Crypt of the Necrodancer

[Tyrmith]

Personally, I value a ranged weapon above pretty much all else, but that's because I'm still pretty terrible and take damage from things I shouldn't way too much still. Crown of Thorns means that you don't have to pick a lifesteal weapon, which means you have far more options for someone like me. Someone who doesn't take damage lifesteal I feel definitely doesn't make nearly as much sense.

[Gustaran]

Personally, I value a ranged weapon above pretty much all else, but that's because I'm still pretty terrible and take damage from things I shouldn't way too much still.

I absolutely agree, if you find an early bow or crossbow the game becomes much easier. The wiki here has a nice graphical explanation of what squares are affected by other weapon types such as whips and flails. While they might be equally strong in theory, in practice the straight attacking weapons are much easier to use, at least for me.

The only time used a flail successfully was when I combined it with the Boots of Pain. The boots deal damage equal to a 3-point rapier, so you can attack enemies in front of you while also attacking additional squares around you. The only disadvantage to this setup (disregarding the initial 1,5 points of damage) is the fact that zone 3 becomes a lot harder because the boot slot isn't available for the other boots like the Winged Boots anymore.

Another thing which is probably known to most players, but I only found out recently is that shrines apparantly have a fixed loot table for being activated and unactivated. So whenever you encounter a shrine and have a bomb you can add a certain item to your equipment. For example bombing a Shrine of Sacrifice will always give you an additional heart container:

http://crypt-of-the-necrodancer.wikia.com/wiki/Shrines

[System Error]

So here's a couple of twitch highlights showcasing the very first victory - as in the first in the world, ever - with the Coda character, aka combining the worst of Monk (dead if you pick up gold), Bolt (double speed), and Aria (dagger only, dead in one hit, dead on missed beat). Thought I'd post it here for the Necrodancer fans.

[Gustaran]

I gave up when I got to Aria...only crazy people try to beat the game with Coda.

[Sullla]

I'm not surprised that someone beat the game with Coda. No matter how hard developers try to make their games, players always beat their expectations and achieve stuff that looks impossible. I don't know if everyone reading this is even aware of how difficult it is just to unlock Coda as a character. It requires competing an "All Characters" run, beating the game with all characters other then Coda, in succession, nine perfect runs in a row. Based on Steam achievements, I believe there are only a few people in the world who even have Coda unlocked! I am definitely not one of them. I wouldn't use the character even if I did have it though, the only way to win is to avoid combat wherever possible and race immediately for the exit. Incredibly hard, yes, but fun? Doesn't look like it to me.

Going back to what Gustaran wrote last week:

- I think 95% of your guide is correct, but there is one thing which I don't agree on: IMHO, it should always be your goal to get a build with reliable 3 weapon damage. Not so much because of the extra damage (which is still nice) but because having three damage instead of two triggers two mechanical changes: First of all, 3 damage break the shields of black skeletons...The other major point is that 3 points of damage allow you to open all crates and barrels without using a bomb.

These are good points. I agree that being able to crack open the crates and barrels is not to be underestimated, and that can swing a run over this game's version of The Curve into easy street if the right stuff drops. And yes, 3 damage allows your character to one-shot all "normal" critters as well as pop the shields of black skeletons. Nevertheless, for me the 3 damage mark still falls into the "nice to have" category rather than being mandatory. You can definitely make do without the extra damage. Going from 2 to 3 damage is very nice, but going from 1 to 2 damage is *THE* key jump in NecroDancer. That's the point I was trying to highlight, how important it is to get that second point of damage. The third damage still helps significantly, but it's not as crucial, if that makes sense.

Another thing I would like to point out is the changing importance of lifesteal: The better you get, the less damage you take, the less lifesteal/health recovery you need. I personally am still taking too much damage, but in 95% of all cases, it's a simple mistake that could have been avoided. Necrodancer is a very fair game in that regard that you hardly take unavoidable damage. For that reason, I am not a big fan of blood weapons but prefer Titanium or Obsidian in the weapon slot, with any of the +1 damage rings in the ring slot. As you point out, the Crown of Throns is an excellent lifesteal option, because the head slot only features the Monocle as good alternative which becomes less important once your inventory is maxed (some people like the Sunglasses, but I'd rather have titanium weapon/damage ring/Crown, than blood weapon/damage ring/Sunglasses. This obviously assumes you are not trying to kill the shopkeeper ~ floor 2 for the Crown of Greed).

Well yeah, of course the better you are, the less damage you take. But even that Coda guy still got hit twice on his run, and none of us are anywhere near that good. NecroDancer is indeed a fair game, but even with dozens of hours of practice, it's still extremely difficult. You might as well say the same thing about Rogue Legacy: no need for more HP or armor, just don't get hit! For me at least, I still find some kind of lifesteal to be extremely helpful. And the other reason why I emphasized the Blood weapons is due to the rarity of lifesteal options. You have the Crown of Thorns (best option), then the Blood weapons, the Heal spell, and the Ring of Regeneration (sort of). That's it. Otherwise you're hoping for consumable items to drop, which may or may not happen. It's just much easier to find damage-boosting item in Necrodancer, with the sunglasses, boots, and three different kinds of rings that add +1 damage.

Anyway, I usually just pick up and use the first Titanium / Obsidian / Blood weapon with two-tile range that I come across. All of them are good options. I've also been playing a Living Off The Land variant recently: no stores, only use the items you find along the way. It's, uh, pretty tough. That did help me get a new high score for Cadence though (6578 gold) - you wind up with more gold at the end if you never spend any the whole run! Next up: trying to do the same with Bolt. Steam says I have the 41st highest score with Bolt at 2554 gold; I don't think a lot of people even have her unlocked.

