How do I beat Normal?

[Axiom]

Maybe I'm just not very good at this game (I love the game), but I can't beat the Abyss of Antiquities yet. I can pretty consistently get to the elite enemy in that area, the bone dragon thing, but he wrecks me! Can anyone good at this game give me some tips on how to improve to the point of beating the game on Normal?

[Semtex]

remember to use your ichor to buy permanent upgrades, an aditional wand slot is great early on. and you can always refund them. also get the currency converter early, and buy some of the spells from tentacle girl

[Axiom]

You know, not long after posting this I actually did it! I used a sword mage build (I think that was the set). I've only done it once though. I had another fight where I was fighting the bone centaur and almost got him but not quite. So maybe I'm improving!

[HORRORLAND]

Here's my general strategy...

-- Room Selection --
Prioritize Relics > Spells > Hearts > Money. Don't bother with shops and forging. Maybe forge once at towards the very end of the game. Don't take shortcut rooms since it limits your options.

-- Relics --
In the first act, prioritize relics which grant additional spell/relic options or re-rolls. After that, prioritize damage defensive relics.

Damage Relics: Anything that gives raw damage such as % damage increase, extra chance to cast, bonus elemental effects, etc. Extra damage based on your coins is extremely good since you will avoid shops and forged when selecting rooms.

Defensive Relics: Movement speed, % damage reduction, dodge, etc. Flying and trap damage reduction from traps are also very useful when starting out.

Avoid: Circumstantial stuff like crit bonus, spell radius increase, second slot charge rate, etc.

-- Wands and Spells --
Don't worry too much about upgrading and forging spells. Just work with what you have, even if it's level 1 stuff. Build out all of you wands. If your main wand is mana hungry, simply rotate through them during combat while holding left click so that you are always casting. If mana is not an issue, slot your backup wands with spirits or secondary slots that passively charge.

Avoid spells with heavy recoil that make your character hard to control and move. The same goes for indiscriminate damage or poison on spells that may cause self harm. Summons tend not to scale as well as straight damage spells, so avoid them if possible.

-- Potions --
Assuming you will find the relic that grants damage based on coins, potions which give additional coins are very useful. If you save them toward the end of the run, you can get large amounts.

You can also save potions which grants temporary shield based on missing health for the bosses that give you trouble.

-- Chests --
Use keys on chest only when you have plenty. Otherwise, save keys for bonus rooms as they generally give you better rewards. Stay away from curses unless you know you can remove them.

[Axiom]

Thanks for that reply!

That's interesting, I have been trying not to to skip any shop, especially if I have the Black Mark relic. Maybe this is just a newbie mistake because shops are exciting with all the spell options, as well as refresh. By not going to shops and forges, doesn't it make it a bit harder to kinda craft the "build" you want?

Good tips on wands, I've noticed I've been doing that a bit. I rotate thru them if my mana regen isn't great, but once I do get a great wand I try to set up my other wands with either resonance runes or wand spirits.

[HORRORLAND]

Avoiding shops and forges works because Prospector's Pickaxe is broken. At least in my opinion. You can get it reliably since it's not rare or epic and it gives 1% bonus damage for every 3 coins you have. You can also stack it multiple times. One time I had 5% increased damage for every 7 coins. As you play the game and unlock more spells, it becomes difficult to find what you want in the shop or from the forge. There are close to 100 spells in total.

As an example, I finished a Nightmare 3 run today with an 8 slot wand. All the wand did was spin lvl 1 boomerangs around me with +5 penetration, so each boomerang gets 6 hits before disappearing. On top of that, I had 1200 coins, so 400% increased damage + the other relics I gathered through the run that increased damage further. You would need 40 curses + Mask of the Hexer (a rare relic) to match 400% damage. I had other wands running some passive spells, but the boomerangs were doing the most work.

Another way to think about it is like this... If there was a potion in the shop that cost 3 gold and increased your damage permanently by 1%, how many of those potions would you be willing to buy?

[Axiom]

That make sense, thanks. Is the enchanted coin unique spell good in this kinda build as well?

[HORRORLAND]

I've actually never had enchanting coin offered to me. Reading up on it though. it seems like a good fit. It does 60 damage for 20 mana as a baseline, which is in the realm of meteor and land mine. Then it give 10% bonus damage for each coin you own, you just have to pick up the 20% coins off the ground after expending them.

