneration

===Text on unlock===
"Well done! As a reward for completing your first run through the Snake Pit, you've unlocked the TRANSMUTER class! Veteran players have to contend with a lack of natural health and regeneration, but are given the power to blast dungeons apart and get healed by the very walls themselves."

===General Strategy===
As a Transmuter, you cannot gain health by exploring, only by using ENDISWAL. However, due to the low mana cost (1 point) for ENDISWAL, it is easy to regain health cheaply. The basic strategy for taking down higher level monsters is to uncover a portion of the map with many walls, then to attack the higher level monster. Once you are about to die, go around using ENDISWAL on the walls revealed prior to attacking the monster. It is important not to reveal any new hidden spaces during this time as this will cause the monster you've attacked to regenerate health. Keep on attacking the monster and using ENDISWAL on existing tiles until the monster is dead. If needed, you can try to minimize the exploration of new tiles if you run out of mana for healing. In the end, it becomes a balancing act between revealing tiles and healing yourself, as the only regenerative effect you have is with mana for revealing tiles.

BLUDTUPOWA still boosts the Transmuter's mana regeneration, so you can take it, activate once and have a pleasure of quick mana regen.

Note that it's important to heal as much as possible before exploring. That is, if you're hurt and your mana is at 100%, you should definitely be healing yourself. Otherwise you are not regenerating any new mana by exploring and at the same time not healing yourself due to the class trait.

Getting poisoned is fine since you cannot regenerate health automatically by exploring.

===Race and Deity Choices===

Choosing Elf or Gnome for race is a good choice as it gives you both flexibility to cast spells other than ENDISWAL and at the same time have enough mana to take down higher level monsters. Gnome is preferable, because having more potions is better, than having bigger mana limit.

It should go without saying that the best deity to choose is Binlor, as the Transmuter's heavy use of ENDISWAL generates large amounts of piety. Note, that Heroics, a boon which takes you to 10 level instantly will mean, that you heal 20 HP by blasting a single wall. Thus, with 15 mana points you will regenerate 300 HP. Choosing The Earthmother or Taurog is absolute suicide as The Earthmother dislikes ENDISWAL and Taurog dislikes Glyph usage. Dracul can be helpful for a secondary source of health regeneration. Aside from those, nearly any god is a decent choice.

Alpha:Transmuter

2010-09-20T19:06:46Z

Eversmith: /* General Strategy */

[[File:HeroWizard.png]]

===Skills===
*Stone Worker - start with the ENDISWAL glyph
*Stone Armour - recover health from wall blasting (2 per level)
*Stone Heart - 1 mana cost for ENDISWAL, no natural health regeneration

===Text on unlock===
"Well done! As a reward for completing your first run through the Snake Pit, you've unlocked the TRANSMUTER class! Veteran players have to contend with a lack of natural health and regeneration, but are given the power to blast dungeons apart and get healed by the very walls themselves."

===General Strategy===
As a Transmuter, you cannot gain health by exploring, only by using ENDISWAL. However, due to the low mana cost (1 point) for ENDISWAL, it is easy to regain health cheaply. The basic strategy for taking down higher level monsters is to uncover a portion of the map with many walls, then to attack the higher level monster. Once you are about to die, go around using ENDISWAL on the walls revealed prior to attacking the monster. It is important not to reveal any new hidden spaces during this time as this will cause the monster you've attacked to regenerate health. Keep on attacking the monster and using ENDISWAL on existing tiles until the monster is dead. If needed, you can try to minimize the exploration of new tiles if you run out of mana for healing. In the end, it becomes a balancing act between revealing tiles and healing yourself, as the only regenerative effect you have is with mana for revealing tiles.

BLUDTUPOWA still boosts the Transmuter's mana regeneration, so you can take it, activate once and have a pleasure of quick mana regen.

Note that it's important to heal as much as possible before exploring. That is, if you're hurt and your mana is at 100%, you should definitely be healing yourself. Otherwise you are not regenerating any new mana by exploring and at the same time not healing yourself due to the class trait.

