Tallowmere is an interesting game. It's a platforming roguelike with emphasis on twitch-controls and attacks, movement, etc all being spammable as fast as you can press the buttons with zero delay.

The important thing to note about Tallowmere is that while there is a good degree of luck in this game, it is equally as much about skill and strategy. The randomness of each room layout can often bring a deadly mix of enemies, traps, and terrain to ruin your day.

First, let's examine the standard UI elements.



Top left: The currently equipped item. This only pops up for a second when you quick-equip an item, and then it fades away.
Top right: Current location/floor of the dungeon.
Bottom left: Player's HP and the damage of the equipped weapon. This is the only spot that tells you what the damage total of your weapon is, so pay attention to it and periodically scroll through all your weapons to see what the weak performers are, especially on later floors.
Bottom right: From left to right, the amount of gold you possess, the number of souls of slaim monsters you have versus how many are needed to level up, the number of keys you possess, the number of lives you have remaining (Maybe? I honestly have no clue) and the number of kittens you've slain. 'Kittens' are detailed in the NPC chapter of this walkthrough.

I did not play this game with mouse and keyboard, so I only know the Xbox Controller keys. Here they are:


B = Open quick-equip radial menu. (Pic above)
Y = Open doors, talk to npc's, advance dialogue text.
X = Attack with equipped weapon. The faster you press this, the faster you attack.
A = Jump, you can jump an infinite number of times.
RT = Use shield. Your shield can block ALL attacks and you will receive zero damage. The exception is traps, those are unblockable.
LB = Event log. You'll never press this but if you do, forewarning, it's useless.
Start button = Pauses the game, pause menu, duh.
Select/Back button = Inventory, be warned though the game does NOT pause while you are viewing your inventory!
Up/Down on the D-pad = Quick-change currently equipped weapon or item. The item you have equipped will appear at the top left of the screen.


The game features a linear randomization system where items and armor have 7 tiers of power (And no more than that) an unending dungeon that gets harder and harder as you progress (The current leaderboard has a guy at floor 201, wow!) and randomly generated, but simple platforming levels. The game is easy to understand, but has lots of complexity in how you tackle each room.

This is the hub area, where you start. Most of the NPC's here are fairly useless, but some of them you will want to speak to repeatedly, and the shop-keeper also appears in the gameplay areas as well.

Lady Tallowmere:

Lady Tallowmere does three things. First, she heals you anytime you warp back to the hub and speak to her. Do this instead of using potions wherever possible, but do note that once you have health regen it's pretty much never needed.
Secondly, she astrally projects herself into the dungeon in certain Event Rooms to tell you how to do those rooms. Speak to her, and once you've finished, she floats away.
Third: She's part of a couple small quests. By any meaning of the word, she's the secondary character to the player, but she's still got a very tiny role anyhow.

Wandering Merchant:

The merchant is your typical trader NPC. He buys and sells things. He has a twin by the exact same name (Strange, hmmmm) who appears in the dungeons. I have notnoticed any particular loot-to-dungeon-level-ratio that determines whether they stock better or worse loot between the hub or the dungeon trader, but do note the loot you can guy obviously gets better the deeper in the dungeon you are. Sometimes though, you'll be in Room 2 and check the hub trader and see a 7 star weapon you'll never be able to afford. So sad.

Note that the NPC in the hub changes items in his stock every time you enter a new area, while the one that appears in dungeons keeps the same stock no matter how much further you venture into the dungeon. So if you can't afford a nice weapons or armor at the hub merchant, it will be gone when you enter another room, however the same merchant in the dungeon will always have that weapon avauilable if you backtrack to him later on with cash in hand.

The Punisher:

This guy gives you a bunch of challenges. There are no unlocks in these game, so pretty much just use these if you think the game is too easy. They have no upsides, however I do think the "Double monsters" punishment is pretty great, since it lets you double the amount of coins and souls you get as you play, effectively, when it doubles the monster's numbers.
A list of all of them is located here:


Samuel the Challenge Keeper:

This guy gives you a bunch of challenges you can take to get on various scoreboards. I don't find them appealing so I never tried them out, but if you're interested, go ahead. I don't believe the Punisher's punishments stack with the challenges, but... maybe?

