Strategy Guide (*SPOILER WARNING*)

This game is designed to be difficult. With the current max 7 levels, the Gamer and Geek modes are, to say the least, CHALLENGING. ...unless you get really lucky with drops. Below is some hint and advice along the way.
Warning:
Could be considered a *SPOILER* if you instead want to explore/experiment and try out the game yourself without any hints and advice what-so-ever. (Then, when you have broken a couple of keyboards in frustration, you are welcome back here. :-)

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1.1: This game is a turn based strategy game - Not a Hack'n'Slash!

Advice and Hints:
This is not Diablo where you brawl through hundreds of monsters. This is a strategy game with FEW but INTELLIGENT and HARD monsters.
Never move towards a monster and let it hit first, if you can avoid it. The philosphy of this game is: EVERY hit counts!
(However, if the monster has First-Strike racial/weapon skill, it doesn't matter, because when it moves in on you, it gets an immediate strike anyway.)

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1.2: Killing or Avoiding?

Advice and Hints:
The game is not about killing as many monsters as possible, or cleaning the levels! In many cases, it can be better to skip some nasty creatures by simply avoiding them. You don't have to beat all creatures on a level. The Stairs down to next level is always there, never locked. The developer has completed the game as Sneak build, killing only 59 monsters, and with a heavy armor build, killing 82 monsters. And the difference can be even greater! See it like this: the goal is ONLY to the destroy the evil magical orb at last dungeon level. If you can do that easier by skipping a whole level, just heading for the Stairs down without exploring, good for you! Exactly THIS has been done by the developer many times. Sometimes, it's better to save your powerful items for the Last Fight than "burning" them on monster fights (where you MAY level up, but also, you MAY lose a lot of life and potions)!

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1.3: Consider the Monster Skills/Equipment and find a Good Strategy

Advice and Hints:
Look at the monster skills and stats. This game does not have a lot of stats, but Skills matter a lot, and to some degreee, hitpoints, protection and resists. Consider the following for a monster:
- Which skills does it have? If it's nothing really bad, check hitpoints and protection. Maybe you can stand up against it on a "regular fight".
- Elite Orcs: sure... no dangerous skills, but often heavy armor protection and good weapons... they ARE dangerous!
- Goblins/Elite Ogres/Vampires: skills like "Thief"/"DestroyArmor"/"LifeDrain". You don't want a long lasting regular fight with these. Can you maybe kill them in 1-2 turns? Then it could be OK.
Note: Monsters can gain skills from enchanted items! E.g. First-Strike from an Iron Spear. Therefore, you can never just KNOW that an ordinary Skeleton is not dangerous. He may have enchanted Gloves with Thief skill! *EVIL*

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1.4: Use your magical spells!

Advice and Hints:
Spells should be used in smart ways, AND they SHOULD be USED! With a small inventory and challenging mobs, you cannot afford to carry around spells for too long. USE them against nasty monsters, like Thieves, or Spider Queens, or Ogre Elites! You will get more spells later. (Pay attention to creature immunities. For example: Undead creatures are immune to several spell effects.)

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1.5: Example on Smart Spell Usage: the Speed spell

Advice and Hints:
Thi spell can often be bought pretty cheap. This is a VERY powerful spell. Currenty, you can...
a) attack twice per turn with it
b) OR you can attack, take a step back. Monster can't hit you, so it follows you. Attack again, take a step back, repeat.
The b-option gives you a "free kill" (unless the monster has ranged attack or First-Strike) without losing any HP. This tactics is great to use against many monsters. The b-option is also great against Thieves / Elite Ogres / Vampires, because you REALLY don't want these guys to hit you. Your armor won't help much there...

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1.6: Frustrating Monsters with Ranged attack: Spiders and Skeleton Archers

Advice and Hints:
Spiders and Skeleton Archers are very frustrating. They try to keep at range, so if you move in on them, they will often back up. HOWEVER, if you have a weapon with First Strike, they will NOT do that, because your first strike will hit them when you follow them. So remember that First Strike weapons are very powerful. If you can spot them from distance, try to wait for them around a corner to make sure they don't get any unnecessary long shots at you.

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1.7: Level Up rewards: consider ALL options!

Advice and Hints:
This game is not very traditional when it comes to level up. Here you get the chance to pick a Skill OR an Item Reward... ... AND... you DO NOT get back full health when you level up! Therefore, many times when you level up, it can actually be wise to choose a full Health potion as reward. Even if new skills are important, often staying alive is more important, especially if you have been able to collect some good gear. The developer has had several successful Heavy Armor builds with only a few Skill reward-picks and instead many Health potion reward-picks. Also don't forget: there is a WEAPON item too! Check it out - it may be magical and very powerful!

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1.8: Monsters that can permanently Steal/Destroy your items: Thieves and Elite Ogres

Advice and Hints:
Pick your fights carefully with these guys unless you feel pretty sure you can beat them fast. Maybe in 1-3 attacks or if you have a ranged weapon. Thieves are definitely among the worst creatures in the game. I'd rather face a dragon than an Elite Thief in many situations. So if you have a kick-ass spell (or Speed), use it on Elite Thieves! You can't let them attack you many times!

