Pixel Dungeon

I actually couldn’t tell you how many years I’ve played this game for, because it’s been so many, but I’ve definitely put somewhere in the 5000 hour range into the game during that period of time. This is (surprisingly) the first time I’ve ever encountered something that felt extremely unbalanced. This is bolstered by the fact that AFAIK trinkets were intended to be a middle-of-the-road type item that acts as neither a direct buff nor nerf but rather opens up opportunity for different build styles. I’m also going to point out what I believe to be an actual bug, but I’m unsure because it could just be some wonky RNG. This isn’t necessarily a terrible game breaking thing because it requires having a +3 petrified seed and +10 sandals of nature to be efficient. It also requires playing huntress to obtaining rejuvenating steps from a meta scroll. I know that infinitely farming seeds is viable with this combo and a fair amount of luck, but the rate with which you’re able to get rune stones is really absurd. Once you have the items you just need one patch of grass, even if it’s only a handful of tiles. You step on them with rejuv steps and then aggro enemies to stomp the grass back down to rejuv again. The screenshot above isn’t a crazy amount but it took less than 5 minutes to get them (I don’t plan on actually abusing it for this run). This definitely makes petrified seed a monster ours buff for huntress w sandals. It’s definitely not game breaking because it’s still going to be a very rare combo to see generally, but it feels unbalanced and I wanted to point it out. The 25% drop rate is what makes this viable I think; You get way too many dewdrops because of the rate increase which makes hunger a non-issue. Also the fact that the trinket can be dropped to farm seeds instead makes the items “downside” not actually feel like any downside at all. Now to what I think may be a bug; floors are generating with an absolutely crazy amount of grass. I thought it was just lucky at first, but the last 5 floors since I got the trinket have seemed like straight grassy floors. I also encountered a dark (forget the actual term but I mean the level you need a torch for) floor and did not encounter a torch, which I thought was a given on those floors. Sorry if this isn’t the place to post something like this. I couldn’t think of any other way to report this; and I also just made this Lemmy account so I’m also unfamiliar with the platform. Hopefully this can be of some help though.

3
2

Currently Unstable Spellbook draws random scrolls from a list of 10 eligible scrolls _with replacement_. My suggestion is to change this so that scrolls are drawn _without replacement_. This idea came to me after someone on Reddit claimed to have drawn a bunch of strings (a string of 4 and a string of 6) of the same scroll in a row, all within the same game. Generally when this happens it gets people out of the game and has them thinking there’s something wrong with how scrolls are chosen. My suggestion, to draw the scrolls without replacement, would make longer strings of duplicates like this impossible. It would also make the Unstable Spellbook more strategic in its use because you could keep track of which scrolls you get and then be able to make plans for potential upcoming scrolls. To make this less tedious, you might consider allowing the player to see some of the potential upcoming scrolls, similar to how some versions of Tetris show you the upcoming pieces (though not necessarily in exact order like Tetris). Some further notes and thoughts: - Identify, remove curse, and magic mapping are all half as common as the other scrolls. This could be handled by having a deck of 17 scrolls, with 7 duplicates for the more common types but only 1 copy of each of the 3 above. - If you do go with a deck type system, maybe the player could keep adding more scrolls (beyond the needed for each upgrade) to bias the deck in their favour. This would make the Unstable Spellbook into a kind of deck-builder minigame, like Slay the Spire! - Another idea might be to remove the popup choice for upgrading scrolls you draw, in favour of allowing the player to add both regular and exotic scrolls separately, giving them separate distributions within the deck. This loss of control would represent a small tactical nerf to the usage of the book which would partially offset the strategic buff caused by letting the player know and have more control over the distribution of scrolls they get from the artifact. Anyway, thoughts, opinions, suggestions? I personally love the Unstable Spellbook in its current form but I have talked to others who don’t like it at all. My thoughts around this suggestion are to attempt to bridge this gap and make the item feel less random while still preserving its random flavour. The tradeoff is that this suggestion would make the item a bit more complex, though I don’t see think it’s an unreasonable amount of added complexity. Alchemy is quite a complex system in the game and many players don’t engage with it at all. Even at the most tricked-out “deck builder” version of this suggestion, it’s still quite a lot less complex than alchemy because the choices are much more straightforward: want to see more of a scroll? Add another copy to the spellbook!

