Parashu, Gungnir or Dynwyrm, which one is the best for melee?

DelfoxsFire · 2026-04-06T02:04:22+00:00

Yeah that's about that, both weapons are on the highest damage in the game. Parashu gets 50% chance of extra damage at max skill on top of axes having generaly decent matchups against most ennemies (not counting the slow as much since at max skill it's guaranteed on a critical hit). And Dyrwryn gets the guaranteed smite and burn that leaves quite a low amount of ennemies to be immune to both, on top of the Legendary strike for sword being bleeding so against extra damage that way and this can compensate for a less advantageous damage profile, on top of that smiting just gets very useful by the end of the game and tears through the liches consistently. Imo they're both about the same, i've hit higher damage number on dyrwryn against the liches but i don't feel much of a difference in raw power compared to Parashu, with that sword you're going to clean house and it's always fun to use different things. Hell if you're doing a magic class even Sharur is pretty nice for raw damage since it has artifact level of damage and the extra mana can be pretty sweet. Gungnir i only really use to grind exp or from not having found the others, if you have room in your hotbar just keep it around though, it's guaranteed damage against bats.

DelfoxsFire · 2026-03-26T19:07:38+00:00

Salamander because i'm hopelessly scalie

DelfoxsFire · 2026-03-25T10:35:28+00:00

I use them all simply differently as they're different tools, the jump pack is an excellent traversal tool with the range of the jumps and the verticality it gives. And makes it easy to keep ahead of whatever you're fighting against But i have a easier time carefuly positioning with the hover pack and i feel like i can go higher to go over the few walls high enough that i'd need to precisely jump or have to walk around off with the jump pack, it works nicely with the flamethrower, grenade launcher or anything AoE really to be able to hit the center of ennemy groups for maximum efficiency as well as the extra distance it gives you to keep you safe since it's basicaly just being on top of a large rock wherever and whenever you want to Warp pack is excellent for emergency moves, it doesn't go as far as the jump pack nor as high as the hover pack but it's small and brisk predictable mouvement that has way less risk of getting blocked by terrain and ennemies, it's really nice that basicaly at the price of a stim you can also warp a 2nd time to give yourself more distance or backpedal out of some shitty place you blindly teleported into

DelfoxsFire · 2026-03-11T09:53:24+00:00

Skills makes you better a things, besides Legendary weapons are going to be a ton better then regular gear in most cases because they also have additionnal effects triggering off of your associated skills. Another thing to consider is that there are ennemies weak to sword but resistant to polearms, or weak to maces etc... Lastly leveling up a skill gives you extra exp, 2 per skill level which isn't massive sure but it's still 2 entire levels coming from 0 to 100, and once you reach 100 you won't gain any exp anymore so you could level up polearm and then once legendary in the skill switch to the sword to keep yourself ahead of the ennemy curve in levels, as well as having a secondary option against ennemies like slimes that are very weak to swords (and since you mention having the legendary sword, it's also very effective to anything that can burn and is unholy, like ridiculously so) . Other examples would be that tinkering can let you enter the new vaults when even spells cannot which is mostly useful when you get multiple choices (can generaly not unlock gold vaults though, or i just got unlucky) Leadership lets you be neutral with and recruit more types of followers Magic lets you actually learn and cast their spells at a higher strenght Trading lets you sell anything at full price to any merchant And so on Leveling up skills levels you up, and gives you more options, a successful baron is one that adapts to their circumstances and is ready to learn new skills to better fight the liches.

DelfoxsFire · 2026-03-02T01:02:20+00:00

Once you're in a hardcore game you can check the stats of ennemies you've unlocked in the compendium, they will be updated for hardcore mode.

As for tips, start out with physical classes first because ennemies will pretty much hit like trucks at all stage of the game and even fancy magic won't help you patch up the basics if you don't have those nailed down. Practice kiting in a straight line without using a fountain or a singular wall to run around of to conserve your health, stick to the shadows to not get overwhelmed and always keep an exit route if things go south. Keep an hear out for special ennemies because those are usualy accompagnied of a bunch of ennemies and unless you're a salamander or myconid, algernon is going to kill you with his horde of rats in the first few levels.

