The randomly-generated protagonist of Hatched Games' new semi-roguelike semi-RPG Hack Slash Crawl, is an engine: a perfect monster killing machine. All this machine can do is hack, slash and dungeon-crawl. But when you do only three things, you have to think that you should be able to do them well. Likewise, while Hack Slash Crawl is kind of shallow, and could stand some polish, it makes for a fun little click-fest.
Gameplay is simple: After selecting attributes on the fun character-creation screen, you move around the dungeon, using the mouse to click where you want to go. When you spot an enemy that needs thrashing, click on him to automatically start whaling on each other with your weapons. There are also spells to be used, either with the mouse by hitting the appropriate 1-9 [number] key and selecting the target area. Defeating enemies grants you XP, as well as various armor pieces and weapons equippable with a click of the inventory screen. You also collect mana pearls, though they don't seem to do anything besides acting as a score system. Health is regained by staying still and waiting... something hard to do with a monster on your tail. Usually a boss-baddie can be found near the opening to the next floor. After your sudden-but-inevitable death you will unlock a character title (think, "The Mighty" or, "The Cursed") to add on with a stat-boost to your next character. Gotta catch 'em all!
I have a feeling that Hack Slash Crawl may be a love-it-or-hate it kind of game. The lack of any real plot, or even a coherent goal beyond level-gaining, will turn many away. Even those who find the concept engagingly replayable will lament not being able to save a character from play to play. That said, the mechanics are easy to pick up (and indeed, might be good for young RPGers), the names and animations are amusing, and completionists like me will find it compelling to see the title board fill up with each play. Now, if you excuse me, Zullukerf the Deadly Werewolf Juggernaut has to go teach Gibud the Diabolical a lesson in what happens when sword meets tentacle.
The mana pearls determine how good the title you get at the end of a run is. The more you get, the better the title.
... no option to save the game :-(
@spacefloh You can save your game by logging in with the MochiGames widget at the top left of the game. It will save your progress regardless of where you play the game (ie, at home, at work, at school).
Haha. I suggested it and it got in. :D
Thats awesome.
I'm pretty sure the titles aren't based entirely on your total mana pearls, since I got two titles, "Duantless" and "Brave" that give a bonus against being surrounded by enemies when I died in situations in which I was surrounded by enemies (letting myself die to get some titles).
I'm pretty sure "Nonviolent" came because I didn't hit anything XD
It's really too bad the titles don't give any information on how they're unlocked. It might have a little more replay value for me. I really wish it kept a personal hall of fame, too. I would have liked to have my own records to try and beat.
Fun for a few minutes, but I think a tiny bit of polish would go a long way.
The necromancer abilty: summon skeletons
The skeletons you summon are solely based on the level of will power or Intellect
Training sword - Normal Skeletons
Old worn sword - Normal Skeleton
Steel sword - Ice Skeleton
Copper Sword - Ice Skeleton
Axe - Normal Skeleton?
Adamant Axe - Fire Skeleton
Steel? Axe - Fire Skeleton
Bone Staff - Armored Skeleton
Fish - ???
I intentionally died multiple times, got different titles each time. Possibly depth based, since after a while I got no new ones, but not sure.
New Weapon:
The Fish of Luck
I wish it unlocked the ability "Fish-shlapping Dance"
I'm actually really loving the game, though since I don't have a Mochi account, I can't save. Got to level 12 on my third or fourth run and then just let myself die. It seems that the game does save your unlocked titles even without an account. Nice.
Ah, I played this a while ago, so some things might have changed, but here are some things to note (some spoilers).
Spells:
There's 15 spells in the game, but really you'll only ever use 3 or 4 of them, regardless of how you play. All spells gain power as int increases, though some more so than others. Note that using a spell makes a LARGE area around the target aggro you.
Putting them in my order of usefulness-
Heal spell: Very basic and essential spell for meleers. Int doesn't add that much, but angels get a 25% bonus substantial considering how much you'll use this spell
Lightning: Very powerful spell even with low int. Fast with no worries about position/range. Most mana efficient with 1 or 2 targets, but that's all you really should be fighting unless you're herding enemies.
