Rogue Legacy

[Cikomyr]

Man, this game is HARD

You play an adventurer who has to go explore and loot a castle. As it is per roguelikes, death is permanent. However, the money you gathered per run can be invested in a manor, which allows you to build your stats, purchase equipment, unlock classes, etc..

Everytime you die, you get a choice of 3 successors to your adventurer. Each are rolled with a class and some characteristics. You can be near-sighted (distant items are blurred). Or have no feet-pulse (you don't trigger floor traps). Or being a dwarf. Or being a giants.

You can be a barbarian, a knight, a knave, a wiizard. Other classes are available, but I won't spoil them. The more your progress, obviously, the more costly the next upgrades are. Since you lose 100% of your money whenever you start a new run with your successor, you are better off spending it whenever possible; cause there is no point in hoarding it.


I'm having lots of fun, but also lots of frustration. I tried making a Blood Build so far (3 Blood items), but the reduces health and sword damage may not be worth it for high-health classes (Barbarian, Knight), but for the less-healthy classes (Mage, Knave, Shinobi) it's actually not bad to have about 10% of your health back per kill.

I disregarded the + money runes to instead keep the flight and the 2nd Jump runes, which gives me much, much mobility.

Anybody else have good strategies?

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Just one tip.
http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/10/102474/1537282-media_preview_1.php.jpeg

[Tectonic Robot]

The blood runes give you +2 health a kill with no minus to your health. They're pretty darn helpful, when you find them.

For the early game, I'd really suggest trying to maximize cash inflow, and trying to scrap as many coins together as possible. Once you unlock the bounty increasing upgrades, you can really start raking in the loot, and thus, the upgrades!

[Crow]

I don't know if I would call the game hard. It just has a light version of Old-School Difficulty.

It is fun for a little diversion though. :)

[Hiro Protagonest]

...You're making me want to play Angband.

[mistformsquirrl]

I just bought this game an hour ago... a lot of fun but the controls are weird since it seems to be set up for a controller, yet I'm playing the Steam version.

So it says things like "Tap A to jump" - but A doesn't make you jump, S does, and X doesn't make you attack, D does... and it just goes from there, so I have to just fumble around the keyboard hoping I hit the right thing.

That said, I just had an Endomorphic Barbarian with Irritable Bowel Syndrome... hilarious - an incredibly tough character who... farts when she jumps >.< In most games that kind of humor wouldn't do anything for me, but there's something about the design of this game that takes me back to when I was a kid. Probably because it really is intended to evoke the kind of games I grew up on hehehe

[Destro_Yersul]

I just bought this game an hour ago... a lot of fun but the controls are weird since it seems to be set up for a controller, yet I'm playing the Steam version.

So it says things like "Tap A to jump" - but A doesn't make you jump, S does, and X doesn't make you attack, D does... and it just goes from there, so I have to just fumble around the keyboard hoping I hit the right thing.

That said, I just had an Endomorphic Barbarian with Irritable Bowel Syndrome... hilarious - an incredibly tough character who... farts when she jumps >.< In most games that kind of humor wouldn't do anything for me, but there's something about the design of this game that takes me back to when I was a kid. Probably because it really is intended to evoke the kind of games I grew up on hehehe

You can remap all the controls in one of the option menus. That ought to fix your issue.

[turbo164]

Saw it on Gamegrumps, bought it on Steam sale.

Biggest annoyance to me is the fact that purchasing any upgrade makes *all* future upgrades cost more. It makes sense that each Health upgrade costs ~50 more than the previous level, but when you go and spend a point on 5% crit damage (which does nothing for 2 of the classes) and then you find yourself 8 gold short of getting that Improved Potions upgrade...you rather wish you could unspend that point and just DELETE the 500 gold spent on it ten grandparents ago, just so your next 50+ upgrades are 10 gold cheaper.

