Dungeonmans

Dungeonmans

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Loot Till You Drop: A Dungeonmans Unleashed
By UltimaLuminaire
My 4th Dungeonmans cleared the game, and I'm here to help you do it faster. Learn my thought process, avoid player pitfalls, abuse mechanics, and squeeze every bit of loot out of version 1.02. Features the dual-wielding bowmans.

+ My skill set-up. Rated and ready.
+ Universal Tips & Tricks
- Outdated.
- Limited in scope. Stremf and Skills to the extreme.
- Not immune to hubris.

(6/10/2017): Update planned will add sections for things I missed, new content since 1.02, and my take on many of the game's mechanics after well over 200 hours of gameplay. Currently active on the Ironmans Leaderboard and will have many sections, or possibly a seperate guide, dedicated to that mode.
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Table of Contents
Getting Started
  • Choose Class and Stats
  • Choose Perks
  • Skill Setup and Strategy

The Path
  • Academy Planning
  • Dungeon Secrets Part 1
  • Dungeon Secrets Part 2
  • Fearsome Foes
  • Overworld Strategy

Closing
  • A Dungeonmans' Final Hour
  • Thanks for Reading
Choose Class & Stats

16 17 17 10
For your first Dungeonmans, milk the re-rolls to improve your chances of survival. After naming your world and character, you'll be given stat blocks based on whatever RN Jesus decided upon. If you get Stremf and Skills below 16, kick the sucker out and roll in a new Dungeonmans. You won't be able to use the exact name ever again, but that's what version numbers are for.

For FOOM enthusiasts, it is not necessary to abuse Skills. You should go for Stremf and FOOM. The reasoning: FOOM doesn't miss. Your goal will be to abuse consumables and powers to stay away from danger while blasting everything. if you get hit, it should be against something you resist, which means you'll want the HP mileage Stremf gives. If it's a weapon attack, you should be fine unless you bungled your HP buffer, *cough*decoymans*cough*, and consumables.

Do not focus Science unless you want to rely completely on consumables or you're aiming for Polearm + Shield. DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND. Science is ridiculously good, invincible even, but the most sure-fire way to abuse it is with a Scorpion armor set's massive percent increase to Science. Getting any set is completely random, so you shouldn't plan for it in the beginning. For resistances, it's always best to have the rating boosted by equipment enhancements. Science should still be higher than your dump stat because of the godly Lesser Champion Potion, as well as Potion of (Stat).

Modular Dungeonmans
The way skills work, you can freely distribute points in any skill tree so long as you meet the requirements for the skill. All choosing a class does is pre-select skills for you with a starting pool of 5 points. If you know your way around, you should select Dungeonmans, the class, and read below. Otherwise, select Southern Gentlemans and worry about it after you've died once or twice.

There are several merits to selecting your own skill path at start. For one, you can cut off all excess in your skill progression. If you die, and there are resources available to give you free skills on your next Dungeonmans, you don't want to prematurely place points. You'll also be able to reach skill combinations faster and (somewhat) accurately abuse skill trees that have books for them.
Choose Perks

Perks and You
This is straight forward. Perks will be listed in terms of whether they're Gold, Survival, or Unused. You want 1 Gold Perk, followed by 1 Survival Perk.

Gold Perk
These are the perks that keep you ticking and help you snowball into a monster. Getting more than 1 of them is probably excessive, but safe. There are 3 perks under this category.
  • Electrolyzed: Rapid Stamina and Mana regeneration. Stay topped off between combat.
  • Mad Thirsty: Never have a Monster Party without buffs and resources.
  • Tireless: Allows you to eventually rotate 2-3 movement skills with ease and to spam Shellbreaker Shot from 8 squares away every 3 rounds from the start.

Survival Perk
These are perks that aim at improving the quality of your time spent playing Dungeonmans. there are 4 perks under this category.
  • Southern Born: HP bonus. Will serve you well against damage that ignores armor and resistances. A very safe pick.
  • Pneumatized: An extra action every 5 turns is great if you can jack up your resistances and dodge rating. Don't pick this on a first play-through unless you know what you're doing.
  • All Weather: This game allows you to break the system by stacking damage bonuses. You can start now with this bad boy. The resistance bonus is icing on the cake.
  • World Champion: It's under survival because this perk will cause future Dungeonmans to thrive. Do not choose this perk for your 1st Dungeonmans. Your final Dungeonmans should always have this perk, as it will allow you to snowball effortlessly into the late-game. Also, yes, an Ironmans will count as your final Dungeonmans.

