Dungeoneering for Idiots Guide

[gk willie]

I can't help but feel i'm missing out on having fun with this new skill. It's probably my misunderstanding of how to really do things, which is my reasoning of why I don't like it. So, I was thinking, if it's not too much trouble, that if someone or maybe several of those that enjoy it and are good at it, can put together a Dungeoneering Guide for Idiots. I've come to terms with it, and can admit that i'm a dungeoneering idiot, and that's ok. I've read some of the guides on fansites, but they're still just not much help. I, and i'm sure several others like me, need this guide for idiots. I guess this is kinda like a plea for help. No, it is a plea for help. I want to taste the darkside.

[Pa7uL]

from what i hear other people say i think the best way to learn is to go with 2 or 3 people who know what they are doing. going in teams is faster and gives more xp. it just really, really sucks with random people.

[onezerobin]

Willie good idea for a starter in dungeoneering. The online guides are elaborate but you definitely need those guides as you progress. As Paul said it's better to team up with few to start with.

Several tips have been shared across many forum topics, of which I compiled few of them for newspaper. But having a comprehensive beginners guide will be helpful.

[serame]

I would be willing to go with you Willie...but I'm not an experienced player. I've cleared about through floor 4 or 5, I think. I'll be the kind of player who wants to explore everything, though, not just run crazy fast to the end. That's also why I never get anything done in rl...I'm usually on for some time in the evenings, that's GMT plus 5, central US.

[TrixStar]

Ill post some things when I get home

[onezerobin]

Hints posted in newspaper, taken from forum posts
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Rushing is one of the way to finish the low level floors in dungeoneering. It is preferable for floors 1 to 20. It relies on opening all rooms as fast as possible (not bothering to kill the other monsters), and focus on only killing the boss as fast as humanly possible. (Original hint by 1man_rmy)

For faster games, when it asks you how many people to design the dungeon for, select 2 if you've 3 people, 3 if you've 4 and 4 if you've 5. It makes the monsters easier and you don't lose out on too much exp. I think thats a key option we should look into, and also make sure to do small maps. Its less experience but allows for quicker games if we need to add people to teams or someone needs to go for good. (Original hint by Neltak)

For best xp it is best to form 5:5 teams. It means a team of 5 people, and select the dungeon map for 5 people. You can find teammates in world 117. You can easily get 3k-4k xp per game. (Original hint by Trixstar)

It's essential to keep number of death to minimum. Before the boss fight always carry enough runes for gate teleport. Drop the gate teleport outside the boss door, tele to it if you are in trouble, create another, drop it there, home tele, get more food/prayer, tele back, create yet another tele stone, then re-enter the boss chamber. (Original hint by Neltak, Brad)

Prestige is an importance multiplier in computing the dungeoneering xp. Progress is the number of unique floors you finished. Your previous progress is your presitge. Whenever you reset, your previous progress will become whatever your current progress is now. Never reset until your current is higher than your previous progress. You have to do all floors after each reset, and try to open as many new floors as you can. (Hints by Poppy, Trix, Neltak and several others)

"A better quality pickaxe will ruin fewer ores." When you find a good ore deposit and I don't have a pickaxe yet, buy a Marmaros pickaxe and use that to get the first ore, then immediately forge the ore into a high-end pickaxe and finish off the ore deposit. You can generally get good ore returns with this method. (Hint by Froboz)

The game considers the levels of all people who joined a team. So if a person who has higher levels leaves, you might not be able to finish the floor. (Kevin, Kal)

[KevinsLunchbox]

The best thing I did was do some dungeons without rushing with some KoA members. They helped me out and helped me understand what to do and what not to do. I'd say Ed was the best help because hes a beast, able to kill boss monsters all by himself.

[TrixStar]

Lingo and terms

"“Key Person” / "“Keys”: Person running the keys
"“Gate” / "“GS”: Gatestone. To "“gate” a location is to leave a gatestone there.
"“GGS” / "“GT”: Group Gatestone or Group Teleport. GGS usually refers to the item while GT refers to the spell.
"“HT”: Home teleport. When keys tells you to HT, you should HT.
"“Base” / "“Home”: Original spawn location
To "“Base” an item (as a verb): When you have a certain item, and want to give it to someone else but they aren't next to you, you can gate your current location, drop the item at home, and teleport back to your gate.
"“GD”: Guardian Door. People other than keys should do rooms with GD's.
"“Clear”: To kill everything inside.
"“DE”: Dead end.
"“5-man-room”: A room which should have the entire team doing it at the same time. This includes monos and mimes. (Note this isn't an actual dungeoneering term, I just use this term later)
"“Denk”: Dead end with no key.
"“C1s”: Complexity 1 Run
"“x:y”: x refers to the number of people in the party; y refers to the number of players the floor is designed for.
"“Levers”: Levers room.
"“Mime”: Mime room.
"“Mono”: Monolith room.
"“Preboss”: Room before the boss room. Usually should be cleared.

