Beginner Guide

## About this guide

If you haven't already, please complete the in game tutorial. This is a beginner guide, beyond the tutorial, with information to help you learn some of the mechanics of Demeo. This is written for new Demeo players with a focus a focus on the Black Sarcophagus adventure module (the easiest game module). While most tips can be applied to all the other modules some information to may be less applicable in the other modules. This guide is based on the VR version of the game, primarily from the Oculus platform, so will be from the perspective of that VR platform. If anything is different on PC, PlayStation, etc please feel free to join the official Discord and share those details with the Wiki team in channel. Please navigate the Wiki for more comprehensive details about everything in the game.

This list is long and it is recommended to read through it and play a game or two, then give it another read. This should help make the mechanics of the game to become easier for you.

## Where to Start

The best adventure module for beginners to start with is the Black Sarcophagus. It is recommended to play this adventure module a few times before playing others to learn the core mechanics of the game and the mechanics of the Heroes. It is also recommended to try this module in Skirmish mode a few times before you enter a multiplayer game. See Game Modes for more details. (Quickplay is a great way to quickly jump into a multiplayer game.)

When you do join a multiplayer game, be sure to let the other players know you’re a new player and want to learn. Most players are very accommodating when you’re open to learning and receiving feedback. Also make a note of the number located on the sides of the table (you may need to zoom out to see the table sides). This number is the Room you are in and will need this Room if you are disconnected or need to rejoin for any reason.

Note that you can save your game in any game mode but in a multiplayer mode only the game creator (Host) retains the save file so you would need to coordinate with them to resume the game. This feature is more useful when you play with a regular group of players or want to go through a single player game with breaks in between. The save option is only available after completing a floor and you are in the shop. The icon is in the top left corner of the shop.

## General Advice

### Communication

1. When playing with others, communication is key!! Talk with your group. Strategize. Learn. Your best move is one that considers the actions of everyone in your group.
2. Use a microphone. You can play with others without a microphone but the easiest way to communicate with everyone is with a microphone.
3. Hand movements. On Oculus, you can press and hold the trigger button on either hand and draw lines. Very helpful if you need to point out an enemy or area of interest. It’s also the only way to communicate if you don’t have a microphone. Computer players don’t have this ability but do have the ability to highlight a tile square and have a circle drawn around it.

### Hand & Card Management

1. Make sure to understand the Card Types and how new cards are gained or generated. The card meter increases quicker with damage/kills from poison, summoned creatures, Verochka, and Cana.
2. Before you exit a floor look at the Card Meter, if it’s near full, see if anyone can discard a card or two to reset the card meter. This will give everyone a class specific card and potentially save someone gold for the shop.
3. Use your cards wisely and sparingly – a big mistake by new players is using a card when they don't need to. Don’t use cards to overkill as the card could be more useful on a future turn.
4. Consider all of your team actions before using a card. Sometimes the best play isn’t in your hand. Talk with your team.
5. Always keep room in your hand for more cards. You can’t acquire more cards when your hand is full. (i.e if a chest is opened, the card you would have received disappears.) When you have 7+ cards in your hand, there will be a total count of cards at the bottom of your card hand. When your hand is full on cards, consider discarding a card by dragging a card to the blue card at the far right (increasing the card meter). When playing with others, it’s common courtesy to ask the others if they have room in their hand before opening chests. Similarly, when you're in the shop, you can sell cards by dragging them to the bottom right location in book. This will give you some gold and free up space to purchase other cards.

### Unnecessary Risks

1. Don’t open doors on your second action – if there are enemies on the other side, you won’t be able to move away or attack on that turn.
2. Don’t blindly go into darkness on your second action – if you move into area with lots of enemies, you won’t be able to move away or attack on that turn.

## **Things to know**

This is a collection of veteran player advice and experience for new players on the basic mechanics of Demeo. These should not be considered explicit rules that should always be applied as every turn is unique and may require adjustments for the best possible outcome.

### Starting Space

There are 10 empty squares between your group and any enemy when you start a floor. This helps with decisions to immediately open doors or move into darkness on your first turn.

The game scales with more heroes – the health and attack damage for an enemy will increase as more players join a game. For example, a hound has 2 health and attacks for 1 damage when one hero is playing. The same hound will have 5 health and attack for 2 when four players are playing. When players join or leave a public game, the game will adjust at the end of the enemy turn. (Tip: if several new players join a game, try killing as many enemies as possible before the enemy turn as enemy health will increase.)

### View Model Piece Information

You can pick up player pieces (friendly or enemy) on the board to look at their stats. Keep in mind, not every stat is listed. It is very helpful to look at an enemy stat card before using actions. It provides their melee attack damage, movement, special abilities, and immunities. (See enemy movement below.)

