Getting Started

Dungeons of Chaos is an indie role-playing game: 2D, single player,
multi-character, turn-based. If you love the old classic RPGs that
provided incentives to explore non-linear locations, choices for player
classes/skills/spells and tactical turn-based combat, then this game is
for you. Unlike most big budget games these days it is not trying to
maximize the ‘realness’ of graphics, instead it goes back to the basics
of fantasy RPGs: pixel art + atmosphere + deep content + imagination.

This leaves a lot of choices to be made, however the game is designed
 to allow you to play it even in a simplified form in case you are new
to RPGs.  The following topics cover the basic elements and indicate how
 the complexity and game engine works in the background.

**CHARACTER CREATION**

As you see in the story that is told at the beginning, Parnosz the
archmage needs 6 volunteers to form a party and go on various missions
that aim to secure the safety of the people and the realm they had to
flee from.

You can choose to use a default party, or create your own 6 characters out of the following choices.

When you create a new character, 3 steps are performed:

* you ROLL the statistics (hit points, spell points (mana), strength, dexterity etc.)
* the outcome determines which of the 9 starter classes that character could be:

FIGHTER (good with melee weapons, but also versatile and can use bows; various skills)

BARBARIAN (really good with brutal weapons, not with bows. very good
with a few skills like ‘rage’ but quite specialized overall)

RANGER (a mixture of blade and bow proficiency, and a varied set of
skills, a ranger always has something to contribute.  but he also not
the expert in any of them)

ARCHER (very specialized in the use of ranged weapons, and certain
skills like ‘determination’ which make him a valuable member when you
need to take out enemies from afar. but no spells and few skills make
him a burden if a close range melee breaks out)

ROGUE (very special skills that hardly anyone else can be really good at, comes in handy to pick the locks of doors and chests)

MONK (can heal a companion but also use his combat skills to defend
himself and others; with a powerful set of unarmed attacks if need be)

CLERIC (a good companion to have when you are wounded, but also when you are fighting the forces of evil…)

MAGE (a vast and versatile set of spells is available to a mage over time, making him an important player in most parties)

DRUID (a druid has a no nonsense approach to adventure and combat: he
can deal out physical damage if need be, but also has some powerful
nature-based spells at his disposal)

* Once you have chosen a class (or re-rolled if you did not like the

choices), you can supplement the character with a ‘feat’.  A feature or
‘feat’ is a special attribute that will drive the characters behavior
(and usefulness).  This could be as simple as ‘physique’ which gives a
boost to the starting strength and hit points.  But it can also be as
intricate and rare as the ‘dynamo’ ability to deal out low levels of
electric damage in combat.
You should experiment and not shy away from forming a party you think
 is fun to play.  Ultimately, depending on the finesse you put into your
 way of playing, as well as experience with RPGs, you should go to the
OPTIONS menu and set the right difficulty level for you.  There are 8
levels to choose from, the default is ‘normal'( 3).  If you have played
many RPGs before you should play at 5 or 6.

**CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SKILLS AND SPELLS**

As you solve quests and defeat enemies, you will gather experience
points.  This will ultimately lead to a character gaining a level.  A
shining ‘LEVELUP’ button will appear in the character screen when you
have gathered enough experience points, and a small blue sign also on
the portrait in the overland mode.  If you click that button the
character will receive a boost to hit points and spell points as well as
 ‘talent points’.  You will also receive another boost, that depends on
the class of the character and changes each level as well (for example a
 rogue will occasionally get a bonus to evasion and crit hit, and a
barbarian to strength and health).  You can spend talent points on:

* increasing your strength or dexterity.  The higher it is already,

the more talent points it costs.  Strength has an influence on damage
dealt, allows for heavier armour to be worn, and allows for bigger
weapons to be wielded.  Also, while you may be able to wear a war plate
with a certain strength, boosting it further will reduce the negative
speed and evasion factor that comes with such a heavy armour.  If you
attempt to STUN an opponent using a blunt weapon, or a shield bash or
shoulder bash skill, your strength also counts towards the strength and
the intensity of the effect.  You can never have enough strength.
 Dexterity drives many secondary stats like evasion, accuracy, even
speed.  Being able to make your attacks hit the target, not be hit
yourself, and act quicker than your opponent can not be overestimated.
And dexterity also increases the chance to make a critical hit.

