Starter Tips & Tricks

Stuck in the first few dungeons? New to Wizardrylikes? Try reading the tips and tricks collected in this guide to get going!

What is Wizardry / what does this game have to do with Wizardry?

Wizardry is one of the first PC RPGs ever created. It's a long-lasting series with dozens of games that consist of a rough Dungeons and Dragons-inspired ruleset, first person dungeons, traps, treasures, and deadly monsters.

Wizrogue is not really like those games! Wizrogue draws more inspiration from Japanese console-style "rogue-lite" games proffering a top-down perspective, shorter, easy-to-navigate dungeons, and more casual gameplay.

What it DOES have, however, is a fairly high challenge factor, races/classes/magic systems remniscent of Wizardry, and a ton of Wizardry-style flavor.

A lot of the game's mechanics are taken from 'character battler' games such as Puzzle & Dragons, DBZ Dokkan Battle, and even the new Fire Emblem Heroes games. Some of these mechanics are a little difficult to wrap your head around at first, so that's why this guide is here!

What are the mechanics like?

[Note that the majority of this section is merely a summation of the in-game Help.]

First of all, you don't create a party of six custom-tailored heroes like most dungeon crawlers. You're given a random batch of Common-rank characters, plus a free Rare (a Dwarf Samurai) upon completion of the tutorial. From then on, it's up to you!

As you progress through dungeons, you'll randomly find Caskets of fallen heroes, which will be revived (for free) and added to your roster when you return to town. Alternatively, you are rewarded with Adventurer Tickets occasionally, which can be consumed to roll for new heroes.

Heroes range from Common, Uncommon, Rare to Super Rare rarities; each of which increases their base stats and starting equipment, as well as maximum level.

You'll notice that you'll accrue a large amount of Common and even Uncommon heroes that you can't use. These guys are often 'fed' through Training to your more favorite heroes in order to give them an XP boost. Don't feel bad, most Common heroes are useless!

The differences between individual heroes are largely based on their race and class, and are as follows, as defined in the in-game Help:
Human - Suited to all classes, but lowest Piety
Elf - Best Wizards
Dwarf - Best Fighters
Gnome - Best Priests
Porklu - Best Theives

Race also heavily influences the random stat gains that you get on level-ups. A high level Gnome will likely have Piety as their highest stat, a Dwarf will likely have higher Vitality and Strength, etc. If you're aiming for optimum min/maxing, then race/class becomes very key. Feed/sell bad race combinations, like a Common Dwarf Wizard, or if they're a good rarity, feed them XP Mats until they can class change into something more suitable.

There are two tiers of classes, but only Uncommon and higher ranked heroes can be the 'advanced' tier:
Tier 1:
Fighter - Front-lines fighters
Wizard - Uses attack magic
Thief - Disarms traps on chests, can use ranged attacks
Priest - Uses healing magic
Tier 2:
Lord - Front-lines fighter with healing magic
Samurai - Front-lines fighter with attack magic
Bishop - Can use both types of magic at lesser extent, can identify items for free
Ninja - Improved thief, has a chance to automatically kill enemies

Once you have a balanced party, it's time to investigate dungeons!

From the town screen, you're provided with a list of Normal and Expert dungeons. Normal dungeons you progress through linearly from one to the next, but Expert dungeons are essentially a list of 'extra' dungeons that have been appended by the developers and are accessible at any time. Some are indeed expert level, but some are doable at Rank 1.

In town, you are going to spend a lot of time training, buying and selling, and organizing your pack. From the shop, you can buy expansions to your bag, item and character storage, EXP boost items, items that allow you to rank-up heroes (Common to Uncommon, etc), and weapons and shields for your heroes. Armor cannot be bought -- it's one of the things that differentiates the rarities of heroes.

Basic tips - I can't beat this!

Don't worry!

A lot of Wizardry has always been the random factor, and Wizrogue / other roguelites are no exception. You may have an ape of a time on one attempt and your party might get wiped, but you might do fine the next.

Some things to keep in mind:

-The shop in town sells equipment! Be sure you buy the best and most efficient weapons and shields for your team. It's quite easy to get your AC close to 0 and front-line attack to 30+ with items purchasable from the shop.