Fire (round) area: Basically same as above but you need to target and less damaging. Its an AOE spell though.
Critical Strike: It increases the damage (by a %) that you do with your next melee attack. CANCELS OUT BARRIER. Not very mana effecient at first, with no range, but at the "end game"...
Charge (single/line): Damage depends on distance from target. Good for picking out the ranged enemies, but the fact its only single use makes it much less useful. The Wild version is mostly useless as there are almost no situations where you can take advantage of it.
Cones (ice/fire/strong fire): The cheap ones are the cheapest spell in terms of cost and also damage. Though they are mana efficient with multiple enemies, they require low range and positioning. Still spammable, but a lot more difficult to use. The expensive fire one is the most costly in terms of cost and really isn't effective at all (burn also doesn't seem to do anything).
Poison (single/area): At first they really aren't worth using at all. However as int seems to affect both damage AND duration, they can get fairly powerful. Yet they still require a long time and a lot of room to run to be effective. Combos with the below spell.
Slow (single vine/area): only use this when you are running away from something. Enemies stop following you after a certain distance. You're faster than them anyway, but this spell can make the required room a lot less. Still not very useful normally.
Charm: Never bothered with it, and most of the time you don't want to fight multiple enemies anyway.
Skeleton: strong at really early levels, but quickly becomes useless.
Titles come mainly from what play style you had. If you put all your lvl points into str, you'll probably get a +str title. Of course the better ones require you to obtain a certain lvl/kills/depth.
Melee vs Magic:
I found it surprisingly balanced at first. Although, despite meleers being sturdier, with the no delay magic and regen, its safer to be mage and just lure and spam kill small groups of enemies before they reach you.
Balance:
As the game goes on, the issue of balance is basically destroyed. After about 20 levels, you stop facing new enemies and start facing A) copies of old enemies with MULTIPLED HP B) the same "boss" C) increasingly ridiculous equipment. Though an endless game, it has a really bad scaling mechanisms.
Player damage:
Magic tends to increase linearly as your int increases. Melee increases from both str and equipment. This makes them increase faster even without paying attention to the equip jumps. As monster HP literally jumps, this makes it harder and harder to take out enemies with magic, especially resistant ones. EXCEPTION: Critical hit. This spell increases with int. This also MULTIPLES melee damage. See what I'm getting at? With this and good layout, you can one/two-shot ANYTHING later on.
Equipment:
Slow progression, but then after 20 or so, there are SUDDEN jumps. First I got a wand that dealt more damage than any of my swords DOUBLED (40-41). By like lvl 50ish, I was getting 150+ avg damage items (even a 60-61 fish!). However, the fact that I was still also getting items with only ~20 damage makes me think this was just buggy/bad coding. Same with armor.
Monster Damage:
Monster melee damage increases linearly with dungeon lvl. Armor that you find despite a few jumps, tends to keep with it in a way that you basically take the same damage as long as you keep upgrading. Ranged/special attacks do CONSTANT damage and ignore armor. As such, with a high enough hp/regen, you're basically invincible. EXCEPTION: the blue knight has a magic melee. That ignores armor, but increases like other melee. This makes him do MANY MANY times the damage of anything else. This makes him easily the most dangerous enemy, especially with his charge which means you can't run away.
EXP:
Experience also becomes increasing high. I bet you're thinking about the exp needed to level up. Nope. I'm talking about the exp monsters give. It becomes such that you can get multiple level ups from even one room of enemies. (I was rushing though)
Basically, its fun experimenting with builds and such esp. if you like roguelikes (albeit easy ones), though the slow luring of mobs makes gameplay somewhat slow and annoying at times. The balance is ridiculously broken at the end but that at least can be easily fixed with better formulas.
Items with enchantments seem to get much rarer after the jump. Additionally, the enchantments don't get much better. So you might want to keep a few good +ice res items for you know what if you want to go deep. Another way to deal with the balance issue is to just have it end after a while before it starts reusing monsters/items (with an optional endless route). Maybe put a few lines of plot (not like most roguelikes had much plot. Get orb/amulet and escape. or Get orb/amulet for god!)
