~~ Tips for New Players Struggling with the Game ~~

[tytrex]

Hello everyone,

I don't consider myself a great gamer, and I typically suck at any kind of fast-based, reaction-based game like most FPS. That said, when I found Dome Keeper, I went straight in to the Brutal difficulty, and pretty much never lost a match. (I think I've lost about 2 matches out of 15 or so, and those losses were in the first few waves.)

That surprised me, then, when I saw a lot of posts on the forums here talking about the game being too difficult, with players struggling to obtain even a single win after several hours of play, so I figured I would share a couple of tips for anyone having a hard time with the game.

For starters: The Sword Dome and Repellent are a fantastic combo. Once you've gotten a few upgrades into stab speed and the Repellent's slowdown ability, you become virtually indestructible. I'll explain this more later on.

The two most important tips I can give are as follows:

1. Learn how to mine properly. You should be using Minecraft's Diamond-mining strategy. Anything else is a waste of time.

What do I mean by this? Well, when you dig a block out in Dome Keeper, you can see all of the blocks that were once touching it. In other words, if you dig in a straight line down, you'll be able to see all of the blocks to the left, and all of the blocks to the right, along with the block at the very bottom of the tunnel. You have a sight depth of 1 block.

This means that you should only ever be digging tunnels two blocks apart. So:

XXXX O XX O XXXX
XXXX O XX O XXXX
XXXX O XX O XXXX
XXXX O XX O XXXX

And so on. You dig where the O's are. This will reveal (R) four layers of blocks:

XXXR O RR O RXXX
XXXR O RR O RXXX
XXXR O RR O RXXX
XXXR O RR O RXXX

With two tunnels, you've revealed four columns of blocks. If you were to leave a third column in the middle between your two tunnels, it will be left in the darkness, so you might miss out on certain 1-tile resources, like Cobalt and Water. On the other hand, if you were to leave only one block between tunnels, you're wasting precious time, as you're re-discovering already-discovered tiles.

There is an item that can be found sometimes in the map, however, that, upon activation, increases your sight depth to TWO. This is one of the most useful buffs in the entire game, because it HALVES the amount of time you spend digging. Now that you can see through two layers of blocks, your tunnels can be FOUR blocks apart. In other words, you're digging only one in every 4 blocks, but seeing all 4 of them!


2. Know the proper upgrade path: Personal Buffs First, then the Health Buff, then combat buffs, then secondary buffs.

The very first things you should upgrade are always the same: The wave timer. This is important because you need to preserve as much HP as you can in those first few waves.

Next, you upgrade your avatar. There's debate about which upgrade is the best to get first, but in my opinion, the correct order is Drill, then Carry Weight, then Speed. If you're unlucky to start hitting dense rock early on, it can end your run if you don't have at least that first drill upgrade.

Finally, once you have the first tier of avatar upgrades, you get the dome health upgrade. This is essential as it not only directly increases the HP pool of your dome, but also makes Cobalt repairs more powerful.

Then, you get your basic dome combat upgrades.

Then, you can start upgrading your gadget.

Then rinse and repeat.


With just these two tips, you should do much better. Mine in a grid, with vertical tunnels that are 2 blocks apart, with one horizontal tunnel connecting all the vertical ones each time you reach a new depth layer (a new stone colour).

Lastly, lets talk about domes. The Laser dome is what's used by everyone high up on the leaderboard, but the Sword Dome should not be overlooked. It's a much more engaging dome, which makes the game a lot more fun to play. It's also incredibly strong.

The thing to know about the sword dome is that you never ever want to buy the upgrades that make the sword BIGGER and SLOWER, or the upgrades that turn the stab ability into the Bomb. These upgrade paths will kill you, IMO.

The basic hierarchy of combat dictates that distance is more important than power. Avoiding damage in the first place by killing the enemies BEFORE they get to your dome is much more important than being able to do a lot of DPS ONCE THEY GET TO YOU. As such, the stab ability of the sword is what matters, and you need to be able to stab OFTEN. By investing into the skill tree that increases stab speed and frequency, along with the tree that lengthens and slims the blade, you turn the sword dome from a melee machine into a damn Howitzer. You'll be firing off javelins like a battleship. And then if some monsters DO reach your dome, the bounce ability of the slim-and-long skill tree allows you to still kill the monsters very quickly.

Lastly, the Repellent. Invest into the slowdown ability of the repellent. It is crazy good when coupled with the stab of the sword dome. You slow down all the monsters on the field, and then stab through them all. If you're good, you can even steer the sword to stab through multiple enemies at once, all across the screen. It's a very OP combo, in my opinion.

Anyways, I hope this helps! Happy Digging!

[VinylSole]

Solid tips!
I'm drill strength > speed > wave timer > weapon strength > carry (but pretty sure that's my not being most efficient)
And sort of unorthodox horizontal mostly but following softer spots and leaving harder rocks for later.

Thanks for the great post!

[tytrex]

Originally posted by Raw Fury Garnett:

Solid tips!
following softer spots and leaving harder rocks for later.

Thanks for the great post!

This is actually a great strategy too, i just find it's very map and RNG dependent.

[VinylSole]

Totally, and it gets me into some tight spots, which are pretty fun to try and survive even if they mostly wind up getting the best of me :)

[Demnchi]

Hey, glad I'm not the only one who does Drill -> Carry -> Speed first! I usually don't even get the wave indicator until after these though, as the first couple of waves are puny enough that being slightly late isn't that big of deal. These are also some pretty good tips that should help anyone struggling. I do find it a bit odd that you dig vertically though. The same digging principle can be applied in the horizontal as well, which is what I've been doing, especially in prestige where the map layout is very sanitized. I think I'll hop on to give vertical a try though, maybe it is better and I've been a fool. :P

I do disagree about when you get the health upgrade though, especially for the Sword Dome. The Sword Dome's health upgrade also comes with some free repairs included, so you should only get it once you've incurred some damage, allowing you to get an upgrade that makes your dome better at defending much earlier. Doing this saves you health in the long run also. I do this even with the Laser Dome. The timing of when to do it can be a bit tricky, but its a skill worth practicing imo. But you're correct that you should absolutely upgrade your health at least once before using Cobalt to heal to maximize each Cobalt. This also gives you more room to justify buying the Cobalt upgrades if you want them (I tend to avoid them most of the time now, especially in prestige).

[Drizzard]

solid tips. thanks!