Old Man Mazaar:

This guy gives you a single hint, and that's it. He's also used for one single quest, that's it. Fairly useless.

Esmerelda:

Also pretty useless, Esmerelda has a bunch of kittens sitting next to her. Sacrifice them and gain +10 HP per killed kitten, for a total of +90 HP maximum. Do note this relegates you to a crappy scoreboard but otherwise has no adverse effects.

Mr. Bigguns:

Useless. RIP in pieces though.

This game has very simple, yet complex movement, it is easy to not realize how much complexity lies beneath, but we will unveil its truth here and now!

First off, the basic movement is left, right, 'A' to jump, 'X' to attack, and 'RT' to use your shield. There's no grappling hooks, or speed boots, or anything that truly augments your movement in an intended manner.

• If you shield, you can reduce your jump height by 1/3rd, useful for skimming your way through narrow passages with spikes on the ceiling (And often the floor too).
  
  
• If you rapidly fire your rocket launcher, it will propel you backwards MUCH faster than you can actually move!
  
  
• If you swing with the club while midair, after the attack has finished, your character will fall down really fast, which is useful for dropping down long narrow passages quickly.
  
  
• If you stab really quickly with the dagger while moving forwards, you will also move forwards nominally faster.
  
  
• Ascending rapidly is easy, the faster you press 'A' repeatedly, the faster you rise! Ascending fast is actually easy, it's DESCENDING that sucked, until I discovered the club trick!

Um, that's the end of this section. That was... underwhelming.

There are 8 different weapons in Tallowmere. (I'd like to addmore to this section but freaking Steam is glitched out... why??)

Axe:

Club:

Flamethrower:

Dagger:

Katana:

Ice Wand:

Grenades:

Rocket Launcher:

There are 9 different enemies in Tallowmere. I don't know their actual names, so I'll just wing it and if someone knows, correct me.

- Buzzy Flying Spinny Drone Thingy:

Description: This drone flies around with it's teeny little buzzsaw, trying to cut you down. It does very little damage and is super slow, often killing itself by flying into spikes on the wall. However, in the earlygame, if you kill it, watch out! It explodes on death and deals a fairly good amount of damage. The explosion can also damage other enemies though, which is neat.
Threat level: 5/10 in the earlygame, 1-2/10 in the lategame. It explodes on death. If you don't know about that, it can lead to frustrating early KO's. Otherwise, it's not very threatening and does tiny damage.
How to deal with this enemy: Shoot it, stab it, or hurt it, and then immediately shield in case it flies into you and explodes. Bonus points if you shield and knock it into a nearby enemy, that's always cool.

- Flying French Kiss Dragon:

Description: This dragon flies around and shoots out its tongue, grabbing you and pulling you rapidly towards it. Note that it pulls you very fast, faster even than your rockets can travel. If you are shooting rockets at one of these monsters and it pulls you in, not only will it deal damage to you with its tongue, it will deal extra damage to you if you try to move when caught during the tongue pull, AND your rockets will likely hit you, causing massive damage. Be extremely careful when these enemies are around, and be careful that they aren't just offscreen too. Always use the dagger trick to explore the immediate vicinity to spot these guys and stunners, pick them off, then clear the room.
Threat level: 10/10 in the earlygame, 9/10 in the endgame. This is the second deadliest monster in the game. Combined with the stunner enemy, it can result in instant death in the earlygame, hell even the lategame too.
How to deal with this enemy: Fire rockets or the ice wand at it until it's dead, shielding when needed. If you want to be extra badass, try using the dagger while stealthed to instantly put it out of its misery. Just don't miss the attack or be discovered before you hit...

- Fireball Witch

Description: This witch fires fireballs at you. They pass through blocks, and deal a pretty good amount of damage, though they are slow moving, easy to see coming, easy to avoid, and easy to block in time. More often than not, if she KO's you, it's because there were four of them and a stunner had you stun-locked. Yikes!
Threat level: 7/10 in the earlygame (High KO potential), 4/10 in the lategame. Her attack passes through blocks, and if she spots you she will track you for a second before she fires, even if you get out of her line of sight.
How to deal with this enemy: Shield, get in close, stab to death. Or use distance weaponry, your choice. EZ.