-1
8

The dev has been on point for years but I'm definitely not a fan of repurposing the Stone of Disarming to help ID items. The exploding trap item ID "exploit" is way overblown IMHO. It came at the cost of losing and not using or selling non-upgraded items in shops. It was also plausible that higher quality upgraded items are built better to withstand the explosion. I've never had to rely on it as there's lots of ways to ID items and don't care if others use the trap as the game is all about having multiple ways to accomplish goals. If it bugs most players then ok fine... nerf it... but not at the cost of other very useful items. It's not like the trap is that common where it's game breaking though. You might not even encounter one before slotting the items you want to use for the rest of the game. The change came at the cost of providing much fewer ways... and in some case the only way... to deal with traps. The biggest one is being forced to duke it out in summon trap rooms if you don't have a potion of levitation which mainly only drops to fly over other trap rooms. Another is running from a mob on low health and being stopped by a nasty undiscovered trap in a hallway with no other item or skill to leap over it. It also uses up items that players use to do and craft other things. Also, I saw that bombs don't work on wood walls in the stone of enchantment room anymore? Items that make fire are easier to get but it's annoying when you don't have something earlier in the game so you have to keep going until you find one then trudge back at the cost of satiety... and it may have dropped for a wood walled up door so you have to repeat the process. Anyway, no complaints to add a new stone of detection rather than replacing a useful one which reduces the interesting and plausible ways to do things.

6
20

Hey Dungeoneers! I've just released Shattered Pixel Dungeon v2.5.3! This patch includes a few changes in response to feedback and gameplay data from v2.5.0. There is a new way to identify items, a few items have been buffed/nerfed, and bombs have been buffed across the board!

18
1

After playing for maximum score on 6 challenges forever, I finally bit the bullet and went for a 9 challenge perfect score run. This general strategy got me there in surprisingly few tries: - Pick Huntress for the spirit bow. The combination of no armor and almost no healing means we can't afford to melee past sewers. Later we pick Sniper for extra vision and armor piercing bow, Warden is sadly gutted due to the Barren Lands challenge. - Fish for a Ring of Haste as much as possible (always pick rings from crystal chest and pick the chest room behind crystal doors; transmute other rings). - All upgrade scrolls go into the Ring of Haste. - Once we've got haste up and running, kiting is the name of the game. Use vision (Rejuvenating Steps and Heightened Senses talents are amazing) and trick shots to deal with ranged threats. - All healing potions go into energy, we'll use alchemy to get past Tengu, and the King of Dwarves. Keep an Elixir of Feather Fall around to safely do pit rooms. - Skip sacrificial altars for the ascent, and save 3-4 Scrolls of Magic Mapping for the ascent as well. We'll turn them into Scrolls of Foresight and comb every regular floor for full exploration score. Potions of Shrouding Fog trivialize Tengu, who is otherwise a huge obstacle for a 9 challenge run. The new bombs also feel great, they do decent damage and have good utility. I used a couple of them to beat down the final phase of the dwarf king. Finally, once you make it all the way down to Yog he actually falls wuite easily to the bow 🙂 One thing I didn't think of was to pick up the darts from the shops, and craft some blinding darts - they'd have saved me a lot of headache against scorpios and warlocks. I will say that 9 challenges is a lot less fun than 6 challenges, so I'll probably go back to that. Barren Lands in particular feels like it makes the game less interesting, disabling plants entirely just removes so many tools from the player. ![Final inventory](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/9e2cec66-b1d2-433c-8941-924607a2a980.png)

44
6
https://imgur.com/a/WlPlYpe

I tried playing the game on mac but it minimises itself. It's the most recent version from itch.io as of today and I'm running on 10.15.7 Catalina if that helps.

0
4

From a my perspective (pixeldungeon memes on lemmy🥲)

46
10

I could be missing it, but I feel like I've combed all through the journal, and don't see an entry for these in the new journal. I honestly even forgot these existed until I decided to randomly make a weaponized blandfruit since I had too much food.

20
4

I've gotten to demon halls a handful of times, but always died in the first few floors. This is my first time making it as Sniper (or Huntress at all, actually). I have a +6 Grim crossbow, a projecting spirit bow, a ring of arcana, a +2 ring of haste, and +1 plate armour of swiftness. I also have a horn of plenty which I intend to transmute, and rings of tenacity, might, and evasion which I plan to sell. Which crown upgrade do I want? I'm not sure which one plays best for this build. Does anyone have any other advice for not dying in the Halls? Update: Yog is dead. Thank you so much for the help! I went Hawk and dumped the rest of my scrolls into Haste for maximum kiting.