Ring settings

Berserker: Gives invisible strength level bonus while using aggressive attack stance.
-- The most useful ring setting.
-- Keep in mind it only works when your weapon is on aggressive mode.
-- Most people get Tier 6+.

Desperado: Gives invisible ranged level bonus while using rapid attack stance.
-- Useful for some bosses.
-- Should not be used as your main ring setting; should be switched to when ranging a boss.
-- Tier 4 – Tier 5 is suggested.

Tank: Reduces damage when a shield is equipped
-- Useful for keys only
-- Switch between your shield and weapon.
-- You can pick up antidragon shields or buy a novite kiteshield.
-- Tier 4+ is suggested if you are a frequent keyer.

Medic: Increases the amount food heals when used with another player
-- Is NOT that useful, and is overrated
-- Wastes time and is not useful enough to warrant switching to repeatedly
-- At highest, should be T4-T5

There are 5 more classes, I realize, but they aren't used that frequently. I'm not saying they're useless, they're just probably not worth having to switch to.

The Main Idea: Before you leave the base room for the first time, you should have plenty of teleports and TOOLS. This applies to everyone.

At the beginning of the round, there are several things which you should do to prepare properly for the rest of the map. These are done in a relative order of importance.
Pick Items from the Table.
-- If you are keys, pick up any armor on the table. If you are not keys, pick up the armor and then give it to the keys. Just make sure noobs don't take the armor.
-- Pick up any essence.
-- Pick up bloods / deaths if you can't make them.
-- Pick up random weapons / arrows that nobody needs.
-- Pick up any Tier 5+ Bows.
-- Pick up food.

Make Money
-- Sell any unneeded items you have to make cash.
-- If you don't have any items to sell, try to make alch runes and alch 3-4 arrows.
-- If you don't have essence or items, open the next door.

Buy Tools
-- THIS APPLIES TO EVERYONE. EVERYONE TOOLS.
-- If you don't carry tools, you will be disregarded as a noob by any good teams.
-- Buy: 1 Novite Pickaxe, 1 Novite Axe, Hammer, Knife, Antipoison, Tinderbox
-- Optional: Fishing rod and feather, and blood spindle logs to make a fire staff with.

Craft Ess
-- Use your remaining money to buy essence.
-- If you run out of money, buy a few essence, make alch runes, and alch 1-2 arrows. Then buy ess.
-- If you are keys, make roughly 75 Laws and 75 Cosmics. Use the remaining ess to make natures.
-- If you aren't keys, make roughly 75 Laws and 45 Cosmics. Use the remaining ess to make natures.

Items to pick up and gather

You should pick up the following items while adventuring in the dungeon.

Any and all Keys.
-- If you are a keyer, you should always be doing this.
-- If you aren't keying, you should pick it up if the keyer is absent. Let the keyer know what key you picked up and ask what he wants you to do with it.
-- Be specific about the key you found. DON'T JUST SAY "“I FOUND A KEY”. Instead, tell the keyer what key it is and that it's a key, not a door.

Food:
-- Websnippers (150), Bouldabass (170), Salve Eels (200), Blue Crabs (220), Cave Morays (250).
-- If you are desperate, pick up everything except for Heim crabs (which do basically nothing)

Any large packets of essence.

Charms:
-- Pick up any and all blue/crimson charms.
-- Ignore the other charms.

Herbs:
-- Pick up any and all herbs except for the weak ones.
-- This includes: lycopus, buckthorn, winter's grip, magebane, featherfoil, and wormwood.
-- If limited in space, only pick up: lycopus, buckthorn, winter's grip, magebane.
-- Unless you are about to die, generally herbs are more important than 1 slot of food.

Bags:
-- Pick up Stegoleather/Megaleather/Tyrannoleather torn bags if you have the level to make the respective familiar.
-- Some people choose not to pick up bags.

Armor:
-- Give any T7+ armor to the keyer, when convenient. If he has a better piece of armor for that equipment slot, keep the armor.

Trees:
-- Try to cut 2-3 logs whenever you're not doing a GD and there are no GD's to do.
-- The keyer should almost never cut logs.
-- Only cut Entgallow and Gravecreeper.

Fishing Spots:
-- You should only fish if you're not doing a GD and there are no GD's to do..
-- The keyer should almost never fish.
-- Only fish Salve Eels, Blue Crabs, and Cave Morays.