Getting poisoned is fine since you cannot regenerate health automatically by exploring.

===Race and Deity Choices===

Choosing Elf or Gnome for race is a good choice as it gives you both flexibility to cast spells other than ENDISWAL and at the same time have enough mana to take down higher level monsters.

It should go without saying that the best deity to choose is Binlor, as the Transmuter's heavy use of ENDISWAL generates large amounts of piety. Note, that Heroics, a boon which takes you to 10 level instantly will mean, that you heal 20 HP by blasting a single wall. Thus, with 15 mana points you will regenerate 300 HP. Choosing The Earthmother or Taurog is absolute suicide as The Earthmother dislikes ENDISWAL and Taurog dislikes Glyph usage. Dracul can be helpful for a secondary source of health regeneration. Aside from those, nearly any god is a decent choice.

Alpha:Transmuter

2010-09-20T19:04:43Z

Eversmith: /* Race and Deity Choices */

[[File:HeroWizard.png]]

===Skills===
*Stone Worker - start with the ENDISWAL glyph
*Stone Armour - recover health from wall blasting (2 per level)
*Stone Heart - 1 mana cost for ENDISWAL, no natural health regeneration

===Text on unlock===
"Well done! As a reward for completing your first run through the Snake Pit, you've unlocked the TRANSMUTER class! Veteran players have to contend with a lack of natural health and regeneration, but are given the power to blast dungeons apart and get healed by the very walls themselves."

===General Strategy===
As a Transmuter, you cannot gain health by exploring, only by using ENDISWAL. However, due to the low mana cost (1 point) for ENDISWAL, it is easy to regain health cheaply. The basic strategy for taking down higher level monsters is to uncover a portion of the map with many walls, then to attack the higher level monster. Once you are about to die, go around using ENDISWAL on the walls revealed prior to attacking the monster. It is important not to reveal any new hidden spaces during this time as this will cause the monster you've attacked to regenerate health. Keep on attacking the monster and using ENDISWAL on existing tiles until the monster is dead. If needed, you can try to minimize the exploration of new tiles if you run out of mana for healing. In the end, it becomes a balancing act between revealing tiles and healing yourself, as the only regenerative effect you have is with mana for revealing tiles.

Note that it's important to heal as much as possible before exploring. That is, if you're hurt and your mana is at 100%, you should definitely be healing yourself. Otherwise you are not regenerating any new mana by exploring and at the same time not healing yourself due to the class trait.

===Race and Deity Choices===

Choosing Elf or Gnome for race is a good choice as it gives you both flexibility to cast spells other than ENDISWAL and at the same time have enough mana to take down higher level monsters.

It should go without saying that the best deity to choose is Binlor, as the Transmuter's heavy use of ENDISWAL generates large amounts of piety. Note, that Heroics, a boon which takes you to 10 level instantly will mean, that you heal 20 HP by blasting a single wall. Thus, with 15 mana points you will regenerate 300 HP. Choosing The Earthmother or Taurog is absolute suicide as The Earthmother dislikes ENDISWAL and Taurog dislikes Glyph usage. Dracul can be helpful for a secondary source of health regeneration. Aside from those, nearly any god is a decent choice.

Alpha:Advanced Strategy

2010-09-20T18:58:36Z

Eversmith: /* God Selection */

===Race Selection===
There are two ways to go about race selection: Picking a strategy in advance, or keeping open to whatever the dungeon presents. The most broadly useful races could be considered Halfling and Gnome when playing challenge dungeons. This is because you are virtually guaranteed to use BURNDAYRAZ to kill one boss, and melee attacks to kill the other (see [[#Boss_Battling|Boss Battling]]).