-Changing classes will keep your magic spells / magic slots and HP, but your stats will revert down to their base. Swapping Priests to Fighters (to make a fake Lord) is a good way to add heals and max HP to your party, and its pretty cheap to reduce character age. Swapping Mages to Priests and vice-versa is also a good technique. If you find that a character is feeling weak, try swapping their class to something compatible and level them up a bit there, instead -- preferably to their race's compliment class (Elf-Wizard, Dwarf-Fighter, Porklu-Thief, Gnome-Priest).

-To my knowledge, rolling for new heroes works as follows in terms of rarity:
3-20: Common
21-25: Uncommon
26-30: Rare (27-30 using WJ roll)
31-36: Super-rare (only available with a WJ roll)
*(If these are off, please let me know.)

-Humans are pretty rare. An R-rank human might be your best bet early on to get a Ninja!

-The more monsters you kill in a dungeon, the better. Your XP reward upon finishing is directly related to how many you kill!

-Death is natural. Just because your characters die, doesn't mean you don't belong in a dungeon. Try to make it to the exit -- you'll be surprised how well you do.

-Ranged magic and arrow attacks are a necessity, not an option!

-Scrolls can be infinitely useful. You may find yourself surrounded with no way out - a teleport scroll is invaluable in these situations. Also, don't underestimate sleep, paralyze and mute effects.

-Sell stuff you aren't using! Scrolls and potions do you ZERO good just sitting in storage, and quite a few are worth a decent penny!

-NINJAS WILL CRITICAL YOUR HEAD OFF!! Kill them quickly!

Leveling up and other tricks - The good stuff

Here are some things that may be missed by a beginning player...

1. Spending Adventurer Tickets on new adventurers isn't always the best option. If your team is decent as-is, or you have a Common that you'd rather keep and level up instead of replacing with a new UC, don't feel bad. Spend your tickets and gold on Materials, instead. Once a Common unit reaches level 15, you can relatively cheaply upgrade them to Uncommon, and before you know it you'll have a potent hero. And here's something nice -- every Material pull will give you a map of the Colossus Labyrinth, a super-easy two-floor Expert dungeon that has really good drops. You'll find so many Holy Water items in the Colossus Labyrinth it's difficult to avoid selling them -- a minimum of 12,000G per run!

2. Don't worry too much about the advanced classes to start. Changing classes reduces your level to 1 and reduces all of your stats, as well, on top of aging your character 10 years. You'll keep all your learned spells, and while it's a mere 20,000G to reduce age by 10 years, it's not always the best option. Ninjas and Lords, in particular, are difficult to come by unless you have a Rare.

3. Dungeons are infinitely repeatable! If you find a dungeon that gives good rewards, do it over and over! The best example of this is the Diamond Labyrinth Resting Place (Beginner) - you'll kill enough zombies in one room to earn about 1500XP per run, and come out with half a dozen caskets besides! By far the best way to level up in the early game!

Who am I / Credits

Just a gamer.

Hope you enjoyed, and learned something from reading!

[eastpaw]

@Aguila Clicking on an enemy outside melee range will make you shoot an arrow by default.

[AguilaDeAcero]

Do you know how to trow arrows with out going in the sub menu? Some times I just do a ranged attack by random with out doing the menu stuff.

[Llama_Tsusaku]

Just reload the game and it should be ok. One other thing, this dungeon sometimes change (mostly from day to day), and there are then other enemies. In one dungeon there are zombies, in other kobolds, and sometimes clouds, which are the most dangerous, because they use spells and can attack you diagonally if you are around corner. Still you will get many gold upgraade xp items (R) and silver upgrade from UC to R. After a wile you will have soo many, that it will be even ok to sell them (you get 5-7 cascets a run), because it's easier to get xp from the dungeon run (once again it's 4500xp for one dungeon, that has ONE floor, it takes sround 5 minutes to do it). The gold ones sell for 8k and the silver ones for 2k.

[Llama_Tsusaku]

There is another dungeon in the Diamond Labyrinth, that's for rank 2 and higher, that is moderatelly easy, if you have charasters around level 18-20, you should be able to go through it and it gives you 4500xp, which is a ton. Be careful though, becuase after 2 runs or so, there will appear tougher enemies, that can wipe you out. It's a mechanism for not overusing it.

[markpeterreynolds]

Thanks very much for these tips. For some reason I can't get the in-game help to "run". Cheers.

[qwert_44643]

thanks i really appreciate this quide...well done.