Unused Perks
These perks are traps. Avoid at all costs.
  • Book Burner: Trash. You need books to learn skills. If you need a full-heal, you should buy a Pre-Bacon Bacon. Can be argued to be useful once you have access to all skills, but even then...
  • Scrounger: The Dungeon Delving skill tree takes care of everything. The effect from Scrounger is barely noticeable.
  • Defiant: Planning to be at low health is like planning to lose, and in most cases where you die it happens in an instant. Don't do it.
Skill Setup and Strategy
Points to Success
For immediate results, you will be taking the path of the dual-wielding bowmans. It is a path of peerless mobility and devastating momentum. The skill trees needed are Adventuring 101, Armor and You, Rangermans, Bannermans, Southern Gentlemans, and Field Work. Any additional skills you can get will serve to bolster your power selection. Skill branches are given 1-5 stars based on their effectiveness and/or urgency. For Foom enthusiasts, stay tuned for future updates.

Build Overview
The idea is to rush your equipment proficiencies, followed by rushing a survival power for the early game. For early survival, it is recommended to choose Rapier Wit from the Southern Gentlemans skill tree, because it will allow you to block nasty things like enemy melee powers. This includes getting rammed by a giant vermin from 5-6 squares away. Rapier Wit also lasts 20 rounds, so you can keep it up throughout several rooms if you are worried about sudden attacks. You should also consider a point in Dungeon Delve in the Field Work tree, as being able to detect secrets in dungeons will let you snowball your game. Next, you should be rushing Dervish for dual wielding mayhem, followed by Shellbreaker Arrow to round out your offensive ability with sniping.
Once these core offensive powers are taken, it's time to move on to movement. You should be deciding between Stick and Move and Dervish's dash attack. Finish up the combo by putting a point into both Bannermans banners, skipping spear, and selecting the movement power you didn't choose earlier. Beyond this point, it's up to you. If you find books, use them to speed up your progress or attain truly overkill combinations. Keep an eye out for books of Cartography as you need 3 points in it. It is recommended to max out the last banner in the Bannermans tree, as well as the Skirmisher branch in the Rangermans tree, as they combo terrifically.


Adventuring 101
Contains skills for shields, 1h and 2h weapons, bows, and dual-wielding. The only paths to be concerned with are 1h weapons and dual-wielding.
  • Sword and Board **:: Potent build, but you won't need any points here.
  • Melee Weapons *****: Get 1h weapons ASAP. That's it. If you luck into 2h weapons, you can make use of its power to leap into early mobs for a satisfying crunch.
  • Bow *****: You need 1 point here ASAP. The 2nd point is icing, and will empower your alpha strike snipe.
  • Dervish ****: You want 1 point here early, if not at the start. This will allow you to efficiently alpha strike in melee and abuse static modifiers. Get a 2nd point here to gain one of the best movement options in the game.


Armor and You
Contains skills for light, medium, and heavy armor. Though the only path to be concerned with is medium, note that 2 point passives don't care what armor you are wearing.
  • Light "Armor" **: Mighty HP buffer with crowd control, but does not have what it takes to make this build tick.
  • Medium Armor *****: The most potent armor for re-positioning. The initial power is stellar, abuseable on the overworld, and the final power opens up options against many humanoid enemies. You need 1 point here ASAP.
  • Real Armor **: Efficient and boasts insane revenge damage. Not used here.


Rangermans
Contains skills for debuffing a single target, moving while shooting, and crowd control.
  • Iron ****: The biggest boon is the first power. Shellbreaker naturally combos with itself for amazing sniping. Also sets up for nasty dervish damage. Power Drive can be made deadly end-game, but otherwise not worth. Venomizer is bad.
  • Skirmisher *****: You want 1 point here soon. The 3 square jump is one of the best movement options in the game and allows you to fully explore the overworld. Get 3 points before late-game and you will be able to clear crowds like yesterday's trash.



