Which two heroes to start with as a beginner?

[Karsk]

I only have access to the heroes you get from the start and from any purchased dlc. I've had this game for ages so I thought I'd try it but it's REALLY difficult so far.

No idea who to pick apart from Koroser who seems to be a good tank and beatstick.

[worstcase11]

Maybe try the two ladies from the rescue team DLC.
One can gather extra supplies starting from lv 2 and after some level ups take some dusk from the last floor to the next.
The other can tame monsters starting from level 2. That should give you some extra fighting power early on.

[ccwscott]

If you're struggling to get past the first few floors it's probably not your hero choices that are the problem. Are you playing on "easy" or "too easy"? There is actually no higher difficulty level than 'easy". It's kind of a joke by the devs. If you haven't beaten it on "too easy" yet I'd try that.

If you don't already know this, when you stand a character inside a room, no monsters can spawn there. That can help a ton. Also make sure you're not building too many major modules. A lot of people seem to make that mistake, building an expensive resource generator when you only have a few doors left. :S On the first floor I generally build one food module and that's it. For the rest of the game I rarely build more than two on a floor.

As far as starting heroes, it can take awhile to fully understand and utilize any of the characters properly, but maybe take Max and Nurse Ratchet. Max and Ratchet are pretty well rounded, though Max and Misha might be a good pick too.

[Karsk]

I actually am on too easy and I am on floor 5 or 6 atm? About halfway. But then Kre-something (the dragon ice one) died so I am going to restart. Sadlty the only hero I ran across was the one who can't equip weapons so thats the new one I have unlocked.

[ccwscott]

Originally posted by Steve Spaghetti, The Meme Thief:

I actually am on too easy and I am on floor 5 or 6 atm? About halfway. But then Kre-something (the dragon ice one) died so I am going to restart. Sadlty the only hero I ran across was the one who can't equip weapons so thats the new one I have unlocked.

That's odd. Normally you run into about one hero a floor once you're past the first. Are you opening all the doors? On the early floors you should probably explore the whole floor.

[xxx]

One useful tip to conserve food early in the game is to have a fast character draw enemy aggro from the other side of the room so that your ranged hero can thin them out without being attacked. Basically run in to make them come after you and then pull out immediately so they refocus on the ranged hero. This way you can still make use of low hp characters without putting them into danger.

Keeping recruits alive can also help you on later floors. So even if you don't like their skillset or your party is already full, rather than letting them die, you can light up their room (and put minor mods in if they're connected to unlit rooms) and they can hold off some enemies for you even without joining you. Then unlit their room when you're doing the crystal run so you can use that dust on another room. Their death will not be in vain since it'll buy you some time holding off those enemies.

Gork is really strong and tanky. He's slow though so he's best used to hold off a three way intersection with minor modules to support him. I basically spend all the food I get on floor 1 to get him to level 3 to unlock Soylent Green. It's a great early investment the more enemies you have him kill. But again, give him some minor offense mods to help him not get overwhelmed. Also a tear gas to soften a crowd up and neurostim in a long room to keep them at bay longer.

Max starts off with Endless Expert or +2 Science per door opened. Verbal Abuse raises the atk/def of all heroes in the same room as him when used. He later gets Pilfer passive which gives you +1 dust when he's the one who opens a door to a dust room. Gork and Max are pretty much the best default starting team.

Other good starting heroes once you unlock them are:

Hikensha: basically a stronger and more durable Max but without Pilfer and less Wit.

Troe: high health, decent speed, above average damage. He's only useful for killing enemies and his only support skill (at level 7) is an active that decreases enemy movement speed in the same room as him. I'd recommend not leveling him and dismissing him later on when you have 4 teammates and found a recruit to replace him.

Ken: strong and above average speed. His skills/passives give him incredible DPS but he's kinda squishy without armor. You definitely want to put a tear gas and neurostim in the same room as him to keep those monsters at bay and help thin them out before they reach him. Though all ranged heroes benefit from this tactic.

Joleri: has high hp, above average defense and speed, and decent damage. But she gets Dust Thirst at level 2 which decreases chance of getting dust from enemies she personally kills. So it's advised that you don't level her and dismiss her once you have 4 party members and found a recruit to replace her.

Elise: my favorite character and rivals Joleri in survivability. She has less hp and speed but higher def and damage makes up for it. While she can't equip armor, that doesn't matter early in the game anyway. Plus since she gets a second accessory slot as compensation, if you get a Hipster Scarf or other +def item, it evens out anyway. She also has the perk of learning Operate so once you recruit another hero, you can stick her in a major module room leading to the crystal room for her to defend while farming resources for you.

At level 6 she gets Shrapnellizer which is one of the best emergency kill skills. Cause sometimes the game decides to be unfair and immediately sends crystal attacking enemies at you when you're opening the doors surrounding the crystal room at the start of the floor. This is really frustrating if you're gonna for the [no losing/spending dust achievement] and you don't have Gork's War Cry/Hipster Scarf/Admantium Armor to draw aggro.

