Gear Guide

Recurring themes of the questions both in chat and in Discord are "What is best X," and "Is Y better than Z?," and "Am I strong enough to beat <<Boss>>". This guide hopes to address these questions.

### A Word on Gear & Game Progression

In the early game, the gear you use to beat bosses is mostly dependent on what schemes you complete / what drops you get. Mid & Late Game will be largely determined by what you're trying to accomplish, what you have completed, and what runewords you need.

For this guide, I am defining Progression as :

* **Early Game**: Start of Game --> Mine to the Dragon King/Dungeon to the Troll
* **Mid Game**: Earth Elemental --> Necromancer & Dungeon King --> Archangels / Tower Level ~65
* **Late Game**: Lord of Dissection --> Tower Level 75+

## Early Game

At this point in the game, you are trying to get yourself established. You will start with a +20 atk dagger. You should be able to clear \*to\* the Goblin Leader. If you manage to find or craft a shield with at least +7 def, you can potion up to full health and defeat him. (Lower shields may also work but I haven't yet done the math). You can also afk farm rats.

You will need to farm schemes & mats until you can craft a sword and a better shield. These can be purchased with gems through the Goblin Market, but also farmed from the Goblin Leader. (45 minute respawn) Use gems if you need to complete your schemes. With a +30 atk Sword and a +7 shield, you should be able to clear all the way to the troll without potions, and just revives. It's possible with a dagger as well, but you'll likely need to heal.

Your goals for The Troll:

#### **Weapon:**

Your goals: "Sword of the Lost King (+150 atk/3s)" or a "The Elven Blade (+40 atk/1s)". Crafted gear has a random set of values so get whatever does the most damage for you. You will need *The Elven Blade* for a quest, but both are expensive as they require 5 swords (2 daggers, 5 iron bar, 6 rat claw each). This means you will need **at least 200k iron** for the blade.

**Armor:**

A *covered shield* requires another **240k iron**.

* An elven shield (+8 def, -.1s) requires 2 covered shield, 10 gold bars and magic dust

This should get you through the Troll.

## Mid Game

This is where the game really opens up. The schemes you have will dictate what you can accomplish. Prior to the Open Market, players would have to farm schemes at this point, until they obtained an Undead Sword or similar Tier 2 weapon, possibly even a T3. A rune or two might also be necessary, giving you +Life Steal. With the Open Market, this has changed.

At this point, you should be able to unlock the City and access to the Open Market. While it definitely takes away some of the grind of the game (and possibly fun?), it is quite easy to pick up a cheap T3 weapon & T3 or even T4 shield. This, along with a runeword or two, should get you to farming these bosses. Almost any combination will do, but you should consider the following factors:

**Weapon DMG + Weapon SPEED + Shield Stats + Runewords**

The Runewords requirement is the largest component from here onward. I strongly recommend using this helpful sheet to plan your combination. For my first account, I ran the following: *The Sword of Marriage* & *Primal Ward*. I think I paid about 10g for both. Then, with *Patience is Gold + Demolishing Blast + White Avalanche,* I was able to frequently one-shot bosses. Making it past Tower Level 65 was hit or miss, depending on if I crit or not. I did not make it past level 75. Having a T4 shield set me up for progressing into Late Game well, as I would only need to replace my sword (+runewords) for my primary build.

These are the recommended combinations:

* Fast + Big Crit + Life Steal
* Slow + Big Damage + Life Steal + Big Def
* Med + Med + Life Steal + Enemy Debuff

## Late Game

For the Late Game, beating LoD + Tower level 70+, you really need to upgrade to a good T4 combination of gear. The same combination strategies apply. For my build, I went with:

* *The King's Judgement/Blade of the Damned + Primal Ward*
* *Nightguard + Thousand Souls*

It is important to remember at this point that you can craft T5 gear. Combinations of T5 and T4 runed should also be very, very good, but the T5 runewords tend to not be as ... wide. You don't get as many different buffs, so you really need to hone in on your strategy. For the really high levels of the Tower, having a high crit is essential as base damage alone will not get through most enemy's base defense score. You also need to be able to survive long enough to have your crits land. I recommend *Titanslayer* with *Perfect Hit*, if you can. Lifesteal isn't quite as valuable at this level as stun is. You want to keep mobs from hitting you as long as possible, and many can one shot you.