Hmm, I (above Anon poster) did not really mean my post to be a walkthrough... It was mainly an analyze on spells and how bad the balance gets later on. I guess I ranted on a bit too much? Also negated the Shield spell. It can be cheaper than Heal if you use it correctly, but it still won't save you from being ganged up and using Heal is just easier.
Well, here are a few tips to help one survive to then:
Try to pick out your enemies one/few at a time, regardless of being meleer or mage.
If you aggro to many, run. Use the vine spell to slow them down if you have it and mana. They will stop following if they are far away enough.
Enemies have different "detect" ranges. Headless skelies for example are almost blind while knights can almost see half a screen.
Attacking an enemy will alert others around it to your presence. This area is even bigger than if you were to just walk up to the monster. Spells also count.
Bosses are located at the exit of each level. They have hugely increased hp, but not much difference damage wise. Just try to face it 1 to 1 fully healed. Remember you can always just fall down if you don't want to fight them.
Try to always keep some gear with useful spells such as Heal. You have a huge inv. Use it, but keep it clean if only to help you find the items you want.
Watch out for special enemies later on! You aren't the only thing that can use spells down there!
I encountered a huge amount of problems trying to get the game to work on your site, so I went to mochigames and played it on there. I finally got it to work on here just now and it's pretty cool that my game is still saved. I wonder what the problem was, though?
Anonymous poster sure was helpful and informative. I didn't get nearly as far as that before I felt the game start to drag on. I love roguelikes, and I enjoyed this one a lot at first, and I do think it could really be something with some more improvements.
[I've no idea what the problem could be without more information. I check all games before they go online on both Mac and Windows platforms. -Jay]
"...automatically start wailing back and forth with your weapons."
whale. verb. To beat or thrash soundly.
Usually you need something to whale, as in "whale him" or "whale at/on him." Or just stick with verbs you actually know how to use.
HoraceTorys:
Not to be pedantic, but your suggested usage is not incongruous with your definition: "automatically start wailing back and forth with your weapons"/"automatically start beating back and forth with your weapons". However, I admit the spelling error, and I hope that the change I have made to the article is to your liking.
Incidentally, both Webster's and the American Heritage dictionary would suggest "waling" (meaning "to mark the skin, as if by whipping), as an alternate form.
Also, please note that starting sentences with a conjunction, such as in "Usually you need something to whale, as in "whale him" or "whale at/on him." Or stick with verbs you actually know how to use", is generally considered incorrect. In this case, the sentences should be combined, or, since the tone is switching from declarative to an implied imperative "Stick with verbs you actually know how to use" is sufficient.
Thank you for visiting JayIsGames.com!
I played fairly deep into this game and it then black screened me and wouldn't play anymore.
Kind of a bummer.
A few different titles:
-Ascetic - don't pick up any equipment, go die right away. (gives you stat bonus when inventory is empty)
-Humbled - I think you just have to die against your first enemy (but fight it). (+2 will)
-nonviolent= don't fight. (+2 stamina)
-bonemaster. i think you just have to use the triple skeleton tool a lot, and maybe die while your summoned skeletons are still living. (gives 20% chance of making skeletons friendly on sight)
I forgot my password and am too lazy to email myself it, but i think someone should start compiling these.
Also, I don't like how charmed enemies sometimes don't fight with you.
here are the titles I have so far.
from top left to bottom right.
nonviolent - +2 stamina
humbled - +2 willpower
killer - +1 strength/intellect
explorer - +1 will/stamina
brave - +1 armor for each enemy over 2 when surrounded
deadly - +2 strength/intellect
bonebane - +50% damage to all skeletons
strong - +3 strength
spelunker - +2 stamina/will
experienced - +1 to all stats
legendary - +2 to all stats
bonemaster - 20% chance any skeleton will be charmed
abyssal - +3 stamina/will
devastating - +5 intellect/strength
werewolf lightweilder was one of the strongest characters I used.
fun game.
Couple of things:
1. I think the titles are random. I got
bonemaster without using raise dead, on my first playthrough. Dunno if it means I was killed by one instead.
