Winning is a long and arduous process of gaining experience through failures, to then turn the tables and figuring out the path to victory!
Progressing through the Ring requires careful consideration to your situation and the whole room, but it’s a trap to only look at the room you’re in. A winning run is built upon piling up good choices to trample over the odds.
First, it’s important to pay attention to your surroundings, every time you enter a new room you have to analyze all the important points such as relevant threats(Beads, Drifters, Loombirds, Bilebags), treasures, exits and potions. Keep all of it in mind to decide your course of action, take the safest path and get the stats/loot asap.
The priority will be to rush the scrounger, deal with the beads as well as killing the ranged threats, also try to neutralize loombirds. Once the first bunch is dealt with, go and take all the closest items/stats to get stronger, then see what can be cleaned off by taking into consideration how much health would be lost vs how many potions you have.
Always aim to stay near full health before leaving a room to ensure that whatever is in the next room can’t be your end.
Combat is a major part of the game, and you need to be able to handle it properly to last, making use of all your options. Never forget that sneaking past monsters is an option, it can often save your life, and allows for better positioning.
Exploders are great tools to dwindle the enemy ranks, and when used smartly it can be very effective. Make use of splash damage to trigger them from afar, use poison then leave. Use the spacing to move around and have the beads explode where you want. Their damage is minimal so sneaking by them is risk free, by planning several moves in advance they become a tool more than a threat.
Monsters that move around/chase you are very predictable, so use that to your advantage by making preparations or moving around with them. Avoid monsters that are too dangerous for you, make good use of shuffle crystals if you’re blocked or to rearrange in a better position.
Handling combat requires strategy yes, but also good resource usage. You need all the help you can, and by using it sparingly unless necessary, you can ensure you always have a fallback in dire situations.
Don’t take potions if you can increase your clarity or would overheal to maximize the gains, although sometimes it can’t be avoided. If your souls are limited, wait to clear the room before opening mimics and rerolling, you want to make sure it won’t end up wasted with a poor choice you can’t reroll. It also helps knowing if you can afford rerolling, or instead just taking more items.
Every three levels, you will find the shop, so try to always keep some spare souls to buy a stat upgrade. Don’t buy or reroll everything you find if you don’t need it, sometimes it’s better to wait for better loot.
Use your spell book and scrolls sparingly, but remember to make good use of it if you know there are scrolls laying around otherwise they’d go to waste. Take the cooldown into consideration to know when it’s good to use the book or not. Don’t replace items if you could fill out empty slots instead, always keep a scroll on you.
Minmaxing is the word of the game, of any game really. Kill all the monsters you can to get the most souls, gather all the items you can afford, take all the stats.
A very important point is to kill the scroungers, because they bring an essential boost in stats and potions. Enter all the side rooms you can, as it doesn’t progress the run, but brings a whole room’s worth of content. Some rooms are better than the others, or you’re better suited to deal with a particular type, it’s all a matter of choosing the right one.
Crossroads are great to choose more options, while counting for jar consumption.
Good gear is quintessential to survive, by seeking the best you will ensure your safety. Aim for the best gear by rerolling frequently if the options are so-so, especially at higher tiers. By knowing what you could potentially obtain, you will be able to know when it’s worth rerolling again.
But gear is not everything, because it’s impermanent and has limited slots. The main aim is to continuously gain stats, and for this, there is only a few options. Stat boosts should be your priority, take them over everything whenever possible, that makes scroungers your main target. Items providing permanent stats are also a good source, with Siphon Gem and Transcendence being the main ones.
Aim to have enough damage, speed and defense to minimize health lost when fighting, reaching the threshold where you can one shot and attack first is vital. Clarity is strong to gain more souls and increase your strength step by step.
Aim for synergies when getting your items, compensate the stats with the proper items if needed. Or go all in with a particular build if it’s strong enough.
And finally, the most important of all(even though all is) is to know when to step down, when to not do all we’ve talked about before. If it would kill you, it’s not worth it, even if it’s alluring.
That means exit from a room not fully explored, leave a stat upgrade between deadly monsters, don’t kill monsters that would give less souls than you’d lose health for, discard item choices if you shouldn’t pay to reroll.
You also need to use curse potions sparingly, only when you can afford the loss with other potions, or after clearing the room. Cursed stats are the same, but you should always take them before leaving due to how needed they are.
Knowing when to stop is the hardest, and greed is the first killer in this.