1
5

This run was nothing special. Nothing bad happened. Nothing good happened earlier than expected. It was just an easy run. I don't really play to maximize wins. I just do it to fill time.

35
10

(First floor.) Ration of Food blocks the door. Mage pretty much starts with everything you need to solve that room. Edit: This seed is crazy, already with artifact and wand on the first three floors. LBX-MZH-SYDv2.5.2 (Mage; On Diet&Faith Is My Armor&Forbidden Runes)

9
11
github.com

This is the last official version of Experienced Pixel Dungeon, Redone or otherwise. No more bugfixes, ports to latest Shattered, or new content. That's the end of the line. 2024 is anniversary to many things, including this mod, as 4 years have passed since the first release of that silly grinding mod with many things to do; but since then, the tumor has only grown larger... You might have noticed, that large amount of content haven't really changed since its first year of 2020-2021. After that, I just fixed bugs and ported Shattered's new releases, with big things only happening once a year. It almost became an another job, that I did to keep its legacy going further and further, sometimes even at expense of project I actually enjoyed, like Summoning. And then it really took off in 2023. My email started being flooded with reviews and emails about how it is the best game they played, or reported game breaking glitches. The legacy design didn't stand up very well, and breaking integer barriers is bond to make things wrong. But I kept going. For honor, for people, to keep the tumor alive... I hated it, but I told myself, than I should do it. It's the most popular mod of mine, why I would cancel it? What would happen to those PD fans, that enjoyed grinding? But just like cancer, playing or making ExpPD results in never ending pain. So I am ending it. For my own sake. You may not be happy. But I am happy. Than the beast is slain.

8
2

Combo of blooming and camo worked super well with a high damage glaive

10
0

I started wondering whether this breaks Roguelike-ness, since a run gets influenced by external factors.

3
10

Spirit bow has blooming and speed augment. Spawn grass and burn everything at range with the blazing crossbow buffed darts and sniper's mark ability, artifacts and haste armor ability to get away or run through the fire. This build did monstrous aoe damage, spawning massive blazes nearly every fight The real star of this run was the parchment scrap. Since the update where energizing potions and scrolls identifies them, it feels very viable to identify all of the extra scrolls and potions from the first 4 floors by energizing them and pumping that into the parchment scrap. 10x enchantment/glyph find and 0x curse find on armor and weapons is a wild effect to have before floor 5. In the posted run I got a lucky weapon early with this strategy which snowballed into RoW drops, making a build that felt very strong starting on floor 4 and continuing for the rest of the game

15
5

Shattered Pixel Dungeon- v2.5.2 Desktop Linux, github version https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon/releases/download/v2.5.2/ShatteredPD-v2.5.2-Linux.zip I am a daily tor user (and an Edward Snowden supporter- read his book, Permanent Record, if you have not already), so I have an interest in this sort of thing. If check for news and check for updates are turned off, will Shattered Pixel Dungeon still ping the internet and thus reveal my ip address? Or will it not communicate with the internet if both of these are clicked off? I can of course play with the internet off or within Whonix-Workstation, but both are somewhat inconvenient. Thank you for your help.

5
8

Shattered Pixel Dungeon- v2.5.2 So I was playing a game with wand of transfusion a while ago, but I forgot to ask questions about it here. In the prison area, the guards and the thieves are undead monsters now, so they take damage from the wand of transfusion. However, the necromancers also take damage from the wand of transfusion. The description for them says that they are apprentice mages from the surface who came to practice their craft. Wouldn't that make them non-undead enemies, despite specializing in summoning undead creatures? Also, Tengu appears to be charmed from the wand of transfusion instead of taking damage. Is Tengu not an undead creature, despite the guards and thieves being undead? Also, the machines like dm-100 are susceptible to being charmed. Obviously they are non-undead creatures. However, they are also non-biological creatures. So should they be vulnerable to being charmed? Thank you for your help.

12
3

Had an early RoW, dumped 6 upgrades into it ASAP. Ended up with tons of +3 gear drops throughout the rest of the game. The grim greataxe with +8 ring of Arcana and +7 Ring of Furor meant that all enemies were executed within 1-3 hits. I had a ton of scrolls of transmutation as well with which I gave myself almost all of the desirable abilities from other classes. The only thing that I couldn't get to make it even more overkill was a camouflage enchantment on my armor. Seed: FQT-ZHV-WLL although since most of this gear was a random RoW drop or the result of a lucky transmutation, your results may vary. There is also a very useful unstable spellbook early on. The imp also gives you a +4 ring which at that point you can transmute to whatever you want.