[Karsk]

Originally posted by bri:

One useful tip to conserve food early in the game is to have a fast character draw enemy aggro from the other side of the room so that your ranged hero can thin them out without being attacked. Basically run in to make them come after you and then pull out immediately so they refocus on the ranged hero. This way you can still make use of low hp characters without putting them into danger.

Keeping recruits alive can also help you on later floors. So even if you don't like their skillset or your party is already full, rather than letting them die, you can light up their room (and put minor mods in if they're connected to unlit rooms) and they can hold off some enemies for you even without joining you. Then unlit their room when you're doing the crystal run so you can use that dust on another room. Their death will not be in vain since it'll buy you some time holding off those enemies.

Gork is really strong and tanky. He's slow though so he's best used to hold off a three way intersection with minor modules to support him. I basically spend all the food I get on floor 1 to get him to level 3 to unlock Soylent Green. It's a great early investment the more enemies you have him kill. But again, give him some minor offense mods to help him not get overwhelmed. Also a tear gas to soften a crowd up and neurostim in a long room to keep them at bay longer.

Max starts off with Endless Expert or +2 Science per door opened. Verbal Abuse raises the atk/def of all heroes in the same room as him when used. He later gets Pilfer passive which gives you +1 dust when he's the one who opens a door to a dust room. Gork and Max are pretty much the best default starting team.

Other good starting heroes once you unlock them are:

Hikensha: basically a stronger and more durable Max but without Pilfer and less Wit.

Troe: high health, decent speed, above average damage. He's only useful for killing enemies and his only support skill (at level 7) is an active that decreases enemy movement speed in the same room as him. I'd recommend not leveling him and dismissing him later on when you have 4 teammates and found a recruit to replace him.

Ken: strong and above average speed. His skills/passives give him incredible DPS but he's kinda squishy without armor. You definitely want to put a tear gas and neurostim in the same room as him to keep those monsters at bay and help thin them out before they reach him. Though all ranged heroes benefit from this tactic.

Joleri: has high hp, above average defense and speed, and decent damage. But she gets Dust Thirst at level 2 which decreases chance of getting dust from enemies she personally kills. So it's advised that you don't level her and dismiss her once you have 4 party members and found a recruit to replace her.

Elise: my favorite character and rivals Joleri in survivability. She has less hp and speed but higher def and damage makes up for it. While she can't equip armor, that doesn't matter early in the game anyway. Plus since she gets a second accessory slot as compensation, if you get a Hipster Scarf or other +def item, it evens out anyway. She also has the perk of learning Operate so once you recruit another hero, you can stick her in a major module room leading to the crystal room for her to defend while farming resources for you.

At level 6 she gets Shrapnellizer which is one of the best emergency kill skills. Cause sometimes the game decides to be unfair and immediately sends crystal attacking enemies at you when you're opening the doors surrounding the crystal room at the start of the floor. This is really frustrating if you're gonna for the [no losing/spending dust achievement] and you don't have Gork's War Cry/Hipster Scarf/Admantium Armor to draw aggro.

Fantastic post I really appreciate this advice my dude!

[Momaw Nadon]

Once you have access to them, I always start with Ken and Professor Josh. Ken has decent speed for running the crystal during the early floors, can hold his own in a defensive chokepoint room, while Josh can start operating at lvl 3 and has a small bonus to science output on lvl 5. I usually end up with Kreyang in my party later, since he has a skill that can slow down all mobs. Pair him with Chef Nanor during the middle floors with his Dust skill, can boost your dust reserves. Or pair Skoigs "mobs attack each other" with Joshs increase to minor modules damage, and you can defeat a large group of enemies in one room with good defense without endangering a hero. I tend to swap out my 3rd and 4th heroes a bit, depending on the mobs I'm facing and/or how their char skills fit with Ken/Josh and/or what I've had researched. I try not to ever lose Ken or Josh though, I am just too used to using them to switch up.

Granted, I've practically only played Drill Pod for years at this point and I try to open every single door on each floor, so my playstyle is geared for longevity instead of only 12 floors. Once I started finishing runs on a consistent basis, 12 floors seemed too short for me, I felt I was always just hitting my stride when I'd reach the end. Drill pod became my go to choice.

A few tips:
- Do not open door after door after door. Do not open your next door until you are sure ALL enemies are dead. Look at the circle icon in the lower right, if it is still red, there's an enemy alive.
- Defenses are better to use than sending your heroes. Set up defensive corridors to a chokepoint, like a room with 6 minor module spots, bonus if you have someone like Elise operating in this chokepoint.
- Keep in mind that you do not have to research every single thing for a 12 floor run. Just research the specific things you need/prefer/like, geared towards your playstyle.
- If you are short on dust but still need defenses at some spots, you can turn the rooms on/off during waves. Using the pause function is key to this strat, as well as understanding how the spawns work. It can be difficult, but can really save you from losing a run if done correctly and efficiently.
- PAUSE. Always use pause. Use it as much as possible until you feel confident in your playstyle.

[Timerlane]

Originally posted by bri:

Joleri: has high hp, above average defense and speed, and decent damage. But she gets Dust Thirst at level 2 which decreases chance of getting dust from enemies she personally kills. So it's advised that you don't level her and dismiss her once you have 4 party members and found a recruit to replace her.

