First off, there's going to be spoilers. It's unavoidable.

If you want to get strong without major spoilers, don't look at the hidden text. Only look past the "Getting your gang" section if you are really struggling with a certain dude.

Also credit to NoCommentary on YouTube for the lifting Harvestman.

At the beginning of the game, you get a bunch of options for what you want your past to be. Each option gives you a skill/items, but don't worry about picking the wrong one. You're able to obtain mostly everything from the intro pretty easily. The only thing you can't obtain past the intro is Escape Plan, which is a passive that Cahara gets from abandoning his comrades.

However, I do advise trying to get the Dash ability. It's a passive that every character can obtain by rushing straight to the dungeon. With it, you can run faster than most enemies and clear out rooms a lot quicker.

While exploring, you should always check out any chests and bookshelves you find. Some of the best items in the game can be found from these two sources. Chests can (sometimes) give out useful weapons, accessories, and soul gems. Soul gems in particular are what you are hoping to get, since each one is basically a power up. (Check the Hexen Table section for more info)

As for bookshelves, you are looking out for empty scrolls and recipe books. If you manage to pass the coin toss, you're guaranteed one of these two items. Empty scrolls in particular are what you want since they're the most powerful item in the game. (Check the Empty Scrolls section for more info)

There are also the barrels, crates, weapon racks, and armor stands that you can search. Barrels and crates contain food, restoratives, crafting materials, torches, and throwables. Since most of those items are useful, you should search every crate and barrel you find.

Weapon racks and armor stands, however, give items only if you pass a coin toss. These seem valuable, but really aren't since most of the party comes equipped with great weapons already. You'll only ever be happy to find these if you are doing a solo run with skeletons.

Finally, you can grab items from the environment itself. You can tear bed sheets and banners to get cloth, grab plants/fungus from the ground, fill empty vials with various liquids, and take a stone from minecarts. Make sure you grab the torches off the walls in the mines. You won't spend much time there and will badly need them later.

Empty Scrolls are basically free wishes. By using a quill and writing in one of them, you can get nearly any skill/item in the game. To make a wish, write "O LORD" for verse 1, "GIVE/TEACH" for items/skills respectively, and then the name of whatever you want.
(Check out U92's guide for everything that you can wish for)

As for what you should wish for, go for souls first. By wishing for any of the souls in listed in the Hexen Table (next section), you can use soul stones to obtain every skill that corresponds to said soul. Go for the "ENDLESS" soul first since every skill associated with it is useful. If you have the Endless soul already, wish for the "WHITE ANGEL" soul and equip it on someone (accessory slot). The White Angel soul grants a character an extra turn, so it's a must have. After that, wish for either one of the remaining two Hexen souls, or anything that you desperately need.

"RECIPE BOOK" if your food is barely keeping you fed
"ENLIGHTENMENT" if you badly need to save

The Hexen Table can be found in the outside area between the main entrance of the dungeon and Trortur's area. It's located in the room that's locked by a wooden door with a curse. To enter, either use a Purifying Talisman or Counter Magic.

Once inside, you can use soul stones that have absorbed a lesser soul to empower yourself by obtaining skills and cursing your weapons. Start off by getting the Endless skills. If you're playing Enki, go for Greater Blood Magic and a few spells as well. After those skills are obtained, curse your current weapons. Cursed weapons have increased damage (single-handed weapons benefit most since it basically doubles their damage), have a different attack animation, and are the only weapons that can attack ghosts.

• Lockpicking - Lets you open doors without having to bash them down
  
• Steal - Gives you the ability to steal from enemies while in combat
  
• En Garde - Press Shift before starting combat to get an extra turn
  
• Dash - Lets you move faster
  
  
• Leg Sweep - Notable since it one shots every enemy's legs (Including doors for some reason)

Lucky Coins are a rare resource that you can get by picking them up from the ground when you see something shiny. By pressing Shift before doing a coin-toss, you end up throwing a second coin. If either one lands on the side you picked, you'll pass. Having a 75% chance of succeeding instead of 50% is highly valuable, but you should only use these sparingly.

If you get the coin-toss option for a bookshelf, use it. The chance of getting new recipes or an Empty Scroll makes it worth it. Don't bother with chests, since the rewards are usually lame. As for if you should use it in combat, it depends. If you haven't saved in a long time and will die if you don't dodge, you should use it. Otherwise, it's just a waste since you can usually dodge coin-toss attacks automatically by dodging.