Bannermans
Contains skills for buffing yourself while debuffing your enemies.
  • Spears *: The spear tree is a promise of greater things to come. Invest points here to help unlock a Master's Program. Not used for this build.
  • Power Banner ****: With this banner, you will debuff enemies and generate HP and Stamina while low. Combos with consumables well. You'll want 2 points here eventually because of the damage reduction and counter attack. A 3rd point is not necessary, though it prevents late-game bosses from teleporting.
  • Starlight Banner *****: The reason this is 5 stars and not 3 is because of the banner's final form. 3 points will net you some great Starlight damage. Starlight bonuses are the easiest to stack, tied with Dread Purple. Combine with Drink the Typhoon and you will be slaying waves of enemies after a single round of set-up. Use both banners to safely exploit Xespera's Challenge.


Southern Gentlemans
Contains skills for deflecting attacks, debuffing enemies, and dealing large amounts damage at the cost of possibly dying.
  • Tea Time *****: Invest 1 point early to make life easier against hard hitting melee Champions and enemies with charge attacks. 2 points makes this unbelievably potent. Learn to abuse Rapier Wit and you will live to become a legend.
  • Smack **: The problem with causing a tantrum is that you'll kill yourself if you press too many buttons. Investing 1 point here will give you an efficient and powerful burst of damage, but you must be careful or your enemies will attack you infinitely until you die. Only pros should put 3 points here.
  • Shout ****: No issue with tantrum. Combos with itself for fantastic support damage and utility. Final ability deals massive damage at max Ire. The range of options you get from this tree goes well with any build, really. Put a point here if you have the luxury and you won't regret it.


Field Work
Contains skills for finding secrets. This will snowball your Dungeonmans.
  • Overworld Exploration *****: You want 3 points here by late-game. This will give you access to the Star Shrine for ridiculous, ridiculous power.
  • Dungeoneering ****: You want 1 point here ASAP. This will allow you to access secret rooms much more easily in dungeons. A 2nd point will further help you snowball with extra loot to sell or melt down. The 3rd skill is just for convenience, and you should use a book for it instead of spending a point.
Academy Planning

Pave the Way
Planning to die is usually a bad way to go about things in tabletop RPGs, but in a video game where dying is not only beneficial, but sometimes unavoidable, you'll want to divert as much attention to future generations of Dungeonmans as you possibly can.

To start, you should always remember that the Headmaster will accept books, relics, and unidentified items. You need to visit him after every major trip, turn in any books you don't feel you need, and deliver as many relics as you can reasonably achieve. If you find powerful loot from a secret room, but you don't have the means to identify it with a scroll immediately, haul your butt back here and identify everything. Good things come to those who wait, but not to those who wait too late.


Setting Up Shops
After identifying loot, you need to keep track of useful and powerful items that have low market value. This includes armor, rings, and mundane weapons. Armor of all types except shields remain cheap even after being enchanted. Certain rings, like the "Hackurate Ring" are worth a bit of gold and are useless to a starting Dungeonmans because of it, but many of the "Ring of (Stat)" variants have a base market value of 0 copper, and thus can be bought for 1 copper. You must sell these things at the nearest town so that your future Dungeonmans can abuse the loot. You'll thank yourself later when you get killed during a late-game encounter and recall that you just sold a 5 star ring at the town nearest to the Academy. Until a drop-box is added in a future patch, this is your go-to method for ensuring the Stremf of future Dungeonmans. Once you've sold all you wanted to sell, melt the remaining equipment down.


Blacksmith Watch
The blacksmith is essential for several reasons, namely melting things down, giving you Enchantment Hammers, and storing legendary items for you. What he's useless for, however, is what's important. Don't ever go to the blacksmith to upgrade starting equipment or to make equipment from blueprints. These pre-made weapons are much worse than what the Museum will give you from identified artifacts, as well as stuff you find after a Monster Party. Save your resources for important Enchantment Hammers and expanding your Vault.

For reference, the most important enchantments are Eager and Freezinating. You will want Eager on every major mid to late-game weapon, and Freezinate on your bow as early as possible. You will wreck everything.


"Free" Skills
Finally, to cement your future Dungeonmans' skills, you can gain additional, artificial, skill points from a fully upgraded library and, as shown in the screenshot, a ghost professor. In order to get a ghost professor, the Dungeonmans that bit the dust must have been at 10th level or higher. When you speak to one of these ghosts, you will be given the option to completely learn 3 skills in a specific branch. You can't choose what branch this is, but it will have a high chance of being whichever branch that Dungeonmans maxed out first. This is why it is recommended to select your skills manually on subsequent playthroughs so as not to waste points accidentally. You can cheese this on subsequent Dungeonmans by only maxing 1 branch, abusing powerful equipment to reach a sufficient level, and retiring.
Dungeon Secrets Part 1
Random and Hidden
A walkthrough for Dungeonmans goes something like this, "Here are your major variations for secret rooms, here's the key dungeon to unlock the final dungeon, and here's the layout of specific maps you might find troublesome".
That being the case, the following secret rooms are noted for their pay-out. Missing from what's shown below is the Gold Reaper Statue and the twin-tailed ermine scorpions. All you need to know is that the Gold Reaper Statue isn't worth it till close to late game, where you are safest in the event an Ancient King pops up; potentially amazing loot, a Proof, and a Radiant Shard for 100 gold a pop.