12
3

Had some time to kill so I finally ascended my seeded tier 1 run. It was fairly easy tbh, a nice break from the high chal runs I'm grinding Only relevant mistake I made this run was not keeping the rotberry seed for making grass ![talisman](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6e14d128-ecd9-416b-99ee-f9692dc14678.png) ![cloak](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/7d83a633-089f-43fb-b1bc-9558565f44a5.png) And if you want the seed. ![seed](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/878f7b50-7bd1-444a-96c7-f13f1273f4f8.png)

7
3

Just a quick comment to say that the new artwork in v2.5 is awesome! Beyond the visuals, it helps to keep the mood between levels. Great work, evan (and the artists!).

8
3

For a while now, I've been playing with a self-imposed challenge: don't use or equip any melee, ranged, or armor item above a certain tier. Higher tier items can only be picked up and sold, or be thrown into traps and doors. I completed a Tier-3 challenge (with the swarm intelligence challenge) with a gladiator. Then I did a Tier-2 challenge with a sniper. Then I did a semi-T1 challenge, where I allowed a sniper to have a T2 ranged weapon (since the only T1 ranged weapon available to her is not upgradable and not transmutable). At that point I became convinced that a pure T1 run was impossible. Several comments in my previous posts convinced me otherwise, so I decided to keep trying. I tried again with a sniper (using a puny dart), and died in level 21. Tried with a battlemage a few times, once dying in level 23. Tried with a warden, and died in level 24, right in front of the stairs going down to lvl 25! I just tried with a warden again, and this time I was successful! The key was getting a RoSS and a RoH. I had never tried kiting before, but it turns out to be a very powerful technique (but a bit boring). It consumes a ton of food, though, but I was lucky again and scored a horn of plenty early on. I had a blocking enchantment on the bow (don't love it, but useful). The bow was also enhanced for speed. The cloth armor was enhanced for evasion (since it can't even reduce damage from a mosquito). I also had luck with the wands, even though I only found three in the entire dungeon. First wand, from the mage in the jail, was regrowth +2. I hate this wand, even though many people love it. I transmuted it and got (arghh!!) a wand of magic missile. Luckily (again!) I found another transmutation scroll and this time I got a wand of lightning (yayy!!). Later on I found a wand of disintegration +2 and another WoL +0, which were useful to harass enemies. I wasn't super thorough clearing up every level, especially in the demon halls, but I didn't try to rush through the dungeon either. I ended up with 402 kills, level 29, and all SoU and strength potions. I'm very happy to finally be able to show that a T1 run is possible (even though it requires a ton of luck). I'm going to take a break from SPD for a while (this time for real, I swear!), but I'll keep reading this forum. I'd love to see reports of others trying similar challenges (and I'll try to answer any questions as well).

15
7

What should I do now? That gnoll is blocking the way out.

17
14

Shattered Pixel Dungeon v2.5.2 When I level up, the screen says +Accuracy, +Evasion, +5 HP! +1 Talent Point! I can see the hp and the talent points at any time. But I do not see where I can see my character's accuracy and evasion statistics. Where can I see them? Also, do the base accuracy and evasion stats differ depending on which class you start out as? Thank you for your help.

14
10
github.com

This release ports stuff from Shattered 2.5.2. Nothing else to say, really, the merging process went relatively smoothly.

7
0

Is there any other way to deal with this room besides killing the fish? I am playing on a file where they appear on floor 3. I am not strong enough and do not have enough projectile / wands to kill them. Is there any other way to bypass them (besides using ethereal chains or teleporting them away, both options which are not available to me at the moment) without fighting them? Thank you for your help.

6
9

(2.0.1 hotfix was uploaded, fixing Abyssal Spawner being invincible and Metamorphosis cursed effect crashing the game on cancelling.) Download it here: [https://github.com/TrashboxBobylev/Rat-King-Adventure/releases/tag/2.0.1](https://github.com/TrashboxBobylev/Rat-King-Adventure/releases/tag/2.0.1) This update has been in works for over two months, but you can now finally enjoy Rat King Adventure as Duelist, with all new talents and third subclass, while challenging an updated Abyss!

9
0

If anyone is wondering/caring, yes crossposting from Reddit In the first 4 floors looking for: - 2 ROWs (ideally one at +2) - Dried Rose Thank you and let me know about that coffee/tea!

