after 2024-4-20 act 2 major updates, everything changes. lots of improvement and new heros and gods. old guide and build ideas no longer useful.
so i wrote a new guide introduce it, see
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3228544856

• you can only choose 3 gods(except fate, fate will always appear), no matter how high lv u are.
  
• alter dice > roll dice >> banish dice * 3. as we said above, if you fixed 3 gods in early level, alter dice = roll dice, if you really don't want one god but have no alter dice, u can use 3 banish dice to avoid the god and waster 1 level.
  
• every god have it's attack & dash blessing, if u fixed your attack or dash typing, other god will not show it, so do it asap.
  
• master offer is important, assume u have a novice skill, if you wanna level it to lv5 master, u will cost 4 level to make it lv 5, and then 3 extra level to upgrade it to master. it's weird rarity upgrade won't level up skill. so if you met 3 novice new skills, just reroll.
  
• explore map fast , u should always aiming to find more shrine, not just stand there, shrine will give u tons of buffs & heal, most of them is useful.
  
• forget the auto attack , unlike most of vampire-survivor-like game, death must die got a movement lost when you attack, it will great reduce our explore speed.

i had tried tons of other builds, like barbarian melee attack build, summoner builds, pure curse builds, pure tank builds, one-shot builds, shotgun builds, but sadly, none of them works very well with lv30 diffculty in current version, DMD is a potential game and still need lots of improvement, so if some build can play in the future, i will update this guide.
guide wrote, introduce the stalker builld
shrine great empowered, make this game more easier,
no heal it's gone, but boss have more than 120% more health in 30 diffculty, make it hard to beat when you have no good gears.
since curse can buffed by the spell power, so curse build available now, updated and change guide name.
summoner get great nerfed, the dragon not affect by player status, sad it maybe won't have a summoner builds.
luck & luck based skills also get nerfed, Flare chance great reduced. not matter so much, we still need luck in some builds.
i would happy to see the patch make this game much more easier, it's sad to see too many people even can't finish a run in LV0 diffculty, the more people can easy farm, the more builds everyone will try. As someone like challenging, i would say, give us new modes or new level :P

lv26 because no heal is insane...i really don't like justice god

• we choose death + time + lighting, replace lighting with war will be better in AOE damage, but weaker in high level
  
• high exp + running fast + extremely high dps is the core of the build. u can use any character try this build, because most of time we don't use attack, so it's doesn't matter which character you use, also u can use this way to unlock more sign.
  
• mage merris + sign of hydra(+2 project) or rogue nixi + sign of rabbit (+ luck) , skadi + sign of apprentice will be better.

• Death have the best of dash skill Lifelink, the most important skills in the build get it asap, not only can heal you under 30% HP, also have extremely high dmg, just dash and you can easy kill most of elites.
  
• Time is great for it's boost exp & move speed. Gem high is the fastest way u can run in the game. Force + Gem high combo will cause great damge is u running faster than gems. it can easy beat crowd of creeps like slime.
  
• Death's Execution + Raven will boost more exp, also can enhance force's damge & our running speed.
  
• Lighting Bot(lighting) will damage several times as u running 400 distance(master), it will random kill some creeps, with Force(Time) can deal good dmg.
  
• Alteration ritual(Time, lv up will grant u one random skill for a period of time) + Deadlock(Time, + skill duration) is extremely powerful in later games, u will be a great skill master ! deadlock also can empower our summons.
  
• Lighting also have 2 nice support skills, + running speed and reduce skill cooldown, remember dash cooldown is not spell cooldown, our main skill not relying any spell cooldown, we only can reduce Alteration ritual skills cooldown.

after 2023-11-17 update, curse now can buffed by the spell power, make this build possible. just look at how much bonus dmg mayhem stacks, 400%, even not a perfect run.

• we use Nixi + Sign of Threads, it add 500% dmg under 20% health, curse must get the last hit to stack mayhem, and curse not a long time debuff like poison, curse only have one tik. merris with sign of hydra also great.
  
• Death+Time+Justice, there are 2 ways to apply curse, souleater + raven, souleater is a pefect burst dmg skill, even can kill boss in one shot. my lv5 soul eater +projection bonus can 41% hit with 12 souls, raven is nice for low dmg, but always can apply curse.
  
