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James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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Introduction
At the suggestion of Mymil, this is a living compendium of strategy and tactics for Desktop Dungeons, consolidating hints and tips from my series of playthroughs so they are easier to refer to. This strategy guide contains general advice (basic strategies for leveling up, exploring, and winning) and specific advice (on particular classes, gods, enemies, etc.). I will include links to the original articles if there's a good illustration of a particular tactic, but since BGG doesn't have functionality that links to a particular line or section, if it's not worth the hunt, I won't link to it.
Before we begin, we should point out that the Desktop Dungeons wiki is a great resource for all sorts of information: gods, glyphs, items, monsters, etc. If you want to know how the game works, go there. If you want some tactics or things to consider that may improve your play, read on.
General matters
Choosing a race. Our class will define our strongest abilities. Think of race as choosing an ability that supports our particular character build.
* Human / Dwarf: Good for melee builds. In particular, Dwarf is good for low-HP classes or classes that rely on health potions.
* Elf: Good for glyph-based builds.
* Halfling / Gnome: Good for classes that benefit from health / mana potions, respectively.
* Goblin: Good for gold-dependent builds, like Tinker.
* Orc: If you have trouble earning XP.
General strategy. Our goal is to defeat the boss of the dungeon. We may need to alter our character build depending on the boss. In general, defeating the boss requires leveling up to about level 8 while having enough resources left (unrevealed tiles, potions, sometimes Piety or gold) to defeat it. Everything else (exploration, serving our god, buying items, using and converting glyphs) is subordinate to that.
Leveling up. The goal should be to maximize bonus XP from killing monsters above our level without wasting resources. For example, say we are level 2 with 4/10 XP. We see two level 3 and one level 4 monster we can kill without too much trouble. The best route is probably to kill one of the level 3 and then the level 4 monster, giving us 8 bonus XP. Had we started with the level 4 monster, we would have immediately leveled up and not get bonus XP when we eventually kill the level 3 monsters.
Because it is preferable to kill high-level monsters, a character build can be less effective against some monsters in order to be better against others, especially the boss. This is preferable to a well-rounded character.
Level up is also an important resource, so don't unduly waste it. We can use it to pull a level up trick (see below) or to kill a monster that would inflict a status effect (e.g. poison from a serpent, mana burn from a wraith), which gets cleared when we level up.
Ways to skin a cat. HP is mainly to take melee damage so we can deal physical damage. There are some combat oriented glyphs that improve melee potency, and the fireball glyph deals magical damage. In general, we wish to be able to use both HP and MP to make the most of HP / MP recovery from revealing tiles. If a build makes one useless (e.g. converting all glyphs or taking a god that dislikes glyphs would cripple glyph usage), there should be a comparable strengthening of the other.
Some glyphs (BYSSEPS, CYDSTEPP, and GETINDARE) can be cast and stored until triggered. We can then recover MP back to full. This is one way to temporarily bypass the character's max MP. (imba)
Unless the monster is particularly vulnerable to our build, it is usually difficult to kill a monster that is of level higher than us through straight up attacking / glyphs. These are a few ways get around our limited HP / MP:
Running battle, type A: The idea here is that we recover from damage faster than the monster is able to. Therefore, it is only a matter of spending enough unrevealed tiles attrition the monster down. This is generally used for low damage monsters (like meat man), and it helps when we can use both HP and MP to deal damage. (Battle school)
Running battle, type B: If the monster recovers HP faster than we can inflict, there still may be a small window where our initial HP / MP advantage can win the day. Note, we'll probably have to calculate whether such a window exists and how many tiles we should reveal. (Battle school)
Level up trick: We are targeting a monster at least 2 levels above us. We start by killing other monsters until popping one more easy monster will cause us to level up. We recover HP / MP, fight the target, then pop the easy monster. Leveling up causes us to recover full HP / MP, and this should generally be enough to bring most monsters down. The reason the monster must be at least 2 levels higher is so that, after leveling up, they are at least 1 level higher. (Getting religion)
Use potions: Like the running battle and level up trick, we recover enough HP / MP to kill the monster. However instead of using tiles or monsters, we use potions. Remember we may want to save tiles and potions for the boss.
Exploration. Easiest to just read this and this. The key skills for exploration are: 1) know why we're exploring (e.g. find a monster to kill; find bonuses/glyphs/icons that assist killing monsters); 2) understand how the dungeon is generated, and therefore how to explore efficiently; and 3) whether to use the HP/MP from exploration to kill monsters our level or lower.
Specific matters
Classes
Fighter: Suggest Human or Dwarf for melee fighting. Because of +1 XP bonus per kill, we are not under great pressure to target monsters above our level. Actually, since we have no strong combat skills, we may have trouble with monsters above our level. Use monster radar to explore efficiently. Save death protection for boss. (Fighter)
Thief: Suggest Halfing or Gnome for potions. Don't waste the +30% damage bonus for our first attack against each monster. Find uses for both HP and MP since potions replenish both. (Thief)
Priest: Suggest Halfling because of health potions and health bonus. Target high-level undead since we deal double damage. Extra HP makes us a decent melee fighter. (Priest)
Wizard: Suggest Elf because class will live or die by its glyphs. Heavily dependent on glyphs, so is luck-dependent when it comes to which glyphs the dungeon gives us (hope for fireball or good combination of melee glyphs) and how accessible they are. (Wizard)
Gods
Bindor Ironshield: Primarily useful for non-glyph melee builds when found early. Goal should be to get Heroics, which levels us up to level 10, but costs 80 Piety. Hardiness for 25% physical resistance helps too. Grants +5 max HP, which can be handy. (Getting religion)
Jehora Jeheyu: An excellent god for any melee build that doesn't depend on first strike or death protection, still pretty good for magic users. Rewards us for dealing and taking damage by increasing our damage capability. Since most of the game is dealing and taking damage, can accumulate Piety pretty easily. (I have the power!)
Tikki Tooki: Best for builds which can avoid taking damage (such as through first strike, dodging, or fireballs) or deal poison damage, not regular melee builds. Boons reinforce this build. (n00b/imba)
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Twinge
United States
Berthoud
Colorado
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fusag wrote:
* Goblin: Good for gold-dependent builds, like Tinker.
Even for Tinker, 10 gold is almost always worse than another alternative like Human. Goblin is more of a challenge race or for farming than one that is anything else.
fusag wrote: Wizard: Heavily dependent on glyphs, so is luck-dependent when it comes to which glyphs the dungeon gives us
Fireball is actually guaranteed for a Wizard. Finding is another issue, of course, but your wasted resources in that area should still be minimal since you can see where the glyphs are.
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