As stated in the review yesterday, I’ve only played one game of Neptune’s Pride, and it was a free one. However, in the two weeks or so that it took to play, I learned a thing or two. I ended up winning, but in some ways, I was just lucky… however, I think, based on my observations that first game, I might know how to duplicate that luck in the future.
United we Stand
This may be obvious to players of Diplomacy and other, similar games, but in Neptune’s Pride, the most valuable asset is not money, tech, stars or ships, but allies. Except for giving a small advantage to the defender, combat essentially boils down to a straightforward numerical comparison of forces, and more so as the game goes on, and tech levels go up, and fleet sizes get larger.
Thus, if you’re fighting someone who’s about on equal footing with you, it doesn’t matter that much who has the better strategy - either a few stars will get picked off and you’ll call a truce, or more likely, you’ll both lose most of your ships in the conflict, and someone more powerful will swoop in to claim both your stars.
On the other hand, if two players gang up on one, they will both still have enough ships left to defend themselves from others once the dust settles.
And so, the game is a lot like reality shows like Survivor, where the best players tend to form coalitions, and pick everyone else off one by one. There is also a more subtle power struggle within the alliance, of course - whoever reaps the greatest spoils while sacrificing the least for his allies will win the game in the end… unless he overdoes it and his former friends decide he’s no longer on their side. You can worry about this later in the game, though; the important point is that if you’re not in a strong alliance early on, you have no hope of beating those who are.
More generally, we can say that the ultimate goal of this game is to be a member of the larger side in any conflict.
The Neighbour of my Neighbour is my Friend
So, given that allies are of the utmost importance, one’s choice of allies is clearly going to be a big decision early in the game. Like most people in my game, I started off by contacting everyone adjacent to me, and trying to negotiate border agreements. Although there’s nothing wrong with this as a stopgap measure until you’re ready for war, it’s clearly not going to work in the long term - in order to win the game, you need to expand, and you can’t do this while remaining at peace with everyone you share a border with.
Rather, if we go back to what we said in the first section, the objective is to be on the larger side of any conflict. Thus, the most appealing target for you is going to be a player who shares borders with multiple other players, and your best allies are going to be those other players. Best of all is if these other players do not initially share a border with you themselves - then you have an opportunity to cooperate with them against a common enemy, and no reason, nor possibility, for one of you to betray the other, at least until the “sandwiched” player is dealt with, and you and your friend meet in the middle.
The Dangers of Exponential Growth
What this game shares with other 4X titles, like Civilization, is the idea of “booming,” or exponential growth. You collect money each turn, and can invest it in a variety of things, including Economy upgrades, which earn you more money. Theoretically, if left alone, a player who started off investing only in Economy would eventually be able to outpace everyone else in the galaxy. This, however, is a risky path.
The main problem is that ships are not purchased directly. Rather, the best the player can do is upgrade his stars’ Industry, which in turn affects the rate at which they produce ships. This means that Economy has a second-derivative effect on fleet strength - Economy affects rate of income, which affects not the rate of fleet growth, but rather, the rate of Industry development, which in turn determines the rate of fleet growth. What that means is that, while a strong Economy can have an even greater long-term impact on fleet strength than if ships were purchased directly, in the short term, there’s a great deal of inertia in switching from economic development to ship production.
In my first game, I noticed from early on that I was WAY behind most of the other players in Economy (and Science), but ahead in Industry, and thus way ahead in fleet strength. I knew this would put me behind in the long run, so I had to strike quickly… so strike I did, capturing, in the process, many desirable stars, and pillaging their economies. I could also make up for my Science deficit by capturing other players’ Science stars, and by trading military support for technologies researched by others.
That’s the problem with going all-out for economy and neglecting your fleet early on. It makes you both a very dangerous long-term threat, and a very appealing short-term target. Put this together with the principle I arrived at in the first section, above, and you’ll see why this doesn’t work - your objective is to make sure people want to work with you, not against you.
Thus, investing in Industry early on means that the risk involved in attacking you will outweigh the rewards, and people will be more likely to want to work with you than against you. Investing too much in Economy has the opposite effect, unless you have neighbours willing to trade fleets for cash.
