<summary>More detailed instructions for dumb people like me:</summary>
Think of your hearts as energy to spend, and not a health gauge. Spend as much of it as possible before levelling up or using a heal-scroll.
One of the spaces next to the dragon has an egg (power 0, exp 3).
Check what directions the Minotaurs (power of 6) are facing when revealed:
Minotaurs are always facing away from treasure, one of the three squares behind them contains a treasure chest.
Gazers (power 5) obscure the squares around them up to 2 orthogonal spaces away (1 diagonal); those squares will show as ? until you kill the gazer. Revealing a couple of ? squares should let you guess where the gazer is hiding.
The slash you see when destroying a gazer is not the gazer destroying enemies around it, just the obscuring effect wearing off.
If you figure out a square is an 11, that's a mimic, they don't drop anything special when killed so by the time you're strong enough to fight them, it might not be worth it unless you're trying to clear the whole board.
Romeo and Juliet (power 9 each) always drop a healing scroll when defeated.
When you have 10 hearts you can fight the mine master, hiding in one of the corners, beating them will reveal a mine-defusing scroll which, when collected, will defuse all mines on the board, letting you collect them as treasure.
Don't forget to pick up the mine-defusing scroll before picking up mines.
The blue cat (power 5) will drop a "reveal rats" scroll when defeated. useful when you just need to spend 1 heart
The crystal ball scroll can be useless if it reveals a spot near a corner, edge, or an area you've mostly uncovered by yourself. Don't rely on it to save a bad run.
If you see multiples of 8, there's probably a slime wizard nearby. That guy is surrounded by purple slimes with a power of 8 each. The slime wizard has a power of 1 and drops a scroll of detect slimes, so if you know where the power 8 purple slimes are, you can jump over them to attack the slime wizard directly (power of 1).
The game will not stop you from clicking a heal scroll if your health is full, so don't double-click treasure chests expecting exp unless you know you need to waste it to reveal the number underneath.
mine "king": 10 hp sits in a corner and upon death will drop a mine removeul scroll guide (or so i think) that allows mines to be removed and sold for 3 gold.
Shift + D for debug mode, it reveals the full board. Good for testing things, but also sucks out the fun of the game if used seriously. Use this knowledge wisely.
I really like the addition of the stamps. Playing for all three compatible stamps at the same time is a very different game which requires a different strategy, and a lot more deduction, so if anyone is missing that element, I recommend playing in this mode. I seldom make use of all the additional pieces of monster information when I'm clearing the board, but they're much more important in a stamp game.
Super fun game, thanks for making it! I am really enjoying the current version (1.1.18). For me the balance is in a very good place (in the sense that it feels quite consistent to full clear if I don't make silly mistakes, but there are still challenging problems to solve).
I would really enjoy a "countdown" setting (so that the numbers on empty tiles show "total adjacent power - sum of adj. visible monsters - sum of adj. user markings"), just to ease the burden of the arithmetic.
feels less like a minesweeper and more like dungeon crawler compared to v1.0 have to kill creatures much more often now instead of having to deduce them
I have a problem lol
I got the 3 “pacifist” stamps and the board clear stamp and I told myself I was done! I was free! But I keep checking back here just in case there’s been an update to give myself an excuse to constantly play it again.
What a great game!
Certainly didn't plan to do this for an hour 😂and still haven't seen everything! It's amazing how relatively simple mechanics make for a really complex game!
It isn't strictly math, you can make deductions based off monster placement and behavior. Everything except the bats and the skeletons have a secret to them. From there its just about making plays that are livable that also give more information. If the total between two spaces is 14, for example, they can only either be 11 and 3, 10 and 4, 9 and 5, 8 and 6, or 7 and 7. Following the special rules of the monsters, you can reason out which is even possible to appear in those spaces, and judge if you can survive a guess or not. That's just one example, but this game is full of them, and once you figure that out, you'll be winning much more often than you lose.
It takes HP to kill things and they give you exactly as much XP back. Some levels take more XP than you have HP. That essentially neans you need to find either chests or healing packs before you run out of that. If you don't get lucky and get more than 2 healing paxks close to spawn it's just not possible to reach more than 10hp for example
You can maximize your chanxes of finding healing packs by always killing as many monsters as you can but that's still not a guarantee.
Or ta least that's what i've been trying, what your strategy? So far i've only managed one win.
Paying attention to the monsters that give you/point you to chests and such is really key. (Sorry if I’m explaining stuff you already know!)
Spoilers
Like Minotaurs (6) always have a chest in one of the three spaces behind them, the knights Romeo and Juliet (9) always give you a heart scroll, there is always an egg (0) in a space next to the dragon that gives you exp. The mine master (10) (or whatever they're called lol) is always in one of the corners and transforms all mines into exp.
If you go through the comments, other people will also have more and better explanations and tips.
This stuff DEFINITELY needs to be explicitly explained. I saw the "Romeo and Juliet" stamp and figured if I saw a 9-square I should just leave it alone O_O
The monsters don't "behave" either. They either die or kill you when revealed. I didn't even know that the direction they were facing was important! I just thought they looked in different directions for variety's sake.