===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 not possible (with the exception of the Factory) 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 playing Normal or Ranked modes).
*Preparation: Levels 3 to 7. It's possible to kill monsters of significantly higher level during this phase, to generate more exp ([[Strategy#Level-up_Steamroll|level-up steamroll]] and [[Strategy#Experience Catapult|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), and the battle begins. It can be useful at this point to be 1 experience from the next level, allowing the player to use the [[Strategy#Level-up_Steamroll|level-up steamroll]] to instantly heal to full health and mana, possibly even multiple times during the fight.

===God Selection===
God selection is risky business. 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: Hardiness is excellent, his other boons are situational at best. Not a bad choice for a warrior type, though generally inferior to Glowing Guardian and Taurog, plus Jehora Jeheyu if you don't need to rely on first strike. He is somewhat friendlier towards warriors who need to cast spells on occasion than Taurog, as the piety hit for using glyphs is minor. Not worth taking as soon as you see his altar, wait until you've acquired some gold and determined that there aren't better gods around. After you take him you should be able to generate a ton of piety eating walls. That is why Binlor is a natural deity of transmuters - with a price of 1 mana for ENDISWAL you can quickly gain all the benefits.

*Dracul: Usually a great pick for spellcaster and thief classes. High HP warriors (dwarves, particularly) can afford the HP hits and benefit from every boon. Don't pick until you know two things: that there aren't many undead, and that the end boss isn't a heavy hitter. In the former case, picking Dracul could be literal suicide, in the latter it's very possible you'll never get to the point that you can survive a single hit from the boss.

*The Earthmother: Very sketchy deity. IMAWAL is a waste of mana and XP and can easily make the game unwinnable. If you are playing a balanced character (relying on normal attacks and magic), it is possible to carefully kill exactly ten monsters that are out in the open, IMAWAL two others, and then use Plantation and Stoneform to get a whopping bonus for the rest of the game (while crossing your fingers there aren't many goats/snakes on the map), but most of the time you are better off picking a more flexible god.

*Glowing Guardian: Excellent deity for every class except Bloodmage and Assassin. Always time your worship so the full heal upon joining is put to good use. Pretty difficult to generate the 100 piety to get the whopping health bonus from Absolution, but even if the worship just leads to two full heals or a full heal and a CYDSTEPP it can be well worth it. Particularly good for a Warlord as they can often generate enough piety with their own CYDSTEPP to achieve Absolution, which is an especially great boon for that class.

*Jehora Jeheyu: Great for tanks, either fighter or priest type. Avoid like the plague with Rogues, Blood Mages, or anyone else who has acquired useful resistances or first strike. Polymorph is usually not going to help much and Bolstering is iffy (though nice for Halflings), but Madness and Retaliation are both great and Chaos is a hail mary that can often steal a victory over the last boss from an otherwise hopeless situation. The earlier you pick JJ the better.

*Mysteria Annur: No other deity is as likely to ruin your game as MA. Absolutely, positively never pick her with any class but a heavy spellcaster elf (or, rarely, gnome), and not until you have BURNDAYRAZ. It's also good to convert most of the glyphs you find, saving only BURNDAYRAZ and BLUDTUPOWA (and HALPMEH/CYDSTEPP if you have Mana Shield), before joining. Even when conditions are optimal, though, the nerfing of your melee attack will often cost you the game. Be incredibly careful with your mana as you don't have your melee attack to fall back on. MA is particularly good if you have Mana Shield, as you can use it to weaken or kill enemies without penalty. If you can safely pick MA early it is well worth getting Faith, and you will often be able to afford Weakening if you need it (magic resistant boss, lots of golems, etc). Otherwise just start with Magic then work towards Flames.

*The Pactmaker: The only deity that is always a good pick. If you find Pactmaker, especially if you find him early, take him. It is ideal to wait to worship him until you have revealed at least 50 tiles at level one or 250 tiles at level two. (Note that exploring 250 tile may offset the benefit of Learning by making it difficult to heal by exploring.) His bonuses aren't anything earth-shattering, but Experience gives you a source of emergency healing if you go into fights with <= 10 xp to the next level, while Health and Mana are both solid boons for most characters.

