If you intend to play the seed, play before reading on!
The first thing to notice is that we start out with a pickaxe and a scroll of mapping. The pickaxe is a low accuracy weapon, and hence not very good in most fights. On the positive side, it allows us to dig. With this starting kit, we should begin by mapping out the entire dungeon: read the scroll; check out the rooms; retreat whenever we see a monster; then dig tunnels to any rooms we couldn’t access. Very often, this allows us to get some nice items that will help us in the fights to come. So I read the scroll and then use the ‘remember’ command to find out that there are no secret rooms and that the dungeon is completely horizontal. Ok. Let’s start exploring and digging.
We quickly stumble upon two items that allow us to identify scrolls (you can grab items in the room with the wisps of pain, since they won’t attack you in a normal way) as well as Mendele’s robe. It’s a bit of a risky item, but I like risk, so I’ll wear it. There’s a room we can’t dig into – I believe that must be the Bridge of Doom. Luckily, we can approach it from the south. A little later on we discover the overmind guarding the glass cannon. Now that is an item I want to have as soon as possible, and the overmind isn’t that fearsome as a combatant, so I’m going to grab it: take all, retreat… only 1 damage! Nice. Let’s ready it immediately. Yes, it’s a bit risky, but by equipping it now we lose a lot less health in the end. And we can always get more health by killing the wisps, if necessary. So, “ready cannon”. I’m now at 6 of 7 health and I’ve almost seen the entire dungeon.
Oops. Of course, now I can no longer dig. That was a mistake! I probably missed out on only one room, behind the angel of compassion, but still – I should have explored that before switching weapons. Of course, I can’t switch back, since the glass cannon halves your health every time you equip it.
Here is the plan. First, I want to take our Miranda. The wisps are easier, but you can get a better bonus from them later on. Then, I’ll try the overmind, first throwing my three frag grenades from above and then hopefully killing him quickly with the glass cannon. After that, the sky is the limit. Let’s go. (“Go to miranda.”)
That was my second mistake. You can’t parry with the glass cannon, and Miranda is in the Bridge of Doom, where you can’t dodge. So I have no defensive moves! I need to get lucky with my dice rolls, but alas, I miss twice and Miranda hits twice. Game over. That was truly ignominious defeat: killed by the first enemy I attempted to take on! But it was entirely deserved, since I made one small and one really big mistake. I hope other people fare better! It’s certainly hard to fare worse. (Come to think of it, you can dodge once in the Bridge of Doom; I should have tried that. Mistake number three.)
Lessons learned:
- When you equip the glass cannon, it will be your only weapon for the rest of the game. So before equipping the glass cannon, check your other weapons to see whether you need to use one of them – especially if you have the pickaxe!
- Remember that the glass cannon is relatively bad in the Bridge of Doom. Only use it there if you can comfortably defeat the enemy.
- Remember that you can make one successful dodge on the Bridge of Doom before you’ll fall off. Use that when necessary.