### Enemy movement

The movement on an enemy card is the movement per enemy action. The AP on the enemy card are the action points or number of actions an enemy can take. An enemy such as elven hounds have 3 AP and 2 movement meaning they can move up to 6 squares on their turn. Most enemies have 2 AP and 2 movement for 4 total square movement on their turn. Bigger enemies (Giant Spiders, Cave Trolls, etc.) and the boss (elven queen) will gain an additional action when they become berserk (less than 50% of their overall health).

### Lines of sight

A line of sight is what your character is able to see in a straight line. The squares in your line of sight will light up indicating you can see them. A line of sight stops at a wall. Note that short walls behave as tall walls even though your hero could see over them in real life.

Things to know to remember in regards to line of sight:

* Attacking - You can’t target an enemy in darkness (i.e. out of line of sight). The enemy needs to be both in range of an attack and in a line of sight (yours or an ally) to target them. You can attack an enemy in darkness with an attack that does area damage as long as you can target a nearby square that will also hit the enemy.
* Darkness - There are preset enemies in different rooms. Some can roam from the beginning and others will not leave a room without a trigger (come into a line of sight, hero opening a door/enter a room, or hero killing other enemies). Once a room has been "triggered", enemies can start spawning there if that room is left dark (no line of sight). You can never kill all enemies on a floor as new enemies will respawn in darkness.
* Movement & Spacing - Because enemies can spawn in the darkness, it’s important to consider your lines of sight when taking actions. Keeping a line of sight on a room will help prevent more enemies from spawning. Similarly, spacing all characters out from each other will increase the lines of sight. This is very important towards the end of a floor when you’ve cleared all rooms and are trying to take the key to the exit.

## **Make your Actions count**

### Turn vs Action (terminology)

1. Turn - the game is turn based and the order of heroes is determined by who joined the game first. After the hero turns, it's the enemies' turn. They also have a turn order but their turn order is not visible and may appear random. If your character is downed (you lose all health and drop to your knees), you are placed at the end of the hero turn order for that round (unless you've already used your two actions). If you regain health (back on your feet), you will be placed back into your original turn order on future rounds.
2. Action – By default, your turn has only two actions. You can move, attack, or use a "1 action" card with each action. However, you are able to do additional things on your turn. There are zero action cards (indicated with a zero at the top of the card) which do not use any actions (such as drinking a potion). There are also zero action cards (such as one more thing) that give you additional actions that can be used to move, melee attack, or play one action cards.

### Don’t waste actions

1. A big mistake with new players is wasting actions on unnecessary movements. Moving your character (outside of a melee attack) should be a last consideration. The general order I use in consideration for every action:
	1. Zero Action Cards – First look to see if there are any zero action cards you want to use (potions, etc.). Common mistake is forgetting to take potions. Strength, Speed, Magic, and a few other potions last the entire game. Take those immediately (or save to give to another hero who would benefit more from the potion).
	2. Attack – Your first action consideration should be an attack. This doesn’t mean you should attack if you’re able to attack. It means you should look to attack enemies before considering other options. Typically, I target bigger health enemies first. The exception is if I can kill a lower health enemy. Being attacked by one enemy will be less damage than being attacked by two enemies. Similarly, if there are multiple enemies I can kill, I will target the enemy that does the most damage to again reduce the net damage I could take.
	3. Reposition - Reposition is moving your hero to give you a better next action. If there’s nothing I can do but I’m still active in fighting, I’ll look for a good reposition movement to set up my next action.
	4. Pick up gold/chests – If you don’t have other options, look for chests or gold piles you can open or pick up.
	5. Movement –Typically moving your piece without attacking (or intent to attack on your next turn) is either intent to run from an enemy (as a very last resort) or moving towards a new room or the exit. If you choose to run away from an enemy, ensure you have enough distance from them so they can’t attack you. Otherwise attack them as you’ll take damage either way.
	6. Skipping your turn – The last consideration is simply skipping your turn. This is a good option if you have good position, can’t attack anything, and don’t want to move your piece. A good use case is when your group is close to leaving the floor and you want to keep a line of sight on darkness in a room instead of moving.
2. Combine Actions - When melee attacking you can select where your character lands. If there’s gold adjacent to the enemy, have your character land on the gold after it attacks. This is much better than attacking with one action and wasting a second action to pick up the gold. This can also be used when opening doors. When you melee attack, choose a square to land (when possible) that is **not** next to an ally. If you miss (roll a skull) there is a chance you’ll hit an ally if you’re standing next to them. For the hunter, if you have to attack next to an ally, it is much better to use a ranged attack than melee attack as your risk of hitting an ally is greatly diminished.
3. Order of actions can matter. Another mistake I see new players make is performing actions in a sub-optimal order. For example, an Assassin who uses sneak on their first action and then uses a melee attack on their second action that takes them out of sneak to end their turn. Another example is a player who gets gold next to an enemy on their first action and then melee attacks the enemy on their second action. This will leave the player vulnerable if they roll a miss. Think through both actions. Consider the different outcomes, including where you want to be positioned after your turn, before taking an action. But also remember to not waste actions and consider your teammate's actions.
4. Avoid tunnel vision - Tunnel vision is focusing on one enemy or a specific move in advance of your turn and not considering the changes that occur before it's your turn. An example is a player focused on killing an enemy who is next to them and not seeing a bigger enemy who moved into a line of sight (possibly threatening an ally). Tunnel vision disrupts teamwork and will lead to unnecessary damage and deaths. Consider all options when it's your turn, talk with your teammates, and assess the best actions for that turn.