Runes work the same way. Unlock Mana Per Kill for Helmet, now Triple Jump Bracers cost more. :smallconfused:

But Blacksmith has no penalty; Blood Cape costs 500 gold whether you unlocked Silver Sword or not. Any time you don't want to accidentally weaken your children, just spend all your money on equipment you may or may not use, rather than on skills/runes that you may or may not use BUT will pay for for the rest of the game.

*cough*

Aside from that, game's a ton of fun. Lots of risk-taking, planning, adrenaline-filled-bullet-hell rooms, puzzles, secrets, humor, etc.

[Wookieetank]

Finally beat the first boss two nights ago. Must say more of the challange from that boss for me at least was my crap reflexes. Even once I knew the attack patterns still got hit more than seemed nescessary ><.

[Cikomyr]

Finally beat the first boss two nights ago. Must say more of the challange from that boss for me at least was my crap reflexes. Even once I knew the attack patterns still got hit more than seemed nescessary ><.

I beat that boss using the Barbarian King's Shout ability; which dispels projectiles

[TheOOB]

Saw it on Gamegrumps, bought it on Steam sale.

Biggest annoyance to me is the fact that purchasing any upgrade makes *all* future upgrades cost more. It makes sense that each Health upgrade costs ~50 more than the previous level, but when you go and spend a point on 5% crit damage (which does nothing for 2 of the classes) and then you find yourself 8 gold short of getting that Improved Potions upgrade...you rather wish you could unspend that point and just DELETE the 500 gold spent on it ten grandparents ago, just so your next 50+ upgrades are 10 gold cheaper.

Runes work the same way. Unlock Mana Per Kill for Helmet, now Triple Jump Bracers cost more. :smallconfused:

But Blacksmith has no penalty; Blood Cape costs 500 gold whether you unlocked Silver Sword or not. Any time you don't want to accidentally weaken your children, just spend all your money on equipment you may or may not use, rather than on skills/runes that you may or may not use BUT will pay for for the rest of the game.

*cough*

Aside from that, game's a ton of fun. Lots of risk-taking, planning, adrenaline-filled-bullet-hell rooms, puzzles, secrets, humor, etc.

All runes increase cost on a linear scale. So at any given time, all runes cost the same, but when you buy one they all go up. The cost to buy a rune is (x+1)*175, where x is the number of runes you have bought.

Stats are more difficult, because they are based on the level of the stat you possess, AND your total level. Thus, once you upgrade the first three classes, and unlock attack up, int up, health up, and mana up, it's important to get some good upgrades to all of them before spreading out the trees too much(though you should shoot for miner/sperlunker/gold up as soon as possible). Early on your goal should be getting a lot of gold so you can get some decent stats/runes/equipment, let the late game classes and weird abilities wait.

Also, if you think you can beat a mini boss, do so, even if it will take most your resources. Stat boosts are the most valuable loot you can find.

[Cikomyr]

All runes increase cost on a linear scale. So at any given time, all runes cost the same, but when you buy one they all go up. The cost to buy a rune is (x+1)*175, where x is the number of runes you have bought.

Stats are more difficult, because they are based on the level of the stat you possess, AND your total level. Thus, once you upgrade the first three classes, and unlock attack up, int up, health up, and mana up, it's important to get some good upgrades to all of them before spreading out the trees too much(though you should shoot for miner/sperlunker/gold up as soon as possible). Early on your goal should be getting a lot of gold so you can get some decent stats/runes/equipment, let the late game classes and weird abilities wait.

Also, if you think you can beat a mini boss, do so, even if it will take most your resources. Stat boosts are the most valuable loot you can find.

Once you have looted all runes, fairy chest starts to give stat boosts :smallbiggrin:

[Wookieetank]

Once you have looted all runes, fairy chest starts to give stat boosts :smallbiggrin:

Is there a limit to how much of a bonus you can get from stat boosts?

[Cikomyr]

Is there a limit to how much of a bonus you can get from stat boosts?

