1861

I picked up this game on a whim since I’m away from my home and only have a macbook on hand. I really love it! And I wonder why I roguelike lover like myself hadn’t given it a closer look sooner.

That said, I am sad, as the Mac version is currently hosed and can’t load most save games. Also the expansion mysterious portal took me to a level with no exit. From the Steam forums it looks like they are on the case at least for the first issue, but still sadness.

1862

I leveled up Golemancy up to Mortal Machine, which is definitely niiice.
Because I am close to maxing up Golemancy, i looked at the last spell on the wiki.

I have to ask, what’s the point of Digging Ray? Breaking walls, really? I suppose it can be useful when you are cornered by lots of monsters and want to run, but that’s it? It seems underwhelming for being the top spell of the entire Skill.

In the 5th level I also found a pair of good pieces of loot, which are making my life a bit easier.

1863

Breaking walls opens up secret rooms. I once had a full five Uberchests on a lower level that must have been opened from a secret room because I looked everydamnwhere else for the levers.

1864

Ohh, that helps, i suppose. Reading on other forums, it seems the combination of Unliving Wall and Digging Ray is more powerful that both abilities by separate, as basically they are for creating+destroying walls, used in combination gives you lots of flexibility.

Also, I have to remember to use Unliving wall on the objects in a one-tile island.

1865

been playing this since the steam sale. Great fun. As a newbie, I’d like to see some pre-made character options maybe? A template of a few “arch-types” for fast selection to get into the game before you know what skills are what.

1866

Some starter templates would be a nice touch.

My current build is Unarmed, Berserker Rage, Assassination, Burglary, Artful Dodger, Perception, and Deadshot (now defunct). Basically, I run around and kick things for ridiculous amounts of critical damage. Since Deadshot is no longer available, I would simply swap it out for Archery, because the ability to shoot things turns out to be useful.

I discovered that it was important to level-up the damage-dealing skills sooner rather than later, to deal with tougher monsters and their damage resistances. I was also having some trouble with spellcasters, but I lucked out and Brax had a clockwork-crossbow in stock–problem solved!

1867

I am going to buy your game. I decided that BEFORE I saw that it is half off and the expansion is only $1.49.

So that made it better.

1868

I noticed magic golems can corrupt your items a bit late. Like, after killing in melee a dozen of them :(.

1869

A partial build that I’ve been trying out for GRPD that seems to be working out for the first few floors is:

unarmed (or any melee weapon),berserk, blood magic, viking magic.

The first skill in viking magic is a mana draining buff that adds lightning damage to your attacks. With blood magic recovering mana after every kill you shouldn’t need to worry about running out and keep the buff on. If I survive long enough I’m going to get the second buff skill that adds fire and see if I can maintain both at once.

I tried out fungal arts for the first time, it seems pretty cool but it feels a little clunky to me with having to keep dragging spores out of my inventory each time to use them.

1870

Haha, that is the basis of my own Viking wizard, Jab! I also went with dual-weilding staves so that later I will have a pile of bonus magic power for shooting lightning bolts. You can maintain both the lightning and fire buffs pretty easy with blood magic as they’re only 1 mana every 5 turns or so; especially if you get the second level of blood magic which will occasionally give you mana just for punching people.

Fungal arts is always a little clunky, but if you keep harvesting mushrooms it’s hard to compare with being able to turn yourself into a mighty fell-powered flannel-wearing invisible vampire in emergencies.

1871

Viking Magic is great for a melee/magic hybrid build, yes. The two buffs and the lightning bolt spell are the ones to go for - the other spells are either weak or frequently resisted. If you don’t have Ley Walker or Blood Magic then keeping up the two buffs will slow down your mana regeneration enough that you can’t use the lightning bolt without drinking an equivalent amount of booze, but the buffs aren’t particularly expensive compared to the value of their effects. It’s 1 mana every 3 turns to keep both of them.

Also, something you might not realize - the lightning buff has a chance to knock back an enemy by one space when you hit in melee. It’s hit back on your turn and doesn’t get stunned, so the monster will almost always use its own turn to move back into the same space, with the result that you get a free hit in melee sometimes.

1872

I put the spores in the quick use bar.

