(Beginners tips follow immediately after this news section.)

OPENING UP MORE CHECKPOINTS AND ENEMY TERRITORIES

As of 12-Sept, almost HALF of the mission locations cannot be reached in the current game...unless you use the cheat menu.

As mentioned in this guide by Buratilo, as you progress through the map, more sections of the map open up. Unfortunately, there is a 12th level checkpoint that is "Coming Soon" which needs to be marked as done ("cleared") before the next section of the map opens up. The way to do this is with cheats.

• Press END and PAGE-UP simultaneously.
  
• In the cheat list at the left, click on CLEAR ALL LOCATIONS (mark discovered checkpoints done)
  
• Press END and PAGE-UP again to close cheat menu

Now all the checkpoints discovered so far are done, and one new checkpoint and two new enemy territories appear on the map. As you progress, more places to attack will be revealed, up to and including a 22nd level checkpoint.

Specifically there are checkpoints rated 14th, and 22nd levels.
There are territories (fortresses) rated 13th, 16th, 18th, and 21st levels.
And there are more "Coming Soon" checkpoints rated: 17th, 19th, and 20th levels.
(The 20th and 22nd level missions are pretty obviously in beta.)

Absolutely amazing that so many of the playable missions are hidden this way.

SAVE OFTEN!

There is NO auto-save. You can easily lose hours of progress in this bug infested, unfinished game. So manually SAVE every time before you step through a portal to battle, or whenever you return home carrying lots of loot. If the game asks if you want to load local save or Steam save files, use the

• LOCAL files, not the Steam Files

or again, you can lose hours of progress.

The default name of your character is Succubus. You must change the name later in Customization (body appearance) to change the name of your saved game.

SKIP START-UP APPEARANCE

You can completely change the appearance of your main character ANY TIME at base/home. The game suggests you start out with careful customization of appearance, but it's unnecessary. See if you like the gameplay before you spend extended time tweaking your main character's smile.

STORAGE RELOCATION

Find your storage box and move/relocate it into the vendor's room.

BEWARE THE Y KEY

Y turns off the overlay (for screenshots). But if you enter a name like Sally for your succubus, you'll be wondering what is going on, until you toggle on the overlay again by hitting Y again.

Save game files are named after your character. Once you name your character, your game will have its own unique save file. It's easy to miss the chance to change the default name of your character. Any time in the game, click the Character button on the Customization screen. Otherwise, your succubus will simply be named Succubus, and future games will overwrite your previous, identically named save file.

Again, remember that a name with a Y will turn off the game overlay; hit Y again to turn the overlay back on.

You can also rename your companions in the same way. Renaming your companions does not change the name of your save file.

Access appearance editor for main character at a mirror or makeup table.
Access appearance for any companion (or main character) through Customization and Makeup buttons on Inventory Screen.

There are two main categories of appearance change: CUSTOMIZATION screen for eyes, body and skin, and MAKEUP for hair, face, toenail polish, etc.

THERE IS NO UNDO BUTTON.

So if you've picked something you like, SAVE IT AS A PRESET before doing more customization.

Each customization has a suggested view, but you can change the view easily and keep customizing. This mostly works, except for hairstyle - you should switch quickly out of makeup and into body customization - torso view, and spin your model, to see what any particular hairstyle looks like. This is annoyingly difficult.

Fine-tuning skin color with the color-picker for is bugged. It's neat when it works as intended. Strangely, I've had the most luck getting the skin color-picker to work after using and closing the eye-shadow and eye-liner color-pickers.

You start in your base/home, but you're shown the campaign map. (Irritatingly, on many computers, whenever you go home, you see the map first, instead of your home's interior. Esc to see inside your home and begin exploring it.) For game progression, the important parts of your home are the vendor's room, the portal, and your storage box. Press F while examining the storage box and you can then relocate/carry it into the vendor's room.

If you go to inventory but can't see your pack's contents, click on armor view instead of lingerie view.

