Obligatory roguelike definition: I’m talking about traditional roguelikes. Games like Rogue. Difficult, complex, turn-based dungeon-crawlers. Procedural death labyrinths. I’m not talking about deckbuilders, autobattlers, synergy builders, bullet heavens, or run-based meta-progression games.
Other games are like action movies, and your character is Arnold Schwarzenegger. You run in guns blazing and win. Roguelikes are horror movies. You start as the victim, prey to monsters and unknown dangers in the dark. With the right mindset, you become the boogeyman.
The right mindset is key. You must approach the game with curiousity and respect, which are unnecessary for other games.
Knowledge is power
Other games make sure you have the tools you need to beat every mission, but not roguelikes! You need to make a plan to succeed. To do that, you need to know what you can do, and what threats you face, and what they can do.
Play the game multiple times (you’ll die often) and really pay attention. Each time you see a new enemy, examine them to learn what they can do. When does the dungeon get more dangerous? Example: minotaurs won’t appear on the first two floors. When does your character’s power increase? Example: At level 22 I unlock “Unstoppable” and become immune to death for 4 turns.
Some roguelike players say that learning through harsh experience is necessary, but I’m writing a blog post about how to play roguelikes, so I’m obviously in favor of outside sources. Your game might have a wiki, or a compendium derived from the game’s files. Look through those resources to find a specific fact, or browse to get a general idea of what’s to come. Take advantage of the work your fellow players have already done.
Have a plan to counter any threat you may face. Common threats include:
- many weak enemies
- one strong enemy
- enemies with ranged weapons
- enemy spellcasters
- harmful conditions or debuffs (being sick, or hungry, or on fire)
- cursed items
- impassable terrain
- traps
You can make very specific plans for very specific threats, like bosses that appear on every run. As your game knowledge and characters get more well-rounded, specific preparation loses value. Eventually, you can fight everything as if you prepared specifically to beat it.
Item Identification
Magical items, including weapons, armor, wands, scrolls, and potions, need to be identified. They have descriptions, like “orange potion” or “Scroll of LORUM IPSUS” but these descriptions change from run to run. Using an item identifies it, but that’s risky. Some magical effects are harmful. Using a scroll or potion consumes it. Cursed items can’t be unequipped. Here are some hints:
- Find out about your game’s particular identification mechanic. Some games don’t even have unidentified items. Tales of Maj’Eyal gives all characters an item that automatically identifies all items. In The Ground Gives Way, characters can examine items to safely identify them at the cost of exhaustion.
- Cursed items can’t be unequipped, so it’s very risky to wear or wield magical items you find in the dungeon. If you see an enemy drop something, then it must not be cursed.
- If you have multiple copies of a certain consumable, you can use one to identify them, and still have others to actually use.
- Once you know the possible effects, you can use unidentified items in a way that minimizes their risk. Example: stand near water when you read that scroll, in case it’s a Scroll of Firestorm and you find yourself aflame.
- Sometimes the way you acquire the item is a hint. In Shattered Pixel Dungeons. flies only drop healing potions, so you know that healing potions look like whatever you get from the flies.
- Once you identify the Scroll of Identify, you can use it on high-risk items like enchanted weapons. With knowledge and experience, you’ll learn what you’re comfortable just trying out, and what you’ll save a Scroll of Identify for.
Slow down
Roguelikes are turn-based. You can take as long as you want to decide what to do next. It’s natural to panic and act quickly to get away from danger, but you must resist that impulse. The worse things get, the slower you should play
When you die (you’ll die a lot), don’t get tilted and immediately close the game or restart. Think about why you lost that fight. Scroll up in the message log to see exactly what happened. Look at your inventory to see if you overlooked a life-saving item. Learn from each death so you don’t die like that again.
Everything is optional
Other games are mostly linear. You start a mission and you move forward, kill all the enemies, complete all the objectives, and beat the boss at the end. Roguelikes are different. Often the only objective is the Amulet Of Yendor on the bottom level of the dungeon. How you get there is up to you.
