A Necro-master's guide to Necro-mastery

I am Ayane, and I've managed to obtain 100% of the game's achievements after ~600 hours of playtime. I'm writing this to help current/future players in their journey of beating the Evil Necrodancer. There are certain concepts/tricks I used that I've never seen people mention as far as I know. I don't claim to have invented these strategies, but I've applied them in my own gameplay which has helped me tremendously. Lets get right into it.

Before we get started, here are videos of my clears of the 2 hardest achievements the game has to offer: Coda and Lowest of the Low.

My Coda Clear:
My Lowest of the Low Clear:
You can observe and notice how I put these tips into practice from my runs. Of course, it is not possible to always kill enemies in one specific way due to the nature of randomness of enemy spawns and layouts, but the key is to have consistency to minimize room for errors.

There are 4 zones, each zone containing 3 levels. While each seed is randomly generated, the exits usually have a pattern as to where they are located.

Zone 1 exits are usually located in either one of these 3 directions from where you start:
There are times you will be blocked by Grey walls, which you will have to find another way to get around it. Exits in Zone 1 are never located at the top left from where you start. Zone 2 exits are usually located in either one of these directions from where you start:

For Zone 2, keep in mind that there are some cases where the exit is on the same line (either towards the left or right) of where you spawn. Zone 3 exits are the most challenging to locate as they are randomly generated. They can be as far as either corners or right below you. The best approach is by process of elimination. If you encounter a Grey wall, proceed to another direction. Zone 4 is the most unique as the floor layout consists of 3x3 boxes. Each tier 1 wall digged through will break the 2 other tier 1 walls beside it. The exit locations are always consistent such that it is located at the other end that it forms a right-angle triangle.

For example, if you spawn at the bottom left, the exit will always be located at the top right.

The opposite is also true. Always think of the right angle to figure out the exit location. If you spawn at the top left, the exit will always be located at the bottom right as shown


For Zones 3 and 4, I will be discussing the best way to approach them in depth due to the nature of the Zone.

This is most helpful when entering Zone 3, where you can spawn and have to instantly deal with 5 or more enemies. It's even more hectic if you are playing a double tempo character such as Bolt or Coda. Always take out enemies that move the fastest such as skeleton riders or shovemonsters. This is because the 2 enemies mentioned move every beat. The beetles move every 2 beats while the elementals move every 3 beats, and the yeti moves every 4 beats. By taking out enemies that move the fastest, you have more breathing space to deal with the other enemies that take longer to move, meaning you have more time to plan out how you want to take them out.

Bonus Tip: Hiding in the shopkeeper can be optimal to deal with enemies one by one.

This may not always be applicable, since you have to improvise and act accordingly sometimes when you are swarmed with enemies. But it is always good to have a consistent method of dealing with certain enemy types. By doing so, it is ingrained in your muscle memory such that you know what moves to take when encountering each enemy.

For example, skeleton riders always attack you on the next move after they have been dismounted. One consistent way of dealing with this is to attack them while they are against the wall:

From here, you can simple attack twice: once to dismount, the second to render it useless:

For black skeleton riders, since they have 3 health, you must move away for one beat before attacking twice to render it useless. If you have a damage output of at least 2, you can hit it twice immediately to eliminate it.

This is just one example of many enemies in this game. The most important thing is to find a consistent method that works for you and stick to it.

As mentioned earlier, Zone 4 exits are always generated such that exits are at the opposite direction of where you spawn. In almost every case, you should try to approach the exit either top-down or from botttom-up. The reason is that the mini-bosses in this Zone are easier to deal with vertically. I will give 3 examples to support this reasoning.

The Mummy is the most technical mini-boss in the game, dealing with it horizontally can be extremely challenging with the baby mummy and other enemies. By approaching the Mummy vertically, you almost always get to land a couple of hits on the Mummy, eliminating it much easier.

The Blue Dragon is a notorious mini-boss that spawns in both Zone 3 and Zone 4. Due to the enclosed nature of Zone 4, approaching the Blue Dragon vertically is much easier as your chance of being rooted by its ice breath is much lower.

The Red Dragon, while not as difficult to deal with as the 2 previously mentioned, has the ability to cast its fireball ability when standing on the same line. In Zone 4, this can be extremely dangerous if approaching the exit horizontally. You have to take a mental note to not stand on the same line while dealing with multiple enemies. To eliminate this extra worry, approaching the Red Dragon vertically will not trigger its fireball ability.

Of course, it is not always possible to use the vertical approach sometimes as you may be blocked by Gargoyles or Ooze tiles. The next best alternative will always be to approach the exit through the center of the room.

This can be applied to all the Zones to get the groove of the rhythm or just to calm yourself down, especially on higher difficulty characters. This approach works exceptionally well in Zone 3. Since Zone 3 is an open layout, by standing still, you can assess the visible enemies and plan out your moves carefully.

