Cake Attack fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Jul 21, 2012

Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Jul 22, 2012

• Check out the official wiki when you get a chance. It doesn't give away any major spoilers, and is really more like a more-detailed BeforeIPlay. Most of these tips are covered in more detail there.
  
• Remap the pause button to something easily reachable (Q on a typical WASD set-up is ideal). You can only get a close look at enemy stats while paused, and having to reach across your keyboard while fighting a boss is annoying and awkward.
  
• Play through the tutorial mission.
  
• Mess around with the difficulties a bit, find somewhere that's challenging, but not frustrating.
  
• There are only two ways to heal: Killing enemies, or going back to town.
  
• Don't be afraid of dying, you don't lose anything not immediately replaceable.
  
• Learn to loot efficiently. When you find a building, or a dungeon, your goal is not to empty every room, but to search for any stashes, empty them, and then move on. Otherwise, you're just going to end up burning out without much to show for it.
  
• On that note, make good use of your maps, especially the one in the bottom right. If you mouseover a room, it will give you details about what to expect there. You can see up to two rooms deep from where you are, so you'll never have to enter a dead-end room to see if it goes anywhere.
  
• Destroyed rooms are always empty, and can be safely ignored, or hidden in without worry.
  
• Crafted spells are almost always better than found ones, even before adding gems.
  
• Everything you need aside from spells can be bought from the floating crystals in town. It's expensive, but it gives you an out if the RNG just won't give you enough of something you need (Wind Shelters and Buoys are the usual culprits.)
  
• Always plant the Wind Shelter on the windy side of the threshold. You'll want the extra square of reach, and the mission is always windy, anyways.
  
• You have ten upgrade points to distribute between Health, Mana, and Attack, and you can buy the crystals for them in town for dirt cheap. Play around with the set-up that works best for you. Though, as a rule of thumb, mana capacity is the least important of the three. Whether you want more health or more attack power comes down to personal preference.
  
• A good mouse set-up is your main attack spell on left-click, wooden platforms on right-click, and an attack spell of a different element on middle-click, preferably one that can destroy background objects. Keep a few utility spells and items on the hotbar that you can fire off with the number keys, when you need them.
  
• Keep at least 500 wooden platforms on you at all times. They're dirt-cheap to buy, can be found everywhere, and running out in the middle of a cave dive is almost certainly a death sentence.
  
• If you die somewhere you expect to be again (like the Overlord's tower), kill the ghost first. They have a way of piling up.
  
• Nothing you can do can ever render the game unwinnable.

girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Jul 23, 2012

al-azad fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Jul 23, 2012

Artix fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Jul 23, 2012

• A growing army consumes gold which requires expansion, which requires an even larger army, etc. Turtling is slow death at least until the very late game when you can get by with heroes and a couple stacks of high level units.
  
  
• If you need to free up resources, send troops on suicide missions instead of disbanding them. Disbanded units like to wander around "freeing" your towns and gold mines. They will occasionally attack you at the worst possible moment.
  
  
• You can use some units' abilities out of combat, by double clicking on their portrait. Clerics in particular can heal other units in the same stack.
  
  
• Cheap spells are the best spells. Always get at least one Orb of Air and Orb of Life. This gives you access to Chain Lightning, one of the best offensive spells in the game (damages 4 units with a chance to stun for 1 round) and Summon Eagle, a very fast flying summon that can explore, loot one hex towns and can defeat one or even two level 1 units in a pinch.
  
  
• Conserve movement as much as possible. When attacking with a stack of units, select the one with the most remaining movement by left clicking, and then right-clicking under it's portrait. When it attacks an adjacent army, the rest of your army will be pulled into the battle without wasting any remaining movement points.
  
  
• Regarding hero creation, it's best to focus on pure combat or spellcasting. With spellcasting, prioritize researching global (purple) spells until you get Town Portal. A hero with Spellcasting 4 or better can cast Portal every turn, effectively defending all of your cities simultaneously. Combat heroes benefit from round attack, first strike and wall climbing. Any remaining XP points are best used on increasing their stats and speed. Every hero should have some form of long range attack as well.
  
  
• You can draw a town's defenders into the open by attacking an enemy stack that is outside, but adjacent to the town. If it is a four hex town with only one stack of defenders, appriach them from the diagonally opposite side and you will fight each other inside the city walls!
  
  
• Don't be afraid to loot or even raze towns if you already have a decent income. Keep the initiative, and keep your armies fighting instead of waiting around.
  
  
• High level summoning spells are a waste of mana. For the price of one summoned dragon you can permanently haste three flying units as a deep strike force that covers twice the territory, or you can buff an entire army in preparation for a battle.
  

Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Jul 23, 2012