2. About inferno: Watch your step. This area effect spell, unlike massive swarm, hurts you too!
3. I'm playing a human magus and trying assorted titles. I keep dying to the brown things (knights?) when my char is level 8-10, the ones that keep charging me repeatedly. Entangle doesn't work, as it can still charge. Help?
Thanks.
@Ultio
Have you tried using shield? Obviously you'd have to wait to get armor that lets you. I've found it helps my magic-using a lot, since if i aggro a bunch of people over, their first couple attacks are worthless. put up shield, wait for mp to recharge, and then use bolt or ignite on the knight until it's dead.
I haven't gotten that far as a magus, though, so I don't know how useful that is.
Using a Deadly Golem Wanderer I got pretty far down (I thought, though looking at leaderboards maybe not). Died on around 35000 Mana orbs and got the title "Abyssal".
Golem Wanderer was just crazy natural damage resistance. Stayed alive for ages but not that good at dealing damage I think.
It's possible to make a Demon Hunter (a hunter who happens to be a demon that is). That made me smile.
Double posting sorry.
@Dylan, Max
I checked out the armorgames discussion and am using an int-maxed golem reaper. I got to level 10!...and then got ambushed by a brown guy with no magic left.
I do known that they take 3-5 Bolts to kill, and when I get attacked by them it's usually after exhausting my magic.
Any classes etc. that are good for dealing with this?
@Ultio I haven't played much as magic user, mostly just used it to help out with direct combat (e.g. heal and shield mostly). It always seems to me that playing a mage is a little tenuous as you have to hope for items with decent stats and good spells.
@Max
I think I fixed it. Vampire reaper, herculean, devastating. Booyah. :)
Also, attract isn't so useless if you have lots of magic and range on a knight with lots of enemies around him. Hit it with attract, watch the carnage, and be ready with your strongest attacks. Or else run like heck...
Let's see how far I can get with this guy.
here are some titles I got that I don't see posted on here.
nudist:+8 armor when not wearing any armor
dauntless: +2 armor for each enemy over 2
@Jameson: i mean the level progress - not achievment-progress. want to save my char at dungeon-levXYZ to play it later from there, and not to start in lev1 all over again.
These are the titles I have so far, from top left to bottom right:
Nudist- +8 Armor when wearing no armor
Nonviolent- +2 Stamina
Ascetic- +1 to all stats when inventory is empty
Humbled- +2 Willpower
Killer- +1 Strength, +1 Intellect
???- ???
Explorer- +1 Stamina, +1 Will
Traveled- +5% run speed
Bonebane- +50% damage to skeletons
???- ???
???- ???
???- ???
???- ???
Iron Skin- +2 Armor
Spelunker-- +2 Stamina, +2 Will
Experienced- +1 to all stats
Marathoner- +10% run speed
Steel Skin- +3 Armor
???- ???
Herculian- +5 Strength
???- ???
???- ???
???- ???
???- ???
Bonemaster- 20% chance any skeleton that sees you will be temporarily charmed
Abyssal- +3 Stamina, +3 Will
???- ???
Devastating- +5 Strength, +5 Intellect
Fun but buggy. Screen stops updating randomly for me (once during a boss fight, which was not optimal) at which point the game becomes unplayable.
Darn it...i reached lvl 19 human magus legendary devastating...but there are too many enemies and i couldnt get the bolt...all i had was ignite and inferno...and almost all the knights were fire resistant. In almost 2 hours of playing i didnt get any offensive spell other than fire base spells...it's really getting on my nervs
So, I found that the best combination in this game is aoe heal n' dmg. I go for the skeleton race (have to play on mochigames to get it) and lighwielder(?) class. Really fun game.
However, I am registered at Mochi but I still can not save the progress ingame? Could someone explain this a little more detailed?
I find Necromancer gives you an early game boost but
quite weak as the game goes on, as your summoned skeletons do not scale. At Level 10, they can barely kill anything, and are more of a distraction than anything.
Atlantian Necromancer. You get a 200 MP cost freezing AOE as a runaway tool. The only problem is that summoned skeles get hit too.
Bolt is a very useful sniping skill.
Tip: When aiming at floating enemies shoot their shadow.
Golem Explorer gives +30 elemental resistance which is critical to success.