You don’t have to fight everything. Let me repeat that. You don’t have to fight everything. Winning fights makes you stronger with loot and experience, but losing fights makes you dead. Approach each encounter carefully. If an enemy is too dangerous, go elsewhere and fight easier foes and loot other rooms. Maybe you’ll get strong enough to return and kill that enemy. Maybe you don’t need to.
Win before you begin
You will learn a lot through mid-battle epiphanies, when your action immediately proves disastrous. Example: You used your biggest attack (Scroll of Fireball) against the scariest enemy (Red Dragon), but it was completely immune to fire. Take those lessons to heart, but try not to learn that way. Ideally, you are sure of victory when you start the fight, because you have an answer to the enemy’s every move. If you’re not sure, you don’t start the fight.
That’s an important point. You are the one who starts all the fights! Don’t let enemies sneak up on you. Don’t mash the movement keys and waste precious turns when your movement reveals an enemy.
Become the boogeyman. What do the enemies in the dungeon know about you? Nothing! You prowl and observe like a jungle cat, and only reveal yourself when your target is vulnerable. If they do survive, you’re gone by the time re-inforcements arrive.
Before you attack an enemy, think, “How could this go wrong?” Before you open a door, think, “What if I reveal something horrible?” Here are some techniques that work for every game and every character, even if you’re naked and can only kick your enemies.
- Reveal yourself to the minimum number of enemies at any time
- Fight near a corner so you can get out of sight.
- Fight in hallways where enemies must approach one at a time.
- Remember which areas of the dungeon are safe (probably because you already killed the creatures there) and make sure you have a path back to that area. Preferably through a hallway with a corner.
- Using stairs (Back to safer levels! Not un-explored depths!) will shake off most pursuers.
Always have an escape plan
Once you decide to engage the enemy, you aren’t locked into an arena. You can escape from almost any fight to stabilize or reset.
Stabilize: Stop dying so you can start fighting again. Break line-of-sight to pursuers. Remove debuffs. Wait for the cooldown of your best attack. You may only leave combat for a few turns.
Reset: Completely leave the fight and regain your full power. Take the stairs to another level. Rest. Eat food. Spend consumables. Expect that your enemy will do the same and be at full strength when you return.
Running away is always an option.
The worst time to escape a fight is when you are on the brink of death. It’s already too late. Better to flee when you can tell the fight is going badly. As your game knowledge increases, you’ll be able to predict disaster earlier. When you’re losing a fight, your attack and defense abilities have proven insufficient, so you must rely on Utility and Movement abilities to save your life. Because you plan ahead, you already have these abilities, even if you rarely use them.
- Disable your enemies to prevent them from hurting or pursuing you. Stun, sleep, disarm, silence, etc.
- Remove conditions that prevent you from fleeing or hurting your enemies. A backup weapon, antidote, spell of purification.
- Move in a way your enemies can’t match to get out of reach and out of sight. Sprint, fly, teleport, walk on water.
- Alter the environment to keep enemies away. Lock doors, throw smoke bombs, drop traps.
Perfection is impossible
Roguelikes are random. You can’t predict exactly what gear you’ll find and what enemies you will face. Example: You can plan as hard as you want to fly over the poisonous moss fields of floor 13, but if the game doesn’t spawn any way to fly until floor 15, then your plan won’t work. You’ll have to take a riskier option.
Fortunately, your diverse defense is also defense in depth. Even without the perfect answer, your character will be generally tough, quick, and versatile enough to win or survive a dis-advantageous engagement. Example: You can’t fly, but you have healing potions (always useful) and a “sprint” ability (to outrun minotaurs), so you dash across the moss fields (minimizing opportunities for moss to poison you) then heal through the poison.
Don’t get discouraged when things go wrong. Aim for self-improvement, not perfection. If you make a mistake, try to recover. If you get unlucky, see how far you can go with what you have. Don’t play angry. It’s still a game and you should enjoy it.