Mining Spots:
-- You should only mine if you're not doing a GD and there are no GD's to do.
-- The keyer should almost never mine.
-- Only mine Gorg and Prom rocks.

Etiquette for Opening Doors
The Main Idea: The person who unlocks the door opens it.
If someone is opening a door, DON'T also open it. This is how people get killed – when two people open a door at the same time, one person will end up in the next room. Usually, it will lag a bit too, making it even more dangerous for the person who accidentally goes into the room.

This "“rule” doesn't apply to C1's, since C1's aren't really dangerous and speed is more important than safety.

Doors that need pots

Potion-needing doors (100+ requirements) can slow down a team significantly. Learning how to deal with them is an important step of improving your floor speed.

The key to these doors is to have someone make the pot as soon as possible. This seems obvious, but a lot of teams are slow to make potions.

One reason for this is that people need to pick up herbs, but a lot of players leave them on the ground. It may be a strain on your inventory space but it's worth the space. You'll never know which herbs you'll need. As a rule of thumb, pick up any herbs which will give a normal or strong pot: lycopus, buckthorn, winter's grip, magebane, featherfoil, and wormwood.

Second, try to memorize which herbs lead to which pots lead to which skill boosts. You don't want to have to switch to a help site every time you need to make a potion.

Gatherer -- Wormwood / WG -- Red Moss -- Mining, Woodcutting, Fishing
Artisan: -- Magebane / Lyc -- Red Moss -- Smith, Craft, Fletch, Con, FM
Naturalist: -- Wormwood / WG -- Claw -- Cook, Farm, Herb, RC
Survivalist: -- Magebane / Lyc -- Whiskey -- Ag, Hunt, Thieve, Slay

Hints on Monsters
The Main Idea: Pray against and kill whichever monsters are most dangerous on this list. Save any monsters that can't see you (hood) for last.

Shades
Danger?: High
Protection Prayer: Range (Mage if multiple mages in room)
Attack Style: Slash/Crush
Other Notes: Uses both Magic and Range

Brutes
Danger?: High
Protection Prayer: Melee
Attack Style: Any
Other Notes: Protect Melee as you run by the brute and turn off after there's enough space between you and the Brute. Lure if you can.

Dragons
Danger?: High
Protection Prayer: Mage
Attack Style: Stab
Other Notes: It's generally a good idea to kill any non-DE dragons because they have the tendency to KO when not careful.

Forgotten Mages
Dangerous?: Medium-High
Protection Prayer: Mage
Attack Style: Any
Other Notes: Mages temporarily remove your shadow hood's effect. If you can kill a mage without being attacked by other creatures, do this first. This way, you can hope to get your hood special back before you attack other creatures.

Pickaxes
Dangerous?: Medium-High
Protection Prayer: Melee
Attack Style: Slash
Other Notes: Protect Melee as you run by the pickaxe and turn off after there's enough space between you and the pickaxe. Lure if you can.

Hobgoblins
Dangerous?: Medium-High
Protection Prayer: Melee
Attack Style: Crush
Other Notes: Protect Melee as you run by the hobgoblin and turn off after there's enough space between you and the hobgoblin. Lure if you can.

Earth Warrior
Dangerous?: Medium-High
Protection Prayer: Melee
Attack Style: Crush
Other Notes: Protect Melee as you run by the warrior and turn off after there's enough space between you and the warrior. Lure if you can.

Skeletons
Danger?: Medium
Protection Prayer: Depends on Skeleton*
Attack Style: Crush

Forgotten Warriors*
Danger?: Medium
Protection Prayer: Melee
Attack Style: Magic

Anything not mentioned in this guide is a low-priority monster and should be killed last.

Puzzle rooms

Barrel Rooms
These should be soloed or duo'ed. Any more than 2 people in this room is a waste.
If duoing, have two people stand on each side of the barrel, and push the barrel when needed. If soloing, stand in front of the barrel and move diagonally to push the barrel.

Magic 4-Color Tile Room
When possible, duo or solo these.
If you want to pause a color at a tile, click on the appropriate pad when the color is 1 square away from the one you want it to be at.
If the entire team is at the room, have each player pause the colors when they don't show up, instead of trying to sync to each other.

Spike Rooms
Only have 2-3 people testing the spikes at once. More than that is a waste of food.
A huge hint on these rooms is that if your gate is open, gate right before each spike. If you walk over the spiketrap and the spike animation appears, immediately gate out. You won't get damaged, but the spike remains standing.
In most good teams, it's best to call out the "“spike code” after you've finished the traps. The "“code” is the series of 3 numbers which indicate, from the first spike, which spiketrap to walk on. The numbers are defined starting from the left. For example, a "“1-4-2” code would mean to walk first on the leftmost trap, then the rightmost trap, and then the 2nd leftmost trap.