Build strength only to around 550 when you can one-hit anything. After that build up stamina to 200+ and you'll be indestructible as long as you keep elemental protection. The most important thing to remember is to single out enemies as a group can and will overwhelm you. Spells are useless except heal / sanctify which can get you through ganag attacks before you beceom invulnerable.
Armor is essential, Elemental armor is CRITICAL. Forget poison, it's not a factor. Pick the highest elemental protection you can (max is 55) and keep fire, ice and electric maxed out. This is more important than the total armor level.
Anything can be equipped in any slot. Equip boots, then drag and drop them over something else to equip it in the boots slot. Armor values will count in the shield, helmet and boots slots. Bonus values (resistance, strength, etc.) always count. Using this you can equip 3 armor + 2 bonus values, which allows you to keep the highest possible combination of armor and elemental resistance. High armor vales + high elemental bonuses are the most valuable items in the game.
Later in the game, electrical armor should be eliminated and ice resistance doubled as the ice knights are the only things that can hurt you. At level 350+, ONE ice knight can damage/kill you with 85 elemental protection (30 character + 55 elemental armor). At 200 sta + 140 ice + 80 fire you are indestructible.
At this point strategy changes. You no longer have to worry about getting gang banged and can charge into a room full of enemies, sweep around so that they are all in a cluster attacking you, then calmly one-hit them and pick up the loot. On average you'll get one level for every 11 kills. At 1000 str you can equip a fish as a weapon and get some extra loot while still one-hitting everything. At this point the game is effectively over and the only thing left is to see how high you can drive the score before going to sleep.
Here's my character stats:
Level 359 golem explorer
health 10070
magic 2695
armor 1987
str 1033+5
sta 289+1
will 90 (wasted points)
int 95+5 (wasted points)
resist fire 80
resist ice 140
resist poison 30
resist elec 30
and equipemnt:
helmet
- cool perfect armor of attraction
- 621 armor, +50 fire, charm
armor
- perfect armor 692
boots
- perfect armor of life 672 +1 sta
weapon
- fish of luck 332-333 +5 str +5 int
- OR vicious perfrect blade 777-778
rings
- 2x insulated perfect ring +55 ice (total + 110)
NO SPELLS
Got a title that no one has posted about, as far as I can see.
Epic - +3 to all stats
Played as a Golem Cursed. Got bored of playing the character, so I sold all my equipment and cashed out with approx 450 000 pearls. Not sure what level I was. Fun game though.
Well I am a level 53 demon explorer and I havent died once I have a vicious perfect blade that has
a maximum of 615 damage I am awesome
That Marathoner title is awesome. Stat gains are really weak after the first level or two, but a permanent 10% movespeed bonus? Crazy good!
Any idea how to get that one?
----------------
From what Ive seen, Charm is the best spell in the game. At absolute worst, it forces the nastiest mob in a pack to stand around for 8 seconds or so.
Best case, they help you fight.
The most common way to die is to aggro too many monsters. Charm is a fantastic way to mitigate this and doesnt require any INT to do so.
However, do NOT USE CHARM as an opener! It tends to cause the charmed monster to attack a closeby baddie and create a HUGE aggro swarm.
----------
Shield is very good (as is crit) because it can be cast in advance. Shield mitigates 3 hits no matter how strong they are. Hence it scales well. During combat it isnt so great (except vs bosses), but always cast it outside of combat for a bit of extra boost.
Note: You can only have EITHER shield or a crit-on-next-hit up, not both.
--------
The advice about wearing any item any slot is awesome. Cant wait to try it.
Best advice:
Resistance is key. If you have to choose between Armor, stat buffs and major resistance - I'd go with resistance. It will save your skin in lower levels.
Cursed: Random elemental damage may seem risky, but it works!
I have tried working with spells, but find that a Cursed Werewolf loaded up on Strength and Stamina is reliable. I'd really LIKE to primarily use spells to deal damage, but end up falling back on melee so often that I end up splitting my points.
Would love to get 100% fire resist and use that AOE fire spell. I've drawn aggro, run into a corner and deep fried critters with it. Drawing aggro, standing still and watching them all burn, burn BURN! would be even more fun.