Not as far as I have experienced.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Just got all the runes and I'm probably good enough for the boss on NG+. I'm trying to find the last 2-3 items for each slot. Will they only drop in the dungeon for me? Because I can't seem to get them out of iron chests anywhere else.

[Destro_Yersul]

Just got all the runes and I'm probably good enough for the boss on NG+. I'm trying to find the last 2-3 items for each slot. Will they only drop in the dungeon for me? Because I can't seem to get them out of iron chests anywhere else.

I'm pretty sure the very last row of items doesn't pop up until NG+, possible exception of you using the runes that make life harder, since those also make the loot better. The second to last row only pops up out of chests in the dungeon, with the same caveat.

[LordChaos13]

What's everyone's fav class?
Mine is Lich because it makes killing the enemies worth more (even if only in my mind)

Combined with a Double-jump then Blood for the rest then dumping a ton into +HP = Awesome

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Early on, the Shinobi/Hokage for the added speed and power. Once the crit rate is up and enemies are a lot harder, probably Barbarian for the HP.

[Cikomyr]

I really love the Spellsword + Fire Barrier. MP on every hit means you can abuse spellpower.

[BRC]

What's everyone's fav class?
Mine is Lich because it makes killing the enemies worth more (even if only in my mind)

Combined with a Double-jump then Blood for the rest then dumping a ton into +HP = Awesome

I found that upgrading the Lich King turned my Lich's from awesome to mediocre. Before you become a Lich King your health increases don't cap (or if they do I never found the cap), once you are a Lich King you can swap Health increase for Mana Increase, but your max health has a significant cap.

[sonofzeal]

I recently beat the game in 15 heirs. Here's my big tips.


- Farm the castle. Get the most out of each heir. Don't run straight for the hardest zone you think you can do - or rather, do so but then retreat back to the castle when your health gets low. Once you're good and your character has some upgrades, you can gain health faster than you lose it in the castle.

- Upgrade. Don't be afraid of buying better equipment, even if you need to upgrade carrying to get it. It's nearly always worth it. Runes get more pricy the more you buy though, so only grab ones you really think you'll use. At the castle, health and damage are usually your highest priorities, although armor and crit chance are good too. Crit damage is highly overpriced so only get a smattering of points there until you're swimming in gold, and most of the 5-point ones are terrible deals after the first point until late-game, especially Haggle. Gold Gain's a bit better, but more than two is usually a bit pricy.

- Be patient, be careful. If you aren't sure how or when something's going to move, assume it's going to move right towards you. Remember that you can start your swing half a second early, which will get your sword out in front of you while you're still approaching, so if it makes a sudden lunge then it'll just run straight into your swing and get knocked back. Back off as soon as you hit something, then move in for another swing when you see an opportunity... unless they get you too, in which case abuse that brief invulnerability to smash the bejeezus out of them.

- Smash every barrel/chandelier/etc. Kill everything you think you can get away with, but it's better to skip an area than take unnecessary damage.

- Knights/Paladins are always excellent. Knaves are a major liability until you get base crit rate up, although the Assassin special is very useful for a number of Faerie Chests. Barbarians get huge HP, which also means they recover more from chicken, and that can be very powerful once you've got some health upgrades under your belt. Ninja/Hokage are powerful early, but trail off later. Miners are weak enough that the extra gold bonus isn't really worth it. Archmages, Liches, and Spellthieves seem nifty but tend to underperform in most cases unless you've been spending a lot of gold in mana and magic damage upgrades, in which case everyone else will struggle.

- Early-game, Vampirism runes are fantastic. You want at least one of those, at least one vault, and then either haste or bounty. Later-game retaliation become better than vampirism. I found Flight messed me up rather than helping more often than not, and never bothered with Sprint, Grace, Curse, or Siphon.