Your starting inventory is small, but you might want to sell some it to begin buying pieces of armor immediately. Note that you'll really want to have a gold key for the final chest at the end of each check point or the upcoming rescue missions. It's tempting to sell it for 300 gold, but it will cost 2000 gold to replace it before starting a mission.

(Oddly, ALL the checkpoint missions are repeatable (bug?) and when you reload the game, you will discover that the checkpoints beyond the 5th level castle capture do not save as completed. Additionally, since some of the areas are not finished, you cannot get 100% map completion.)

Before going on your first checkpoint mission, you'll probably want to destroy a few low level undead armies. Hover the pointer over hotspots on the map for details: you're looking for level one armies of 20 or fewer undead to attack. You might want to go straight into the check points; I prefer to max out scavenger skill first so that the non-repeatable gold chests at the end of each checkpoint get me the best loot (nope! currently, all the checkpoints can be repeated). If you run out of level 1 and 2 armies to fight, you can generate more immediately by reloading the campaign map (save the game when at base/home, then quit, and reload your save file to produce a refreshed random campaign map), however, the level 3 armies aren't much of a challenge for your beginning character until you set the game to the highest difficulties.

Currently, attacking undead armies above 3rd level may crash your game. (So save before attempting.) I have only been able to attack genericly named 4-6th level armies, while the armies of beserkers, archers, elite, etc. have ALWAYS crashed my game (game hangs on loading screen).

Clearing out all the undead armies infesting the campaign map is currently impossible. New undead armies randomly spawn faster than you can clean up the map.

GET ARMOR

Basically, pickup loot. Sell it. Use it to buy the best armor and weapon you can.

At a certain point your armor will make you almost invulnerable, so your exact route to victory is like trying on clothes - they all work, but you'll probably enjoy some routes more than others. If you want to see lingerie models swinging axes rather than leaping about while swinging a dagger, it's your choice.

WEAPONS

Once you have enough gold to afford the smuggler's weapons, you've maxxed out: you won't find better weapons in the game.

COMPANIONS

Get 3 companions as soon as you can. See the companions section.

INCREASE THE DIFFICULTY

You can increase the difficulty at any time. If you find a map where everything is encountered at close range, you can survive on INSANE difficulty with dodges and kiting (check YouTube). With enough armor, you can usually survive charging into a pack of archers on INSANE difficulty...but if you can catch any enemy at the edge of a static formation, it's much safer to kill it from a distance with fireballs...or even a bow, if you're very patient.

GET 3 COMPANIONS

You can take along a maximum of 3 succubus friends on each battle.

You start with one companion. You max-out your party size with 3 companion succubi. Mostly, this lets you carry more loot (which leads to gold and then to better armor and weapons) but they also help with fighting. If one dies, she automatically revives for the next battle. You get new companions by rescuing them in a mission which is periodically available on the main campaign map. To look for it, drag your mouse around a bit above the place marked Undead Valley. It's always in the same place when available (edit: there's a duplicate place farther north too), and there's no time limit on how soon you must attempt the rescue. (Note that the rescue missions are higher level than the other missions, so gear dropped can be very impressive (max is in 13th level mission), especially if you've maxxed out the Scavenger skill.)

The extra companions beyond your first 3 are just there for variety. There are 7 companions so far, and they don't become available in the same order. When rescued, they start between 2nd and 7th level.

SAVE YOUR BEST ITEMS FOR FUTURE COMPANIONS

When you rescue a companion, she has no useful equipment. So, until you've got three equipped companions, you should try to keep a set of armor and a weapon for your next rescued companion to use. Use your storage box.

JUST EQUIP ONE WEAPON ON EACH COMPANION

Companions only use their main hand weapon. Save the empty weapon slot for loot, like carrying a big sword or scythe back to the vendors to sell.