## Know your Hero

Every hero has unique abilities inherent to it's class as well as class specific cards. These can be one time use cards (see Hero list), replenished cards that can be played once every turn, and even mechanics of the hero. The replenish card(s) have a recycle symbol at the bottom of the card and are the cards towards the far-right side of your card hand. It's worth trying every hero and learning their strengths and weaknesses.

Below are tips and tricks with mastering hero abilities (replenish cards and other abilities). Not covered are hero specific one use cards. The hero name links to the hero wiki for more in depth descriptions for each hero.

### Guardian

One of the easiest heroes to master their abilities. The basic turn strategy for Guardian is to Replenish Armor with one action (if needed) and then attack/move with your other action. Rinse and repeat. The other thing to master with Guardian is their knockback mechanic. This can be used strategically to move enemies into lines of sight for other players, move an enemy into poison or slime for additional damage, and to pop gas lamps without taking poison damage.

### Assassin

A medium difficulty hero to master their abilities. The assassins move in the shadows and do massive damage up close. The abilities (Sneak and Backstab) are fairly straight forward. For sneak, learn the cards and actions that you can perform without losing stealth. Also when you're in stealth, enemies treat you as a wall; this is incredibly handy to block stairs and doorways. For backstab, learn how to determine the back of an enemy and where you can attack for the backstab bonus.

The challenging part of an assassin is knowing how to calculate the math for total damage with any attack. Assassins have a bonus for backstab and a different stealth bonus for attacking in stealth when using either cursed dagger (remain in stealth) or blink (takes you out of stealth). Understanding the total damage for any attack will allow you to maximize your cards and attacks.

### Sorcerer

A medium difficulty hero to master their abilities. The basic strategy of a sorcerer is crowd control. Stun bigger targets so your group doesn't take unnecessary damage. Look at the enemy pieces to learn which enemies are immune to stun. And save your area of effect cards for critical moments to either take out large numbers of enemies or to freeze them. Also master zap/lightning bolt and the effects of water. Be careful not to stun your allies or they will lose a turn.

### Hunter

One of the easiest heroes to master their abilities. It’s special ability is long ranged attacks and has two replenish cards (Regular Arrow) for this. One tip with the hunter is to shoot an arrow over melee attacks. This reduces your chance of hitting an ally on a miss and your critical hit will do one more damage. Melee attacks should only be used if you need to move to attack or if you're combining actions (e.g. attacking and picking up gold).

### Bard

One of the easiest heroes to master their abilities. The bard is a support hero whose ability role is to buff the other heroes. It is said, the most beneficial hero in a group is a good bard while the least beneficial hero in a group is a bad bard. The basic turn strategy for Bard is to cast Courage Shanty on a teammate with one action and to move/attack with your other action. Rinse and repeat. The trick with the bard is putting your group into a buff rotation and predicting your team's movements so they're not out of range to receive their next buff. A big tip is for your group to give the Bard Speed Potions allowing them to move further to keep the group buffed.

Also, a bard can cast the buff on summoned friendlies, charmed enemies, ballistas, behemoths, and Cana. While not the most practical, it can be helpful in situations where the bard is only near only one or two teammates and needs they need the extra support. For Warlocks, it's advised to buff Cana instead of the warlock. However, it's advised to only buff Cana to level 2. If Cana gets to level 3, Cana scares away enemies on her first attack limiting the attack options for the Warlock.

### Warlock

The most difficult hero to master their abilities. The Warlock is a powerful hero with a controllable pet called Cana. Mastering the Warlock requires mastering Cana’s actions (instructed and uninstructed) and keeping Cana alive while she levels up. The biggest mistake is using Cana as an unnecessary meat shield while she's leveling. Cana gains more health and does more damage with each level.

Also, it's advised a Bard only buff Cana to level 2. If Cana gets to the level 3 bard buff, Cana will scare away enemies on her first attack, limiting the attack options for the Warlock.