Golem Cursed meele based only, boosting Strenght, Stamina and Armor, the only magic to use are Cure, Shield and, if available, Sanctify.
Critical Hit can be a good add.
With this character is really easy to go on.
REALLY addictive game! Recommended!
* To the one talking about skeletons and weapons, the skeletons improve with intellect you moron!
* To the others asking about how to save progress, it's not stored in the site but in your computer, in a special Flash folder:
C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\SOME RANDOM LETTERS AND NUMBERS\
There you must find the folder of the site you were playing on. To help you, you may play a little and then find the folder which updated lastly.
* Killer combos you must try:
.a) KITILID-LIGHTWIELDER
.b) DRYAD-MAGUS
.c) ATLANTIAN-NECROMANCER (almost anything with Necromancer)
.d) WEREWOLF-LIGHTWIELDER (fighter build, for a change)
* Titles:
..1) NUDIST: +8 ARMOR when wearing no armor
..2) KILLER: +1 STRENGTH, +1 INTELLECT
..3) STONE SKIN: +1 ARMOR
..4) BONEBANE: +50% damage to skeletons
..5) INTELLIGENT: +3 INTELLECT
..6) MARATHONER: +10% run speed
..7) ...don't know wet...
..8) BONEMASTER: 20% chance any skeleton that sees you will temporarily be charmed
..9) NONVIOLENT: +2 STAMINA
.10) ...don't know yet...
.11) BRAVE: +1 ARMOR for each enemy over 2 when surrounded
.12) ...don't know yet...
.13) IRON SKIN: +2 ARMOR
.14) ...don't know yet...
.15) ...don't know yet...
.16) ABYSSAL: +3 STAMINA, +3 WILL
.17) ASCETIC: +1 to all stats when inventory is empty
.18) EXPLORER: +1 STAMINA, +1 WILL
.19) DAUNTLESS: +2 ARMOR for each enemy over 2 when surrounded
.20) TOUGH: +3 STAMINA
.21) SPELLUNKER: +2 STAMINA, +2 WILL
.22) LEGENDARY: +2 to all stats
.23) GENIUS: +5 INTELLECT
.24) ...don't know yet...
.25) HUMBLED: +2 WILL
.26) TRAVELED: +5% run speed
.27) DEADLY: +2 STRENGTH, +2 INTELLECT
.28) WISE: +3 WILL
.29) EXPERIENCED: +1 to all stats
.30) HERCULIAN: +5 STRENGTH
.31) LETHAL: +3 STRENGTH, +3 INTELLECT
.32) DEVASTATING: +5 STRENGTH, +5 INTELLECT
i got 30,000 mana pearls on a alantian light wielder because it gave me 2 ice spells then the heal spells which helps a lot plus i have the title abyssal which gives you 30+ hp and 30+ willpower that's the way to go if you ask me and the golem wanderer is good just not much damage but still if you stick with the class race and title i tell you you'll do great
BoloDigby's high-score guide:
In my opinion, there are four stages to this game:
Stage 1 lasts up to about character level 9, and is simply stalk, attract, and kill individual creatures. Any of the Races and Classes can survive this stage, as long as you are circumspect in your dealings with the creatures. Avoid mobs, tease out individual creatures from clusters by gently nearing them, etc. This portion of game is long, as you have to go slow at all times.
Stage 2 lasts between (approximately) character level 9-19, and consists of simply staying alive. Just as in Stage 1, you cannot take on mobs. You will start to encounter Standard and Ice Knight Chargers; Standard ("Browns") are bad always, Ice are bad only if you have very low Ice Resistance. Always try to engage one knight at a time, two can kill you in seconds. Save your highest damage spells for worse-case scenarios such as the inevitable unexpected mob "aggro". Standard Chargers can be beat with any magic, Ice Chargers are obviously weak to fire-based spells. Just as in Stage 1, carefully and slowly work your way around the map, discretely stepping inch by inch into a monster-filled room until one (1) takes notice of you and starts to move toward you. Quickly exit the room the same way you entered, and wait until the creature that you have teased out is all the way out of the room before casting your offensive spell at it, otherwise, it's chums will notice and you will have an unwinnable 'aggro' on you in moments. Recharge Life and Mana and repeat until the room is empty. Move on to the next room.
