Open up the monsternomicon (book icon in the lower right), and there are two buttons, one to mute the background music, and one to mute the sound effects.
Thanks!
As it turns out, the developer has another version of the game on another site. The one in OP is v1.1.15, this is v1.1.18.
The only difference in gameplay is there is now a crown located on one of the tiles adjacent to the dragon that grants 3 XP, and the top score is now 365 instead of 362. The extra 3 XP at the beginning of the game makes it possible to wait longer before popping a health scroll, which in turn makes it much easier to get a perfect score - I’ve managed it several times now on this one, but haven’t been able to on the version I posted in the OP.
Gonna have to go back to the earlier version now and see if I can manage it.
I played Dragonsweeper quite a lot this winter, I eventually gravitated towards Dungeonsweeper, a self admitted copycat with more rpg- and also some roguelik(t?)e elements added.
There’s a paid version on steam, but it’s free on itch. It’s mostly like Dragonsweeper, except you gain items from some of the chests and other sources, and when you kill the dragon you get a new dungeon with a stronger dragon, but you keep your inventory.
The items can be both consumables and passives. There’s classes you can unlock, but they mostly just mean you start the run with a specific item, ie. ranger starts with a bow, which gives -1 to exp and damage from flying enemies.
I stopped playing either game because I found I couldn’t concentrate enough and had too many avoidable deaths.
Where are you all getting the names and abilities for all the various enemies? I’ve played it through and eventually managed to slay the dragon, but I still think I’m missing stuff.
When you die, it tells you what killed you. (“Slime Lord” is actually called the Wizard in game)
It’s an egg, not a crown. You’re breaking the dragon’s egg. You monster.
There are also some achievements added, one of which appears to be to beat the dragon without cracking the egg.
I’ve kept trying, but I haven’t quite managed to clear the board, yet. As others have mentioned, the key is to use the fixed-XP boosts early (if you can find them), and save the level-up boosts for later so you get the most benefit from them.
I never seem to be able to find those boosts early enough. Is there some trick that I’m still missing?
That would explain why the post-game flavor text has JORGE! wondering if he’s no better than the monsters.
I spent an hour or so playing this last night. The first 15 minutes or so was pretty much just figuring out how to play. I only beat the dragon once, and then it went to a screen that showed my score, and I couldn’t tell if there was a way to continue so I just closed the browser and started over. I always seem to get to that point where I’m out of hearts but can’t level up and I have to just start clicking randomly, which rarely ends well.
What’s a good starting strategy? I click that blue icon (crystal ball?) and see what it shows me, then just start leveling up with fives or sixes until I can build up a few more hearts. But I don’t know if I should save that crystal ball until later or what.
There’s no reason not to hit the crystal ball right away. It’ll tell you the same information no matter when you click it, and the very start of the game is when that information is most valuable.
My biggest tip would be, accept that you’re usually going to lose, and try to get it over with quickly so you don’t waste a lot of time on losing games. I always start with clicking spots next to the four corners (not the corners themselves, because at least one is guaranteed to kill you), and if I die in the process, just restart. My reasoning is that I’ll need to take a chance on them eventually, to find the Dungeon King (finding him is very important later on), and so I might as well get it out of the way. Only once I have those four spots plus the crystal ball do I start trying to actually think through it.
You will probably still have to make some blind guesses. If I must guess, if I haven’t found the Slime Lord yet, I guess spots that are two away from the edge, because that might guide me to finding him.
Also, even once you’re playing it safe, you don’t need to restrict yourself to spots you completely know. There will come points where you can say “I don’t know exactly what these two spots are, but I know what the sum of them is, and therefore I know that I can definitely survive clicking one of them”. This is especially true since the largest monsters (anything with a power of 8 or higher) all have restrictions: The five Purple Slimes (power 8) are always surrounding the Slime Lord on one of the edges; the two Lovers (Romeo and Juliet, power 9) are always in mirror-imaged positions on the map; the one Dungeon King (power 10) is always in one of the corners, and the one Mimic (power 11) can be anywhere, but it’s safe to click on it the first time (at which point it just looks like a chest).
OK, now I’m really wondering about that “rat pacifist” achievement… I just did a run where I left the Rat King plus seven rats (over half of them) alive, and it didn’t give the achievement. Do you have to kill no rats at all for that one? That would be exceptionally difficult.
In fact, that’s in my top three of places to play. One is corners of the exposed map whose value I know and where I will still be able to efficiently use the rest of my HP afterward. Another is if I’m already close to a map corner, or if I have a known rat near a corner, sometimes I click on it even if it is inefficient in case I can uncover the Dungeon King. And I sometimes also click on numbers whose values I don’t know but which won’t kill me, especially if I know that no matter what I will still be able to efficiently use my HP. Because then not only can it reveal information about the newly-adjacent squares, it will also reveal information about the already-adjacent squares.
I can’t seem to get higher than 350. Anyone know if it’s possible?
Yes, the max is 365, which I’ve gotten multiple times.
On a successful run, you finish by smashing all of the walls. Do this last, because they give worse XP per HP than any monster.
Meanwhile, I actually managed a run where I killed none of the rats (but did kill the rat king). I still didn’t get the Rat Pacifist achievement.
I just got 364, but couldn’t get that last brick. Not sure where I went wrong!
Were you playing the version linked in the OP, or the one linked in post 23? In the original version, if you have to use a heal before you have 8.5 hearts, you won’t be able to get a perfect score. The newer version, with the egg added, is much more forgiving, and almost any successful run will be a perfect score (unless you deliberately avoid doing some things to go for an achievement).
That could be it. I’ll try the new version. Thanks.
I eventually cleared a board of all monsters on the original game. I think I may have even had 1 or 2 health left, but forgot about clearing the walls. My final score was 360, or thereabouts.
Isn’t it 3 clicks (and 3 health) to clear each wall, and 1 point gained? I had enough trouble getting as far as I did; I don’t even want to think about needing 12 or 13 more health to be able to clear all the walls.