1873

I noticed a bump in the difficulty when i reached the 7th floor (in comparison with 5th and 6th, which being honest were almost easy. For a roguelike at least :P). And It’s actually good, because I was at risk of being bored with my game up this point… but now I have to be more efficient and use all my skills, making it again interesting.

But even then I am thinking on my next build in idle hours. What about this:

Necroconomics
Emomancy
Astrology
Demonology
Blood mage
Fungal arts
Magic training

The idea is to try Necroconomics, whose idea of risk/reward and Necromantic theme sounds cool to me, and do it with skills that can support Necro. (I think Emomancy, Astrology and Demonology have all buffs, heals, protections or cleansing curses which will help, blood mage/magical training because is clearly a wizard build) and also being new to me (except Magic Training, I never used any skill of the list in my past builds).

1874

Full on dark arts sounds fun! Just be aware that relying on Necronomiconomics is REALLY REALLY PAINFUL for the first few levels. The Cure spell in Emomancy should help a lot though, since you’ll trade horrifying debuffs and damage over time to yourself for a relatively minor embarassing debuff.

1875

I tried something very close to that. It worked pretty well till the Paladins started appearing. Having a -12 Righteous defense is bad news (look close at Blood Magic and Demonology) once they arrive. Now to be honest, I maxed Demonology first which was probably my strategic error.

1876

Yeah, the Fish Paladins are tough bastards. If you stick to the first few levels of Demonology, you can get some useful skills and a strong defensive buff without dropping your pants resistance-wise. You won’t be able to cleanse your artifacts in the Flames of the Heckforge, though.

The best tip for Necronomiconimcs characters is pretty simple: Never, ever, ever cast Deathly Hex. At low levels, the necromantic backlash will kill you faster than any monster in the dungeon possibly could. At high levels, you can spam Hex without taking damage, but the weakness debuff still affects you - and it stacks 20 times, although you won’t see any indication on the screen. You’ll typically get more damage for less debuff by casting other spells.

1877

I am using the already described build and it was hard at the beginning, it had a weaker start than my previous game, but after the first three floors it’s pretty good and in the 6th floor (I’m using the no time to grind option) I am like a living god! :P

Useful skills/spells with regular use:
The Cure and Chemical Explosion from Emomancy. Love will Teleport us apart is useful against bosses if you are unprepared.
Level 2-6 Spells from Necro. It does have a medium debuff (level 2), a medium buff (level 3), a strong buff (level 4), a strong debuff/damage spell (level 5) and a zoo-clearer (level 6).
Level 1 buff from Astrology, but in the future I will try to upgrade it, I am interested in accumulate even more buffs, and it does have two good ones in level 4 and 5.
Level 2-5 from Demonologist. Level 2 is an automatic self-buff, level 3 is one of the best buff of the game, Celestial Circle (find a big group of enemies? Close in and cast Celestial Circle), level 4 is a fire based buff without cost mana, and level 5 is one of the best summonings i have seen, it gives you 3-4 pets, and very decent ones! (the “burly” demons),
Blood Magic at level 2, it’s all passive ones, but it doesn’t matter, it’s doing the work well.
And finally Fungal Arts, I have it in low levels but it’s a incredibly useful skill.

It’s being a melee/magical buff build. When there is a big fight, I eat 3 or 4 mushrooms for 3 or 4 buffs, I cast Radiant Aura, Celestial Circle, Abyssal Fire, Mark of Chton and Pact of Fleeting Life and let them come, using Chemical Explosion and summoning the demons if it’s still needed, and casting the Cure when I accumulate a big number of debuffs.

1878

Finishing the game with that build, I am in Floor 14 already. It’s a pity, the game have a weird difficulty down-slope in the floor 12-14, as if the game wasn’t balanced properly when they made the game longer, from 10 floors to 15, with the expansion. I am literally killing everything without healing myself or using complex spells, nor summoning pets.
And that’s it in NTTG mode, which is supposed to be harder as you have less loot and less shops.
edit: and done, score 1650240

1879

Gosh, I hit up against corruption in this game.

It’s really sucked the fun right out of DoD for me.

1880

I have a build question regarding dual wielding:

I noticed that you can use any combination of weapons with the skill, is it still worth it to take a weapon skill along with dual wielding? Also if you take two weapon skills and dual wield them, does that give you a chance for the passive attacks from each to go off, or does one get priority?