Stage 3 occurs once you have hit 100% Ice resistance. If you started with an ice-resistance Race or Class, this can occur earlier for some. 100% Ice Resistance means that one of your primary foes you will encounter the rest of the game will not hurt you following their initial charge. You can be toe-to-toe with Ice Chargers, and they will be unable to inflict damage. Leave the room, take a potty break, and when you return, the Ice Charger will be there, harmlessly hacking at you. Have less than 100% Ice Resistance? You will get hurt quickly.
Stage 4 occurs when you have 100% Ice Resistance, 100% Fire Resistance and can 1-hit all foes. At this stage, there is not too much variation in your enemy encountered. Ice Charges, Fire Blasters, Armored Werewolves, Staff-wielding Werewolves, electrical orbs. Boss on each level will be a large electrical Orb. Next floor will be the same. And the next. You will level up about three times per floor, and there will be no point where you will be fearful of losing your life. You will be adept at evaluating equipment quickly, discarding (selling) about 99% of it immediately upon acquiring it.
On to the character build.
The game does not scale well. Magic starts out as powerful and useful, but quickly becomes pointless. That 'bolt' spell vaporizes most baddies at character level 6 with 20 intelligence damages about 33% of the health of your foe later on. Strange as it seems, my 300-intelligence character cannot one-hit any high-level foe with magic. I have not tested the upper limits of this--trying to reach 1000 intelligence, but my guess is that it would have the same affect. No fire- or ice-based spell will one-hit high-level foes. With one exception, sometimes using a spell will endanger you more--if you are within 'Ice Arc' range of a fire blaster, you are going to get hit with both attack fire damage, and if you manage to kill it with your spell, you will be hit with fire blast damage. With one exception, all attack-based spells have a specific high-level creature that is immune to it. Shock? Orbs are immune to shock. Fire? Fire Blasters and Fire Throwers are immune to fire. Ice? Ice Chargers get healed by it. Vine/Vine Field are defensive spells, Heal and its variant heal the Player. Summoned skeletons get two-hit by high level foes, and merely serve to drain your mana supply. Shield spell can be useful, but its use precludes the use of the most important skill you can have (more on this later).
Knowing this means that for all the choices you have for Race, the only thing you can hope for with regard to race is to use that choice to help you survive the first two stages of the game. If you develop your playing style to survive these two stages, you will discard that style once you reach the 3rd and 4th stage. Race ultimately has nothing to do with long-term survival and ascending to high score status. It can help to get you to the upper stages, but there will be no difference in play between a level 100 Human and a level 100 Vampire.
A comment on Classes:
Classes initially seem to be important, but on retrospect, they are just variations on a theme. Classes make it easier to survive the first two stages and get to the 3rd stage faster, but no specific class will guarantee your survival.
My Opinion on Race, Class, and Title selection:
Survival to high level in this game means picking a Race and Class, learning how to use it to get past stage 2. By Stage 3, you will learn that the most important magic you can have is 'critical hit'. Many weapon drops have this feature, and it the only feature that you need to one-hit at higher levels. My 11-strength character (no, I'm not lying) regularly hit over 17,000 damage at the 150 character level range.
There is only one class that has the Critical Hit spell as default, and that is Reaper. I strongly recommend reaper as the class you chose. Having this skill as a default skill means that you can always equip the highest damage (I always go for highest minimum damage, not the high number) weapon. You do not have to hang onto any specific piece of equipment, but merely evaluate weapon drops on highest damage capability. Critical damage skill is based on weapon damage, not character strength. Strength may play a factor at ultra-high levels, but up to the point of survival to stage 3, it effect is negligible.
There is only one spell family in the game that affects all creatures: Poison. Every creature in the game can be killed with poison--some more quickly than others. Poison is also some of the highest-magic cost spells in the game, with good reason. Up to stage 3, one well-placed massed poison spell can kill 8 creatures. Werewolfs, floating heads--with long detection distances can easily be lured into poison clouds and succumb very quickly to the effects. Electrical Orbs, Armored Skeletons, and Knights can be killed, expect to have to reapply frequently. This makes the Kitilid race exceptional, in my opinion. All races can pick up a poison-casting weapon, but to have this magic as default means that you can evaluate equipment drops merely by highest damage.