Needless to say, this isn’t a suggestion that one should only purchase Industry upgrades - a balancing act is required. It’s merely an observation that at least six out of the eight people in my first game invested much too heavily in either Science or Economy early on, and neglected to defend themselves adequately. I imagine this is a bad habit developed over years of playing against comparatively “nice” AIs, rather than brutal human opponents.
Built like a Walnut
The most obvious way of choosing where to develop is to decide what you’re investing in that turn, and use the “Find Cheapest E/I/S” button, but this isn’t generally going to be correct. Stars with a lot of Economy are appealing targets, due to the immediate cash bonus of capturing one. Science, even more so, as it’s so expensive to purchase. Thus, if you develop the Economy and Science of stars in scanning range of your neighbours, you’ll need to keep them heavily guarded in order not to make yourself too succulent. This means you’ll have fewer ships available for your conquests elsewhere.
Rather, you should think of your territory as a walnut. Keep the delicious part inside, and a hard shell outside. Build up industry around your borders, and find high-resource stars that are as far away from everyone else as possible, in order to build your Economy and Science there. This will be more expensive than spreading everything out, but better in the long-run.
That said, buying one level of economy in a system with decent resources costs less than $20, and will pay itself off in 48 hours if you can hold it that long. So, it is worth spreading your economy out a little, especially since it doesn’t matter to you where the money comes from, as it all ends up in the same place.
By contrast, there’s a strong incentive to concentrate most of your Industry in a few systems, or clusters of nearby systems. When waging war, you’re going to want to pick up ships from systems far from the battle zone and transport them into combat. The fewer stops your carriers have to make in order to achieve “critical mass” (be that 30 ships, 60, 100, or whatever, depending on the stage of the game) and become useful combat tools, the faster they’ll be ready to join the fray. Eventually, you’ll have a sort of “bucket brigade” system going, with depleted fleets returning from the front to fill up at your Industrial centres, while others are already on their way out. If you plan your Industry well enough, and are responsible in sending your fleets only into battles they can win, you’ll be able to make do with far fewer Super Carriers than your opponents. Although they only cost $25 a pop, that’s usually enough for an Economy or Industry upgrade somewhere, so making do with fewer, rather than more, will help inch you ahead.
No System Undefended
A common mistake I observed in my first game was players only leaving ships in developed systems. Small, resource-poor stars may not be appealing to develop, but they can serve as entry-points to your sector of the galaxy; having claimed them, an opponent will have a much better view of where your forces are located, and a convenient staging ground to launch fleets deeper into your space, where - if you’re employing the walnut strategy - you won’t be adequately defended.
Leaving one ship behind in each system you visit is an excellent policy. The cost is minimal, even early in the game, and the difference is substantial - although it won’t stop an enemy fleet from taking such systems, they will lose W+1 ships every time they do (where W is your Weapons tech level), while you only lose the single ship. Since war in Neptune’s Pride is a straight-up numerical comparison, this is a trade you want to make all day and night, equivalent to sacrificing pawns for bishops or rooks in chess.
I’ll be the Bait, You be the Trap
As the saying goes, the best offense is a strong defense. Fleets get a pretty substantial advantage on the defense, so destroying someone else’s 100-ship fleet might cost you 120 of your own if you attack, but only 80 if you trick them into blundering into a huge fleet of your own.
This leads to one possible exception to the above “Walnut Rule.” If you’re not sure if you can trust a given neighbour, try building a Science upgrade in a lightly-defended system within his scanning range, especially if you can see a large fleet of his stationed nearby. In the meantime, move a larger fleet of your own to a system just behind the “bait” system, outside of his scanning range (be sure to check the Player Browser, as his scanning tech may not be the same as yours).
To make the bait even more appealing, you can tell him that you’re starting a war with a player at the other end of your territory, and let him see you jumping some fleets away in that direction. He’ll assume that you’re committing your forces over there and the time is ripe for a sneak attack.
Just make sure that your “trap” is close enough, and your Speed technology good enough, that you’ll be able to get it into the “bait” system before his attacking fleet gets there.
Once the trap is sprung and his fleet annihilated, there will probably be several poorly-defended systems for you to snap up in its wake, since he will have collected ships from them for his attack. Best of all, and especially if anyone else was in range to see what happened, you’ll be able to point the finger at your new enemy as the one who violated the border treaty, and come out looking like the good guy.