* improving your proficiency with a spell the party knows.  This means

 that as long as your party somehow knows the concept of a spell, a
spell caster can start practicing (and then using and improving) it.
 Many spells are unknown to the party when the adventure begins.  The
degree to which your spell proficiency improves depends on your starting
 proficiency, your ‘magic lore’ skill and whether you have any spell
books about this spell.  Overall, mages have a much higher maximum skill
 level for ‘magic lore’ as they tend to study spells and then use them.
 Druids are not that fond of this approach, and with a lower magic lore
skill would benefit less from spending talent points this way.  Druids
prefer to just use spells.  Usage will slowly but surely also increase
one’s spell proficiency!  So in theory you can avoid spending talent
points for spells, other than the initial first starting investment for a
 new spell.

* see a skill trainer and raise a skill.  Like spells, you can slowly

improve skill proficiency purely via use.  To accelerate your progress
though, unlike spells, there is no lore or books that will help you, you
 will instead need to find a trainer to leapfrog the long road of
improvement by use only.  Trainers will more often then not request a
fee be paid, on top of the talent points you use up as well in the
process.  But to learn a new skill is a VERY powerful way to boost a
party’s change of defeating tough enemies.  To be nimble when swarmed by
 many small enemies, or to be able to perform a holy chant when you are
attacked by undead, can make the different between victory and defeat.
 But similar to spells, apart from the initial first investment if the
skill is new, you can also rely on the progress over time by just using
it over and over.
**PLAYER CLASS STRUCTURE**

You will note that the player level is displayed in two ways: as a
plain level next to the character name, as well as a class level.  So
when you start a new barbarian called HULK he will show as:

Hulk ( Level 1 )

Barbarian ( Class Level 1 )

Once you have progressed deep into the storyline (away from the
island you start out on), you will get the opportunity to change to an
advanced player class.  The following are the theoretical possibilities.
  Please note however, some classes will only be granted by completing
difficult quests, performing deeds for powerful guilds or by finding a
mystical teacher.  Be also advised that level advancement is slower when
 you are an advanced class, so assuming the same experience points are
earned, a player remaining within the basic class will level up quicker.
  However advanced classes categorically have access to better skills
and spells, and/or higher proficiencies in them, compared to their
respective basic class.  There are also two superior classes, however
while gaining supreme skill and spell potential, their level advancement
 is particularly slower compared to other classes.

The classes and their progression tree are as follows (as the party
discovers the opportunity for a class change, they will be advised of
the benefits and characteristics of each):

FIGHTER – can develop into a WARRIOR or a KNIGHT or a SAMURAI.

BARBARIAN – can develop into a WARRIOR or BERSERKER.

RANGER – can develop into a WARRIOR, but recently also changed to allow MARKSMAN.

ARCHER – can develop into a MARKSMAN

ROGUE – can develop into an ASSASSIN.

MONK – can develop into a SAMURAI or a PRIEST.  And recently changed to also be allowed EXORCIST.

CLERIC – can develop into a PRIEST or EXORCIST.

MAGE – can develop into a WIZARD or WARLOCK.

DRUID – can develop into a GEOMANCER.

The superior class of AVATAR can be achieved by a KNIGHT or a SAMURAI.

The superior class of ARCHMAGE can be achieved by a WIZARD.

As of June 2016, warlock and archmage and avatar are not yet
achievable.  the game will be expanded over time with guild quests
worthy of such powerful classes.

**MOVEMENT AND INTERACTIONS – OUT OF COMBAT**

In the main view, the party is displayed as a single hero icon in the
 middle of the screen.  You will see a landscape around you, at the
start for example you are in a cave.  Any tile that is not visible from
your position is blacked out, and as soon as it turns night you will
notice that the light sources will not cover all areas and some will
also fall into darkness.