### Barbarian

A medium difficulty hero to master their abilities. The biggest mistake playing a barbarian is to play them like a tank. Think of the barbarian as an agile boxer: hit and move. The special ability of the Barbarian is their Grappling Hook. The hook can only be used once per turn. It can be used for movement (up to 10 squares) and can be used to grab objects, enemies, and allies. Use the hook to pick up lamps (especially ice and oil lamps) to give the barbarian extra area of effect damage ability on future turns, for crowd control. The hook can be used to pull allies out of danger. And the hook can be used to move ballistas and behemoths to new locations.

Also, when using the hook to grab something, look at the direction arrow before dropping the card. Most times the arrow will point at the Barbarian indicating the target will be pulled to the barbarian. Some targets are “heavy” and the arrow will point at the target indicating the Barbarian will be pulled to the target.

## **Other Tips**

### Called/Summoned Allies Tips

1. Call Companion (Hunter Card) – Calls the wolf Verochka.
	1. Give Verochka a Bone and it will not only heal her but will make her friendly (i.e. puts a red heart above her.) This means enemies will not actively target her and she’ll live a lot longer.
2. Beast Whisperer (Hunter Card) – Summons two minor monsters (either rat or spider).
	1. The monsters summoned are random. Ideally, you’ll summon two spiders as spiders never miss with their attacks.
	2. The monsters are friendly when summoned meaning they will not actively be targeted by enemies.
	3. Avoid putting your monsters in poison. They have little health and will die in poison quickly.
3. Summon Elemental (General Card) – Summons either a fire or ice elemental.
	1. The elemental is friendly when summoned meaning it will not be actively targeted by enemies.
	2. Summoned elementals will self-destruct after several turns. Upon death, both the fire and ice elementals deal 2 death damage (explosion in a 5x5 square) to both enemies and allies. Upon death, the ice elemental will also freeze both allies and enemies for one turn.
	3. Summoned elementals can use a ranged attack once every 3 turns. A big mistake is to summon an elemental next to an enemy. The elemental is friendly and will not be targeted by the enemy and will not use their ranged attack when close to enemies. Always summon your elementals away from enemies (3+ tiles) to allow them a ranged attack on their first turn.
4. Charm (Hunter Card**)** – Unless an enemy is immune to charm, this will charm an enemy for three turns (i.e. make it an ally for three turns).
	1. Charmed enemies are not friendly meaning they can be targeted by other enemies but are a lower priority than heroes.
	2. Charmed enemies that spawn more enemies will spawn charmed enemies. (e.g. a Giant Slime will spawn a charmed slimeling and a charmed Elven Priest will spawn charmed Elven Cultists.)
	3. Charmed enemies can still be attacked. Big tip is to lower a charmed enemies health before the charm wears off for an easier kill.
	4. Bigger enemies that can become Berserk (e.g. Giant Spiders and Cave Trolls) have the most charmed attack value when Berserk. Charm them, get them below half health (Berserk), and let them go wild attacking other enemies. Don't forget to lower the hit points as much as possible before the charm wears off.

### Card Tips

1. Lye - not only will it put poison on most enemies, it can be used to kill giant slimes (and slimelings) instantly.
2. Bone - one of the most versatile cards in the game. It will make elven hounds become friendly and attack for you. It will taunt other enemies making them target you over other allies. You can use it on Verochka to heal her and make her friendly (not targeted by enemies). And since it does 1 damage, you can use it to pop lamps or trigger the assassin booby traps.
3. Entangle - not only does this cause entangled enemies to only move one square on their next turn, it also causes any nearby spiders to target entangled enemies. Very helpful to use around a Giant Spider and lots of enemies.
4. Strength/Speed/Magic - these potions last the entire game for heroes so take them immediately. If given to Cana, they will last until she dies.

### Downed/Death

1. When you're down (on your knees) you will be placed to the end of the turn order. You still have two actions on your turn. You can move one square with each action and you can pick up gold, open chests, and even pick yourself up with a healing fountain.
2. Every time you are downed, the death counter starts at a lower number. Be sure to have an ally pick you up (putting their piece on yours), use a healing potion, or use a healing well before you death timer runs out.
3. Once your death timer has run out, you are dead, but only for that floor. Your character will come back if your group completes the level where you'll have all cards and gold you died with. If playing with others, you might alternatively choose to leave the game and come back with a new character. You'll start over with cards and gold but you'll get right back into the action (and can choose to play a different hero).
4. Healing potions aren't just for heroes. They can be used on summoned friendlies, Verochka, Cana, charmed enemies, Ballistas, Behemoths, and anything else placed by a hero with a health bar.
5. If you are below 5 health when exiting a floor, you will start the next floor with 5 health. No need to run across a floor to pick someone up if you're able to immediately leave the floor.