*Taurog: Amazing deity for fighters, berserkers and half-dragons and often great for priests, vampires and rogues. If you can forego magic except for dire emergencies, he's all upside. Penetration is a life saver for levels with lots of wraiths and goos, Mageshield is fantastic if there are lots of magic-users, Fury and Command are solid, and Rage is incredible. Particularly on magic-heavy levels it's easy to generate massive piety.

*Tikki Tooki: Almost as risky as Mysteria Annur and equally situational. He's a natural fit for Rogues and Assassins, but his better boons are somewhat wasted on them (note that his Dodge boon does stack with other dodge abilities). Best with characters that can kill or weaken enemies heavily with BURNDAYRAZ then finish them cleanly with GETINDARE and BYSSEPS, so while somewhat counter-intuitive he often makes a better deity for Elf spellcasters than MA. Never take unless you can be sure to immediately build up a nice piety pool. If you hit zero piety all enemies gain First Strike and your game is probably over.

===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 [[Glyphs|APHEELSIK glyph]] to defeat the boss(es). In challenge 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.

===Leveling===
Leveling as a "regeneration" point is often under-used by less experienced players. Leveling up is similar in effect to exploring 13 (or more if you have an increased max mana) tiles of dungeon, but without allowing enemy monsters to regenerate.

(Will add more later)

===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.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|- style="background-color: #EEEEEE"
!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 [[Items|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, [[Glyphs|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.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|- style="background-color: #EEEEEE"
!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.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|- style="background-color: #EEEEEE"
!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). 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.

===Specific Dungeons===
Most challenge dungeons have 2 bosses: one hard hitter, one tank. An effective strategy can be to kill the hard hitter with fireballs while using an exp farm to advance from 7 to 10, then fighting the tank with your remaining resources.

*Normal / Ranked => Strategy depends on the boss.
*Snake Pit => Hitter: Gorgon, Tank: Serpent
*Library => Hitter: Warlock, Tank: Dragon
*Crypt => Hitter: Wraith, Tank: Zombie
*Factory => This is the exception. Physical damage works better on both, and life drain is often the easiest 100% success.

Campaign:
* Level one: Because of playing as an [[Races|Elven]] [[Rogue]], level one of the campaign allows for strategies that include two-two, four-two, and even six-two (six fireballs, two melee) attack styles. Coupled with the types of monsters present in this level ([[Monsters|Goats]] and [[Monsters|Gorgons]] are both highly susceptible to '''two-two''' and '''two-one''' combos), making this level easier than most challenge and ranked dungeons. Pick up any items along the way that allow for increased max mana, or mana potions, but keep spending to a minimum as you'll need your gold later if you intend to beat the entire campaign. Collecting a [[Glyphs|CYDSTEPP]] glyph makes this level an almost guaranteed victory (it's very useful against the boss).
* Level two: With a similar mix of creatures in this level, the [[Races|Elven]] [[Wizard]] is actually best served in most situations through extensive use of physical combat glyphs, such as [[Glyphs|BYSSEPS]], [[Glyphs|GETINDARE]], [[Glyphs|CYDSTEPP]], and [[Glyphs|HALPMEH]]. HALPMEH becomes especially mana efficient, healing 3 points of health per level at the cost of 2 mana points. The boss is a Tank boss (low damage, high health) with some magic resist, so picking up life drain ([[Items|Vampiric sword]] or worshiping [[Gods|Dracul]]), or making good use of an exp farm and physical combat glyphs are often the safest way to win.
*Level three: The [[Races|Elven]] [[Berserker]] combination is also highly effective at killing higher-level creatures to level-up steam roll and build an extensive exp farm. If the ([[Glyphs|CYDSTEPP]]) glyph is available, defeat the boss by chaining death protection and physical attacks. If not, chaining fireballs followed by a one-off death protection ([[Items|Zombie Dog]], [[Items|Badge of courage]]) physical attack can be enough, or even just chain casting fireballs can be enough if the right shops are present ([[Items|Keg o' magic]] or [[Items|Orb of Zot]]).

