Source
This article is just a copy of this reddit post so that I could access it offline.
Keywords
Here is a list of keywords used in this post:
- SoU = Scroll of Upgrade
Sorry for the repost of the basics. The moderator asked me to consolidate all guides to one post.
Please note, this is just how I play. There are plenty of ways to win the game and other strategies out there.
The basics
The most important thing to learn first is how to use line of sight when fighting. Most posts will reference using doorways to land guaranteed hits and this is your bread and butter, but you can also use 180 degree walls (like making a U-turn). Even better, you can use a single tile of high grass in the middle of a room to dance around and land multiple surprise attacks. The key here is breaking their line of sight with you. If the mob cannot see you and has to spent their turn moving into position to see you, your next attack cannot miss. The latest version of shattered requires that you have the correct strength to use your weapon for this to apply. I assume this was done to prevent you from using a weapon that is way too heavy for you and one-shotting everything at the lower levels (a good change).
Using surprise/ambush attacks is essential to killing mobs while taking as little damage as possible and it becomes even more important in the higher levels as mobs have very high evasion and can hit very hard. Trading blows at the higher levels is bad.
The 2nd strategy here ties in with the first: spend all your SoU on your weapon, never on anything else. You donât need great armor or upgraded rings or artifacts if you can 1 or 2 shot every mob with surprise attacks. Tier 4 is ideal but tier 3 is still very doable. Tier 2 is too weak and tier 5 will typically take too long to use effectively and you will use all your health potions trying to get to that point.
The latest version of Shattered requires 2 upgrade scrolls to lower strength requirements by 1 point so tier 5 weapons have become almost worthless. You may want to spend 1-2 SoU max on a tier 2 or 3 weapon just so you can get to your end game tier 4 weapon.
I played over 100 games without much success before I learned these 2 tricks and then started winning around 1 in 10 games without any more knowledge listed below.
Intermediate Guide
Now that youâve got the basics of fighting down, and youâre upgrading only your weapon, letâs look at how to play each group of levels. I wonât go into how to defeat the Goo boss since Iâm sure thatâs been covered many times before and the other bosses are easy enough.
Levels 1-4: Fully explore each level, kill everything, try and find all hidden doors & rooms. You donât want to miss a hidden area with a strength potion or upgrade scroll. Donât be afraid to use all your food, starving early hurts but starving later isnât a big deal. Try not to use any scrolls until you have at least a tier 2 weapon to upgrade in case you use a SoU. Try not to use any potions in case you need fire, lev, or invis for a special room.
Not identifying scrolls and potions is also important since you can buy them much cheaper at the shop if they are not identified. Yes, it is dangerous not knowing which potion is health but you can find out by killing flies since they always drop health or if you start getting a lot of 1 potion type since health is the most common potion.
Levels 6-9: You cannot survive long in these levels without starting to upgrade your weapon. With the new patch, you should look for any tier 2 weapon that can be used without upgrading or maybe with 1 to 2 max upgrades. You want to save your upgrades for your end game weapon.
If you happen to get any damaging wand, your goal will be to open door to room > damage mob just enough with wand or ranged so that when you retreat behind the door, your surprise attack 1 shots the mob or retreating behind another door kills it with a 2nd hit. Again, avoid trading blows with mobs whenever possible.
Since thieves now can permanently steal items, it can be a good idea to lead them to a dead end room and walk around them to the door, giving them a free hit or 2 on you but blocking them from leaving before you start attacking them.
As mentioned in the beginnerâs guide, using a single tile of high grass in the middle of a room lets you land multiple surprise attacks as you dance around it. Use these as kill rooms whenever you can safely pull mobs to them. Starving for a few points of health is still better than getting hit for 5-10 health multiple times. Donât worry about starving, once you get your end game weapon you will start 1 shotting mobs and your pace will accelerate tremendously.
Levels 11-14: Brutes and spiders start to do some serious damage so you need your end game weapon now. If you are unlucky enough to have not found a tier 4 weapon by now, you will have to settle on a tier 3. Dump all your upgrades into it.
Since brutes enrage and spiders poison, you really do not want to stand toe-to-toe and trade blows so again, use any ranged you can to get them low enough. Your goal is to 1 shot them as you back through the doorway. Back through a 2nd doorway whenever safe & possible.
Save a like weapon for the troll blacksmith if you can and move past the level if you donât have one yet. Come back to him later once you have a match. Note, the mining quest will starve you very quickly so donât mine until you are already starving.
Brutes drop a lot of gold, bats drop health, and spiders drop food so if you are powerful enough, now is the best time to farm.
Levels 16-19: Monks, fire elementals, and golems can hit so hard that you need to start moving around with caution. By now you should have enough tools to get creative however so plan out where you will fight and what you have to use: seeds, wands, scrolls, potions, etc. For example, always have something available to use in case you get caught between 2 monks like an invis potion, scroll of terror, lloydâs beacon to teleport, or even dropping a teleport seed to get rid of 1 mob.
Earlier I mentioned not identifying scrolls and potions. Now is the time to identify them, at least until you find the important ones like invis potions. Also, by these levels you will have enough gold to buy much of what you want in the shops.
