Crypt of the NecroDancer

Crypt of the NecroDancer

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Introduction
Initially included in my ~100% Achievements guide, this guide will include everything that was removed from that one (it was cluttering the other guide way too much by not being related to achievements) plus some other stuff that couldn't make it there.

Only take this as a help / resource / reference dump of some sort.

Be sure to give appreciation to all respective resources btw.
Intermediate Tips
These are brief, but these go more in-depth so feel free to look them up on your own.

Luck Charm
By far the most consistent and reliable item in all runs, the Luck Charm is always guaranteed as long as there is >50 gold on a single tile. This item has multiple extremely useful boosts to the player.
  • Always acquirable as early as Zone 1-2 or 1-3
  • The Leprechaun is capable giving 25-500 gold
  • Item pool spawns possibly better in your favor
  • Makes all bats (including the miniboss) almost a non-issue
Again, this item is the most consistently acquirable item; so much that a seasoned player can guarantee this item on their every run.

Chest and Contents
There is always one chest and one (non-crateroom) crate / barrel on every All Zones floor. A floor with a locked shop always has at least one bomb lying around somewhere.

Red Chest
Purple Chest
Black Chest
Urn
Torch
Shovel
Headwear
Familiars
Charms
Health Consumables
Misc. Items
Rings
Spells
Scrolls
Tomes
Weapons
Armor
Footwear
Rifle / Blunderbuss / Bow
Rapier / Axe
Cutlass / Longsword
Crystal Shovel
Torch Wall / Foresight
Ring Mana / Spells
Heart Cont. 2x

Killing Shopkeepers
Some Shopkeepers are more exploitable than others, and you almost always want to kill these.

Shopkeeper
No Risk (Conjurer) - Has one health, and doesn't fight back at all. Kill him (with throwable weapons, bombs, or spells) after making business. Drops a useful Pack of Holding.
Negligible Risk (Health Shopkeeper) - Has one health, drops a free Gluttony Charm, all shop items becomes free, and destroys some shop walls for you. Easily killable with a single bomb, spell, or a throwable, but be sure to position yourself accordingly to maximize busted shop walls.
Medium Risk, High Reward (Pawnbroker and Transmogrifier) - Killing them for the Transmute Scroll (or Coupon plus base-100 gold) they drop may require some practice, but the drops are useful for all runs if the player is experienced enough to kill them.
Medium Risk, Medium Reward (Blood and Glass Shopkeeper) - Their drops aren't particularly useful (Blood Drum and Glass Jaw) except for very high level plays, so killing them mainly offers no other relevant benefit other than making their current items free.
High Risk, Medium Reward (Regular Shopkeeper) - Aside from score runs, this offers no other relevant benefit other than making their current items free. Also the most dangerous of the shopkeepers so murder at your own risk.

*See Merchanticide for a more comprehensive step-by-step process to Shopkeeper murdering

Quick Kill Strategies
I won't be covering on how to execute these in detail, but they're listed here to inform others. When discussing QK I'm strictly referring to skipping some of their boss phases.

Boss
Quick Kill?
Zones?
RNG?
Req. Equip
Notes
Deep Blues
Yes
All 5
King teleport + opening move
throw + bomb*; Rapier / Axe
Coral Riff
Yes
1-2
Negligible
throw + bomb*
Death Metal
Yes
All 5
Negligible
Bomb*
King Conga
Yes
1-3
Negligible
Bomb / Earth + missed beat; Bomb; Shovel T3; Dagger of Phasing
Fortissimole
Kinda
All 5
None
Bomb / Shovel T4
Dead Ringer
Yes
---
Negligible
Dagger of Phasing; Earth
Cadence
Necrodancer1
Yes
---
Negligible
~3 bombs / Shovel T4; Dagger of Phasing
Cadence
Necrodancer2
No
---
---
---
Melody
Golden Lute
Kinda
---
Knight + Dragon spawn
w/ or w/o Shield Items
Aria
Frankensteinway
Kinda
---
None
2 bombs; Dagger of Phasing
Nocturna
Conductor
Kinda
---
---
Waterball on conduits
Nocturna