• Mayhem is crucial, the core of our builds.
  

  the way to get mayhem asap have some trick: first, get death god, and pick raven or souleater, i suggest raven first because raven it's not our core skill , novice raven is acceptable.
  then ban death other unwant skills, if u use death attack, ban it. we only need execution, raven, lifelink, luck, souleater. reroll and u will always get mayhem.

• death attack i tested before not apply curse just trigger curse, maybe a bug. but if you trigger souleaters at this attack, it will deal massive damage at once. so most of time we choose it to stack more Mayhem.
  
• Malady(death legend skill), can spread status after creep die is also very helpful in our builds, great increase our infection speed.
  
• i use time for support for 2 reasons, add exp and Gem high will add extremely high attack speed in boss fight, high attack speed trigger souleater can make sure i can kill any boss or crowd creeps in seconds. in lv30 diffculty slime in 4 minutes will be hard, we need Gem High + souleater to pass it easy. if u feel so hard, bring a weapon skill with dragon will be better.
  
• we need luck in this build, souleater have only about 20% trigger rate, 100% luck can't do much, Gem high + souleater is our core dmg, we need luck to trigger more souleater.
  
• i use justice for survival, because u can easy die if next to any boss, expect alteration ritual random get some skills not good idea. justice can give my protection shield and high armor. with my light class high evasion, make sure i can dash into the boss face and start attack him.
  
• fire god is another choice becaues of flare, luck make flare over 100% chance will add bonus dmg, i can fire about n 900 dmg fireball in this run, but still can't compare with souleaters.
  
  
• lifelink is not the core of our builds, if u want the best experience, i suggest u chose justice dash cele wings. it remove the attack penality. death attack + souleater + gem high + cele wings will make u a real shotgun, if u happen get some nice gears like "XX% dmg to undamaged enemy", mayhem will stack insane.

i suggest stalker build for beginner because it's easy to handle, all your need is Lifelink, master Lifelink , stack your gears & shrine to get more HP, and u will always can get a LV0 success run.
but if wana challenge high diffculty or get rid of lifelink, you should know the fight skills for each boss
about 4 mins a fixed black rectangle will appear tons of slime will charge to you, i would say i died most because of this (i really don't like revival), easy beat slime every run i am sure u can deal with most of elite and boss in the game.
slime have about 150 (nerfed after 0.6.48 patch) 100 HP and tanky, at this time you always can't get too much dmg will one shot kill slime, this may cause a easy lose.
there are something important you should know about it :
1. moving around the rectangle, not stay in the middle. if crowed or attack red circle, dash to the weakest direction.
2. DON'T ATTACK TOO OFTEN, attack will great decrease you movement spd, surrounded by slime is quite danger. if u got some good autocast skills like blades, wires of chain, always run first. if you are some shotgun build like gem high + souleaters, u should attack slow at first to stack gem, then if u got 500+ spd, slime won't catch up with u, fire as u wish.
3. TRY TO NOT DASH TWICE, if you press space too quick, it will always dash twice, if you got no dash & be surrounded, u are dead man now.
about 7 mins Gargoyle will appear, Gargoyle is trouble some because it have two,
always keep 1 dash left is the key for fighting any boss, all you need to care is the charge, you should dash vertical to the direction boss charge to evade it.
try to keep u and two boss in a line, if they are on your both sides, two sequence charge may easy kill you. if boss use the melee attack, try to hold you dash just walk away.
Summoner maybe the weakest boss, because at 14 mins u will have enough dmg if you build is right, and summoner only way to dmg u is the fireball, it moves slow and can be hit down by your attack,
about 16 mins there will be some homing archer will attributes like burn or freeze, it will cause great trouble if you can't kill it faster, because later will spawn more harden creeps. just dash into their face and got a quick kill.
about 17 mins will trigger the second black rectangle, there is a elite gold shielder in it. shielder have extremely high dmg u should care. lucky they don't have too much amount.
about 18 mins before baron, there will be tons of skeleton, most of time it won't make too much trouble. but you should stop explore the map and try to stay with the +100% dmg or invunterable shrine and wait baron.
baron have 4 dangerous skill.
1. homing soul, i will return back if you doge first. great dmg u should always aware for it.
2. soul ring, like nevermore ulti in dota2, great dmg.
3. charge, we see it before in Gargoyle
4. summon creeps, most of time it will help us beat baron(Gem High)

all your need is aware baron's soul skills, just remember kept a dash is the key to beat any boss.

there are no different you get red gear in 0 diffculty or 30 diffculty, but 30 diffculty will drop more gear each boss. i sort all the entry as importance.