You can't reset your stats or skills. Ever. (Unless you track down a third-party saved game editor.)
Some skills are not implemented at all yet. Some will change. On easy and normal, it's not too important what you choose, as long as you get good armor.

In later games, the skill and ability points you choose depend on how soon you wish to switch to Very Difficult and Insane difficulties. If you wish to switch to Very Difficult before level 20, well, my own choices below are not optimal.

What I do now: (not sure it's best)

Attributes, all characters: Two points to Dexterity then alternate between strength and dexterity for several levels. Around level 20 I start putting points into vitality so that I can survive a few hits.

Main character: Regeneration 1/5 - Frostbite 1/5 - Scavenger 5/5 - Trading 5/5 - Fast Learning 5/5 - Daggers 5/5 - Phantom Slashes 5/5 - Athletic 5/5

Companions: Regeneration 1/5 - Frostbite 1/5 - Fast Learning 5/5 - Daggers 5/5 - Phantom Slashes 5/5 - Athletic 5/5

See Crystal's excellent guide to Skill points.

(Scavenging gets more and better loot dropped - your main source of gold. Trading lets you buy cheaper and sell for more. Dexterity and athleticism lets you keep swinging and sprinting more without resting. Perhaps the Athletic skill is a bad choice - other people don't take it; but I think it keeps me swinging my dagger longer, keeping the enemy in stun-lock. But I've been wrong: on my first game, I thought group combat was helping me tremendously, and took 5 points on every character and companion...it is currently without effect in the game's code. Also note that Hardened Skin pairs with dexterity to increase armor - important in the highest difficulties.)

Other great skills to max out include frostbite, fireball, regeneration, constitution, and dodge (main character).

(Later...your exact stats don't matter too much. On Insane difficulty, it's nice to have some extra hit-points, so start packing on vitality points before increasing difficulty to insane. Basically the only difficult part of the game is the castle defense. If you keep playing, you keep getting better and better armor. Right now on 33rd main, 24th companion, armor: 279 main, 240-242 companions, I pretty much cruise through on INSANE difficulty. On the castle defense maps however, the enemies scale to your level. I've NEVER won a castle defense map on insane difficulty - I'm pretty sure the key is soloing the enemies in the parapets, one at a time, letting one's companions die, but I've tried 5 times and never killed even half of the attackers. I lost Castle Defenses regularly on Extra Hard too - there's usually no penalty (bugged? sometimes you lose about 10% of your gold) - you just re-spawn at base/home, restock your potions, and get a chance to try again.)

RELOADING THE VENDORS

Go to the teleport portal. Teleport to your current destination (home). The vendors will be reloaded. This is handy if you want to repeatedly buy experience scrolls to level up some of your companions. (Leveling up your companions makes inventory control much easier - when various armor can only be used by characters of a minimum level, it's easier if everyone is the same level.)

Reloading the vendors is also useful if you're searching for really good gear. Really good gear is not necessary to progress, and repeatedly reloading the vendors is very tedious, but you'll probably do this at least a few times.

BUYING TIPS

If you at a vendor, you can buy or sell directly to a specific companion by clicking on their picture before right-clicking to complete the sale. (Note: you always buy or sell at your main character's trading discount or premium.) There is no undo button for selling gear, so before right-clicking on experience scrolls and books, verify that you've left the vendor and are back in inventory - you don't want to mistakenly sell your experience scroll back to the vendor.

If you go to inventory but can't see your pack's contents, click on armor view instead of lingerie view.

TRANSFERRING IN BULK

If you are on the storage box screen, right-clicking transfers to the current storage tab, instead of using the item. It can be quicker to transfer a group of items between characters by using right click to quickly put them into your storage box, then doing the reverse to get them back to the desired character. (Similarly, it's fastest to transfer a bunch of items from one page of storage to another by transferring temporarily to some characters' inventories.)