Saving also uses the coin-toss mechanic, but it's less lethal. If you try to save in a floor with monsters, it'll just bring one of them to you if you fail. Usually those fights are easy to win, so I wouldn't bother. However, if you're on a floor with an enemy like the Elite Guard, you might consider using a coin. There's also the floor with the Iron Shakespeare. If you fail the coin-toss there, you'll end up fighting the Crow Mauler. If you're on a floor with every enemy defeated, then failing the coin-toss only wakes your character up. Nobody will attack, so they'll be able to go back to sleep and hopefully save in a few seconds.

Everything before this was how to make only yourself stronger, but there's only so much one person can do. If you want to flip the table and make the guards feel fear, build your gang. There's multiple ways to go about this.

Most gangs will consist of different characters that you can recruit. Despite there only being 4 party slots, you can recruit 7 different allies (not counting yourself).

• Cahara - The Mercenary can be found imprisoned within the prison floor in one of the upper cells. If you let him out and accept him into your party, he'll leave once you leave the floor. You can encounter him again in the level 6 mines and, if friendly, permanently recruit him.
  
  
• D'arce - The Knight can be found in the Cavedweller village. She'll be getting attacked by a local and requires help. Helping her will allow her to join your gang, but makes the entire village hostile to you.
  
  
• Enki - The Dark Priest is honestly not worth recruiting. There's better options, but, if you really want to, you can recruit him by showing him the Eclipse Talisman. Refuse to give it to him and he'll offer to join your gang. To get the Eclipse Talisman, refer to the Yellow Mage Section .
  
  
• Ragnvaldr - The Outlander can be found behind the fake bookshelf in Trortur's area. To get past it, you have to get the mockup book located in the main entrance of the dungeon. After you talk with him, he'll eventually leave the area and can then be found in the fourth level of the Thicket. To get into the Thicket, you have to use an explosive vial on the rubble in the area you first found Ragnvaldr.
  
  
• The Girl - The Girl can be found locked in a cage within the main entrance of the dungeon. Using Lockpick, a small key, or a red vial on the cage will free her. She's only able to use a dagger and skeleton arms, but she can learn any spell in the game if you have a skill scroll. She's a bad fighter, but keeping her in your party allows you to get ending A.
  
  
• Moonless - The Cave Wolf can be found in level 4. She will be an enemy at first, but she becomes friendly if you talk to her and feed her two pieces of rotten meat. She's uncontrollable and can't equip anything, but she gets two attacks per turn after the first and can power up her bite by marking her territory in multiple areas.
  
  
• Le'garde - The Captain can be recruited if you get to his cell within an hour of the playthrough starting. He starts with the Leg Sweep skill and is the only person who is able to fully resist Miasma.
  
  
• Nas'hrah - The Beheaded Wizard can be recruited by obtaining the Eclipse Talisman, just like with Enki. You also have to reach Ma'habre using the Cube of the Depths. Once that is done, search the level 2 Blood Pit to encounter him. He'll be pissed off at you, but you can stop him by talking to him. Answer nicely and tell him that you're in the dungeons because you feel like there's something greater waiting in the depths, and he'll join your gang.
  He is one of the best party members to have since he has no phobia, doesn't require food, has very powerful spells, and can't actually die.

There are 4 more allies that you can have, but you have to create them yourself.

• Ghoul - The Ghoul is created via using necromancy on a ghoul's body. They can't be controlled and can't equip items, so just use them as a disposable meat shield.
  
  
• Skeleton - The Skeleton is created via using necromancy on a skeleton. They also can't be controlled, but can equip weapons and armors. They also come with the added benefit of being immune to most status effects.
  
  
• Demon Kid - The Demon kid is created via using the spell Demon Seed on a corpse. They are controllable, but it can only equip a dagger, a skeleton arm, and some armors. I'd recommend selling one of them to Pocketcat.
  
  
• Blood Golem - The Blood Golem is unique since he is summoned in battle using the spell "Blood Golem". It costs around 5 points of health and summons a temporary, but powerful, ally. If you have the Greater Blood Magic skill, he starts off even stronger with 200 health. Use En Garde before a battle, summon it, and then use pheromones on it for a near indestructible meat shield.