Clicking on a tile will either

* result in the party moving to that tile, finding a way around obstacles; or
* result in no movement, either because there is no unobstructed path

to get there or because the tile you clicked is a solid wall/obstacle
itself, or because the tile is blacked out which means you don’t know
what there actually is.

* result in an action being taken if an action indicator is present:

this is a floating TALK or OPEN or USE sign.  they appear if you are in
vicinity of a door, chest, NPC, fountain etc.
Clicking on any of the 4 directional buttons will either

* result in the party moving one step in that direction; or
* result in no movement, if there is a solid wall/obstacle.
* result in an action being taken if an action indicator is present:

this is a floating TALK or OPEN or USE sign.  they appear if you are in
vicinity of a door, chest, NPC, fountain etc.  For this to occur on the
press of a directional arrow is an OPTION that is ON by default but can
be deactivated in the options menu.

* result in the player running in that direction, and around corners

thereafter, until he hits an obstacle, monster, or expansion in
directional options (coming from a corridor into a room).  this is
called the “dungeon run” mode and is triggered by the “DGN RUN” tickbox
at the bottom left.  You can make the box disappear in the options menu
if it bothers you.
You can set the step speed/delay at which the party moves in the
OPTIONS menu, which in the main view is displayed as a white option
sign.  We recommend you play around with that as it gives a different
feel depending on device, and the default may not be the most enjoyable
setting on each device.

There are many things that you can do in this main view, but let’s start with what you see first:

In the middle of the screen is a tiled display of your surroundings.
 You can use the magnifying glass at the top left to make it larger, for
 example if you are using a smaller smartphone.  It is a representation
of what you see and what you know.  It can show you obstacles, items of
interest, features of the land, monsters, entrances and exits, as well
as chests and doors and NPCs (non-player characters with whom you can
talk or trade or train).

On the right hand side you will see a message box and location
name at the top.  Below that is a bit of space for 3 possible spells
that are active in map view mode.  Below that are the 6 characters, with
 their health and mana bars (red and blue) which indicate the
proportionate amount left.  Health and mana recovers over time, more
quickly when resting compared to walking.  If you click on a player it
will open the stats+inventory view, which we will explain in more detail
 below.

There are plenty more buttons, best explained visually in the HELP
screens you can access from the main menu.  but here is something on the
 one more complex function:

LOOK – lets you put a cross-hair on a tile and receive basic
information about what you see.  Further, if adjacent you can click the
tile (or the search button), which will let you search that tile (for
secret passages, treasure etc.) if adjacent.  This has a high chance
(depending on the party’s perception skill) to detect any secrets.
 Passively walking past hidden things also has a chance of detecting it,
 but much lower.  A  ?  will appear on that tile if the case.

**COMBAT – MECHANICS and MOVEMENT**

In combat, each player and each monster move and act separately from
each other, and many tactical options apply.  But first, the fight is
introduced by showing:

* the number of enemies, by type;
* some basic knowledge that you gathered from previous encounters with

 that type, if applicable.  this would be key resistances and
vulnerabilities, or characteristics such as speed and attack type;

* your gut feel about how it will go.  If you think this will be a

‘suicide mission’, trust that instinct and make plans how to run away
without getting hurt too much. You can run away with each character to
the edge of the arena once the fight starts, then a FLEE button will
appear.
If you feel confident that you are way more powerful than your
enemies, you can set your players to be all be on AUTO mode from the
start.  Do that by having the “ALL ON” option clicked.  Or, if you had
them on auto at the end of the last fight, leave “AS IS” ticked.  In
fight, there is an AUTO switch/button next to each player (green=AUTO).

The AUTO SETTINGS button (before or during fight) opens a screen with
 the options you have to configure a player’s auto behavior.  Note:
players will never FLEE under Auto, and will never use daily skills or
powerful magic.  There is an option to use defensive cooldown skills,
and there is an option to focus on the basic magic attack spells.  You
don’t want your druid to encounter rats and cast METEOR on them, trust
me…

It is very useful to give the magic attack option a mana limit,
either if the player also has healing abilities he will continue to use,
 or if you want to switch to manual and invest the mana in a more
targeted fashion at some point.

