• Slap a bunch of overlapping rectangles down on the world.
  
• Remove the overlapped edges.
  
• Convert into a graph (i.e. nodes connected by edges)
  
• Do a random walk to generate the critical path
  
• Do some depth-first-searches (DFS) branching off of nodes on the critical path, that attempt to loop back to the early parts of the DFS
  
• Do some breadth-first-searches (BFS) branching off of nodes on the critical path or the side paths, that attempt to connect to other nodes on the critical path or side paths.
  
• Everything above this point is done, if perhaps done poorly; the below are super glossed-over.
  
• Fill in unused space with short out-and-back routes (for e.g. lesser powerups, map rooms, recharge rooms)
  
• Replace the graph with sequences of "rooms"
  
• Assign properties to rooms: whether they have barriers, powerups, boss fights, etc, what difficulty level they are, what biome they have, what direction they are intended to be traversed in, how hidden/obvious their connections to other rooms are.
  
• Fill in terrain/enemies within the rooms.

• Regardless of who you're playing, mobility is king; you need it to avoid damage, and you NEED it to sprint through the absolute clusterfuck that ensues when you try to ascend with a rescued character. Nimble and ethereal are the best enchantments in the game and the coffee mug is the best hat in the game. The sultan's coffee is a bad melee weapon due to its awful reach, however.
  
  
• If you find a blacksmith, take off your hat and just spend every last penny upgrading it. Upgrading has a chance to add enchantments, and the item's enchantments are upgraded as well as its stats whenever the smith hammers it, so burning 1,000 gold on a good hat will usually land you with a godlike superhat that makes you atrociously fast and acrobatic. Very useful for running screaming from wraiths or jumping clear over huge mobs of assholes instead of bothering to fight them.
  
  
• Keep your inventory organized. If you're not going to use something, throw it in a corner or in a lava pit. Having to stop to rifle through your stuff looking for a specific item will get you killed sooner or later.
  
  
• Hoard potions. Don't start using them until you're running out of apples and have a big stockpile of potions; this lets you drink one from each stack and see which are beneficial. Don't throw away your bad potions - organize your inventory such that bad potions are in a designated area away from the good stuff, so any further bad potions you pick up simply stack into the "don't drink these" section of your items.
  
  
• Huge slow weapons like the war hammer are usually a trap. The Knight may find them useful for their reach, but they're generally not as good as a decently fast weapon with good reach. You need to be fighting defensively and scoring hits without sustaining damage. The only exception to this is the Scythe as that thing will oneshot most enemies, but watch out - it doesn't hit enemies immediately adjacent to you.
  
  
• Pick up a fire sword when you get the chance. It's not the best weapon and it's not as bright as the lantern, but it's one of the only weapons that lets you fight and still see what the hell you're doing in dark rooms. An absolute must-have unless you're the Knight and can just crush everything with the lantern using your freakish strength.
  
  
• Immediately pick up every kitten you see. Dump your kittens in out of the way rooms you don't plan to return to. Trust me. You don't want to see what happens when one of them dies.
  
  
• Don't play as the Knight if you're trying to win the game solo. He's great for unlocking other characters, but he's absolutely hosed if you run into a lot of Wraiths or Evil Warlocks, and god help you when it's time to face the final boss.
  
  
• If you aren't playing as a no-magic character and you have the means to do so reasonably safely, you absolutely want to kill the Devil whenever you see him until you get his spellbook. Succubus summoning is one of the best spells in the goddamn game - it charges fast, you can have 10 of them out at once, and they move quick as hell and hit really hard. The Necromancer in particular can basically crush the whole dungeon with this spell and a modicum of caution.
  

Pvt.Scott fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Aug 16, 2017

dis astranagant fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Aug 18, 2017