*bombs can be substituted for Fireball/Pulse/Earth but be sure to account for the dmg diff
**throw includes throwable weapons (Daggers, Spears), Shurikens, Greanades, or very long-ranged weapons (Rifle,Crossbow)


Synchronized Dancing
Originally posted by Lapinothotep:
Even: [Enemies are] 0/2/4 tiles away, It's adjacent or will be if Bard moves closer. Bard is synchronized with the enemy.
Originally posted by Lapinothotep:
Odd: [Enemies are] 1 tile away. diagonals are a tile away too. Moving toward it hurts Bard. As the [enemy] moves every beat and is an odd space away, buffering once narrows the gap.
Almost all enemies should be dealt with while 'synchonized'. Generally, keep even-numbered squares between the player and enemies (0,2,4...) when moving towards them to avoid taking damage. However, some need to be dealt with on odd numbered squares (1,3,5,...).

Odd-numbered square enemies:
  • Moles
  • Shove Monsters
  • Pixies
  • Fortissimole
Additionally, some enemies are naturally knocked back and constantly desynch from the player and require multiple buffers. It is more efficient to deal with these enemies against the wall.

Naturally knocked back enemies:
  • Monkeys
  • Armored Skeletons
  • Knights
  • Devils
  • Banshees
  • All enemies (when using Flail or Ring of War)
Advanced Techniques
Quirks Tab
Nothing useful on its own, but its worth looking into to get some more intricate, untold mechanics about the game.

Missing Beats (Intentionally)
As you progress to the game you naturally have a response to staying to the beat. However, if gold isn't an issue, one can opt to miss beats intentionally which if used right makes scenarios easier to deal with (with some scenarios even requiring it to escape unscathed).

Monk and Dove benefit from this the most (due to their free shops / useless gold), but Dorian, Bolt, Tempo, and Suzu all like being able to ignore parity and waiting for the enemies to be in the right spots. (Aria still can't do this of course)

Enemy Dances
Some enemies can be mindlessly easy if one knows their respective dances. These include:
  • Dragons (Dealt with a 2x2 tile)
  • Mommies
  • Dead Ringer (Lure)
  • Others probably

Miniboss Aggro / Trampling
Sometimes the miniboss aggroes from afar, and this is notified by their audio cues. Create a safe space, and lure / wait for it to reach you instead of dealing with the boss room with its lesser enemies. Some minibosses (Dragons, Nightmares) also trample (or kill) other enemies if they are still in the dark which greatly thins out the swarm, so letting them trample enemies on their way while you wait can be useful.

Traps
These are mostly harmful, but these can be put to better use.
  • Enemies can be killed by spike traps / walls (especially for Dove / Monk)
  • Traps can be used to exit the floor without the stair room (Tempo / speed / low%)
  • Bounce and confusion traps can put space between player and enemies (Eli / Melody)
  • Bomb traps and roofpigs naturally kill enemies as well

Spawn Capping
Leaving passive enemies alive (such as but mostly headless skeletons) can sometimes be beneficial. If used / placed correctly they can block even digging enemies from reaching the player. Certain bosses can also be made easier by spawn capping (DM, ND1, TC).

They can also serve as Aria's buffers, Tempo's timer resets, Suzu's dash ammo, or Chaunter's backup possessions. Inversely these can snag weapons (Mary, Bolt, Nocturna) so context and build matters here. But headless skeletons are also prone to bounce trap / confusion trap backfires so don't treat them as no threats.

Song Ending
If the miniboss has already been taken care of but there are still deadly enemy swarms, it is perfectly safe to wait out for the song end. Usually this requires a safe spot (such as an enemy cleared spawn or shop or travel rune) and the only penalty is a groove chain reset, but it really does provide a safe break for some characters.