1. projection count , you won't let it go, it will great empower almost all of you spell.
   
2. exp per second, +X% exp, at most you can got +2.4 exp persecond and +50% more exp in each entry, the more exp you got , the high lv you got.
   
3. master offer, i had tested, it's individual about adpet, expert, master offer chance, and legend chance will only appear when master offer show. get master offer a more as possible, forget other offers.
   
4. spell duration, i really like time god, so spell duration increase buff time & summon time is quite important, but this entry is very precious and hard to find.
   
5. luck, luck will increase the chance roll master skills
   

   i do a well test use kront
   one is 41% luck with 32% adpet chance, another is 0% luck with 32% adpet chance, both test 100 times,
   41% luck: novice 73% adapet: 27% expert: 0% master: 0%
   0% luck: novice 61% adapt: 31% expert:7% master: 1%
   so that means luck really not influence the reroll chance, so luck is a useless attribute now...
   and now we see the shrine reduce adpet & expert offer but increase master offer is so important...

6. spell dmg/spell crit, attack is weak in current version, so get more spell dmg.
   
7. evasion > armor, 200 evasion can got about 50% evade, 200 armor can get 50% dmg reduction.
   
8. movement spd, but it's only show in shoes, +40 is the max.
   
9. dice, alter > reroll >>> banish * 3, as we said above.

some weapon or chest will have extra skill entry, with some trigger skills or summons, the best is summon a dragon, dragon have 60 dmg with AOE, also get boost by the Gem High attack spd :D, nerfed by patch, but still the best.

Sign of hero: kill 500 sketletons(+17 attack every 3 lv)
Sign of chosen one: defeat gargoyles(got invulnerable for 3 seconds after damage)
Sign of cat: die 9 times(+8 revivals, HP -333%)
Sign of Guardian: defeat baron(+18 armor every 3 lv)
Sign of disciple: defeat baron with each character(all blessing at least Adpet, 100% turn into expert）

Sign of fire: deal 100000 dmg（+8 spell dmg every 3 lv)
Sign of helper: kill 33 chatty skeleton(+66 attack dmg, attack will trace)
Sign of timespace: defeat neomancer(inf pull range, -1 dash & -30 dash cooldown)
Sign of hydra: get 8 autocast blessing(+2 spell projection count)
Sign of summoner: get 40 summons with merris(+22% summon dmg every 3 lv)

Sign of the viper:defeat gargoyles in 20 seconds(+10 atk spd every 3 lv)
Sign of thread: deal 2000 crit dmg(deal +500% dmg with enemy under 20% HP)
Sign of grassshoper: get 4 dash point(+1 dash but +25 dash cooldown)
Sign of the thief: win a run with 3 diffculty(pickups +1000%)
Sign of rabbit: win a run with mort's serendipity blessing(+13% luck every 3 lv)

Sign of tornado: kill 25 enemy with one shot(+14% attack every 3 lv)
Sign of earthquake: destory one elite barrier with one shot(stun threashold -60, deal +120 dmg to stuned)
Sign of tsunami: make a 400 crit dmg(+4 attack crit every 3 lv)
Sign of meteor:kill 50 shielder(+1.2% attack dmg for every armor you have, but you lose all armors)
Sign of mountain: kill neomancer（can't regen, +222 life）

Sign of wyern: travel 30000 distance(+16 move spd every 3 lv)
Sign of Appentice: got lv 30(+1 skill lv every 2 lv)
Sign of cosmos: apply 5 different status(attack will add random 8 effect)
Sign of beast: kill 25 summoner(a white raven fight with u)
Sign of lizard: heal 999 life(+0.35 regen every 3 lv)