I would never have guessed the guy holding a magic dark ball was a "mine master" and did something special if you killed it.
Facing? I thought they moved if I opened a spot opposite of them. I'm not even sure how I got the Romeo and Juliet stamp, last time I played (before stamps) I got (I think?) a bad ending. What does the mine master do?
You should leave the 9 squares alone if you’re trying to get the stamp! This is definitely a game where you’re supposed to fail, study the board, and try again.
Or be like me and look through all the comments from people who have done that and are nice enough to explain it lol
Deduce where monsters are and kill as few as possible. If you need to scout, kill weaker monsters to reveal squares over stronger ones. Learn the secrets of each of the monsters. Your first objective is to explore the full board so you know where everything is, and can secure all the loose experience, especially the gnome. You want to preserve your HP as much as possible while doing that. Calculated risk and deduction. If you play perfectly, you will end up with 13 hearts left over, which doesn't sound like a lot of wiggle room, but its only the difference of using HP scrolls sooner rather than later, so if you need to use a scroll at 6 hearts instead of 9, you're only losing on 3 hearts of that extra wiggle room. And if your only objective is to kill the Dragon, you have TONS of extra space if you're still getting the hang of the game.
Long story short, do not try to kill everything. Not right away. Start by just fully mapping the board, and it will get a lot easier for you. Find the exp chests, the egg, isolate the gnome, and hunt down the rat king, slime wizard, and eventually the mine lich. Then once you've done all that, start killing things until you're out of hearts, level up or use a scroll if you can't, and repeat until you have 13 hearts to kill the dragon with. Or more if you want to aim for the full clear.
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My chance to boast!
Pic
Suffice to say, brilliant game! I saw no shame in dying repeatedly and studying the board to get a grip of what was going on.
3 logros Me costó
consumed my entire morning, very well done
<details>
<summary>More detailed instructions for dumb people like me:</summary>
Think of your hearts as energy to spend, and not a health gauge. Spend as much of it as possible before levelling up or using a heal-scroll.
One of the spaces next to the dragon has an egg (power 0, exp 3).
Check what directions the Minotaurs (power of 6) are facing when revealed:
Minotaurs are always facing away from treasure, one of the three squares behind them contains a treasure chest.
Gazers (power 5) obscure the squares around them up to 2 orthogonal spaces away (1 diagonal); those squares will show as ? until you kill the gazer. Revealing a couple of ? squares should let you guess where the gazer is hiding.
The slash you see when destroying a gazer is not the gazer destroying enemies around it, just the obscuring effect wearing off.
If you figure out a square is an 11, that's a mimic, they don't drop anything special when killed so by the time you're strong enough to fight them, it might not be worth it unless you're trying to clear the whole board.
Romeo and Juliet (power 9 each) always drop a healing scroll when defeated.
When you have 10 hearts you can fight the mine master, hiding in one of the corners, beating them will reveal a mine-defusing scroll which, when collected, will defuse all mines on the board, letting you collect them as treasure.
Don't forget to pick up the mine-defusing scroll before picking up mines.
The blue cat (power 5) will drop a "reveal rats" scroll when defeated. useful when you just need to spend 1 heart
The crystal ball scroll can be useless if it reveals a spot near a corner, edge, or an area you've mostly uncovered by yourself. Don't rely on it to save a bad run.
If you see multiples of 8, there's probably a slime wizard nearby. That guy is surrounded by purple slimes with a power of 8 each. The slime wizard has a power of 1 and drops a scroll of detect slimes, so if you know where the power 8 purple slimes are, you can jump over them to attack the slime wizard directly (power of 1).
The game will not stop you from clicking a heal scroll if your health is full, so don't double-click treasure chests expecting exp unless you know you need to waste it to reveal the number underneath.
</details>
So others don’t spoil the puzzle for themselves, you can wrap text inside tags like so:
<details>
<summary> Spoiler Section </summary>
Spoiler Content
</details>
Spoiler Section
Spoiler Content
How dare you make me do math and enjoy it?
bats and skeletons are nothing special
rat king: 5 hp, all rats look towords him and if they are in the same collim, they will sit still. rat: 1 hp
mine "king": 10 hp sits in a corner and upon death will drop a mine removeul scroll guide (or so i think) that allows mines to be removed and sold for 3 gold.
:,) tragic
how
i wanna know
Shift + D for debug mode, it reveals the full board. Good for testing things, but also sucks out the fun of the game if used seriously. Use this knowledge wisely.
Great game! I find it quite difficult, but really enjoyable.
I really like the addition of the stamps. Playing for all three compatible stamps at the same time is a very different game which requires a different strategy, and a lot more deduction, so if anyone is missing that element, I recommend playing in this mode. I seldom make use of all the additional pieces of monster information when I'm clearing the board, but they're much more important in a stamp game.
4 not 3
3 compatible stamps, as in the three that are possible to get together
Dangerously addictive.
Super fun game, thanks for making it! I am really enjoying the current version (1.1.18). For me the balance is in a very good place (in the sense that it feels quite consistent to full clear if I don't make silly mistakes, but there are still challenging problems to solve).
