7 tips to help you beat your first dungeon (and beyond)

This is not a basic guide to gameplay. If you're having trouble completing the first dungeon (on Easy), this guide will help you win.

Introduction

So you've learned the basics of playing the game. You've delved the depths and fought hard but you're still not able to win. Don't fret, these are a few tips that will have you escaping with your lives every time. I can't guarantee these will work on all of the other dungeons, but it should help in beating the first.

Tip #1: Don't level your heroes evenly

This is the first instinct of people in most games. A balanced party may help you in some games, but starting this way is a mistake. The reason why is that some characters get a MASSIVE spike in usefulness lvl 3/4 when they get the Operate skill. Operate allows users to work on a major module (such as industry, science, and food) and add half of their wit to the amount generated per turn. The bonus requires 1 turn of setup and the operator cannot move, but the more turns a person is operating a module, the better.

These heroes get Operate at level 3: Josh 'Ntello, Opbot DV8, Rakya Pulmoni
These heroes get Operate at level 4: Warden Mormish, Kreyang, Max O'Kane, Hikensha, Nurse Deena Ratchet, Golgy Phurtiver, and Elise Ness.

Tip #2: Full clear until you get Operate, then run for the exit on later levels.

The first several floors should be cleared fully in order to get Operate on one of the heroes, and then the later floors should simply rush for the exit. You do not have enough light to safely explore all floors (See below).

Tip #3: The rule of 3

This is where many people have trouble. I've seen advice on the forum that says things like 'go in one direction until you reach the end', which is probably why people keep dying. It's true that you should generally head in one direction, but you should do this following the rule of three: Never have three consecutive rooms unlit.



This may kill you. The reason why is that you have nothing to weaken/stall/damage the monsters in those rooms, and it may quickly become a snowball which overwhelms any defense you might have set up.

You obviously do not have enough light to light every room, but the trick is to break up the unlit rooms as much as possible. Sometimes you will have to break this rule (especially in later levels) when you have a shortage of light, but this can be addressed in a few ways:



1. Put your 'active heroes' (i.e. defenders, etc.) in an unlit room. This will stop three room's worth of monsters from gathering together and wrecking you. DO NOT FIGHT ALL OF THEM IN THIS ROOM, JUST DO DAMAGE AND KITE BACK TO YOUR CHOKE POINT.




2. Cut power to non-critical rooms/rooms which have a defendable point.

Tip #4: The rule of 3 (module placement)

This one may be common sense, but do not place generators 3 spaces away from your crystal. If you cannot find a module placement within 1-2 spaces in one direction, go back to the crystal and go in another direction.


I did not find a module in two rooms to the right, so I went up instead.

Tip #5: Offensive modules suck...except for one.

Offensive module do not do enough damage to warrant researching or deploying them...except for one. Which one? The basic one, prisoner prod. This is useful not as a damaging module, but for another reason: it counts as a structure. Have you had those impossible monster waves where there are like 5 monsters which are doing area-of-effect damage to ALL of your structures in a choke point? It almost feels like it's impossible to win, right? Well, stick a few of these in the previous rooms, and you can kill the main monster wave while those pesky monsters are 3 rooms away, chipping at these cheap structures.

Some of the comments have mentioned the KIP Cannon as a decent offensive module due to stacking Science increasing DPS, but I'm still unsure about it. This is because of Tip #6 (below).

Tip #6: You are not using your skills enough.

If you're skills are never on cooldown, you are not using them enough. If they are, you still probably are not using them enough. Why am I advocating spamming your skills? Because there are two reset opportunities that you probably don't notice.

The first, you've probably seen but never thought to use. There is a button in the character window which says restore. This resets your skills so you can use it again. The interesting thing about this is it doesn't require food or industry (which are super valuable), but science. Resetting a skill early on is probably not worth it, but in the later levels, it totally can be. Especially if skills are complete game-changers (such as any room-affecting skills such as Skroig's Red Plume).

The second, you might not have realized. If you have rooms left over when you find the exit/take the crystal, each time monsters spawn and a room opens, it counts as a turn. You do not get any additional resources (except for light which doesn't affect anything), BUT YOUR SKILLS COOL DOWN FOR EACH ROOM OPENED. This means that you can use the skill right before you take the crystal, immediately reset it (when several doors open), use it again, and sometimes be able to use it a third time.

Tip #7: (Help I still can't win! SPOILERS) Basic party setup/walkthrough

Your party should (ideally) consist of:

2 Operators (Max, Deena from starting heroes, Mormish/Golgy/whoever you find)
1 Fighter (Gork from starting heroes, Ken, etc.)
1 Runner (Sara from starting heroes, Skroig, Golgy, etc.)

