So you've learned the basics of playing the game. You've delved the depths and fought hard but you're still not able to win. Don't fret, these are a few tips that will have you escaping with your lives every time. I can't guarantee these will work on all of the other dungeons, but it should help in beating the first.

This is the first instinct of people in most games. A balanced party may help you in some games, but starting this way is a mistake. The reason why is that some characters get a MASSIVE spike in usefulness lvl 3/4 when they get the Operate skill. Operate allows users to work on a major module (such as industry, science, and food) and add half of their wit to the amount generated per turn. The bonus requires 1 turn of setup and the operator cannot move, but the more turns a person is operating a module, the better.

These heroes get Operate at level 3: Josh 'Ntello, Opbot DV8, Rakya Pulmoni
These heroes get Operate at level 4: Warden Mormish, Kreyang, Max O'Kane, Hikensha, Nurse Deena Ratchet, Golgy Phurtiver, and Elise Ness.

The first several floors should be cleared fully in order to get Operate on one of the heroes, and then the later floors should simply rush for the exit. You do not have enough light to safely explore all floors (See below).

This is where many people have trouble. I've seen advice on the forum that says things like 'go in one direction until you reach the end', which is probably why people keep dying. It's true that you should generally head in one direction, but you should do this following the rule of three: Never have three consecutive rooms unlit.



This may kill you. The reason why is that you have nothing to weaken/stall/damage the monsters in those rooms, and it may quickly become a snowball which overwhelms any defense you might have set up.

You obviously do not have enough light to light every room, but the trick is to break up the unlit rooms as much as possible. Sometimes you will have to break this rule (especially in later levels) when you have a shortage of light, but this can be addressed in a few ways:



1. Put your 'active heroes' (i.e. defenders, etc.) in an unlit room. This will stop three room's worth of monsters from gathering together and wrecking you. DO NOT FIGHT ALL OF THEM IN THIS ROOM, JUST DO DAMAGE AND KITE BACK TO YOUR CHOKE POINT.




2. Cut power to non-critical rooms/rooms which have a defendable point.

This one may be common sense, but do not place generators 3 spaces away from your crystal. If you cannot find a module placement within 1-2 spaces in one direction, go back to the crystal and go in another direction.


I did not find a module in two rooms to the right, so I went up instead.

Offensive module do not do enough damage to warrant researching or deploying them...except for one. Which one? The basic one, prisoner prod. This is useful not as a damaging module, but for another reason: it counts as a structure. Have you had those impossible monster waves where there are like 5 monsters which are doing area-of-effect damage to ALL of your structures in a choke point? It almost feels like it's impossible to win, right? Well, stick a few of these in the previous rooms, and you can kill the main monster wave while those pesky monsters are 3 rooms away, chipping at these cheap structures.

Some of the comments have mentioned the KIP Cannon as a decent offensive module due to stacking Science increasing DPS, but I'm still unsure about it. This is because of Tip #6 (below).

If you're skills are never on cooldown, you are not using them enough. If they are, you still probably are not using them enough. Why am I advocating spamming your skills? Because there are two reset opportunities that you probably don't notice.

The first, you've probably seen but never thought to use. There is a button in the character window which says restore. This resets your skills so you can use it again. The interesting thing about this is it doesn't require food or industry (which are super valuable), but science. Resetting a skill early on is probably not worth it, but in the later levels, it totally can be. Especially if skills are complete game-changers (such as any room-affecting skills such as Skroig's Red Plume).

The second, you might not have realized. If you have rooms left over when you find the exit/take the crystal, each time monsters spawn and a room opens, it counts as a turn. You do not get any additional resources (except for light which doesn't affect anything), BUT YOUR SKILLS COOL DOWN FOR EACH ROOM OPENED. This means that you can use the skill right before you take the crystal, immediately reset it (when several doors open), use it again, and sometimes be able to use it a third time.

Your party should (ideally) consist of:

2 Operators (Max, Deena from starting heroes, Mormish/Golgy/whoever you find)
1 Fighter (Gork from starting heroes, Ken, etc.)
1 Runner (Sara from starting heroes, Skroig, Golgy, etc.)

From the starting heroes, Max is 1st choice, followed by whoever you want.

Starting off, build Industry --> Food --> Science
Later levels, you may want Food --> Industry --> Science

Do NOT Operate science modules past floor 4 unless absolutely necessary. Operate on food/industry for the most part.

Whoever is your Operator should be rushed to level 3/4 at once (it's okay if the other person is level 1). Start them off Operating your Industry module at first (since you will need to build modules/defenses starting on every floor).

Research priorities:
1st: Neurostun Module, Dust Gen, Pepper Spray
2nd: Suppressive Firebot, Tear Gas, Bio-organic Transference
3rd: Holohero, Viral Injector, Prisoner Prod, Mechanical Pal, Autodoc Shards
4th: Everything else.

Runners should open doors (of course), but also have a minor safe area to run back to. These are different than actual chokepoints in their setup. These are mainly areas to fight any enemies that will not pass by your chokepoint.

A runner's 'camp' (with 3 minor module spots): Prisoner Prod, Suppressive Firebot, Neurostun
A Chokepoint: Dust Gen, Bio-Organic Transference, Neurostun

Hopefully, with these tips, you'll be able to beat the first dungeon and perhaps even more than that. Have fun!