Tactics

If you are looking for a general game plan for any class to beat your first run check out General Gameplay Guide

### General Tips

* Watch the terrain carefully, use it to your advantage. In particular, unstable terrain and water are both useful and dangerous.
* Take your time and think your way through each situation.
* Shift-Click lets you step on dangerous terrain.
* Evasion is super powerful.
* Protection doesn't work on elemental damage.
* One point of resistance gives up to a 40% reduction in that elemental damage!
* A little bit of protection is very useful, well worth the loss of spell power as a mage.
* Be careful of the blue crystal golems - they will reflect any projectile attack (including a bunch of spells).
* Remember you do not have to fight everything, particularly turrets.
* The +4 Max HP from potions is pretty useful.
* Side dungeons can be dangerous, but if you complete them they make the rest of your run easier.
* Using a scroll of acquirement at a higher level gives better enchantments.
* Some goods that the merchant sells are a bargain (scrolls, food, potions).
* Skill trainers are very useful.
* There is guaranteed to be food on floors 4, 8, 9, 12, 16. (9 is with the merchant)
* You can refill the charges of wands and charms by enchanting them.

### Kiting

Whenever you see a group of enemies in an open area, get their attention and then retreat, pulling them back into a corridor or trap filled area to help reduce the number you have to fight. This skill is essential on almost all characters.

### Corner Bashing

Used by all classes to take out ranged enemies. First get their attention, then retreat around a corner. Wait a few turns (space bar or clicking on your character) and they will conveniently walk around the corner into your range.

NOTE: there should be another wall above you so the enemies will have to walk through a tunnel to get to you, it would be bad if the enemies go up, see you and then start shooting you from a distance

### Stair Dancing

By moving up and down the stairs you can do multiple things. You can use it to give yourself time to rest or recharge cooldowns, or you can take the enemies that are surrounding the stairs with you to isolate them from the group, brutally murder them alone, and then repeat with their companions. It can also be used to move pesky crystal golems upstairs and then you can leave them there.

Stair Dancing is slightly less advantageous in the Steam version since version 1.12 (released 1/28/19) than it is in the Web version, since the player uses a turn to travel stairs.

### Pillar Dancing

If a single enemy is chasing you but all your skills are on cooldown, instead of running into a new room if there is a pillar you can dance around it until your cooldowns have reset. The enemy will never be able to catch you if you just move back and forth around the pillar.

### Food Greeding

While it may be safer, it is not the most efficient if you eat food as soon as your food bar is empty. Eating food restores 1/2 your health and mana, so you should take advantage of this by ensuring you have used half your mana (if applicable) and health before you eat. If you chain this together with leveling up or fountains, you can sometimes go quite a while without eating food, giving you more for when you really need it later. If you are low on food you can also use 1/2 your health bar to move around extending how long your food will last for. Beware - this can lead to death if you get caught by surprise at low health.

* Play as an immortal lich using a necromancer! Life Spike, Summon Skeleton, and Cannibalize is a built-in talent combo that lets you sustain your life with the unlife of your skeletal minions. (life spike no longer works on summon skeleton)

### Leveling Up

While this doesn't seem like much of a tactic by itself, leveling up can be used as a strategic resource. When you level up it fully restores your HP and MP, which is completely wasted if you have full bars. Particularly as a mage, if you pay attention to your exp bar, you can use it to spam spells and destroy the enemy, making it an easy fight without wasting any mana. It will also stop you from wasting food by resting right before you level up. When you level up all cooldowns are reset. Use this to your advantage during fights.

### Cheesing Yendor

With a few blink scrolls or a blink charm and perhaps a hellfire scroll you can easily get the Goblet of Yendor without fighting all the enemies. The strategy works the same for both final floor layouts - blink past all the enemies and grab the goblet, popping a hellfire scroll or two for some nice fireworks if you have them.

### Game Mechanic Notes

* While there are many talents in the game, there are only 8 talent/charm slots. If all 8 slots are filled, you can't learn new active/sustain talents. If you learned 8 active/sustain talents, equipping a charm with an activation ability will not allow you to use that ability. Be careful learning active/sustain talents.