Titles:
Titles serve the purpose of making your character's tombstone more interesting. For really high scores, all titles are useless except Traveled plus Marathoner, for +15 % speed. With 15% speed boost you can run from everything except Regular/Ice Chargers. When you are above level 20, starting with an extra 8 points in Strength has no impact. Bonebane is a nice starter skill as well, but you don't run into any skeletons after a certain point, so in the long run, it is a wasted title.
General game play:
Use the numbers on your keyboard, not the mouse to fire your spells.
Put level up points evenly into Willpower and Intelligence until you hit stage 4 (character level 15-20), then place them where you want. You want your willpower to build up where you can hammer the Critical Hit key without ever running out of magic. You also want to have a good pool of magic to be able to fire off your spells to survive to stage 3 / stage 4. Remember that what is killing your foe is the critical hit combined with a high-damage weapon; your high strength is negligible. If you chose reaper as your class, you can simply evaluate weapon drops on highest damage potential.
Charm is unpredictable, I'd recommend entering rooms so as to attract only one creature at a time using its detection radius. You can use mass poison to kill a charmed creature, though
A note on equipping items:
You can use any piece of gear in any slot. You are not restricted to putting shoes in the shoe slot or helmets in the helmet slot. You can put 6 fish onto your character for 120% treasure drop chance--you'll have lousy armor, though. Armor counts only for the pieces on the Helmet, Chest, and shoe slot. If you wear a 55 Armor chest piece with 55% ice resistance in the ring slot, you only benefit from the ice resistance. How does this work? If you pick up a helmet from your inventory and place it in one of your ring slots it will not 'stick'. However, if you pick the ring from your equipped ring slot and drop it on the helmet in your inventory, the two items switch places.
Armor drops should be evaluated by the following criteria: The most important thing is Ice then Fire resistance. Up to the point where you encounter chargers, Armor is almost important as resistance. If you must chose between losing armor or losing resistance, always lose armor. Until you get 55% Ice/Fire resistance drops, do not discard (sell) any ice or fire resistance drops. Electrical resistance can help you survive up to stage 3 but by stage 4, you are one-hitting Boss electrical orbs so having electrical resistance is pointless. Poison resistance is useless.
i want to try this game out, but on the main menu, when i click play, the screen just goes black. i can view the controls and everything else, but cant play. any ideas?
got 85,000 pearls on second run through.. try out the vampire reaper combo, the constant healing mixed with high criticals will help out a lot in the long run. Got deadly my first run through and devastating the next
Werewolf wanderer seems invincible to me. Because boosted stamina and increased HP regain during combat every time an enemy hits me my health snaps back to full
I find that i like necros cause they have the skellies which are pretty good sheilds in a choke point the i like the bolt which does insane damage on one guy for sniping on the other side of the skellie sheild i like kitilids simple for the swarm effect because while your running it does damage over time so it helps. though one thing i find myself needing is a lot of will to do rapid fire bolts and lots of int to do single or double shot kills.
I am sorry for any redundency due to this comment.
i also must warn that i have only gone to level 8 or so. But havent had the time to play further. But i simply want to comment.
I never get too far, except one time I used a Deadly Vampire Necromancer and got super far... for an average gamer, at least. Not those leaderboard people who spent like months on one game @_@
A couple things I've noticed no comments about:
(1) as anyone that has played has found out, when u cast a spell, the game pauses while u choose the spells placement. Kinda nice for a few reasons.
(2) you can replace equipment in mid battle and while the inventory screen is open, the game is also paused. Nice to switch gear to a set that can better dmg and immune type.
(3) fish as a weapon may suck for dmg, but it's nice to get some additional drops (this may be mostly early in game). Then if you run into something that you cant kill with that equiped, open your inventory and re-equip in battle...np :)
I've played about 30 times and gotten pretty much to lvl 13 each time. I think with some other advice above I should make it further now. We'll see.
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