Difference between revisions of "Deadly Shadows"

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(Added chest contents, changed monster infos. Sorry for not giving summaries before. I removed outdated infos (like poison antics), fixed typos mostly.)
(Rewrote most of the strategy, deleted outdated infos, added and image. Sorry Tinker for deleting your part too, but I did include most of the things you mentioned at various parts.)
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== Sillyname ==
 
== Sillyname ==
Lord Karras Sillyname is a {{m|Goblin}}, and he's pretty annoying. He has 120 attack and 150 health, and the trait Retaliate: Fireball.  
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Lord Karras Sillyname is a {{m|Goblin}}, and he's pretty annoying. He has 120 attack and 150 health, and the trait Retaliate: Fireball. His low health is his weakness though, he could be killed with physical attacks as soon as level 5.
 
== Strategy ==
 
== Strategy ==
 +
The most important thing in this dungeon is to never fight higher level monsters. The balanced Dagger rewards same level kills with +3 xp, so fighting 1 level higher monsters is pointless and makes you lose out on 1 xp, while 2 level higher ones would be too resource intensive and plague you with even more debuffs. Your only goal in the dungeon is to reach level 5-6 where you can already kill Sillyname with ENDISWAL and GETINDARE. Fighting anything stronger or reaching higher levels is entirely pointless. The BURNDAYRAZ glyph is just a red herring too - totally unneeded for the map.
  
It is quite possible that you will be boxed in as this dungeon starts. If so, restart and save yourself the indignity of the game over screen. You're going to be seeing it enough as-is.  
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The dungeon is composed of many narrow corridors, but the starting location usually branches out a little to give you options in choosing your targets and to let you pick up some boosters. Otherwise exploration is limited, due to monster density.  
 +
If you can reach the level 1 trapped chest(contains [[GETINDARE]]), it's great, but you won't really need it before the bossfight.
  
The dungeon is composed of many narrow corridors. Exploration is very limited, due to monster density.  
+
Start out by killing 2 level 1 Spellslingers. The level up will cure your poison and manaburn. Do not combat Mercenaries yet, if you can't find enough Spellslingers settle for Castle Guards. If you found some attack boosters you are able to oneshot the rest of the level 1s, which can help clearing out hallways or avoid level 2 Mercenaries if you have nothing else. In the early game always try to fight same level Castle Guards and before the levelup take out a Spellslinger.
  
The level 1 trapped chest contains [[GETINDARE]]. This dungeon will be very difficult to win if you cannot acquire this early. As the layout is completely randomized, you cannot count on any of the trapped chests being accessible to you before the very end. You're going to die a lot.  
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Weakening is bad because even a few levels can make you need to hit the enemy 1 more times, which hurts more than some doses of corrosion and also results in you taking more debuffs. It hinders you in opening the trapped chests too. Only start taking points of weakening once you obtained your first Fortitude Tonic and your corrosion level is getting out of hand. The fact that Burn Salve potions are locked in weaker trapped chests is another reason to favor getting corroded.
 +
Sometimes you will want to fight a Mercenary just because it blocks your path. But remember, if you can overlevel it you could 1 shot it later. Any time your current selection of monsters is awful, you can make some xp by slaying popcorn or later by using IMAWAL. When you know your last kill is going to be a Spellslinger, you might as well kill some other weaker Spellslingers too.
  
About half the chests contain either Fortitude Potions or Burn Salves, and you should expect to pick up 2 of each throughout this dungeon. While you might be tempted to use them right away, keep in mind that there is no way to get more of them, and two thirds of the monsters in this level have either the Weakening or Corrosive traits. Try to conserve at least one of each type until you move on to tackling Sillyname.  
+
As you progress in the dungeon look for the chests with the glyphs. [[GETINDARE]] will let you take 1 less hit from enemies so you build up corrosion/weakening slower. [[IMAWAL]] provides bonus xp to ease leveling and reduce the number of monsters you have to kill. Petrify anything over level 6 and Spellslingers of level 1-2. Be careful not to block yourself.
 +
Of all the glyphs [[ENDISWAL]] is the most important. It will open up corridors, stack resistances to let you open high level chests sooner, and is essential for the bossfight! It even helps you use IMAWAL more freely.
 +
By the time you get [[BURNDAYRAZ]] you're already level 5-6 and ready to kill the boss. He has Retaliate:Fireball, so the best you can do with it is converting it for extra attack.
  