It is not uncommon to spawn and have to immediately deal with multiple enemies. By standing still and letting them come to you, it gives you some buffer time to think about enemy priority and how to get rid of them. An important note is not wait too long as well, or you will get swarmed with no way out.

Here is an example:

In this image, there are 2 elementals and a Minotaur mini-boss approaching. The best approach is to jump around back and forth within the green arrows as shown below and let the enemies come to you.

Another reason why you should always stand still and/or stay within the tiles marked with the green arrows is simple: Enemies will lock onto you if you approach close enough. Even though you may not be able to see them, they have already detected you. The common instinct in Zone 3 is to run as far away as possible when swarmed with enemies, but this is counter-effective as by running far, you tend to trigger aggro of more enemies, creating more swarms of enemies from multiple directions.

Here is one more example that might seem extreme, but is happens fairly often:

There are 5 enemies locked on targeting me upon spawning. 2 of the skeleton riders move every beat, but 1 is stuck behind the wall, so we only have 1 skeleton to worry about.
The Blue Dragon moves every 2 beats and the fire and ice elemental move every 3 beats. The best way to approach this would be to kill the nearest skeleton rider, then the Blue Dragon, followed by the elementals.

Each character has its unique traits and as such, different playstyles must be adopted to clear these characters. Monk has his vow of poverty mechanic while Aria has her missed beat death penalty, just to name a few. Use mods to reinforce each character's traits if you need to. For example, there are mods to mark gold as red crosses while playing as Monk, so you do not step on gold accidentally.

Here is a mod I use when playing Monk:

You can get the mod here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=454072607

This tip is more external than gameplay-related, but has one of the biggest effect on gameplay in my opinion. The nature of this game is such that it requires extreme consistency from the player to be able to beat the harder achievements (All chars/Coda/Lowest of the Low). This is especially true for Lowest of the Low, since you only have 1 try for each of the 9 characters back to back. The only way to be consistent is by simply practicing each character such that you can get a clear either 8 out of 10 times, or you can get a clear at least 3 times back to back. These numbers are not fixed, but are meant to give an idea of how much consistency is required to clear the harder achievements.

For example, if out of 10 runs on Bolt, you are only able to clear on your first and tenth try, die at Zone 3 five times, and die at Zone 4 three times, you are simply not consistent at Bolt. You just got lucky that Zone 3 spawn did not kill you.

This is a very extreme example, and of course the element of randomness will become something very frustrating as you play more and more. There will come moments where you feel the RNG in this game is simply unfair. The key is not to make zero mistakes, but to make as little mistakes as possible that will end your run. At the end of the day, if you are consistently able to handle the RNG such as swarms of enemies and bat caves, you will improve at the game.

This tip is somewhat linked to the previous one. Whether you are about to clear Aria for the first time, or on your last character for Lowest of the Low, always remember to not let nerves affect your gameplay. If you take a step back and think about the reason for feeling nervous, its usually because you think about what is at stake.

Lets take an Aria low % clear for example. It is your first time reaching the final boss. You get nervous, which ends up costing the run. The thing is: If you are consistent enough, you won't feel nervous because you can easily reach the final boss again. It will be a given that the first time you reach a new milestone for a character, you will tend to get nervous. If you reached a new milestone once, you can definitely reach it again. Ultimately, you determine the pace of the game.

If you are seriously considering going for completion of this game, I applaud your commitment to such an arduous task. This game is widely considered as one of (if not) the hardest game to complete, due to the insane achievements and demand of perfection.

You will need constant practice and dedication to see this game through. In doing so, you might come to a point where you get extremely addicted to this game. All you can think about is retrying run after run, hoping that the next run will be "the one". When you see yourself having such a mindset, be kind to yourself enough to walk away and take a break, however long you may need. Developing such a "gambling mindset" is detrimental to your mental and will only make each defeat feel worse and worse.

It is important to realize that progress in this game can be non-linear at times; On some days, you will be able to reach Zone 3 on Coda 3 times in an hour, only to not be able to break Zone 2 for the next 3 days. When such an incident occurs, it is easy to feel demoralized or feel like you have lost your skill. This is the point where you need to take a break.

Lastly, always remember to have fun. Necrodancer, while being an extremely challenging game, is also one of the most fun games to play due to it being one of the most creative mashup of genres. Remember what made you want to pick up this game in the first place, what made the game fun for you. As long as you have fun, that's all that matters, even if you don't become the next Necro-master.

If you've read this far, thank you for reading! While I'm sure some of these tips have been echoed before by other people, these were the biggest tips that helped me push my skill ceiling and improve at the game, eventually becoming a Necro-master!! Please let me know if you liked this guide by giving a star or leave a comment, I'd love to hear if there's any feedback you have. I might make character-specific guides depending on people's feedback. Until then, take care and happy vibing in the Crypt!!

I'll leave an image that specifically helped me alot during my challenge runs to push through and never give up:

P.S This is my first ever guide on Steam, so the format of some images and texts might be messy