You can also enter the inventory/spell/skill screen of any player by
hitting their picture.  However you will not be able to alter your
equipped items during combat.  But you can change your quick actions
there for example.

Quick actions are the 9 buttons each player has which resemble skills
 and spells that he knows and that are relevant for combat.  Over the
course of the game, any new skill or spell is usually added as a new
quick action.  However, as you may gain access to many later on in the
game, you may have to choose manually which ones to use in those 9 slots
 for quick access.  There is also a HELP button which gives a brief
description on each.

Movement in combat is simplified:  wherever you click, the active
player will make ONE step into that direction and then be active again
when the time it takes to move has passed.  Every player and monster has
 a different speed, can use certain skills and spells to move faster, or
 even teleport.  When you have a possible target for the weapon you
hold, monsters in range will show a highlight (close range) or a
highlight with red circles (ranged attack).  Clicking on it will attack
that target.  For a ranged attack, the more red circles the easier to
hit.  Distance and obstacles make it harder to hit a target from afar,
although it greatly depends on the weapon and your skill.  A war bow can
 fire over many tiles, whereas a sling has a comparatively short range.
 Flanking is a powerful tactical element.  If a monster you target,
whether with a melee or ranged attack, has another player next to it,
than that hinders its ability to EVADE your attack.  If you ever find
that a monster is really hard to hit, get up close with several players.
  Unless he has a BURST/BLAST special attack, he can only kill one of
you at a time, right?

If you select a skill or spell from your quick actions, the outcome
varies.  Some take effect immediately, like ‘harden up’ which is a
cooldown skill that prepares a battle worn fighter or barbarian for
being hit over the next few rounds.  Other require you to select a
target, close or ranged depending on skill.  Some let you choose a
target square, like certain teleport skills or area effect spells.
 Where you select some sort of target, you are able to ABORT the
skill/spell use with the respective button, and not use up the
turn/spellpoints etc.

As you fight your enemies, you may see your health points reduce
dramatically.  If you are in AUTO mode, you can set alerts for any
player that lets him revert to manual control if he is reduced to 25 or
50% health. Or alternatively if any player sinks below that, a setting
suitable for a healer that otherwise may stay out of combat most of the
time.  All such AUTO settings can be altered by clicking on any of the
coloured AUTO settings to the left of the player pictures.

Note: while you can LOAD a game that you previously saved (from the
options menu), the game also auto-saves every time you change location
(move between maps).  You can deactivate this default setting though, in
 the options menu, if you prefer to manually SAVE whenever you feel
necessary.  Please note if you fail to do so and exit the app, you would
 lose your progress.  So it is recommended to leave autosave ON and live
 with the consequences of your actions/ambitions.

**COMBAT – DAMAGE, WEAPONS and TACTICS**

Without giving too much away, there are a many different tactical
ways to approach combat.  And the best approach clearly depends on your
abilities and equipment and of course your enemies.  To best illustrate
the factors at play, let’s look at a few example combat scenarios:

1. You encounter a flock of bats, including a few vampire bats.  They
 are very hard to hit, which is resembled in their evasion score.  If
your ranger tried to hit them with arrows, they would possibly die right
 away.  However shooting a ranged weapon costs more time, if you miss
two shots they would probably flown all the way up to your face and you
would be in trouble.  Similarly, your buffed up barbarian with its heavy
 war hammer may equally take a lot of time to clear the ranks of the
bats.  Once he is surrounded by them, he would grant flanking bonus to
them which means he would be very easy to hit by them and loose a small
amounts of hit points every other second and be bled to death in not
time at all.  If you anticipate this, you would send in your fighter or
monk with a very quick attack option: a dagger with some fire damage or
in regards to the monk a simple unarmed attack, as an experienced monk
possibly using his ‘swift punch’ technique.  You can select the
technique at the top left of the screen.  The options vary on your skill
 for that weapon class, as well as the weapon itself.  For unarmed, the
types represent powerful martial arts techniques.  A monk making 5
punches with high accuracy in the same time frame a barbarian makes one
swing with his hammer, makes a hell of a difference.  Similarly, a
fighter with a swift dagger will cut the air and all that are in it in
deadly slices.

