So stoked to have my first win in just over 150 attempts. I made a post on Reddit thanking the community for being so helpful but figured I’d start interacting on Lemmy since that’s where things have migrated to. Thank you everyone!

    • InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      10 months ago

      Sure.
      These apply to shattered pixel dungeon though, I haven’t played the original pd in a while.

      Generic

      • It’s ok to be starving a bit if you can heal it up anyway.
      • Abuse the shit out of surprise attacks, they’re a guaranteed hit. You can trigger surprise attacks in doorways or anything that interrupts line of sight like a sharp corner. This means you can kite most enemies around a tuft of grass by moving around. Move, trade hits (but yours is a guaranteed hit), repeat. This doesn’t work against enemies faster than you like the crabs. Screw crabs. A poisonous seed in its path can be nice if you got one, otherwise just tank one at a time and trade hits.
      • Keep upgrade scrolls for better item tiers.
      • Try to always fight a single enemy at a time. Use chokepoints and passages to avoid getting hit by multiple enemies at a time. A good example is flies. If there’s no space for them to split they can’t spawn more and more importantly, only 1 can attack you.
      • seeds: stormvine can be clutch… lure a guardian statue near a narrow passage next to a pit, plant or throw the see in its path so it walks off into the pit, collect its items in the next level.
      • tombstones spawn ghosts in a diamond around you, but only if there’s room for it. Hugging a wall or corner can limit the number spawned.

      Identifying tips:

      health pots

      flies and bats only drop health potions if they do drop one

      elemental pots

      Fire elementals only drop fire pots. Cold elementals only drop cold pots.

      is this a +1 weapon/armor?

      If you find a str 12 weapon but only have 11 str…
      Without going into cursed items, a +1 weapon would in fact only require 11 str. Don’t wanna spend a scroll to identify it, just equip it (hopefully it isn’t cursed). If your can still surprise attack, then you have enough str for it, which means it’s at least +1.

      Similarly if you wear an unidentified leather armor with only str 11, if you can still outrun normal speed enemies, it’s at least a +1 armor because you have the required str for it

      scrolls

      Got 3 scrolls at level 4? They’re probably upgrade scrolls. There’s 3 inbetween every boss.
      The vendor always has at least one scroll of magic mapping.
      And (maybe?) always at least one remove curse.

      Room specific tips:

      life wells

      These wells heal you to full, satiate all hunger and uncurses all cursed items currently worn.
      If that doesn’t help you at that time, you can come back later. They can also be used to just fill your dew vial by throwing it in. Same goes for blessing an ankh.

      jumping down the old well treasure room

      Don’t know the official name, but its nice to have feather fall spell on hand to avoid the fall damage. Making father fall early on, you’re almost guaranteed to need it eventually.

      4 keys and chests that need levitation to access

      Telekinesis spell to get the keys. Use haste (or the yellow seed) before the levitation potion if needed.
      If you’re gonna run out of levitation, popping the feather fall can be nice to avoid the damage

      crystal chest, one key

      you can examine crystal chests to have a hint if it’s a ring or an artefact. Choose whichever. But at least you have some control over what you get.

      Some boss specific tips:

      Level 5

      Goo
      Fight it near water so you can remove the caustic condition. Hit it, move, hit it, etc. You should never get caught by its splash damage if you always move away using a corner.

      level 10

      Tengu
      The guy will teleport around, don’t step on the traps. If the path through traps is too bad, use a ranged weapon until he jumps and resets the traps. Even when he jumps around, conditions like burning are still draining his health. Fire potions or wand of fire is nice. Avoid using stuff that fills the whole room like poison clouds as it’ll get you too.
      The amount of traps in the first phase can probably get the scrying artefact almost fully upgraded.

      level 15

      Robot
      If you have spare honeypots, now is the time.
      The boss won’t spawn until you see one of the pilons that give them invincibility during the fight. Peek in without going too far, throw a honeypot where the pilon would be. You likely won’t have enough honeypots for all 4 pilons that’s fine. Choose the pilons that are harder to get to like one behind a pool of (soon to be electrified) water.
      The point is to spawn a bee that will attack the pilons that provide invincibility to the boss for you. (If it turns out to be using that one specific pilon, but even if it’s not that pilon, at least you know you don’t have to check that one and limit the time you spend looking for the right one)

      level 20

      Undead king
      Idk just hit the mobs, try and hide from the ranged ones. The animation next to the spawn point represents what will spawn there. The black smoke one are the ranged ones.

      level 25

      Attack the eye.
      Move to avoid lasers, kill the little grubs so you don’t get overwhelmed. Go away when the fists spawn, their invincible on the platform. Read their description, pop potions for the elemental ones.

      I g2g but let me know, I got plenty.

      • CrayonRosary@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        10 months ago

        You don’t have to see if you can outrun a monster with unknown armor on to determine if its upgraded enough for you. Just take one step and watch turn counter.

      • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 months ago
        is this a +1 weapon/armor?

        If you find a str 12 weapon but only have 11 str…
        Without going into cursed items, a +1 weapon would in fact only require 11 str. Don’t wanna spend a scroll to identify it, just equip it (hopefully it isn’t cursed). If your can still surprise attack, then you have enough str for it, which means it’s at least +1.

        My favourite way to do this is to throw the item on an explosive trap or put it on a ground and throw a bomb on it. Upgraded items to not get destroyed. Then the worst thing that still can happen is that it is cursed.

        • InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Nice.
          I do like selling everything though, but it can come in handy. Pretty good if you have several items but only one scroll of remove curse. Do unupgraded cursed items get destroyed?
          Can probably do multiple items with the same trap/bomb too.
          Reminds me of how I cook a whole stack of meat with a single fire/ice seed. Drop the stack, plant the seed on top, walk away, throw whatever back on the seed. If you have nothing that’s not flammable, throw one meat away before dropping the stack so you have a spare one for the throw.

          • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            Yes, works with multiple items and cursed items get destroyed if unupgraded. So you are right, the best way is to stack it all and throw the bomb or place it all around an explosive trap.

    • Gurgus@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      You’ll get there for sure.

      One thing that I’d advise in addition to everything else people usually say, I’d say definitely take your time as the game only ticks when you perform an action (although hitting the inspect magnifying glass doesn’t consume a turn. When you walk into a room and see anything ask yourself “what problems need solving here and how can I confine myself to one minion to fight at a time”. Some of the time it’s trivial, but some of the time you might need to look at your utility or kite the mobs around.

      Also having a plan during the later levels of how you can close the gap between you and casters will be crucial. They hit hard from a range but crumble if you get within melee distance.

      Good luck and feel free to ask any more questions and I’m sure myself and the community will be able to help!