Undermine Major Tips and Boss/NPC Guide

NEW- INFO on Unlocking Griswold The COLLECTOR in NPC Section
Hello this guide covers these major aspects of the Undermine game.
1.Introduction to game
2.Major Helpful info/tips
3.Bosses in Undermine- Attacks, how to defeat
4.NPC's and unlockable characters you will meet.

Updates:
10/16/19- Added section of TOP-TIER must take items to Relic List

Introduction

You are a peasant sent into the mines by your boss the wizard who wants you to collect gold and along your journey to find the source of the tremors that are shaking the mine back and forth. Along the way you will meet characters in the mines who if you help them escape the mines they will sett up shop above the mine. Death is a part of the game and is a part of every run; this being a roguelike. But not to worry the wizard has plenty of workers/peasants to do the job and if one dies the other will take the job of going down the mines. During your journey you will get the opportunity to pick up relics which are items found in item rooms. These change your run in many ways. Some of them will change your stats such as swing damage, throw damage, or HP. Others will switch out your bomb for a powerful bomb. Others do things such as show you secret rooms. This game is a roguelike in nature and has randomized levels that differ on each run you do. It is a classic perma-death roguelike in a similar vane and with similarities to Rogue Legacy and Binding of Isaac.

12 Major Tips/Advice to Progress

1. Movement and Set UP- Use a controller as it is far more difficult to aim with the mouse and keyboard if you do use keyboard and mouse remember to check to see that you have mouse aim turned on this makes the pickaxe and the direction you are facing congruent with where you point your mouse towards. Go through the options and change things to your liking. There is a rumble setting however it goes off anytime you jump so you might want to turn it off before starting so you don’t have the distraction. When the game first came out you could find secret rooms by swinging your pickaxe at a wall. If it rumbled then that meant there was a secret room there.

2. Opening a curse chest should be a rare occurrence. Often you will not get any great reward for your risk and you will get a curse that can ruin your run or end it prematurely. There are situations however where it is wise and preferable to open a cursed chest. For example if in the shop there is a potion that removes a curse on the same floor as your curse chest then yes go ahead and open it. There is another encounter where it is very useful to do so. There is a altar room with relics in it and each one costs you a curse, you choose one out of three (not upgraded). Sometimes you will get the choice to get a really powerful ability that could win you the run. Please take the risk then. It might save your butt later on. The collector update has drastically changed the cost of opening and taking a curse. Before this update it was never, and I repeat never a smart or an option to take a curse. It would simply destroy a run and increase the damage of enemies sometimes 50%. There are curses that make fireballs come from the sky and destroy you. Remember all those rooms with oil? What if you have boots that drop oil- The ones that make you able to jump in oil? Yeah those , one fireball and you are doomed. Now the balance has changed to make the curse/blessing mechanic useful to get further in your runs or complete the game. However it is important to upgrade your alters to get very powerful blessings.

3. Take advantage of buying keys and bombs before you start your run because you will most likely run out of one or the other.

4. Upgrade Debbies Shop: One of the first things you will need to upgrade once you unlock the shopkeeper at the top of the mines (By paying 1,200 gold at the pilfer in the shop, any shop to join the loyalty program) is the expended food supply in the shop. Also upgrade to get the pepper shaker to increase the effectiveness of food. These 2 upgrades are far more powerful than any others. HP is king in this game. Remember that. Also you will be able to increase the item supply of the shop so there are more keys, bombs, etc. You can also increase the potions spawned in the shop. This can be very important to finding one of the characters in the game. He is hiding in a crawl hole which is basically underneath a random rock that when bombed will give a staircase down. He is called Kurtz and he is between Goldmine 4 and Dungeon 3. The best way to find him is to find a potion in the shop that reveals secrets. When you take the potion and walk by a rock that has a staircase below it it will reveal itself. The potion also reveals secret rooms if you walk by them.

5. Use bombs in combat. Bombs can be one of your most powerful weapons if you can land them appropriately in a fight. They are very, very powerful even when you have not upgraded them at the top. When fighting a boss especially you can quickly whittle down his hp with a few bombs especially if you have bombushka or blue or red bombs.

6. Progress in this game is gated by bosses- learn their patterns, try to defeat them over and over again until you learn their weakness and strengths. The more you win the more progress you will make. The latest update has made the worm boss much more manageable to fight. You can now get out of the stone prison he locks you in.