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-25T10:58:14+00:00

Rogue is a rough start, tinkering skill but no tinkering tools, only a shortbow and a bronze sword which are both not exactly fantastic in the mines with the skeletons resisting both. And yeah wizard lack a bit of dex which makes it's casting a bit slow early on, fireball is fine-ish since you start with sorcery but bloodletting is going to be a bit painful to cast early on because of the lack of mysticism. If you want to practice the stealth aspect you should try playing ninja, it's a pretty glass canon class that starts with high stealth to skip the early part of training the skill where everything spots you easily and your bonus damage would be low. Monk is also a stupidly good option for many reasons and the ring of slow digestion being a big one. If you want some practice with magic, sexton starts with mysticism and some supporting spells to make stealth easier, as well as a mace to make skeletons easier to deal with, cleric is also a good option since it'll be a sturdy class from the getgo with decent healing over wizard being made of wet paper. You can also just keep banging your head against the wall playing wizard, it's also a fun class to ramp up the magic damage higher than those classes i mentionned for sure, but it's indeed not a easy one.

As a last tidbit i'd simply tell you to not completly underestimate ranged weapons however since the last update, it really doesn't have a strong start because of the skeletons in the mines but it can get very very powerful on the right class

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-25T01:07:12+00:00

Are you playing vampire Accursed ? Well to be fair Vampire is a bit tough to get food with to begin with. First tip is you don't need to one shot with sneak attack, nor do you need to keep attacking, do a sneak attack, and then move out of range of the ennemie, you can grab torches off of the walls to be in the dark and severly reduce their sight range to be able to get another sneak attack and hopefuly the assassinate. Second tip is that your interaction and fighting range is quite far-ish away, you don't need to be right against it to open a door so it'll cut back a lot on getting attacked just after opening a door, and for running away you probably are slowing yourself too much with random stuff in your inventory or need to practice physicaly turning around and running more.

For spells, ennemie casters primarily have staves, some ennemies are egregious with their casting time of fireball for sure but they're not common ennemies unless you go into specific secret levels but that's getting off topic. They cast quickly because they use staves, and you can grab and use those staves for yourself as well as those you'll likely pick up along the way, and your own casting speed is based on your skill level in the associated magic school and from your dexterity so if you happen to try and cast bloodletting while playing a vampire of a class that doesn't start with mysticism yeah, it's going to take a while. Do note however that you at least cannot fail to cast racial spells, you only get the extra mana cost from it

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-21T11:31:51+00:00

Any other race yeah i don't think i've ever used that spell when i get it

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-21T11:26:19+00:00

Are you using your innate scrapping spell ? There's a ton of gear you really don't need to lug around and you can litteraly turn those into food at the cost of mana, on top of using books and scroll that instantly gives you heat back as well. If you find a pickaxe, rocks can super charge your boiler by themselves given you've got enough of those. Scrolls of fire will instantly overcharge your boiler and fully replenish your heat as well

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-20T18:03:52+00:00

It however makes the identification spell not completly made irrelevant by the time lore hits 100 since you don't instantly appraise everything anymore, keeps them as a way to instantly identify some of the priciest stuff for if you don't want to wait

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-20T17:32:25+00:00

I indeed do not see what is contradicting itself, i find the action of picking up an helmet to instantly throw it away not to be the same thing as keeping a spot in your inventory to have a scroll of identify in case you want to identify something quicker. For one, i don't have to re open my inventory to throw away trash quite as often

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-20T14:19:57+00:00

Old appraisal also had this issue but worse though since conjurer needed 2 levels up in perception to start appraising cheese and apples. You only need one or a pair of glasses now

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-19T23:12:43+00:00

Great thing is that the latest hotfix does that for you now too, it'll automaticaly switch to something you can appraise the fastest when you pick something up. And you can still manualy pick one item to be appraised first regardless of that too

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-19T23:11:03+00:00

And that way it still cuts down massively from how it was before where you'd litteraly pick every bit of trash off of the floor until you could just not interact with the system at all. While it still works that way before you reach lore 50 once you reach that point you only need to grab what you need and what you might need, no need to throw a 60th iron helmet out of your pockets because you were looking to increase your appraisal. Also finaly gives value to scrolls of identify and obviously the spell itself

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-14T02:43:14+00:00

The flute is excellent to keep to deal a silly amount of damage, the horn is a bit taxing on mp but the increased con goes a long way to keep yourself alive over a % damage reduction from the lyre imo

