Dungeons of Dredmor: Conquest of the Wizardlands now available!

Sterica

What is Dungeons of Dredmor?

It's a turn-based Roguelike by indie developer Gaslamp Games. This is their first title, and it is good.

What's the story?

The evil lich Dredmor has returned! While the world needs a hero, they got stuck with you. You kinda suck.


How does it play?

The game has a grid-based, dungeon with many, many floors. Basically you stroll around the place, looting anything that isn't nailed down, until monsters take notice of you. Note that the game is always turn-based, even when you aren't fighting. You likely won't notice it, but turns are taking place when you explore and loot (HP/MP will regen and buff/debuff durations are turn-based). Anyways, once you get spotted by monsters, you and and the monsters take turns moving and/or attacking. This tends to end with you dying.

A lot.

As expected of the genre, death is permanent and quite frequent. The odds of you even getting close to Dredmor are laughable. You'll be lucky if you survive to see the second floor. Instead, it's a game about seeing how you far can get before you run into a pack of monsters. Oh, and you hit a trap while doing so.

You start off with seven skill points, which each have their own paths that you can go further down if you level up. With a gaggle of initial skills, this allows for a ridiculous number of combinations. Many of which will do nothing but get you killed faster!

The game also has crafting, allowing you to create a bevy of items to help stave off death for a few more turns. You can mix potions, create weaponry or even tinker to make bombs and shit.

That's It?

Well, kinda. The game does have a very good sense of humor. I get a bit of a Discworld vibe from it. It's dripping in sarcasm and seems to actively hate the player. Which it should, because you're going to die and doom the world. Asshole.

But seriously, you can summon a mustache golem! You can imbibe acid like a moron! You'll never have more fun stumbling around waiting for death's warm embrace.

Where can I buy it? How much is it?

Here on Steam! It's only $4.99 for PC and/or Mac.
Desura has a copy as well, if you are adverse to Steam. Also $4.99 for PC and/or Linux.

There is now DLC available! Realm of the Diggle Gods includes lots of new additions including:
-Six new skill trees.
-Five new dungeon levels.
-Tons of new items!
-Several new monsters!
-New traps!

Available via Steam for $2.99.

There is another piece of DLC called You Have to Name the Expansion Pack. Seriously, it requires naming, and includes:
-Four new skills!
-100 new rooms with breakable stuff (which is also new)
-20 new monster variations with one new type
-30 new crafting recipes!
-47 new items

Available via Steam for $0.00.

Holy cow, there is now even more DLC. Conquest of the Wizardlands is chock full of dark evil light-hearted fun such as:
-Pocket dimensions that features STUFF.
-Swap wizard graffiti with buddies to further explore the dimensions!
-Encrust your sweet loot with this nifty crafting feature. Gain terrible new stats as your items become increasingly unstable!
-New enemies to curse at upon death!
-A Trophy Room and Menagerie to satisfy that inner stamp-collector.
-Six new skill trees, including Communism. Thanks, Obama.
-Diggle Hell. Seriously.

Available via Steam for $2.99.

Do you need it all? Are you new to the dank, spiteful corridors of the Dungeon of Dredmor? Then buy the bundle and save on buck on the base game and all its DLC. One thing to note, however, is that You Have to Name the Expansion Pack is not included in the bundle. It's free DLC, however, so all you have to do is install it after buying the bundle.

I love Dungeons of Dredmor too much! I need other exciting ways to give Gaslamp Games my money!

You're in luck! Gaslamp now has a spot in the Topatoco Store, offering charming goods at tempting prices.

System Requirements (PC)

OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7
Processor: Core 2 Duo/Athlon 64 or above recommended
Memory: 1 GB of RAM minimum; 2 GB recommended
Hard Disk Space: 400+ megabytes
Video Card: Any DirectX-compatible video device with a minimum resolution of 1024 x 600 or 1024 x 768
DirectX®: 9
Sound: Any DirectX-compatible audio device

System Requirements (Mac)

OS: OS X version Snow Leopard 10.6.3, or later.
Processor: Core 2 Duo/Athlon 64 or above recommended
Memory: 1 GB of RAM minimum; 2 GB recommended
Hard Disk Space: 400+ megabytes

I demand screenshots! Trailers

Well, the Steam page has it all, but just for your aggressively lazy people...