The Right Tech for the Job
Not all technologies are of equal value at all stages of the game. People tend to rush for Weapons early on, because the game is, after all, about fighting. However, there’s generally quite a bit of build-up before the fighting gets going. Rather, Speed is probably the most important tech at the very beginning, in order to expand your borders as quickly as possible. Scanning is also more valuable than most players seem to believe, as it allows you to claim the best stars, rather than wasting time jumping blindly to distant stars, only to discover that they’re barren.
After a couple of Speed upgrades, Range becomes important as well. However, unlike the other techs, which continue to be useful no matter how high you get them, Range seems to peter out around level 4 or 5 in most galaxies. You need to get those first few upgrades early on, in order to be the first to reach remote star clusters that are out of other players’ grap… but other than that, its only advantage is in allowing you to plot a straighter line between distant points, and a high enough Speed tech can easily compensate for a slightly more crooked path with more waypoints.
Scanning and Speed are also very valuable in battle, as they allow you to see where your opponent is going, and get there first. This goes with the point above about baiting your opponent into blundering into a strong defensive fleet.
Of course, choosing which technologies to research is greatly dependent on your allies, and ideally, you’ll be trading with enough people that you can get a little of everything - nonetheless, my feeling is that, all other things being equal, it’s good to focus on Speed and Scanning early on, and trade for the others. Partly, this is because they’re so useful, but also because they seem to be researched less often (especially Scanning) by other players, so you’re more likely to be able to trade them. Perhaps, as people gain more experience, Speed and Scanning will become more commonplace, and researching something like Range from the get-go will be the way to get something of value. Time will tell.
That’s all I have to say for now, but it’s already a longer piece than I’d meant to write. As I said in the review, it’s a surprisingly deep game for such simple mechanics. Please feel free to comment and discuss your own findings, and I’ll include them if I write a follow-up after my second game.
In the games section of the site, I’ve just posted six examples of a puzzle I invented, called Jum Noli. It’s inspired by Japanese-style number puzzles like Kakuro and Sudoku, but in keeping with my tastes, I’ve tried to make it “denser.” The small grid and tight restrictions mean that most Jum Noli puzzles require just one or two leaps of logic to get the first few boxes filled in, after which the solution usually comes quite quickly. Making that breakthrough, however, can be quite challenging.
As explained in the puzzle PDF, the objective is to fill in a 4×4 grid of boxes, placing one, two or three dots in each box.
There are two restrictions in placing the dots. The first is indicated by the numbers next to the rows and columns; these indicate the total number of dots that there must be in that row or column. The second is indicate by the dots inside the diamonds. These indicate that the surrounding four boxes must have a clear majority of that number of dots - thus, two or more of the boxes must contain that number of dots, and no more than one may contain any other particular number. That is, if the diamond shows three dots, the surrounding boxes could contain [3, 3, 3, 1] or [3, 3, 2, 1] but not [3, 3, 2, 2].
Each puzzle has only one solution. Finding it typically involves applying logic to determine with certainty how many dots must go in specific boxes, then using that information to make similar conclusions about other nearby boxes, and so on. Usually, once 6-10 boxes are filled, the rest will be much easier, but how does one go about filling in those first few boxes? It’s easiest to explain by means of an example. Let’s start with the grid to the left.
One trick to apply is to look for the highest and/or lowest row and column numbers in the grid, because there are fewer possibilities for how to arrive at those totals. As an extreme example, if a row showed a 4, you would know immediately that all the boxes in that row contained a single dot. Likewise, if it showed a 12, all the boxes would contain three dots.
This puzzle doesn’t have any 4s or 12s, but it does have an 11, which can only be made with three sets of three dots and one set of two. The obvious question to ask, then, is which box contains the two dots. Looking at the two diamonds at the top of that column, we can see that the group of two dots must be in one of the top two boxes - if both of those boxes contained three dots, it would be impossible to obey the requirements imposed by those diamonds.