Alpha:Fighter

2010-09-19T20:19:48Z

Eversmith: /* Crypt */

'''Needs Content: Everything. Also a better need's content banner thingy.'''

[[File:HeroBase.png]]

===Skills===
*Instincts - Can see locations of monsters of equal or lower level (appear as [[File:EnemyGeneric.png]] on map)
*Veteran - +1 experience per kill
*Pit Dog - Will survive first killing blow (Protection From Death, one time)

===General Strategy===
The most useful ability of the fighter is Instincts, which allows you to explore more efficiently. If you head directly for monsters you can see, you'll cut down on wasted exploration regen.

You can tell the level of an unknown monster by taking note of the level (yours) at which it pops up on the map.

===Race and Deity Choices===

===Challenge Modes===

====Crypt====

Trying out an [[Races|Elf]] Fighter is a very viable option. Due to the high physical resistance of the [[Wraith#Boss_info|Tormented One]], you'll have a hard time beating him as a (typical) [[Races|Human]] Fighter (unless you can change you physical attacks to magical ones in a shop). As an Elf Fighter you'll get a significant Mana Boost, that will help you beating the Tormented One with fireballs and midfight leveling at level 7-9. Due to INSTINCTS you should be able to conserv many tiles to regenerate afterwards and face [[Zombie#Boss_info|Frank]], who can be outlasted, if you have piled up some health potions. An [[Races|Orc]] Fighter may be an option too, as it eases midfight leveling, but you'll be unable to use fireballs that much.

Having the [[Glowing Guardian]] as a deity is good, because you can take two more heavy blows for free. [[Taurog]] may power you up, but forces you to not use fireballs effectively, which are a big help. [[Tikki_Tooki|Tikki Tooki]] is always an option, since an extra potion and Dodge Bonuses can never harm. IF (!!!) you manage to get fireballs and [[Mysteria Annur]] early on, you can try to beat the crypt as a mage. Finally, Jehora is a good option too, especially if you happen to find WEITWUT early to pump piety quickly, because for 50 piety you will transform both bosses to something less problematic. Maybe.

It is also important to try to beat high level monsters while leveling up to level 7-8. It will make midfight leveling with the bosses easier. A combination of fireballs end HALPMEH as well as clever handling of tile regeneration will help beating monsters 2-3 levels above your own level.

Alpha:Bloodmage

2010-09-19T20:14:16Z

Eversmith: /* Challenge Modes */

[[File:HeroWizard.png]]

===Skills===
*Insane - start with the BLUDTUPOWA glyph
*Power-hungry - mana potions 100% effective, reduce health by 6 per level
*Sanguine - restore 15% max health from blood pools

===General Strategy===
The Blood Mage's free glyph isn't as useful as the glyphs from the other classes. If you're low level it will net you one or two extra spells, but the higher your level goes, the less helpful it will get (there is some balance missing there) so you might as well can get rid of it. The way to go with the Bloodmage is to get as many mana potions as possible and leave the blood pools from killed monsters untouched as long as possible.
The bosses can be taken on using fireballs, HALPMEH, CYDSTEPP and/or poison (whatever works best) and with the help of bloodpool regeneration. You'll be able to cast a lot due to the mana potions' 100% regeneration, but the health loss from using a potion makes it more difficult to use several in a row, as you'll need to save up blood pools and/or health potions. Note that you won't be allowed to drink a mana potion if you do not have sufficient health.