Portal Room
First, the basic of the basic. A hidden portal room. Where will it go? Mouse over it to find out. The possibilities are:
  • Hall of Champions
  • Hive of Savings
  • Monster Party


Hall of Champions
This is the layout for all Hall of Champions encounters. You can't see it in the screenshot, but you will be surrounded by 5 champions, 4 on each corner, and a 5th one, an Ancient King(!), right of center. Beware even if you are raiding a Trivial dungeon that you cleverly queued up earlier in the day. The teleportation circles are usually a non-issue, but can be used to teleport you behind one of the L shaped walls on the left. Off-screen, to the far right, is the exit portal. If you feel out-matched, you should combat blink to the exit, though if you do that you might as well drink a potion and fight to win. Your reward is... fighting 5 champions, including an Ancient King. So, great.


Hive of Savings
This is what the Hive of Savings looks like. Each bee is a randomly generated merchant that sells 1 of 5 things: useless equipment, scrolls and potions, just potions, just scrolls, or just identify scrolls. Ideally, you want a lot of potions and scrolls, as these bees have a high chance of having some of the best potions and scrolls in the game. In addition, scroll sellers tend to also sell books, so you can mark that on your to-do-list for when you attain the funds needed to buy them. The Hive of Savings portal is an excellent way to stay stocked up on Combat Blinking, enemy detection, and stair detection scrolls, which all come in handy around mid to late-game, where random trash mobs may not mean as much to you.



Monster Party
This is the layout for all Monster Party encounters. You can't see it in the screenshot, but you will be surrounded by dozens of monsters both off-screen and on-screen. They will swarm at you until every monster in the room has been cleared. Each Monster Party encounter also comes with 2 off-screen Champions that make their way towards you. When you jump into a Monster Party, it is recommended to drink your potions and use your scrolls before going in. If you want to abuse alt + F4, you can peak into the room beforehand to know what kind of spell casters you'll be dealing with. Your initial strategy should be to use one of your movement powers to hole up in a corner of the room, preferably the lower right. Then you can take out each wave without being bombarded from all sides. Be aware that you can be pulled away from your position at any time, so try to stay topped off and be ready to use a Combat Blink to get back into position. You can also Combat Blink + abuse movement powers to reach the end of the room early. This will allow you to loot the chests and exit via portal, but you'll lose out on valuable EXP and loot. The Monster Party portal is one of the most rewarding portals to find, and, on subsequent playthroughs, will be key to snowballing your Dungeonmans.

Other Hidden Rooms
With the portal room out of the way, here are the remaining major variants you will encounter.
  • Book Seller
  • Treasure Guardian
  • Well of Fortune


Book Seller
This is the room for the Book Seller. The shelves on either side have a low chance of containing a scroll you can loot. The Book Seller, ironically, doesn't sell books often and mostly sticks to scrolls. Sadly, the scrolls tend to be very limited or outright useless. One of the worst rooms to get in terms of how you can snowball yourself.


Treasure Guardian
What this screenshot doesn't show you is that when you find this room, it is usually already accompanied by a terrifying Ancient King. This type of champion will always be at a high level. Just like their aura, their tool tip text will be purple, signifying a Legendary challenge. If you can win, you will be granted not only the loot from your kill, but a very powerful item from the chest. The item ranges from a 3 star equip with heavy enchantments to legendary items. A very nice room, when it isn't your 1st playthrough.

A variant on Treasure Guardian is to find the golden chest conspicuously placed in the middle of one of the many randomly generated rooms in a dungeon. If you have 1 point in Dungeon Delve, you'll see flavor text indicating a sealed evil. This variant features no visible guardian. Instead, when you attempt to open the chest, you'll be presented with the option to open it or leave the chest alone. If you open it, you will fight a swarm of powerful enemies, including an Ancient King. Be prepared. If you can win it, the rewards are high.