The left diagram shows one possibility. The right diagram shows the other, but we can eliminate this as an option. If the top box of the second column contains 3 dots, then the only way to make the top row add up to six is for the remaining boxes all to contain a single dot. However, the top right diamond requires that it be surrounded by a two-dot majority, which creates a contradiction. Thus, we can firmly place two dots in the top box of the second row, and fill the rest of the row with three dots in each box.
The next step is easy. The top left diamond requires that the surrounding four boxes contain a clear majority of one-dot groups. Since two boxes have now been filled in with a two-dot and a three-dot group, the remaining two boxes must clearly contain a single dot.
After this, however, the puzzle gets a little trickier.
Looking at the third column, we see that it must contain a total of six dots. There are only two ways this can be accomplished; either with one group of three dots and three singles, or else two groups of two and two singles. However, the key thing to notice is that none of the middle three diamonds contains a single dot. This means that nowhere in this column can there be two consecutive single dots! This rules out the first possibility, and also combinations like [1,1,2,2]. The only possibilities are [1,2,1,2] and [2,1,2,1].
All we can do is try out these two combinations and look for a contradiction. It turns out that it’s easy to find one. If we try [2,1,2,1], we find that the top right corner must also contain a 1, in order to satisfy the top row total (6). This conflicts with the top right diamond, which states that it must be surrounded by a clear majority of two-dot groups.
Eliminating this possibility, we arrive at the following result, at which point the rest of the puzzle should be very easy to solve, since most of the rows and columns are almost complete. I’ll leave it to you to finish it: Hopefully this example helps illustrate the sort of techniques needed to solve the puzzles. Of course, they vary widely in difficulty; some will only require reasoning at the level of the first two steps of the example - others will require even greater leaps of logic than in the third step. I’ve even managed to come up with puzzles that I myself can’t solve (though I’ve written a simple computer program to verify the existence of a unique solution).
In my review of the card game Dominion I explained that the game’s depth comes from the interplay between the different Action cards, and stated that I would be posting a strategy guide to describe my findings about what cards increase or decrease the value of others.
First, I’ll briefly describe each of the cards, in alphabetical order, and give a general suggestion of what other types of cards they affect. After that, I’ll discuss some combos that I’ve found particularly effective.
Adventurer: Like any card-drawing Action, Adventurer is most useful when you already have a strong deck. Since it guarantees that the cards drawn will be money cards, it’s best when you have a deck full of high-valued cash. Thus, it’s best to buy it late in the game, and works well with cards that either remove Copper from your deck, or add Silver and Gold, thus Chapel, Moneylender, Mine and Bureaucrat.
Bureaucrat: One of the most powerful cards - it is primarily valuable for adding Silver to your deck, and thus works well early in the game, especially if followed up with e.g. Adventurer later. Its secondary function is more useful later in the game, when players are more likely to have a great number of Victory point cards - it is also thus a good card to have when the Witch is in the game, as it keeps your own money-to-VP ratio high, while slowing your opponents down by forcing them to draw their Curse cards twice.
Cellar: Compensates for a deck with many weak cards. Useful when the Witch is in the game. Also particularly useful with Library, as Cellar reduces your hand size, while Library replenishes it.
Chancellor: Mostly useful early in the game. Isn’t greatly affected one way or another by other cards, though perhaps less useful when the Witch is present, as it will mean shuffling Curses back into one’s deck.
Chapel: A difficult card to use well. Mostly useful when the Witch is in the game, but also for rapidly “gearing up” one’s deck early on, by removing Estates and Coppers. In this latter use, works well with anything used to draw cards, e.g. Laboratory and Smithy. The trouble is that it becomes a useless card once all other low-valued cards have been removed, so it works well with Remodel, the only other card which can get rid of it once it’s outlived its use.
Council Room: Like Smithy, has the problem of providing many cards, but no extra Actions. Best used in decks that are either light in Actions, or when preceded by Village or Festival. Spy also helps, as it allows you to make sure the extra card given to your opponents isn’t too helpful to them.
Feast: Mostly useful either very late in the game (when buying Duchies becomes important) or if there are more good 5-cost choices than 4-cost. Extremely useful with Throne Room, however.
Festival: Best used in decks that are already powerful, but too full of Actions. Ideally to be used as part of a chain of Actions leading to 13+ money for the purchase phase, to take best advantage of the extra Buy.
