Gameplay and Strategies

## Basics

Runestone Keeper is a rogue-like game. Each time a new game is started, the dungeon levels are generated; monsters, devices, exits, etc are placed randomly. The player has to start over if the character dies. The game will allow you to "Save and Quit," but death is permanent (no loading from an old save point).

Unlike other games, the character's avatar does not show up on the dungeon. Gameplay is slightly similar to Minesweeper, in that *only the cell the player clicks interacts with the character* (with few exceptions). If the player clicks the monster, it attacks back. If the player uncover a trap, they take damage from that trap, and so on. Most monsters and devices do nothing if they are not interacted with.

As a rogue-like, the placement of items, traps, monsters and shops is random. Therefore, there is no build and strategy that is guaranteed to work every time, and player are encouraged to adapt their strategy to progress further.

## Interface

The game shows the dungeon floor on the left, and the character statistics on the right.

### **Character statistics**

* **Bag icon**: click to open Inventory. (NOTE: This is the only way to see much of your characters statistics. When the bag icon is clicked, the information below your portrait changes, and a scroll bar appears. Scrolling down will reveal many (but not all) character information, including Luck.)
* **God Head:** This is the head that shows between your Inventory Bag and the I/II button. Left or right clicking on this allows you to escape your current level, for a cost. The cost appears to be -10 life for all gods.
* **Character Portrait:** Right click to reveal character status, While some information is duplicated elsewhere, this is the only place to review your tattoos, your buffs and your debuffs. There is also a numerical version of your experience points.
* **Switch Weapon icon**: Switch between weapon set I and II
* **Sword icon**: shows how much damage the character with does each hit. This will change as you switch between weapon I and II, a good way to keep track of which weapon you are on if they differ.
* **Shield icon**: shows how much protection the character has.
* **Number under hero portrait**: shows character level; the circle around it is an estimation of how close the character is to leveling up.
* **Purple bar**: shows Soul points**.** Soul points are consumed when using Items.
* **Red bar**: shows Life points.
* **Blue bar**: shows Mana points. Mana points are consumed when using skills.
* 3 squares under the purple bar: item slots.
* 3 squares under the blue bar: skill slots.

## Controls

Most of the game's actions are performed with the mouse. Left click to activate dungeons squares and attack monsters, right click to check for more information. Counterintuitively, in some areas of the game, the left and right click functions are arbitrarily reversed. For example, when under the inventory and most store windows, the left click is used to display more information and right click is used to equip/sell/purchase.

According to developer posts in the official Steam game forum, there are some limited keyboard shotcuts/hotkeys available for certain functions. These shortcuts are not customizable or displayed in game.

ESC - open/close setting menu
ENTER - open/close hero status menu
B - open/close equipment menu

TAB - switch between weapon sets

Q - use skill number 1
W - use skill number 2
E - use skill number 3

1 - use item number 1
2 - use item number 2
3 - use item number 3

## Leveling Up and Character Building

### **Leveling**

Kill monsters awards the character with experience points (XP). After a specific amount of xp is collected, the character reaches a new level. The character's life point and mana point is refilled, and the player can choose to upgrade one of the 4 base attributes by 1 point. The level cap in basic mode is 10.

### **Basic Attributes**

The basic attributes are:

* **Strength:** Each point increase melee damage 1;
* **Dexterity:** Each point increases ranged damage by 1, Hit chance by 1% and Dodge chance by 1%;
* **Intelligence:** Each point increases your Elemental damage by 1 and your Elemental resistance by 1%.
* **Stamina:** Each point increases the amount of life gained from Hearts of Life. (Amount gained = Stamina + 1)

### **Derived Attributes**

**Offensive**

* **ATK**: How much damage the character does each attack. It can be improved by increasing Str, Dex or Int, (depending on the weapon type) or equipping better weapon. Various skills and events also increase ATK.
* **HIT**: Chance to hit. It can be improved by increasing Dex. Various weapons and armor provide bonuses to Hit chance. This stat appears to max out at 95%.
* **CRIT**: Chance to perform a critical attack. Various equipment provides bonuses to crit chance.
* **LUCK**: It is not clear what the use of this stat is. It can affect either crit chance, loot quality, etc

**Defensive**

* **ARMOR**: How much protection the character has. It can be increased with better equipment. Certain spells can also increase Armor. Armor resets when you enter a new level, unless you are entering or leaving an arena.
* **DODGE**: Chance to dodge attack. It can be improved by increasing Dex. Certain spells and equipment also increase Dodge.
* **RESIST**: How much the character is able to resist elemental damage. Improve by increasing Int or by certain equipment.
* **BLOCK**: Chance to block attack. All shields and several melee weapon provide a bonus to Block.

