Useful builds

[Ed Oscuro]

Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like the useful builds are limited to coin increase, item cheapening builds based around buying swords. So you take Maurauder first, then Collector, maybe Appraiser as well, and you wait to pick up swords, shields (which make swords cheaper), amulets (which give you +1 coin per enemy killed) and so on.

Out of the level-up bonuses, Marauder seems better than Appraiser. Winning +1 coin per enemy killed seems more useful than making items 5 coins cheaper, because you kill more than five enemies on average per item bought. In other words, for every time you buy an item, -5 coins to the price is a fixed bonus, but +1 coin per enemy can boost the amount you save much higher. All this said, once you run out of Marauder bonuses Appraiser is still a nice upgrade to coin efficiency.

Mushrooms: They don't seem cost-effective if 45 gold gives you +1 DPT while a 50 gold sword gives you +3 DPT. They don't seem bad beyond this but I prioritize them after swords & building gold find. I might not be fully understanding the numbers here, however, and it's not really clear to me what speed does.

Magic: I haven't really looked into magic much but given how quickly enemies ramp up in difficulty, taking away 5 strength from an enemy just after the first chest maid - that seems like a bad bargain. Those guys have 40 skill on average. Spending coins to take away 5 skill seems bad, and you'll have to recast your spells on every next enemy. I could be wrong here though.

Tonics: Truly bad. You can't rely on these to show up, the bonuses are small for the money spent, and the bonuses disappear after leaving the floor. If you have one rank of Appraiser the basic gray/white +1 strength tonic is free to pick up, but by the time this happens that +1 strength is not going to change the outcome of any fights.

[Ed Oscuro]

The best level-up upgrades: Depending on what you can afford, marauder, berserker, shadowy, leper, and finally vampire will turn you into an enemy shredding machine as you get temporary damage increases for every enemy you kill in the level, resetting once you leave to the next level. Be careful not to buy the "all crystals are green" upgrade until you get to the map full of blue crystals, though, as you will forfeit about one and a half levels worth of blue crystals found in one level. (Of course, if you need the green crystals to survive, that's another story.)

Little red demons: Static tiles in the map. Somewhere around level 10 they appear, giving you an opportunity to remove items from your inventory. Until then you should be careful not to buy everything in sight.

Heavy armor: A very important item. -100 max speed isn't an issue if you're not at 1000 speed. Having more chances for swords & other "knightly" items to drop will allow you to become massively powerful, if you have enough money. You can eliminate the speed penalty by buying a vampire cloak.

Helm: The most important item if you're buying swords. Buy all that you can! Again, tonics are really bad. Stacking helm upgrades for swords is much better.

Shield: Important to help afford strength upgrades, but it does take up space and nerf your magic ability.

[Valentine Michael Smith]

mushrooms give speed while swords give strength. both are important because they act as multipliers for each other to give you your total skill level.

Mushroomer was actually a pretty solid way to start for me, you can buy up cheap shrooms and the +1 mana ones are even free at that point. Once you have a lot of speed the strength potions and swords become hugely more effective. Then I went miner and jeweler and had all the money I needed to buy everything I could find. Beat the one hp of the jello boss you're allowed to beat with 2k gold. Had 20 mana gen and a nice book that would steal strength and give it to you that was ridiculously strong

[Ed Oscuro]

That's a good way of putting it. Thanks!

[The Stranger]

@Ed Oscuro - Thanks for the tips. I was relying mainly on mushrooms and potions and could only get up to lvl16. Switching to relying on swords/helms/shields made it a lot easier.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1706816704

[Rizack]

i finished the demo with this build; (i started with 4 green chest where i picked shroom, the lower left with red potion, upper right with 2 sword and lower right with cloak)
This allow me to start with like 21 attack and gain speed every monster.