Garden: Overpowered, in my opinion, particularly in 2- and 3-player games. Almost always at least as good as Duchy, but cheaper. Particularly good when used with anything that adds cards to players’ decks - thus Workshop, Witch, and anything with +1 Buy.
Militia: Good card in general, but not if other players have Libraries. Also, its effects don’t stack, so generally it’s best to buy only one, and not if several other players have already purchased them.
Laboratory: Almost never bad. Particularly valuable in conjunction with Spy, Throne Room and/or Village, but a good addition to any deck whatsoever.
Library: Confusing card to use. No better than e.g. Smithy in most decks, but compensates for anything that reduces hand size, e.g. Cellar in one’s own deck, Militia in the opponents’. When used in combination with cards that grant extra actions (e.g. Village or Festival), the fact that it’s optional to set aside Actions becomes significant - it can allow you to filter your deck to get your best Actions. Either way, it’s best used when one’s deck has become Action-heavy.
Market: Good general-purpose card, though usually slightly inferior to Laboratory, unless one’s deck is so strong that one is likely to have 13+ money in the purchase phase, so that the extra Buy can be most effectively put to use.
Mine: One of the more powerful cards in general. Particularly good in conjunction with Adventurer. Not as good if Moneylender is used, as the latter will be useless once all Coppers have been removed or turned into Silver. Also somewhat redundant with Chapel.
Moat: Obviously good in games with many powerful Attack cards, particularly Witch, and to a lesser extent Thief and Militia. Spy and Bureaucrat are less important to defend against.
Moneylender: Tricky to use, as its main advantage is the removal of Copper from one’s deck, but it becomes useless once there is none left. Not recommended unless also playing with Remodel (as the Moneylender can then be Remodeled into Gold or an Adventurer).
Remodel: Excellent all-around card, especially for turning money cards into Victory Points in the endgame. Compensates for any other card which tends to outlive its usefulness, such as Chapel, Workshop or Moneylender. Also offsets the power of the Witch, as Curses can be remodeled, though Chapel is generally more useful for this purpose, if available.
Smithy: Harder to use than most beginners think, given the simplicity of its effects. The main problem is that it doesn’t grant extra Actions, so the cards drawn often go to waste unless they are money cards. Particularly useful in combination with Village or Festival, for this reason.
Spy: Deceptively useful card, mostly because it’s essentially a freebie, granting +1 Card and +1 Action. Great in conjunction with any other card-drawing Action, as it allows you to have some control over what you draw in the current turn (which, knowing the rest of your hand, is more useful than controlling what you draw the next turn). Also especially useful if everyone has many useless cards in their decks, for instance if the Witch is in the game.
Thief: Less threatening than it appears, unless most players have decks consisting of a lot more Gold and Silver than Copper. Thus, primarily useful in games where other players’ strategies involve the Moneylender, Mine and/or Chapel.
Throne Room: Obviously, more useful in Action-heavy decks. Good with most cards, except Cellar, Chancellor, Chapel, Militia and Library. Particularly good with some of the high-powered cards, such as Adventurer, Laboratory and Witch.
Village: The extra actions are obviously most useful in an Action-heavy deck, particularly one which also includes a lot of card-drawing Actions, e.g. Smithy and Library. Somewhat redundant with Festival, and less useful in decks that are likely to be full of cards other than Actions, e.g. if the player has Bureaucrat and/or the opponents have Witch.
Witch: Very powerful and frustrating for one’s opponents. Often the defining feature of a game in which she’s present. Particularly brutal when used in conjunction with Throne Room. Counteracted by Adventurer, Chapel, Remodel and Moat. Makes Bureaucrat and Spy more effective, both to enhance her effects on opponents, and reduce her effects on oneself.
Woodcutter: Hard to use well - the extra Buy is more likely to be useful late in the game, but generally one doesn’t want to be adding 3-cost Actions to one’s deck later on. Sometimes good in conjunction with e.g. Village and Adventurer, but Festival + Adventurer + (some other action) is generally going to be a more useful combination than Village + Woodcutter + Adventurer.