===Race & Deity Choices===
Gnome or Elf are your ways to go here. As a Gnome you'll have a lot of Mana Potions and therefore a lot of mana. As an Elf you'll have more Mana overall but less Potions for regeneration. The Elf, due to having more overall mana, definitely has the advantage when trying to take on monsters without using potions. On the other hand, the Gnome will miss individual potions less, and can take on monsters that are even higher level than the Elf can without setting himself back too far against the boss. Against the boss, a Gnome who has many potions saved up will have more mana overall (by 25, at 5 glyphs converted), however, the Elf will have to pay less health to use up all his mana, and will be able to more effectively melee the boss in conjunction with any magical assault. Note that if the dungeon spawns with shops or Deities that allow for expanding maximum mana (such Mystera Annur), it favors the Gnome, while spawns and midfight leveling strategies that allow for more mana refills benefit the Elf more.

Mystera Annur should be your preferred Deity, and makes BLUDTUPOWA look significantly more useful, as you don't need to regenerate health as much if you aren't attacking enemies directly. If that one's not available you can still go with The Pactmaker, Jehora Jeheyu (if you won't depend on CYDSTEPP) or Tikki Tooki.

===Challenge Modes===

====Snake Pit====
Level up by killing Gorgons and go only for Serpents and Nagas if you can kill them without getting weakened or poisoned (except you'll get a level up or use HALPMEH). Try to not use any Mana Potions until you're able to take on the bosses.

If you're around level 7 start attacking Medusa. Immunity to Death Gaze is helpful but not necessary. Just make sure to keep your Health up with bloodpools, potions and level up. Make sure to keep enough potions for the Jormungandr, who can be outlasted afterwards.

====Crypt====
Crypt is tricky, as usual. Level up on Vampires and Ghouls, if you can buy Soul Orb. Best combination is HALPMEH, BURNDAYRAZ and your bonus glyph, since you can quickly regain mana and heal yourself, instead of spending tiles for natural healing. In this dungeon mana-rewarding deity is crucial, since Frank has a lot of hit points. Pactmaker is better, because he will let you attack with your weapon, while Mystera will make you rely on fireball solely. Sometimes it is better to heal and attack again, than to burn enemy. Begin with Tormented One, when you are about to hit level 7, burn him, level up, burn again and spend one potion to finish him. This will kick you almost to level 8. Explore to gather all resources. Kick Frank, burn him and level up. Begin to spend potions, but do not forget, that if your health is too low, you will be unable to drink mana potions. Blood pools and HALMEH can solve this. If you have around 6-7 potions you will outlast Frank.

Alpha:Bloodmage

2010-09-19T19:41:36Z

Eversmith: /* Snake Pit */

Alpha:Monk

2010-09-17T19:54:24Z

Eversmith: /* Crypt */

[[File:HeroPriest.png]]

===Skills===
*Hand to Hand - attack damage reduced by 50%
*Diamond Body - 50% physical and magical resistance
*Discipline - health regeneration rate doubled

===General Strategy===
In general, your initial strategy should be to kill low level monsters, seeking out anything which can mitigate your initial attack penalty; level 1 meat men will do 0 damage to you. Any shop items which reduce damage are of special interest to monks. A platemail or mage plate will bring armor up to an insane 70%.

After the first few levels, monks should seek out higher level enemies with low damage and high health. Because of monks' faster healing and high armor, they can often refill health via exploring without the monsters having enough time to do the same.

Glyphs of special interest to Monks are:
*Bysseps - Mitigates damage penalty
*Halpmeh - High armor makes health more valuable
*Lemmisi - Useful to avoid exploring accessible areas of the dungeon prematurely, and to heal between attacks against some bosses. Fast regeneration makes this especially effective.

===Race and Deity Choices===
Playing as a human to compensate for the hand to hand penalty is typically the best choice. Attack damage bonuses have a higher proportional effect for monks due to the lower initial damage.

Monks are incredibly effective fighters once their attack penalty is canceled out, but the value of their health can make sacrificing Halpmeh and Lemmisi too painful to make Taurog a strong choice. The Pactmaker is an excellent choice for any class, Monks included. A free potion from Tikki Tooki is helpful despite Monk's poor ability at achieving one shot kills.