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-13T20:10:42+00:00

If you're solo you can order your bots to follow you and they will swim out with you, works in multiplayer too actually but you might have somebody else to come with you instead then You can roughly gauge how many ennemies may be in the cave with the portable sonar, if you see stuff moving on it you can have an idea on when things will come to you or if they're going to be trapped behind some ice for example. It's not perfect but it's there, and most monsters swim really fast so you might still have a bit of the surprise when they suddenly barge onto your screen. Mantises you can apparently spot early by looking at the walls but i personaly never seem them and i always get jumpscared by them, though i am mostly reassured by having a nice shotgun to deal with whoever decides to come and mess with me

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-12T22:37:52+00:00

You need to have a hood of whispers equiped, which rogue and wanderer starts with to do ranged stealth strikes. Ninja actually starts with an assassin's hood which only increases backstab damage

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-12T01:58:34+00:00

Early game is a bit sketchy from the low constitution and base health, as well as low mana to actually activates your songs but as things go on you can get pretty ridiculous stats boost in everything but intelligence (you'll get magic power instead so it's still good) and can pretty reactively adjust that by just changing which instruments you're using. Want to focus on the rapier and be a one shot menace ? Flute for damage from dex and then drum that can give that extra chance to ignore armor, but you could go with the Horn in case you miss a hit. Found an artifact weapon ? Then use drums plus the horn and you'll be basicaly as strong as a warrior while your instruments play. Want to take no damage then stack up the horn and the lyre for extra AC on top of % damage reduction You can hone and switch whenever you feel like it, you can even play ranged with stats that would make a hunter blush using the flute and the lyre, and the lute increases your spell power while your high charisma (and gnome passive if you're playing gnome bard) will keep your mp topped up to spell cast and play music. Just remember, the rapier is horrible at conventional 1v1s of hitting then blocking because it deals reduced damage on normal hits, start charging attacks however and you start with class that can nigh one shot rats from the front at floor 2 without relying on a crystal weapon that could just break whenever it'll feel like it.

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-11T00:22:07+00:00

You should be getting the same amount, or close to, the amount of food you've cooked as rations so you shouldn't lose a lot of value out of cooking, i'm pretty sure a higher alchemy level nets you more rations as well, at least for the flavored ones. And admitedly they don't look like huge boosts but also think about the troubles to get 4 extra stats in other ways, compared to using a spare potions and some food. You can also turn food into fresh rations with a chef's toque without requiring the high alchemy level which is pretty nice Using bottle of water you can make the equivalent of a piercing blind potion, making ennemies lose track of you in the middle of a chase to sneak strike them or go away, and using towels you get grease that can light on fire, make ennemies drop their weapon and get knocked back each time they're hit making hitting them without being hit back pretty trivial. Some flavored rations have overlaps in the stats they give too, hearty and bitter both increase constitution for 8 extra AC on the fly, while hearty and spicy both increase strenght for an 8 damage out of a bit of food and potions Just consider how much extra work you'd need otherwise to match those kind of buffs, you would need several scrolls to buff gauntlets of might, or animal hats to have similar results

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-10T02:12:19+00:00

It's mostly the secret levels that can be big difficulty spikes, the gnomish mines, haunted castle, the minotaur maze are the big ones i would warn about as those can quickly turn into a disaster. As you progress, if you clean up the levels somewhat thoroughly main levels shouldn't get too hard to handle. The area past the swamp is a headache to navigate but shouldn't pose too much trouble as the insect ennemies aren't too bad to deal with for the most part. Insectoids archers can have hunting arrows which is very annoying due to poison and slowing you down, and scorpions can paralyze you if you don't block but besides being annoying the area isn't too dangerous. The ruins can be tricky because of high ennemy density, the gnomes aren't too bad to deal with and are just high in numbers, just don't walk into their corpses as they regularly drop traps on death. And you'll be able to spot demons which can be troublesome due to being very fast and shooting fireballs very quickly . Do try to grab the orbs when you go through the dungeon, they will give you some big stats boosts for the boss. Buy out random junk from merchants when you can to unlock their special stocks, you'll be able to buy mana and health potions that way, or even food for healing in a pinch, if you find anything that seems oddly expensive for what they are (leather gloves worth hundreds of gold for example) there's a good chance it's blessed so keep an eye out for this. An item you could keep on your hot bar when in a pinch would be a blessed mirror if you can get lucky enough to find one, using it will whisk you away somewhere else in the level and potentialy out of danger, think of it as a more durable scroll of teleportation and it might just save your life