I imagine it can be abused as well. There's a potion that doubles all coins on the ground. Seems like you would be able to throw all your coins on the ground after clearing a room and them double them.

[daemonworks]

Try all sorts of combinations. Some things that don't seem good at all can become great with a little set up. A thing that makes one spell suck makes another sing. Not all combinations work exactly how you'd expect them to, and some work precisely how you think they won't, so try /everything/. And re-evaluate every so often - what's bad in your earliest runs might become much viable later on with more metaprogress under to belt. Or just when you better understand how to handle some particular quirk.

Because there's no real hint for this in the game: There's a rare map feature or three that have special interactions.... If something on a map looks particularly odd, and doesn't seem to have a purpose, it might just offer rewards you for doing the correct thing.

I wouldn't say avoid shops so much as be sparing with them - most of the time coins only become power when you spend them. The pick's great, but it's far from a certainty, and it's also much less strong when you haven't maxed out the coin-related metaprogress. The right purchase may well double your overall power, but shops only make you stronger if they have what you need and you've got the coin to spend. Any shop you enter without buying is a room fight that could have gotten you a relic, money, health, etc instead.... Balance is key.

A couple vague hints towards combos:
The spells that make your other wands do work are great, absolute great in their own very different ways.
Infinite pierce + anything that allows you to keep it on target, with optional poison...

[Vexing Sphincter]

Origineel geplaatst door HORRORLAND:

I've actually never had enchanting coin offered to me. Reading up on it though. it seems like a good fit. It does 60 damage for 20 mana as a baseline, which is in the realm of meteor and land mine. Then it give 10% bonus damage for each coin you own, you just have to pick up the 20% coins off the ground after expending them.

I imagine it can be abused as well. There's a potion that doubles all coins on the ground. Seems like you would be able to throw all your coins on the ground after clearing a room and them double them.

It's utterly broken if you get Prospector's Vest. Every stack of coins you fire out is a full heal waiting to be picked up. And then if you luck out and get Electrified Crown as well you can literally just walk into everything to kill it.

[phadin]

While I agree the prospecter's pickaxe is powerful, it's hardly the only way to play. I use the forge reqgularly when my inventory gets full, and there are some builds like poison builds where the damage boost from the pickaxe has no effect. Still, I would minimize trips to the shop and forge, as you generally want to acquire more stuff rather then spend to acquire stuff. I do usually make one shop visit in the first chapter to get some extra keys and an extra wand while it's still cheap. Opening chests and siderooms with keys is always worthwhile so I try to make sure I have enough I won't run out.

If you practice at dodging (the game can be a bullet hell at times at the high levels), you can make it through the game relying on shields to take what damage you do suffer and using health as another currency for relics in the crimson rooms after each chapter boss. Some of those relics are very handy. the one that periodically duplicates your spell is cheap for it's effect. The reset key is something you should always take if it shows up in the first two chapters. Chapter 3 is a bit more situational. If you got a good wand reward and have a 10k+ DPS build by then, I would not use it, but if your build is not yet performing a reset could still be very beneficial.

I found using the soul set the easiest. You can focus on defense/dodging while the wand spirits handle the offense. Play the other sets once you understand the enemies and their attack patterns better and can dodge more easily while attacking.

[Cryptid]

If you're still having trouble try using the snakes spell. With a multicast or a mimic along with Any Simultaneous Casting/Track/Acceleration/Split you can just completely melt anything. I prefer using poison because I use the outfit that gives you a poison relic to start with but you can splash in anything really. It's slightly mana intensive in later levels but that simple setup with any kind of flare you really want is so powerful it got me through normal easily. Just be warned that if you cast fast enough with split on the snakes will absolutely wreck your framerate lol. I was about to get up to about 60k on a dummy just casting that its really crazy how strong it is.

TBH i kinda just brute forced him on my first kill. I have a screenshot of the spells i was using if you want me to link it but it doesn't have to be as crazy as my setup is on this current run to hit 10-20k dmg. Poison is a big factor if you can use the Reaper outfit

[vian]

Just get a rod with Dragon, homing and you'll wreck the entire game.