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNHzcmWKQYc

TotalBiscuit First Impression

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyTfUnnxZV4

taliosfalcon

I'm having way more fun with this than i thought i would, but spells seem pretty weak overall which is sad after failing miserably with pretty much every variety of spellcasting I said screw it and made a character with armor,dual wielding, assassination, sword etc. and cut my way down to level 4 no problem before killing myself drinking from a poisoned well

themightypuck

I'm liking this but it doesn't really seem roguelikey at this point. Probably because I am playing on default settings. I also wish the map was a bit better.

vader111

Picked this up as soon as I saw it, it seems pretty sweet so far.

My fungalcraft beserker viking was doing pretty swimmingly until I decided to open a "chest of evil". #-O

Yeah, that didn't end well.

Silas Brown

I'm kind of getting the impression that anything less than the hardest difficulty is really only part of the game. Like, I get pretty far in "moderate," which is the default, and this is the first time where I actually felt kind of bad about that in a game. I'm supposed to die on floor 1, right?

Time to give the hardest difficulty a try.

Silas Brown

And then I died on the first fight. 0 points.

themightypuck

Silas Brown wrote:

And then I died on the first fight. 0 points.

Same thing here. Default is kinda easy (at least early on). Hard is a bitch.

Silas Brown

The difference is significant, but I have to admit that hard is more what I expected. I'm constantly keeping an account of my items and finding a lot more joy out of trap placement and use of bows instead of just trying to mentally gauge if I can survive standing in one place and alternating between eating and swinging my sword (in default, the answer is almost always yes unless you run into a monster zoo).

Aegis

I'm not sure if I just hit a jackpot but after my game crashing and having to start a new character (with Archaeology this time) I immediately get launched into the 1st floor...with 5-6 UberChests. Suffice it to say I sacrificed more artifacts to the museum in a half hour than I've seen so far combined in my previous runs.

harvest

I had a crash eat my save. Turns out you can avoid this until they fix it by playing with permadeath off and saving often. Kind of a weak workaround for a roguelike but at least it's better than losing progress because of some sound engine bug.

taliosfalcon

yeah everyone's game crashing randomly is a pretty big fucking bug to release with in a game where the vast majority of players play with permadeath/no saves. I crashed a few times on levels 6-7 and after i was done raging (this took awhile) i now play non permadeath, save all the fucking time and use the honor system to destroy the saves when the character dies =/

Magic Pink

Jesus, I fucking love this game so much. I got it along with Cthulhu Saves The World/Breath OF Death and those games will never see the light of day again, poor things.

Also, Necronomiconmics: worst skill or WORST fucking skill?

As for that bug: they've already got a patch coming to fix it. I'm pretty sure it's up to get now; my game patched last night.

Silas Brown

Okay, I've had my fill of the hard difficulty. It's novel in its fierceness, but compared to the medium difficulty it is revealed to be a creature full of hate. I have no doubt that someone with an intimate understanding of the game could someday beat it, but it is not the game mode for people who are still trying to remember what a Tentacular Wand does.

taliosfalcon

diggle commandos are such assholes

hatedinamerica

so...Stone Soup is actually easier to play than this game, which really surprised me given the cartoony graphics and awesome sense of humor.

Played 3 or 4 characters so far, still haven't made it to level 2. I blame the inventory system, the crafting sytem, the way you equip weapons and abilities, and, to top it off, the controls.

Honestly, I don't think this game should even support a mouse (like, your mouse cursor should not even show up in the game window). Click, drag, click, drag, cliiiiiickk ughhhhh it hurts

I want to walk with the num-pad and automatically pick up items I walk over. Is that so much to ask?

Oh yeah, and while I'm doing the whole "complain about a pretty sweet game" thing: make everything bigger. Everything. I can't read a single letter on the screen unless I hunch over to an extreme degree, and my back is not happy about it. And my clicking arm is getting tired (to be fair, NWN2 might have something to do with this as well)

bitch bitch whine whine etc. Game has a lot of potential, but so many of the decisions they made make no sense to me, or actively annoy me.