2. Your party has entered an orc’s hideout.  With luck being on the
wrong side of the fence today, you are attacked by two groups of orcs at
 once, so the fight starts with double the normal amount of orcs facing
you.  You thought clearing out the hideout would mean easily taking out
one group at a time, but now your lazy duck shoot has turned out a nasty
 challenge in an instant.  Orcs can take a punch, so to take the 7 orcs
and 2 orc warriors down with fire columns will take a lot of time and
not kill them before you have roasted each at least twice if not three
or four times.  You have been cocky and not always regained all your
spell points before moving on, so you started the fight on half SP and
need to plan wisely. As an experienced party, you know what to do.  You
have a deliberately unbalanced party at present. You spent all your loot
 to buy a rare frosty elven bow.  Your archer has also spent a lot of
talent points boosting his ranged attack skills, so his attack type
‘quick shot’ will serve him well.  And the ‘frosty’ attribute will mean
he deals extra frost damage plus freeze the enemy.  While not halting
their movement, it does slow them down.  That buys more time to kill
them before they are in range to unleash their melee attacks on you.
 And in a cold state they are easier to hit as well.  But that alone
would not stop 9 enemies of course.  You spend your SP wisely on two
HASTE spells, which is very costly but will give your barbarian a
fighting chance to maw down every orc that gets too close, and also let
your archer shoot even faster.  And to shift the balance of power even
further, your barbarian times his own skills wisely, using ‘harden up’
when the enemy is about to step into melee range, then ‘rage’ to boost
his offensive abilities, turning him and his war hammer into a
one-hit-kills wonder.  And with a to-stun chance of 50%, even if it does
 not kill it may leave the target stunned and just waiting for the
second hit.

3. You have been careless and ran through some very deep woods.  Not
all the trees are mere plants as you just found out.  One of them is
giving you an evil stare, and soon enough he is throwing deadly boulders
 at you.  You know you could run as he does not seem to change positions
 at all, however you would cop some hefty hits on the way out.  You
think it would make for a great trophy to take one of these ancient evil
 trees down, so derive a tactic to take him out.  First you need to use
the battleground for your advantage.  Any ranged attack is far less
likely to hit if you put a few trees between you and the enemy.  Since
the tree or the party or both sat in a forest tile when combat was
initiated, trees are also present on the battleground. So ‘staying out
of combat’ for some of your party members does not have to mean running
all the way to the edge.  They stay in far sight and would only have a
slim chance of being struck by a boulder.  Then you aggravate the enemy:
 you noticed that once a player wounds him, he seems to focus his
attacks on that player.  So you take the player with the best evasion,
boost it with spells and skills, and let him be the target.  All the
while you boost up a melee fighter.  With every step your fighter takes
towards the tree, he passively receives boost spells from his party.
Boosting armour class, speed, damage etc.  An evil tree is a fearsome
enemy to go into melee combat with, but you soon realise that while he
CAN hurt one of your players each turn, to do so means he can’t also
focus on any of the others who come out of hiding, firing magical and
old school projectiles at him, knowingly focusing on fire damage as his
 natural weakness.  And ultimately, while the tree has some great
resistances to force and piercing damage, the slicing damage that the
fighter’s axe ‘treebane’ produces will make all the difference… What a
great plan!  Until the evil tree is reduced to half his hit points and
let’s out an eerie growl, which is answered by a pack of fierce wolves
coming to his aide from all sides…

The above examples explain many important features:

* flanking reduces the difficulty to hit a target
* most ranged attacks get penalties to hit if the line of sight is impaired
* any attack has a damage type. This can be physical: pierce, slice,

force;  or elemental: fire, cold, lightning, magic, poison; or something
 completely different like the life-draining ability of some monsters…