Well of Fortune
The wells are spent in the screenshot. When they are not spent, the water is a vibrant blue. Drinking from the well(s) grant 1 of 5 effects: a valuable stat increase, getting poisoned, catching on fire, health regeneration, or the effects of a Lesser Champion Potion. Though it is highly random (what isn't in this game), the chance to increase stats is too great to pass up. A very nice room with high potential to help your Dungeonmans snowball their playthrough, especially because there's a variation.


The variant for Well of Fortune is simply to find the well out in corners of an existing map. The only maps this occurs in are beneath the graveyard and within the mountain fortress (shown on the overworld screenshot). The fortress is the key dungeon required to unlock the final dungeon. You will encounter these wells in almost every area, and in increasing quantities. It's an excellent opportunity to gain stat increases.
Dungeon Secrets Part 2
Not Random
Speaking of the mountain fortress, several locations and maps do not appear to be random or have so little variation that the method for completing its contents remain relatively the same. These are:
  • Dread Spire
  • Graveyards
  • Legendary Labyrinth
  • Temple Dungeons


Dread Spire
After completing the mountain fortress, a path through the mountains will be unlocked, leading to more dungeons... and possibly this isolated section in the far South-East corner of the map. Once this dungeon is revealed, you can hop over any remaining mountains with Stick and Move to continue your journey to reach the level cap and clear the game. The Dread Spire always has 5 randomly generated dungeons within itself. You reach each dungeon via a portal hub. The purple portal will lead to the final boss, which you can defeat and then go challenge the other dungeons. People have stated on the community forum that these dungeons feature bosses tougher than the final boss, though, if you followed the build path outlined in this guide and have Cosmic equipment, then you have everything you need to survive and win.


Graveyards
Graveyards are always similar to the point where you can accurately pin-point the stairs to the dungeon so long as you've experienced the layout before. Each graveyard is filled with low-level zombies and skeletons, but the treasure may not be low-level. Your 1st playthrough should always see you raiding every graveyard you come across, even if you can't handle the actual dungeon, because the loot towards the center is excellent. The dungeon themselves are also high class, have excellent loot for whatever point in the game you're at, and do not generate random enemies beyond the enemies the dungeon is generated with at the start. You can safely snipe most enemies using Shellbreaker Arrow. It's just a nice break of pace, and you will find yourself crawling out much stronger than before, especially on 1st playthrough. You can find a graveyard on the overworld by looking for a village icon that is completely black.


Legendary Labyrinth
In later, Legendary dungeons, you will eventually encounter floors that look like this. Generally, this is the most direct path to the exit, but there will be powerful enemies and treasure strewn throughout the map, so it's in your benefit to explore if you haven't hit the level cap and are still searching for loot. You literally can't go more than 10 squares without spotting some new treasure chest. It's ridiculous.



Temple Dungeons
Temple Dungeons are laden with traps constantly active on the map. The flame spitting pillars actually hurt your enemies more than they hurt you, assuming you have 75% fire resistance by this point. The spike traps that you must go through once you've defeated the requisite number of Champions in the area, however, hurt like no tomorrow. The bleeding doesn't stack, but the rounds they last do, so you could find yourself bleeding till you die. Be sure to bring along Bloodglue Potions or Liquid Bandage. You can use movement powers to speed through the spikes without taking too much bleed damage, but if you happen to be using a lower Stremf build, you might not survive even that without using a potion every few rounds.


The Temple Dungeons always have the same boss: a trap master Orc Shaman. The boss will be immune to damage unless you haul yourself over to the statues in the 4 corners of the room and sunder them. Utilizing all your movement powers, this fight ends up being laughably easy. You can also prevent the boss from teleporting if you have 3 points in the appropriate banner.
Fearsome Foes
Rather, Champions
This section is devoted to warning you of wimpy enemies that, when promoted to Champions, will wreck your face a new one. Keep these in mind when abusing your challenge scroll or simply encountering one in the open.


The Bandit Sparktosser
This creature will likely be your first major thorn in your side. Comes with a push power that pushes all creatures nearby 4 squares, and pelts you with decent fire damage. Unavoidable fire damage. If you face these guys in great numbers, especially as Champions, you must immediately use a scroll of fire protection, even if your resistance rating is already high. Once promoted, both the damage bursts and ongoing damage sky-rocket.