4
4

Maybe evaluation on the adjusted censer is premature but I still feel the trinket is not worthwhile. Even if I knew exactly when it's about to fire off, it still seems too inconsistent to pick over others. While the censer probably won't fire directly on top of a scroll or potion, they can get caught up in the path of a firestorm/icestorm. Even if the censer doesn't shoot when you're in the shop, it could fire right by the door and end with the shopkeeper leaving. My priority with the trinkets is to improve my win rate. The risk/reward ratio is not good. The reward feels meager and the risk, while I guess manageable, doesn't compare with other lower risk yet higher reward trinkets. I think for it to be worth picking, you would need to have warning before it sets off and have a clue as to which gas. It's a censer that takes a while to shoot out; I think it would make sense that you'd smell it before it's dealt. But that's just me. Anyone really liking the censer? Are there strategies for it? Only thing I've got is throwing items at the grass squares adjacent to the point of impact since they can keep spawning grass for a couple of turns, depending on where the gas landed.

5
28

Presenting the Wilderness Walker build, an Assassin build that features near unbeatable combat power on a non boss level. Requirements: Rouge with Assassin subclass and maxed Enhanced Lethality +2 Ring of Arcana Glyph of Camouflage on armor Blooming Enchantment on weapon Optional boosters: More upgrades for your Ring of Arcana Greaves of Nature Wand of Regrowth Bounty Hunter skill Assassin's Reach skill Lethal Momentum skill (from a Scroll of Metamorphose) Rejuvenating Steps skill (from a Scroll of Metamorphose) Potion of Divine Inspiration Rat Skull trinket The Wilderness Walker build doesn't care about enemy health or damage, because the character will only be visible for 2 turns at a time (one with Lethal Momentum) and all non boss enemies are executed. The Glyph of Camouflage and the Assassin's Preparation is the core of this build, allowing the player to step into grass and charge Preparation. The +2 Ring of Arcana boosts the length of the invisibility from the Glyph of Camouflage to the necessary 9 turns of invisibility to execute an enemy, where you become visible again. Then, the Blooming enchantment spawns grass on their corpse for you to reenter invisibility. This works with any weapon and any armor (making this a good build for a tier 1 challenge) due to the fact that you will be hit little to no times and your Preparation ability lets you one tap non bosses. Boss fights (excluding the King of Dwarves) can be challenging, depending on the rest of your choices, but on a normal level it is incredibly easy to clear. Further upgrades to the Ring of Arcana allows you to use the invisibility from the Glyph of Camouflage for longer, increasing range and tracking ability. The Greaves of Nature allow for massive amounts of dew drops to be harvested from the grass. The Wand of Regrowth can nearly replace the Cloak of Shadows, allowing you to spawn in a patch of grass where ever you wish. Using Scrolls of Metamorphose to obtain Lethal Momentum and Rejuvenating Steps is expensive, but it allows you to reduce to turns your visible after attacking to one single move and have near unlimited invisibility while maneuvering, respectively. the Potion of Divine Inspiration should be used on Tier 3 abilities, especially if you level Light Cloak up. Finally the Rat Skull is great to increase to number of Scrolls of Transmutation and Potions of Experience received while almost lacking a downside due to the ability to Execute the rare foes. The three downsides of this build is as follows: Flooded levels lack many areas to find/grow grass, boss fights, and in particular, the Earthen Fist, are tricky, as the extensive wait times of Preparation are hard to handle, and requirements for the Glyph and Enchantment make upgrading gear difficult. I used this build to effortlessly glide through the Dwarven Metropolis and the Demon Halls and if I hadn't accidentally clicked the "Lets call it a day" button it would have been my new top run. I wasn't able to use any scrolls of Metamorphose or obtain the greaves but the run was still incredibly easy. How does this compare to other optimized builds? What do you think of this build? Do you have any ideas for additional buffs?

5
2

After beating Yog, I curse infused my staff for the ascent. With Wonderous Resin, it was kind of fun. It would only zap random things. Kinda hard to do damage, but once in a while it would smack someone for 95 damage, or ooze everyone. Mostly, I used melee. I got lots and lots of challenge arenas. One time it zapped corrosion, toxic gas, and corrosion all in a row in the same room versus 6 ghouls. Super effective! ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/787102c7-6477-4787-b3b7-63cd60e0b0d0.png) Later on, I planted a sunseed to heal as soon as I ascended some stairs. It didn't take long for an enemy to poke their head into the room, so I zapped him. Randomly got the stasis effect! When it ended, I was fully healed and there were 4 enemies in the room with 3 more just outside. That was a fight for my life! Especially since enemy evasion is so damned high on the ascent. ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2be2e43b-923c-4a9e-8fd2-86a4fb1bac33.png) Oh, and I also got the stasis effect during the final phase of Dwarf King... ☹️ ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/90f9d256-933d-4781-8116-cf1ac3b78718.png) Thankfully, I was using Disintegration on my staff at the time and could hit the King from across the room.

