Come to know capriphobia as I have! Let's Play Desktop Dungeons!

Still isn't enough, though. Damn.



Suck it up, big guy. We have a world serpent to kill.



Oh hey, I forgot about that! Besides the fact that the Glowing Guardian gives props for killing dudes of a higher level than you, we apparently unlocked a class for beating the Snake Pit!



Also, Medusa is underpowered.



Anyway, we unlocked ourselves a SEKRIT CLASS! YAY! The transmuter is perfect for people who hate getting unwinnable games, since they get super-cheap ENDISWAL right out of the gate. In fact, using ENDISWAL heals them! This has a catch, though. Transmuters can't recover their health by exploration. This means you have two separate resources for recovering health and mana. I think humans make the best transmuters, but gnomes, elves, and dwarves could probably work. Winning with a transmuter won't unlock anything, but hey, it's there, vote for it if you want to see it!

Next time: Who will it be, kids? Fighter, rogue, priest, sorcerer, or transmuter?

Transmuter, that seems like it would be an interesting balance between exploration and destruction. You still can take potions and regain health at level up, right?

Not true. It's more of a midway glyph. It's has the advantage of not exploring more territory to find enemies. One of my favorite Fighter/early Poison glyph strategies is Wonafayting constantly, exploring as little as possible (Poison glyph is related because ideally I'll find the boss without having explored too much. Luck-based, but has a huge payoff).
I've beaten the Crypt at level 1 before (well, I was level 1 when I killed one of the bosses, anyway. the next boss died on the very next turn without landing a hit on me though!). And could beat any other dungeon the same way, but I didn't need to because I beat all of them already with the class that made this possible.


Transmuters are always fun, but I think I'm not gonna vote during this LP. I'll just watch.

Priest!

Humans gotta fight! For their right! To be Berserkers!

So, Human Fighter.

As a transmuter? Sure. Potions and level ups are a constant for healing.

I guess you have a point there. Still, I don't tend to use poison tactics that often. As evidenced by my wizard game, where picking the Poison boon and converting to Mystera may have been a smarter move.

Fighter.

Priest, because I want to know how you're supposed to play a Monk.

Also, I just can not seem to win this game as a Wizard. I keep getting high-HP bosses.

I'll keep my vote at sorcerer... at least for now

This.

Also: the character art in this = squee! I think I shall have to visit it in cross stitchery.

I second Priest, for no good reason that I can think of! And any race that we haven't seen yet!

And for a game where each session only takes a couple minutes, I ended up staying up until 7 AM yesterday playing it. "Just one more game can't hurt..."

I vote Priest.

Fighter!

So uh. It looks like fighter and priest tied at 6 votes! Thus, the only reasonable way to handle this is to do an update featuring BOTH OF THEM AT ONCE!

Or rather, back to back. There's no co-op mode. I start with a human fighter, for reasons.



Notice all those demon faces out there? That's the fighter's instincts at work! They can sense enemies of their level or lower automagically! Between that and the experience bonus you get for every kill, fighters have a very simple playstyle to them that's great for newbies. Also, altar.



I covered Binlor's features last update, but I didn't get a chance to actually play under him, and fighters are decently suited to Binlor, so hey, why not? Hopefully we'll find an ENDISWAL before too long.



Binlor grants you 5 max health just for worshipping him. A healthy worker is a happy worker, after all!



Your starting piety for Binlor is, like Tikki-Tooki, based on your initial gold. Glad I waited until I started worshipping him to use that shop!



Something tells me we're still playing easy-mode dungeons here.



Thanks to our generous max health, we can take on this warlock even though he's higher in level than us, and we don't even have to use magic!



In doing so, we automagically level up. Turns out Binlor doesn't reward combat directly, but he does reward level-ups like the Pactmaker does. The level-up piety bonuses aren't as sharp as those of the Pactmaker, and you can lose piety through magic, but we can also gain piety from ENDISWAL, so it balances out. Plus, Binlor's boons are a lot cheaper.



LEMMISI tactics are, on the whole, not super viable with Binlor, since you lose 1 piety per cast. The attack bonus humans get for converting glyphs is a lot more useful.



Oh, goats. You make everything easier.



Unfortunately, the goats we have aren't enough to break through here! Now normally, we'd have to use a potion or something to get out of this.



However, you'll note that the Pit Dog ability of the fighter lets them take one fatal blow before going down.



Like so! Kind of annoying to use it so early, and using a potion or two may have been smarter, but hey, we got past, that's what's important.



This still seems like a bad situation, but fortunately, we can take out this warlock without much trouble thanks to our oversized health bar. GETINDARE is a nice tool as well, even with Binlor's piety cost.



