EE:Spy
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This feature is part of the Extreme Edition fan-made expansion. |
| Spy | |
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| Tier 4 Class | |
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| Class traits | |
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| Suggested Races | |
 Human,  Orc,  Gnome,  Halfling,  Goblin
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| Class Challenges | |
  A Missing Piece
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| Unlocking | |
| Thief Den level 4 |
"Apparently only thieves have enough honor for you to buy it, as the newly funded spies serve with actual loyalty. Their fellow adventurers trust them much less for it, but still happily use their valuable scouting intel."
The Spy is a special Tier 4 class from the Desktop Dungeons: Extreme Edition mod, unlocked by paying 3000 gold at the Thief Den. The class specializes in obtaining information and traveling through the shadows.
Contents
Strategy
Spy is a very adaptive class, that can be approached in different ways depending on the dungeon you are doing. INFILTRATION can either be slightly helpful or huge depending on the dungeon - generally, the more choked up a dungeon is with walls, the stronger INFILTRATION is. Ideally, you can use it to quickly find gods and glyphs to help you level, and then find ideal targets, letting you conserve other blackspace for later.
In combat, spies gain a significant boost to striking power from Gadgets. Gadgets provides 0.5 damage per level per stack on your next attack or spell, stacks up to 10, and you lose 4 stacks per use, so if you hit an enemy 3 times starting with full gadgets you are doing an additional 9 damage per level. This is of limited use against bosses, but is very helpful for levelling. It's worth noting that, because this applies to fireballs as well, spy has an easier time taking on enemies that are weak to a pure caster build than most classes. Spy generally is not well suited to regen fighting, because this ability only activates when you waste regen.
The main flexible area of spy strategy is how you use boosters. You can immediately access all boosters from the start, but boosters have an additional use for you - as well as their usual bonus, they provide a powerful boost for one level only. Health boosters give +10 flat health, mana boosters give +2 additional mana, and attack boosters give +4 base damage.
Each of these effects can either be used early on for better levelling, or saved for a boss fight. A usually strong strategy is to save one type of booster for a boss and use the others to level. This is particularly strong with mana boosters, as unlike the other two, mana boosters effects do not get proportionally weaker with level. The downside to this is that you will be stuck without any additional mana for most of the run.
Races
Human: Human spies can get more out of the +4 base damage from boosters, and their CP bonus can partially make up for the lack of those boosters for most of the run. Human spy will have the highest damage if you plan to save attack boosters for a boss fight, and in general is a great pick for long dungeons.
Orc: Orc spy helps you save boosters by using base damage for early levelling. However, the tradeoff is you lose out on late game damage compared to humans, especially if you save your damage boosters.
Gnome: Gnome's additional mana potions synergizes very well with Spy's extra max mana from boosters. If you prep additional boosters and save them until the end, you can get 25 max mana - enough that a single potion refills 10 mana, almost enough for two fireballs! This makes for a powerful casting spike, but you will have a hard time getting there with only 10 max mana. Gods that boost max mana, like 
Mystera Annur or 
Jehora Jeheyu, can be helpful in covering this weakness.
Halfling: Halfling spy isn't as impressive as gnome, since spy health boosters have proportionally smaller of an effect at high levels, but you can still pull off an impressive health spike. If you want a spiking build but a caster approach isn't likely to work, Halfling can be a good pick. As usual, gods that boost your max health like Jehora Jeheyu, 
The Earthmother, or 
Glowing Guardian (if you convert out) can be helpful here, and so can 
Dracul for all of his additional max health based refills.
Deities
Binlor Ironshield is a bit less useful than usual on spy, since you won't need to do as much wasteful exploration and will therefore have to go more out of your way to get piety. However, his boons can still be quite good on a melee build, especially as on Orc.
Dracul is a great god for a spy that saves health boosters. 
Blood Tithe works based on max health, so the more you have the more refill you get.
The Earthmother is primarily useful as a spy for 
IMAWAL. One of the advantages of INFILTRATION is that you can plan ahead and pick out high value targets, and casting IMAWAL beforehand will amplify their XP by 50%. Spy also has an easier time dealing with plants clogging up a dungeon than most builds. A spy who is saving health boosters will get a lot of value out of some early 
Vine Form, and 
Entanglement is always nice.
Glowing Guardian is usually not great for spy, but if you are saving health boosters his 
Absolution ability can help you cover for the lost max health early on, although other gods can usually do a better job at that.
Jehora Jeheyu is great on spy, especially if you are saving either mana or health boosters. His stat boosting boons can cover up your weaknesses and make for an even stronger late game spike. 
WEYTWUT is also a fairly useful spiking glyph if you can set it up.
Mystera Annur can be quite good on a Gnome spy. 
Magic can make missing mana boosters early less painful, 
Mystic Balance is great if you plan to use 
BURNDAYRAZ, and 
Refreshment will be VERY powerful with 25+ max mana.
Taurog's value depends on your inventory constraints and approach. If you have room and are saving attack boosters, his 
Skullpicker can be quite helpful early on, especially on a Human. The resistance boons can also be good if you can match them to a boss, as usual.
Tikki Tooki doesn't have much particular synergy with spy, but spy does have an easier time avoiding angering TT due to gadgets and a spy who is saving damage boosters can get an impressive spike out of 
Reflexes.