* there are by-effects to some attacks as well: some attacks freeze,

some paralyze (which REALLY stops any movement or action), some stun
(similar), some cause bleeding (which does not stop until healed or the
fight ends), some cause poison damage (that stacks and only slowly
reduces) …

* distance matters for a lot of things.  Blessed be those that have

unlimited range spells that only need a basic sort of line-of-sight,
like the ‘lightning strike’ spell, where you simply have to concentrate
on someone you see to have him being struck.  Your opponent may have a
fierce ranged attack, but if he starts out of range, he has to cop a few
 hits before he can retaliate.  This also means that you should choose
your targets wisely.  Using auto-fight mode for example means you loose
some advantage here:  manually choosing targets you can target and take
out ONE particular monster first that happens to be your biggest threat,
 whereas in auto-fight mode your party may target a lot of monsters and
not killing any particular one early which they could if they had
focused on one.

* timing is of the essence. ‘rage’ is a wonderful skill, but if you

activate it too early it will run out before you have made the most
important hits…
**DEFENCES, SPEED, ACCURACY and EVASION**

Superior tactics depend on a good understanding of the laws that
prevail in combat, here are the basic ones and a bit of insight beyond
that as well…

PHYSICAL DAMAGE comes in three forms: slicing, piercing and
force/bludgeon.  It is hard to find a weapon that deals a lot of
bludgeon damage without requiring a lot of strength, as it is strength
that creates such damage.  Force damage in turn is the hardest to defend
 against.  When a golem punches you, there is not much your armour can
do about.  However there are pieces of armour that try that, in
particular when they are magically enhanced or ancient and rare, they
can protect you just that bit you need to survive the blow.  Slicing and
 piercing is far more common, and intricate weapons can deal a lot of
such damage.  However a thick hide as some monsters have, can hold up
quite well against it. Then there are those (ghosts for example), that
are totally unfazed by physical damage…

As to the exact effects: armour in any of the 3 categories halves
damage for every 100 points of armour.  So 200 points of armour class
(AC) vs. slicing means you receive only a quarter of the raw damage.
 Pieces of armour are summed up directly to derive the total AC.

ELEMENTAL DAMAGE has many facets and resistances against any
particular one depend for each foe.  You in turn will also have to
prepare yourself well (before battle!).  Fighting a dragon with as many
fire resistance bonuses as possible is a wise decision.  Note though
that fire resistances do not stack like AC does.  It stacks relatively
to the remaining damage:  if you wear two rings with fire resistance of
40% each, the 2nd one will reduce the remaining 60% vulnerability by
40%, so your total resistance is 64% with a vulnerability of 36%
remaining.  Simply speaking: a ring with 80% fire resistance is MUCH
more useful and rare than two rings of 40% each.  Firstly the two rings
don’t give you the same resistance, and secondly they take up two
equipment slots instead of one.  You could use the 2nd slot for a ring
of LIFE (boost your health and regeneration…).

ACCURACY and EVASION work against each other.  In order to hit an
enemy, your accuracy will be weighed off against the enemy’s evasion,
and of course a roll is made which adds a randomized factor.  You will
see that monsters that are very quick more often than not are also very
evasive (=hard to hit), unless the monster is overconfident and does not
 give a damn.  You can to some extent produce that result by taunting
the enemy.  And the same is true for players: if you put yourself in a
RAGE with the respective skill, your evasion drops.   Evasion also drops
 dramatically if you are stunned or paralyzed, and drops somewhat if you
 are frozen (=slowed).  There are some spells which do not need
accuracy, for example a lightning strike.  This particular nature spell
links the target and makes sure the lightning hits its mark.  Area
effect spells impact everyone in range, however some evasion/resistance
is applicable depending on the spell to account for the monsters
reaction.

A monster or player that is STUNNED has the chance doubled that an
attack hits him.  This can be powerful to overcome the evasiveness of a
monster, or in turn can be your own downfall if you are surrounded by a
few minotaurs who stun you every now and then with their mighty blows…
Rumour has it that barbarians can advance to the BERSERKER class which
has as its core skill the ‘berserker’s will’.  Over the life of the
berserker he will effectively be able to withstand any STUN effect.
 Note: STUN is the outcome of a physical force impact.  PARALYZE has the
 same detrimental effect but is caused by magic or other means, so
berserkers will not gain immunity against that.