These enemies can be found near a sacrifice in the same area as Trortur. They have one normal attack that they sometimes do, but it's a powerful one. To avoid it, take out their arms that hold the lanterns. Once that is done, take them out by targeting their body. They can also do a coin-toss attack that instakills you, but they have to spend a turn chanting first. This is easily avoidable by talking to them to interrupt them. If there's two of them, only the one on the left will be chanting.

Make sure you kill them as one of them always drops a soul stone and a Purifying Talisman. Using steal also sometimes get a Book of Enlightenment from them.

If you get priest's robes, you can use it later on to get a free Empty Scroll. When you're in the dream world, wear the robes and talk to the Dark Priests that were with Enki.

The Yellow Mages are one of the few enemies able to attack you outside of combat. Once you get close enough to him, he'll start a dance. If you let him finish it, he'll cast Hurting on you and you'll lose a limb. To easily defeat him, take out one of his legs and the free arm. Having both legs lets him cast hurting, meanwhile his free arm lets him casts locusts.

After you've bust his kneecaps, talk to him and ask him which god he serves. He asks you who you think he serves, and the correct answer is Gro-goroth. After that, ask him to teach you. He won't, but instead offers the Eclipse Talisman if you can beat him.

The Salmonsnake is a pretty easy boss that can be found within the mines. He attacks using his tongue, arms, and his head once his arms are both cut off. The tongue attack can be interrupted by attacking it, meanwhile the arms occasionally do nothing. To make this easy, cut off one arm and go straight for the head. If you have offensive spells, I'd recommend using one to take out the eye as well to further lower his arm's attack chance.

If you want to make this fight even easier, then kill the Cavemother first and get some Gnome eggs. To find her, just go to the area before the mines and search for eggs on the map. Smash them, grab the soul stone on the ground, and walk away to get her to attack. Burst down her torso and then do the exact same thing for the second stage. Once dead, search each tile that her body is on to get a Gnome egg. You can get 6 total, which equates to 6 free turns against the Salmonsnake. Just talk and offer an egg to distract him.

Once dead, there's a couple of things that you can loot off of him.

• Search him to get a stone crown, which provides decent defense and allows you to take the Cube of the Depths without angering the cave dwellers.
  
  
• Using a skinning knife on each tile that his body occupies gives Salmonsnake meat. You can then go cook that meat at a lit bonfire and eat it to restore a good chunk of hunger.
  
  
• Using a soul stone on the body grants you its soul. Equipping it prevents your character from bleeding, limb loss, infections, and possibly a few more status effects. Even if you don't want the immunities, you can equip it to instantly cure bleeding and infections. This makes it very valuable.

The Iron Shakespeare is a very tough enemy that deals heavy damage, breaks bones (permanent health reduction), and has an empowered burning attack later in the fight. Absolutely avoid this fight at first, since he only drops prison keys.

However, this fight is very valuable when you are strong. There's a chance that stealing from him can give an empty scroll, which is definitely worth the risk. With En Garde and a gang, he becomes trivial. Steal with your bonus turn and have everyone else attack his legs. After that, attack his head for an easy kill. If you do fail or only get a quill, you can just reload a save if you slept in the bed on either his floor or the prison.

There's also his soul that you can obtain by using a soul stone. By equipping it on a character, it reduces all physical damage dealt to them by 30%. If you have the pheromones spell, or are playing Ragnvaldr with War Cry, then this can make your meat shield even tankier.

The Crow Mauler is a tough opponent, but he guards Miasma, a very powerful sword. If you manage to kill him, you get a key that opens the metal doors found in the area with the Maneba's. However, this is not required to get it. If you use Leg Sweep on the door, it'll open like any other.

As for actually getting rid of him, there's two way to do that. Either kill him, or reach Ma'habre. Both prevents him from chasing after you, but you might be able to encounter him again via the second method if you sleep on the bed in the area with the Iron Shakespeare. I'd go with reaching Ma'habre since the only thing you miss out by not fighting him is his soul, which only increases attack by 1.3 times. Using a White Angel soul is much better since it doubles your turns, effectively granting you double DPS.

If you really do want to fight him, try to finish it as soon as possible. Every turn he has a chance of just instantly killing one of your characters. It's not even a coin-toss, just a normal attack that one shots anybody. His head has insane evasion and destroying his legs doesn't cause him to lose balance, so ignore them. Aim for his deformed arm first to prevent him from dealing strong, bone-breaking attacks. After that, put all you have into destroying his torso. With some luck, you should be able to defeat him relatively unharmed. If he either blinds you or kills someone who isn't disposable, reload a save and try again.