The other three chests contain the [[IMAWAL]], [[ENDISWAL]], and [[BURNDAYRAZ]] glyphs. IMAWAL will be essential, as you will need to have the highest level that you can manage to take on Sillyname. BURNDAYRAZ is only present in the level 9 trapped chest, so don't count on having it before the clean-up phase.  
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The other half the chests contain either Fortitude Potions or Burn Salves, and you should expect to pick up 2 of each throughout this dungeon. While you might be tempted to use them right away, keep in mind that there is no way to get more of them, and two thirds of the monsters in this level have either the Weakening or Corrosive traits. Try to conserve one of each type until you move on to tackling Sillyname. Before you drink a Burn Salve, clear all the acid pools from the ground, so you don't step on them accidentally later.
  
As you have the Balanced Dagger, it makes sense to focus killing opponents that are your level. You gain nothing by killing opponents that are one level higher (actually, you lose out on 1 bonus XP if you do so), and you will not generally have a reasonable chance to kill anything that is 2 or more levels higher than you are (except maybe occasionally, in very mana-intense ways, by chaining GETINDARE and/or ENDISWAL). Until you have ENDISWAL, try to focus on getting rid of opponents who are blocking passageways. Once you get ENDISWAL you can do a bit of digging, and get around some of the tougher foes. It is recommended to use one each of the Fortitude tonic and/or Burn salve about mid-way through the level, when you start to feel the crippling effects of Weakness (and/or Corrosion). After this, focus on one type of enemy (Mercenaries or Guards) to kill them all; then remove their corresponding condition and proceed to finish the other type (before drinking the burn salve, you may wipe the floor to avoid accidentally stepping in acid later on). Kill as many Spellslingers as you can just before level-up to wipe the Poison and Mana Burn. You may leave a couple of high-level monsters untouched, if they are impossible to defeat or would require too many resources. As long as you can get to level 7 or 8, the boss should be killable.
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The level 7 chest has a Pendant of Health inside. Comes too late to be impactful, at least it boosts the healing power of your potions.
  
Sillyname isn't a very tough boss by himself, but is much more difficult when one considers how annoying his retainers are. It would take 4 level 10 fireballs to kill him, which would require being able to take 240 damage in return (note: he has Retailate: Fireball). By leveraging the fact that he doesn't have First Strike and you are guaranteed to have GETINDARE, combined with the Thief's ability with potions, it may be possible to kill Sillyname with relative ease. That would require, however, having retained all health and mana potions for the boss fight and having only a few stacks of Corrosion and Weakening on your character. Possible, but it's going to be a tight run.  
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Sillyname can be killed relatively easily once one reaches ~50 damage and finds ENDISWAL and GETINDARE, i.e. at around level 5. Use ENDISWAL to obtain enough physical resistance to survive one blow, attack him, heal up with potions, repeat once or twice then deal the finishing  blow via GETINDARE. At level 5 it takes several potions and you will hit him 4 times total. Leveling up to reach 6 is great, because you only need 3 hits now, and only have to consume 2 manapotions to pull it off. You could kill Sillyname within 2 hits as well (so no potion has to be drank), but that takes reaching level 8 and killing a lot more monsters. These all assume you have 0 stacks of Weakening, picked up all the boosters and converted the useless glyphs before bossfight.
  
(Note: Have not beaten yet. will flesh out more when done so.)
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The boss drops a special item called {{i|Fabulous Treasure}} which is lockerable. Don't forget to pick it up! It costs 99 gold, meaning that if you prep it in a run and transmute it you will have 99 more gold to play with.
 
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Sillyname can be killed relatively easily once one reaches 50+ attack and 100+ health, i.e. at roughly level 7. Use ENDISWAL to obtain enough physical resistance to survive one blow, attack him, heal up with potions, repeat, then deal the finishing third blow via GETINDARE.
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Revision as of 15:05, 22 January 2015

Thief Gold.PNG

The Deadly Shadows dungeon is the Class: Thief Thief gold challenge. The boss is a unique Monster: Goblin Goblin named Sillyname.

Preparations

None allowed.

Resources Available

You start out with the Item: Balanced Dagger Balanced Dagger that you won in the last Thief challenge. No altars, no shops. Gold piles are still present, as are stat boosters.

Monsters Present

All monsters present are of unique types, present only in this level. Something to be thankful for.

  • Spellslingers use the Monster: Warlock Warlock image. They have the traits Mana Burn, Poisonous, and First Strike. Avoid them unless you're about to level up, and keep in mind that they make for terrible popcorn (not that you're going to have a lot left, here). You can kill some of the lower level ones too after getting debuffed if you're close to leveling up.
  • Castle Guards use the Monster: Animated Armour Animated Armour image. They have Corrosive trait and leave acid pools when they die. They are the best tartgets for leveling until you rack up too many stacks of corrosion.
  • Mercenaries use the Monster: Bandit Bandit image. They have the Weakening Blow trait. Avoid getting hit by them to much. They make good popcorn.