- The first boss can be beaten flawlessly as soon as you have a double-jump. Against the second boss, it'll spawn more minions than you can kill, so go high damage and try to kill it as fast as possible before the minions add up. The third boss can be attempted the same way, but Barbarian Shout clears the stationary fireball so that ends up being really easy with that class. Against the fourth boss, target priority goes "earth mage > SMALLest ooze >>>>>>> everything else". For the final boss... grind for gold as much as you can. There's no real tips here beyond being good, hitting hard, and being able to take a hit.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

If you have a decent magic+ damage, the 4th boss can be pretty easily beaten with a lich with the crow spell. Hit oozes and break them up. Then start dodging and using the crow spell. You'll do tons of damage and the many kills will fuel more crow spells.

[Saph]

I just got this a couple of days ago. Really enjoying it so far!

I've found that my survivabiity seems to have scaled in direct proportion to how much vampirism my character has. I got unlucky and didn't get any vampirism runes early, so died over and over. Once I got to the point where I was regenerating 5-6 HP per kill, all of a sudden everything got much easier.

On an unrelated note, has anyone figured out what the Spelunker's headlamp does? The class seems pretty awful, but I'm sure there must be some way to use it . . .

[Cogwheel]

I just got this a couple of days ago. Really enjoying it so far!

I've found that my survivabiity seems to have scaled in direct proportion to how much vampirism my character has. I got unlucky and didn't get any vampirism runes early, so died over and over. Once I got to the point where I was regenerating 5-6 HP per kill, all of a sudden everything got much easier.

On an unrelated note, has anyone figured out what the Spelunker's headlamp does? The class seems pretty awful, but I'm sure there must be some way to use it . . .

Spelunker, if memory serves, tracks everything. Enemies, chests etc. show up on the map. This is the difference from the Miner.

The lamp does nothing.

[sonofzeal]

I just got this a couple of days ago. Really enjoying it so far!

I've found that my survivabiity seems to have scaled in direct proportion to how much vampirism my character has. I got unlucky and didn't get any vampirism runes early, so died over and over. Once I got to the point where I was regenerating 5-6 HP per kill, all of a sudden everything got much easier.

On an unrelated note, has anyone figured out what the Spelunker's headlamp does? The class seems pretty awful, but I'm sure there must be some way to use it . . .
The class IS pretty awful. The gold boost is what it's there for. The headlamp does help slightly in the dungeon at least, but I can't imagine when you'd want to take a Spelunker into the Dungeon. Maybe when you're just grinding gold to take out the final boss on your first run. IDK.

Not all classes are created equal. I never liked Liches either; you only get them towards the end of the first run through, and they stink on New Game + because the health gains per kill don't scale with enemy damage. If I want high health I'll just play a Barbarian.

The Ninja class is a bit of the same. The high base damage is very nice in the early stages, but once Knaves get more than 50% crit chance they start outpacing Ninjas for damage and from there it's all downhill. This makes Ninjas sweet early, and to be avoided late. Vampirism, likewise, is boss early on and trails off later because it doesn't scale.

[Crow]

Just one tip.
http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/10/102474/1537282-media_preview_1.php.jpeg

Haha, where did you find this?

[onionbreath]

The class IS pretty awful. The gold boost is what it's there for. The headlamp does help slightly in the dungeon at least, but I can't imagine when you'd want to take a Spelunker into the Dungeon. Maybe when you're just grinding gold to take out the final boss on your first run. IDK.

I find the lamp useful for finding the fairy chests.

[Destro_Yersul]

Spelunker, if memory serves, tracks everything. Enemies, chests etc. show up on the map. This is the difference from the Miner.

The lamp does nothing.

Not actually true. If you're in the dungeon, the headlamp gets rid of the black 'fog' that normally obscures your vision beyond a certain range. It's not especially USEFUL, but it's something.