From the starting heroes, Max is 1st choice, followed by whoever you want.

Starting off, build Industry --> Food --> Science
Later levels, you may want Food --> Industry --> Science

Do NOT Operate science modules past floor 4 unless absolutely necessary. Operate on food/industry for the most part.

Whoever is your Operator should be rushed to level 3/4 at once (it's okay if the other person is level 1). Start them off Operating your Industry module at first (since you will need to build modules/defenses starting on every floor).

Research priorities:
1st: Neurostun Module, Dust Gen, Pepper Spray
2nd: Suppressive Firebot, Tear Gas, Bio-organic Transference
3rd: Holohero, Viral Injector, Prisoner Prod, Mechanical Pal, Autodoc Shards
4th: Everything else.

Runners should open doors (of course), but also have a minor safe area to run back to. These are different than actual chokepoints in their setup. These are mainly areas to fight any enemies that will not pass by your chokepoint.

A runner's 'camp' (with 3 minor module spots): Prisoner Prod, Suppressive Firebot, Neurostun
A Chokepoint: Dust Gen, Bio-Organic Transference, Neurostun

Conclusion

Hopefully, with these tips, you'll be able to beat the first dungeon and perhaps even more than that. Have fun!

[rob1tek]

Thank you so much for this guide! It is excellent. I managed a win -by the skin of my teeth- on my first run after reading and, more importantly, it renewed my interest in the game.

[Cygnus]

skroig is definitely the best character especially with level 1 red plume. restore cost is a bit much with lvl 2 and 3 but with 1 you can endlessly spam it. the ability is op af because it never falls off no matter how strong and dense waves of enemies become, it can handle anything.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡]

Use a trainer and beat the whole game in one click

[Nomoturtle]

One thing I'd love to thank the author here for is the power of bio-transference, I'd completely missed this in favour of doc shards, and frankly the shards simply cannot compete unless you have your room full of heroes which is just unrealistic.

[Nomoturtle]

Lastly, it's simply wrong not to care about offensive modules. A suppressive firebot adds up to 31% attack power. A great offensive hero will end up with 150-200 DPS, so your module adds up to around 60 DPS. Let's compare this to a single smoking gun operating 67% of the time - 67 DPS, or a maxed KIP cannon - 76 DPS, or a Claymore hitting 5 enemies - 61 DPS.

A room full of offensive modules is simply better DPS than a standard module-buffed hero.
The main advantage a hero has is aggro, which you should then exploit with a claymore since none of the heroes have basic AOE.

[Nomoturtle]

Team building - It is extremely important to have someone good at gathering dust. someone like Hikensha, Golgy, or the chef. Late game you will have very little dust income from opening rooms, you will almost certainly need to place heroes in dark rooms to pseudo-power them, and you will need someone farming dust from mobs. Either design a choke point with Hikensha or Golgy, or any hero carrying an item granting pilfer, or use the chefs ability as often as possible. Do not use someone like Joleri for most of your kills. If set up correctly, you can conquer any dungeon of any size as you eventually reach equilibrium of earning 10 dust per wave.

[Nomoturtle]

The rule of 3 doesn't always make sense. The reason you go in one direction is to spread monsters along the length of the room so that they don't snowball. However, if you have a room with 3 adjacent dark rooms, then they immediately combine in that room and snowball...

Alternatively, tailor your modules to your enemies.
- 3 or more dark rooms in a row? Focus on high dps modules to kill enemies as they arrive one room at a time.If it's a particularly large room use neurostun with high dps along powered corridors leading to such high dps chokepoints
- 3 dark rooms adjacent to your chokepoint? I don't recommend this situation in the first place, but
use claymores or seblasters to make the most of it, especially if on a floor where enemies don't damage your modules as much..
- Lots of crystal pricks smashing your stuff? Set up a LAN module or two somewhere.

[Lady Heresy]

Just yesterday I found myself on the unfortunate end of a snowball, I had 3 door-busters going active, and could not stop them as they opened literally every single door, something like 20 doors, on the 9th floor.

I survived because all the enemies that flowed out had to walk through a hallway of tesla-coils, seblasters, and ended up in a room with KIP-cannons and two of my 4 heroes, Sara and Rakya, while the other two heroes stayed on the other side of the chokepoint and continued to operate other major modules.

Offensive Modules ABSOLUTELY make a difference.

[45]

this is honestly bizzarre... dont use the turrets in the tower defense game...? branch into multiple paths early even though the exit is always at the end of a long path. rush to next floor even though damage isnt permanent and miss out on all the resources for opening doors. I feel like this is trolling

[Balry]

Never research modules?