All 3 monsters have the exact same stats, they only differ in their traits. Whenever you can avoid getting more stacks of Weakening/Corrosion than necessary.

Unique Dungeon Traits

Trapped chests are present, as they are for all Thief challenges. It is very important that you kill these as soon as you are able. Their contents are mostly helpful for surviving this dungeon.

Sillyname

Lord Karras Sillyname is a Monster: Goblin Goblin, and he's pretty annoying. He has 120 attack and 150 health, and the trait Retaliate: Fireball. His low health is his weakness though, he could be killed with physical attacks as soon as level 5.

Strategy

The most important thing in this dungeon is to never fight higher level monsters. The balanced Dagger rewards same level kills with +3 xp, so fighting 1 level higher monsters is pointless and makes you lose out on 1 xp, while 2 level higher ones would be too resource intensive and plague you with even more debuffs. Your only goal in the dungeon is to reach level 5-6 where you can already kill Sillyname with ENDISWAL and GETINDARE. Fighting anything stronger or reaching higher levels is entirely pointless. The BURNDAYRAZ glyph is just a red herring too - totally unneeded for the map.

The dungeon is composed of many narrow corridors, but the starting location usually branches out a little to give you options in choosing your targets and to let you pick up some boosters. Otherwise exploration is limited, due to monster density. If you can reach the level 1 trapped chest(contains GETINDARE), it's great, but you won't really need it before the bossfight.

Start out by killing 2 level 1 Spellslingers. The level up will cure your poison and manaburn. Do not combat Mercenaries yet, if you can't find enough Spellslingers settle for Castle Guards. If you found some attack boosters you are able to oneshot the rest of the level 1s, which can help clearing out hallways or avoid level 2 Mercenaries if you have nothing else. In the early game always try to fight same level Castle Guards and before the levelup take out a Spellslinger.

Weakening is bad because even a few levels can make you need to hit the enemy 1 more times, which hurts more than some doses of corrosion and also results in you taking more debuffs. It hinders you in opening the trapped chests too. Only start taking points of weakening once you obtained your first Fortitude Tonic and your corrosion level is getting out of hand. The fact that Burn Salve potions are locked in weaker trapped chests is another reason to favor getting corroded. Sometimes you will want to fight a Mercenary just because it blocks your path. But remember, if you can overlevel it you could 1 shot it later. Any time your current selection of monsters is awful, you can make some xp by slaying popcorn or later by using IMAWAL. When you know your last kill is going to be a Spellslinger, you might as well kill some other weaker Spellslingers too.

As you progress in the dungeon look for the chests with the glyphs. GETINDARE will let you take 1 less hit from enemies so you build up corrosion/weakening slower. IMAWAL provides bonus xp to ease leveling and reduce the number of monsters you have to kill. Petrify anything over level 6 and Spellslingers of level 1-2. Be careful not to block yourself. Of all the glyphs ENDISWAL is the most important. It will open up corridors, stack resistances to let you open high level chests sooner, and is essential for the bossfight! It even helps you use IMAWAL more freely. By the time you get BURNDAYRAZ you're already level 5-6 and ready to kill the boss. He has Retaliate:Fireball, so the best you can do with it is converting it for extra attack.

The other half the chests contain either Fortitude Potions or Burn Salves, and you should expect to pick up 2 of each throughout this dungeon. While you might be tempted to use them right away, keep in mind that there is no way to get more of them, and two thirds of the monsters in this level have either the Weakening or Corrosive traits. Try to conserve one of each type until you move on to tackling Sillyname. Before you drink a Burn Salve, clear all the acid pools from the ground, so you don't step on them accidentally later.

The level 7 chest has a Pendant of Health inside. Comes too late to be impactful, at least it boosts the healing power of your potions.

Sillyname can be killed relatively easily once one reaches ~50 damage and finds ENDISWAL and GETINDARE, i.e. at around level 5. Use ENDISWAL to obtain enough physical resistance to survive one blow, attack him, heal up with potions, repeat once or twice then deal the finishing blow via GETINDARE. At level 5 it takes several potions and you will hit him 4 times total. Leveling up to reach 6 is great, because you only need 3 hits now, and only have to consume 2 manapotions to pull it off. You could kill Sillyname within 2 hits as well (so no potion has to be drank), but that takes reaching level 8 and killing a lot more monsters. These all assume you have 0 stacks of Weakening, picked up all the boosters and converted the useless glyphs before bossfight.

The boss drops a special item called Item: Fabulous Treasure Fabulous Treasure which is lockerable. Don't forget to pick it up! It costs 99 gold, meaning that if you prep it in a run and transmute it you will have 99 more gold to play with.