SELL TO THE SMUGGLER TOO

Sometimes, you will have too much loot to sell into all the combined empty slots of the three main vendors. I start my sales to the smuggler, and then the maid, who both always have lots of empty space and whose gear is easy to differentiate from my recently sold loot afterwards, when I'm looking at what is available to buy with my new cash.

HOW TO DROP ITEMS

When you handle an item in your inventory, a little faded box appears at the top and just left of the inventory box. This is where you must place the item to drop it on the ground.

To get rid of extra potions quickly, consume them (right click) instead of dropping them on the ground.

Depends on what you enjoy watching.

In order of DPS, choose:

Daggers, Swords, 2H Swords, Maces, Axes, Bows. Bows are terrible.

Daggers. Cheapest in the shops - important because you're constantly buying better weapons. Conveniently, also gives the highest dps, fast gameplay (but you jump around a LOT and may land somewhere impossible to leave - you get may land STUCK every 5-10 hours of fighting)
1h swords. Easy. Fast. More expensive in the shops. Satisfying to watch.
2h sword. Very slow - Apparently the safest to use? I've never tried 'em. They sell at the vendor for a LOT of gold.
Maces. (Used to be best) Slow but sure. Full damage against armor.
Axes. Similar to mace but with less damage against armor. Includes scythes, and other misc. weapons.
Bows. Currently awful. Will keep weakly armored companions at maximum range from enemies, but as archers, companions will have trouble finishing off one enemy (there's no experience for damage, only for kills), and companions will not automatically switch to melee if they run out of arrows. About the only use of bows is to let companions kill enemies in towers and on cliffs when they cannot figure out a path to get to them. (Later: bows might be good for companions in castle defense maps - they won't help you much, but if your companions are dying early, they might live with bows if your main character keeps the enemy's focus in the front lines.)

Avoid them at low difficulties.

They are EXTRA fighters beyond your three companions. You can have a maximum of 5 minions.

Bleah. I like lingerie models fighting bad guys, but dumb, ugly, vulnerable minions that are always set to CHARGE! don't enhance the game. You can heal them at base for red potions, but if they die you have to pay a small fee (about the value of one looted sword) to revive each one. You can pay the fee and revive them when they are still alive.

Definitely helpful in a castle defense map. But they start at first level and you have to level them up as you play...but you can't use experience books and scrolls so they'll always fall way behind your main character.

(Trying them more... After they are fully upgraded to Draugr Blade Master, they are slow and tough and help grab some of the enemy's attention; they even kill some enemies! They now seem to respond to charge/follow commands, although a bit more slowly than your companions, and have a greater auto-engage range. Sometimes the minions seem to accumulate experience normally; other times, their level seems to be set by the level of the foes in the last battle they fought. If you get wiped in a Very Hard difficulty 21st level castle defense, then revive your minions (using Esc, Minions...) they are revived at 21st level (for about 4,000 gold each). Kind of useful at the two highest level of difficulties.

But they're ugly so sometimes I don't want them along. Twice, when trying to kill off (but not permanently destroy) my minions, I kept my companions out of the battle and loaded minions only into the 5th level castle map...and they loaded under the terrain in a back corner and never engaged the enemy. Sigh.)

Avoid them when starting out.

In battle, click R to bring up the commands menu. Tell your companions to charge ahead or to follow you. Hold ground isn't implemented.

If a companion dies, she is revived automatically AFTER the battle. If you die, you lose the map and must restart at base/home (you should lose some gold too, but that is bugged and at some point you stop losing gold when you die). If you purchase minions and they die, when you return to base/home you must use the menu system and pay money to revive them or they will not be available in the next battle.

For higher difficulties, find a YouTube video to watch how people dodge and kite. On easier difficulties, it's just a click-fest that's fun to watch and guide. Note that the game is constantly changing: I watched one INSANE difficulty replay and...when I tried the same thing, there was a slight delay when starting power attacks and I simply could not time the power-attacks in the way the YouTuber could with the earlier code. What's possible keeps changing.