Monoliths
Monoliths are one of the hardest puzzle rooms.
The key to monoliths is to let the shades kill the monolith charge whenever you think you can't handle killing the shades. A good rule of thumb is to not do any monolith where there are more than 2 111/133 shades.
Before you start a monolith, be sure you have plenty of food.
You should generally attack any shade which is not targeted on a player. After all of the shades are attacking players, pile the highest level shade in the room.

4 Sleeping Brute Guards
These generally should be soloed to reduce risk of waking guards.
Before entering the room, be sure to toggle your run off. Running around wakes the guards.
Pickpocket 1-2 keys before trying to open the door. Rinse and repeat until the guards are awake, and then kill them. Drop any nonfunctional keys at the door.
You will still sometimes wake the guards even when walking.

Switch Rooms
It's possible to 4-man a switch room, but it's not recommended.
It's best for the leader to count down from 3, and tell the team to flip switches at 1. Counting up leads to confusion. Also, convention is to flip at "“1”, not "“0”.
After flipping switches, it's safer to run toward the middle of the room. The toxin release from screwing up the switches can KO you even at 700-800 HP.

Ghost Rooms
The "“correct” ghost is always the one that's closest to the one that you just killed.

On Gatestones
The Main Idea: ALWAYS PUT ONE DOWN.
The stupidest way to die is to forget to put down a gatestone before bosses, EVEN when the group gatestone is down outside the boss. Don't trust your survival to your teammates – some may even be malicious enough to put the GGS inside the boss room

Stick together
If you stick together, your team as a whole receives less damage and kills things faster. Try to stay together (other than the keyer) as much as possible.

Furthermore, sticking together will reduce or even eliminate the time needed to wait for teammates at 5 man doors.

An exception to this rule is keys. If you are keys, or if keys tells you to do anything, you should do it immediately even if it splits you up from the team. If your gate is free, and the keyer needs you to go somewhere, gate your current position first so that it's easier to return back to your team.


-- Get the right binds and levels.

-- Listen to the Keyer.
-- Give your Keyer all extra food and armor. Treat your Keyer as God.
-- Do the GD's the Keyer wants you to do.
-- Tell the keyer exactly what keys you find
-- Pick up all keys when the keyer isn't there.

-- Put gates down at key doors or altars.
-- Do key doors or gate places far away from the keyer, near DE's.

-- Always grab tools in the beginning.
-- Always have teleport runes in the beginning.

-- Use protection prayers when running into a dangerous room.
-- Be generous with your food.

-- Learn the small tricks to deal with tricky rooms and monsters.
-- Be proactive in gathering herbs and making pots for doors.
-- Find something productive to do at all times.

[TrixStar]

If you want to run keys....

A good key-person is the major factor in finishing dungeons early. He or she is what makes the elite teams be able to finish larges under 30 minutes.
To key well is a skill that takes time to develop. However, it boils down several main ideas this guide outlines:

1) The keyer should, at all times, know how to open every door and whether or not a door is currently openable.
2) The keyer should lead the group, assigning responsibilities to others.
3) The keyer should be constantly on the move.

Who should key

The Keyer:
-- Should have had a lot of experience doing keys before.
-- Should have a shadow silk hood.
-- Should have the highest skill total, preferably maxed (93-99 in all skills). This allows the keyer to be able to open skill doors by himself rather than having to delegate the task to someone else. A maxed keyer has a significant advantage.
-- Should be the party leader (to have marking rights and GGS), and if not, should be promoted to the party leader.
-- Shouldn't have any other outstanding priorities which may cause the keyer to leave in the middle of the floor
-- Should have a fast computer and internet connection (so no disconnects)
-- Should have a high Tank setting on his or her ring.
-- Should have Ventrilo / Skype or any other program to allow vocal communication.

Be fast

A good keyer is constantly moving, and to moving quickly.
Part of moving quickly is to be able tolook at the map once and know exactly how to get to a door you want to get to. This is something which requires practice and a little bit of concentration. Have a rough mental image of the map in your head.

A large part of being fast is having a good internet connection and good computer. If your computer or internet connection is one that makes you lag 2-3 seconds at every door, consider improving it. This lag also gets you killed easily.

In addition to these general tips, there are some specific things you can do to increase your traveling speed.

-- If you're (with teammates) in a room with a key door and a skill door / GD / door, you as the keyer should open the key door first. The reason behind this is that no one can open a key door other than you. Obviously, if your teammates aren't there, open whichever doors are closer to you.