7. The collector update has drastically changed the balance of the game. The day after the update I defeated the worm boss Selt, Rescued Lillyth after beating the Gargoyles, Defeated Mortar charged Golem. That’s three bosses in one day. The collector update has made the curses an actual viable strategy now where before a curse could destroy a run and end it prematurely. One of the mechanics in this game is blessings and curses. There are altars you will find in this game and at the altars you can pray to get a blessing but it also comes at the cost of a curse. You can also pray to remove a curse but at a cost of some of your HP.

8. Hp is king. Whenever you get low on hp always try to find the shop because it will always have a little hp at least. Try to upgrade the shop and expend the food supply as soon as you can because HP is very important in this game. Don’t fret about the money it costs to buy the steak, remember that you can get all of it back as the HP will allow you to go further and further in the game. HP is always I repeat always a smart buy. Never worry about spending money on something so important.

9. Use keys sparingly. Keys don’t drop very often so when they do make sure you are using them the best way you can. There are 2 important key rooms on every floor, the shop and the item/relic room. Sometimes any one of these can be unlocked however there is no guarantee of this. If you have a key make sure you don’t use it to open a chest but save it until you can open the item room first. There are really good items in there that will help your run far more then the gold, etc that you will find in a chest. The only situation when you will have a better use for your remaining key is when you are very low on hp and need to get to the shop to buy food. Then the smart option is to go to the shop first. Often the shop will contain a key and you can purchase the key there and get into the item room as well. However the key is not a guarantee though there is a good chance of it being there especially after you have spent the gold to upgrade your shop.

10. Peep Skeletons. When you walk up next to a skeleton laying on the ground you will notice you can interact with it ,or peep it by pressing Y(if you are using a controller) This is really important to peep the skeletons because sometimes they have valuable goodies for you. They carry keys and bombs which they will drop after you peek them. Whenever walking into a room with combat try your best to be careful not to destroy a skeleton because a destroyed skeleton cannot be pepped. If the room has an enemy like BOBO (the snorlax blue looking bear) peek the skeleton right away because if BOBO runs into the skeleton then it will be destroyed. Often you will find the skeleton’s to be your best source of keys/ bombs, etc the most so early on in your adventure.

11. Use the pickaxe for ranged attacks on flying enemies, enemies lit in fire, and enemies such as bombs and walking skeletons that you need to keep your distance from. You will not be able to dodge the projectiles they fire at you if you are close to them using your melee attack.

12. Secret rooms are a thing, as well as secret rocks. Secret Rooms you will notice pretty soon after starting your first run as you will see a dark wall that is twinkling. This means there is a secret room behind the wall. You can get to it by placing a bomb there. After it explodes walk into the room. These rooms are random just like the levels. There could be any a number of things for you to take. Chests, cursed chests, Alters, etc. Secret rocks have crawl spaces below them sometimes. Sometimes the rock will have an X on it so you know there is a staircase below it, and other times there is nothing to indicate it is a secret rock. The only way to find it then is by drinking a potion that reveals nearby secrets to you. It reveals secret room and secret rocks only when you walk by any of them. So you do have to do some exploring.

Bosses In Undermine

Bosses, Boss fights and attacks, and tips for defeating them. This section will help you with the most important part of the game , the gatekeeper that holds your progress in it's hand. Advancing through each boss fight opens up new unlocks and completes sections of the game. Currently in it's early access stage their are 5 bosses.

First boss-Rock Mimic (Mini-Boss):

This is a mini boss that you will encounter fairly early on in your Undermine journey in the mines. You will find him when you hit a rock that has gold in it and he will pop out of the rock. However if you are witty enough you can place a bomb next to the rock and he will take a lot of damage even before he does the animation and begins the fight. Try to save a bomb so that you can use it for this occasion as when the fight starts it will be very difficult to place a bomb and do damage without taking damage yourself as he does a lot of moving around.

Attack #1- He has a rolling attack. He turns into a ball of a rock and tries to roll into you. You can still do damage to him in this phase, though if he touches you you will loose HP.

Attack #2- He drops rocks from above. You can simply dodge these and move out of the way. This is the best time to get some hits on him as you can hit and do damage faster than the rocks fall and hit you so long as you dodge appropriately.

Attack #3- H hits the ground with his hands spewing a trail of dust that can hurt you if you don’t dodge it. You will want to jump over or out of the way of these.

Second Boss-Selt, Lord of Sand:

This is the second boss you will encounter and the difficulty really ramps up on this one. He is a very difficult boss to defeat and expect to spend many tries on trying to get him to die. This is a large worm-like boss, something in the vein of the Eater of Worlds from Terraria.