Skill order

Shadowy x2 first to get more enemies = mre gold
Leap x2 (don't remember the name, the one after 2 shadow)
Fighter x2
Berseker x1
Vampirism x3

At this point you are basically invincible, you can pick the rest of the skills as you wish

Build;

Ofc your main items will be swords, helms and cloak. Shieldsreduce the cost and oneshotting the first levels lets you spare gold. For the spiral level i usually use the red potion to get easy 70 dmg, after that i can buy the helmet (i have to try starting with helmet)
In 8 slots you will have; shields, helms, the 4 types of sword, cloak. I prefer the gold pendant as last slot insted of armor because 100 speed means A LOT of dmg

My boss end build was 3 cloak, 7 +2/3 basic swords, 5 helms, 7 +8 swords, 3 +20 sword, 1 gold pendant 3 +50 sword 2 shield (8515 skill because i didn't knew after 1 heart it was over so i had some enemy still alive >.< 655 strenght with 1300 speed)

[Rizack]

Ed Oscuro, i didn't even knew the crystals were blue since i always had barbarian on that level xD

[Son Ron]

Demo finished and it was pretty fun.
Build was pretty much same as Rizack posted.

Shadowy for that extra enemys = extra money
Leaper for that extra speed from every kill
Duelist for that extra speed
Berserker and lastly Vampirism to just destroy everyone.

[e^cha]

I usually play with these builds:

1. Appraiser -> Mushroomer -> Mushroomer -> Mushroomer -> Appraiser -> Appraiser -> Vinemaker -> Vinemaker -> Vinemaker -> ...
A strong build, with the goal to make the first mushrooms free ASAP. The best items for it are helmets and swords.

2. Appraiser -> Appraiser -> Appraiser -> Mushroomer -> Mushroomer -> Mushroomer -> Vinemaker -> Vinemaker -> Vinemaker -> ...
Amost the same as the previous build, but with a focus on cheap items at the beginning, and free mushrooms and max speed later. Best items are shields, swords and helmets.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1709371450

3. Vampire, there has already been said about this build. Fun and quite strong build, but you need to deal with speed cap. Best items are cloaks. Also, blue crystals will be green in the ctystal level.

4. Miner -> Miner -> Jeweler -> Jeweler -> Jeweler -> Miner -> ... (probably you need to go collector x3 after that)
This build, in my opinion, is played rarely, so this is my secret build! But it's a really strong build, if you can get through the beginning (probably you will need good starting chests). In this build, however, blue crystals will be red crystals in a crystal level, so some exp will be missed (but you will get a lot of money from these crystals). for this build, expensive items are best (expensive mushrooms, swords...)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1709371363

[ovni.demon]

I went for knight/berserker. Focus on any permanent upgrades (armor, cape, helmet, talisman, shield) except shrooms. You get free sword rapidly and they are boosted by the helmets. Buy shroom only if you have enough money.

While knight/berserker isn't really needed, the permanent Damage increase at the end is good.

[Whitey]

You people really don't like using the magic items? The book that steals 50 strength and gives it to you is really strong. All those magic books stack. Just 4 of those books and you're converting 200 strength (plus the speed bonus). That's at least a difference maker of 400 strength between you and the enemy every 10 mana. The book that takes away 5 strength only costs 1 mana. Buy 5 of those books, you're looking at 25 per mana. Granted, not as strong as stealing strength. But it works in a pinch. I don't use shields because I get my mana regen so high I'm getting a net increase of mana even when I use the book. And there's no mana cap, (at least I haven't reached one) so mana regen is never wasted. You just accumulate mana every level. Also, tonics are work well as they are also affected by your speed. Keep one that gives you a 35 strength bonus. Good increase. Also, not a fan of the knight skill. Taking my bonus strength away put me in a pickle many times and forced the green crystals to only add 1 strength. I'd argue that the bonuses you can get from each level outweighs the conversion ratio. I also don't use the helms because, as mentioned, I like tonics. I think the bonuses I can get from tonics is better than what helms give me. I tried the knightly items route, didn't work out for me.

[BooM]

Agree with OP.
Best builds for me have always revolved around $$, Strength, Speed. = faceroll.


Well, I finally beat it w/ a book build. Had 65k+ skill at the end boss due to 3 brown books and around 200ish mana.