Workshop: Useful, but dangerous, as the result can be an excessively Action-heavy deck. Best used to purchase Spy, if available, as that is the one 4-cost Action that grants both +1 Action and +1 Card and thus will almost never be a bad draw.
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My favourite combinations:
Throne Room + Cellar + Library: Ordinarily, Throne Rooming a Cellar isn’t great, but it is when you follow it up with Library. Getting two rounds of discarding-redrawing gives you a high probability of making a strong hand. Meanwhile, the fact that you’re reduced to three cards is no problem, since the Library will fill you right back up to seven. Finally, the doubling of the Cellar means that you’ll have an Action left over, so you can take advantage of the Library’s optional ability to set aside Actions, keeping only the best one to use afterwards. You’re almost guaranteed to be able to purchase a Province this way.
Workshop -> Moneylender + Remodel -> Adventurer: Moneylender and Remodel are a great combination in general - after using the Moneylender to remove all the Copper from one’s deck, one can then Remodel the now-useless Moneylenders. Conveniently, they remodel into something of up to 6 cost, i.e. an Adventurer, perfect to take advantage of your now Copper-free deck. This combo can be improved upon still further by starting off by purchasing a Workshop, which will get you all the Moneylenders and Remodels you need. And once your deck becomes saturated with them, you can then Remodel the Workshop itself into something more valuable, such as a Laboratory.
Throne Room + Witch: Self-explanatory.
Spy + Laboratory: Especially if enhanced with the presence of e.g. Throne Room, Cellar or other card-drawing cards, these two make it very easy to get a “run” going, in which you play repeated copies of both to go through a big chunk of your deck in a single turn, often resulting in being able to purchase a Province.
Village/Festival + Council Room + Militia: The council room’s main downside is the fact that it allows your opponents to draw a card as well; this is neatly compensated for by the Militia’s power.
First of all, to show off my procedural level generation code - and to give people an idea of the size and overall topology of the Labyrinth, I got the game to spit out a complete map from beginning to end. Scroll down to the bottom of the post to see it. (I couldn’t put it up here at the top because of the purple tool box on the right).
Now let’s talk a little bit about the strategy of the game. Having played probably about a hundred times myself now, I can say that it is definitely a game it’s possible to get better at. I now rarely score less than 200, unless I have a really unlucky start, and I’ve made it about 3/4 of the way through the game once, and over halfway many times.
I think the way to look at this game is as a sort of economy. That sounds weird, of course, but if you think about it, there are effectively five currencies in the game and various fixed exchange rates between them. Most of the tough decisions in the game come down to assessing a trade and deciding whether it is favorable or not. The Advancement of the Wall of Doom, meanwhile, can be seen quite literally as a “cost of living,” and you must turn enough profit in your trades to stay ahead of the game. The currencies are: Turns, Energy, Separation (from the Wall), Potions and Bombs. The fixed exchange rates are:
1 space of Separation <-> 2 turns, because the Wall advances once every two turns, and because walking two spaces to the right creates an increase of one space of Separation (since it has advanced one in the meantime).
1 turn <-> 1 point of Energy, because passing a turn gains you a point of Energy, and because running once gains you a turn relative to walking twice.
1 Potion -> 15 points of Energy. Realistically, your average exchange is probably 1 Potion -> 14 points, since sometimes you’re forced to use a Potion when your meter isn’t quite empty.
Bombs don’t have a fixed exchange rate, but intuitively, they seem about as useful/valuable as Potions. From this we see that the bonus items are sufficiently valuable that it’s worth quite a large detour to pick them up - even if you have to walk six squares backwards (for a total of 12 turns wasted, or 6 turns and 6 points of Energy) to get one, it’s likely a winning proposition, which may be surprising to many players.
The trouble is that you don’t always have the luxury of being able to make so large a detour, if the Wall is hot on your heels. This can be likened to being offered a good deal on some property when you don’t have enough liquid capital to take advantage of the offer. Separation is thus your liquid capital, and you want to keep your assets in that form as much as possible.