The Bandit Cryoduchess
The creature likely to be the second major thorn in your side. Out of the gate, she has insane ice elemental damage, buffs herself with an aura of damage, and has one of the nastiest promotes to Champion in the early game. When you face the Champion variant, you will experience pillars of ice that radiate cold damage every round, stacking with other pillars of ice, massive bombardments of ice damage, and a string of damage from the aura surrounding her. The game also likes generating this Champion with others of its kind, so you will be forced to figure out which threat is the highest and consume your items accordingly. She, like other spell casters, becomes less of a threat once you get 2 points in your Starlight Banner.


The Baron of Bones
A very dangerous foe. This creature lays down clouds of poison that builds up damage rather quickly. In addition, they summon powerful brutes that naturally overcome armor, parry, and block values. These brutes can still miss you if you've stacked dodge bonuses, but the game also scales the brute's level and hit% based on the summoner's power, which means bad things when promoted to Champion. A Champion will summon a Brute that deals beyond legendary damage with beyond legendary accuracy. 1 round is enough to deal upwards of 400 damage to you, combined with the damage you're already taking from a Champion spell caster and you can kiss life good-bye. Always be prepared when challenging the Champion variant, and, if you couldn't see the summoner, always check the brute's status window just in case. You wouldn't want to walk up to a brute only to die the next round.


The King of Thieves
The Thief King has a lot of shock factor to it. He'll throw something at you for fairly hefty bleed damage followed by the pin debuff. Beyond that, he doesn't really pack much power and his counter-attack isn't all that dangerous. The initial threat is when you face 4 of them in a single battle and get burst down from all the stuff being thrown at you. The main reason why he's listed here is because his Champion variant will always steal something you have equipped after causing pin. Beware if you attempt to promote several of these guys at once, as you may find yourself stripped naked and killed effortlessly.


The Sharkoose
This is the only enemy you should be warned about pre-promote. By default, these shark things have a power that launches themselves into an adjacent square while dealing irreducible damage. Upwards of 300 bleed damage, with additional bleed damage in the high 60s. You can see from the log in the screenshot how insane the damage is, and if it were a lesser Dungeonmans, that would spell instant death. Hopefully, by the time you come to the Dread Spire, you've already invested in Cosmic equipment, which boosts your Stremf and HP something fierce. Ah, the screenshot is missing nearly 500 HP because Cosmic rings were not equipped. That's just how powerful Cosmic equipment are, but considering how much damage these sharks deal, it's a justified thing to have.
Overworld Strategy
Locations of Note
While your priority should always be: loot dungeon, improve Academy, loot dungeon, you shouldn't rule out towns and their prosperity, or the location of ultra special secrets, like the Star Shrine.


Bandit Blockade
You'll notice the brown fort-like icon is actually a bandit blockade. These tend to be aggravating for first time players due to the plethora of ranged combatants found within, but if you just mosey on over to the bottom of the map and travel to the end, where the Champion is, you can finish the map while avoiding much of the hassle. Your reward for doing so is very good, and always includes 2 Purloined Inventory. If you can, improve the prosperity of specific towns you like, and then sell the rest of the Purloined Inventory to a merchant close to the Academy. that way, there's even more Inventory for the next Dungeonmans to utilize.


Warlord's Tower
This tower signifies your reward for playing the game for so long. Each tower is filled to the brim with gold. Don't be surprised to quickly see yourself breaking 1k gold just from completing a tower or 2. The biggest threat in these towers, at least for your build, will be the boss. The Champions found in the treasury can be sniped, and so can the Treasure Guards, who are normally quite dangerous but have no range whatsoever. The bosses tend to have extremely good powers and a wild card in the Warlord variant. If you encounter a Warlord, prepare to be bombarded by high level minions and terrifying banners that drain your Stamina and Mana away. The boss is always after the treasury, so be sure to quaff a Lesser Champion Potion before heading up.