===Poison Monk Strategy===
Because of the monk's resistance, it has a heightened ability to survive first attacks. This means you can, upon finding APHEELSIK, wear down higher level monsters with up to twice as much attack as other characters! Using your spare mana for BURNDAYRAZ (or BYSSEPS or CYDESTEPP) plus taking advantage of your double HP regeneration you can level catapult in greater comfort than other classes.

===Challenge Modes===

====Crypt====
Total key here is Taurog. Not only he will boost your low damage, he will also remove Tormented One's insane defenses. Begin to worship early, convert all your glyphs and accumulate enough piety to gain Fury and Penetration boon. Due to your high defense and increased regen you can explore during battles to outlast any given foe around 2 levels higher than you - experiment a little and you will see. Level up to 7 lvl, and begin to smack the Tormented One. He will succumb quickly to your attacks. Same goes for Frank, but you can also use potions here to speed up the process.

You can also use HALPMEH for benefit - kick enemy, explore 1-2 tiles and heal, then kick again. Monk is about endurance and outlasting foes, after all. If you rely on HALPMEH - consider Glowing Guardian as option to hit enemy a little bit more times.

If you manage you health, mana and xp cleverly you'll have both bosses deafeated before coming near level 9. You can even kill the Tormented One without his defenses breached, but in this case you gonna need HALPMEH and Soul Orb to protect you from mana burn.

====Library====
After a few levels you can easily defeat Dragonspawns 2-3 levels above you with fast regeneration. Having HALPMEH and/or LEMMISI will make things even easier. If neither of those is found, you can use fireballs to accumulate damage.

On Level 7 you will be able to defeat the Matron of Flame without even touching your potions (assumed, you have a few tiles to regenerate). Afterwards Aequitas won't be much of a challenge either.

====Factory====
Once you have reached level 3-4, the combination of high armor and fast regeneration should make it fairly easy to kill higher level animated armors. Attack the highest level animated armor you can that cannot kill you in one hit. The assistance of BURNDAYRAZ will make this more efficient, though HALPMEH or LEMMISI are a reasonable substitutes.

Super Meat man is rather easy to defeat with monk, especially if you have bought the tower shield or platemail. Try to be at level 8 or higher before fighting the bosses. It should be possible to heal (via some mixture of HALPMEH, LEMMISI, and exploring) faster than Super Meat man can damage you.

The Iron Man doesn't have much health, so killing him should be fairly easy. You should still have most or all of your potions at this point, but you may want to time this fight to enable you to level up in the middle of it to assist further.

Alpha:Priest

2010-09-17T19:12:39Z

Eversmith: /* Factory */

[[File:HeroPriest.png]]

===Skills===
*Good Health - +2 health gain per level
*Good Drink - Health potions 100% effective
*Good Golly - 200% physical damage to undead

===General Strategy===

Priests are a fairly simple class to use. Just hit the boss at a high enough level with enough health potions.

Priests can (and should) hit high level undead early.

===Race And Deity Choices===

Halfling is perhaps the most obvious choice of race for a priest, allowing for, at a minimum, 10 health potions in a standard game. This is especially useful for challenge dungeons. For halflings, carrying glyphs or leaving them on the ground until you actually need to convert them is a good idea. Humans are another solid choice, being able to use the attack bonus to take advantage of higher max health. Dwarves would potentially have another 6/level max health at their disposal, making it easier to take on slightly tougher enemies early on. In both cases, hitting high level undead as early as possible without wasting potions is a good idea.

Tikki Tooki's free health potion is particularly useful for priests and he can help you clear poison and mana burn if you leave a few level ones around; Golden Guardian obviously helps as you should be killing undead early and easily. Worshipping Dracul is forbidden for this class.

===Challenge Modes===

====Snake Pit====
Go halfling to make both bosses much easier, hit gorgons early on. Especially easy to take down Medusa early if you have a decent attack, as your potions will always make you non-petrifiable.

