Strategy tips for surviving in the Ring of Pain

[Twice Different]

Hi all!

We're always working on ways to better communicate mechanics in our game, and over time we'll be better surfacing this hidden information in the game.
For now, here's a thread to help you play more strategically and adapt to the Pain!

Note: This is semi-spoilery maybe?
If you want the full hardcore 'I just want to learn by dying a lot' experience, you may want to figure this stuff out yourself.
Here's a mix of tips intended mostly for new and intermediate players.

Tips to survive and thrive

Don't expect to kill everything.

Especially not exploders unless you don't have ways to mitigate the damage. These are like our 'red barrels', but they can be positioned strategically if played right. There's nothing random about creature behaviours (more on this later).

Scrolls are like a 'get out of jail free' card.

Be strategic with which you keep, and save them for when absolutely needed unless you have the opportunity to replace one. We also want to expand on this mechanic in the future, to give scrolls more utility.

Not all exits are made equal - and the importance of farming

The game consists of a core path (black exits) which progresses through all numbered levels needed to complete to finish the ring.

Special paths (coloured exits) are like secondary rooms, which add an extra room on your main path. You can also chain these together with Create Exit or Crossroads.

Skull exits are like elite encounters in other roguelikes. They're harder than your current core depth, but have better treasure. You'll need to visit some of these rooms to help your build snowball, but you also need to learn when you're equipped for each different type.
This usually means learning by dying, it's part of the learning process and discovery. In the future we want to better clarify how these paths work with more UI and tooltips.

Rerolling items is important

In item comparisons (chests and corpses) there's a Reroll button at the top.
Next patch will add a tutorial for this as we've noticed some people miss it.
Rerolls start cheap and are a great way to find items which better suit your situation.

Stealth is important for survival

Stealth is another mechanic which sometimes gets under-utilised by new players.
Don't hesitate because it displays a low number, pain is the name of the game!

It's important to assess each dungeon and plan first as opposed to just focussing on the front cards. Our game is like an order of actions puzzle... with permadeath.

Take your time and read tooltips, especially on creatures.

Creatures have actions displayed above the card and a death behaviour.
If playing with controller these can be viewed by pressing UP to enter Observe mode, and left/right will look at cards in the ring. With mouse, hover over the icons to see tooltips.

Learning how creatures behave is critical to survival, and each creature type always behaves consistently so you can plan ahead.

As you learn how creatures behave, you'll be able to better predict what will happen x turns ahead, and even as you're learning we always show the immediate next turn.

The game is dynamic and very responsive, which may make it seem like a fast paced game (and it can be!), but as you get deeper you'll need to plan multiple turns ahead to survive. Especially when entering a new dungeon! Even difficult dungeons are designed to be fair, and once you get a feel for which dungeons do what you'll better understand what types of things can spawn there and how to tackle it.

Observe the ring and strategize.
Learn, adapt, or face demise.

Hopefully this is helpful while we work on ways to make this more intuitive within the game.
Thanks everyone for playing and appreciate all your feedback!

If anyone has more tips, feel free to add them below.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Great idea, I like it when knowledge in a game can be the key to success it's better than dumbing down the game for those who struggle, better lend them a helping hand, elevate them to your level, so we all share the same basis to discuss.

[Zero]

Wait what? You can reroll items/

[Twice Different]

Originally posted by Zero:

Wait what? You can reroll items/

Yea, it seemed like a few people didn't notice this feature in item comparison.
The next patch will also add a tutorial to point out the rerolling feature to players that haven't used it.

[Pika22]

Good guide. If you've ever played Meteorfall: Krumit's Tale, a lot of strategy from that game applies here as well. For example, it's worth realizing that outspeeding a creature and killing them before they attack will prevent them from attacking back. This means that a deck with high Speed is viable, since you can one-shot creatures before they can harm you.

Additionally, since you usually know the attack value of the creature you're about to fight, and since attacking a creature but not killing it is usually worthless, you can figure out how much health you have to "pay" to kill the creature, and how many Souls it drops. Everything is a resource, be it your Souls, the number of potions in the dungeon that you can easily reach, or even your health. If an enemy is going to hit you 4 times for 4 health each before you kill them, it might be better to try stealthing them and potentially taking 4 damage.

[SavantArtist]

Hi, so far very interesting game, and I've gotten a little better after coming here and reading this thread. Question tho, what is the purpose of the pets, dog, frog etc, what is happening when i'm petting them? Also, is there a way to remove equipment once it's put on? I had another question but I forgot so stay tuned, but thanks in advance! May have something to do with added tool tip hovers...

[Pika22]

Originally posted by SavantArtist:

Hi, so far very interesting game, and I've gotten a little better after coming here and reading this thread. Question tho, what is the purpose of the pets, dog, frog etc, what is happening when i'm petting them? Also, is there a way to remove equipment once it's put on? I had another question but I forgot so stay tuned, but thanks in advance! May have something to do with added tool tip hovers...