-- Always click on a door directly rather than running to it and then opening it.

-- If you are with your team at a GD, when killing the last monster, start running to the door before the monster is killed. With proper timing, the monster should die by the time you get to the door.

One of the goals of the keyer is to know the map so that the other players know where to go next at all times. In order for you to do this, you must always be at least one step – if not many steps – ahead of the team. You can always tell if someone is keying correctly by seeing if they join you for GD's. A keyer should only rarely be with the rest of the team.

As keyer, most of your effort should go to exploring doors. This is why you are almost never with the group. The reason the keyer should always be exploring is because this way the team will always know the next place to go.
As you get a picture of the map, try to anticipate how the map will expand. Will doors eventually lead to DE's, or will it open up a whole "“branch” of new doors?

Take all Keys Immediately

While this is a rare occurrence, leaving keys on the ground is a really large mistake that can even cost you finishing the floor. Just pay extra attention at the ends of DE's and be weary of any keys in the corners of the room.
The best way to avoid this, other than being diligent yourself, is to tell your teammates at the start of the game to pick up keys they find by themselves and to report those keys to you. Make especially sure that teammates report all keys they find to you.

You should try to communicate the following:
-- Remind your team to pick up / report keys and yelling out key doors they see.
-- Where the team needs to go next. Mark GD's if possible.
-- What to do if you need them in a specific location
-- Checking progress on any puzzle or potion-making for any unopenable skill doors.
-- Checking what your team is doing at any given moment

Survive and Conserve Food
The Main Idea: Learn not to die. Not only does dying give you a sizeable penalty, but it slows the rest of your team down as well.
See the "“Food and Survival” section in the General DG Guide.

Gate Well
The Main Idea: Learn gating techniques and have an idea of how the keyer should gate. See "“Gating” below.

Gating
The Main Idea: Use Gatestones to speed up transportation between the keyer and the rest of the team even though you are spread apart.

What Each Gatestone Should be Used For
The GGS: Mainly carried with you.
-- When you put it down, it should mainly be at places where you need the entire team.
-- Should be the place where teammates come to drop off keys
-- Should be in a safe area when dropped
-- In general, shouldn't be dropped be close to DE's
-- At the end of the game, should be placed first at any altars and then the preboss room

Your GS should be: Flexible in its position
-- When you are leaving your team, it should generally be kept near where your team is.
-- Shouldn't be close to DE's.

Teammates' GSes should be put: Near dead ends – the "“leaves” of the tree
-- Don't use all of your teammate's GS's. You should only get your teammates to gate if the door is very far and is most likely a DE.

Specific Gating Techniques
Taking the GGS Back From a Teammate
-- Teammate gates position (if needed). Teammate bases GGS. Teammate teleports to GS.
-- GS your position (if needed). HT. Take GGS. GS Back.

Switching a Teammate's GS with the GGS
-- Teammate GGS's to you. You drop GGS. Teammate teleports to GS. Teammate drops GGS.

Give Key To Teammate
-- (If GGS is far from you)
Gate your position. You GT. Teammate gates position. Teammate GT's. You drop key. Both teleport back to GS.
-- (If GGS is close to you)
Teammate gates position. Teammate GT's. You drop key. Teammate teleports back to GS.

Get Key From Teammate
-- (If GGS is far from you)
Gate your position. You GT. Teammate gates position. Teammate GT's. Teammate drops key. Both teleport back to GS.
-- (If GGS is close to you)
Teammate gates position. Teammate GT's. Teammate drops key. Teammate teleports back to GS.

Grabbing a Key from DE
-- (If your GS position isn't important)
When at a DE with a key, gate immediately outside of the DE, run in, and gate out.

[Hid]

Thanks for the great guide, Trix. I can imagine Dung being fast if you have a set team with a elite keyer. Too bad I never experienced such a keyer in one of the random groups I joined. Getting the right team seems to be the hardest part in this skill.

Maybe we should get a dung team together, that would stop what they are doing when there is a chance to do dungeoneering. That way we could all train this faster than we do now, we could use mumble, and generally be less annoyed by random people, who refuse to fight the boss, quit in the middle of the game, or are just plain idiots.

[onezerobin]

Trix, awesome job on the guide !! Many many thanks for such a useful and detailed guide. I am sure if everyone in a team reads this guide and knows the roles and lingo, they will be able to finish floors in half the time.

[gk willie]

That is a fantastic guide. It gets right to the point, all the online guides i've read were just a jumbled mess. Very easy to understand. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to type that up. I already printed it out and will keep it handy!!

[RhondaLGilly]

heres a dung guide