Overview
I had an epiphany one day. I had just spent an hour trying to get out of the Dwelling when I asked myself in exasperation, why? I figured out what it was. My greed was screwing me over.
The things you must leave behind
I know why you’re here. You want to become a better Spelunky player, well, it won’t be easy.
You see that stack of gold over there? Yeah, that one. It’s in a dead end but there’s only one snake and an easy to dodge spike trap there. That would be so nice to fill your coffers eh? The sweet sound of 1500 bucks profit to leverage for some jump boots later on?
WELL YOU CAN’T HAVE IT.
This exact scenario is going to happen multiple times a run, you will see a dead end, and you might see a couple of gems behind inconsequential barriers. You must ask yourself what the risk versus reward is. If you are reading this, you are probably a lot like me. You find Olmec a little tricky but manageable, and beating the game is a distant improbability. You and I still get hit trying to whip snakes while going way too fast, and going for that gold is just asking for your health total to be reduced.
To you and I, gold doesn’t matter in the Dwelling. You can easily rob early shops and 1-4 is probably the easiest level to be forgiven on in the entire game. That 1000 gold will mean nothing when gold becomes more valuable in further levels, and both Jungle and Volcana idols are worth TEN GRAND EACH.
I found breaking my habit of immense greed a little tough, but managed with a few tricks.
Tricks to help your greed correction
Here is an example of gold NOT worth going for, could you grab it easily? Of course! Is there a chance you accidentally clip the caveman and get hit with a flaming arrow trap, killing you instantly? Yes. Yes there is.
Here are the things I did to force myself to be less greedy, and weigh risk/reward more skewed towards risk.
1. Don’t go for gold, even if it is a simple jump away from where you’re going.
This might seem insane, and you’d be right. These training runs aren’t going to be optimal, but they will get it into your head that you lose far less health when you curb your greedy inner goblin. In essence, only go for gold and gems if they are in your immediate path, and taking them wouldn’t slow you down from getting the Udjat Eye or finding the level exit. Once you’ve done a few runs like this, allow yourself to go for out of the way for completely safe gold. It will add up, and your HP total will thank you.
2. Understand what is worth going out of the way for.
Great, you’ve completed step one, and are feeling a lot better about your likelihood of getting to World 2 in one piece! But I left out some very important information. What is worth going for? In my experience, it is always worth going for crates, as they contain the most valuable resources in the game for a new run, and can sometimes contain items, backpack items, and weapons.
The most important thing is to take it slow, if there’s a caveman looking at the ledge you need to climb to grab a crate, wait for him to turn his back on you and assassinate that nerd. Unnecessary haste is the bane of any successful run.
Conclusion
Well, here we are. I’ve spent an hour pouring my own experiences into a guide to help floundering players, and you’ve spent 5 minutes reading it. Hopefully it was helpful, and if I missed anything obvious, please leave it in the comments for me and fellow readers to learn from.
Best of luck, I believe in you!