1. They give you souls if you kill them. Petting a dog does nothing.
2. You cannot press a button to remove equipment, but you can replace it with other equipment. Such is the nature of the Ring.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by Pika22:

1. They give you souls if you kill them. Petting a dog does nothing.

Except you have the pet gloves

[SavantArtist]

Ok, and if it's not a spoiler, what do the sacrificial shrine and wishing well do? I've encountered both at times and when clicking, ,nothing happens.

[Pika22]

Originally posted by SavantArtist:

Ok, and if it's not a spoiler, what do the sacrificial shrine and wishing well do? I've encountered both at times and when clicking, ,nothing happens.

The Sacrificial shrine allows you to pay health as an offering. Do it enough times and a reward will drop.
The wishing well lets you destroy the equipment in the penultimate slot and gain its stats (Attack, Defense, Speed, Clarity, and Health). Doing it enough times over multiple runs will unlock new equipment to add to the card pool.

[SavantArtist]

Ok gotcha, the more I play, the more i enjoy but it is frustrating. I saw someone said they didn't like it when games were 'dumbed down' and I can agree with that...on the other hand, it's almost punishing. I keep working w/ different combo gear and whatnot but have yet to make it past level 9. Also, the reason i asked about how to remove items, is because some sets say if you have so and so or less...and if I want to remove something for that particular piece to work, it would be nice. Otherwise once you equip past a certain amount, you're kinda stuck with them til the end, meaning the slot filled. anyway, keep up the work, i look forward to what can be achieved, i must have just purchased this after the latest upgrade so it's all new to me. thanks.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Originally posted by SavantArtist:

Ok gotcha, the more I play, the more i enjoy but it is frustrating. I saw someone said they didn't like it when games were 'dumbed down' and I can agree with that...on the other hand, it's almost punishing. I keep working w/ different combo gear and whatnot but have yet to make it past level 9. Also, the reason i asked about how to remove items, is because some sets say if you have so and so or less...and if I want to remove something for that particular piece to work, it would be nice. Otherwise once you equip past a certain amount, you're kinda stuck with them til the end, meaning the slot filled. anyway, keep up the work, i look forward to what can be achieved, i must have just purchased this after the latest upgrade so it's all new to me. thanks.

See it like that, as long you haven't cleared the ring of pain yet, you have something to keep you going. I'm pretty sure you will become better and better at this (and of course sometimes you have bad luck, but sometimes you will have very good luck)

[Tim]

Loving the game! But asking us to plan multiple turns in advance can be hard with the current interface.

1. I wish the magnification icon worked for all enemies currently revealed in the ring.
2. I wish you could hide item selections to look at the ring in detail before making a choice.

My winning runs usually involve reactive item selection, but I often forget exactly what speed or defense stat enemies have and screw myself. These limitations make it really hard for me to handle the mental load of long-term decision making with precise calculations. It's like if you were considering what to discard in a board game and your friends suddenly covered the table with a blanket.

My tip: it's tempting to play risky and hope for an early-game snowball, but since common items are so replaceable, it's better to survive. Skewing your stats too far early on can leave you completely hosed against certain enemy formations. I usually aim to either parry or outspeed rats as my first stat goal and go from there, and if I can't kill them efficiently or get a full heal before leaving, I leave them alone.

And try to get as many items and stat upgrades as you can before all your fights so you don't waste health!

[Twice Different]

Originally posted by Tim:

Loving the game! But asking us to plan multiple turns in advance can be hard with the current interface.

1. I wish the magnification icon worked for all enemies currently revealed in the ring.
2. I wish you could hide item selections to look at the ring in detail before making a choice.

Yep! We’re going to add a way to let players view creatures further back in the ring. Not sure exactly when but it’s on our to-do list.

With hiding the Item selection... the biggest issue is designing this (nicely) for controllers and the already crowded screen space. We’re a bit limited, but will consider. At least players can observe before going into the interaction if in a critical situation, but it would be a nice to have.

[Skar]

Thanks for this non-spoiler-y post with some tips.
I played the game during the beta and loved it. Recently bought it and I noticed I'm a very impatient player. Often I think every room will be random, so there is no strategy really needed to 'solve' the game.

But I do remember from during the beta that at some point I got better at playing, mostly because I slowed my pace, thought more about what I was doing.

So I do enjoy tips like these, where you explain every room is a puzzle, remind me about not having to kill every creature and having to do some planning ahead.

Thanks!

[Twice Different]

Hey Skar, was a pleasure having you in our Closed Beta and thanks again for the feedback. And yea, we'd like to add more twists on the puzzle-like rooms as future content.