====Crypt====
Double physical damage against undead makes this very easy. Finding ways (Golden Guardian, Taurog, going human, fine sword etc.) of increasing your damage will make this even easier.

====Library====
Halfling makes everything easier, as usual, especially absorbing Aequitas' high damage. Fireballing high-level imps out of the way helps things along.

====Factory====
You should be durable, and this means either Dwarf or Halfling. Actually, Halfling is, as usual, more powerful.

Level up quickly by fireballing Animated Armours. If you find the APHEELSIK, then smack, fireball and poison Super Meat Man to death, while exploring tiles in search for Iron Man. You are going to have map uncovered, by the time you finish the butchery, so you will have enough potions and powerups to finish Iron Man too. Do not forget about the level-up trick - actually killing Super Meat Man will give you a good kick to next level.

If you fail to find APHEELSIK, then consider this tactic: at high levels with a little powerup like Dwarven Gauntlets or Plate Mail you will be able to withstand one hit from Iron Man and one hit from Super Meat Man without healing. Strike them both, since after drinking health potion you will be able to strike again. If you are a halfling you will finish Iron Man in 6-7 potions and the rest will help you to smack down the Meaty. Taurog, Jehora and any weapon powerup will play nice.

Alpha:Priest

2010-09-17T19:11:03Z

Eversmith: /* Factory */

[[File:HeroPriest.png]]

===Skills===
*Good Health - +2 health gain per level
*Good Drink - Health potions 100% effective
*Good Golly - 200% physical damage to undead

===General Strategy===

Priests are a fairly simple class to use. Just hit the boss at a high enough level with enough health potions.

Priests can (and should) hit high level undead early.

===Race And Deity Choices===

Halfling is perhaps the most obvious choice of race for a priest, allowing for, at a minimum, 10 health potions in a standard game. This is especially useful for challenge dungeons. For halflings, carrying glyphs or leaving them on the ground until you actually need to convert them is a good idea. Humans are another solid choice, being able to use the attack bonus to take advantage of higher max health. Dwarves would potentially have another 6/level max health at their disposal, making it easier to take on slightly tougher enemies early on. In both cases, hitting high level undead as early as possible without wasting potions is a good idea.

Tikki Tooki's free health potion is particularly useful for priests and he can help you clear poison and mana burn if you leave a few level ones around; Golden Guardian obviously helps as you should be killing undead early and easily. Worshipping Dracul is forbidden for this class.

===Challenge Modes===

====Snake Pit====
Go halfling to make both bosses much easier, hit gorgons early on. Especially easy to take down Medusa early if you have a decent attack, as your potions will always make you non-petrifiable.

====Crypt====
Double physical damage against undead makes this very easy. Finding ways (Golden Guardian, Taurog, going human, fine sword etc.) of increasing your damage will make this even easier.

====Library====
Halfling makes everything easier, as usual, especially absorbing Aequitas' high damage. Fireballing high-level imps out of the way helps things along.

====Factory====
You should be durable, and this means either Dwarf or Halfling. Actually, Halfling is more powerful, due to his natural synergy with Priest's healing capabilities.

Level up quickly by fireballing Animated Armours. If you find the APHEELSIK, then smack, fireball and poison Super Meat Man to death, while exploring tiles in search for Iron Man. You are going to have map uncovered, by the time you finish the butchery, so you will have enough potions and powerups to finish Iron Man too. Do not forget about the level-up trick - actually killing Super Meat Man will give you a good kick to next level.

If you fail to find APHEELSIK, then consider this tactic: at high levels with a little powerup like Dwarven Gauntlets or Plate Mail you will be able to withstand one hit from Iron Man and one hit from Super Meat Man without healing. Strike them both, since after drinking health potion you will be able to strike again. If you are a halfling you will finish Iron Man in 6-7 potions and the rest will help you to smack down the Meaty. Taurog, Jehora and any weapon powerup will play nice.