On a map where enemies are patiently waiting for you, with your companions set to "Follow me", it's often possible to fireball a few of the enemies at the edge of a group without activating the other nearby enemies. It feels like an unfair exploit though, but if you're playing on Very Hard or Insane difficulty, you might want to nibble away at the edges of groups. Does not work on castle defenses.

The available missions are divided into five types:

• Random undead armies that keep spawning faster than you can destroy them.
  
• Checkpoint missions that count towards your domination of the world map.
  
• Rescue missions that award you with new succubus companions.
  
• Enemy territory missions where you take over an enemy fortress.
  
• Territory defense missions where the enemy tries to re-take one of its territories that you previously conquered.

You don't have to do missions in any particular order, however, later checkpoints sometimes open up new areas of the map.

The territory defense/castle defense missions are the most challenging missions in the game. The attacking undead army will always be the SAME LEVEL AS YOUR MAIN CHARACTER. The attackers just keep coming, so there's no time to heal. It's hard to keep your companions from engaging with them.

Suggested strategy for VERY HARD difficulty:

• equip good weapons and armor.
  
• if possible, level up your companions to your main character's level
  
• provide your companions with 10 blue potions and 5 red potions each
  
• bring along 5 minions (if you can stand to have them along)
  
• get off the walls quickly and try to stay fighting with your group
  
• don't lead; only engage enemies that your team is auto-engaging due to proximity
  
• whenever you take damage, hang back from the group to heal

Suggested strategy for INSANE difficulty:

• same as VERY HARD difficulty except
  
• provide your companions with 15 blue and 10 red potions (in case one actually lives that long)
  
• run back to the castle walls when you're in deep trouble and try to engage the enemies one or two at at time on the narrow parapets
  
• yeah...I've never won a castle defense on insane difficulty...yet. :-)

Currently it's really tricky to work with this.

If possible, save the game before starting free-pose mode. If you are not at home and cannot save, be VERY wary of using the horizontal drag button, as you may drag yourself outside the playable area so far that it becomes very difficult to relocate yourself back onto the playable area of the map - not a problem if you've saved the game and can reload; a big problem otherwise.

Your can create a scene with your main character and up to three companions, as well as any companions randomly posing within your home. After adding a companion to the scene, select her, because otherwise your repose/reposition commands will continue to be targeted to your previous model.
The pose buttons are intuitive to use and they work well enough. The tricky bit is moving your character in the horizontal plane and the vertical plane. I tuned my mouse to switch between 3600 dpi and 100 dpi but this only helps a little.

Up and down: With mouse set to minimum sensitivity, I can click on the vertical arrow and drag up or down to and raise or lower a character by a quarter of an inch.

Close and far, left and right: Movement in the horizontal plane, even at fine sensitivity, your selected character jumps a minimum of about 3 or 4 feet. If you want to move your main subject very finely, the most precise way is to walk there before you start free pose. If you have several models and want to finely position each model on the floor, you cannot (28-Aug-2021).

Spinning: click and drag on the spinning icon to spin your selected character.

Lighting: Click and drag on the light button to change the change the direction of some of the lighting - works best in dark rooms. Note that many helmets and many magic weapons also give off light (red for fire weapons, green for poison...). You might want to pack them away before starting. (This may also apply to shields and weapons.) Misc: The red/orange light on the back of the model in the image above is from a unique light suspended from the ceiling in the bathroom area.

Expression: only affects main character.

Bug or feature? Sometimes a target model latches onto some furniture and decides to interact with it - then the model can no longer be repositioned, spun, or lighted individually. This happens more regularly with some furniture than other furniture, but it's never 100% to invoke or avoid the feature. When active, it can't be broken until you Esc out of Free Pose. If you WANT a particular model to interact with a piece of furniture, include her in a Free Pose, then end the Free Pose. The model will begin wandering in the area and there is a good chance she will latch on to some nearby furniture.