Okay, now can we not be blocked off by strong monsters?

With the piety we gained from that level, we can pick up the Hardiness boon. This should let us take even more hits before dropping. Binlor is a pretty solid god, all told, and way more flexible than his offense-inclined comparison god Taurog.



Thanks to our improved durability, meat men barely pose a threat at all now.



For those that do, we just have to get creative.



Binlor gets kinda annoyed when we GETINDARE...



But he's willing to let it slide just this once.



Two level 9 goats in the same dungeon? This can only improve from here.



Can't afford this fine sword, but hey, we've got superior defense, no need for superior offense as well.



More goatmurder and slightly ticking off Binlor. We can kill level 8 goats now, so we're probably gonna be set for the boss pretty soon. Wonder who the boss is this time?



I'll pass on that, thanks. Fighters have even less use for WONAFYT since they can easily see the fights they can easily win.



You can't really do these kinds of things under Taurog. He hates magic just a bit too much, not to mention the magic-dampening effect of his boons.



Also, we can kill off the level 9 goats without angering Binlor! Nothing can stop us now!



Aw hell. The good news is I landed on the ENDISWAL glyph when I met this guy.



The bad news is that Gharbad is one of the hardest enemies in the game. Low health, sure, but he will kill you if he hits you. And unfortunately for us, we wasted our death protection a while back, so this is kind of a tight situation for us.



The plan for right now is to build up as much piety as I can to attempt to get the Heroics boon. ENDISWAL can also reveal unexplored tiles that you couldn't normally reach, so we should be able to get enough to take that boon. Unfortunately, Gharbad will just as easily kill us at level 10 as at level 1.



And then a miracle happens.

As you can see, converting to the Glowing Guardian is easy to do for Binlor followers. This gives us a new plan: build up enough piety under Binlor to obtain the Protection boon, which will replenish our death protection and let us deal a single physical strike to Gharbad.



Also, we buy up the fine sword to make that one hit that we get really count.



Additionally, I'm trying to maximize the hidden tiles we can reach with each casting of ENDISWAL.



It's kinda funny how we got all three of the good gods in a single run, eh?

Of course, I'm going to ignore the hell out of the Earthmother.



My initial plan for after we hit Gharbad once is to chuck a bunch of BURNDAYRAZ at it. Since we'll be following the Glowing Guardian by then, he won't penalize the spells themselves. He will penalize potion use, but that's not as big a deal.



Finally, we manage to hit level 10 naturally, as well as give us enough piety to afford both a conversion and the Protection boon!



Conversion can really pay off if you do it right, eh?



All right, we've got death protection, a fine sword, and a suicidal temperament. LET'S ROCK, GHARBAD.



Our one physical blow knocks a huge chunk of his health away, but in return, the Glowing Guardian is the only thing still keeping us standing. My initial plan here was to counter with BURNDAYRAZ, but due to Gharbad's magic resistance, I'd be burning a lot of mana to very little effect.



And then I remember that I can just GETINDARE.



Hell yeah! It took us two gods to do it, but we took down Gharbad! Not gonna lie, I did a victory dance in my seat right here.



Eventually I'm going to have to start actually using potions.



Winning with a fighter unlocks the berserker class! Berserkers get high damage bonuses, especially against high-level monsters, and pack a ridiculous magic resistance to boot. The downside is, they use more mana to cast spells. Naturally, these guys are best suited to being humans, but dwarves aren't a bad idea either.



Anyway, we've played using a fighter, now let's try a priest! We'll probably run into the new wraith enemy that our fighter run unlocked, which is kinda why I did that first.



In sharp contrast to our previous run, the BURNDAYRAZ glyph is basically a hop, skip, and a jump away.

As is the dungeon boss!



Named, I think, after a QCF dev, Aequitas is the warlock boss. Like J�rmungandr, Aequitas is basically a max-powered warlock. Unlike J�rmungandr, a max-powered warlock is actually a pretty decent threat. Think of him as a more durable but less murderous Gharbad.



Here's the damage bonus of the priest at work. Our gameplay here will consist of trying to take down high-level undead enemies using our high damage against them and excellent innate HP.



Considering we're going to be dealing with a magically-inclined boss, I think Taurog is an excellent first altar to get. Plus, I haven't shown him off in a real game.



Taurog's starting piety is apparently based off of your kills. I also convert the BURNDAYRAZ glyph for a bit more piety.



Oh hey, a new shop item! The bloody sigil, as you can see, increases health but decreases attack power. I usually don't go for it, but hey, it's cheap, so if it suits your character or playstyle, go nuts.



hahahahahahahaha



Converting the IMAWAL glyph lets us afford the Fury boon, adding some extra damage to match our high health.