I would really enjoy a "countdown" setting (so that the numbers on empty tiles show "total adjacent power - sum of adj. visible monsters - sum of adj. user markings"), just to ease the burden of the arithmetic.
took me a bit to get the handle of the rules, but i finally beat one game! that was so fun, i definitely want to try doing pacifist
feels less like a minesweeper and more like dungeon crawler compared to v1.0
have to kill creatures much more often now instead of having to deduce them
don't like the game anymore unfortunately
Yup. It used to be nearly solvable like Minesweeper once you got good at deduction. Now you HAVE to guess very often which usually results in death.
I liked the old one too for playability, but the new update adds many good features, board just needs reworked
I have a problem lol I got the 3 “pacifist” stamps and the board clear stamp and I told myself I was done! I was free! But I keep checking back here just in case there’s been an update to give myself an excuse to constantly play it again. What a great game!
Certainly didn't plan to do this for an hour 😂and still haven't seen everything! It's amazing how relatively simple mechanics make for a really complex game!
this game is max god brain power.
Such an excellent little gem. Kind of wish there was even more of it, but it's also nice with these smaller experiences.
The math ain't mathing for this game to be even solvable most of the time, i think. That's kinda frustrating but it's also fun.
It isn't strictly math, you can make deductions based off monster placement and behavior. Everything except the bats and the skeletons have a secret to them. From there its just about making plays that are livable that also give more information. If the total between two spaces is 14, for example, they can only either be 11 and 3, 10 and 4, 9 and 5, 8 and 6, or 7 and 7. Following the special rules of the monsters, you can reason out which is even possible to appear in those spaces, and judge if you can survive a guess or not. That's just one example, but this game is full of them, and once you figure that out, you'll be winning much more often than you lose.
It takes HP to kill things and they give you exactly as much XP back. Some levels take more XP than you have HP. That essentially neans you need to find either chests or healing packs before you run out of that. If you don't get lucky and get more than 2 healing paxks close to spawn it's just not possible to reach more than 10hp for example
You can maximize your chanxes of finding healing packs by always killing as many monsters as you can but that's still not a guarantee.
Or ta least that's what i've been trying, what your strategy? So far i've only managed one win.
Paying attention to the monsters that give you/point you to chests and such is really key. (Sorry if I’m explaining stuff you already know!)
Spoilers
Like Minotaurs (6) always have a chest in one of the three spaces behind them, the knights Romeo and Juliet (9) always give you a heart scroll, there is always an egg (0) in a space next to the dragon that gives you exp. The mine master (10) (or whatever they're called lol) is always in one of the corners and transforms all mines into exp.If you go through the comments, other people will also have more and better explanations and tips.
I've been playing this game too much like minesweeper then. Thanks
This stuff DEFINITELY needs to be explicitly explained. I saw the "Romeo and Juliet" stamp and figured if I saw a 9-square I should just leave it alone O_O
The monsters don't "behave" either. They either die or kill you when revealed. I didn't even know that the direction they were facing was important! I just thought they looked in different directions for variety's sake.
I would never have guessed the guy holding a magic dark ball was a "mine master" and did something special if you killed it.
Facing? I thought they moved if I opened a spot opposite of them. I'm not even sure how I got the Romeo and Juliet stamp, last time I played (before stamps) I got (I think?) a bad ending. What does the mine master do?
You should leave the 9 squares alone if you’re trying to get the stamp! This is definitely a game where you’re supposed to fail, study the board, and try again.
Or be like me and look through all the comments from people who have done that and are nice enough to explain it lol
Deduce where monsters are and kill as few as possible. If you need to scout, kill weaker monsters to reveal squares over stronger ones. Learn the secrets of each of the monsters. Your first objective is to explore the full board so you know where everything is, and can secure all the loose experience, especially the gnome. You want to preserve your HP as much as possible while doing that. Calculated risk and deduction. If you play perfectly, you will end up with 13 hearts left over, which doesn't sound like a lot of wiggle room, but its only the difference of using HP scrolls sooner rather than later, so if you need to use a scroll at 6 hearts instead of 9, you're only losing on 3 hearts of that extra wiggle room. And if your only objective is to kill the Dragon, you have TONS of extra space if you're still getting the hang of the game.
Long story short, do not try to kill everything. Not right away. Start by just fully mapping the board, and it will get a lot easier for you. Find the exp chests, the egg, isolate the gnome, and hunt down the rat king, slime wizard, and eventually the mine lich. Then once you've done all that, start killing things until you're out of hearts, level up or use a scroll if you can't, and repeat until you have 13 hearts to kill the dragon with. Or more if you want to aim for the full clear.
I have never played a game so good, so simple, yet so goddamn frustrating
I'm addicted to this. Amazing game
I finally managed to clear the board and get a perfect score!
And finally the Rat King!
it took me 157 trys but I did it
I'm not sure what to do after downloading the game. There's no .exe file?
You have to serve the files with some sort of HTTP server. For example, install Python and then run this from the unzipped folder:
then go to http://localhost:8080 in your browser and the game is playable.