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1.9: Remember: No safe kills!

Advice and Hints:
Even a weak rat can downcap your max health dramatically with a Disease. For example a downcap of 25-75% health is effectively the same as hitting you with ONE HUGE BLOW, taking you from Max Health to maybe 50% health (downcap)!

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1.10: Wizards on Level 4+

Advice and Hints:
You can encounter wizards from level 4, and downwards, but Level 5 is really THE wizard level. If you don't have OK resist values on Cold/Fire or at least a really good Sneak build... it WILL BE EXTREMELY HARD! These guys have ranged attacks of Fire (HUGE damage over time) and Cold (makes you incapable of doing ANYTHING). Don't say you weren't warned...

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1.11: Detection Modifier is important!

Advice and Hints:
If the monsters detect you early, you don't get the chance to avoid them... therefore, Scout is a good skill. A lamp is a good thing. Once, when I beat the game myself, I choose the 500 turns Lamp as level up reward. Then I could see very far and detect and avoid many creatures. If you go with Heavy Armor build, maybe you can take some crap and don't care too much, but you WILL get into a LOT of trouble when you are detected early by monsters, so in that case, the Armor Specialist should really be considered as level up reward.

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1.12: Fighting Creatures with Knock-Back

Advice and Hints:
Elite Bears are the worst knock-back creatures, because they have First-Strike too - a nasty combo! Try to lure knock-back creatures into close quarters, like a small room or corner of a dead end (where you are cornered yourself). There should be few places or no squares to knock you into. In that case, there is a big chance that you will remain on same position or in a position where you can actually hit him back in your turn.

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1.13: Fear Attacks

Advice and Hints:
A fear attack will cause you to run in panic, and you can never run into/attack an enemy when you are feared. Running without control can be very dangerous in the deeper dungeons. When facing Zombies, especially Elite Zombies, try to get into a room for the fight. If you get feared, you are likely to run back and forth INSIDE the room without getting hit... unless the zombie has first-strike, THEN you have problems! :-)

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1.14: Resistances

Advice and Hints:
Resistances to curse effects get increasingly important, the further you get into the game. The risk gets higher that creatures have weapons enchanted with curses or higher percentage values in their own racial curse abilities. Therefore, it can sometimes be wise to prioritize resistance over protection/detection on armor pieces. The Elemental Resistance skill is also nice...

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1.15: Curse Effects and Resistances

Advice and Hints:
Some creatures/items have the ability=skill to Curse its enemy during an attack. There is a percentage chance for a skill/item to trigger the curse effect. Another creature can have resistances to resist the effect. The resistance lowers the trigger chance by its resistance percentage value. For game balancing reasons, the following rules apply:
a) All resistances are capped to 90%.
b) Curses always have a 5% minimum chance to trigger.
It means that a creature ALWAYS have SOME chance to curse another creature UNLESS the creature is IMMUNE to the effect.
Example 1:
- Wizard with [Skill: 30% Cold] has 30% to trigger a Cold spell when it attacks the enemy.
- Assume the Hero has 50% cold resistance. It lowers the Wizard's 30% trigger chance by 50% -> 15%. Each time Wizard attacks the Hero, it has a 15% chance to Freeze the Hero.
Example 2:
- Assume that the Hero has equipment that would add up to 110% cold resistance.
- According to rule (a), this resistance is first capped to 90%. 30% lowered by 90% -> 3%.
- According to rule (b), 5% is always the minimum resistance value, so the actual chance -> 5%.

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1.16: Resistance vs Trap Effects

Advice and Hints:
Some traps trigger curse effects, such as Curse of Darkness, Web, Fire, etc.
Since a trap is a very specially designed and sophisticated device, the following rules apply:
- it ALWAYS trigger the effect (unless it can be disarmed)!
- the creature _can_ resist the trap effect, but resistance is only 50% effective against traps.
Example:
- Assume the Hero has 40% Fire Resistance.
- Hero triggers a Fire trap. A trap ALWAYS triggers the Fire effect!
-> Since the resistance is ony half as effective against traps, hero gets 40/2 = 20% to resist the triggered effect!

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1.17: Break Chance on Timed Spell Effects

Advice and Hints:
Both Curses (e.g. Fire) and Timed Enchantments (e.g. Invisibility) usually have a break chance - a chance/risk that the effect ends prematurely. The break chance of a Curse is typically affected by the creature's corresponding resistance value. There is no single valid formula on break chance for all effects. Below are some _examples_ of formulas (valid at the time of writing this) that may be subject to change in future versions with regards to game balancing.
Examples:
- DoTs (Fire/Disease/Poison/Cold): breakChance = resistValue/30
- Web: break chance = resistValue/5 + (numberOfRoundsStuck/2)
- Invisibility/Vanish: break chance = DetectionModifier (when > 0, otherwise 0)
Using the formulas above, we get:
- Resist Poison 90% -> break chance 90/30 = 3%.
- Resist Web 40%, the Hero has been stuck 6 rounds -> (40/5) +(6/2) = 11% break chance
- Hero is Invisible 50 turns and has Detection modifier: 3 -> 3% risk that Invisibility spell breaks prematurely