How do you do that? By running a lot, quite simply. It’s tempting to stockpile Potions, but the more I play, the more I realize this is not a winning strategy, as I often die with Potions left in my inventory. Of course, you need to keep some in reserve in case you’re forced to swim down a long, flooded tunnel, or to battle a Fishman or Eyeball Beast while low on Energy. However, early in the game, one is enough, later on perhaps two or three. Once you have that many, however, you should begin sprinting as much as possible, and popping a Potion every time your Energy runs out.
There’s another reason to run when you can, which is that you won’t always be able to. Sometimes, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you need to walk a lot, or even pass, for instance in a zig-zagging corridor, or when outmaneuvering monsters. Walking or passing when your Energy meter is full is equivalent to burning money, so you should make sure to spend Energy whenever you can do so productively.
Bombs, on the other hand, should be stockpiled, as they’re your insurance policy against dead ends, which you will blunder into with increasing frequency late in the game. They can also save your life in flooded tunnels by creating dry land to rest on if your Potions run out.
Fighting monsters is generally a waste of Turns and Energy. Except for Dashers, most monsters are easy to outmaneuver, even if you’re just walking. Trapping them behind walls and water, or luring them into pits is very often an effective strategy, especially if you can find a way to do so in the course of taking a detour to grab a bonus item. If you do have to fight, make sure you do it on your own terms - situations to avoid include stepping right up to a Dasher and letting it get two attacks before you get one, getting caught between two or more monsters and taking hits from all of them while attacking only one, and being forced to fight a monster while standing in water and losing health that way at the same time.
With these strategies, you should be able to get at least halfway through the Labyrinth most games. Beyond that, luck, planning and careful tactics should carry you the rest of the way. Please leave a comment if you discover any effective strategies beyond what’s discussed here, and I’ll add them.
The Labyrinth of Doom
Legend PURPLE: Darkness GRAY: Walls WHITE: Floor BLUE: Water YELLOW: Victory! BLACK DOTS: Pits RED DOTS: Monsters GREEN DOTS: Bonus items
So, I completed Ludum Dare successfully. Very successfully, I think. Although the game is still very rough around the edges, preliminary feedback suggests that I’m not the only one who thinks it’s fun. However, the instructions at the game’s beginning are quite minimal, and many people have told me that they find the game completely impossible, which leads me to believe they might be missing a few critical details of the gameplay. So, although I’m no master of the game yet myself (despite having made it), I will attempt to share my own thoughts on strategy, as well as a few basic facts that would be hard to figure out if you didn’t write the source code yourself.
The Ludum Dare version of the game is here: http://www.benefactum.ca/flex/darktunnel/ However, you probably want to play the less buggy, newer version: http://www.benefactum.ca/flex/dark_tunnel/
Dire straits indeed...
Before I get into any particulars, I want to make clear that it is essentially a roguelike game - meaning that the dungeon is randomly generated, gameplay is “ironman style” (you have to start all over when you die), and it’s intentionally extremely hard to beat. Not everyone likes such games, but I find them to be the genre that most rewards dedicated players. The steep learning curve is compensated for by high replay value.
Now, let’s try to understand what the game is really about. The basic premise is that you’re running away from an Advancing Wall of Doom (as this was the theme of this Ludum Dare) and attempting to reach the end of the labyrinth before being caught by the Wall, killed by a monster, falling into a pit, or drowning. This is accomplished by carefully managing your Energy, and collecting the two types of power-ups - Bombs and Potions. There are some important things you should know about each of these game elements:
The Wall: Initially, you have a lead of 4 squares on the wall’s leading edge. It advances once for every two moves you make. Thus, by walking away in a straight line, you gain one extra square of separation for each two steps. By running away, you gain three extra squares for every two steps (four squares). However, you will have to make a certain number of detours, and stop to rest and fight monsters. Whenever you’re not actively getting away from the wall, it is catching up at a rate of one square every two turns.
The Labyrinth: The Labyrinth is seamless and measures about 550 squares wide by 72 squares tall. It is generated as you go; you’ll notice that the game pauses for a second once in a while - this is the game generating a new section ahead of you. There are 15 such sections in all, each 36 squares wide, with the difficulty increasing each time. This increase in difficulty is a combination of: more water/pits, fewer power-ups, more monsters, tougher monsters, and fewer connections to the next section. Thus, to have a good chance of beating the game, you will need to get a big lead on the wall and a substantial stock of Potions and Bombs before you reach the more difficult sections of the Labyrinth.