19
4

Hey Dungeoneers! The first patch for Shattered Pixel Dungeon v2.5.0 should now be out on all platforms! v2.5.1 includes an assortment of small fixes, and some balance changes to three of the new trinkets. I expect to make more changes in future patches as well, before moving on to work on v3.0.0. Check out the changes screen ingame for a full list of changes.

28
8

Shattered Pixel Dungeon v2.5.0. https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon/releases/download/v2.5.0/ShatteredPD-v2.5.0-Linux.zip Desktop platform- Linux Mint 22 The Shard of Oblivion does not seem to be able to be dropped or thrown. It can use its identify function, but it stays in my inventory no matter what. Is this intended behavior or unintended? I do not know how to send the save file to /u/00_Evan@lemmy.world or anyone else to try and reproduce the issue. In fact, I do not know where the save data is stored. Thank you for your help.

6
4

Badder bosses enabled, left the demon spawners alone, the armor was found early so it made the rest pretty easy. Almost died at Yog though had I not had my ankhs

16
2

I'm curious as to why the distant well remains in your adventuring notes after you've opened the door to the connected room. Is there any use to the rooms after you've looted the treasure? The other wells are removed from your notes after they're used up.

8
2

Projecting war hammer with ring of haste was insane! Scroll of Metamorphosis gave me mages shield battery skill that let me get free shielding trough the run. ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/45794c8e-4527-46bc-b59b-6e1aa82d8810.png) ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/587bc924-6219-4997-a130-efb0f79fe18a.png) ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/45cbc21a-dd7e-403e-b85a-347bc1495e00.png) ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6a9a05d9-f903-4ce6-b7b3-63828ed406d8.png)

14
2

I would love an early RoSS RoH (ideally both +2) for 2.5.0 to have a reliable setup for a pure tier 1 run. Bonus points for an early transmute scroll and other conveniences

3
4

I've completed a tier-3 run with one challenge (https://lemmy.world/post/18859193) and a tier-2 run with no challenges (https://lemmy.world/post/19011489). The idea is to play without ever using or equipping any items (armor, melee or thrown weapons) above the specified tier. Since then, I've been trying to complete a tier-1 run, without success. Since tier-1 armor is laughable, I think there are two feasible strategies: (1) avoid getting hit, and (2) be able to take a lot of damage. In my experience, strategy (2) is not really viable. Melee heroes (duellist and warrior) cannot really sustain the damage taken in the jail. A Monk or a Berserker might conceivably win the game with tier-1 items, but the problem is getting past Tengu. Also, they can normally rely on high-tier thrown weapons. Going back to strategy (1), I had more success with a Rogue, making it to the first level of the dwarven city without too much trouble. I never made it past level 16, though. The ghouls hit too hard! Also, when facing four ghouls, the Rogue is just not quick enough to kill them before they revive and hit again. This left me with one option: the Sniper. There is one problem, though: the sniper needs a thrown weapon (not her bow) to activate her lethal volleys. However, the only one tier-1 thrown weapon that the sniper can get is uncoated darts, and they cannot be upgraded nor transmuted! My conclusion is that it is impossible to win the game with only tier-1 equipment. So I relaxed the challenge to using only tier-1 armor and melee weapons, and allowing one tier-2 melee weapon. With this combination, I was able to win the game! I had a very lucky run with good wands, and found a couple of shurikens early on. These are ideal to avoid damage, since the sniper gets effectively four shots (one shuriken and three arrows) before the enemy can reply. Nothing except a boss can survive those four shots. I also got a projecting bow early on (just like in my tier-2 run). Projecting bows are so awesome! Still, the run was super difficult, since at times I couldn't avoid melee combat. A succubus could take me from full health to almost dead in three hits, and dying in the demon halls is all too easy even with high-tier items. Regarding my claim that a 100% tier-1 run is impossible, I'd love to be proven wrong. I'm pretty sure someone with more skill than I can probably do it.

17
17