Game is totally hilarious though, I gotta give 'em props for that.

SniperGuy

You can't read the text? Maybe your resolution needs to be adjusted. I have no problem reading everything just fine.
The controls are a bit odd though, and just managed to kill my best character so far.

joshofalltrades

I'll have to give this a look

hatedinamerica

Well, I'm playing with a 37" HDTV as my monitor so from my default gaming position (slightly reclined in my bed), I can't read a single line of text on the screen, no.

Not entirely their fault, but you have to admit that everything is uneccesarily tiny. Particularly the Character menu. The equipment slots are aproximately the size of three grains of rice stacked on top of each other.

LordNibbler

I've been trying to buy this off Steam for a while today but the page isn't loading. Get a service unavailable page everytime.

wreckzors

I have been playing this game quite a bit, and was trying to play as a duel axe wielding viking man smith. it was going pretty well and I had permadeath turned off from the start so the game never crashed for me one. Everything was going good until I opened this one damn door.... I think... it was a zoo?

they charged and surrounded me.... I died a terrible terrible death.

Cherrn

Having a hard time finding a build I'm comfortable with. Is crafting essential in this game? I hate crafting, so I'd rather avoid it.

Silas Brown

From what I've seen, unless something changes in the long run, crafting isn't strictly necessary. It's just one of many ways you can give yourself an edge, not necessarily better or worse than any other skill that might take that slot.

Honestly, it seems like the only way you can really screw yourself is with some violently incompatible skill choices. Duel-wielding and Shield-whatever, for example, is obviously a waste.

Sterica

If you don't pick one of the crafting skills, then you're probably not going to get a terrible amount of mileage out of crafting. It's definitely not essential.

I got to level 5 or 6 by going with a very warrior build. Sword/Mace/Axe skills, with Berserk and the Armor skills. Got perception because, seriously, fuck traps. Oh, and they're decent experience when you disarm them.

I cleared all of floor one, only to die on it because I stubbornly kept trying to disarm a trap. Only it wasn't a standard arrow trap, and I greatly overestimated my HP's ability to take the hit.

Silas Brown

My current preferred build has been Bow, Archeology, and Wand for general utility, Tinkering to facilitate bow usage (though it has yet to really pay off), and Sword/Duel-Wielding/Astrology Magic because sometimes you gotta get up close and personal.

I like it a lot, I think it's an effective build, but I'm really tempted by the random skill option. It would let me mix things up without sweating the details too much, and it would be cool to try to make success out of all kinds of skill combinations. Does anyone else play this way?

Sterica

Random seems like the thing to do when you've made the game your bitch and are looking for a new challenge.

While I'm new to the game, I'd greatly prefer synergistic skills to give me whatever advantage I can get to offset my ignorance.

taliosfalcon

there just doesn't seem to be enough crossbow ammo lying around to make them worthwhile

Sterica

It's funny you mention that because, during my warrior run, I easily had a good 50+ bolts of assorted flavors. In fact, I killed the boss of the first floor (and nearly myself) with some Squid Bolts.

But yes, if you are planning on using crossbows you should probably take up Tinkering.

mwoody

Love the game, but whatever happened to Tuesdays' planned reveal of the reason the game is only $4.99? They made such a big deal about it; it left me curious (and wary of DLC hell).

Jubeh

I have a question. It seems like I can't see much of the stuff below me. Like the screen is positioned too high or something. Is there anything I can do about that.

Aside from that quirk this game is p wild. I picked up some super bolt on the first floor and got into a fight with a boss(?). I figured I was gonna die anyway so I fired it, and it blew him up along with a chunk of wall, yet I somehow managed to pull myself out of the flames and survive, only to die later while trying to disarm the same trap three times, getting shot in the face each pass.

Sterica

When you first open the game, there should be a launcher. I've found that playing in windowed mode at max resolution will cause the window frame to clip the UI a bit. Playing in full screen should fix that, or simply playing in a lower resolution if you prefer windowed.

hatedinamerica

I've actually played all but one of my games with Random skills. It lets you try stuff out, learn what things do, and forces you to adapt to weird combinations.