Attack #1- Selt moves through the arena and after stopping shoots out his children; Eggs that hatch larva that will shoot at you. You can destroy the eggs and prevent them from spawning. This is a good idea to at least try to get a few as the screen will start to get covered up with them really fast and it’ll be difficult to focus on the boss if you don’t at least get a few. Also try to get a good amount of hits on Selt’s tail after getting a few eggs as this will be the time when Selt is still for a good amount of time.

Attack #2- Selt moves in a circle chasing his tail. During the process Trails of Dust/rocks shoot out at even intervals all around him making this attack fairly easy to dodge after learning this pattern so long as you are not too close and can move out of the way fast enough. There is nothing you can do but dodge here as you cannot do damage and dodge at the same time here.

Attack #3- In this attack Selt goes under grown for a period of time while the player has a target on him. Eggs will spawn and a prison of rocks will encircle the player. The Collector Update 0.2.1 made it so the player can jump out of this prison. This is a much needed change as before Selt would simply smash into you the player and deal almost unavoidable damage.

How to counter Selt- Whenever you get a chance to hit him aim at his tail. This is the only part that will take damage and trying to put down bombs is difficult with a fast moving boss but still can be a good strategy to reduce at least some of his health. You will have periods where Selt is in limbo and you can place a good amount of hits on the tail before he starts moving again. This is your time to get the damage in. Another way to approach this fight is by dropping a bomb that Selt will carry away. How to do this, well the moment Selt becomes enraged he turns red and is about to dive underneath the ground. If you can time it right you can drop a bomb in the middle when he turns red and Selt will carry that bomb away, get it back again and it will explode doing damage and stunning him for a period.


Third Boss(Mini-Boss)-Stone Gargoyles: These Gargoyles will be the next major battle you will face. They will be in a locked room with a key in the center of the room. Upon trying to go up to get the key a prison of stone will rise up to guard the key and 4 statues of Gargoyles will awake out of their sleep. These key guardians are a very powerful enemy.

Attack #1- Fire attack which is one directional; Only initiated if player is directly in front of Gargoyle.

Attack #2- Gargoyles return to their stone state to regenerate health. They can still be damaged with a bomb. When you first enter this room you can kill at least one Gargoyle by dropping a bomb before waking up to the key and initiating the cut scene and fight. This will make the fight somewhat easier.

Fourth Boss-Mortar Charged Golem:

Mortar is a rock-like creature with a rock body, head, and hands. He has blue orbs that circle around him. You can hit him between the Orbs as well which will damage him instead of the orbs. The orbs can be destroyed as well.

Attack #1- Mortar’s stone hands come down at the player over and over trying to hit him.

Attack #2-Blue orbs circling Mortar go out unto the arena and 2 will move an electrical laser beam through the arena from one end to the other either horizontally or vertically. This can be dodged by simply jumping up or to the side.

Attack #3-Mortar sends the blue ball-like orbs out on the arena while he is in the middle. They do damage when on the returning arc. During this time Mortar is defenseless and you the player should be able to do the most damage during this phase.

Fifth and Final Boss- Noori, Spectre of Darkness:

Noori is the final boss in the game and is found in the final room in the Halls of Din. Noori looks like a black and purple circle of death. He does no contact damage to the player. Damage taken is proportional to the number of purple flames in the room IF there are no lit purple flames then Noori will not take damage so it is important to keep this in mind during the fight. How do you keep the purple flames lit? Noori will durring one of his attacks send out two orbs that will curse you if they hit you but if you let the following orbs hit one of the statues that purple flames spawn out off that is unlit it will light up again. With the right relic you can also send the orbs Noori shoots out right back at him.

Attack #1- Noori tries to grab you with his hands which comes out of the ground from a portal. If Noori succeeds he does a large amount of damage to you. Try to avoid this attack at all costs. Most of the fight will be spend trying to dodge these hands and light fires that have extinguished by trying to aim the curse orbs into the unlit flame statues.

Attack #2-Noori teleports to a corner and shoots waves of orbs at the player. This attack can be easily dodged you simply jump at the right moment.

Attack #3-Noori in this attack centers himself in the top middle of the room. He then sends out guiding orbs that will try to follow you and if they hit they will curse and badly damage you. These disappear after a time.

Character NPC’s You Will Unlock/ Encounter:

1.Wayland the Blacksmith- This is the first NPC character you will encounter in the game. You will find him stuck in the mines. After you rescue him you can access his shop above on the hub world at the start of each new run. The same is true for all NPC’s who open a shop in the hub world. He is the blacksmith of the game. Walking into his forge you will notice upgrades you can buy. These change the stat values of your pickaxe. The range, damage , throw damage, as well as your tonic or HP can all be upgraded here. The gold back is also an upgrade. This is important to upgrade as you will lose less gold after dying if you have this upgraded. Wayland can take the blueprints you discover and craft them into future runs. These are permanent unlocks. The crafting comes at the cost of purple rubies which you can find in your runs. These are most often found in secret rooms but can also be found in crawl spaces as well as well as regular rooms.

