Desktop Dungeons: Rewind is an Easy Game with No Edge Cases Whatsoever*

Salutations, wise and attractive Administrator.

I’m Jean-Luc, Community Manager for Desktop Dungeons: Rewind, here to give you some advice for kickstarting your kingdom and dungeon diving.

The Rundown

Desktop Dungeons: Rewind is a turn based roguelike where every move matters. Every dungeon has a boss (or several) that must be defeated to return to your kingdom with the spoils. Resources are limited, but everything is a resource.

Exploring darkness heals you and your enemies. The amount healed is based on the level of whatever is healing. This is your main way of regaining health and mana, so save it when possible!

The boss is the objective. You’ll need a lot of firepower to take them down, so be ready to spike as hard as possible through items, conversions, and level-ups while fighting them!

Your Kin and Class will change the way you play. Halflings will pump you full of potions, while Goblins can skyrocket your XP. Sorcerers sling spells, while Berserkers beat the shhh- will to live out of enemies.

Effective Dungeoneering

Alright, but how do we make the most out of our resources? Good question! Look at you go.

Fight higher level enemies. In video game, fight enemy to get XP. Yes, knowledge. Fight stronger enemy? Get stronger XP. Very yes! Simple. Enemies are limited, so getting the most out of them is important.

Convert items you no longer need. Converting an item or Glyph destroys it, but will give you Conversion Points! At a certain amount of conversion points, you’ll gain a bonus based on your Kin.

Leveling up is important. Not only for the long term goal of not being turned to paste by a particularly peeved Goat, but for the full health and mana restore it gives! Leveling up will also remove the Poison and Manaburn conditions.

Kingdom Cultivation

Well now that I have the bone of this voraciously violent Goblin, what am I to do with it? Sell it for money! What am I to do with money? A statue!* Or upgrading buildings.

New Classes! The basic classes can be unlocked in any order, but I’d recommend picking up the Sorcerer as your first tier 2 class. The devs didn’t know what they were doing with that one, it’s so broken*.

New Kin! Once rescued from Dungeons, you can build a settlement for new Kin to move into your kingdom and volunteer them for service in the realm. After all, you can’t spell “kingdom” without “gdom.” Wait…

Preparations! After upgrading the Guild, you can send your adventurers into dungeons with better gear. You’ll be paying for it, but it’s very worthwhile.

Small print

Okay, that’s all the broad stroke advice we have for you, Administrator. You’re a smart cookie* and you should now be ready to play Desktop Dungeons: Rewind. Here are some simple strategies to supplement your slaughter of innocent monsters:

When in doubt, do the puzzles! These brain teasers will explain some of the more advanced concepts of the game in a low stakes environment. What do these statuses mean? Strike order? Slowed? Salami*?

Check your Codex! Accessed from the pause menu, the Codex has all the information you need. Details about Kin, Classes, bosses, badges, anything you could need.

Complete the class challenges! Class challenges come with a lick of lore and are the perfect place to discover the strengths and weaknesses of a new class.

Keep an eye open for quests! These quests will help you upgrade your kingdom. From slaying soulsucking Vampires, to growing your banking capacity, to doing complicated tasks for a cat, the rewards are bountiful.

Keep going! The beginning of this game is fairly easy, but the difficulty ramps up and will require you to master new systems (we haven’t even talked about Gods or Popcorn in the article!) You’ll probably die and have to restart a dungeon at some point. This is the developer’s fault, not yours. Remember, play the damn puzzles!

That’s all I’ve got for you today! Best of luck out there in the realm of Desktop Dungeons: Rewind!

Lots of love from myself and the QCF Design team.

* Please note that anything with an asterisk has the potential to be a lie*.