Star Shrine
Your goal in every late-game scenario is here. You should be collecting Radiant Shards up to this point, and it's all for the sake of this location. However, you can't see this place on your map unless you've placed 3 points in Cartography. You can just find or buy books for that, and you'll be on schedule. Once you've gained access to this shrine, you'll be able to place Radiant Shards in the crystal ball above the Anvil of Stars. Then, you can check the anvil to power up your equipment. Each equipment powered up immediately jumps up to a +7 enhancement bonus, followed by gaining the incredibly overpowered Cosmic Enchantment. Each body part will offer a different Cosmic benefit, with rings and melee weapons being the most potent of all. Be sure to upgrade those first, and your life from that point forward should be easy. Well, at least till the next patch.
A Dungeonmans' Final Hour
Death's Knocking
When death beckons you, and you see the red flashing on your screen, you may or may not have time to understand just what is going on. That's okay, it's natural. But, for those of you who are like the creator of this guide, and want to squeeze the most out of every life, you need to be prepared for this knock, and have your fingers on alt + F4 at all times. Doing so will simply have the game load you back at the last check-point, which is usually the entrance to the current floor.

However, this fails, too. You were too late and the Dungeonmans' time has come. Well, there are a few things to keep in mind when this happens.
  • Did I forget to refresh my consumables?
  • Did I have the right resistances?
  • Did I use Xespera's Challenge in a fit of hubris?
  • Did I forget to Combat Blink for some breathing room?
  • Did I die because I threw a Tantrum and didn't realize not all the enemies were adjacent to me?


Most often, these questions will help you answer the meaning of your Dungeonmans' death and help you to avoid the next death. If you're fast, you might even beat the game on your 3rd Dungeonmans. The game is very good about giving you all the tools you need to survive, though you may not realize it when death throws a curve ball at you from behind a secret door. It's important to keep trying. It will make you a better Dungeonmans.
Thanks for Reading
Rest Assured of Your Success
The information contained within this guide saw the 4th Alesgar through the world of ButThouMust safely. If there ever was a time to be saddened by a lack of a guide, it was at that moment, burning with questions about what else remained uncovered in the world of Dungeonmans. Hopefully, by reading this guide, those who have not completed the game will find an avenue to do so, and those with questions will have found a few answers. It was a pleasure to play Dungeonmans and to write up this guide. Perhaps the next Guidesmans up to the task will reveal information that another did not know. A Guidesmans can dream. Thank you for your time, and best of luck on your journey for face-smashing glory.
18 Comments
Dawns 30 Dec, 2023 @ 8:19am 
Can we have an update? Certainly things have changed since 2017, and this game is currently eating my life away!
Fugface 14 Oct, 2023 @ 3:06pm 
Nice guide and still a lot of useful information. Could definitely use a update, at least in regards to names/terminology.
Bobinhedgeorge 1 Jun, 2020 @ 12:18pm 
All Weather and Purpleated are Platinum tier perks. Electrolyzed and Tireless will help you 'win the game' but doesn't go the distance on Amaps since you'll be needing high resistances.
APerfectCircle 26 Nov, 2018 @ 8:49pm 
Great guide but I don't understand how to get back to town? It just spawns me on the map but there's no way to get back?
Inchronoth 15 Oct, 2018 @ 9:09am 
Thank you so much for this guide!!!!

I had given up on Dungeonmans and after a long time decided to try again.
I got a bit smarter now and wanted to read your guide first.

It helped me so much, Im now at lvl 12 and stocking up on everything, so when I die it will be
al lot easier.

Thank you very much!!!:steamhappy:
yogsu 5 Apr, 2018 @ 3:25pm 
you helped a lot, thx
hottnova75 5 Apr, 2018 @ 2:45pm 
Cool Guide, very helpful.
Professor Plum 25 Jul, 2017 @ 9:47pm 
Great guide! Helped a lot :steamhappy:
5dollarcheezit 7 Jul, 2017 @ 5:27pm 
Okay wow. New player. I've died about 6-8 times by this point. Read your guide today and I couldn't figure out why I didn't notice the Field Work skill branch . For anyone else who didn't figure it out, THERE ARE MORE SKILL TREES IF YOU SCROLL DOWN ON THE SKILLS LIST . It seems every time I've used the skills list to spend mastery points or just reviewing the skills, I've been exclusively using my mouse to navigate that menu interface. Hovering the cursor over skills and clicking them does not auto-scroll the skills list like it does for manual (keyboard/controller) menu navigation. I can only assume the game has updated to include a second unseen skill tree not covered in this guide called Psychomancer . At the bottom of the list there's also something called Masters Programs which appears to be nothing, other than a symbol of how noob-ish I feel at this very moment.
Shades 7 Jun, 2017 @ 6:12pm 
Hey, thanks for putting this guide together. This character was my introduction into the world of Dungeonmens. She served me well, even if I did get her killed at level 5 the first time in. XD