Honestly, Joleri is at least a little OP. The random 'possibility' of getting dust drops from enemies is vastly overstated as a downside for her. And if you want to minimize any possible impact, just don't let her do a lot of fighting alone; let teammates and minor mods have the opportunity to steal her kills. Frankly, that's good advice in general(apart from Mizi, of course).

Meanwhile, with her speed, toughness, and Energivore, there's few other heroes I'd rather have to send off into the darkness alone to 'assassinate' Keepers before they finish growing.

Can pretty much agree with the rest of the post, though, and a semi-related fun fact: An unhired(and appropriately-leveled) Dell(i.e. TF2 Engineer) will actually operate any Major modules left in a powered room with him. If I had to guess why only he does that, I'd suspect it has something to do with Gear Check's altered priority programming.

[PimpToad]

At the bare minimum what you'll need is a "runner" for the crystal and to open doors. Given that you only have the starters available, I suggest you go with Sara as your runner and Nurse Deena as your second.

Sara is very squishy, but again her role is to simply open doors for you and run the crystal. She excels in these roles pretty well, but again keep her out of combat as she's pretty squishy and requires some micro to keep alive.

I second Nurse Deena because of her sustain. She unlocks Operate and Placebo at L4 and L5 allowing her to become a decent frontline operator. You get bonus resources and secure one side of the map pretty well by herself early game. You can then use the extra resources you get from operate to build yourself a bank of resources for a rainy day.

There's Max and his Pilfer allowing you to get more dust per door, but you won't really be hurting for dust unless you're playing Sanitary Pod or further down the Drill Pod. There's Gork and his bulk, but you will benefit more from the extra resources Nurse Deena provides you.

I don't really feel like going into more detail with the DLC heroes, but either way just have a runner to take care of the crystal and doors for you and an operator to help jump start your economy early on.

PS: Wes is busted for his ability to summon heroes at L6 and he starts off with Operate. Pick him if you want easy (easy) mode and stick him in a relatively safe room to farm resources for you.

[Karsk]

Originally posted by PimpToad:

At the bare minimum what you'll need is a "runner" for the crystal and to open doors. Given that you only have the starters available, I suggest you go with Sara as your runner and Nurse Deena as your second.

Sara is very squishy, but again her role is to simply open doors for you and run the crystal. She excels in these roles pretty well, but again keep her out of combat as she's pretty squishy and requires some micro to keep alive.

I second Nurse Deena because of her sustain. She unlocks Operate and Placebo at L4 and L5 allowing her to become a decent frontline operator. You get bonus resources and secure one side of the map pretty well by herself early game. You can then use the extra resources you get from operate to build yourself a bank of resources for a rainy day.

There's Max and his Pilfer allowing you to get more dust per door, but you won't really be hurting for dust unless you're playing Sanitary Pod or further down the Drill Pod. There's Gork and his bulk, but you will benefit more from the extra resources Nurse Deena provides you.

I don't really feel like going into more detail with the DLC heroes, but either way just have a runner to take care of the crystal and doors for you and an operator to help jump start your economy early on.

PS: Wes is busted for his ability to summon heroes at L6 and he starts off with Operate. Pick him if you want easy (easy) mode and stick him in a relatively safe room to farm resources for you.

Awesome thanks man!

[Traysandor]

From my time in the game and from someone who put together the Drill Pod Guide, I usually went with Max (Who's a jack of all trades, gets a much needed early game Science boost, and gets Run Away to help deal with any fires that need putting out) and Opbot (Who has high Wit for resource grinding and can repair stuff that gets damaged by the monsters).

Who else you recruit and what equipment you use is up to both personal choice and also RNG. If you get stuck, refer to some of the Guides that can help you better understand what's going on behind the scenes.

[Momaw Nadon]

Any progress Steve? Have you finished a run yet? Found a good set of starting heroes you prefer?

Because of this thread (thanks Steve!), and the announcement of Endless Dungeon, I dove back in to this game. After a few tries to refresh my feel of it, I've now hit Floor 40 on an Easy Drill Pod run, beating my previous best. Granted, I am bleeding industry at this point - those damned flying triangle mobs are the worst - so it's only a matter of time before I die. I give it a few more floors before I do gamble too hard and lose.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2345750557

[Karsk]

Originally posted by Momaw Nadon:

Any progress Steve? Have you finished a run yet? Found a good set of starting heroes you prefer?

Because of this thread (thanks Steve!), and the announcement of Endless Dungeon, I dove back in to this game. After a few tries to refresh my feel of it, I've now hit Floor 40 on an Easy Drill Pod run, beating my previous best. Granted, I am bleeding industry at this point - those damned flying triangle mobs are the worst - so it's only a matter of time before I die. I give it a few more floors before I do gamble too hard and lose.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2345750557

Outstanding my friend! I haven't played for a bit but i am going to reinstall. I've been mostly trying to get even slightly competent at dmc5. At a hundred hours I still can't remember the names of all the moves let alone how to easily jump cancel and genuinely combo moves together. Its driving me insane at how difficult it is so I could use something like dungeon.

I believe I still have a run going and the first new hero I got was the weird redhead lady?