Basic Walkthrough

Hello! If you're reading this, then you either are just starting out in playing Alexa Dungeon Adventure (a game modeled after the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, otherwise known as 1e or AD&D) or want some help to level-up your experience. This guide assumes you have some basic knowledge of how the game works, and it'll be more effective if you've played at least a bit of the game before. If you have any questions or ways to improve this guide, please add them, comment, or contact me or Jaddot. Thanks, and I hope this is useful! -Pundyne

Alexa Dungeon Adventure Facebook
The Dungeon Adventure Facebook page has great tips to help you beat the game. If you see any, add them here to help out new players!

Starting out the game
When you first join Dungeon Adventure (or when your character has died) you'll go through the process of making a new character. In Dungeon Adventure, you have seven stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Perception. You roll 4d6 (4 six-sided dice) 7 times. Each time you assign it to one of these stats.

Optimizing your stats
If you want your character to be successful in the dungeon, you should think about optimizing your character. The best kinds of character are generalists- using spells and melee weapon attacks- but it's better to start out with a high Strength score. Strength makes the weapon attacks of your character more likely to hit (for example, a strength of 16 gives you a +3 bonus to all attack rolls your character makes. A character with a strength of less than 14 should be killed, which is explained later on. Strength is the highest priority for a new character. Next up, Dexterity. Dexterity gives a bonus to dodging traps and spells, moving away from monsters, and going first in combat. A character with a dexterity of less that 13 should be killed. Dexterity is the second priority for a new character. Constitution determines the starting hit points of your character and how much healing rest and potions of healing restore to you. Constitution is the third priority of your character. A character with a Constitution of less than 12 should be killed.

The physical stats are the most important to start out. Disregard killing a character if the character's Strength is 16 or higher. A starting score of 16 or higher should always go to Strength, unless a number has already been assigned to Strength.

Now we get to mental stats, which are less important. Do not kill a character based on low mental stats. A character should preferably have at least 10 Intelligence, 12 Wisdom, 12 Charisma, and 10 Perception. Charisma can only be effectively used at the start of the game when haggling, or when selling items, as charming monsters will take longer than fighting them for less XP. Perception can be used for listening outside of rooms (this is a good tactic if you like being cautious, although you should keep our monsters guide up to know what creature you're hearing. You can also examine fountains and unknown items you find. If you don't know what something does, don't use it. Unless you're feeling adventurous.

Suiciding a character
You should hold off on assigning Constitution until fairly late in the character creation, unless a great roll presents itself. A character with low Strength or Dexterity should be killed, as we've established before. The easiest way to do this is to simply go into the dungeon with nothing and stand in a room, doing nothing, and letting a monster kill you. If a character has been decided a character to kill, a low Constitution gives them fewer hit points. A low Wisdom is also good because it'll mean the character has a smaller chance to be resurrected by the gods upon death.

Town life
Now that your character is complete, you'll want to buy some things (assuming your character is not going to be killed, in which case you're going straight off to the dungeon). First, say "Haggle". You'll have to roll a 15 or higher to succeed, but if you do you'll gt a 10% discount off all items in the shop for the rest of the game. This is a massive advantage. Next up, whether you were successful or not, employ the method first used by veteran player Elasticwealth (who's beaten the necromancer 8 times, I might add) and compliment Alexa. You can get large amounts of money by doing this (just say something like "Alexa, you are an awesome DM!"), and there's no roll required! This will add on to your starting total of gold, which can also be increased by having a high Charisma or a low Constitution during character creation. If you followed the compliment strategy and you have an average amount of starting gold (so 120-200, all things considered) you'll want to buy a longsword and padded leather armor, or more expensive armor if you can afford if. If you can't afford a longsword buy padded leather and a morningstar, or gamble, as I'll explain below.

If you're a few coins short of the big thing you want to buy, you might want to try playing the dice game. Sure, the odds are tilted in the house's favor, but you also might win! I'd only bet 5 coins to begin with, or as many as 20 if you can spare it. Note that you can bet up to 50 coins, although I don't recommend this. Don't bother with any spells just yet, and spare some gold for potions of healing. You'll probably find more potions in chests. Right before you leave, ask around for side quests. You'll get a small amount of gold for finding a monster's corpse and bringing it back to town (generally 15-30 gold).

Entering the dungeon
NOTE: If you have a low strength then there may be a chest with anything from gold to greatswords.

Now that you're hopefully all kitted out, ya gotta head into the dungeon! Check out the list of monsters for detailed information on each one. Our monster pages generally indicate how strong a monster is. You shouldn't be fighting anything like a gargoyle, minotaur or giant spider until you have at least a battleaxe. Listening at doors is a good tactic to prevent potential death, although you will need to succeed on a Perception check. As soon as you can, buy a greatsword. Keep a dagger and a shortsword on you and switch to them whenever you need to pry open a chest lock (but always try to pick a lock first). If the dagger wears out, switch to the shortsword. If that gets damaged too, replace them the next time you're in town and sell the damage ones. Don't pry open any more chests if both of your prying weapons are damaged. Don't advance to level 2 until you have at least AC 12, a greatsword, a dagger and shortsword, at least 10 uses of a Potion of Healing, at least 4 uses of the Freeze spell to deal with rust monsters or high-power monsters like a lich or demon, a backup longsword (2-3 greatswords is prohibitively expensive) do deal with rust monsters that you can't freeze. and a backup battleaxe (a backup greatsword is preferable). Your Strength should also be 16 or higher upon entering level 2 (you can increase this by leveling up and training. After character creation your second score to prioritize increasing is Dexterity, with Constitution in third).

Conclusion
Use this guide wisely, document any helpful easter eggs you've found, and enjoy the game!