It doesn't give us enough oomph to kill off this warlock, sadly.



But as a halfling priest, health potions are both plentiful and powerful, so hey, why the hell not.



Here's the new enemy type, the Wraith. Wraiths are an attempt by the designer to stack as many type traits onto a single enemy as they can. They have some slight physical resistance (but not enough to scare a priest), they're undead, their attacks are magical like those of the warlock (and therefore Taurog will approve of destroying them) and most importantly, the attack of a wraith causes mana burn, the magical equivalent of poison. But hey, Taurog already started doing that to us, so wraiths are pushovers for this particular character. They're the biggest threat to characters like thieves, who rely on magic and physical attacks equally.



Oh hey, is this the last unknown god of the lot?



Why yes it is. Dracul is the god of death, and one of my favorite gods, but definitely a high risk choice. Killing any kind of enemy under Dracul is rewarded... except for undead. Furthermore, Dracul's boons all cost you some maximum health, and even joining up will cause you to gain a level but not have any of the benefits of a level-up in doing so. Bloodpower increases your maximum mana, Bloodfury increases your attack power, Bloodshield adds some slight physical and magic resistance, Bloodhunger makes each of your physical attacks drain some life from the enemy to heal you, and Bloodswell fully heals you. As a priest, our high base health would help to negate the cost of the boons, but we'd lose out on our awesome anti-undead attack bonus, so Dracul isn't a good choice for us. Besides, we're already following Taurog.



Speaking of, let's get some magic resistance.



We fight this warlock to the death. It's a grueling battle, an amazing test of brains versus brawn, and both of us are drawn to our limit.

And then I use a health potion and kill him anyway.

Oh man, two piety piáatas? Happy days!



Something worth noting: even if you would kill an enemy that uses a status effect with your next hit, if it hits you first, the indicator will read that you'll suffer the status effect on getting hit.



We can't kill this guy yet. I'm hoping to eventually get the RAGE boon, at which point we should be able to tear Aequitas apart effortlessly.



Fortunately, wraiths and warlocks both award tons of piety for Taurog.



Another new item. The soul orb prevents you from ever getting mana burned. Which would be awesome for a magic-using character. Not so much for a priest of Taurog.



Here's some contrast, so you know that we can't rip through every enemy in the dungeon. Just the undead and magical ones.



Something to note here: I tried fighting this meat man, ran out of health, and had to go explore to heal. However, I reached my max health before the meat man did! You can exploit this against enemies with lots of health but low attack power to kill them earlier than is expected.



Having a level 9 zombie in a dungeon is great for a priest.



Having a level 9 gorgon in a dungeon is great for anybody.



Unfortunately, looks like we didn't get enough piety for the RAGE boon. Oh well, let's just kill that goblin and get on with it.



We can, at the very least, get the Command boon to make it to level 9.



And then I punch myself for missing this place which probably has the one enemy we'd need for RAGE.



Oh well, we can take this guy anyway. We have plenty of health potions.



See? Health potion chugging spree leads to victory!



Now that I've won with each of the four initial classes, I think we're out of the easy-mode dungeons now. Are you excited? I sure am.

See? I told you there were magic-users in there!



FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU



Anyway, that was the fighter/priest run!



Winning as a priest unlocked the monk class! They do low damage, but between their insane resistances and double-strength health resistance, they are very hard to kill. They can make great use of that mid-fight exploration trick I mentioned against the meat man! Your first inclination might be to play a dwarf monk, but human monks can offset that attack penalty pretty nicely, I find.



Additionally, we've unlocked the second bonus dungeon, the Library! While the Snake Pit was home to all kinds of creatures that had disabling status effects, the Library is home to all sorts of magic users. As before, I'll show it off in a later update.

Next time: Now things get complex. Who's up next? Berserker, rogue, monk, sorcerer, or transmuter?

Go ROgue!

Berserker!

I really like this game, but the spell names aggravate me so much.

Tch, capriphobia my ass. You took down Gharbad with finesse.

Sorcerers are fun- always do magic first >=D

Berserker! Halfling berserker.
Short, but deadly.

My love for you is like a truck BER-ZER-KER!

Yeah, I'm not really feeling the capriphobia from this LP. I'm starting to think capriphobia isn't even a thing.

I've always been a fan of monks, so... monk

It technically isn't. Don't tell anyone though!

But seriously, it can't be overstated how tough Gharbad can be. If that altar to the Glowing Guardian wasn't there, I most likely would have died.

Don't tell anyone, but half the times I've beaten Gharbad I've done it the same way you did. The other time was a whole buttload of BURNDAYRAZs and a GETINDARE.

So... be honest. How many times have you died/had to give up while working on this LP?