**COMBAT TIPS (and DIFFICULTY)**

The following are a few handy tips.  If you read through them you may note some address any particular issues you may have had.

1. If you are fighting on AUTO for all 6 players and quickly want to
pause (for example to read back in the fight message log what attack the
 enemy just used), you just need to click on any player or the auto type
 letters to the left of them.  When ANY of your 6 players has their next
 turn, it will be on manual.  But only for that turn, as an interrupt.
 The setting is still on AUTO and if you make his move the fight will
continue on full auto.  You can use that interrupt to go through the
log, check player stats (and there change quick actions if you need to),
 change the auto type settings, change weapon choices etc.

2. if you want to change a player’s AUTO setting (on/off) you can do
so at any time when the fight is ongoing, you do not need to wait until
it is a specific player’s manual turn.

3. if you tend to lose against a specific type of monster a lot on
auto setting, try manual: maybe the use of your daily powers will sway
the fight in your favor.  On auto setting, players do not use them at
any time because they are precious.

4. Similarly, if you tend to lose on manual and are new to this type
of game, activate the AUTO setting for all players and change to ‘M+’
for your fighters, “S” for archers and anyone using a ranged weapon, “P”
 for druid and cleric and “MF” for mage.  If that helps, set fight auto
speed to a high setting in OPTIONS and learn what they do differently to
 you.

5. If you lose regardless, check the fight intuition when the fight
commences, if it says “suicide mission” or “tough fight” maybe you
should not engage this monster group at this stage, stay out of its
lair/realm/area until you have leveled up a bit and/or wield better
equipment.

6. If you are really desperate, just before you are adjacent to the
monster group and the fight commences, go to OPTIONS and set the
difficulty level to something lower…

7. If you think the game is too easy, do the opposite: set the
difficulty to “SPARTA” and see how you fare.  Note that the difficulty
affects many things: damage, monster hit points, experience required to
level up, experience penalty for dying … many things are more difficult.

```
 The only thing in your favor on high difficulty setting is that loot

```

(monsters and hidden treasure alike) is better/more plentiful.

8. If you find that even if you level up you still don’t get much better, make sure you
a) search for loot in dungeons and even peaceful looking areas.  Loot
means a chance to improve your equipment.  A “scorching ancient spirit
sword of GIANTS” makes for a much better weapon than a “bent dagger”.
b) take all loot, always.  sell it at a shop that pays good money (not
all do…).  Do not sell swords to a bow maker, he will pay scrap value
only.  Try out the SPECIALS section which is not for super items, but
rather for quick ways to sell or identify items.  Very handy if you got
lots of loot on you.
c) make sure you take advantage of your improved weapon skills.  During a
 fight, click on the weapon in the top right and use the most advance
fighting technique each player can do with that weapon.  Also choose
weapons wisely.  You may get excited if an axe you found does 10 more
damage than your current sword.  But if your sword skill is 50 and your
axe skill is 10, the weapon attack types available to you for your sword
 easily deal double damage, so the axe is only an option in the long run
 if you REALLY want to raise a 2nd weapon skill one day (I suggest not).
d) thing hard about tactics how to boost your party for the particular
fight at hand: you will find that your fighter may not last long against
 several zombies at once, but if both your monk and your cleric use
“holy chant” at the right time (when the fighter is in reach to strike),
 you will notice that for the short duration he probably deals 3x the
damage you are used to and takes out the zombies with one hit each.