[Gustaran]

NecroDancer is indeed a fair game, but even with dozens of hours of practice, it's still extremely difficult.

I think I need to elaborate on my comments: My points were solely aimed at a standard Cadence "All zones"-mode. With average drop luck (early 2 tile weapon, 1-point armor and a few heart containers) I don't think the game is extremely difficult once you have figured out the basic pattern of all enemies.
Now, if we are talking about other characters, it's a whole different story: I am in the process of trying to finish the game with Monk and have suffered an absurd amount of deaths in zone 4 so far (teleport->confused->step on tile with gold).

Therefore I haven't unlocked Bolt yet, but from your twitch recordings it looks like the doubled speed makes the game much more difficult. (IIRC that's also the reason why achievements can't be unlocked when using your own music (different BPM)).

I've also been playing a Living Off The Land variant recently: no stores, only use the items you find along the way. It's, uh, pretty tough. That did help me get a new high score for Cadence though (6578 gold) - you wind up with more gold at the end if you never spend any the whole run! Next up: trying to do the same with Bolt. Steam says I have the 41st highest score with Bolt at 2554 gold; I don't think a lot of people even have her unlocked.

Isn't your variant basically the same as killing the shopkeeper early? (I admit it sounds you would deny yourself the dead shopkeeper's items, so your variant is probably more difficult.) From watching replays, it seems that killing the shopkeeper and using the "Crown of Greed" is the way to go if you are competing for highscores.

[SevenSpirits]

I just beat the game as Cadence!

Man that was a lot harder than Bard. When I won with Bard I still hadn't reached zone 3 with Cadence yet. Once you have knowledge of the enemies, the only way to lose with Bard is being too hasty. But actually playing the game on a timer is tough. I am not that good at fast games.

I am proud I managed to beat Dead Ringer the second time I met him (after practicing a bunch after the first try) and Necrodancer (barely) on the first try.

My setup in this run was about as strong as you could want. Ring of Courage, Winged Boots, a Blood Bow and Sunglasses for the third point of damage. And a ton of hearts and Chainmail. Not having to worry about where you're stepping, and being immune on turns you kill enemies, removes a lot of the difficulty from zones 3 and 4.

[Gustaran]

I am proud I managed to beat Dead Ringer the second time I met him (after practicing a bunch after the first try) and Necrodancer (barely) on the first try.

Good job!

Very impressive that you beat the Necrodancer on the first try. I remember that I intially had a very hard time controlling two characters at once and was quickly defeated the first time I encountered him.

I finally unlocked Bolt, but it is not a lot of fun so far. Besides the obvious difficulty from the speed increase, I feel my laptop keyboard is not precise enough for this kind of fast rhythm. I also would have appreciated a dedicated soundtrack: Certain tracks work rather wel, others don't (1-2 for example is terrible).

@Sullla: I watched your pre-holiday Necrodancer stream and wanted to mention that you can have two spells at the same time, not just one.

Other than that I am trying to find other ways to get to three damage while using a Blood weapon: I like picking up an early Drum of War at the moment. It's usually only around 15 gold and you can open all further barrels and crates with it. The only disadvantage is that you can't carry a food item if you haven't acquired a bag.
Another nice way is an early Shrine of no Return: If you are still on your dagger and have a bomb, just activate the Shrine. I usually break the no return rule immediately (0.5 damage) . Then bomb the shrine and receive a Charm of Strength (+1 damage) which is great since it doesn't take up an item slot.

[Gustaran]

Oh man, I just found out it's so easy to get a great head start:

- There is always a blood shop on 1-1 or 1-2
- If you kill the blood shopkepper, you can take all three items for free and get a blood drum on top of that
- Usually you will have to use your starting bomb to open the cracked wall that hides the shop, but if you are good enough you can kite a miniboss such as the Minotaur so he will crack the wall for you
- The strategy to kill the shop keeper is as follows (source: Reddit):

You position yourself until you are right below the shopkeeper and face the top wall. Now you throw your dagger. It will hit the shopkepper wo will teleport to a seemingly random square and you have time to walk to the top wall and grab your dagger. Now just stay on the top three squares and let him approach you, rhythm is not important.

Two things can go wrong:

- If he teleports right next to you after the initial hit before you can grab your dagger, you die.
- Sometimes he will just teleport away and disappear but the items don't become free. This seems to happen only in a smaller than usual blood shop. I suppose it is because there is a secret shop "above" the shop which you reach by bombing the top gold wall. It was visible, but I had no additional way of breaking the top gold wall so early in the game.

I needed a little practice for this, so I suggest just using a seed which has the blood shrine close to the beginning. I used 9939 - just walk down in the beginning and you are good to go.

[SevenSpirits]

For useful tips, I think killing the food shopkeeper is one of the easiest things to do and it's really strong.

Method 1: Throwable weapon. Stand in the food shopkeeper's row up against the right wall of the shop. Throw your weapon at the shopkeeper (UP+DOWN, LEFT), then move UP on the next beat to avoid the bomb that appears directly below you.

Method 2: Bomb. Stand directly above the food shopkeeper. Drop a bomb and walk to the right wall, then move UP to avoid the bomb that appears directly below you after your own bomb explodes.

What you get:

1) All shop items free.
2) Gluttony charm. (Next time you heal past your max health, you gain the extra hearts permanently.)
3) Three blown up gold wall tiles.

Often you can then do something like pick up the gluttony charm, pick up a big food item, eat the big food item to gain a bunch of hearts and then pick up another empty heart. Or pick up a small food item, heal to full, pick up gluttony charm and big food item, gain a bunch of hearts.