Water: Water is a nuisance, but at least it’s predictable. Moving through water prevents running (and thus also jumping over pits) and costs you one point of energy for each turn you spend in it. You can safely drop to 0 Energy, but if you end a turn in the water with no Energy left, you will drown.
Water comes in two forms, Puddles, and Flooded Tunnels. The former can usually be circumvented, or splashed through with little cost, but entering a Flooded Tunnel is always a big decision, as it’s likely to require you to use one or more Potions, and can be a real disaster if it turns out to be a dead end.
Pits: Pits are usually to be treated as walls - just go around them. Sometimes, you’ll be forced to jump over one (toggle into Running mode to do so), but it is expensive and unpredictable, costing you between 2 and 6 points of Energy and resulting in your demise if you don’t have enough. Unless the Wall is right on your heels, it is generally foolish to attempt a jump with less than 6 Energy - it’s better to rest up first and make sure you clear the pit safely.
Pits are, however, often a blessing in disguise, as monsters will fall into them. Luring monsters into pits saves you a great deal of Energy relative to having to fight them.
Potions: Potions are the more straightforward of the two power-ups. Activated by pressing 7 on the keypad, or the P key, they instantly restore your health, and do not take a turn to use. Use them to survive long swims through flooded tunnels, battles with enemies, or to fuel you for long sprints to put distance between you and the Wall.
Bombs: Bombs are activated with 9 on the keypad, or the B key. They are used to destroy a single wall square, replacing it with plain floor. Their primary use is to dig one’s way out of a dead end, but it’s often worthwhile to spend a Bomb even when an alternate route is available, if it’s possible to open a path that is shorter, contains one or more other power-ups, and/or is free from monsters, pits and water. More complicated decisions arise when two, three or even more Bombs would be required to reach the nearest open path, but doubling back would cost many turns.
Late in the game, when dead ends and watery tunnels abound, having a large stash of Bombs is invaluable. Early in the game, it is probably wiser to run a lot and use many Potions than to waste Bombs, as running out of Bombs and getting cornered is probably the most common cause of death.
Monsters & Combat: Doing battle can quickly deplete your Energy, as it costs a point to attack, while getting hit will also result in the loss of one or more Energy points. It is usually wiser to lure enemies into pits, outrun them, or trap them behind walls/water than to fight them. Sometimes, however, fighting is unavoidable.
IMPORTANT TIP #1: If battle is necessary, try to have as much Energy to begin with as possible, as it affects your chances of hitting! IMPORTANT TIP #2: Try to get the first strike in! If you’re one step away from a monster (or two steps from a Dasher), pass, rather than moving next to it. As well as gaining a valuable point of Energy, you’ll get the first attack, which might save you one or more additional Energy points.
There are four types of monsters, in order of increasing difficulty. The harder types appear more frequently the further you go:
Goblin: A very ordinary enemy with no special abilities. Moves one space per turn, can’t cross water, takes one hit to kill, does one point of damage. Slightly more accurate with its attacks than a Fishman or Eyeball Beast.
Dasher: A fast enemy. Gets two moves for your every one. Only takes one hit to kill, but dangerous nonetheless, as it gets two attacks as well as two moves. Also more accurate with its attacks than a Goblin.
Fishman: A strong enemy. Moves at normal speed, but can cross water. Takes two hits to kill and does two points of damage until it’s been hurt, after which it does one. Starts appearing about a third of the way through the game. Can be a pain, especially when it hits for double damage, but still quite manageable if you get the first hit in.
Eyeball Beast: The strongest enemy. Moves at normal speed and can’t cross water, but takes three hits to kill. Does three points of damage at first, two after it’s been hit once, then one after it’s been hit twice. I can’t offer any tips on fighting them, as I haven’t progressed far enough to see one yet - they should start appearing about 2/3 of the way through the game. I imagine the correct strategy is to lure them into a pit or run like hell. Going toe-to-toe with one would waste several turns and require at least one Potion.
That should be enough information to get you started. For the record, my high score as of the time of this post is 313 points, just over halfway through the game. Tomorrow I will post some thoughts on more advanced strategy and decision-making.