9. Do not underestimate poison.  A ‘poison dart’ spell only deals a
few points of poison damage, but it stacks.  If you have 2 players with
the spell and you cast it quick enough, it will stack quicker than the
effect fades.  Example: if a monster with no poison resistance gets hit
with 4 poison darts but NOT in quick succession, his damage is: 4,3,2,1 +
 4,3,2,1 + 4,3,2,1 + 4,3,2,1 = 40.  He will probably survive that. If he
 gets 4 poison darts hitting him at the same time, the damage is
16,15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 = 136, almost 4 times the
individual result!  Be mindful that the same can happen to you.  If you
think spiders are lame, wait till you are surrounded by 4 of them.  Or
you get spat on by a dozen ants dealing 3 poison damage each…

These are the hints that come up during Loading or Saving screen waiting times, it case they disappear too fast:

“SPELLBOOKS INCREASE THE IMPACT OF TRAINING SPELLS”,”LOOK AND SEARCH IF A WALL IS SUSPICIOUS”,
“CHANGE YOUR FIGHT TACTICS BASED ON YOUR ENEMIES’ WEAKNESS”,
“EVEN WHEN ZOOMED IN, THE WORLD MAP CARTOGRAPHES THE MAXIMUM RANGE OF VIEW”,
“WHEN RESTING, YOUR PERCEPTION SKILL HELPS DETECT APPROACHING MONSTERS”,
“WALKING PAST A SECRET PASSAGE, YOUR PERCEPTION SKILL HELPS SPOTTING IT”,
“WHEN YOU ABORT A SPELL OR SKILL, YOU DO NOT LOSE MANA OR SKILL USES”,
“FLANKING ENEMIES LOWERS THEIR EVASION ABILITY. ‘NO ESCAPE’ SKILL AMPLIFIES THAT”,
“THE ‘NIMBLE’ SKILL LOWERS THE IMPACT THAT BEING FLANKED HAS ON YOUR EVASION”,
“FLANKING AN ENEMY THAT IS HARD TO HIT CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE”,
“DANGEROUS ENEMIES OFTEN NEED WELL-TIMED SKILLS AND SPELLS TO CREATE A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY”,
“THERE ARE RARE CHARACTER FEATS AVAILABLE DURING CREATION THAT CANNOT BE OBTAINED LATER IN THE GAME”,
“CHANGE THE DIFFICULTY OPTION IF YOU THINK THE GAME IS TOO EASY OR TOO HARD”,
“KEYS ARE NOT SHOWING IN YOUR INVENTORY OR STASH. IF YOU GET ONE, JUST CHECK RELEVANT DOORS TO USE THEM”,
“YOU CAN CHANGE THE WALKING SPEED AND FIGHTING SPEED (AUTO) IN OPTIONS”,
“DEATH IS NOT THE END. YOU WILL HOWEVER FACE AN XP PENALTY”,
“ALL PLAYER CLASSES CAN PROGRESS TO ADVANCED CLASSES IF YOU FIND AND APPEASE THE RIGHT GUILD”,
“INSIGNIA ARE ITEMS SPECIFIC TO ONE PLAYER CLASS, THEY CAN HOLD UNIQUE POWERS”,
“EVEN WITHOUT IMPROVING YOUR IDENTIFY SKILL, YOUR PARTY WILL EVENTUALLY REMEMBER REOCCURRING ITEM PROPERTIES”,
“RESISTANCES STACK LIKE LAYERS: TWO ITEMS WITH 50% RESISTANCE EACH LEAD TO 75% TOTAL RESISTANCE”,
“ARMOR CLASS (DEFENSE) WILL HALF THE DAMAGE TAKEN FOR EVERY 100 POINTS OF DEFENSE”,
“SOME UNDEAD ARE IMMUNE TO PHYSICAL ATTACKS. ITEMS WITH >100% ‘VS UNDEAD’ HURT THEM EXTRA THOUGH”,
“WHEN FAILING TO UNLOCK A DOOR OR CHEST, READ THE HINT TO SEE IF IT IS WORTH A RETRY”,
“A SHOP OWNER WILL CHANGE HIS STOCK OVER TIME. ACT QUICKLY IF YOU ARE SAVING FOR A PIECE YOU LIKE”,
“MAGIC LORE LIMITS THE SPELL PROFICIENCY YOU CAN REACH WITH TALENT POINTS”