Always do the imp quest unless you are very short on health potions and/or already have 2 great accessories. I typically save wells of transmutation in case I donât like the +3/4 ring I get from the imp. Backtrack to the well and get a 2nd shot at a great ring.
Level 21 - The last shop At this point, I typically go back to level 6 then all the other shops and spend all my gold on whatever I may need: health potions, invis potions, torches, honeypots (more on these in the advanced guide!), mirror image scrolls, etc. anything that might help. You might starve enough to need 1 health potion but youâll buy 1 or 2 probably and often times youâll end up killing a bat and getting 1 anyways. Itâs worth itâŠ
Levels 22-24 I should have mentioned earlier but never use mapping scrolls unless you have a minimum of 3, preferably 4 going into these levels. These levels are so dangerous that your goal will be to pop a mapping scroll on each level before you take a single step off the stairs. Mapping scrolls will show you the shortest route straight to the exit room, often times without having to go through any rooms and fighing any mobs. They will also show you every single trap which are now so dangerous that they can literally kill you instantly.
Again, have some type of emergency item, preferably several invis potions. Avoid fighting anything on these levels, just go straight to the down exit.
Advance Guide & Fun things to try!
-Beating the end boss in a âfairâ fight - Mind vision, invis, step off platform, go hide in a corner, near pillar or water preferably. Wait until the hands separate, with mind vision up throw frost potion to freeze 1 far away, kill the other. Easy from there.
-Summoning Rooms - Probably my favorite scenario! Toxic potion the room and block the door by sleeping the tile in front or pop a mind vision potion and scroll of rage and sit back and watch the battle royale ensue! Lots of different fun ways to have fun with these trap rooms. Thrown seeds/plants do not trigger trapsâŠ
-Wand of Regrowth - If you happen to get one, you can literally farm forever. The best place is level 15 once you kill the boss. Keep in mind that 1 charge will grow 4 tiles on low grass but 12 tiles on bare or burnt tiles so single charges are the most efficient for basic grass. However, using a fully charged wand will greatly increase your chances for the rare dewcatcher and seed pod plant and the super rare starflower becomes not nearly as rare. Iâve gotten 3 in about 5 casts before. Run around the room casting and leaving no spaces then burn it all down and rinse & repeat. One day of farming and I had enough Starfruit to hit level 40 (the level cap is 30 btw). Wand is also handy for finding traps since grass will not grow on one.
-Wand of Blastwave - As others have posted, you can position yourself diagonal from a door and blast mobs off a ledge but you can also blast piranha onto the 1 land tile killing them instantly or blast mobs onto traps. Combine with a wand of poison to keep mobs stunned in the poison cloud.
-Wand of Fireblast - Combine it with a wand of regrowth and you can root whole rooms and burn them alive!
-Wand of Prismatic Light - Awesome for checking rooms for traps and hidden doors. Donât use for damage unless the mob is very low and you donât want to risk missing a melee attack.
-Ethereal Chains - Pull pirahna onto land, pull mobs off ledges, pull mobs onto spear traps, etc.
-Lloydâs Beacon - This is a very powerful tool since any mob that you cannot one shot in a doorway, you can teleport away. This helps tremendously with monks. Also fun to teleport pirahna to insta-kill on land.
-Ways to kill the end boss without ever attacking - With the huntress or mage, save up some potions of mind vision and invis. Invis to a corner of the room far away and out of view, near a pillar preferably. With mind vision up, use the special on your armor, health potion when low, repeat until all dead. Or, hide in the same manner, then pop 3-4 scrolls of mirror image. With a powerful weapon, the clones will kill everything. Or maybe the most fun: hide, pop mind vision, throw 1 honeypot at the eye then throw lev potion so the larvae spawning cannot attack the bee and many larvae will spawn. Do this with 3 or 4 honey pots and there will be a ton of larvae. Pop mind vision again and then a scroll of rage. They will kill both hands and the eye. Throw a toxic potion for added fun. Lots of different things you can do if you hide well, probably a lot more that I havenât thought of. Use a wand of regrowth to box yourself into a corner and they can never see you.
-More tips and tricks - Fast weapons bad, slow weapons good. Goal is to 1 shot in a doorway. You can weight your weapon heavy to help with this but I recommend weighting it back down to normal speed for the final boss fight. Giving it 2 rounds on you is too dangerous.
-Save good armor even if it is the same or slightly worse than your current. You can try arcane stylus on the extra armor until you get a better enchantment and not worry if you get a bad one.
-Ring of Force - Donât hand in the rotberry seed, cook it with a blandfruit instead for 1 more strength.
-Save well of transmutation for late upgrade scroll so your +10-13 weapon is enchanted.
-I know I said only upgrade your weapon but an early Ring of Might with +2 or 3 will let you use high level equipment far before you normally would be able. Also, an early wand of regrowth +2 or 3 will let you do some crazy things and pretty much guarantees a win with unlimited farming potential.
Let me know other cool stuff you have found. Enjoy!