[TaRix]

I like my archliches or whatever they're called. I've cleared out an entire game with one. All I had to do was get a small reserve early on, when I take a few hits, convert the (empty) max-HP into max-and-actual MP. Then I use raven-storm for just about every room, which certainly thins it out if not clearing it. Then it's just gather up the coinses. Since my MMP gets so high, just one potion makes up for three or four castings.
Both MHP and MMP eventually cap (based on whatever life and magic you've bought, I'd guess) but it still makes for a long-lasting dungeon run. Playing cautiously and saving the background junk for later make the chicken and potions worth that much more, too.

[Weimann]

I am crap at remembering to use spells on a whole, so no surprise that my favourite classes are Knights, Hokage and Barbarian Royalty. The shield, anti-projectile utility and sheer damage output helps immensely.

I've beaten 2/4 bosses as of yet, but I have Castle and Forest on farm and can handle the Maya unless I run into a sequence of particularly nasty rooms. I've yet to clear the Dungeon, however.

[Saph]

Do the minibosses give you good stuff (ie stat boosts or blueprints) each time you kill them, or only once?

I remember getting really good stuff in the chests after killing the first four minibosses in the Dungeon, but now I just get gold. I wonder if killing them again (or their palette-swapped cousins) in the Forest or Tower would give a new round of stat boosts?

I've been finding Liches pretty effective, but then I'm around level 90-100ish. I suspect there'll eventually come a point where they don't scale fast enough, but for now the extra 150ish max health and 200+ max mana is really helpful.

[sonofzeal]

Do the minibosses give you good stuff (ie stat boosts or blueprints) each time you kill them, or only once?

I remember getting really good stuff in the chests after killing the first four minibosses in the Dungeon, but now I just get gold. I wonder if killing them again (or their palette-swapped cousins) in the Forest or Tower would give a new round of stat boosts?

I've been finding Liches pretty effective, but then I'm around level 90-100ish. I suspect there'll eventually come a point where they don't scale fast enough, but for now the extra 150ish max health and 200+ max mana is really helpful.
Minibosses... it's a bit random, I think. They only give stat bonuses if there's no relevant blueprints for them to give. On New Game + and further, they always give stat bonuses. Before that, if there's no blueprints left to claim from this part of the dungeon but you don't have a full set yet, I think it defaults down to gold.

That's my memory, at least.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Miniboss just drops a gold chest. Stat boost is uncommon after all eligible blueprints are out. You usually get a ton of gold.

[Destro_Yersul]

Minibosses... it's a bit random, I think. They only give stat bonuses if there's no relevant blueprints for them to give. On New Game + and further, they always give stat bonuses. Before that, if there's no blueprints left to claim from this part of the dungeon but you don't have a full set yet, I think it defaults down to gold.

That's my memory, at least.

Minibosses drop a chest that always gives a blueprint, unless you have all the blueprints for that dungeon tier. New Game + adds 1 to all the dungeon tiers. Once you've found all the blueprints, then the chests drop tons of gold or occassionally stat boosts.

[Weimann]

I got my act together and beat the final boss yesterday.

Man, new game + is beastly. I love it.

[Destro_Yersul]

I got my act together and beat the final boss yesterday.

Man, new game + is beastly. I love it.

Just you wait until New Game +4

[Weimann]

...tell me you're kidding? :smalleek:

[Destro_Yersul]

Not in the slightest. The game keeps scaling up as long as you can keep beating the end boss. I think it goes up to New Game +11, but 4 was as far as I ever got.

[Saph]

Yikes. That's a bit crazy.

Finally managed to beat the third boss. Only managed it because I happened to get a half-dragon with Dwarfism. Turns the game from a platformer into a shoot-em-up, which is a great improvement if you're fighting a flying boss. :smalltongue:

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Barbarian is a good class for that one too. You can use the shout to clear out the fire.

[Weimann]

Barbarian Royalty is good for almost all bosses, but you will run out of mana for the shout at some point and then it comes down to if you had sufficient damage output.

Personally, I beat the third boss by picking Archmage (for once) and nuke it down with a variation of hard-hitting ranged attacks. The spell cycle ability really helped to provide versatility for different situations.