#SWORD OF THE NECROMANCER GAMEPLAY HOW TO#
#SWORD OF THE NECROMANCER GAMEPLAY UPGRADE#

There are just so many variables here, and like most roguelikes you’re always in search of that dream run, where you get helpful gear that makes pushing through the area you’re in more straightforward. Is an obsidian rapier better than a golden whip? Is it worth swapping my pick-axe for a glass shovel given it will shatter when I take damage? Is the Ring of Charisma better than the Ring of Luck?

#SWORD OF THE NECROMANCER GAMEPLAY UPGRADE#

You can also expand your viewing range with torches, upgrade your shovel so it can dig through tougher walls, put on armour to raise your base defence stats, eat food to restore health, pick up a wide variety of spells, expand your health or carrying capacity, wear a number of charms and crowns, find dungeon maps and so on.Īnd of course, you’re deciding what to pick up and what to buy while hopping back and forth, adding somewhat comical pressure to even the act of gearing up. Broadswords can do damage to adjacent tiles for instance, whereas the crossbow can fire up to four tiles ahead, but needs to be reloaded – on the beat.

The right loot can really help, and can also drastically change the feel of the gameplay. The fire and ice theme is great - particularly its impact on the soundtrack. No two games will ever be the same, and when the soundtrack is bumping along and you have to quickly appraise a room and execute a sequence with multiple enemies all moving to their own beat, it’s all too easy to mess up. Here you also have enemies that parry attacks, drop live bombs when defeated and teleport the player.Įach zone, then, requires its own approach and knowledge-base, but even when you’ve got something of a handle on enemy movement patterns, Crypt of the NecroDancer still offers up a good challenge. Zone 4, on the other hand, sees the digging mechanic change so that it’s multiple tiles at a time, changing how buffering works but also allowing the player to knock down the scarabs that perch atop walls. Ice tiles can also be melted to create water tiles, which are their own obstacle. There are ice creatures that leave behind frozen tiles which you slip across, adding another wrinkle to kiting enemies correctly, while the lava tiles that appear in the wake of fire monsters will deal damage if you walk on more than one in a row. Each of the four zones also has its own set of enemies and its own gameplay tweaks, and ends in a randomly chosen boss fight, making it its own distinct challenge.Įvery level in Zone 3, for instance, is divided into fire and ice sections, with music that shifts in tone depending on which one you’re in. The music changes with each floor you descend within a zone, for instance, forcing you to adjust to a new tempo. Cleverly, though, Crypt of the NecroDancer’s randomly generated dungeons never let you get too complacent. Monkeys move on every beat, while red dragons can one-shot you from across the screen.Each failed run teaches you more about how each enemy moves, which then – hopefully – makes it easier to execute your dance of death next time. This might be about knowing that an enemy jumps forward one square every four beats, which enables you to jump in and attack twice before jumping away and having it follow so you then have three more beats to finish it off.

The gameplay, then, is entirely geared around manipulating enemy movement patterns so that you can safely attack.

Need to let an enemy jump one tile closer while you stay in the same spot? This is the way to do that without losing your coin multiplier. The dirt walls within each dungeon can be dug out, for instance, which is great from an exploration/discovery perspective, but it also enables you to ‘dig buffer’ – to dig a dirt tile out and thus stay stationary for a beat.

#SWORD OF THE NECROMANCER GAMEPLAY HOW TO#

It’s pretty cool working out how to outmanoeuvre NecroDancer's varied bestiary. You’ll only take damage if the enemy then tries to jump into your tile and doesn’t die from your attack. Instead, you want to move so you’re adjacent to an enemy, which then lets you attack. If you and an enemy both try and hop onto the same tile on the same beat you’ll take damage. The rules of engagement are pretty simple. As the music plays your enemies come ever closer, forcing you to find and exploit an opening before it’s too late. You’re actually doing more of a nervous jig than a dance as you hop from tile to tile, puzzle solving to the beat.

Sword of the necromancer gameplay