mort it's the real god in DMD, as u can see all we build need death, death summon have best dash Lifelink, the best attack trigger souleater, the best dmg amplifer Mayhem. just forget about the summons.
i like time because time have the best IAS(increase attack speed) & SPD skill Gem High
Alteration ritual + Deadlock can make you the real skill master.
Force is a good AOE with high dmg.
War is a balance god,Blades are the best AOE dmg in the game, War attack + Shuriken is a good trigger combo, rupture debuff also can add small IAS.
War god also have 2 good support skill +100% dmg(legend) and + shield dmg.
Fire Breath take only 3 hits to trigger, with good AOE and dmg, Flare can easy make 100% chance with only 65+% luck, Combust also a good dmg skill.
Meter shower maybe the worst, random location, small area, low dmg.
Fire only have small spell dmg boost, Fire is strong, but need support,
lighting is a good support god, Haste + SPD, master brevity will reduce 80% cooldown.
lighting lack of good dmg skill, lighting orb dmg is so slow, lighting chain can't multi-trigger, lighting orb only works with stalker build.
so most of time, lighting is a support for Time God.
A pure defend god, almost no dmg skills. you need it in high lv diffculty. notice justice legend skill will not produce any gems, so most of time i don't take it.
ice is weak, master of control, but have no dmg.
ice have 3 support skills + spell area, + attack dmg, + frozen enemy dmg. but almost all the ice skill have no dmg. in most of time u will see a crowed of creeps surrouding u and frozen, but you can't kill them. or the frozen boss still running & cast skills.
so most of time we prefer justice not ice.

thanks to @AR-9's contribution, we made a list about legend skills of all gods, though most of time legend skill like a egg u can't rely any builds on it, but it can make your run more fun.
Vampirism:Your armor doesn't give you damage reduction. You heal with each strike instead (3 hp)
Malady: Enemies that die spread their statuses to enemies that don't have them (area 800sq)
Fatality: You deal more damage to enemies at low life (dmg +200%, life below 50%)
God of War: All damage you deal and take is increased (dmg dealt +150%, dmg taken +20%)
Pandemonium: All your blessings' rarities are upgraded (skills get next tier, not lvl, instant trigger, if u get another skill after, it won't upgrade.)
Day of Judgement: All minions of Death are judged unworthey (wipes enemies once per 28s, 50\50 exp drops)
Frost Dragon: Blue dragon fights for you, chilling enemies (chilling attacks)
Hoarfrost: Enemies take more damage for each status they have applied to them (100%)
World Freeze : All enemies gain a stack of Chilled every few seconds. (2sec 1 stack)
Shatter : Chilled and frozen enemies below a certain life threshold instantly shatter and die. (20%)
Chill to the Bone : Reduces the Chilled stacks needed to Freeze an enemy. (5)
Temporal lord: If you would die, instead go back in time (time rewind 60s, only trigger once?)
The Taste of Time: Enemies age (max life loss per second: 6%)
Inferno: A wave of fire bursts from you damaging and scorching everything in its path (area 200k, 666 damage, cooldown 28s, will drop exp)
Fire Dragon: The Red Dragon fights alongside with you, burning enemies with its breath (burning attacks)
Gehenna: Gain experience for each instance of damage you deal.(Experience: 0.03)
First Strike: You deal more damage striking undamaged enemies (dmg +400% to undamaged enemies)
Fleet-Footed: You can dash more times in a row (+1 dash)
sry, lighting god now not have any legend skills. :P

run with 0 diffculty, roll the Master lifelink and try to lv it up asap, then search the +100% dmg shrine, wait 7 mins, take the shrine and easy kill

there are 3 ways you can add dash points:

• some shoes will have +1 dash
  
• there is a legend fate skill can +1 dash (not recommend)
  
• grassshoper is a shrine, will +1 dash in some time.

• i did it use the curse build, death + time + justice, use kront by accident.
  
• master offer is the most important, my lucky is get 2 shrine add master offer chance, and then all master skills now. we need extremly high dmg to avoid dmg.
  
• kront is a melee and no evasion not the best choice, merris with high evasion will be much easier, but kront also have advantage: Gem high bring high atk spd can easy block any range attack with kront.
  
• get raven and mayhem, souleaters early to stack dmg, don't add too high lv lifelink, later game i got the first strike(+400% dmg to undamaged).

• melee builds are too weak, due to some reason, 1.shrine is important, melee always needs attack will great reduce explore speed. 2. melee character not have good enough initial status like speed, armor or HP recover, dash points or CD compare to mage Merris 3. attack area is the most important attribute to melee, but hard to get 4.attack effect also weak, you can't trigger multi lighting chain or fire breath, also can't stop elite attack.
  
• Rarity upgrade should add skill lv, it's now quite useless
  
• ice god should add dmg skills, ice is strange, have + spell area and great AOE control, but almost all skill have no dmg, just like design for melee character.