After horizontal subject placement, the second most annoying thing about free pose mode, is that you cannot zoom very far back from your main character - about 8 feet back is the limit.

The third most annoying thing about free pose - you cannot save a pose and if you hit ESC by mistake, you lose all the careful positioning and lighting.

When first playing, I got stuck about every 5th hour of fighting gameplay.

If you GET STUCK and cannot progress on the map, try this:

Esc, then click into free-pose mode (for screen shots); find the up/down arrow; click and drag that up a tiny bit to rise in the air; exit free-pose mode and you should drop to the ground's surface, and now be UNSTUCK. (Practice while your game is recently saved.)

If that doesn't work, you might have to move yourself in the horizontal plane. This is very dangerous (see Free Pose section).

Sometimes, after exiting free pose in a battle, you cannot swing your weapon any more. Usually, you can fix this by holstering and drawing your weapon again. If not, you can still pick up loot and open crates, and when the battle is finished, you can exit the map. Save your game then, exit, and restart the game.

A few of the items are bugged.

Avoid Hell rider gloves.

This corrupted one of my save game files:

I got some Hell rider gloves. They didn't seem to transfer onto my character's appropriate equipment slot when I tried to equip them, but the character's armor class rose. So I took the gloves and did the same thing to several companions - I had the item, but it was effectively equipped on several characters.

Nope. The saved game didn't load properly ever after - I lost my companions, inventory and an alternate view of the campaign map was displayed. Happily, I was only at 7th level.

Generally, if an item doesn't seem to be working properly, don't risk using it. Don't try to take advantage of possible exploits, unless you know how to reload saved games that you've copied manually from the Windows folders.

I've no idea why, but putting furniture into your home base makes the game nicer.

Save the game before trying a new piece of furniture. Some items, like the bloody stone table, can't be relocated. Many workshop items fall into this class. Some items block other items from being targeted for adjustment.

Lights and statues placed high on walls cannot be relocated, even if you get yourself on top of some furniture to bring yourself to the same level as the object - if you don't like how they look, I hope you saved your game.

Your character's head often blocks you from precisely locating furniture. First person view while relocating furniture is said to be in the works.

Furniture can currently only face in one of 8 directions.

WORST OMISSIONS

• No auto-save
  
• No undo buttons
  
• Needs more maps
  
• Needs more randomization on current maps
  
• Need the special army types of 4-6th level on the campaign map to not crash the game

OTHER OMISSIONS

• Needs view adjustment to more easily see the top of character's heads
  
• Needs available view of back of character's head for hair-style picking
  
• Needs auto-close when switching screens for expression and color-pickers
  
• Needs point and click function to position models in Free Pose
  
• Needs screenshot button and key
  
• Needs Are You Sure? question when exiting Free Pose, because one mis-click...
  
• Needs indicator of save-name for last Preset appearance loaded for current model
  
• Needs option to scroll through existing names when choosing new Preset name to save
  
• Needs Update button to update last saved Preset appearance for current model
  
• Needs more zoom-out and camera control capability when wandering at home

NO WARNING OF UNFINISHED STATUS

• Many skills are not yet implemented, like Group Combat.
  
• Many skills have no effect on companions, but are available to be picked for companions.

BUGS

• Map bugs need fixing - notably some of the platforms in the final map
  
• Appearance sliders are usually not updated when new model is chosen
  
• Appearance last edited easily transfers to next character being edited
  
• Skin color-picker only works very occasionally (note: try using and closing eye-shadow color first).
  
• Horizontal (left, right, close, far) sliding in the free pose is disastrously over-sensitive and lacks precision.
  
• Furniture placed high on walls cannot be re-located.
  
• Hell rider gloves

GAMEPLAY

• Only the castle defense maps scale with the character's current level.
  
• Nothing in particular happens when you fail to defend captured enemy territory, or allow the time limit to run out.
  
• When you fireball non-activated individuals at the edge of a group, the AI should activate the whole group.