- Jackass Piece of ♥♥♥♥ Stunner ♥♥♥♥♥♥:

Description: Ah, this enemy, the bane of all Tallowmere players worldwide. He will stun you,dealing decent amounts of damage in the process, and everyone else in the room will whale on your stunned body. This enemy is never not a threat. Multiple of these in one room demand caution on par with that of a president during times of world wars. They throw a homing grenade that can move through all walls, and gets faster and faster the further it travels. It will always hit, and your only option is to block it. Outrunning or dodging it is impossible. The exception is if you're in a doorway, you can run back through to the previous room but that doesn't count.
Threat Level: 12/10 the entire game. ♥♥♥♥ this guy.
How to deal with this enemy: Note that they throw their grenade UP and then it starts homing in. If you shield when right next to one, the grenade will go up, around, and hit your exposed backside. If you're right next to one and you see it lobbing the grenade, shield and jump UP so it explodes on your shield. Then, stab that piece of ♥♥♥♥ 17 times. Mutilate the corpse. It deserves it. I think we should rename it Hitler, that's how much everyone hates these guys.

- Zappy Magician Dude:
Description: A mage that fires a bolt of lightning occasionally. Just shield and you block it, even if you don't they typically deal little damage and walls block their attack. They don't stun you either, they're not that bad.
Threat level: 4/10 earlygame, 1/10 lategame. Does very little damage, but lands consistent hits the whole game. They have a pretty insane range too, often zapping you when you don't even see them at first.
How to deal with this enemy: Shield, move in for the kill, kill. Easy.

- Ballgag and Chain Throwy Guy:

Description: This guy spins a flail around if he spots you. Also tends to jump towards you a single time on the initial spot, or if you move out of range and he spots you again. Incidentally, that flail does more damage than anything else in the game, so watch out! It also always seems to rotate counter-clockwise though I might be wrong on that.
Threat level: 3/10 the whole game. Easy to dodge but those flails pack a massive punch, ouch!
How to deal with this enemy: Shield, get in close and it's defenseless. Stab it to death. Or, just shoot it, grenade it, etc. One of the easiest enemies to beat.

- Leaper: (Hey I know this one!)
Description: A monster that is mostly oblivious to you. You can be stabbing other enemies in its sight range and it won't do a thing, but get within a couple blocks, throw a grenade at it, shoot it with a rocket, whatever... it will fly off the cuff and leap at you repeatedly. It's not very damaging though.
Threat level: Nominal if spotted early, terrifying if it catches you off guard. This guy should be renamed "Jumpscare".
How to deal with this enemy: It can only hurt you with its claws on its 'hands'. If they stand on your head they won't hurt you at all, so if it gets on top of you, switch to axe or club and beat the crap out of it.

- Archer Chick:
Description: A fairly rapid firing enemy that has pinpoint precision, though her arrows aren't difficult to dodge and do almost no damage. Has a huge sight range though.
Threat level: 2/10 the whole game. Her arrows are hard to spot though so in a chaos-engulfed arena, she might land a couple hits on you. She doesn't stun, does barely any damage, the only real threat is earlygame when you have very little HP and every point counts.
How to deal with this enemy: Note that if you walk up to one of these enemies, the point of their arrow will hurt you. They're best dealth with long range weaponry or from behind with the dagger, though it's not hard to kill them and even if they hit you, you'll barely even feel it.

- Kamikaze Death Man:
Description: An enemy that jumps at you in a manner similar to the leaper, does no damage to you, then stabs himself and explodes everywhere. If you destroy him with a melee weapon, it will stun you. If he explodes while next to you, it will also stun you unless you used your shield.
Threat level: 3/10 the whole game. Does no damage but stuns you, and if stunned in range of other enemies, it can lead to a quick death. Typically causes the end of overeager katana users.
How to deal with this enemy: Let it touch you, then shield at it. The elite versions of this enemy are a joke. Keep note though, when the Kamikaze explodes, the pieces that are purple can put other enemies to sleep too! If done correctly, you can use it to make Dragons fall to the ground and you can rush in and beat them to death with melee weapons!


That's it for all the enemies and that's it for this guide! Thanks for reading, everyone! Upvote if you liked!