This is perfect for Monk and Bolt, or just for Arena abuse. (Dove, Aria, and boss floors can't use this of course)

Finding Exit Stairs
Some zones have patterns in placing both the player spawn room and the exit stairs (or the exit room).

Knowing where the exit stairs are mostly used for speed, but the player can use these for other personal reasons.

Zone 1

Player Spawn Room : Middle
Exit Stair Room : Bottom Right leaning

Exit stairs never spawn in the top, top left, or left sides

Zone 2

Player Spawn Room : Middle

Exit stairs are usually near the spawn room except they are blocked behind walls; dig walls in the spawn room to locate the exit easier.

Zone 3

No consistent exit stair spawn. Finding and going through secret rooms almost always leads to it, however.

Zone 4

Player Spawn Room : Any one corner
Exit Stair Room : Opposite corner of spawn

Fastest way is to dig diagonally to get to the guaranteed exit room, but digging horizontally then vertically may be safer for dragon / mommy floors

Zone 5

Exit stair room is always linked to the player spawn room by the conduit tiles and is also linked to it by the hallway (there is never a non-hallway room needed to reach the exit room). The floor has a single large exit room with no chests, shrines, sarcophagi, or traps, and the room has multiple branching conduit lines. If it has these descriptions then it is the exit stair room.
Terminologies
  • Buffering - intentionally making moves to stall and expend a beat without missing the beat; alternative to missing or skipping a beat.
  • Piercing dmg - able to damage certain 'problem enemies' through their 'shields'.
  • Phasing dmg - damages enemies without fail.
  • Miscellaneous Item Categories
    • Stackable - Cookies, Shurikens, Tomes
    • Toggleable - Boots of Leaping, Boots of Lunging
    • Throwable - Daggers, Spears, Glass Shards (weapon), Shurikens
    • Reloadable - Crossbow, Rifle, Blunderbuss
    • Protection items - Glass Armors, Crown of Teleportation, Frost Charm, Ring of Shielding
    • Heavy items - Lead Boots, Heavy Plate, Heavy Glass
    • Frost items - Frost Dagger, Ring of Frost, Freeze Spell, Ice Familiar, Frost Charm

Problem Enemies
Piercing Sources
Phasing Enemies
Phasing Sources
Armadillos
Armored Skeletons
Beetles
Knights
Blademasters
Gargoyles
Devils
Orcs
Death Metal
Reloadable Weapons
Throwable Weapons; Shurikens
Dagger of Frost
Ring of Piercing
Rat Familiar
Ghosts
Mimics
Moles / Fortissimole
Tar Monsters
Spirits (Wights, Ghasts, Ghouls)
Phase 1 Bosses (Coral Riif, King Conga)
Dead Ringer
Lightning Orbs
Skulls
Dagger of Phasing
Earth Spells
Discord / Wiki Links
Crypt of the Necrodancer / Cadence of Hyrule Discord Invite
[Idk if i should be handing out random links tbh (discord or otherwise)]

Miraheze Wiki
[the necrodancer wiki (not the fandom one, but the miraheze one) is currently almost completely done and includes up to the sync dlc; it is fact checked by the devs and play testers themselves too]
Steam Guides
Workshop Items (Useful Lvl Editor Maps)
[WIP]

[Playtesting]
if u cant wait its:
  • The one with trapdoor miniboss
  • The one with more ways of killing shopkeepers
Video Links
[WIP]

[Until i figure out how to make vids look nice and organized here, direct links are excluded so search them on your own]

  • Spooty Biscuit's recommended settings
  • LoZelda's beginner's guide
  • Elad Difficult's How to kill the [enemy]
  • Plectro's Zone4 Guide
  • Plectro's Necrodancer1 Boss guide
  • Plectro's Shop strategies
  • Sky's dragon dance variations (includes Marv and No Return)
  • Floriss' Ultimate Boss Guide / Boss Quickkills
  • Biggiemac's courage duping (score run strategies)
  • Hokuhok u bard duping (score run strategies)
  • Naymin's lute quickkill