Probably explains why I haven't made it past level 1 though

Jubeh

Rorus Raz wrote:

When you first open the game, there should be a launcher. I've found that playing in windowed mode at max resolution will cause the window frame to clip the UI a bit. Playing in full screen should fix that, or simply playing in a lower resolution if you prefer windowed.

It's not so much the window getting cut off as it is just not being able to see very many tiles south. I don't know how to explain it but it's not a huge deal since I'm used to it.

Also I'm seeing if you want to go melee level 1 astrology is a must. What a ridiculous buff.

Edit: Oh wait I see what you're saying about the window being clipped. Played on the lowest res with same results. I guess it's just supposed to be like that.

A Flock of Walrus

I've been playing this and i'm finding it really hard.

Gotten to level 2 so far. Anything mage is terribly weak and I die within a few minutes. Going shield/axe/choppy stuff got me pretty far. Highest score is 12880.

Surprising amount of depth though.

taliosfalcon

Jubeh wrote:

Rorus Raz wrote:

When you first open the game, there should be a launcher. I've found that playing in windowed mode at max resolution will cause the window frame to clip the UI a bit. Playing in full screen should fix that, or simply playing in a lower resolution if you prefer windowed.

It's not so much the window getting cut off as it is just not being able to see very many tiles south. I don't know how to explain it but it's not a huge deal since I'm used to it.

Also I'm seeing if you want to go melee level 1 astrology is a must. What a ridiculous buff.

fleshmaking or whatever its called is on par with astrology, maybe better as a 0 point melee skil in my book, give it a try

finalflight89

Oh man, I just bought this and it's quite addicting already. I haven't died yet, but I'm taking it super careful. Made it to level 2. I absolutely LOVE the random skills choice, it really adds to the randomocity of the whole experience. I feel like I'm going to get a lot more out of this game than I did with Desktop Dungeons.

Sterica

Okay, so Wizarding starts out pretty iffy, but gets really good if you survive the first few levels. I managed to hit 8 or so, but died on floor 2 when I was INCREDIBLY STUPID and stepped on my own fire rune.

It's really key to invest in Magic Training and/or Leylines, because otherwise you'll be sitting around oom and pretty useless unless you opt to invest in a weapon skill. I will admit I got very lucky by going into Wand Lore and getting three Coral Wands, which gives you an incredibly good HP Regen buff.

That said, I really do not like wands. They're like crossbows, only your ammo can run out at random. Even with the Wand Lore skills, I've had wands burn out at as low as 15 entropy. I know they're probably not supposed to be a primary weapon, but you will be relying on them early on when you run out of mana really fast and have dick for regen. I'm going to try Staves instead and see if that allows me to survive better when starting off.

Silas Brown

Yeah, wands are pretty mediocre. I think I'm gonna drop the wand skill (most burn out before I have a chance to use the skill anyway) in favor of the Perception boost.

mwoody

I love wands myself. They're an outstanding way to buff a character who otherwise wouldn't survive the first level on the highest difficulty. Putting points into them, though, don't provide tremendous bonuses, particularly since I tend to just get a powerful wand, fire it once, and recharge it, so there's zero percent chance of it burning out.

The tree needs a costly way to fix burnt wands - like, to copy other roguelikes, a permanent -1 to max mana - to be viable later on.

Sterica

The problem is that the entropy dump spell has a ridiculous 80 turn cooldown, meaning you're rarely going to be using that wand if you only use it at 0 entropy.

What would be nice is a skill that prevents wands from burning out if their entropy is below a certain threshold (like, 20 or so). So you can at least fire it off 2-3 times without having to worry about early burnout.

Silas Brown

I think I prefer to think of wands as things I can randomly find for emergency use rather than something I would want to build a comprehensive strategy around.

harvest

I made a good character with the following skills:

Unarmed
Artful Dodger
Deadshot
Astrology
Ley Walker
Perception
Assassination

You miss out on crafting but even at level 3 I am murdering everything on the first floor. The Radiant Aura buff from Astrology makes up for your early lack of defensive stats quite nicely, and Assassination and Deadshot give you some pretty reliable extra damage on top of your weak kick attack. Of course the kick gets stronger the further down the Unarmed tree you go. Once I get some more levels I plan to put more points into Ley Walker and Astrology for more offensive magic.