2.Baba The Alchimist (Potion Lady)- She will move to the area above the mines as a permanent NPC after you complete a quest for a secret character. IE: Collecting mushrooms. Any potion related artifact you discover will be crafted here at which point it is then permanently unlocked for you for future runs. You can also buy upgrades to your potions here such as extending the duration of your potion or giving you more potion slots.

3.Lillyth- Unlocked after beating the Gargoyles and taking their key. She is guarded by a night and a priestess. You can fight them to unlock her or you can open her with the key. She is a permanent NPC in the hub world. She offers upgrades to the Blessing/Curse Mechanic in the game. After rescuing her all future runs will have an alter appear on every floor. This altar can be prayed at and 3 options are given. One removes a curse at the cost of HP. The others give a random curse for a blessing of your choice. Sometimes All three are cure for blessing of your choice.

Dibble (Key/Bomb Seller)- Rescued in the Dungeons. He sells keys, bombs or bunches of them which you can buy before entering the mines. He is very useful to have around as after you upgrade your tools you often have gold left over and keys especially are often hard to come by in the mines.

5.The Collector- This is a secret NPC who after finding him you will unlock him unto the hub above the mines. He is a collector of familiars. You can collect eggs in the game which he will then take and hatch into familiars that you can use in future runs. You can unlock him as follows. There is a lever you can pull in I believe the halls of Din. Doing so you will fight waves of enemies, and after each wave get a bit of steak or fish to heal you. After fighting all the waves you will get a key to unlock the locked room above you to unlock the master library. Inside the library is a book, that if you bring back to the hub world and go to the bookshelf behind the priest and insert the book you found you will unlock the tumb or secret door behind his bookshelf. This is where The Collector will spawn.

6.Black Rabbit- She is someone who gives you offers in runs. Certain rooms will have her selling you items like keys for hp, bombs for keys, keys for bombs, etc. She is a merchant of sorts. She also does games where you can take your chance in a guessing game ,weather you come out richer or not is up to you.

7.Dodson –After you rescue him he will appear in the hub world above. He sells bomb upgrades. Tip: If you speak to him after you rescue him you can get a free bomb from him as a show of thanks.

8.Kurtz- He is an NPC that is a bit tricky to find. He is hiding in a crawl space behind a rock. When the rock is bombed it will reveal a staircase down and upon entering this staircase you will find him. Oh and make sure you have a couple keys with you as he is locked up. He can only be found in between Goldmine 4 and Dungeon 3. The best way for you to find him is to drink a potion that reveals secrets. This includes secret rooms and secret rocks. You will have to walk around as the potion only reveals the crawl space when you are close to the rock. Same with the secret rooms. Having a short few minutes unless you upgrade the duration of your potions you will have to be quick. Try to explore the whole floor before using your potion that way their are no enemies to fight which will take up more time then you have with the potion. So first explore then use the potion. If you can find a way to either double the potion or find another one you have a better chance of finding him. Once Kurtz is unlocked he will appear in the hub world.

Relics/Items

Most of these are self explanatory so I won’t spend a lot of time explaining items other then the must take items below which you will need to know so if you have the choice of items to take you should take one of the items below before any other given item/relic in the game. There are some relics you shouldn't take as well. Cursed Apple is an item found in the game. It turns all your food into gold. What this means for you is all your food gets stolen so you don’t have any way to heal in a run. This can really end your run quickly so if you see cursed apple don’t pick it up. Another dangerous item is the Oil Boots. These allow for you to jump when walking on oil, something that you cannot do initially. The oil boots are dangerous because when you jump they leave oil and there are a lot of items that give you fire, enemies that shoot fire, etc so you will quickly loose a lot of your hp if you pick these up.

Relics below are important for any new player to know about. Write these down or keep this guide handy. There are game winning items that will improve your odds of winning. Always pick these up if you have the chance to and have them unlocked.

Guidance- One of the most powerful, if not the most powerful item in this game. This item causes the pickaxe to rebound and hit multiple enemies after you aim and hit one with it. This is very powerful especially combined with Guest- which is a blessing found at alter rooms. There is a blessing in the altar rooms that does something similar to Guidance by ricocheting your pickaxe however Guidance is more powerful.