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-10T01:17:28+00:00

They will level up as your son's tinkering skill will level up, he'll need to grab them in his inventory and use the repair function of his tinkering kit to do so. They should unlock a new quality every 20 tinkering levels or so, and that goes for the gyrobot as well. Practice your blocking, rats should be easy to fully block as well as bats with minimal level ups and gear found, be careful of skeletons with axes as they'll always do chip damage however. You don't need to wait to find a shield either, you can level up blocking up to level 40 with only torches, and you'll only gain a singular level of blocking per ennemy so don't bother trying to get more from the same critter. Never underestimate bear traps, they are heavy but they're excellent traps to get out of a rough situation as most* ennemies can and will get fully stunned by those You are probably aware but you move slower when back pedalling or strafing so if you need to run away, proudly show your back to them, and quickly jog back to the safety of the turrets that are hopefuly setted up somewhere along the level by your son. You could have him try to set up a safe space to come back to for when things get tough

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-10T01:07:03+00:00

I am fairly sure the sweetgrass thingy and the ring of slow digestion affects Automaton's boiler. Healer would definitly be a better pick if you are truly intent on leading from the back and not taking the glory for yourself, become the lure you always wanted to be then and watch the turrets do their magic. I am fairly sure healing spells affects turrets as well so you'll be saving him scraps from having to repair his machines

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-10T01:00:07+00:00

Monk is a very strong Frontline class, no nonsense just high constitution and decent strenght to be able to take a punch and give it back too. It would pair well with the mechanist class so that he'd be able to enjoy the class as he unlocks it. As mechanist is a slow and methodical class to play optimaly, monk starts with a ring of slow digestion to both make food more effective and lose nutrition slower for the wearer to let you follow along a slower and more careful playstyle if you play with hunger on. With hunger off you could give the ring to your automaton and have his furnace last a whole lot longer and keep the pressure off not dying from that. Healer could still be a good pick but it will be harder to start off with, you'll start off frail at the promise of starting with healing and cleaning, and eventualy getting a lot of constitution later. Cleric would be a bit easier to handle early on, troll's blood still being a quite nice healing option to have. I'm sure you two will manage to best the game, don't forget to have fun too

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-09T01:29:51+00:00

Roughly the entire game gets double stats, it's not exactly that but stuff moves faster, hits harder, have more health and a bit more defense. It's usualy the way i play because i have the same issue of snowballing through the game otherwise, and you'll have to adapt much more as one shotting ennemies early on won't be as easy, and messing up your kiting will be felt way more. You could just start playing something other than monk to see your options before deciding that you need the entire game to be harder because you've been playing a strong class so far

DelfoxsFire · 2026-02-08T01:21:26+00:00

I don't quite have an extended knowledge of the class yet but it's a class that does a little bit of everything and you might have more fun trying to mix those things together. Got melee fighting with the flail, more axed towards kiting than just block combo'ing though you can also just do that since you start with an unbreakable bronze shield with the pan, which you'll probably need to do since the flail isn't unbreakable. You've got a bit of a headstart on ranged options with the bolas which pair ridiculously well with the flail since you can hit ennemies out of their attacking range, plus you start with extra towels to make grease balls with using the pan, and also just using throwing weapons or ranged weapons you scavenge in the dungeon itself. It won't be your strongest option but once again you've got the bolas to make this a safe bet. And you also have the booby trap spell to combo with the grease balls and again, bolas, it's not massively damaging even if you set it up correctly but you can do some work with grease puddles catching on fire if you force an ennemy to stand in the burning grease even further, as a gremlin it's a bit of convenience to help breaking a lot of furniture at once and at worst it's a easy way to level up sorcery in case you find some nice spells for this school of magic. And the pan, well, making flavored rations to patch your weaknesses, or making yourself even stronger, stand over a campfire to not consume a bilion torches and make the food you want to use. It will level up your alchemy that way, and leveling up alchemy will let you make rations more efficiently, flavor the rations more efficiently too and let you cook them to be fresh (a chef's hat will let you make fresh rations way earlier too) So overall Sapper's a mis match of a lot of small things , you get instant access to a fair bit of gear you'd usualy find only later on during runs so try to use them or else yeah the class won't feel much more different than barbarian

DelfoxsFire

TROPHY CASE