**Others**

* **Life Points**: When life points drop to 0, the character is dead. Life Points can be upgraded mainly by collecting Hearts of Life with a full life bar. Certain equipment, events and spells can also refill life points or increase maximum life points.
* **Mana Points**: Consumed to use skills. Certain equipment and events can refill mana points or increase maximum mana points.

## Armor and Resistance

### **Armor**

Armor works like extra Life Points. Physical attacks (both melee and ranged) depletes Armor before reducing Life points. Traps that inflict physical damage (like Spike Traps) also deplete armor first.

At the beginning of a dungeon level, the character's armor is refilled. The amount of armor depend on the character's equipment. Every hero starts with a Padded armor which gives 10 armor points. To increase armor points, the player can wear items that give bonus to armor. Worshipping the God of Rock gives you 10 extra armor points. If the player find an Anvil, it can be used to completely refill the armor points for free. Armor can also be temporarily increased by using skills.

**Strategy:** Armor points are set based on equipment worn when you *first enter the dungeon level*. It is recommended that the player put on the equipment that provide the most bonus to armor before descending into the next level, to maximize the amount of armor points gained. After that, the player can swap them out for equipment that provides other bonuses.

### **Resistance**

Resistance reduce elemental damage by a flat percentage. For example, if the character has 10% Resistance get hit by a monster with 10 Elemental damage, they will take 9 damage.

## Battles and Monsters

### **Basic Battle Rounds**

To attack a monster, the player clicks on the monster portrait. The basic battle round works like this:

* Hero attacks first.
* The game check if the hero hits the monster (using Hero's Hit%, monster's Dodge% and Block%)
	+ The game checks if hero's attack meets its mark (using Hero's Hit%)
	+ If the attack hits, the game checks if monster can dodge that attack (using monster's Dodge%)
	+ If the monster fails to dodge, the game checks if it can block the attack (using monster's Block%)
* If the attack hits, damage is then calculated
	+ If hero uses Physical attack, Damage = Hero's ATK - monster's Armor
	+ If hero uses Elemental attack, Damage = Hero's ATK x (100%-Monster's Resistance)
* If Damage done >= Monster's Life Point, monster is killed
* If monster is not killed, the game checks if the monster hits the hero (using Monster's Hit%, hero's Dodge% and Block%)
* If the attack hits, damage is then calculated

For monster with melee attacks, they will only attack when the player clicks on them. Monsters with ranged attack, on the other hand, will attack every turn.

### **Different Elements**

The battle rounds will be changed based on various factor

* If monster has First Strike skill, it will attack first
* If hero or monster can attack twice per turn, each attack's chance to hit and damage is calculated separately
* Various equipment effect like Stun or Rebound damage

### **Monster types**

* **Monsters** with the grey sword icon on means they deal **Physical Damage**, so they'll hit your armor first. The blue sword icon means **Element Damage**, which ignores armor and hit your character's life points. So, it's a ground rule to go after grey swords first to keep your life bar full, allowing you to keep scouting for Heart of Life.

## Soul Points

The purple bar measures your soul points. Using items and devices on the dungeon consumes soul points. You collect 1 soul point on clicking on a mist-tile. There are several items that allows you to reveal more than one mist-tile per click, but you still get only one soul point per click on mist-tiles.

Goddess of Benevolence and the God of Treasure benefits greatly the player upon collecting soul points.

Soul bar capacity is 60 soul points by default. Every dungeon level has 56 tiles, meaning up to 55 soul points can be collected per level.

Maximum number of souls can be increased from 60 by activating a tomb tile (50% chance of increasing by 2, and 50% chance instead of decreasing maximum hit points by 2).