Nullstone- This creates a protective shield around you that protects you against damage. The first damage taken in any room removes the shield but does not remove any HP from you. Any damage from that point on does damage your character. The Nullstone is on a timer and will respawn shortly after you being hit. Damage is any kind including bomb damage, taking a hit, or falling off the edge into a hole.

Large Ember- This item causes you to give off damaging heat to any enemy near you. The heat does constant powerful damage. A very good item to have. It also adds a nice fire/burning effect to your character.

Bottled Lightning- A must take item. It gives you a chance to conduct lightening every time you hit an enemy. The lightening conducted spreads to every enemy on the screen so every enemy will take damage when you hit an enemy. This is one of the most powerful items in the game.

Red Mushroom- Lowers your permanent HP by 50 upon taking. Then every enemy you kill it increases your permanent HP. Taken early enough this will raise your permanent HP bar by a large, large amount. The only time you shouldn't take this item is when you are in the halls of Din, where by that time it might be too late and you might want the extra 50 and might not recover enough HP to make it worth it, but other then that it is a must take item.

Items That Raise Damage- These are items that increase your damage. Sometimes these items also increase HP, swing speed, and throw speed. These are must take items unless you have a choice of relics because you have the relic Doubler item. In that case you must take One of the items above which are far more powerful and less common then a damage upgrade. However damage upgrades are a take most of the time.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my guide. I hope you found it helpful and an asset in your journey. If you have any questions, comments or corrections feel free to add them below.

If you enjoyed my writing please also visit my Gaming blog and follow me at https://saturdaymorninggaming.blogspot.com/
Thank you very much.
-Updated 11/10/19

[omgilovesteak]

haha cool. I DO disagree with the KB mouse vs controller tho. I find KB mouse much better but thats just me :D

[KING]

EDIT: .... forget what i said Selt is F*cking Easy with a few bombs Timed well when he charges. Especially Electric Bombs.

[KING]

Here is something You shoud add:
The idea of skipping bosses.. like i always skipped selt since he is quite the tough cookie if you know what im saying. The Cost to Skip him is having to kill the guards.
Skipping Mortar- Changed Golem is MUCH more expensive. 8 curses.
Skipping Noori. well i have no idea if you can even skip him in the first place.
Also Remember to add the boss Ponze . No idea if you can skip Ponze

[tynian87116]

Nice Guide!

If anyone on Win 10 wants to use a controller instead of mouse & kb, I recommend the following:
1. Follow the Guide: Making Throwing Great Again!
2. Before exiting, go to additional options for right stick.
3. Change the sensitivity option from standard to agressive.
4. Apply & exit.
5. Go to search button by the windows button & search "gamepad".
6. Click Set up usb gamepad in settings.
7. Click on your gamepad and click properties at the bottom right.
8. on the test screen write down what control is labeled what on the controller "i.e DPad Up & Down" Note: This is important! Windows doesn't label things Left Stick & Right stick & up/down is a positive/negative format, if you don't know what is considered what, you'll end up messing up the controls!
9. click on the left tab to calibrate. Go through the prompts and apply after it's done.
10. Profit.

[UncleDrake]

Nice guide. Except DON'T use a gamepad for this. Aiming with a gamepad, especially when you use throwing a lot is complete cancer. This game has gamepad support but it was clearly designed with kb+m in mind. It's much easier and a lot quicker, which is needed for the unupgraded boss 4

[Wyrmling]

Could not fight Lillyth guardians - as soon as i hit the guard they teleported me out and locked the door at the stairs.

But findin the stairways to her prison is easy, because 'X' marks the spot - on top of the highest stones of the pile there is a small x when the stairways are underneath - at least it always was - maybe it just was dump luck. Someone can confirm maybe.

[唱别久悲不成悲]

Hi, there is a new boss after the dark nori, which I found quite hard. He has several kinds of attack as follows. 1. 4 heads attack you from 4 corners by hitting ground/using ice 2. spawn some enemies 3. sound waves that prevent you from walking to him.
His hp is too high that I think one needs to upgrade many times.

[seA]

Bruv, to find out secret walls you need to have an explosion (either from barrels) or from your own bomb. Only after an explosion occurred in a room will the twinkle happen in a secret wall (idk if you've written this).
However, there are various enemies/interactions that can outright destroy secret walls like the green ape charge, or the one eyed spike worm, use them to check all walls before killing them!

[S̶C̶A̶R̶]

@mark02017 What you want to do is exit the game and come back it will restart the floor if it is a glitch. There is a boss fight at the end of the floor, can you not locate the boss?

[monkeymanawsome2]

ik this isnt related but im in halls 4 rn and the room im in is stuck and i cant get out. like ive killed all the monsters already idk why plz help.